Ah, so Viola has returned. Tasia will check with Viola about the guide. If he has returned home, Tasia will go to speak with the parents about their child. She'll use Leap of Homecoming to get close to the village and to return, cutting down the length of the trip dramatically.
Viola isn't yet at the covenant, but her grog, Bogdan, is able to tell Tasia that she's waiting a short distance to the north. The villager is with her currently; he hasn't gone back to the village yet.
Bogdan is going to go back to Viola to tell her he can't find Aetos; is Tasia going with him, or waiting until Viola's finished with the horse?
Oh, OK. Tasia will got with Bogdan to speak with Viola and the guide.
Tasia follows Bogdan back to where Viola is waiting. There's no horse immediately in sight.
[Right, moving to the Faerie Regio thread for the next bit. Please post your response there.]
Tasia returns and looks for Portia.
Portia is around, but has spent a lot of time either in her room or walking around the caves and the environs of the covenant testing the aura repeatedly. She's appeared at mealtimes, but has been irritable and inclined to find fault with things that don't meet her standards - which, given you're in the middle of a ruin, are plentiful in number if slightly lacking in variety.
Upon asking for Portia, Tasia is quickly directed to Portia's room in the main building. Embedded into the door of her room is a glass sanctum mark atop a representation of a distillation glass marked with a Verditius rune.
Tasia will knock, but she will not enter. Hopefully Portia will be there and will respond. If so Tasia will let her know of the suggestion of using the caladrius and that the healing will end up helping deal with the faeries, though Tasia doesn't yet understand exactly how.
There's a terse "Yes!...?" from inside the room, and then the door opens. As she sees who it is, Portia's expression suddenly reassembles itself to become a lot politer.
"Ah - Tasia. What can I do for you?"
After you explain the need for the caladrius, Portia sniffs.
"Is Viola still not back? After she told me to meet her immediately in the village yesterday? Jude save me from Merinitae! What has Neptune got to do with healing some sick boy? He's the god of the sea, not Aesculapius! I know, I know, she didn't explain..."
At this point there's a rustling from behind her, and then a magnificent white bird appears. It gazes up at her, and there's clearly a conversation going on which you're not party to. Finally Portia speaks:
"Not that Galenus would want to see someone's suffering go untended, of course, whatever Viola's short-comings. And no doubt she's the Merinita, she's the one who knows how to handle faeries..." She mutters something you don't quite catch.
"Where is the lad? There had better not be too many more cases, unless we've got a much larger stock of surplus corpus vis than I realise."
"I understand. I had suggested using our doctor and extended healing magic instead, things that would not cost us. But she was rather insistent. The boy is in town. I can show you the way if you would like, although the town's aura might interfere with the caladrius's work."
You take Portia and the caladrius down to the village with you. Are you taking anybody else?
Portia seems to have decided to make the best of a bad job and is fairly talkative during the walk. She doesn't think the aura will make any difference to Galenus' ability to heal the boy unless the lad has magic resistance, which seems unlikely. The healing will decrease Galenus' Might, however, such that it'll take at least a year for him to make a full recovery, although the process can be accelerated with vis.
Outside Arslan's house, his wife is sitting mending the nets again. She looks up as she sees you coming.
She'll bring Petrus if he's willing to come, mostly for familiarity when the woman and boy see us.
Tasia will enjoy the conversation and will try to ferret out what she can about Portia's life, more about the social part than about the magic part.
Tasia will use Trust Me on her again: This roll is good enough, better than previous ones. "Greetings, good woman. I bring the doctor again and more assistance. We believe we can save your child, if you will let us examine him again."
You find Petrus in the laboratory he's turning into an infirmary. The debris has been cleared now, and several candles have been placed around the room. One of the alcoves has Petrus' collection of herbs and other medicinal supplies neatly stacked in it, and there are a couple of pallets laid upon the floor. The overall aspect of the room, however, is that of gloom, chill, damp and emptiness, and it would have been clear even without Petrus' list that a considerable amount of work would be needed to turn it into an ideal sickroom.
Petrus joins you for the journey to the village, but is careful to stay a little distance from you and Portia as you walk.
Portia's most recent covenant before she came here was Ingasia, a name you recognize vaguely but can't place until Portia supplies you with details. It's an entirely Verditius covenant in the Theban tribunal, home to the new Primus of Verditius, which is, you realise, why you've heard of it - there was some gossip a while ago about how the new Primus was refusing to move to Verdi, and trying instead to make Ingasia the new Domus Magna. The covenant had had a regular stream of Hermetic visitors come to purchase wares, and Portia had enjoyed meeting them and exchanging news. She glosses over the question of why she left, and asks instead what it was like in the Transylvanian tribunal. Was it difficult serving as a quaesitor under the Tremere domination?
