Gregorius will take a single shield grog with him, and start off towards the ship. His plan is to follow the path along the river, arriving at the village (and therefore ship) shortly before it gets dark.
It only takes an hour. He's there by early afternoon.
Scott
[Early afternoon seems rather early. What time is sunset? He was aiming to leave such that he got there not much before then - he wanted to spend all the time he could exploring the covenant site.]
Ah, I thought he and Alcimus might like to join the hunting expedition to the woods, but you can go back later if you like.
Scott
Gregorius' plan was to take Alcimus off the ship under cover of darkness (early next morning) - he doesn't want to terrify the local villagers with him (yet, at least). That means that arriving earlier than evening just means hanging around on the ship, or in a village he doesn't speak the language of. He's only travelling down as early as he is because he doesn't want to be travelling through unfamiliar terrain in the dark unnecessarily.
OK, that's sensible enough.
Scott
Once he reaches the village, Gregorius heads straight for the ship. He greets the crewman heading the watch briefly, and enquires how Alcimus has been. Then he heads down to his cabin where he left the wolf.
OK then, what next?
Scott
Huh? Was that meant to be something else? (Although, on a related note, how long does any particular second sight roll last for? Is it a different roll per location with something to spot, per thing to spot over a time period, per time period, something else?)
Gregorius greets Alcimus, apologising for another day spent in the cabin, and reassures him that it's nearly over.
"I'll take you up to the covenant site first thing tomorrow morning. I think you'll like it - there's a forest north of it that's apparently full of game " - his expression darkens for a moment - "and I'm sure that where there's game, there'll be other wolves. I know, I know they won't be anything like one of the white wolf packs, but it'll be better than nothing, at least?". He pauses for a moment, and then continues, "There's a band of woodland between the covenant and the river which a grog who's survived here since the previous covenant has trapped quite extensively. I'll show you around it, although I'm sure you could probably find all of the traps yourself. Maybe you'll have some suggestions for ways they could be improved?"
He continues on, describing the covenant and answering questions, then goes to bed. At half-midnight he wakes suddenly, realises he still hasn't got the timing quite right, curses briefly and re-enacts the Parma ritual.
Then, in the darkness before dawn, he wakes, takes Alcimus, and sets off back to the covenant site, skirting the village as much as possible.
I was trying to move info to the Covenant thread, and apparently fouled up. I'll delete that.
Scott
Alcimus seems quite excited about the new territory to explore, and there's much pawing and licking of face.
Scott
Gregorius laughs, and rubs the wolf between the ears.
[Alcimus has Latin 3, intelligence +1 (i.e. the same as Gregorius) and the Gift of Speech minor magical quality, so he's quite capable of carrying on a conversation should he want to. (The Gift of Speech is different from the standard White Wolf template - I took it when I wasn't sure if someone would be playing him as a companion. Also, Entrancement is pretty useless without it, of course.)]
Oh, I know he can talk. 
Scott
[Okay, sorry - I wasn't sure. I think if he gets back to the covenant site next morning without incident I'm ready to leave this thread here for the moment, and wait for the rest of the story to catch up, unless there's anything extra you want to do with it.]
OK, you do get back to the covenant without incident, and we'll leave it at that for now.
Scott
[As it looks as though the other threads may still have a while to play]
After he gets back next morning, Gregorius will seek out Theodoric. Alcimus is with him.
He'll start by reassuring Theodoric that whilst, yes, an enormous wolf, Alcimus is Gregorius' friend, and not likely to hurt Theodoric without good reason.
Gregorius is curious to see what effect the wearing off of the Aura of Righteous Authority seems to have had on Theodoric's attitude. He also wants to begin questioning him further on the former covenant:
- Did the covenant have any other vis sources that he knows of? (Magi gathering things as they did at the pool, instructions for the grogs to gather strange things, etc..)
- Where were the previous magi's labs? Were they all underground, or where some of them in the now destroyed buildings?
- Did the previous magi have any particularly notable specialities? What House were they? Which specialities corresponded to which lab? Come to that, what about names? [Note: he won't ask this if the tribunal has already told us - I don't think I know OOC, though - I'm not even quite sure if we're still working on the previous magi all being seekers (which would imply some but possibly not all being Bonisagi).]
- He said previously he thought the raiders had inside help. Why?
- Had there been any previous warning of the attack? Any strange visitors, or threats issued?
- What time was the attack?
- Does he have any idea what direction it came from, or numbers (he's expecting the latter at least to be rather confused and inaccurate)?
- How well does he speak the local language?
- What was the previous covenant's relationship with the local village?
He'll also cast a few (silent) Posing the Silent Questions, giving himself chance to rest between them:
In 6 + Me 6 + aura 4 + mastery 1 - 10 (no sound or gestures) + die 5 = 12 (invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2827577/), goes off with fatigue: Does Theodoric intend to save the magi loyally? [He's doing this one again just in case the AoRA made any difference to the answer last time.]
In 6 + Me 6 + aura 4 + mastery 1 - 10 (no sound or gestures) + die 10 = 17 (invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2827581/), goes off with fatigue: What is Theodoric hiding from the magi?
Yes, he knows of at least a couple, but I gotta think on it and get back to you on the details
Some were underground, and some in the buildings. He remembers some complaints about the above-ground labs initially, but those were addressed somehow early on.
You have this information IC, though I haven't given it to you OOC yet. One of them was a Flambeau Ignem specialist. There was also a Terram specialist, a Trianoma Seeker, and a Merinita (the last two had labs above-ground), among others.
They were able to penetrate the covenant's defenses pretty easily. It's just a hunch of his.
Direct warning? None that he knows of. There had been uneasy relations with a couple of groups of hedge wizards, as well as some local villages, but that's about it.
A couple of hours after midnight.
Not really. By the time he was awakened, the attackers were inside the covenant's perimeter.
Almost fluently [a score of 4].
It got on well with the village near the coast that you stopped at.
He asks, very humbly, if you'd please stop it with all the spellcasting and just listen.
Scott
[Huh? He shouldn't be able to tell Gregorius is spellcasting - he's doing it with no words or gestures, and Posing the Silent Question isn't inherently noticeable unless it's pinging off magic resistance or something. Gregorius' intent is that he won't know about these spells.]
Sorry about that. At any rate, your spellcasting doesn't seem to accomplish anything.
Scott