Viola will agree to this, albeit reluctantly. She adds the presumably unnecessary caution that Fray and Gregorius should ensure that no outsider would guess the object's importance.
Scott
OOC: do you want me to make any rolls or such, or can we move to Fray finding Gregorius after following his travel directions?
[OOC: To be clear, this is some random object Viola has an arcane connection to, so she can initiate a contact if she needs to rather than waiting for Gregorius to call, not an arcane connection to Viola.]
[ooc: assuming an uneventful trip. ]
Fray makes his way flying high over the land enjoying the feeling of purposeful travel. As the miles smoothly glide below he ponders the words of Gregorius, slightly alarmed with the possibility of an armed confrontation and doubly concerned if the combatants have a form of MR. Had he human limbs his hands would have rhythmically moved as he thought through all the limiting factors of his capabilities. his hesitations for violence returning again and again as each unlikely scenario rises in mind.
As he sights the region in Gregorius's description he glides closer to the ground to pick out details. Assuming he can spot the camp, the Magus, or a landmark he lands but keeps his bird form. Otherwise he will circle the area looking for signs; being very conservative with his presence where possible.
If the Magus is present, "well met friend".
[[OOC: Also assuming an uneventful trip.]
For a few moments, Fray is puzzled by Gregorgius' apparent absence - but then he recognises the "Disguise of the New Visage" that he himself cast on the magus before he left the covenant.
Gregorius smiles as the bird speaks. "Well met, and thank-you for coming. I'm making very little progress here, at least on finding Tasia, and could do with some help. But you've had a long journey - can I get you anything before we talk? I think we're safe enough here, although it's necessarily open to aeriel observation. Pretty much everything round here is that isn't a house, though."
[After any civilities are done with, Gregorius begins to explain in more detail than the diameter duration spell had previously given him time for.]
"I've been working my way through the local villages, looking for any news of Tasia. For a while, I was getting reports that seemed to match her, but then one village told me they'd last seen her heading east, and nobody past that point seems to have seen her. I'm starting to wonder if they were lying - might be worth investigating further if we don't pick up any other leads. However, the woman who told me that also told me that she'd passed on rumours he'd heard to Tasia of strangers hailing from the east, which Tasia had seemed interested in. An earlier village had told me that a strange woman in odd clothing had been questioning them about sorcerors moving into the vicinity of Tana, and that didn't sound like Tasia. Another village had had reports of sorcerors, although not in enough detail to be able to tell whether it was us or another group."
"Moving in the direction Tasia was last seen, I came across a burnt out village. It had been burnt last autumn according to the Tales of the Ashes I cast, so before Tasia came through here, but it might have got her attention. I checked all of the villages around it, but none of them other than the original village to the west had seen Tasia. What I did find was a very on guard village and reports that the refugees from the village claimed to have been attacked by amazons. Apparently that's not unheard of in this area. I've since found another village which actually fended off an amazon attack, and was able to get some details from them, although it was a night attack which limits details and reliability a bit. Apparently there was a band of around 30 - 40 raiders on horseback. No confirmation of any magic, although I only specifically asked about weaponry deployed. They said there was nothing unusual, though."
"So in summary, I've no proof or even solid evidence these amazons were involved in whatever's happened to Tasia. She may have just twilighted herself, or got stuck in a regio, or who knows what else. However, I think they're something she would have been likely to have followed up on, especially as they sound like potential candidates for whoever attacked the previous covenant. I'm interested in following them up for the same reason as well as to find Tasia. I've no idea if they know we're coming. Walking into villages and asking questions isn't particularly subtle, but I haven't seen any indicators they're hunting me at the moment, and raiding groups won't necessarily have spy networks. They may or may not be the same people asking about the covenant, but the fact that it was a woman asking the questions makes me suspect it might well be - in which case they're interested in us, and were before Tasia was investigating. Someone certainly is, and that worries me."
"So, any thoughts? Questions?"
What did you have in mind? They often work both ways.
