Chapter 1b: Into the Caves

MTKnife · February 19, 2011, 11:01pm

Salutor:

MTKnife:

Salutor:

Elementals are described in RoP:M (pg 132), and also a bit in the Elementalist section of Hedge Magic (pg 24). An elemental probably won't be all that useful as an information source, although with a Magic Lore of 1, Tasia may not realise that. All elementals have the virtue Ways of the X for their home; however, they also have cunning rather than intelligence, require a spell to communicate with, and have the flaws Poor Memory, Simple Minded and Short Attention Span. HM also says that "elementals are generally wild and unbiddable", and if not constrained it is nearly certain that an elemental will try to destroy everything in its path, including the summoner. They cannot be reasoned with.

I would imagine an elemental might have some knowledge of any excavation that's occurred in the caves complex, though ascertaining the human uses of particular chambers would be beyond its grasp.

Ah, sorry, one other fairly critical bit of information I missed out; according to TSE (pg 67), scouring an elemental creates it "de novo", so it won't have any past experience to draw on either (although it could be used as a scout, to a point). Really, what I've said is very much a brief summary; there's several pages of stuff in RoP:M, including common and mandatory powers and descriptions of how they tend to perceive the world.

OK, that's a good point. An InTe spell would probably serve the purpose better.

Scott

callen · February 23, 2011, 12:13am

That should be Rego 9, not Summoning 1. Hermetic magi can substitute Rego for Summoning and Vim for (Realm) Lore. In this case, since it's scouring, (Realm) Lore is not used, so there's no Vim substitution. She'll do it in the caves since she wants something familiar with the caves. So that's 17+die.

I would expect the focus would apply because such virtues can be used by other traditions. Regardless, 2x0=0, so it really doesn't matter here. We can discuss this elsewhere.

She'll look for any rock spirit that makes its home here, if there are any. Maybe she'll get an intelligent one. Who knows. She doesn't want to know much. She just wants to know which passages lead to water and which lead to air so they can stop guessing.

Hmmm... Tasia doesn't know this unless Vrahos mentioned it. Knowing that Vrahos probably wasn't too concerned if some of the rocks he tore free accidentally ended up flying a bit close to Portia. :mrgreen:

Yes, which may make the point moot.

Chris

callen · February 23, 2011, 12:19am

Oh, I'd not seen that. That is odd considering Summoning is only supposed to find what's there. Anyway, if Tasia goes scouring I guess it would be for any earth spirit, not an elemental. She does plan to use it for elementals later. Earth elementals could provide good manual labor and physical defense under the right conditions.

Chris

MTKnife · February 23, 2011, 1:54am

I think you're right that a pre-existing spirit is at least a possibility. Go ahead and roll. Scott

callen · February 23, 2011, 1:59am

Fun! I'm guessing it's just 1 botch die... No botch then. That would be 17+0=17.

MTKnife · February 23, 2011, 4:15am

OK, you manage to summon a wimpy and rather obtuse spirit, the only information you can get from which being that all the passages from here on down are flooded.

Scott

callen · February 24, 2011, 9:05pm

OK. That's a lot better than repeated InTe or InAq sponts. "Let's search the top area more and leave the bottom for later, once we are prepared to venture underwater." Tasia will return with Portia to check the upper level. They'll start in on one of the bunch of original doorways they hadn't tried before. How about turning the same direction but taking the next one from that side.

MTKnife · February 25, 2011, 1:10am

Tell you what, let me see if I can sit down and map out the caves tomorrow (my wife is going to be out of town) and post something after that.

Scott

MTKnife · February 26, 2011, 6:18am

OK, here at long last are two really crappy maps of the caves I created with AutoREALM:

http://mtknife.net/Caves%201.jpg
http://mtknife.net/Caves%202.jpg

Scott

callen · February 27, 2011, 12:36am

Thanks. That makes it a lot easier. Tasia will suggest the one immediately beside the Ignem lab (on the left in the diagram of floor 1), figuring it's at least somewhat directly away from the flooding.

MTKnife · February 27, 2011, 2:28am

It proves to be the door to another wrecked lab, this one fairly unremarkable, save that it's huge--about twice the size of a normal one.

Scott

callen · February 27, 2011, 6:58am

Tasia and Vrahos will next try the one at the bottom right of the level 1 map. That should be over the downstairs room that was not flooded, so it is not likely to be flooded.

MTKnife · February 27, 2011, 9:48am

This one appears to have been a storeroom, though anything of value is long gone, and most of the containers are smashed.

Scott

callen · February 27, 2011, 10:42pm

Then Tasia and Vrahos are on to the last blocked door way on the first level.

MTKnife · February 28, 2011, 3:09am

Also a storeroom. And isn't that the last of the unexplored rooms?

Scott

callen · February 28, 2011, 4:05am

Yes, on this level.

Tasia will return to find the others and let them know what she found.

MTKnife · March 3, 2011, 6:37am

Salutor:

[Scott, do you want to move this back to the main thread?]

Gregorius is easily found coming back from the woods with Theodoric as Tasia leaves the caves. He nods to the quaesitor.

"The village should be free of traps now, and the grogs are arranging quarters in the main building. We've found a Rego vis source in the pool in the ruins of the old temple to Neptune; Aetos has claimed it until there's an official covenant for him to hand it over to, but there's a couple of pawns there now none of us were able to collect which he said anyone could harvest. He's using his birds to scout the local countryside now, but I think he's about somewhere nearby himself. We also found the entry to a Faerie regio in the temple."

His face darkens slightly, and there's a definite hint of distaste in his voice: "Viola's gone hunting for an animal to sacrifice to Neptune. She thinks it'll open up the regio so she can enter it."

He continues more cheerfully.

"What are the caves like? Did you find anything interesting?"

I'll move it back once callen has replied--to make sure he doesn't miss it.

Scott

MTKnife · March 3, 2011, 6:41pm

OK, I've moved those last two posts back into the main thread.

Scott