OK, let's retire for now. If we later decide that Lydia was trying to pull a fast one on us, we know where to find her.
Scott
After you've walked a little distance, Calliope gives voice to her musings.
"I'm going to have to rewrite the song a bit. I don't know exactly what was going on there - do you? - but I think the meeting with Demeter should be close enough for story purposes. The aid we got isn't right, though, and the timescale is going to be a problem - we can't spread the song properly in one moon, even ignoring the time to get back. That means we're going to have to either fake its properties, find a way to extend it, or just hope very hard the faerie plays along."
Viola thinks. "I'm worried that we didn't encounter Demeter there....But with faeries, maybe, as you say, the story is all that's important? How could we extend the effect, anyway?
"Or should we try to find a more authentic Demeter?"
Do we get any useful information from Ipek?
Scott
Calliope shakes her head. "I think this Demeter should do the trick. There was something of Demeter there, even if I'm still not sure exactly what. As to extending the effect...would something analagous to Maintaining the Demanding Spell work? Or would that only be if it was Concentration duration to start with?"
After a little while, it occurs to Viola that Ipek presumably still looks like a bush. Whether that means she's still hiding in the grove, or whether there's a bush trying to sneak through the village...well, who can say, but it was a moon duration spell, so it's not going to wear off quickly.
Let's find Ipek and dispel the spell, whether or not she's willing to have that happen, and then Viola will address Calliope's question. "I'm sure we could accomplish a similar effect, given enough power--but I don't think it would work on someone else's spell--let alone hedge or faerie magic."
She thinks a bit. "If the effect works in itself, we can use it before the next moon, and that should allow us to reunite the mother and children without having to resort to bending the situation through storytelling....And then perhaps we can finish the job by spreading the song?"
Scott
Finding Ipek doesn't take too much doing - she's still in the wood where she was previously. Once you've dispelled the spell, she comments:
"I'm glad you're back quickly - my brother thought we should wait for you before trying this. I managed to steal some of the stuff Lydia was drinking as part of her ritual, and I wanted to check whether it was magical itself, or just part of the ceremony."
Calliope shakes her head.
"I think using it before we'd spread the song properly might allow mother and children to talk, but I don't think it would result in the lifting of the curse as well."
[Note that the spell didn't alter her sound, and so wouldn't have prevented her from talking.]
[Please tell me that won't have spoiled the brew.]
"Well if we can't give it to her yet, and we can't preserve it, what can we do? Find a more authentic Demeter, perhaps? But I'm not sure where we would look."
Viola turns to Ipek. "Ipek, could you tell me exactly what happened after Lydia arrived? She didn't seem to notice you?"
Scott
"Demeter" gave you barley and instructions for turning it into a drink, rather than a brew directly, if that's what you're asking? That said, the porridge-like gloop Ipek is busy raising to her lips does seem like it's similar to what Viola would expect the result of said instructions to be...
Calliope shakes her head. "Me neither. I think this should work, either with a Hermetic fake or even just a prop if we spread the story firmly enough. After all, would the original even penetrate?"
"She turned up a couple of hours before dawn, and started doing some sort of ritual - first she started drinking that stuff and meditating, then she began to chant about Demeter's search for her daughter, as though she were Demeter herself - really laying it on thick with her mourning her being missing, and joy in the reunification. Then she seemed to straighten and become a lot more dignified very suddenly, at which point she went to watch for your arrival."
"She never gave any indication she knew I was there - she did look around the grove before she started, but I was in with some other bushes, and she never tried to poke them."
[Ah...that detail wasn't clear to me.]
Viola turns back to Calliope: "I think this is as close to Demeter as we're likely to get, and it looks likely that we can delay the onset of the magic's effectiveness by not brewing it until the time is right--if this was really Demeter, then who knows, maybe it will penetrate? In any case, you're probably right that the story is the important thing.
"Ipek, please don't drink that. I don't know what it's going to, and drinking things that came from faeries often ends up badly." She's prepared to knock the drink out of Ipek's hand if she has to.
Scott
You're going to have to...make a Qik + Ath roll to do it mundanely, or a Qik + Finesse roll (plus appropriate spell and roll) to do it magically.
Dear God, she's an idiot.
Finesse 3 +1 Qui + stress die 2 = 6
Just in case that was actually fast enough, this is a level 5 ReHe spont to knock the cup away--base level 3, +2 for Voice.
That would be Re 9 + He 6 + 2 Sta. We're going to have to roll a stress die to divide by 2, but without Fatigue (using innate Spontaneous Magic): 0, no botch, which makes the total a 9.
Scott
[OOC: Sorry, thought I'd replied to this.]
Spending a confidence point would be enough speedwise.
Let's spend the Confidence Point, then. Not like we're short them, but still, ugh....
Scott
The spell succeeds (which does imply there's a positive aura here), and the mixture tumbles from Ipek's hands.
She looks at you. "What? It can't be that dangerous if Lydia was drinking it..."
"Well, that drink was for Lydia, not for you, so who knows? And even if it worked the same way, do you want to be possessed by Demeter?"
Scott
Ipek takes a few moments to mull that one over before finally venturing
"...No?"
She doesn't sound entirely sure that that's the correct answer.
"If it turns you into a frog, I don't want to have to make a cage to carry you back home."
Looking ahead, we'll have to skirt Athens on the way back, and find a way to board the ship (and disembark later, for that matter) outside the Dominion.
Scott
Ipek frowns. "From what we've seen of Demeter so far, I think a snake is more likely... It probably would get boring after a while, but you could fix me, right? Burak said I should wait for you in case anything went wrong."
Her brother gives Viola a slightly helpless shrug behind his sister's back.
Yep.
Viola will not argue further with Ipek, though she silently 1onsiders whether making her into a snake might be "fix" enough in itself.
Let's proceed with getting home. Is there anything of note that's going to happen in that process?
Scott
Probably not unless you make it - the main question is how you are going to get the barley back to the covenant without taking it into the Dominion.