Viola replies after a little thought: "If she's up to something, I can handle it. The greater risk is that we upset her, by acting like we don't trust her."
A meter long should qualify as a "serpent". Viola hopes. She'll ask the grogs to keep looking, for a bigger snake, just in case.
Scott
"But if we hide well enough, she won't know we're there!" argues Ipek. "And that way, we can see anything she wants to keep secret from us."
The grogs spend most of the day snake-hunting, and manage to come up with a speciman that's another 5-10 cm longer. That seems to be about the limit of what you'll find easily, though.
"Let's compromise: you hide while I show up the normal way."
Then we shall go with that and keep our fingers crossed.
Scott
"Great," Ipek agrees. "Can you magic me to hide better?"
[Let me know anything you're casting, and anything else you're doing before the dawn meeting. Are you planning to show up on time, early, late? Via the obvious route?]
On time, via the obvious route.
[I now hate Ipek for making me look at the rulebook.]
"I can make you look like a bush--that's easy."
That would be base 1 for one sense, plus 3 for Moon, plus 1 for Touch--so 4, which is pretty trivial.
"Making the spell end once it's time for you to be seen is a little harder--especially if I have to do it at a distance. But I think I can manage it, if that's really what you want to do."
A level 4 version of Unraveling the Form of Imaginem would be guaranteed to work unless the stress die is a botch (it works on anything of level 4 + 1 magnitude + a stress die--I'm not sure how the stress die works when you're at a level under 5, but that doesn't really matter in this case).
Scott
[I think those actually sum to level 5 rather than 4, but Viola can still non-fatiguingly spont it.]
Ipek can work with looking like a bush, and her brother, somewhat reluctantly, asks for the same spell - Viola gets the impression he doesn't really want to spend the night hiding in a wood pretending to be part of the foliage, but he wants to leave Ipek on her own doing it even less.
As the light breaks over the horizon the next morning, Viola and Calliope (plus the grogs assuming you're bringing them?) make their way around the hill and towards the grove. As they makes their way towards the treeline, Lydia walks out of it , and then holds, waiting for Viola to approach her. Or - not quite Lydia? Superimposed upon the form of the village woman Viola's Second Sight can clearly see another woman bearing a sheath of wheat, her golden hair crowned with a chaplet of corn.
You're correct--I had it as Sun at first, until I realized it was still pretty trivial as Moon.
Viola is impressed with his wisdom.
We'll leave the grogs at a discreet distance--not out of sight, but not approaching the treeline.
On detecting the...whatever it is...Viola shoots a look at Calliope. Does she see it, too? I'm guessing this is some sort of manifestation of Demeter, but whether it's possession or a glamour (presumably Demeter might have been Lydia all along?), she can't say. In any case, we'll approach, and play along--but assuming Ipek and her brother are in sight, Viola dispels the spells first.
Scott
Calliope catches Viola's look, and nods back to her. "Interesting..."
Most if not all of the greek gods could shapechange, so Demeter having done so isn't out of the question, although Viola had seen Lydia at a distance in the village previously, and didn't notice the manifestation then.
Her studies of faerie lore make her vaguely aware there's a faerie hedge art that involves switching bodies with faeries - but she'd expect that to require penetrating their magic resistance, which is probably easier said than done with a pagan goddess.
Viola can't immediately see the singer and her brother, but as she draws nearer to the woods, she sees the two of them a little way in. Ipek's "bush" appears to be shuffling forward a little, the better to hear what's going on.
It does occur to Viola that the sudden appearence of the pair may be difficult to explain - they are a little way behind "Demeter", and she's not looking in that direction, but...
There's also the issue of going up to a faerie and starting to cast a Perdo Vim spell.
A third thing that occurs to her - faeries tend to be very good at seeing through illusions...
[OOC: Let me know if you're still going ahead with cancelling the bush illusion, and if so exactly what the spell you're casting is.]
She doesn't have to go up to her before casting the PeVI--it's Sight range. That being said, we'll leave things as they are...I think Viola can handle any fallout.
Viola will approach "Lydia".
Scott
There's the problem that you can't see Ipek until you're relatively close to the tree line, which means walking up to "Demeter" in effect, even if largely incidentally.
The woman, whoever or whatever she is, watches as you approach.
"Who are you, that seeks the aid of Demeter?"
"I am Viola. I have brought grain, and a serpent". Viola displays the vis.
Scott
Lydia holds out her arms to take the vis, draping the snake around her lower arm. It writhes a bit in a not entirely happy way, to which she appears to pay no attention beyond keeping her hand more firmly on it.
"What troubles you, Viola?"
"The trouble isn't truly mine. A mother I know was wronged by Poseidon, though she was loyal to him--not only did he curse her to roam alone in an underworld, but he separated her from her children."
Scott
"And so you came to Demeter at Eleusis, seeking aid in helping the mother escape the underworld and find her children once more?"
Viola nods, "Yes, I did. A mortal cannot overcome a god without assistance from another god, and therefore I seek the assistance of Demeter."
Scott
"Demeter" nods. "No mother should have to endure the loss of her children. I cannot simply undo what Poseidon has done, but I can grant her a measure of peace."
She takes a handful of grain and raises it high.
"By the power of Demeter is this barley blessed!"
She takes a deep breath and speaks again:
"By the power of Demeter I reunite mother and child!"
Once more she speaks:
"By the power of Demeter may my serpents sleep!"
The she offers the barley to Viola.
"Take this. Mix it with honey and with mint and feed it to the mother before the moon next grows dark. The snakes upon her head will sleep, and her children may approach her safely."
[OOC: Make a Faerie Lore roll.]
Hmmm...not exactly following the story (and not as dramatic as black out the sky during Poseidon's thunderstorm), but hey, she's a god, so presumably she knows what to do here.
Fairie Lore: 4 +4 Int(?) + stress die 2 = 10(?)
I'd have Constantine roll, but it's implausible that he'd know anything Viola doesn't--but Calliope might.
Scott
["Demeter" is playing with a limited ability set here - I had to work really quite hard (and stretch a definition slightly) to get her to be able to affect the situation usefully at all.]
[The characteristic is Actually + Per, which doesn't help. ]
The casting looks to Viola more like some sort of mortal wizardry (albeit faerie-aligned) than use of a Faerie power, but her knowledge of faerie wizardry isn't good enough to tell her exactly what she's doing.
Assuming Viola takes the offered barley...
"Go now," the woman bids you. "You have until the moon's darkening. Do not take the sacred grain into the places of the Christians, or the blessing upon it will be withdrawn."
Before taking her leave, Viola looks inquiringly at Calliope, to see what she thinks--and then at the bush that is Ipek....
Scott
Calliope appears to be mulling things over - she gives Viola a small shrug.
The 'bush' is hastily scrabbling backwards to its original spot.