The second pit opens beneath the first dropping Mariella down further and taking her out of Line of Sight of Katja however this soon changes as Mariella finishes casting a spontaneous ReCo spell and starts to rise up out of the pit .
Katja is tired and there is not much she can do while so tired. The grogs have scattered so no one is around except the one woman. [color=blue]Run and get out of sight before she clears the lip of the pit. TRie her spell lets her go straight up and she is likely to drops straight down if her concentraton breaks, we can't count on it. She is possessed." She then shouts at the maga starting to rise [color=blue]Drop that rock on her fast. It is a bluff to try to break concentartion. As soon as she finishes yelling, she is bolting to get behind buildings. She is so exhausted that she doesn't have any spells that will work.
Mariella rises from the pit and begins casting a second Rego Corpus spell apparently to move her sideways as she begins to drift towards the edge of the hole.
Ilsa calls out to Katja to head this way and leads her behind some buildings on a path which will lead back into the covenant. Despite her fatigue Katja is able to make good progress . She hears a shattering crash and looking around can see that Mariella has blown a hole through one of the buildings and is getting closer and now has a clear line of sight to Katja .
Beyond sight range was not possible until the covenant but the time it took to rise out of the pit and then cast again to move sideways and yet another spell to blast a building should have given Katja enough of a lead to be out of voice range. She looks for a rock large enough to set upon though and wishes she had leaped into her sled. That would let her cast a spell to move with the speed of a galloping horse.
Still, the range helps and she looks for trees and other buildings to keep the line of sight blocked again. Her only real hope is that the other maga tires out or the damn grogs get the courage to use a bow or two for helping out. The fact that this could get MAriella marched means little to Katja if she is dead as a result.
OOC: Damn time warping regio that kept the others 2 days behind me.
Katja is unnable to spot a large rock as unfortunatly within the village there are few suitable objects. She thinks that she is beyond voice range of Mariella but not by a lot , however Mariella apparently has at least one spell which can reach beyond voice range as is clear when a rock shoots past Katja at a speed more normally associated with arrows.
Katja tries a desperate move to buy her a blockage and some time. She chants in latin and gestures and suddenly there is a thick stone wall between her and Mariella. At a pace thick, 2 paces high and 5 paces wide, it does a good job of blocking line of sight.
OOC Wall of Blocking stone. Base casting total 22 + 3 aura + 1 exaggerated gestures + 2 die = 28 = 5 fatigue = 23 enough for spell with fatigue lss so spend the confidence to bump me up the +3 to 26 and success wtih no fatigue. too thick for her obliteration of metallic barrier.
With the wall up Katja continues to try to move away under cover of the wall. Before she has get very far she hears Mariella's voice from the other side of the wall , the wall shudders and collapses into dust and debris. Mariella strides through the debris then seems to stagger and collapse, apparently overcome by fatigue at last
Katja can't take a chance, this could be a ruse or faking to allow range to attack her and it is her life at stake. She calls for yet another wall, her voice loud and exaggerated, her gestures as flamboyant and still she is barely able to get it up.
OOC: damn, another 2, exggerated voice and gestures for +2, 2 on the roll so yet another of my confidence points so No fatigue as I start running again once the wall is up. You know, I have yet to have a game where I actually got one back.
The wall of stone goes up and Katja is able to make her way back as far as the covenant without any sign of purusit. It occures to her of course that Mariella knows her way around this area better than she does and unlike Katja Mariella is probably able to cast her spells without interfernece from the Aegis of the hearth
Katja approaches the guards and speaks softly, [color=blue]"Find two of your strongest and stealth guards and go back to see if Mariella is concious. IF she is, apply enough force to bruise her and insure she will stay out until the others come back or dawn when I will be able to perhaps use magic to sedate her. If she is still moving, come back and tell me. Be very careful, she is responsible for the deaths in the village." She heads to the guest house and takes a blanket to go to bed under the bed so the room still looks empty. She hates fighting and is not suited to it. Holding out against the flambeau and winning the certamen took a lot out of her. Now as the exhaustion over takes her, she tries to doze off, shivering in terror over what she went through.
Katja falls asleep , no one disturbs her rest and she has a troubled sleep.
Katja raises from her rest and goes to seek food and news [color=blue]""What news on the state of Mariella the murderess?" She thankfully fully rested and now is more prepared for Mariella. After meal, she will head down to the village to bring her sled back up to the edge of the aegis again.
I am deliberatly delaying a bit here while the other thread catches up a little bit.
OOC: Yeah, unless the other thread has really warped time, they are now two days behind me.
OOC Time is really messed up in the Regio
When Katja attempts to leave her quarters she discovers that there are two grogs posted outside the door.
[color=red]My Lady I am afraid we have been instructed to confine you to the guest quarters until . Magus Justus returns to the covenant to take charge of matters. Maga Mariella is in the infirmery recovering from illness
[color=blue]"and would you attack me if I walked out and down to the village to bring my belonging back up here? Who gave the order to confine me?" Do you believe you can actually confine me to these quarters if I wish to leave?" Katja has just put the two guards in a very delicate position, especially since they have no idea what she can or can't do magically.
[color=red]My Lady we have Orders from Erich our commander in the absence or incapacity of the mages he is in charge of protecting the covenant. We have orders to detain you here by force is necessary. We expect the mages of the covenant to return shortly . If they have not returned soon I am sure Erich and the other administrators will be down to talk to you and sort something out
They do look nervous about this but not anywhere near as worried as they where about confronting Mariella
[color=blue]"I will give you until I complete my breakfast to have this Enrich down here to explain why he thinks he has the authority to attack a member of the order or restrain one without orders from one of those that rule here? If he doesn't, then I will demonstrate why I am a wizard and you are not. I am not leaving my sled in the middle of the village so I will be going down to bring it back up to the edge of the Aegis before I head back to my reading here." Katja is not that cooperative, especially when a grog turb dares to take it upon themselves to threaten a wizard without orders and her request is reasonable. Now that she is rested, she can do things that she couldn't when dazed from exhaustion.
The grogs resume their guard duty while Katja is eating her breakfast. Shortly after she finishes her breakfast. An older looking veteran warrior enters the chamber accompanied by another Grog.
[color=red]My Lady , I am Enrich , in the absence of the magi I am responsible for the security of this place. You are a visitor and guest here and so do not at this time have authority. You where enageged in magical conflict with one of the mages of this covenant and while there have been many explanations put forward I must look to the covenants security and keep you under guard until one of the mages of the covenant returns. The goods from you sled have been brought to this gueat house and you are welcome to check on them but I must insist you remain within the Aegis until I have different instructions
Katja looks at Enrich, [color=blue]"I am afraid I have to disagree. A man in your village was killed by magic that when I looked to see if magic killed him, it revealed that Mariella was the Murderess. When I tried to get her away from the investigation because the failure to catch herself would have had her killing more of you, she tried to kill me while I tried to get away."
"That said, While I normally would be content to stay here and read. My sled is down in the village and I am going to go and bring it up to the edge of the Aegis before I come back to my reading here. Now you can accompany me or you can sit and watch but you serve the order of hermes and the covenant, you do not have the authority to make rules against wizard of the order, especially those that will cause no harm and is retrieving their own possession. Should you lay one finger on me and injure or kill me, you and all your command will not only have their lives forfeit but by the code whichever mage is your direct superior will have their life as forfiet as well under the law by which we live." Katja is willing to be reasonable but she is going to move her sled to nearby and not leave it in the middle of the village. The aegis does limit her magic but one spell can get her out of it most likely.