Scott
[OOC: I think it's only Talismans and familiars that work both ways. I was just thinking of a twig or something which Viola has kept the end of.]
I don't think the distinction is quite that sharp--I was under the impression that it depends on how important the part is to the whole. I should look it up, though.
In the meantime...are we waiting on a reply from ironboundtome?
Scott
"Hmm, difficult to know how to proceed. You've asked all the locations she's confirmed at", shaking a wing as he thinks.
And then returns to human form, to make conversation easier.
"You're right - we need to garner more information on the attackers. As a raiding party they are eventually going to return home, and given the time since the attacks they could be almost anywhere by now. I think your initial request for help was right, we need to widen the search dramatically, and looks for signs of raids, groups of horsemen, and such."
"Then we could also keep a watchful eye for any other oddities, which might hint to the other presence which attacked the covenant."
"If this site is safe enough, lets search from here. I can fly and scan the countryside - as a start?"
Gregorius nods. "That would be useful - thank-you. Hopefully groups of all female raiders should be fairly distinctive." He pauses. "I wouldn't call this site truly secure, but it's somewhat out of the way of people, at least. I'm considering continuing to travel east, to see if I can pick up any further reports. Alternatively, if reports start petering out, that may be a clue we've overshot."
[OOC: Int 1 + Profession Soldier 1 +die invisible castle down - does he have any idea of the typical range of raider groups?]
No--and he suspects that information may not even be out there. You'd have to sift reports from many different villages, and distinguish one raiding party from another, to get anything like a real answer. One villager, though, said he'd heard stories of seeing the same warriors in places dozens of miles apart.
Scott
[Okay - I'd been thinking of more of raiders in general rather than these ones in specific, but that's still useful.]
As Gregorius makes a hasty departure, Stephan seeks out Viola, the only maga who seems to be left in the covenant.
(Assuming she'll see him.)
"I can't help but notice that people seem to be rushing around with determined looks on their faces," He says to the maga. "And there was some sort of a disturbance with the guards a little while ago. Is everything okay at the covenant? Is there trouble afoot that I could help out with? I know I'm new here, and just a guest. But I'm at your disposal if there's some kind of emergency."
OOC: if we're happy for Stephan to have been viable to be in play just before Fray left, then Fray would certainly have told him his intentions. But not the existence or discussion of the ACs.
Can we recon Stephan into play?
Sure.
Scott
We could have gone in Stephan's flying boat if you like (not the big one, but he little one).
Retcon for Stephen changes this a little:
Add a bit of banter for Stephen and Fray, as:
After the discussion concludes Fray will return to his sancta, set his notes into a neat order, gather some traveling essentials, and then leave to meet Gregorius. As he leaves he will ensure that the autocrat knows that another of the Magi is leaving, "I do not expect it will be a prolonged absence, and I am traveling to to meet with Gregorius."
As Fray moves between the dwellings to complete his preparations, perhaps that is where he bumps into Stephen...
Nodding in greeting, "Good morning Stephen", then remembering himself, "I cannot delay, Gregorius has asked for some martial assistance and I'm traveling to meet him."
"Martial assistance?" Stephen says with a concerned look on his face. "Is there a problem with the covenant's defenses? I stand ready to assist in any way I can. If it's anything like bandits, I can take a boat up to look for them in the sky. If it's something else, I'm sure I can help in some way." He's only just arrived at this covenant, but he's not about to run from a fight.
"Well no issue with the covenant proper , except for a missing wizard. Tasia left and Gregorius is searching for her and had met with some potential conflict. I intend to leave straight away".
"Please join me if you wish, more help with make for faster work. "
Assume then that rather than Fray arriving alone, both Magi arrive and greet Gregorius.
I think we're back to this, except with Stephen there.
"We can split up, if you like," Stephen suggests. "I can fly around as well looking for signs of raiders as well. If we can use this - or somewhere else - as a central place to report back to, we can cover a lot more ground."