OOC: I thought that the group was going to be using the Mercere Portals to reach the Rome Tribunal, and that none of the PCs were going to visit the Dragon (Inigo, as an NPC for the duration, was supposed to go). Did I miss something?
OOC Inigo and Ameline are leaving directly from the meeting to go investigate. This is taking up the time that you are hunting up books and reading books in covenant library that is not necessarily that organized and divided into sections and areas. We have not agreed we are taking mercere portals to rome yet (and Ameline by the way can get there on her own with sevon league strides. At 6 seconds a spell, 10 spells a minute is up to 600 spells in an hour or 12,600 mph. Admittedly she would go a lot slower than that, she can get to anywhere in mythic europe in probably an hour once she is high enough in the air to see where she is going. No vis, no warping, no chance of botching. (she can not botch a mastered spell unless using vis).
Inogo: [color=red]Sigmundo doesn't have much in the way of paternal tenderness towards the drakes. It appears to me he has dumped them into the valley to fend for themselves, and is only concerned for the stongest and most cunning. I think he is grooming an heir to replace him one day, maybe in a few hundred years. But yes, interacting with drakes and ogres and such is a distraction. Come, let us make haste. If we leave now, we will get there well before the sun rises (recall that it is still some early am hour).
LadyP threw me a curve ball and wants to meet with the dragon in person, so I am playing along. It sort of wrecks my "here comes the cavalry" idea, but I also figure that it is better for a PC to adress the dragon. From a gaming-philosophy point of view, the benefit is that it puts the players more in control and limits my use of "puppet strings" and "deus ex machina" tactics.
Yup. That's similar to how we used to do it back in the old days. "Wings of Soaring Wind" was the prefered flying spell to use (and back then it was a Rego spell). You just went up in the air as high as you could go, roll to maintain concentration while casting another spell, then teleport as far as the eye could see. Even if you failed the Cncentration roll, being so high up in the air gave you plenty of time to recover. Still, the prefered way was to use the combination as enchantments in items. The cloak or whatnot would maintain concentration on flight, leaving you free to cast (or use another item) Seven League Stride.
Ameline indicates a momentary pause. "Allow me one more spell and a moment to rest after and we will go. She pauses and again without speaking a word or gesturing, her eyes shift a little. They become a little owl like so that she can see far in the dimness of the early hour.
OOC Muto corpus spont, using fatigue so again 2 minutes to rest after Eyes of the Owl/cat for sharp sight at night. Casting total is 24 with aura so anything but a botch and I didn't botch
OOC: Ah, yes, this is how I teleported around, too.
Vares isn't quite up to that speed. Even Flexing his personal teleport spell, I think he can only make a few miles per jump.
Okay, lets move you ahead then. The emergency meeting took place at, say, 2am. You leave at around 3am and you will get to the Dragon's lair before 4am. Sunrise is at 6ish.
You travel west, around the mountain and over some hills, then down into the valley. This is the same valley that they set up camp during drake hunts. Down in the valley, the cool mist of the early morning spring air surrounds you, obscuring your vision. Inigo uses a spell to emit a bright glow so you can see and follow him (he himself is navigating with an Auram spell Antonio him). You are safe from any ogres down below, and most of the drakes cannot fly. For the griffons and drakes that can fly, it is too early for them to be active. Griffons don't usually stir until pre-dawn, and drakes tend to sleep through the morning until noon during the spring (they wait until it warms up).
You fly over the valley, past it over some rocky hills into the "Neutral Zone" 
. This is the area we are not allowed to hunt according to the ancient treaty with the Dragon. Down on the ground, borderland is marked with the symbol of Sigmundo, burned onto rock formations here and there. Then terrain is rising up into another mountain, but you guys pass north around the side of it down into a ravine. The ravine leads to a chasm which leads to crevice, a pit with smoke billowing up out of it. It is very warm here, yet darker than the night.
Inigo stands before the pit, and casts his token coin into it. He shouts out boldly [color=red]Sigmundo, Scion of the Elder Serpent of the Pyrenees and Dragon of the Ancient Tome! I am Inigo, one to whom you owe a favor. I seek council with thee to discuss how that favor may be discharged!
Inigo speaks of the dragon's mythic lineage. Supposedly, he is descended from the dragon of the Pyrenees. Lore states that he once roamed Europe, taking a human form named Sigmund. Sigmund had many "lives" and lived out many roles, and at one time he supposedly studied academics and magic in Rome and wrote books on magic lore that included embellished descriptions of himself (earning the name "Dragon of the Ancient Tome"). He later returned to Iberia, and latter settled in Andorra after he tired of playing mortal games. He has been here at this location for a few hundred years, a century or so before the covenant was established.
OOC: I guess the rest of the PCs will be doing their research while this expedition to the Dragon is underway?
With the Mercere House at Andorra under threat, the Mercere Portals should accelerate message delivery. Vares will suggest to the others that one of their Redcaps be sent ahead, through to Harco, then to Venice to meet with the Verdi representative outlining some of the Covenant's need. Through the connection they can learn if Verdi has any weapons or items appropriate for their current need available. Actual haggling over the price will have to come later, but Andorra should make it known that they are willing to pay in Vis (Verdi is chronically short of Vis) or consider other forms of payment, including potential favours or access to Andorra's library if that is preferred.
