((Art of Memory EF 18 is enough to memorize over 100 pages of detail! If it were my call, I would fudge Viscaria's dice and say she botched due to the Faerie Aura, and an extremely accurate and useful map just got placed into your one of your Memory Locii. But then, I always reward high die rolls.)
((You should totally play it as if you think that Viscaria still hasn't figured it out. MONTHS from now, after this adventure is over, there can be a quiet moment where you can "finally" tell her.))
((Okay, there is a meta-conceptual error here. This is technically my chapter, and Cygna and Hiems aren't even, technically, PCs, but we've just decided to pass the buck to them for perfectly logical reasons. Maybe I suppose if I refocus my OOC goal here...perhaps I can somehow save Lapis Crudis from the inside while you guys work on the Somnifer angle? It's sort of telling that every option that I think of involves Intangible Tunnel variants... ))
Viscaria turns to Candidus as the various details are completed. "My lord, may I ask what exactly your latest bargain with Mnemnos is? And....if I may be so bold as to inquire, what price would you charge me if I were to simply ask you to stop Somnifer's madness? If I were to ask you to, for example, make him return here and then lie trapped forever within his own dreaming? I'll grant that I am unlikely to accept such a bargain, but I am curious to know the measurements of my prison."
As she asks this, she considers what sort of Arcane and Symbolic Connections she must have to Somnifer already. Surely the "diary," being an object conjured directly out of his desires, must count. She could knock of a sculpture of him out of local stone, though she'd prefer silver. The covenant charter doubtless has his signature on it. If she could find details of his birth....
"Whatever happens, try to get back here within a month." She adds, suddenly feeling like she has a role to play after all. "It's only a shame that he's NOT a blood relative."
((I'm actually okay with hand-waving as much of Hiems's and Cygna's involvement in stopping Somnifer from gakking Norbart as possible, just using it as time for Hiems and Cygna to get to know each other under the new light. Probably still need to talk to him to talk Norbart into seeking refuge in the mirror, swapping places or something, dunno.))
I think that trying to find ACs and Sympathy bonuses on Somnifer is a good plan. With Penetration 2 on my own, that's not really going to cut it, but if you guys bring Norbart here, then I'll be in a strong negotiating position if I can say, "You know that completely unexpected Wizard's War declaration? Well, here's a pile of Sympathetic Connections against him. On this side of the mirror."
Taking cygna's other hand in his, Hiems says
So do I
(Well, it should be clearly apparent to Viscaria by now that the pair are, at last, a couple. It stands as a monument to her hubris that she hasn't commented on it )
IIRC, there's a Tremere spell to bind a ghost to a mirror. Check HoH: TL
Funny how we are on the same page, here
And equally clueless
OTOH, we can just handwave the fact that they succeed / fail at finding/convincing Norbert Gunthar.
Aaargh, peregrine, we need to stop saying the same things at the same time
Ok, I see it now. Chrome was acting up for me, and my hyperlinks weren't showing up as underlines. It was very odd.
So, 1d10.open(10) isn't appropriate to roll for checking botches beyond the first roll. I'm thinking, if my probability is working right that you're reducing your overall chance of botch by doing it this way. I don't feel like doing the work to figure it out, I'm fine with letting it go this time. In the future, just use 1d10 when checking on multiple botch dice.
Still need one more die rolled to check for double botch, which will trigger a Twilight check...
~checks~ That spell uses Base 15....which, yes, gets fixed in the errata back to Base 5, giving you a Circle/Ring version at ReMe 25, which is MUCH easier to do than enchanting the skull, I suppose. Though carving a ring directly ON to the skull might make the ghost slightly more portable....
I like .open(10) primarily because it ensures that I notice when the stress die is a 10, and my understanding of probability theory seems to differ from yours, but it's your game. I'll roll the dice how you want.
My familiar has a Gold Cord of -2 to botch dice. What is this "double botch" that you speak of? Or are you just saying I need to roll one more die?
The additional botchdie is 9, though I think I only needed to roll 6, which I have already. (Still, DAMN, I see why Magi dislike Faerie Auras!)
I'm still willing to fudge dice and eat a Twilight experience to give Cygna a cool Art of Memory side effect.
Twilight Avoidance: Sta 0 + Conc 2 + Vim Form Bonus (2 ?)+ stress die 9 = 11 + Vim Form Bonus
vs (0.4 + 1 warp point = Warp Score 1) + Pts Gained 1 + Enig Wis 0 + Aura 4 + stress die 0 = 6
(What is the Vim Form Bonus? The example doesn't help either.)
Thinking about the probability, doesn't really matter, it's additive, not multiplicitive. The .open(10) is fine for the casting, I like that. Later on, when you roll .open(10) and it goes off five times, and you did 5d10.open(10) you're really going to kick yourself.
I didn't include Theraposa's botch modifier so it's back down to 6, which means Viscaria still botches. The map seems fine. When Fiona and Heims follow it, though, they'll get lost.
1 warping point, so no twilight check necessary. The botch happened because of the Faerie aura, yes. Viscaria doesn't know it, the map seems to make sense to her (she sees what she wants to see) and explains it to Cygna who does understand what she's saying and follows it along, however the directions are all bass ackwards at some key points.
So, Cygna and Hiems head off while Viscaria starts scouring the covenant for Arcane Connections and Symbolic Links, and making a Symbolic Representation?
Is there Silver there for her to work with? If not, she can do it in stone.
Not out of the question in her mind. I am thinking of a lost wax mold of a coin or ring. Would need maybe a few ounces. But she would need to find the equipment and forge, etc. we have already seen some working tools here.
About a week after Heims and Cygna depart Viscaria is notified that she has a visitor at the mirror and is handed the letter. When she arrives at the mirror Virgil is there with a bemused smile on his face. "This place is a mess, Viscaria. What on earth are you doing here? Oh, and Olivia sends her regrets. Florum business and all." The last was said as if that explains everything.
Viscaria beams with unfeigned pleasure at Virgil. "It's sorta like a trap for @ssh#l#$, I guess. Welcome to the once-great covenant of Lapis Crudis. They tried to set up some kind of defensive magic to protect themselves from a wizard war, and got stuck in here when things went haywire. They managed to build this mirror, which acts as a door, but the regio inside requires some sort of societal balance in order to function, I think. So, you can only get in if someone Essentially like you gets out, and you can only get out the same way."
She pauses for a second to let that sink in.
"Now, the magi that were in here when it happened were....rather self-serving, and so they've been stuck for a while. One of them bribed me into trading places with him "temporarily." (We'll see if he's as good as his word.) There's another magi in here whose been stuck here this entire time, and he wants to bribe you into taking places with him. But the way I figure it, if we get enough magi in on this, then its not really all that big a deal. The library is well stocked -- these guys had a LOT of time to write out their lab texts, too, from the look of it."
"Now, I'm assuming Olivia knows where you are. I've already got two other friends from my previous covenant, Phoenix, trying to talk a few more Iberians into the project, and you know how big Mons Electi is. I asked for Olivia, because her house would be more interested in this covenant than you and I would be. But anyway, this guy, Mnemnos, has been here since his apprenticeship, he's the one that wants to talk to you. Are you willing to listen?"
Viscaria had intended to suggest making this a mercantile effort to Olivia -- essentially turning the regio into a resort hotel for Merinita. With Virgil, she's had to change her thinking.
)
))