Oh. Well, Ok, if it's easier for you, no problem, then.
Errr.... Well, we'll be sending that Melanie girl, then... I mean, such an important mission...
And send multiple grogs, including on fool's errands. Just in case.
So, I think I'm just going to dice out the running part a bit.
Let's have Mélanie do stress rolls on running, let's go with 8 for now. That's about half the trip. We'll presume she's given several schillings so she can buy accommodations. A botch on Athletics may not actually be a botch that creates an injury but may indicate some sort of delay. I kinda want to see how the rolls shake out, but I'm thinking she could probably do 35+ miles with a mix of running/walking on her average (3+9+5.5=17.5). Anything above that is a little bit more, below is a little bit less. Make sense?
It's all going to be Qui 1 + Athletics (Running) 10 + the die roll, so 11 + x.
- Running Roll #1: 11 + die roll of 7 = 18.
- Running Roll #2: 11 + die roll of 2 = 13.
- Running Roll #3: 11 + die roll of 1 (followed by a die roll of 3, for a 6) = 17.
- Running Roll #4: 11 + die roll of 3 = 14.
- Running Roll #5: 11 + die roll of 9 = 20.
- Running Roll #6: 11 + die roll of 0 (botch check comes up 6) = 11.
- Running Roll #7: 11 + die roll 1 (followed by a die roll of 10, for a 20) = 31.
- Running Roll #8: 11 + die roll of 1 (followed by a die roll of 5, for a 10) = 21.
Actually, it's stamina. You run 500K, it's not going to be "fast" it's going to be how long can you handle the toll it's taking on your body. I hinted with the +3, but didn't say it outright.
My post probably comes too late, but still, it might interest you and you might still use it should you chose to. Whatever.
Yup, this sounds right, maybe a little harsh, but not by much.
A half-marathon (about 13 miles) has records of about 1 hour. The world record for marathon (26 miles) is of about 2 hours
35 miles thus means 3 hours, which might indicate she might do more, but it's a physically demanding feat, and she's not gonna have much rest.
I'd do it like this:
1 hour => 15,5 miles (her "marathon" speed of 3*5.5).
Let's say the distance is 20 times that. She needs a total of 20 hours spent running (you can adapt this easily).
Say, running 1 hour = target number 3, so the total number is target number 60.
She rolls each day Sta + Athletics + confidence if she wants to, and accumulate towards the target number. And each day, she loses a fatigue level (unless she rests, of course).
If she does it really quickly, grant her a confidence point.
So, for exemple, sta 3 + Athletics 9. Assuming an average roll of 5, she should do it in about 17 + 17 + 16 + 14 = 4 days, and be down to -3 fatigue.
Double the distance and she'll need to stop and rest, meaning probably 12 days.
Before she goes, Isen will grab an AC, and ceremoniously cast an Intangible Tunnel on her:
Re 21 + Vi 04 + Sta 02 + AL 5 + Philosophiae 4 + Aura 5 + 1d10=4 = 22,5; which becomes 23.
He goes for a tunnel like this:
Range: Touch (+1), Duration: Moon (+3 IIRC)
So the conduit is good for spells up to lvl + 1 magnitude.
He takes a lvl 10 spell (allowing lvl 15 spells to pass through), and puts the rest in Penetration, using also the AC and whatever he can muster as an horoscope (serf's parma, this should mean a penetration multiplier of about *4, meaning a final penetration in the 21).
Not that he expects this to be enough to pierce any aegis in which Mélanie might go, but who knows?
That way, he should be able to check on her.
Likewise, should she need heavy help, he urges Alexei to take an AC to Melanie.
It's not too late. I also considered that 35 miles is an average per day, and while it's possible for someone to run marathons and whatnot nowadays, current track times are based on extremely well prepared running surfaces. Medieval roads were notorious for being bad. So there will be stretches where she has no point but to walk, or risk injury. I think 35 is reasonable, and will give her more or less depending on the die rolls once PB corrects them for stamina.
I like the Intangible tunnel idea, he can then pop into Harco and ask that they get a couple of Magical Mercere or other specialists together to make the Portal, instead of relying on Melanie to carry a note.
I'm still not sure why we're sending people on foot, when there are horses available.
Foot/horses. Does it make a difference? I have someone doing something in this thread, that's all I really care about! 
She can do as well as, if not better than a horse IMO. And all the riders are combat oriented. Who's going to notice some crazy girl running like Forrest Gump?
The thing everyone forgets about Marathon, is that Phidippides dropped dead after he reached Athens. You cannot sustain that kind of physical exhaustion day after day after day. Melanie will die. Any other grog would have the sense to stop at an inn.
Laetitia already offered to leave the Phantom Bridle with Alexei.
- Someone's doing something.
- I'm not going to let Melanie die. If a person could reasonably go 20 miles a day before, someone in shape, stopping every night at an inn getting a good night sleep and good meal, I'll go 35ish.
