"I'm not sure where I was at is important, but if you must know, I was making my way toward Salerno." Her tone is such that she doesn't wish to discuss it too much.
Isen frowns
That's just great.
We're supposed to lay a trap to an unknown number of unknown magi. I don't think they've got an arcane connection to you, or you'd be dead already.
Not your fault, you were right to come here.
But I would have hoped to use that occasion to convince some people that the guernici were up to no good. Too bad.
What I propose is this. We've got an Hermes Portal to Harco. Use it. You're more precious than us. In the meantime, we'll try to fend of or delay your assailants. Unless someone has a better idea?
Anyone?
[color=blue]"I can't think of one, unless they're watching the portal and are expecting her to pass through. I do have a spell, however, that can make her look however we want her to look for the rest of the day, or night. Perhaps if we were to change her form and send her either out into the world or through the portal?"
Fiona purses her lips thoughtfully. [color=blue]"How long are you planning on being here, Tria?"
"There's not enough information yet for me to suggest any kind of coherent strategy. When and how, specifically, did you notice your trackers? Have you been alone since then, or have you felt them tracking you through urban or covenant areas? How do you suspect they are tracking you? Mundane means? Magically?
"The simplest solution would be for Tria to return to the cave with several of our more martial magi and then wait them out. Or for her to travel to a different cave and continue her journey, and then contact us if they manage to pick up her trail again. Then they'll know she's on to them, though..."
Viscaria frowns as she contemplates these options, her logistical work now forgotten.
Isen nods.
What worries me, though, is that this would be a great opportunity to show the order the duplicity of our enemy, Yet I see no way to do it. I hate this.
"I was intending to get someone of a more martial nature to come back to the cave with me, and then I would leave, and hopefully whomever is following me will take up my trail, and then that person could be followed." Tria pauses for a moment, "It's not a particularly complex plan, but it is what I came up with while I was in the cave. If possible, I'd like to capture and interrogate this person, too.
Isen pauses a moment, and considers.
Following him is useless if he follows you. He goes where you go.
And if he loses you, well, he'll come back to his masters, which makes it useless too.
Sigh... Ok, capturing and interrogating him is probably the best course of action. I just regret we can't make most of this opportunity. That, and that I didn't have enough time to invent the spells I need to face magi.
...
So. I will follow you, and try to capture him. He may be able to translocate, so we need to avoid that.
That means striking by surprise, and incapaciting him before he can react. Sadly, I have no spell that can do that easily to a magus, so I'll have to rely on wounding him too grievely for him to flee.
Viscaria. Ideas?
Isen is really considering broadening his repertoire of spells.
[color=blue]"The only overly offensive spells I know are Auram-based, and if they're cast within our Aura, they will only overcome, at best, two or three magnitudes of Parma Magica," Fiona says.
((Please take not of the date of this thread, and ensure your magi has been advanced to this date. I was thinking that by this time Isen would have had a number of the spells he wanted to have for martial purposes.))
(He has, and I'm quite happy with this, but those are straightforward spells and utility spells. I wanted a lot of Ice spells I couldn't develop at chargen, and had to do then. Next stop, he'll go on to more exotic spells, but I'm still thinking about these. The problem is not so much in wounding or killing as it is in incapacitating.)
Viscaria considers the situation. "Take Theraphosa with you? Have her entice him into the caves with her violin music? ~pause~ She's never tried to entice a magus before, so perhaps you'd need to play with some Auram or Vim effects to enhance the effect of the music? She's certainly quite good at capturing prey, but she prefers to work by setting traps and having them come to her. Which, I suppose, is a good enough point on its own: you're going to need to pick your ground and get him to walk into.
"I'm not really sure, myself, if my spirit-sister is well equipped to go hunting magi. Her attacks only affect the body, not the mind. Still, she'd like the practice. You could maybe even bring some of her children with you."
(OOC: I would totally have to actually figure out her children's stats.)
It is worth trying, although I doubt she'll be able to penetrate his Parma Magica. But the help is welcome.
I thought about designing a magical effect that'd allow me to temporarilly supress someone's parma. But this is quite hard, for minor results at best.
I have marched wizards before. Capturing one is way harder.
Thanks for the advice, anyway
Turning to Tria
I just need to cast my protective magics, round up theraphosa, and find a suitable place for a trap. Once that's done, and unless you want to rest some more, I 'll be ready when you are.
Turning again to Viscaria
If using theraphosa, a cavern of sorts will surely be useful. It might be anyway: Unless he knows Leap of Homecoming, this'll allow us to trap him more easily, as he'll be unable to fly or translocate away (If all he can see is the next wall...) I know you spend some time exploring terram-based features around Mons Electi. Do you know one that could be a conceivable place for such an ambush?
Me me me me me!!
I can so do them as grog-level characters!
"I'll leave the strategy for capturing him in your capable hands. If he dies, it's a calculated risk I'm willing to take. If he survives, well, that's when my skills will become most useful."
((You guys lay out how you want this to go down... If you want to intercept him soon after she leaves the cave, or try and lure him into the cave somehow.))
"I would have thought that you'd need to go back to the cave system where Tria last was. But yes, certainly, Theraphosa will know of a good bit of cavern nearby. I've been mostly focused on the regio myself."
