1260.1 A Beginning Is a Very Delicate Time

Agnarr shrugs slightly "Fair. And that spell only helps if you know you are infected." He nods and turns back to the sled. "I'll set camp away from your group. If you want help please ask."

Picking a clear spot away from the current inhabitants Agnarr casts Obstructive Ice Block to encircle a small area and then sets a Refuge from Ice and Snow within it too. When he's done his gear is packed safely sheltered in the refuge and the ice dogs are inside the perimeter on guard. Agnarr and Kharu will then walk and fly around the surrounding area to get a better idea of the lands around.

He notices the care but misinterpret it and smiles. "Don't worry, the staff's enchantments have no effect on living beings. There's no risk of anyone being shrunk by mistake."

His job is easy, calling out the triggering words of his staff then tapping it on one crate, then another item and another one after that, repeating the triggering phrase. Each time, the item targeted deforms a bit, giving a lopsided appearance, before shrinking down to a much smaller version. The miniaturized items are still slightly deformed, so that stacking them is a risky proposition, however. There are also so small that it is unlikely that the chains can restrain all of them.

Bartholomeus comments on that, "It is usually easier to simply put them all into an empty crate to prevent them from scattering about. Or a large sack. Perhaps a net?"

Calpurnia forms a metal box anchored to the wall in order to store the minaturized items. It's closed off with some canvas and rope.

"Excellent!" Bartholomeus smiles again, "Anything else that needs to be shrunk?"

"Not until Galan gets back with his items."

Bartholomeus nods, "Didn't he says that the bulk of his items would only arrive in about a week's time? If his people can carry what they have by themselves, I guess it won't take much place. That's good." He looks around, as if trying to find something to do. "I am eager to get started. Your ship is very nice and all, but it's a bit small to install a lab into." He brushes his hand on the overhead, "The ceiling's too low, at least for me. Must be nice to be smaller, you don't bump into things all the time or knock your head on a beam. I do that all the time. Fall down, too. Or make things fall."

He looks down to the floor, like a guilty child. A very tall guilty child. "It's not really my fault, you know, all the bumping and the falling and the fumbling of things. It's a curse. It happened during my apprenticeship. Probably faeries that wanted revenge on my pater, but who couldn't get through his Parma. I've tried to find some way to fix it, but Vim isn't really my specialty. Nor is Intellego. Or Perdo. Don't get me wrong, I'm not deficient in those or anything, just didn't have much time to study those subjects. Yet. I guess I should get started. Do you know if we'll have any books on those Arts? Or on faerie curses? That would help a lot."

He suddenly blushed, "I'm sorry, I'm babbling! Anyway, I wanted to thank you again for allowing me to join the covenant. And for transporting me on you nice ship."

"We waiting on Olinda and two others to bring some more supplies back. Once they and Galan's crew return, we can go to the site."

Calpurnia gazes at the newly formed bunks and box with a critical eye. So much of the process depended on flat sheets that were cut into parts. She needed a spell that formed sheets from metal, and that would save even more time. Even better, they would be of even thickness, and flat. If she defined it as a rectangular prism, that would mean posts, and other useful items, while still being within the spells parameters..

"Bartholomeus, we will doubtlessly be quite busy for a season building our new home, and then we will spend more time to make our laboratories useful. After that, though, do you have a project that you wish to investigate?"

"I have some work to do on my talisman," Bartholomeus says. "I started working on it and it has a few effects enchanted into the staff, but I haven't attuned it yet. Some form of personal transportation would be nice. Something for Garapadax, to keep him safe." He shrugs, "I'll see what comes up first. I want to make things that will help make my people's life easier and safer. If nothing else, I need to study various Arts that I never spent much time on, before I can get an apprentice. If I can find a suitable youth, I'd like to be ready."

"All of your suggestions seem reasonable. I was musing that I needed a spell to form metal into sheets. I have so many projects I want to undertake. For example, nails. Each one is handmade. With a spell, a small cube of steel could make thousands at a time."

"I'm thinking of a mechanism to precisely cut metal, easily. With a simple enchantment, it could be used by mundanes, to fashion items."

"I'm thinking of a spell that will pull metal directly from ore, rather than the laborious purification process. Alas, all of that is dreaming unless we can keep our magic against the plague, and find some vis sources." Calpurnia heads up the stairs, back up to the deck.

Thyra moves around the site area doing various measurements with her surveying team. She spends several hours in and around the ruined manor house. In this time, grogs have been clearing the site of brush and small trees. When Thyra finishes and takes some food she comes over to Agnarr's camp and sits down 30' away.

The aura is strong as my notes said. Something is odd about it that we will not know until we can do further tests with a proper lab. The foundations of the manor is good and should be more than ready withing a month or so. She pauses for a bit. Now the tricky part. How do determine if each of us is without the Plague? Cast a 6th or higher magnitude spell?