Walking 3 mph for 11 hours=33 miles, take a couple hours for breaks/rest stops its 27. Increase the speed a bit for someone fit and athletic, back to 35.
Actually, Philippides dropping dead, that's the legend. IIRC, things went differently in reality.
But the examples I used are from today's marathon world records anyway (which are, as JL noted, partially irrelevant due to terrain and all)... which changes nothing to the fact that doing it in so little time is quite a feat, yeah.
Well, I thought about it a little more, and 3/hour is too generous anyway. I'd put it at 4 at least, meaning that, for the above exemple, target number would be 80 or more.
After 5 days, she'd be at 77, so she could either manage it in 6 days by resting a day, or in 5 spending confidence.
This'd mean running 310 miles in 5 to 6 days. An average of 62 to 51 miles per day. This could mean a lot of things, like walking about 15 hours per day at 6km/h (the theoretical walking speed of a pure breed boyscout), or running more for less time.
You can make it longer by increasing the multiplier.
Anyway, this is totally and utterly unimportant.
The core idea is this: Set a target number. Each roll = 1 day and costs 1 long term fatigue.
This is good for the player, since he can see his progress and decide to spend or not confidence, rest or keep on running, and it has the advantage of factoring in fatigue, which I find cool both for gamist and for story reasons 
I mean, you can really tell "After x days, Mélanie, very near from collapsing arrives in sight of harco" or "After x days, tired but still valiant, mélanie"... and this is determined by the player's choices and rolls
Sadly, Isen won't be able to pop in harco (he has no AC range teleport spell 
), but he'll be able to signal Alexei, who'll be
(Oh, and I feel sorry, I didn't want to derail the thread, just to help )
Sure, you can go 20 miles in a day. But not every day. A good night's sleep and a meal is not enough. When you run a marathon, you're looking at resting for 2-3 days, minimum, if you're at the top of your game.
runtheplanet.com/trainingrac ... covery.asp
A human covering 35 miles in a day, on foot, without sufficient recovery time in between days, will die.
Drat, forgotten about that. Laetitia and Alexei do, but Laetitia is busy with other things.
Anyway, if Isen has an AC to Melanie, Alexei could conceivably jump to Melanie at the end of every night to check on her.
I DON'T CARE. I WANT TO MOVE THIS STORY FORWARD. Can I say it any clearer than that?
So use the damn Bridle!
I will attest to that. With a 60 lb backpack i could easily go 20-25 miles a day in rough terrain. There were trails but I was in the mountains ( northern Idaho).
I'M NOT THE PLAYER.
Players niggle about the silliest things. And yes, I say this having niggled about silly things in other games I'm involved in.
If you don't like how I've moved things forward, feel free to change and adjust it. I DON'T CARE. I want this thread (and all other 1222 threads) done by 6/13/12.
You've all been warned. Thanks for your consideration.
OK, let's stop niggling, and just deal with the facts of the plan and the obstacles along the way.
We need someone to go there and grab an AC, we use Intangible Tunnel to verify info, then Alexei ports over using the AC. Just to make sure, if you have an AC of someone can you port to them? If not, can we move an AC through an Intangible Tunnel and then port there?
If we're ok with Melanie going that's fine, though now we can use the bridle and take away the issues of fatigue and all, so anyone we trust can go. Once Alexei is there he makes arrangements to use a Mercer Portal to move more people as needed to Castra Solis, using the ReTe vis to pay for it. Or Alexei goes alone with the votes of the other Flambeau. In the meanwhile we're trying to funnel travelling Flambeau through our Covenant to change their mind before going to Castra.
Is this the gist of it?
Pretty much got the gist of it.
Alexei or someone is going to have to contract with House Mercere to cast Hermes Portal between ME and Harco. The Harco-Castra Solis connection is established. The ME-Harco link has not. I'm fine with someone being to 'port to someone they have an AC to. It's not that much of a stretch to me.
The technical nature of Melanie being able to walk get to Harco in 16 days or so is based on people walking across the country (US). I'm willing to say that Melanie is in better shape than many of the people who've walked across America with speeds of 20-30 miles per day. So her doing it just isn't all that much of a stretch. Might be a bit of one because roads back then were bad, bad food, bad water, sure. People did miraculous stuff all the time.
I adjusted above. Based on my original premise this is fine. Let's go with the last 8. Don't forget to do Stamina. You can decide wither she runs or rides the horse. Alexei checks in on you every night to make sure she's ok, probably also in the morning just before she heads off.
For what it's worth, the women's record for a 50 km road ultamarathon is 3:08:39, and 100km is 6:33:11 (i was surprised to see that the road times were significantly better than track times...I guess it's true what they told me, that you run faster running toward something than just in a circle). So I can see her running for an hour or two, resting for a bit, running more, resting, running more, resting more, and hitting 75 km plus every day without killing herself. Plus, that's pretty much all she does with her life is train to run.