The woman looks suspiciously at Portia, but then ushers you inside. Portia says, with a hint of distaste:
"We'll wait outside for you. You'll have to to bring the boy out into open - Galenus needs the sun."
Once inside, the woman calls Juchin down. He looks, if anything, even worse than he did yesterday, and the climb down the ladder leaves him gasping and coughing.
"Difficult? No, definitely not. The Tremere are very well organized, and they understand the value of working together. That results in fewer conflicts for Quaesitores to resolve. We are still needed to observe many things to make them official, of course. They also mobilize and focus well when there is an issue that needs greater attention, which can be helpful when an investigation leads toward danger." Tasia will go on. It is clear she has a fondness for the Tremere. They clearly understand the right way to conduct affairs. Tasia will also try to find out what Portia thinks of moving the Domus Magna as well as what she plans to do at our covenant site vis-a-vis her House.
"We will need better light and more fresh air than are available in here. The doctors insist we bring Juchin outside for them to work. They are quite skilled doctors. Hopefully Juchin will be up and about shortly." Tasia will try to keep the woman inside or at least a reasonable distance from her son as the "doctors" do their work. She will try to keep the mother distracted and calm. To do so she'll ask about lots of the goings-on in town.
Portia is clearly surprised. "I've always got a lot less positive opinion of the Tremere from Theban magi, although Allectores seemed a pleasant enough fellow when I met him. Still, not everybody was happy when Gigas said they'd be sending a magus as part of their contribution to setting up the covenant, especially when it became clear they'd be from outside the tribunal. I remember Aiakia at Hedyosmos declaring that it was clearly another attempt by Coeris to increase their foothold in preparation for another attack on the tribunal's customs. Things calmed down a bit when they realised how junior he'd be."
"Still, did you not have problems when there was a case between a Tremere and a magus from another house? I'd have expected the tribunal to just always rule in favour of the Tremere."
"I was only at Ingasia for a few years - prior to that I was in the Rhine tribunal, and most of my apprenticeship was in the Roman tribunal. Stouritus announced that Ingasia was actively looking for new Verdi at about the same time as I rejoined the house, so it seemed an obvious place to move to. As far as being the Domus Magna goes..." she shrugs. "Why not? It wasn't the Founder's home, true, but it has its own significance, and I can see why Stouritus doesn't want to move." She smiles ruefully. "Might have to do a bit of rebuilding first, mind."
"I don't think my House has any particular plans for the covenant. I'd been hoping there'd be a decent trade from visiting magi, although" - her face darkens - "given the state of the place that may take a few years."
The mother lets you take Juchin take her son outside, but even as you talk to her she continues to watch Portia closely. Her replies are brief; now that spring is here, the fishing's easier; still a lot of nets to mend.
Petrus makes a fairly cursory examination of the lad, and then says something to Portia. Portia herself doesn't seem particularly inclined to inspect the boy; instead, she watches as Galenus hops up to the boy and peers at him for a few minutes, then gazes into his eyes. Suddenly the caladrius leaps up and takes off in a flash of feathers, climbing higher and higher towards the sun until you can no longer see him against it.
Petrus then proceeds to do a considerably less cursory examination, including bleeding the boy again and inspecting the result closely. He then turns to you.
"The bird seems to have done the trick - the lad's humours are in balance again. He's still lost a lot of weight, though, and that'll take him a while to regain. However, he should do so, as long as he doesn't catch something else while recovering, which it would be remiss of me to rule out. I'll give the lad something harmless to keep the mother happy, and check up on him a few times whilst he's recovering."
"Remember that most of the non-Tremere magi are there at the Tremeres' request. Most of them are Redcaps or Quaesitores needed by the Tribunal or are magi of other houses who have been hired by the Tremere, sometimes on a very long-term basis. Many of those who are hired are hired by the Prima's own command. Tremere generally won't act against the Prima's interests, nor those of any other high-ranking Tremere, as they are very team-oriented. That levels things significantly."
"Your son should be OK. But you have to make sure he eats heartily and avoids other maladies for a while. Have him take a little of the doctor's medicine each day. Watch him to make sure he puts weight back on regularly."
The mother clutches her son to her, and thanks you, although you hear a note of uncertainty in her voice, and she's still eyeing Portia warily.
[OOC: I assume you're returning straight back to the covenant now? If so, the journey is uneventful, and Viola arrives back about an hour after you do, with a horse in tow.]
Yes, we'll return to the covenant.
"Viola, where did you find this horse? Do we have a use for it?"
Viola looks slightly annoyed. "Like...horses."
Scott
~deleted, as we changed the timing and circumstances of Patrick's arrival~
((Patrick's not there yet, right?))
Tasia brushes off Viola''s comment with an eye roll and walks around the covenant grounds to see what everyone else is up to.