Prochorus flies back home and waits if Dietlinde can find any people who feed the monster with bread.
She returns with a negative answer a few days later. "Seems like none of the sailors want to admit doing it," she says, "it may be just a rumor. Or they don't want to admit to a woman -- a foerigner at that -- that they are a supersticious bunch."
Fornicating foals. Never mind then.
Prochorus looks resigned, a rare sight. When our sailors come back the next time, he gets them to help him with the vis bone. He ties a rope around it, with ReHe lifespont if need be, and gets them to pull it up.
(I'm assuming he will need a spell, since his scaup shape cannot tie knots. In fact, how does he drag the rope into the cave in the first place?)
(Nevermind. Eventually he gets the bone dislodged and bring it up to the boat. It is a flattish bone, curved almost into a half-circle, a bit longer than a forearm. What now?)
He brings it to our resident vim master Herman.
"I think there's vis in this. How much? What kind? Probably just a chance magical animal killed by a seamonster rather than a proper vis source, but I'll go check later to see if there's more."
(Herman can determine that the bone contains 1 pawn of Corpus vis, using non-fatiguing spontaneous spells. Note that he can only do the non-fatiguing -- and thus spont with no risk of botch -- when he is near the oak where the aura is stronger.)
(Thanks. I was about to post the details for that pair of castings.)
Good. I'll take another look in there some time next year.
(What, not even raising an eyebrow at finding Corpus vis in an underwater cave? Nor at the shape of the item that contains the vis?)
(I presume it would be intellego Vis to create an image of the being the bone came from? What base?)
(Japik might be able to take a closer look at the underwater cave if we think there is more to uncover there.)
(See Image of the Beast in the InAn of the core book. The Corpus version would be the same base.)
Herman, after testing the bone asks "So what sort of beast was this?" He assumes that Japik will know the sea creature.
Upon beign told that Japik has no idea, he wil spont an "image of the man", with gesture, etc, 5 should be non-fatiguing.
The image that Herman gets is that of a middle-aged man, with a weathered face and the body of someone who has lead a hard life. Though not a warrior, as he doesn't bear the type of scars that come with battle injuries. The conclusion would be that the man was a sailor or fisherman of some sort. He has that look about him, even though without clothing it is hard to be certain.
Herman looks up at Japik "It seems to be from a middle-aged fisherman or sailor. Why would a middle-aged fisherman's bone contain vis? And why was htere just the one bone? That doesn't fit with what I know the the usual sources. Too bad I an't ask the bone what killed it. But if this is residue from the killer, I would suggest that we be very careful, even with the bit of Parma we each have. I wonder if the fisherman throwing things in the water are trying to pacify whatever did this?"
From a guy, huh? I thought it was a friendly dolphin of rescue and healing or something like that.
Prochorus looks over his shoulder to see if Japik is around.
Anyway. There were tons of bones. Chances are more were human. I just wonder why this one had vis in it. Maybe he was one of those people chained to the rock back in the good old days? Gulls eat his flesh and throw his bones around, one end up in the cave? I'm willing to bet my hairy nostril that is a corpus source right there...
I guess your pacification story seems more likely, although it doesn't explain why someone's bones would hold vis. The locals seem to be under the impression that anything can be fixed by throwing bread at it. They just don't want to admit this to us for whatever reason. Should I try to peel the information right off their minds? I think Dietlinde could point me to some of the fools who are into that.
"If you can get more information, without attracting trouble, then I'm all for it. This may be useful to us, or a threat to our trading boat. If you don't think you can do it without getting noticed, maybe we ask our ship aptain when he comes back. He is still a stranger here, but a stranger they understand."
(Would this be base 5 for corpus as for animal, and could we get age and history of the bone with it? Level 5: Learn the origin, age, and history of something made of animal products.)
"I have no idea why the bones of a simple fisherman would contain vis. My guess is that the place or the way he died would have caused the infusion somehow." Japik answers.
"Why don't you go and show me where this cave is Prochorus? You in your bird shape." There is something in Japik's tone that can be interpreted as dislike for the way Prochorus shapechanges, but the hostility between is Bjornaer and shapechangers are rather well-known in the Order. "And me as dolphin. Then we can see if there is more of this and maybe find out more about the place."
(Either that, or the Base 4 InTe guideline "Learn one mundane property of an object". Base 5 would give you more information, but you won't learn the history of the individual it belonged to, only the bone itself.)