If the seniors at Andorra don't want the advance message, then it won't be sent. But having some idea of what might be waiting and what they'll have to find elsewhere would speed things up. All information must be delivered and deliberated under absolute confidentiality. Not that it means much with all the spies in the Rome Tribunal.
"I am Sister Ameline. I have come to join this discourse with you and perhaps see about future discourse with you. May God bless our meeting and may we have peace between us." The maga smiles as she waits to see how the dragon responds to the words of the two mages. She wouldn't have a better chance than now to meet the dragon.
"I am Sister Ameline. I have come to join this discourse with you and perhaps see about future discourse with you. May God bless our meeting and may we have peace between us." The maga smiles as she waits to see how the dragon responds to the words of the two mages. She wouldn't have a better chance than now to meet the dragon.
You see a monstrous dragon claw grab hold of the edge of the pit, but as he lifts himself out he transforms into an old man wearing scholar robes, so you never get to fully see his true form.
[color=red]Greetings Inigo. I did not expect to see you again so soon. And I see you have brought an advisor. And greetings to you Sister Ameline/ You are of a holy order I take it? Which of the goddesses shall I thank for blessing me with a visit by a lovely lady such as yourself?
"There is no such thing as a goddess unless you are being flattering to your mate. There is only one God, the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible and in Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, begotten of the father before all worlds, light of light, very god of very god, begotten, not mae, being of one substance with the father by which all things were made. I believe in the holy spirit and the holy catholic church of which I am pledged. Ameline is basically declaring her allegience to the dominion as she floats there supported by magical spells.
Actually, I think a medieval clergy woman would find "goddess" blasphemous even as flattery.
And you forgot to mention the Holy Spirit, the third and equal part of God, for He exists as a Triune being
Anyway...
Sigmundo[color=red]All apologies milady. I was taught old customs and I was merely trying to be polite.
Still, Inigo, it must be a serious matter for you to come call upon me so soon. The favor of a dragon is not a trvial or minor thing. What is it that you need assistance with
With a gesture, Inigo turns the "floor" over to Ameline to discuss the matter.
Ameleine looks over the dragon carefully. "One of our number, one that holds one of your tokens was taken by an afreet into the arc of fire in the realm of magic. We seek a way there and back as well as dealing with the fires of that realm. I figured that one of your wisdom would know best on how to deal with fire. Then again, you would not want the afreet to hold the token of your favor either. She waits and watches to see what response this brings.
Sigmundo:The token is just symbolic. It matters not who holds it nor is the actual coin required. I owe my favors to people, not objects.
The Arc of Fire you say? Hmmm....
Ferdinandea? Yes, I think that is what you mean. It begins with the volcanic island of Pantelleria, just south of Sicily. Between Pantelleria and Sicily, there is a chain of undersea vocanic mountains known as the Arc of Fire. There is also some sort of regio there, where two seamount eruptions form a literal arch.
Pantelleria, ah Pantelleria. Lovely island. Back in the old days, the Empire used it as an exile colony for prominent aristocrats and members of the imperial family. Imagine, rich nobles with nothing to do on an island of warmth and luxury. It was a lovely place to visit. I think it was conquored by Arabs, wasn't it?
Antonio: I have already dispatched messengers to every contact I can think of and have called in every favor I have. You can rest assured.
Antonio: I have a special project for you. I am assigning you to work under Mistress Marie. I want the two of you to come up with some sort of faux-treasure, something that looks like vis but isn't. Think Trojan Horse, something that can be used as a trap or smuggle someone or something inside. Make a bomb. I don't know. Get creative.
Marie ponders:
"The best traps I can think of are muto traps. Change something dangerous into something harmless. When the spell ends the dangerous item reappears. My mentor in Germany did a couple of them. He once changed a fire into a twig and put the twig on the roof. The house burned at sunset.
We'd need someone with good muto and aquam skills. Antonio won't do, but Inigo might (Mu 22. ; Re 46, Aq 36, Au 28). We can take tiny glass flacons and create a vaccuum with a simple PeAu spell. Then he changes a lot of water into a tiny bit of air and stores it in the little bottle. All we have to do is either wait till the spell ends or end it early with perdo Vim. That will turn the air into water again, which will flood the place and extinguish the fires, weakening or killing the efreet in the process. Since the water is non-magic, the efreet's magic resistance won't help.
A hundred of those bottles can be created in 200 minutes, which is less than 4 hours. We might even use a watching ward for the spell that ends this muto spell.
Possible level: 3 ceremonial + 2 Attr. + 5 Aura (somewhere at a coast) + 50 TeFo = 60 divided 2 = max level 30
Spont:
Change a lot of water into a little air
Base 4 (turning a liquid into a gas), +1 Re Requisite, +1 touch, +2 sun, +2 size for 2500 cubic paces = a cube whose sides are 13,5 paces long)
Other ideas?
ooc: That would be about 225,000 tons of non-magical water!
"Do you know of a way to get there from here or help in any way to rescue the one kidnapped. There are few things that are a match versus an elder arrogant Djinn though I suspect a brave dragon can easily put him to shame. God's will of course is stronger than any djinn but your aid is very appreciated." The Maga speaks softly, appreciated perhaps but also required by the favor owed but she will not mention it.