For the better part of a year Viscaria has been visited by dreams of her mother walking on a path taking her to the west. Each time the journey happens she gets a clearer path to her final destination, a shabbily constructed house with a beautifully ornate mirror. When she approaches the mirror, instead of her reflection she sees the face of another woman, much older than she is. When she touches the mirror she always wakes up.
Unable to resist any longer, Viscaria resolves to set out. She packs a bag, writes out some instructions, and then bades Theraphosa to stay behind, "They'll need you should they need to get ahold of me quickly."
She informs Vin Diesel of their imminent departure, and then, on a whim, seeks out Mufarjj and asks him, in her Haltingly Functional Arabic, if he would wish to stretch his legs with her.
On another whim (or perhaps, in a maniac attempt to studiously appear whimisical), she invites Wen along as well. She may invite one or two others, if they happen to pass her during her preparations. (OOC: If you have a character you wish to bring along, speak up)
Her small party assembled, she finds that place where her footsteps first fall, and, schooling her face to keep it steady, follows the Path.
"Which side are we going on? Are we going on the Regio side? Because I know where all the fun places are on the Regio side...and there's a lot of crazy awesome fun places over there," Wen jabbers in French (since she knows Viscaria doesn't speak Welsh, and she hopes that Viscaria's picked up enough French to get by while she was in Mons Electi.)
Viscaria knows the path as if by heart. It seems to head towards Paris.
Viscaria is up to French 2 (Mons Electi dialect).
OOC: And now I'm going to go play board games for the rest of the night!
The first night out her dream is extremely vivid and she gets a clear vision of walking for 9 nights. I'm not sure how well provisioned the party is... It's trivial to get provisioned...
Vin Diesel can hunt like a b@d@ss, so provisions aren't a huge concern.
Let's say that they pack provisions for a month. Viscaria expects to be gone for at least the season, but she presumes there will be opportunities along the way to resupply.
About 2 weeks on the road, Viscaria's dreams become more vivid and start to overlay her hours spent awake. They seem to be entering a dark forest and the path is poorly marked, but it shows signs of having recently been traveled.
Vin Diesel studies the tracks intently, feeling edgy about this place. Per 3 + Hunt 4 + speciality (people) 1 + die roll 7 15.
During the days, Viscaria almost willfully throws herself into the dream-state. As the night closes in and they set up camp, she becomes more perturbed by these events, and resolves to see if someone is messing with her mind.
First she checks herself for magics with an InVi ceremonial spell. Base 10: Detect lingering magic. Range Personal, Duration Momentary, Target Individual. Any over-roll goes to additional details (does she need to penetrate?)
In 14 + Vi 15 + Sta 0 + WG 2 + Aura ? + AL 1 + Philo 4 + die 9 = 45/2 + Aura/2 = 22.5 + Aura/2
She then checks for active magics (no ceremony, 2nd die on the link) 31 + die 5 = 36/2= 18 + Aura/2 vs Base 5.
Perturbed by the results of her spell, she'll set up a ReMe circle ward around her bedroll that night to keep out any mental spell-like effects. Die 0 (not a botch) + Re 10 + Me 6 + AL 1 + Philo 4 = 21/2 + Aura/2 = 10 + Aura/2. (Not a terribly impressive ward, but thematically valuable.)
OOC: When I last read this, I thought it said "9 weeks." o.O
OOC2: I saw somewhere else that JL commented that this thread had stalled. JL, you took 3 days to reply, and I took 5. If you need me to post more frequently, or announce when I'm going to have posting delays of less than a week, then that needs to be more clearly stated.
What kind of devices is Viscaria carrying on her person? Wouldn't those be picked up as well? Assuming those are placed away from her body and she works the spell, there isn't any magic detected...
Curiously, Viscaria doesn't actually seem to have any magic on her, now that I check my sheet. Everything she's enchanted so far has been meant for a covenant or a lab, not a person. She hasn't learned to Enchant Casting Tools yet, so her casting tools won't even exude magic, and she hasn't made her Talisman yet.
Regardless, this is just a bit of RP fluff that I didn't expect to have any effect -- during the day, she follows the visions wholeheartedly, at night, at rest, she starts to worry about what force is pulling her down this path.
Did Vin acquire any useful information about those who had been here before?
