Chapter 2f (Spring 1228): Tasia Is Missing

And it's now shortly before the spring equinox, is that correct? So late February / early March-ish? The grogs probably won't need to be told to wrap up warm.

Grab a sling to explain why he's carry round a bag of stones.
Grab an arcane connection from the top of the sentry tower (on the basis that that's somewhere that should reliably have people with no magic resistance present).

I think that's pretty much it.

Edited to add: Also, before he goes, he'll check that Viola's happy enacting the "acquire a casting tablet" back-up plan.

Edit 2: Also, he'll make sure he has "Bitter Taste of Betrayal" (InVi 15, detect whether any magic affects you, no further info) up on himself once they leave, as much of the time as is reasonably possible.

I assume Hermetic seasons run roughly in line with our modern ones, which means Spring stars with equinox--so the equinox is well past, and you shouldn't have to worry about winter weather.

OK, got it. And yes, Viola will get a casting tablet--there's no need to play that out, unless she does it in conjunction with her search for a singer.

The first village that Gregorius sets out for is a fishing village some miles south of the new Tana. The boat pulls in and leaves Gregorius and company on the shore--I assume that you're doing it far enough away that your landing's not witnessed by the villagers?

Scott

Okay - I'd just assumed the Aegis casting was on the equinox (and that that was still at least a little way away).

Agreed, there's no need to roleplay it out. We should probably determine how much it costs at some point, and where she's acquiring it from (and how she's travelling).

Yep, seems reasonable. The strategy from this point on doesn't have much subtlety - it's pretty much "walk into the village and say "have you seen this woman?"", with Theodoric in command. Whilst trying to get an idea of whether people are lying about it.

I'm on vacation now for a week--that ought to make it easier for me to respond.

That hadn't occurred to me, but it does make sense. The magi have noticed, however, that the aura's highest level seem to correspond each year to the highest flood stage of the river--but they haven't observed it in enough years for that to be much more than a hunch.

OK.

Tasia has been seen at most of the first few villages you visit, though the details provided by the villagers are less than revealing: she seems to have been asking largely the same questions she asked of the wise woman.

Scott

In particular, there's the issue that year duration rituals end on the equinoxies and solstices.

Let's try and get an idea of when she was seen (and in particular, where she was seen last, at least that people are admitting to). Can we also get a repeat of what people were able to tell her?

Gregorius will also keep an eye out for anyone who seems particularly interested in their questioning.

Hmm...I'm not sure how to deal with that, but I'd rather not retcon this story into occurring in Winter. I guess we can say that the Aegis is cast at the end of Spring, on the summer solstice. That assumes though that Hermetic seasons end on the solstice or equinox, and I don't remember reading anything about that--if the equinox occurs sometime in the middle of Spring, let's say the Aegis is cast on the equinox.

The villagers are jsut as mystified by your visit and questioning as they were by Tasia's, but no one seems to take an inordinate interest.

It's a little difficult at times to piece together the order in which Tasia visited the different villages, but Gregorius is fairly sure that he's headed in the right direction. Every once in a while, he encounters a villager who providers what Tasia must have regarded as useful information:

In one of the earlier villages, one man says that lately he's heard several rumors about sorcerers moving in the area. There are few details, though, and no one has even been able to describe one of their faces.

A wise-man in another village says that a strange woman wearing odd clothes questioned him about the sorcerers who had recently moved into the area around Tana.

In a village to the east of the sea, some ways inland, a woman reports that when she spoke with Tasia, she told the maga that she'd heard rumors of strangers hailing from east of there--and Tasia had left in that direction.

Scott

I'm actually not sure it's defined exactly how the seasons interact with the equinoxes and solstices. I think it works to say spring starts with the Spring Equinox and finishes with the Summer Solstice, especially given we've defined the year to start in Winter.

Hmmm...Did this happen before or after the time period Tasia was moving through the area?

Then that way we will go too. Carefully, and being alert to possible ambush sites.

For the moment, let's place the solstice at the end of Spring, and say that's when the Aegis is cast. I'm more inclined to say that Spring actually begins before the equinox, but either way, the bottom line is that there's some time after the start of Spring before the Aegis must be cast.

It was before he saw Tasia--and he told Tasia about it.

Moving east, you eventually come across a village that's been burned and abandoned. It's not clear what happened to the inhabitants, but you don't find any bodies, though the damage appears relatively recent.

Scott

That's worth alerting the covenant to. Once they're well away from the village (and everybody else - in general, Gregorius is going to be trying to keep his spellcasting subtle and out of any lines of sight as much as possible on this trip), plus not in a hostile aura, he'll use an Intangible Tunnel to send a message back to the covenant via the arcane connection to the tower he took.

