1223-1226 In the Living Years

((I'll hold off casting a spell until we see the reults of the botch. Plus i can't make any rolls now anyway))

Which botch? I'm confused...

Fiona botched her spell.

Oh...
Hmm.. I'm tempted to say figure it out yourselves, because it's a self-initiated thing. Unless you want me to come up with something? Don't forget the warping point, though...

Hmm...Botch Suggestions list on pp. 87-88 has 14 possibilities. Random.org says #11, which is "Spell Affects Caster"...but since the caster is the target, that doesn't really apply.

Hitting "Generate" again gives us #2: "Caster addled". Hmm...caster confused, acquires the flaw "Simple Minded" for the duration of the spell. Too boring.

How about this: instead of just changing her body, Fiona's spell actually changed her to where she actually thinks she's Blanche, a...I don't know, I'll just make it up as I go along, but a stranger to the covenant, looking for a good time, wandering around. And has no idea that she's a maga, or who Fiona is. For the next month. Who just happens to be standing naked in front of a man.

Oh, and the Botches says that, in general, the spell goes off.

So you really want to mortify Alexei don't you? :blush:

Well, if you don't like that, my initial idea (as soon as I rolled the botch, before looking over the "suggestions") was to have it have the opposite effect. Instead of making her a beautiful voluptuous normal-sized woman, have it make her look like Susan Boyle.

Or go with the suggestion #2 in the book and have it give her the "simple-minded flaw". Or I can roll again. Random.org says #7: "Incomplete or improper effect". Maybe only made her look younger, or gave her noticeably bigger boobs or something?

shrug I'm open to other ideas, too.

Actually I think that it's a fine botch, just that it would likely embarass Alexei a great deal.

Could it affect a different target? What if instead of changing herself into a young woman it somehow affected Alexei? It could be late in the day, the sun has gone down and he hasn't renewed his parma yet due to Fiona talking to him...

((Let's go with the moon-duration different personality thing. I'll try to dial it back a little :slight_smile: ))

Fiona, now a shade over five feet tall, with long, silky snow-white hair, wavers in place as her face and body shift and move to become someone much younger and more voluptuous than before. When the transformation is complete, she blinks quickly as thought she had just stepped out into bright sunlight.

When she sees Alexei, she shrieks in surprise and tries to cover her body futilely before she bends over and grabs her robes, holding them against her like a blanket.

[color=blue]"Alexei, right?" she says after a moment, sounding like she's meeting someone for the second time. [color=blue]"What are you doing here? What am I doing here?"

She then gets an odd look on her face. [color=blue]"Have we been...?" she asks as she makes a crude gesture.

Alexei, the warrior-magus, the knightly wizard, begins to sputter and babble unintelligibly at the turn of events.

"Oh my word! What? I...wait, was this what you intend..." he stammers and then turns his head so as not to look upon her as she gathers her clothes.

"Alexei Von..yes, that is myself!" he says as he turns slightly to see if she has concealed herself again. "Did we..." he looks at the gesture and turns as red as a beet. "Madam! I can assure you I have been nothing but a gentleman!"

[color=blue]"Oh," she says, sounding almost disappointed. [color=blue]"Then why....never mind. Have you seen my clothes anywhere? And would you be so kind as to tell my why I'm here, and in this...state?"

(Fiona's robes are about twenty sizes too big for her in this form, and she's still holding them up as a blanket.)

((By the way, I just checked the moon phases, and it looks like Fiona's Moon-duration is only a shade over two weeks. Winter Solstice was December 14, with this happening three, four, maybe five days after. Next New Moon is December 20 (the one after that is January 19, 1227), and the next Full Moon is January 4, 1227.

Alexei looks at her dumbfounded. "Fiona...don't you recall? You were going to cast a spell to shrink yourself." he holds a hand up as high as he can and then brings it down to her current height. "Those...those are your clothes. You were wearing them moments ago. And...they fit too..."

The woman looks at Alexei as though he's lost his mind. [color=blue]"Who's Fiona? My name is Blanche, remember?"

She holds the robes out in front of her, between her and Alexei, before pulling them back down. [color=blue]"And there's no way I've ever been big enough to fit into these." She shrugs, then pulls the robes over her head. When she's done, it looks almost comical, as she stands there with the hem of the robe piled on the floor and [strike]Fiona[/strike]Blanche holding onto the neck with both hands, trying to keep them from sliding all the way down.

((And now for something complete different.))

When the magi gather for their Winter (1225) Council Meeting in the council chamber, they may notice a new addition to the decor.

Hanging on one wall is a tapestry depicting a ram holding a banner, which is the covenant's coat of arms on a flag. Several other animals of various types surround the lamb (lions, unicorns, wolves, eagles, etc), on a mountain landscape. The tapestry is about three feet high by five feet wide, and seems to be fairly well done.

Viscaria stands up close to the tapestry and admires it minutely. "I bet the lion represents Alexei, and the unicorn must be...."

Alexei is quite impressed by the ornate tapestry. "It's marvelous! We should have it enchanted! It can be a great presentation for us at the Tribunal!" his chest also swells with pride at the suggestion that he represents the lion.

Fiona, who was the first in the meeting and is sitting in the princeps chair, blushes a little bit.

Tranquillina waits her turn to get a good up-close view of the tapestry. [color=magenta]"Is this artistic addition your doing, friend?" she asks Fiona in Gaelic, after noticing her blush. When Tranquillina has room to approach the tapestry, she regards the wolf nearest the banner for a couple of minutes, smiling at some unknown details.

[color=blue]"Aye," Fiona replies in the same tongue. [color=blue]"It took several years, in my spare time, and it was a little harder when I got bigger a couple of years ago, but I made that with my own hands. Thought it would be a nice touch."

Absent-mindedly, Viscaria comments, "It's nice seeing a bit of color in here, too. Some texture on the wall. We really ought to think about decorating this room more. Maybe hang some of Apollodorus's paintings."

She looks up critically at the ceiling. "I am still trying to figure out how to build a murderhole in the ceiling here for us to escape into, you know. But it'll be quite decorative, once I do. It's mostly a question of load bearing capacity. Perhaps I could just build a walkway along the edge and cover it up with some kind of Imaginem spell...."

(Hubris is all about making every conversation about you.)