Bartholomeus follows her. She hears a thumping noise, then, "Ow, that hurts." When the red-heade magus joins her on the deck, he is rubbing his forehead, where a small cut can be seen. "Gotta be careful with those door," he mumbles to himself.

(OOC: Basically waiting for the action to move forward now. Should we fast-forward to the ship arriving at the covenant's site?)

(OOC: Moving forward to the next scene seems good to me. We can assume that Tacitus and Galan find each other, and get on the ship)

OOC: That certainly works for me. Not sure if Jonathan had anything planned for town.

After scouting and a little hunting Agnarr welcomes the company, with Karhu also shifting from owl to polar bear beside him as he joins Thyra.

"The plague is grim. We need more information. The intellego spell will shortcut any of the magi if they know, but that isn't enough. Familiars and non-magical people might also be carriers; so they should be tested too. And everyone should be tested regularly.

I don't know anything except unfounded rumours or have a background dealing with Vim or disease, which is why I basically came here. I wasn't going to wait at my last covenant to find out how I got infected. And if you and the other Magi had gone elsewhere I'd still be here, as its almost a home.
Perhaps casting a spell on an infected spreads to the caster?"

Agnarr adds "what do you know for certain of the plague?"

Tacitus and his grogs leave town to board the ship with Galan, and set out for the covenant.

The next morning, after Tacitus and his grogs have been fitted on the ship - which is now packed, even with Bartholomeus' shrinking magic, Calpurnia dons her talisman and heads to the front of the ship. She asks Tacitus to join her.

"Tacitus, you'll need to guide me to the covenant site. I won't be talking very much, I need to maintain concentration. Tell me as soon as you can about any turns I must make, I have to do them slowly when we're at full speed." Calpurnia activates the Eyes of the Eagle power from her Talisman.

Using exaggerated gestures and a firm voice Calpurnia casts Vessel of the Clouds. Very slowly, Calpurnia moves the boat backwards, onto the waves. Once it's clear, she slowly lifts the boat up. (Calpurnia has casting score of 62 to cast Vessel.) Guiding the direction that Tacitus suggests, over the next five minutes, Calpurnia urges the boat to travel faster.

Doubtlessly a number of the newcomers aboard are holding the rails tightly. and trying to show that they are not afraid, even if their faces are green. This isn't helped by Calpurnia's Gift, and her Disfigured looks. A number are angry, and it takes Tacitus briefly stepping away to speak to his men to get them to calm down.

As Calpurnia flies, she notices something on the ground. She slows to see the details, ending up hovering nearby. Ice crystals glow with brilliant light near the trees. (This is a vis source for 3 pawns/year of Imaginem, one of my build point expenditures.) Calpurnia marks the location and then heads on to the covenant site.

When Calpurnia sees the encampment, she slows down and makes a wide circle. She asks Maria to deactivate the Cloak of Romulus, so that the ship is visible. She does two circles over the camp, slowing further. She picks a flat spot near the lake and lands. Calpurnia's landing is not good, the back end hits first, jarring everyone. Then the front strikes hard, knocking almost everyone to the ground. Maria immediately heads below decks to make sure the children are unhurt.

[Edit] (The Folly has flown about a dozen times, it already has its first Warping point. The ship naturally wants to land in water, so every landing on solid ground is disruptive, unless Calpurnia can make a stunning Finesse roll. No one yet knows this.)

Tacitus quietly activates his talisman so he can see through cloud and fog. He then mutters the words to an Intellego Imaginem effect, which keen Hermetic listeners might guess was Eyes of the Eagle. He studies the way ahead. The site looks satisfactory to his eyes, and much as the Tremere reports described but with some recent changes.

As he gets off the boat, he casts Sight of the Active Magics to see if there are any lingering traces of other's magic.

[OOC: presumably any recently magically created buildings will show up, but I will check in case any supernatural creatures have been up to no good while Calpurnia was off-site]

Bartholomeus spends most of the trip tied to an anchor point after almost falling off the ship, being saved in extremis by his second grog, Kozka. "Don't worry your head, master, this is for your own good," says the broad-faced man cheerfully as he loops lengths of rope around the sputtering Verditius. His enchanted staff is confiscated so as to avoid it being dropped and lost.

Galan, who has no fear of heights, ventures out onto the deck during the flight to take in the view and marvel at the operation of the flying ship. But before long the boys begin leaning over the side, stepping up on tiptoes to get as good a view as they can, and he decides to call it a day. While he has little concern for the danger of himself falling overboard, he has much greater worries about the same fate befalling the boys. So, with much wailing on the part of his charges, Galan ushers the boys back below where the three of them stay to keep Bartholomeus company until the ship arrives at its destination.

"I was thinking," he muses to the poor, bound magus, "we'll not have much of a library to start with. There's not a whole lot we can do about that at the start. But one thing that might help would be if we all spent a season or two scribing what spells we know. That would at least give us a good collection of spells we might all learn." He gives Bartholomeus a smile to try and cheer him up. "Do you think the other magi would agree to that? It would really only be fair if we all agreed."