[Intangible Tunnel casting: (Rego 8 + Vi 5 + Sta 1 + Aura? + die 6)/2 = 10 + Aura/2. He's casting the tunnel at duration diameter so he doesn't have to concentrate to cast other spells. This should produce a tunnel he can cast spells of up to level 10 down. (invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4719266/)

Speech: CrIm 4 (Base 1 (an image that affects a single sense) + 1 diameter + 1 Touch (down tunnel) + 1 intelligible speech). Casting Total (Cr 0 + Im 2 + Sta 1 + Aura ? + die 6)/2 = 4.5, so works. (invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4719267/)

I haven't bothered to roll for finding an area without a hostile aura, as the spell to check is InVi 2, which he can do with non-fatiguing sponts.]

"Guards! Attention! Tell Viola. Wise-man in [village name plus rough directions] said strange woman in odd clothes had been asking about our covenant before Tasia came. Another village had rumours of sorcerors in the area. May be to the east. Tasia went east. I am going east. No problems so far."

He deliberately speaks fairly simply and slowly, as he's not sure how good those on duty's Latin is going to be.

They'll do a circuit of the outskirts of the village, looking for any evidence of large numbers of people moving. [Gregorius has Per + Hunt (tracking) of 5, Theodoric of 4, Aison of 2, Bogdan of 2 and Godzimir of 4. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting Gregorius to have the best total here.]

Gregorius will also take a sample of the ash to a place without a hostile aura, and cast Tales of the Ashes (InIg 5, pg 141 of the main book). He's especially interested in how long ago the fire was and how hot it was burning (i.e. was it unnaturally hot, or just a normal fire.)

[Casting total (In 6 + Ig 0 + Sta 1 + Aura ? + die 5)/2 = 6, so works. (invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4719311/)]

That works, as far as he can tell.

They'll do a circuit of the outskirts of the village, looking for any evidence of large numbers of people moving. [Gregorius has Per + Hunt (tracking) of 5, Theodoric of 4, Aison of 2, Bogdan of 2 and Godzimir of 4. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting Gregorius to have the best total here.]

Gregorius will also take a sample of the ash to a place without a hostile aura, and cast Tales of the Ashes (InIg 5, pg 141 of the main book). He's especially interested in how long ago the fire was and how hot it was burning (i.e. was it unnaturally hot, or just a normal fire.)

[Casting total (In 6 + Ig 0 + Sta 1 + Aura ? + die 5)/2 = 6, so works. (invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4719311/)]
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It looks like the fire took place in Autumn, and was entirely mundane--torches, to be exact. If there was ever any evidence of movement around the village, it's gone by now.

Scott

Well before Tasia was likely to have come through, then, which is something. He'll ask Theodoric if this sort of destruction is typical in the conflicts between the local villages and tribes.

In the absence of any better route to follow, they'll leave the village and continue heading east.

Edited to add: I'm assuming that we've already looked round the remains of the village as part of ascertaining that there don't seem to be any bodies. If not we'll have a quick look before moving on, but not spend a large amount of time on it.

He shrugs. Sure, this kind of thing can happen in warfare, though the party hasn't heard of any rumors of warfare among the local tribes.

The next village is intact--but the populace seems unusually wary of strangers.

Scott

If we can, get information on whether they've seen Tasia, and if so in what direction she headed. If we can get that, then head in that direction. If they've seen her, but don't know what direction, keep heading east. If they'll talk to us, but believably sound like they haven't seen her, scout out other villages to the north and south in case we've gone off-track.

If we can't get them to tell us anything, just keep heading east.

No, they haven't seen Tasia. But is that all you're asking about?

Scott

If they're willing to talk to that extent, we'll ask them what happened to the previous village.

None of them witnessed the destruction themselves, but the people fleeing from the village insist they were attacked by Amazons. The villagers you talk to say that there've been occasional reports of Amazon raids for generations, but lately the reports have been much more frequent.

Scott

Amazons?

Gregorius tries to remember what he's heard of them.

[Int is +1. I'm not sure what the appropriate skill is - an appropriate Area Lore score if he had one, possibly. The other main source would be a language - he doesn't know greek, but possible they were included in his Latin (4) lessons? Magic Lore (2) might be the other option.]

Do the villagers have any idea for the reason for the raids? (That is, is it just general purpose raiding, or is there something specific?)

Apparently, around here, that's not such a shock--they've been raided this region very occasionally for generations, though apparently in ancient times it happened more often. They much more often plague peoples to the southeast. However, recently, they've been much more active in this area.

Gregorious doesn't know much, beyond old Greek stories. He's pretty sure, though. that this isn't where the Amazons were originally located.

They raid for booty, and sometimes male slaves, and occasionally they take young girls.

Scott

But it's not known with any degree of precision where they're based?

The taking young girls sounds worryingly like it could be apprentice snatching. Are there any rumours of magic being used in their attacks?

Occasionally someone finds a semi-permanent encampment, but no one has any idea of the location of the Amazon homeland--they seem, literally, to come out of nowhere.

Yes, but this is Mythic Europe--villagers tend to see magic of some sort everywhere.

Scott