Did Murfarjj come with her? If so, she's practicing her conversational Arabic throughout this journey, which should add another level of surreal to her dream-like state.
Ahh, sorry, forgot about Vin. Vin sees a well worn path travelled by several people, but over a long period of time. The tracks aren't particularly notable, nor are they hidden but the forest they go into is dark and foreboding. While the forest itself is dark, it's apparent to see that around noon the path into the forest is well light by sunlight, as if the sun peels back the forest from the path. This is about the time Viscaria and her party arrived and saw a noticeable change in the forest as the sun rose high in the sky.
Viscaria drifts on forward, entranced by her dream as long as she keeps moving forward. Vin (and possibly Murfarjj) follow cautiously behind.
((And Wen, who whispers to Vin that someday he should probably teach her to fight or use weapons or something.))
The trail goes on and after the sun is nearly set there is torchlight visible up ahead. Coninuing on leads to a collection of ramshackle buildings. Several of the buildings appear to be cut in half or at least end abruptly, which is quite jarring from an architectural view.
Wen runs up and checks out the edges of the buildings. "Whoa...this is weird!" she calls out in French.
Then she stops, and casually walks back to the others. "Um...where are the people who lit the torches?"
Upon closer inspection of the torches, the light is steady and constant, unlike normal torches. There are lights in the buildings, and Wen's voice brings out a young man in late adolescence from one of the buildings close to them. "You folks best be off, we have no food nor shelter to offer strangers." After a bit, he spies Viscaria and changes his tune, "Are you an emissary from Candidus?"
Viscaria smiles through the haze of dream-state that she's been drifting through for days now, rising up to this surface conversation as one who is unwilling to admit that she sobered up hours ago. "An emissary? No, that would not be the right word. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I was summoned to here to take counsel with Candidus."
Int 3 + Faerie Lore 2 (beasties) + die roll 0 = Botches on her roll to know Candidus.
~headdesk~
Mentally, she pats herself on the back for coming up with such an exquisitely evasive non-answer. Sounds downright fae, that answer did.
"Charles, I'll take over from here," says a newly arrived man, who appeared to have come from one of the shacks that appears to be cut in half, he says it in French. Charles nods his assent and returns to the building he came from. The newly arrived man switches to Latin, and it dawns on Viscaria that Charles was speaking Castilian to her (Wen thinks he was speaking Welsh). "It is unlikely you are here to meet Candidus, maga. I am Languidus, and on behalf of the council of Lapis Crudus, I bid you welcome to this covenant."
Viscaria curtsies, her many silver baubles glinting in the wane light that pierces the trees. "Salve, sodales. I am Viscaria fil--.... scholae Verditus, lately of Mons Electi. These are my companions, Wen and Mufarjj. Also, my shield bearer, Vin Diesel." She nearly recites her full lineage before she recalls that Languidus had not even identified his house.
Another pause as she recalls that her link to Theraphosa is still only one-way, which is damn inconvenient when your familiar is the one who actually knows things like Order of Hermes Lore.
"Please pardon the rudeness of our abrupt arrival, Languidus. The path we walk is not....entirely of our choosing, and so we could not forewarn you of our coming. Indeed, it is still unclear to me if this is our destination or merely one stop along the way. Tell me, were you expecting us?"
Assuming the conversation goes on for a bit, Viscaria says the following in order to keep the conversation moving.
"Do all your covenfolk possess that lovely skill for tongues? My companions do not speak a common tongue, and it would do them both good to spend a day or two where they can both be understood by someone."
"I don't recall meeting you at the Normandy Tribunal last year. Did you have a chance to go shopping while you were there?" (Yes, she assumes every magi she meets in Normandy was there. And if he doesn't seem to recognize Mons Electi, she'll work the fact that we're hosting the next Tribunal into the conversation.
"Who is this Candidus that Charles spoke of? He seemed certain that I was associated with him, yet you seem equally certain that I am not. What makes you so sure that it is not this fellow who summoned me here?"
"Would you be interested in discussing trade? I'm able to speak on behalf of both Mons Electi, here in Normandy, and Phoenix Covenant in Iberia." This will definitely be the last topic that she brings up. (OOC: this'll be the pretext that causes V to apply for membership to Mons Electi and no longer work as an employee for them)