He looks Alexei up and down, "I've heard of you. You were a Peregrinator in the Rhein for a time, no? In any event, it's a private matter, between Petronius, Valerian and myself, Praxiteles Jerbitonis. Your assistance is not required, unless you can handle a slab of stone coming through that spot there that weighs several dozen tons." The spot where Praxiteles had prepared the portal flashes a bit, and the stone starts to come through from the other side. It's approximately 8 feet wide and 9 feet tall, and it inches through the portal slowly...
Alexei gives a brief bow, acknowledging Praxiteles point. "Of course Sodale, a private matter, you shall hear no more from me on it unless you should desire us to be involved. If I may though, as this is my business...why are you moving that stone through here? Should you need help I may be able to, but it seems that you are well versed in this."
((Peregrinator? Can't recall, what's that again? A travelling Magus in the Rhein right?))
...but steadily, for about 1 minute. At that point, a bit more than 20 feet of its length have come through. The progress then stops for a few moments, and Petronius reappears almost on top of Alexei, now standing almost at the same spot that Petronius had occupied previously. The magus stumbles and the stone wobbles.
Recovering from the near impact, Petronius swears, "Get out of my way, you idiot! I don't have much time before the portal closes." With that, he concentrates on the stone again, which resumes its course through the portal. An ominous groaning can be heard as the magical stresses begin warping the layers of wood delimiting the portal, and sweats flows from Petronius pulls the stone out of the portal through sheer will...
...not a moment too soon, for at that moment the portal's magic collapses and the archway comes crashing down upon itself, with splinters flying in all directions. The implosion is marked by a huge clap like thunder, knocking those standing nearby down.
(Characters are knocked down unless they succeed on a Size+Str roll against an ease factor of 9 -- less if you were standing farther away. People may also want to roll a stress die to see if they get injured by a flying piece of wood -- which happens on a Botch only.)
Praxiteles cries out, "No!" And very quickly casts a spell designed to catch the slab, and gets promptly knocked flat onto his backside, but the stone doesn't drop to the ground. After a few moments he gets up and starts shouting at Alexei in Greek. Alexei has no clue what the man is saying, but the tone doesn't sound good and it goes on for a long period of time, until Petronius returns. Petronius has seen this before, Praxiteles has taken personal offense for someone with interfering with his Art work and is cursing him up one side and down the other in Greek. Every now and again people can here the name Valerian being thrown out, immediately after he points at Alexei.
((To see if she gets knocked down: Size 2 + Str 1 + die roll of 8 = 11...success, even if she hadn't moved out of the way earlier.
And she avoids getting shrapneled.))
Petronius gets up from where the conflagration knocked him down, taking some time to beat dust and wood splinters off his clothes. "Well, that could have gone worse," he mutters with a befuddled tone. He starts looking around to see if anyone has been hurt, but turns around quickly when a large cat jumps down from the stone to land in his arms. "Rufus! Oooff!" Petronius wavers a bit as he almost falls down again from the impact, while the cat jumps down from his living landing pad to the ground.
((No, only on an actual botch, not just a 0. He might have been hit hard, but suffered no injury.))
Fiona looks around quickly to see where Paul is, recalling that he had issues with Apollodorus's cat Regulus when she first met him.
((Arthur: Paul is a raconteur among cats...and people. He's styled after Paul Lynde. Some cats have a tendency to dislike him due to his orientation... Whether Rufus puts up with him or not...your call. 
))
Korvin will rush back to see if anyone is injured. He has a 1 ' splinter of wood sticking out of the back of his robe by he legs and has not noticed yet.
((I checked out the Wikipedia entry for Paul Lynde, and I'm not familiar with him. Simply outside of my cultural references, but I get the picture anyway.))
((Praxiteles would know this: Rufus is a wildcat, not a domesticated one. More akin to a wolf than a dog. He understands when people talk to him, but doesn't talk back. Whether this is because he can't or just won't... Some of the grogs at Laurus Argenti are actually afraid of him -- they've seen the remains of a wolf he dealt with. And that was before he became Petronius' familiar...))
((In short, there's a good chance Rufus will simply ignore Paul as a "domesticated" cat.))
((I can't make a roll at work, but we'll assume he fell down, it's doubtful splinters would damage him, he walks around in armour))
Alexei gets back up and brushes himself off. He's still not sure exactly what was going on, but all he did was stand near.
"Slow down Sodales..." Alexei says holding up his hands, the cursing in Greek continues.
"Sodale...I did not interfere I was merely nearby..." more cursing.
"Sodale, I have no idea what you're saying but I definitely don't like the tone..." continued cursing.
"Now see here! I did nothing to cause this! And I still did not receive an answer on why this bloody thing is being moved through here..!" Alexei shouts at the cursing man.
"You can bellow Valerian's name all you like, it matters not to me!" Alexei's staff is up and across himself just in case as the man continues to curse.
"Alright that's enough! Speak to me in Latin or some language I can understand or be done with this!"
((As a student of Naval Battles from the 1700 thru Napoleonic period, I can tell you that when oak "splinters" they are large sharp spears.))
"Talk to the maga Fiona. It's her business, I have none with you, you nearly wrecked the project before it even began!" He then returns his concentration on the stone and lets it gently alight on the ground, arranging it in his temporary workshop so he can work around it. He mutters a bit in Greek and Fiona and everyone else gathered sees him get to work and immediately the rough form of a wing develops, followed soon after by the legs, the tail, the wing on the other side and then the head. Between each casting of the spell he appears to be a bit woozy, a couple of times appearing to almost fall.
((Not that it really matter, but assuming the stone if roughly 8 feet by 9 feet by 12 feet, it weights about 60 metric tons.))
((Watch those feet, pal.)
((That's why I said several dozen! And it's 8x9x20... ))
((What? Wait! You can't begin working without your muse being present! 
))