Can we enter the cave without violating Iosephus' sanctum?
Jacques scans outside the cave for traps or tracks
1d10=6 + Awarness 2 + Per +1 = 9
((Jonah=player, Iosephus was his character. Sorry for mucking it up.))
Everyone's together. There are no apparent traps, and likely didn't have time to implement any, and wouldn't have even considered it. He was a Criamon. He disappeared several weeks after arriving at Mons Electi. This is all easily available information. Visual observation doesn't reveal any unbroken rings holding a spell, either.
Those with second sight will notice an entrance to a higher level of the regio, to what appears to be a cave entirely underwater. Consistent with Tria's reporting. The entrance to the next level is just outside the sancrum marker.
Wen brightens when she hears the Welsh, turns...and her face falls momentarily. "Gorgeous...brunette...body to die for," she mutters. "You must be Laetitia. I'm Wen." ((all in Welsh))
The more futile and flirtatious this becomes, the more morose Isen gets. We're on a mission, damnit!
(I'd see if he can spont some kind of "breathe underwater spell", but I don't have my books with me, so I dunno if he can, or else, he'd try and cross the entrance)
The more futile this all gets, the more morose Isen becomes. We're on a mission, damnit! It's like being with children around...
don't have my books with me, so I can't tell, but if he could spont a "breathe underwater" spell, he'd try and cross the entrance...
The core book has the MuAq spell Lungs of the Fish, which "turns water to air as it enters your lungs, allowing you to breathe water as you do air." Level 20 for R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Part, but if you make it R: Personal, that drops it to 15.
Personally, I prefer a nice Muto Corpus effect. Base 2 to "change someone to give them a minor ability." There's not a corresponding level to give them a "major" ability, but Level 3 utterly changes their appearance, so I'm thinking either 2 or 3 (I'm leaning toward 2). R: Personal, D: Sun (+2), T: Individual, would make it Level 4 or 5. For comparison, Eyes of the Cat is level 5.
Or I could zip over and look up the Essence of Gillweed that Fiona has. Yep. Base 2. Which, if anyone has been chatting with Moire (who talks to anyone and everyone, since she's a gossip) or Seumas, has a pretty good chance of this having been mentioned. Especially since Seumas mentioned it when Jormungand was investigating the flood last fall.
"T'was not actually in my mind to explore the regio, merely to see how I might better defend it. This will likely take some time and be quite boring to watch, so if you wish to see the other side, please do so now."
Suddenly inspired by a completely unnecessary Leadership roll, Viscaria then turns to Wen, and sponts a quick "Explanation For The Unruly Foreigner" CrIm (Base 1 - one sense, touch, diameter). Assuming the aura is >= 3, it should be easy to do non-fatiguing, and Viscaria will roll up for additional levels of complexity.
Cr 7 + Im 5 + Aura 5 + die roll 8 = 25/5 = 5
Viscaria turns to Wen, pulls out two of her silver casting tool/rods, and pretends to pour them into the air between the maga and the young girl. Purple-tinged liquid silver flows out of the rods and turns into a series of images, flowing and moving into one another:
- Wen and Thera climbing to the very top of the mountain
- Wen and Thera making a great show of studying the magnificent view all around them
- Wen, leading Viscaria and the other magi, pointing the way
"Ah, Laetitia. Excellent timing. Thank you for coming. We need to enter the sanctum of this magus, to ensure that it is safe to reclaim for general or specific use by the covenant. Do you wish to make such examinations alone, or may some of us join you? I will be spending some time examining this regio boundary first, but you needn't wait on me."
She turns toward the regio to begin her work, then pauses and adds, "My, that all sounded awfully bossy of me, didn't it? I do apologize, it's just that there is so much to be done, and I'm very excited by it all.
Viscaria then makes a complex study of the regio border -- the exact dimensions of it, if there is any way to block it up without risking permanent damage, etc. Ideally, she's looking for some way to build small guard post/tower/hut here which would serve both the sanctum and the regio boundary, in a way that obfuscates the boundary and possibly even can adjust its size (eg, sliding doors)
Theraphosa will climb to the very peak of the mountain, to study the lands around for possible sites.
(You don't roll for non-fatiguing sponts, it's just your casting total divided by five.)
Laetitia will non-fatiguing spont a quick InVi to check the magnitude of the aura; she'll cast Bitter Taste of Betrayal and then bring up Impression of the Faded Sigil (can someone roll for me please?)
The aura is unchanged at 5 just inside the cave.