My note actually divide up the stats for which parts of Theraphosa are mundane and which qualities are not. Would her children be grog level Magic Might creatures? Or just mundane spiders? Keep in mind that she has the Difficult Underlings flaw, so they're probably talking spiders, at the very least. Hatched about 5 years ago (Winter, 1222)....
Okay.
Isen will round up theraphosa, tria, anyone else who wants to participate.
Thanks for coming, everyone.
We don't know our enemy's strengths. So we will try to capture him, killing him if that proves too difficult, and getting out of here alive should he be an elder magus doing grunt work.
The greatest difficulty in capturing him lies, first and foremost, in his eventual ability to translocate.
If he can't, it's fine. So let's assume he can.
If he knows the Leap of Homecoming, we'll probably fail, until we can incapacitate him before. Same thing if he knows Seven League Stride and was paranoid enough to take an arcane connection to a place outside the cavern before entering it. Otherwise, he'll need to rely on sight. And this is where getting him into a cavern can help us.
Thera. We'll need a cavern with a separate entry and exit. I will wait near the exit. Tria will enter, pass me, and flee. I will block the way with an Ice wall, layered with a magnitude 1 (cast without fatigue) Creo Imaginem spell to make sure he can't see through it. And I will wait, masked by a similar Imaginem spell.
Once he enters the cavern, you'll wait a little, and follow him. I need you to do two things. The first is to block the entry with your webs once he's gone, make sure he can't go out or see through it. If you could trap it so that rocks fall on him should he try to escape, it's fine. Make sure you can still exit easily and dissolve your webs should he prove too powerful for us. Then, follow him at a distance. Don't risk your life, save if you think you have a good shot at him. Viscaria tells me you might be able to enchant him. I doubt it, but you can try. Otherwise, use mundane attacks, and put your life first and foremost.
As for me, I'll first try to put him to sleep. I doubt this will work, and this robs me of the element of surprise, but I must try. Failing that, I will try to incacitate him.
Save that I have a hard time striking at a magus like that without him having breached the code first... Tria. How's your rego imaginem? Could you detach your image from your body, leave it inside the cave so as to "confront" him? If he then attacks you, he'll have clearly breached the code, in the spirit if not in the letter.
Well, it's probably me, but I see more her children as miniature magical versions that purely mundanes. I have some difficulties picturing her giving birth to purely mundane children.
=> I'd probably do them as lesser versions, probably riddled by some flaws (not immortal, need to eat) that would ensure they would not cover mythic europe in a few dozen years. So yeah, grog level characters 
Having an outburst of work, but it should be brief, I'll try to whip up something to propose you 
Theraphosa suggests, "Has anyone seen the enemy? If we could craft some likenesses of him, it would aid our attacks against him. I will make my early attack efforts focused on obtaining arcane connections, once we have seen the effect of my violins."
OOC: I just realized that Magic Creatures can also get points in Penetration, and that it would aid her Enchanting Music PENAID, and now I want to go back and adjust Thera's seasons to read that book. Which I'm not going to do, but damn, is she going to focus on Penetration someday.
Isen puts his hand to his chin, thinking
Good point. Tria, I guess you haven't seen him, that would be too much of a boon... I think we'll have to settle for blood. Wounding him should give you a potent arcane connection. Same thing if I wound him and you get hold of some sprayed blood.
OOC: Yes, Penetration is VERY helpful once you get some penetration multipliers, which usually aren't all that hard to get hold of. Even without it, you can easily get 5 points for your favorite attacks, which isn't negligible, especially for magical critters.
Johnatan: Doing as specified above.
The Creo Imaginem spells will be:
Blanket the Ice Wall: CrIm Base 1 (image that affects a single sense), +1 touch, +1 size, +2 sun duration = lvl 5. Isen Cr 19 + Im 6 + Sta 2 = 27
Hide the Magus: Isen will get close to a cavern's wall, and create the illusion of a wall before him, so as to hide from his adversary. Similar that the above. He needs a finesse roll for the illusion to be credible: 1d10=2 + Dex 1 + Finesse 6 = 9
With tria's accord (she'll have to lower her parma), he'll also bind her image and to an object:
ReIm Base 4 (Make an object appear (to 1 sense) to be attached to another object defined at the time of casting), + 1 touch, +1 Conc, +1 changing image, +1 moved image matches changes = lvl 20
Re 26 + Im 6 + Sta 2 + Rego Aura 10 = 44 + Dice 1d10=1, 1d10=5 = 54/2 = 27.
He'll have his talisman maintain the effect.
He'll rest 2 minutes, and do the same with Tria's voice: 1d10=9 (so it flies).
Assuming Tria can cast the following InIm spell
Base 1 (use sight at a distance), +4 Ac range, +1 Diameter = lvl 10.
The idea: she hold the object, do everything normally while holding it. But she leaves it (and her image, and her voice) in the cavern, using the InIm spell to see what happens here. So when her pursuer comes in, she can "confront" him. Hopefully, he'll let slip a thing or two that will help us.
Also, if he then attacks her, he breaches the code, and Isen will feel more at ease when striking at him.
I'm not really clear on what Tria is being asked to do...
Our plan of attack is outlined in the post above. Could you reference that and ask specific questions, or point to the parts where the uncertainty comes up? For example, the part where it says "Tria will enter, pass me, and flee." is pretty self explanatory, but maybe you're not clear where she's entering?