Sasso and Telsa are protecting each other's back, baring their teeth and growling as a warning to the other wolves against attacking them, but they do not make a move to attack the others. Not yet. Perhaps if there is an opening to break the circle they will flee through it. Wolves are territorial, but rarely will they kill each other.
It is spring, which means the mating season. So it is not unusual to have unmated males that are looking to join a pack. So the agressiveness of the alpha male is to be expected. "Just passing through," expresses Sasso with his growling.
"Wolves? Yes, we heard some wolf calls," replies Thadeus, "but Sasso thought they were probably people signaling to each other. He as Telsa went to investigate and scout out the area."
"No, these are not human signals. They're wolves allright. Wolves bickering over territory, I'd wager. They're likely to be hostile if we go near them."
The wolves keep circling, slowly advancing, but still keeping a distance. It may be possible to break through the circle, but it is a risk when you pass through and get the hostile wolves behind you. However, if you manage to head out of their territory, they would care no further. If, however, you accidentally head into it ...
Survival+Per 9+ to get the right direction out of their territory, and if successful, Brawl+Qik 6+ to break through untouched. If survival fails, the ease factor is 9, and they may decide to chase.
Sasso decides that going back towards camp is probably the best way to escape (Per+Survival roll of 10) and after a last growl, leads the way through the pack's perimeter (Qik+Brawl roll of 9).
Sasso finds an opening and runs for it. The other wolves growl and snap, but the cowards wolves are, they have no care for a fight. Escaping their territory leads the two Pomeranians back to the path and the party.
Thadeus nods at Sasso's report, before turning to Cath'rinne. "Could you scout from the air to see how far exactly we are from Wicker Hill, and if there are other settlements around? We'll probably want to set camp a bit closer before we can bring the packing crates to the lab and then back once they are full."
Cath'rinne and the wannabe vulture can get an aerial overview quickly. Wicker Hill is 4-5 miles away, probably about 2h on foot in this terrain. The area in 3-4 mile radius around the village seems to be heavily used for pasture, and they see several camps with shepherds and even more herds, both of cattle and of sheep. Each herd is not very big, but the total number of animals represents a wealth far beyond a small village like Wicker Hill.
You could make your camp closer, but it would not be discreet, and it would almost certainly be detected when the shepherds check on their animals. And soon the sun will be setting.
Based on the reports, Thadeus suggests the following. "Let's keep the base camp here, then. On the first night, we can lead the pack animals close to the hill at night and move the packing supplies into the lab. Then we send most of the mundanes back to camp while we pack up the lab. The packing may take a few nights. Once that's done, we repeat the same thing and bring the crates back to the surface and load them on the animals. With a combination of invisibility, we can keep watch for any of the villagers snooping in. Nauvi can put them to sleep if required. I'm guessing we can get that done in less than a week."
Vulture Thom, ever curious, circled above the two departing wolves, puzzled by the way they moved away and toward the party. Seems rather likely that he watched them transform…
He stays in vulture form and follows Vulture Cath’rinne during the recon of the hill, finally transforming back to human form when they return to report.
Do you head into Wicker Hill the same night or the next night? It is a hard fatigue roll (Sta 9+) to avoid a long-term fatigue when you continue into the night.
What measures do you take to avoid raising attention/waking someone when you approach Wicker Hill and enter the lab?
IIUC, the packing crew plan to stay in the lab until the job is done is that right? Do the donkeys return to camp?
Take the time you need to discuss the details, but please be clear about what you do and how. It seems that you make an effort to avoid attention, which is not that easy with a dozen men and half a dozen donkeys.
We head for Wicker Hill the next night. We use invisibility spells (as well as Eyes of the Cat spells for those who can cast them) to avoid raising attention. If everyone agrees, then yes the packing crew will remain in the lab until the job is done.
We will probably approach in small groups of 3-5 instead of all at once, to minimize the noise. Our mundanes will be warned against making any noise. We can run a trial far from Wicker Hill the night before to see how they do.
The donkeys will return to camp while the packing takes place -- in fact, they won't approach Wicker Hill too much, just enough that transporting the packing materials to the lab doesn't take too much time. We don't want any noise they could make to attract unwanted attention.
Thadeus will consider using PeIm spontaneous spells to silence the donkeys and noisier mundanes, but he'd rather avoid having to have to spont repeatedly. (Silence the Braying Donkey, PeIm Base 3, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, so level 10. Casting total would be 15+stress die, assuming no magical aura at the campsite, so doable.)
Thom offers to cast Veil of Invisibility if needed. He can also cast Image Phantoms as needed to adjust how things might appear including changing the appearance of the donkeys if needed.
The Enchanted Porter (glove) is also in the party, so it can be used to carry things around as needed.
Veil of Invisibility should work on donkeys (size +1). Do you want to make everyone invisible? I am going to say that casting it on a donkey is a stress roll unless you use soft voice and gentle gestures, because you need to keep the donkey calm (one botch die for gently gifted, 3 for normal, 6 for blatantly gifted).
Thadeus knows Veil of Invisibility fomulaically and has Gentle Gift, so I think he should be able to take care of the donkeys. He can cast the spell with soft voice and subtle gestures and still have a casting bonus of +12, so at worst he will need to rest a few minutes.
Edit: Silence the Braying Donkey, however, will still require a stress die for casting it. The first 3 donkeys are silenced without problem (though 1 attempt resulted in an unsufficient total). Thadeus botches on the 4th donkey.
I suppose Thom invisibilises the men while Thadeus invisibilise and inaudibilise the donkeys. Three donkeys and three grogs handling them are ready to go. The grogs complain a bit, that the donkeys seem uneasy and are hard to handle when they cannot see it.
Then Thadeus casts his spell on the fourth donkey, also uneasy at the unsight of their pack mates, and when the spell is cast its bleating is amplified hundredfold. Sta 6+ not to go deaf for five minutes, and 9+ for Thadeus who is too close - one botch die.
In the distane you hear wolves responding with their howls.
The other donkeys are startled, two of them joining the choir, and the three who cannot be heard start panicking and pulling to go away. I suppose Iago, and the two standard soldiers handle them.
I suppose the other people planning to go to WIcker Hill are also invisible by now; Thom did not have that many spells to cast. Hamish, Thadeus, and three donkeys are still visible, but you see little of the invisible panick.
Thadeus is somewhat defeaned by the amplified braying and slightly addled by the botching, so it takes him a little time before he reacts and casts Unravelling the Fabric of Imaginem on the donkey, risking injury by touching the animal to target it since it is invisible. (Casting roll of 23)