“Sodalis, this field is ours by right of conquest, let’s drive these scavengers away from our spoils” states Janus moving towards the hooded people.
The hoodies do not immediately notice you. They seem quite busy searching bodies. They are still a hundred paces away, though, and have plenty of time to react before Janus reaches them.
Please describe your appearance, @John_Graham_52 .
Does anyone follow Janus into the battlefield?
[Luciu is out there but not necessarily near to Janus. I think it's fair to say that anything which would cause him to need to check concentration on his spell, he'll notice, otherwise he won't.]
Lucio has not yet gone far away from Janus, but he is so dedicated to his spell that he completely shuts out their voices and keep scanning the area. There is little to be learnt from the cascade of magical residues. The residues blend into each other, and individual effects and sigils cannot be singled out. It seems that it is the collective power of hundreds of spells which leave the residue, even if the traces of individual momentary and diameter spells would long have dissipated.
Edwin and Rubellius, still engaged, more or less, in conversation, hear Janus' intention and should decide what to do.
Janus looks like a stocky, average height, red haired and bearded soldier in blood soaked chain-mail and a red open fronted, hooded over garment, with a large knife at his belt but otherwise unarmed. He face appears in a constant scowl and his eyes are black ringed and bloodshot with exhaustion. His blatant gift creates an aura of extreme distrust and imminent danger to those that can sense it.
Edwin takes a step back - he doesn't want to go anywhere near a fight, this battlefield shows the colossal damage magic can do. He keeps an eye on Janus.
When he finally gathered his memories of Edwin, Rubellius was happy to see him but he soon got somber when the old friend hinted their covenant's fall. The big magus was going to ask more details, but he followed Janus, sure he'll need his help. Rubellius managed only to tell Edwin that later he must tell them what happened.
With a few big strides, he quickly catched up his red haired companion. Rubellius is fully covered with a leather armor except for the head, left completely free. His gauntlets seems particularly well made, and his hands firmly grip a white cow femur, wrapped in black leather strips.
The giant magus catches quickly up. Janus has to take some care not to desecrate the many bodies. The giant strides really help. They get past the middle of the field before the hoodies react. First one, looking up curiously, then suddenly, startled, he yells, and all of them rise to their feet. Two of drop a body with the chain mail half-way removed.
The steady and straight stride of the two magi may be terrifying. The hoodies have started to pull together in a group, when one of them shouts, as the magi have advance to about 30 paces away, «scatter». And they suddenly and swiftly retreat towards the woods to scatter and disappear.
Lucio will notice the movement, particularly the moving shadow of the giant-blood, but whether he reacts or not is more a matter of personality (traits) than concentration ability. [Awareness+Perception 9+ to spot anything of interest in the hotpot of magic residues.]
[Got a 13 on Awareness. So focused on the magic he probably remains oblivious. Again, he is also saving the more complicated aspects of the scene it his memory palace to be recorded later in writing.]
Janus reaches the edge of the woods and checks the robbers have scattered. He turns to Rubellius and says “Why don’t you start gathering any silver, vis and any useful gear from the battleground, that Guernicus may be of help. I’ll guard against these scavengers returning”
Rubellius grunts in agreement even if he doesn't seem happy to scavenge over mutilated dead bodies.
He easily lifts the dead weights, even if armored, and moves them around as needed.
Rubellius is actively looking for good armor pieces, he should spot easily the well maintained ones as his eyes are well trained. If he finds anything useful he will take it off old owner and carry it on his shoulders. When at full load he'll move the items near his cart. Whether the work is too much for one person, Rubellius will ask his two grogs for help.
Obviously every body is lifted from silver and any kind of valuable jewelry.
Rubellius will keep his eyes open looking for vis, as it is a resource by far more valuable than anything he expects to find.
[I'll roll anything necessary here as an edit]
Whatever it is the outcome of this search, he'll end up covered even more in mud and blood.
Edwin finds looting the dead distasteful, but war leads to this necessity. Wrapping his hood over his face to protect himself from the smell of the corpses, he will help remove valuables. He doesn't know enough about arms and armour to loot those.
"Dirty work, but it will help us build a home", he says to Rubellius' grogs.
There is no shortage of good armour once Rubellius start looting. Selecting the best armour and removing it is a tedious process, and Rubellius takes his time to pile up as much as he can carry. There is no armour of particular quality, but he does notice two superb longswords dropped in a pile of dead grogs whose armour he removes in the middle of the field.
Silver is also plentyful, even though few of the warriors have more than one or two coins. Edwin can roll an awareness+perception [search or sight applies], to find 6d (0+), 12d (3+), 30d (6+), £½ value mostly in jewelry and gems (9+), £1 value (12+), £2 (18+). If he rolls 12+, he also ends up with Luciu on the Eastern end.
Luciu notices a body still under the influence of spells. You would guess on Gift of the Bear's Fortitude or a similar buff. He is not really trained to focus on a spell for more than 15-30 minutes, so this is as much as he is able to get without a break. As he has to give up on his spell, he has ended up on the Eastern end of the battlefield, just to notice two odd figures.
A woman in a white dress is floating a foot above the ground. She small and kneeling, and seems to be completely frozen, which must be why you did not notice her at a distance. Ten paces away is a man in a maroon robe, dead on the ground with a bloody slash across his torso. He wears a helmet beautifully adorned with a copper rim. Luciu recognises him as the preciding quaesitoris.
Janus stands guard. The scavengers are not to be seen, but after a while he sees a small group on horses approaching from the West. They stop to look over the area. Both the riders and Luciu are about a hundred paces away, in opposite directions.
Luciu looks back, and calls to the men who wait at his wagon, gesturing for them to bring it to him. Then he recasts his spell and inspects the suspended woman more closely.
There is an effect, suspending her somewhere between this World and some other. Twilight is the only explanation that makes sense. Can one every know for sure?
Janus approaches the riders and calls out “Who approaches this battleground?”
Janus has to draw far away from the rest of the group. As he approaches the newcomers, Janus sees a wagon with a big cage drawn by two horses and flanked by two knights on horseback. The man driving the wagon is standing on the bench. He is tall, with an oiled cloak. His face is old and worn by the weather, and his hair is shoulder-long and greasy.
«You do not know me? Wulfric, emissary of Eadric the Ealdorman!?» The man on the wagon shouts, with a confident basso voice.¹ «Who are you to wage war on his land?»
¹ Int+Mercia lore 6+ and he knows the name; 12+ and he knows the face. Add 6 to the ease factor for area lore in another English kingdom and 9 for Stonehenge lore.
Skill is Area Lore:Stonehenge and roll is 14 so a fail for any information at all.
“No I don’t recognise you sir and I am a simple soldier trying to survive in this war torn land. What bring you and your men here?” Replies Janus
Edwin, with his thirty pennies of loot, walks up to join Janus and see who the strangers are.