"Uh oh, the giant is awake, repeat, the giant is awake," Falko chants. "Something must have made a noise. He's sitting at his desk now, writing a letter or something." Falko looks nervously at the lamp, then behind him to see whether his shadow is apparent or not.
Back in the forest, Tranquillina hears this update with Isen. "If the giant is sitting up, that changes the options. Do you want to try heating the chain, as you suggested? He then removes the chain, we make a duplicate, and switch them at an opportune moment?"
[quote="gerg"]
Back in the forest, Tranquillina lets laps her eavesdropping-on-the-surroundings spell (if she hadn't already), for complete lack of suitability to the present situation. She motions Isen to follow her a few steps away from the tree stump caterwauling in Flemish. "The question we must answer, of course, is how to get the chain once we arrive," she offers. "The physical spells I know will not affect someone so large; and the giant no doubt has magical resistance that would foil nearly any spontaneous spell I could cast directly upon him. I have learned a spell that would make him deathly afraid of the chain - or of anything we like - but it requires eye contact.... Do you have a way to take the chain by stealth? Or will it be, force?"(/quote]
Isen thinks a little
Not really, no. I can cast The Call to Slumber, but can I penetrate his Magical Resistance? I don't know. I'd also have to go with soft words, which would lessen it further.
I should be able to wound him and kill him, either through direct attack spells or by freezing his blood solid, yet I don't think this would kill him at once, which means we'd have to deal with the giantess and any guards. I don't think this is wise, not if we can avoid it.
I might be able to spont a spell to translocate the chain to my hand*, but I fear that the chain's sudden disappearance might wake the giant.
Of not. Parma covers Personal items, making this impossible. Does Might? I can't recall. If it does, forget it.
The giant waking up changes everything, though.
I don't think I might heat up the chain. I'm not well-versed in Ignem. Worse, if I did, he would realize something is wrong.
As it is, I see 2 options: Either we wait and hope for him to sleep again, or we teleport in, I try to put him to sleep and, barring that, with strike with… Tranquillina! You know wizard’s communion! We can unite, which might give me the edge! Of course, we’ll need to steal something else as a distraction from our real goal, but this might be viable
"True, the three of us can cast a Wizard's Communion ... but to the end of jointly casting what spell?"
((Call to Slumber is level 10 - using WC would boost the Penetration by only 6 or so in the end.... ))
Oh, silly me. 1st job getting at me. Although that's already 1 mag, and can make all the difference between success and failure.
I didn't realise Jacques was here. This is good.
It would sure be the best thing to do. I don't know how long he can endure before the giant gets back to sleep, though.
Can someone else cast either call of slumber on the giantess, or a spell to make her deaf to any sound? I fear we may have no choice but to attempt a quick strike.
(No I could have cast one at touch range before falko went, but didn't think of it)
((I thought about spells to make one or both the giants insensitive to touch, so that we could cast spells on them thereafter (if they were asleep) without waking them. Making them deaf is a similarly workable idea. But these spells would have to be sponted and penetrate MR. The letter that the giant is writing would work as an AC, for an Intangible Tunnel - if we can wait, or ...))
"Well," Tranquillina suggests reluctantly to Isen, "we could Leap to Falko invisibly; I could make a distraction - a noise in the hallway, for example - and you could use the letter as an Arcane Connection. And, worst case, engage or elude the giants ... although I wouldn't be of much help there, except perhaps to scare the giantess off. It would be nice to have Jacques there as well, but...."
Assuming we manage to translocate without stumbling on something on arrival. Yet, I agree, we may have no other choice.
I propose this: Since it is the middle of the night, we wait a little, see if he comes back to sleep. I know I would. If he doesn't, we enter wizard's communion , translocate, and I try to put him to sleep. If this fails, we strike. Do you have a means to put the room into darkness? I can cast Eyes of the Cat, which would give us an edge.
I feel... unworthy. I never thought this guy would wake up and rise so late, this is throwing everything out of whack. I should have prepared for this.
((Jonathan's right:)) "Time is a little bit precious here - or rather, it is passing much more quickly back at Mons Electi," Tranquillina admits. "It must be that this is our best opportunity! We will find a workable plan...." She paces a little bit more, coming up with options.
"All right. If I can make eye contact with the giant for but a moment, I feel confident in being able to make him fear the chain tremendously. Especially if I hold an Arcane Connection to him, such as the letter." She paces some more, glaring from time to time at the unusually dissonant singing coming from the image above the tree stump. "Assuming we can communicate this plan to Falko: when the giant removes the chain, Falko grabs it, and then either runs out of the complex or, perhaps Isen can bespell him away? Or you can grab it yourself, Isen."