There is no sense of active magic (die rolls for spells which you can perform automatically because of your CS aren't necessary. If you're concerned about fatigue, there's adequate time to rest and move on.)
((There may be some confusion, Fiona rolls for her spontaneous spells to check for botch, because of her Difficult Spontaneous Magic flaw. It does not add to her roll, it just determines whether or not there might be a botch.))
Pressing further into the cave, into the sanctum proper, one uncovers Iosephus' lab, which seems geared towards Muto. Inconsistences with the lab posted below can be retconned, or explained away, such as the disguised entrance. At the end of the cave Viscaria leans up against the wall of the cave and falls through it. Everyone else with second sight can see she's gone through a regio entrance that appears to go into a forest.
[i][code]
Iosephus' Lab, copied from the covenants thread, with slight adjustments.
Iosephus' lab is in a neighbouring cavern, very much like the one described. This cavern, however, opens out onto a wide rock ledge. Half of the lab is somewhat sheltered by the overhanging roof of the cave, and half is on the rock ledge, entirely exposed to the elements.
Size: +1 (Occupied -1)
Refinement: 0
General Quality: 0
Upkeep: +2
Safety: +2
Warping: +1
Health: +1
Aesthetics: +4
Specialisations: +1 Aq, +3 Au, +2 Te, +4 Mu, +1 Items, +1 Vis Extraction
Major Virtues:
Natural Environment: The lab has been constructed in a cave at the top of the cliff behind the covenant. (+2 Aesthetics, +1 Aq, +1 Au, +1 Te)
Major Flaws:
Outdoors: The lab is subject to wind gusts and rain blowing in. (-1 General quality, +2 Upkeep, -1 Safety, -1 Health, -3 Aesthetics)
Free Virtues:
Superior Equipment (+1 General Quality, +1 Safety, +1 Vis Extraction) )
Superior Tools (+1 Safety, +1 Items)
Superior Construction (+1 Safety, +1 Aesthetics)
Mountaintop (-1 Safety, +1 Upkeep, +2 Aesthetics, +2 Au)
Idyllic Surroundings (+2 Health, +1 Aesthetics, +1 Te)
Free Flaws:
Deformed: the constant shifting of the lab walls often creates strange, inconvenient deformations in the shape of the lab (-1 Aesthetics, +1 Mu)
Disguised: the entrance to the lab is usually blocked by the raw stone of the wall. It has to be transformed into something else magically in order for Iosephus to enter (-1 Aesthetics)
Minor Virtues:
Spacious: The ledge is wide, and the cave is deep (+2 Safety, +1 Aesthetics) (Free due to size +1 not filled)
Magical Lighting: The cave walls are streaked with seams of silvery rock that shimmer in the darkness when a magus approaches, providing good light whenever necessary. (+1 Aesthetics, +1 Texts, +1 Im) (no space cost)
Lesser Feature : The shimmering, constantly changing stalactites and stalagmites count as a lesser feature (+1 Aesthetics, +1 Mu)
Minor Flaws:
Missing Equipment: as yet, the lab has no equipment for teaching or for binding a familiar. (-1 Upkeep)
Chaotic: The cave walls, floor, and ceiling grow, shrink, shift, and change over time. (-2 Safety, +1 Warping, +1 Experimentation, +2 Mu)[/code][/i]
Wen watches the images intently, a broad grin consuming her face. "Ie! Ie! Sy'n edrych yn anhygoel!" she says excitedly, then turns and starts to head up the mountain.
After a few paces, she turns to the spider, still grinning, and yells, "'N annhymerus' hil chi!", then starts to move faster up the mountain.
She is still keeping her eyes open to see everything she can see.
If necessary, her roll to climb the mountain is Dex 1 + Athletics (Climbing) 2 + die roll of 2 = 5, while her roll to see what she can see is Per 1 + Awareness 0 + die roll of die roll of 0...um...crap. Okay, three botch dice show 4, 0, and 9. Dang, there's a lot of trees up here! ("Dang, mae llawer o goed hyd yma.")
Vin Diesel curses an oath and dives through the regio border to guard his maga against attack.
OOC: For some reason, I'd forgotten that. I suddenly see why people don't often memorize low-level spells.
Viscaria, after standing up, pulls out her casting tools and non-f sponts some aura detection spells. (Her CT without aura is > 6). THEN she looks around.
So call that a fatiguing version of the spell, and a very pretty illusion indeed.
OOC: I am now happily checking to see what sort of non-f sponts Viscaria can do.