"I also can probably suppress the transmission of sound in the entire room; this could help the alarm not be raised as we execute the theft. The downsides: they will know the chain has been stolen ... and, I will have to become visible." She gulps. "But I am not sure we have a strategy for total stealth." She looks at the other magi, inviting their response.
((Mechanics question: if all sound is being Perdoed away, that probably affects the range of Voice Range spells. But for other Ranges, it doesn't force a maga to take penalties for no words, does it? - she can still speak the words, they just won't be heard by anyone?))
((If you can't create your voice outside of typical Voice Range spells and have it affect those things outside of Voice range, it doesn't seem... fair or at least consistent that Perdo should keep spells from being possible. IIRC, the idea behind Voice range, is that it is as far as your Voice can normally reach, after all, someone casting without words would (or should) be unable to affect targets at Voice range.))
((Good point about not being able to augment Voice Range by magically making your voice louder - hence I can't dampen Voice Range by magically making things quieter. That makes me happy.
I do point out though that the rules specifically treat casting without words: it does make Voice Range impossible (page 83, left column + sidebar) except on the caster herself.
But that's different (I hope) than casting with words but having those words magically inaudible.))
Isen listens to tranquillina carefully
With a spontaneous spell? Or a formulaic? HOw many magnitudes of penetration do you think you can muster? Disregarding the Aura*, I should be able to achieve about 5 magnitudes of penetration on the Call to Slumber. Unless you can do more, we're better of just putting him to sleep.
Taking hold of the letter might also prove problematic so long as he's writing it. I wouldn't count on it.
But we can't lose any more time, so I fear we might have to translocate in anyway, try to put him to sleep, kill him if that fails, while you stop sounds from exiting the room. Hopefully, there'll be more readily accessible clothes or weapons we can use as an arcane connection. Of all the giants out there, we had to stumble on the one with a sharp ear who likes writing at night... God must hate us, truly, or his adversary conspires against us.
Oh, and we should prepare a fake collar. Some lested rope should do. This is falling down so fast I doubt we'll be able to do this, but who knows?
Since it also adds to the giants MR, it is irrelevant anyway
(Sorry, no can do, serf's parma! IIRC, it adds to spellcasting, supernatural abilities and MR. I can't recall exactly, but it must be in the corebook, in the page where the realm auras are discussed. If there's an index entry for "Aura", one of the results will hopefully point to the relevant page)
((Alright, now I understand why I don't remember this, I'd been unconsciously doing this already, at least for Marcus's attacks in the previous story. I didn't add Aura to his rolls for penetration, nor did I add it the giant's magic resistance when I was checking when Marucs penetrated, so... Thanks. It's tough getting old, and forgetting why you're doing things the way you are. ))
((Alright, now I understand why I don't remember this, I'd been unconsciously doing this already, at least for Marcus's attacks in the previous story. I didn't add Aura to his rolls for penetration, nor did I add it the giant's magic resistance when I was checking when Marucs penetrated, so... Thanks. It's tough getting old, and forgetting why you're doing things the way you are. ))
Tranquillina blushes; she ((and her player)) had forgotten that the intense magical aura will help the giant's resistance as much as her spellcasting. "It is a formulaic spell ... but yes, this is tricker than I thought...." She quickly explains the nuances of her mastery of the spell and her general experience with bypassing magic resistance. ((The discussion is sufficient to communicate that her penetration would be about 20 + die roll if she's holding the letter, more like 25 + die if it's signed.)) "As for an ersatz chain, I can do that, but I will have to see the original first to make the fake convincing."
"Let us go with your Call to Slumber as the primary plan. It can be done while invisible," she says with clear relief on her face, "and behind the giant's back, for one thing. I can be prepared to use my idea as a backup plan, if necessary."
"We should give Falko instructions, especially as I will be making the room silent. Can you communicate to him, as you did for Marcus, before we begin?" Tranquillina has Jehanne cut a loop of rope and tie the ends into a knot, then stores the rope in her pouch.
((Are we okay with a Duration: Diameter version of Endurance of the Berserkers? If so, Tranquillina will cast it a couple of minutes before going in: with a fatiguing spont, her casting total is so high that she only needs a successful botch check.))
))
I could have cast one at touch range before falko went, but didn't think of it)
))
))