OOC, the 2nd: She may very well end up taking a few points in Welsh after this adventure.
((This is one of my pet peeves of players and spontaneous spells, probably exacerbated by PbP play. You're designing an on the fly effect. So, you need to indiciate a Base, range, duration and target. If I get three out of four of those, I'm willing to take it the rest of the way. In this case, I know this guideline well, and it is within your casting total.))
There is a weak aura with a strength of 1 here.
The regio entrance is actually hidden within a tree. The tree has an odd shape. Similar, but not exactly like the picture. It makes more of a lean-to or half A-frame, through which Viscaria fell. The temperature is cooler here, more consistent with what Viscaria is familiar with from the mundane side of Mons Electi. Through the leaves of the trees Viscaria appears to spy the massif on which Bibracte and Mons Electi was built, it doesn't appear to be all that far away.
(I'm a little lost there, I thought the entrance to the regio led underwater...)
When he sees viscaria disappear into the regio, Isen walks to her rescue. He does not rush like Vin, in case there's a trap, so he takes notice of his surroundings, but he won't leave her alone.
It's a different one, at the back of the cave, well within the sanctum marker. The first one is just inside the entrance to the cave.
This regio is like swiss cheese. Holes all over the place.
Sorry, I thought the emphasized section would be enough in this case. I believe that was Base 2, Touch, Mom, Ind = InVi 3. While we're on on the subject, how would you feel about an additional +1 Magnitude to include an additional aura type?
Eg, Base 2 (Detect local magic aura), +1 Touch, Mom, Ind, +1 also checks Faerie aura, +1 also checks Infernal aura = InVi 5.
Viscaria turns a slow circle, warily looking around, and completely ignoring the fact that Vin would have noticed and attacked any actual threats before she'd even finished brushing the leaves off herself. When she notices the tree (behind her when she stood up), she comments to Vin, "Do you ever get the sense that you've stumbled onto a stage at the wrong moment in time? Like, you've arrived long after the exeunt of the actors who made a place important? Or that perhaps they've not arrived yet, and you've still got a chance to make your mark upon the stage, carve your name into a tree, and when the Historic Event arrives, your name will be there, noticed by all, remarked upon by none?"
[color=red]"Nope." Vin mono-syllabic grunts often convey far more information than anything Viscaria has ever said.
"You've no sense of wonder, Vin. Watch my back, I'm going to get all arcane on this tree's hide."
[color=red]"Yep."
Viscaria pulls out her casting tools and confronts the tree, her hips squared. She gestures emphatically and grandly intones the ancient Latin words handed down to her by generations of Verditian enchanter-magi, as she draws a giant ring around the tree, covered with arcane symbolism.
Spell Name: "Per meus parum oculus, sentio quod suscipior....sperma!"*
Base 4: Learn all mundane properties of a plant
- 1 Touch, +2 Circle +0 Ring
Total = InHe 15
(In 14 + He 5 + Sta 0 + Aura 1 + WG 2 + AL 1 + Philo 4 + die / 2) = ( 27 + die roll 3 ) / 2 = 15 (phew!)
15 minutes later (assuming that Isen doesn't step on her gorram circle while she's incanting), Viscaria knows ALL the mundane properties of every plant within that ring around the tree. Ha ha. Mu-hahahaha! Mu-hahhhahaha! ALL the things!
~ahem~
She'll probably cast this spell around every tree/regio-border she finds, looking for similarities. Maybe she'll write a book one day. But right now, she's just going to scrub out the ring. Vin Diesel helps remove any trace of the casting with his impressive scores in Hunt, Stealth and Survival.
Vin worries if he's going soft.
- I think I conjugated "per meus parum oculus" wrong, since the meus is almost always unnecessary. Also, suscipior. That should read, "With my little eye, I perceive something that begins with... a seed!" Gods, my HS Latin teacher would be terribly ashamed of me.
Methinks Isen and Vin are gonna get along just fine, doing fascinating remarks on the nature of the universe and the condition of man.
Of course, he's only got Latin 3(orders), so all he really heard was "blah blah blah blah question? blah blah blah Vin, Watch my back, I'm going to get arcane blah blah."
Yeah, the important stuff. Isen heard about the same things 
"Cave wall to tree, huh? That's new. Of course, there's not many trees in Cijara....Salve, Isen! Can we get back the way we came through?"
Viscaria pauses briefly and adds, "The view from the top of the mountain is gorgeous, but seeing through a spider's eyes is always a bit overwhelming."