Fray offers “I know the Eyes of the Cat formulaically, and very happy to assist everyone who desires it. My arts are high enough to spont cast a variations for the Owl or other beasts without fatigue.”
He continues “After the encounter with the two magical beasts and the Amazons at the camp I changed my study plans to add additional tactical aspects: when scouting I can now teleport short ranges to travel quickly with arcane connections, can use the quicksand spell on groups, and have a Sight based version of Opening the Intangible Tunnel which extends our tactical range significantly. I also know the Wizards Communion if that is beneficial for penetrating resistance of more powerful targets. “
"I know the formulaic spell 'The Call to Slumber,' and it might be possible to develop a variant that affects more people," says Timaios.
"I worry that their horseback archery will outrange much of our magic. Using composite bows, they can easily fire on us from beyond the distance of many spells, wheel and retreat, and repeat as needed. I feel like we need some kind of defense that will prevent their arrows from striking us while we close - either turning away the shafts or destroying them with Herbam, or advancing under cover of invisibility."
"Unfortunately," he adds, "I have a... quirk of the Gift that makes Perdo magic very difficult for me, so I doubt I can design a spell to destroy arrows or destroy all of our images; but it might be possible for someone skilled in Herbam to devise a spell that will deflect them before they strike, or to make a spell that changes our images to appear somewhere else or as something else, so that the arrows miss."
"For myself I can cast Pilum of Fire with enough penetration to normally effect a seventh magnitude defence or creature but this seldom kills in one casting. I also have Ball of Abysmal Flame that can normally effect a fourth magnitude defence or creature. Both attacks are against a single target but I plan to master both to hit two targets or one twice. I can also cast a formulaic Blade of the Virulent Flame and Doublet of Impenetrable Silk which can aid our grogs in defence and their melee capacity if they can get in to hand to hand. I have no ability to control the field of battle or affect large groups. As to my size I am blessed with the blood of Prometheus and can grow and shrink at will." states Wishbone
After a short pause as Wishbone is clearly pondering something over he states "With access to a lab I could invent a group version of Pilum of Fire or better in two seasons. That may be a better option than mastering my two current attack spells given the numbers we are likely to face. What do my sodales think?"
Gregorius makes notes on a wax tablet as the others respond, occasionally pausing to ask more questions.
"Asena," Gregorius asks, "Is there anything you can do to the minds of the horses to help with that? Preferably at Moon duration rather than Sun, to reduce complications when the spells wear off. With your wolves - can you create them reliably without fatiguing yourself, assuming a neutral aura, and are there limits to how many you can create and control?"
"Miklos, if we can overcome the problems with the horses spooking, what is your opinion on bringing the villagers?"
"Those sound useful, thank-you."
"For use on a battlefield I think you will also need Call to Slumber at more than a momentary duration - otherwise people will just wake up again."
"The archery range...Asena? Shouted Voice range spells can typically affect someone around 50 paces away. What are the standard and maximum effective ranges of horsebows? Presumably their smaller size means that it's shorter than the best bows used on foot?"
[OOC: Rules for missile range are on pg 172 of the main book.]
"What can people cast at Sight range, should it come down to it? I know Fray can flex many of his spells to that range - can anyone else produce anything Sight ranged?"
"Turning away or destroying arrows is going to require repeated fastcast Rego or Perdo Herbam on a group target - we'd need a Herbam specialist for that. Invisibility has its uses, but would destroy our own ability to co-ordinate ourselves and might cause problems with magic resistance, so I think we want to avoid it in this case. Wishbone - presumably you're fairly good at Creo. Can you pull off creating a crosswind which would destroy their aim? Something like Circling Winds of Protection, but more natural and without the Rego requisite?"
"One thing we will need to be aware of is that Group spells do not always work well on a battlefield, due to their requirement for a clearly defined target Group. Multicast spells have an advantage there. Another potential problem is likely to be concentrating on spells once battle is joined - it may not be so bad if we are standing behind a wall of shield grogs, but my understanding is that it is still not likely to be easy."
Wishbone responds "What you ask seems to be Charge of the Angry Winds the third magnitude Creo Auram spell. I currently have no skill with Auram and it would take me three seasons to invent it at the moment. Is this important enough for someone to assist me in the lab to invent the spell? Casting it would not prove a problem once I knew it as a formula."
Gregorius shakes his head. "I wasn't thinking quite Charge of the Angry Winds - that's still somewhat unnatural given the way it roars away for the caster, and I would think we wanted something Diameter rather than Concentration duration. Rather, I was hoping you could spont a level 10 spell."
I agree that a diameter version rather than a concentration version would be preferable and that would be my intent. I find it impossible to fatigue myself with spontaneous magic, one of the flaws in my hermetic understanding, and so even level 10 in Creo Aura is near impossible for me to achieve. I would need to go along the formulaic route to help in this area and will do so if that is what is needed.
“If we have more lab time before the confrontation a personal ward against wood is a 4th magnitude effect, plausible to invent with the right arts.” Fray offers.
“We are to begin scouting now (this season)?”
"Ah - that is a problem," concedes Gregorius. "And three seasons is a long time to spend in the lab. Let me see if I can think of a better way of solving it. Unfortunately, I don't think personal range wards are the right answer - they'll protect one person, but not everybody else. Touch range spells would reduce the problem, and I assume Fray can flex up to those in practice, but coupled with the fact that I assume Asena's wolves are sun duration it does leave us very vulnerable twice a day."
"As to when we to go - my original intent had been this season, yes, and that would still be my preference, as the longer we leave it the greater the chance something else will develop. However, it is not so urgent that I am going to risk having major vulnerabilities that could be easily shored up.
[OOC: Pralix - I think we're waiting on a response from Asena on a few questions.]
Wishbone responds “I could, as an alternative spend two seasons inventing a version of Pilum of Fire that could affect up to 100 in a group. That should be plenty to deal with a large raiding group. I could then master it in another season to deliver two pila per casting? My thinking is we would need less defence if our att@ck is overwhelming.”
"Hmmm. That's certainly an attractive spell of have with us," agrees Gregorius. "I don't know that it entirely solves the arrow problem if it is feasible for them to turn us into pincushions from outside of spell range, though. Let's get an answer on that and then move on to the other details of the expedition before coming to a firm conclusion on who's going to do what in preparation."
[OOC: I'd like to give Pralix a chance to weigh in before moving the discussion on to things like finding the island, scrying and capturing magicians.]
[OOC: Still haven't heard anything from Pralix, but will continue in the interests of keeping things moving.]
Once the discussion on combat has died down, Gregorius says:
"So, we've got a potential problem with arrows, and with force size around the end of sun duration spells. Let's note those down and explore what other problems we have before we make any final decisions on who and how best to deal with them."
"Next part of the plan: finding the Amazons' home, and establishing ways to scry on it. When I read the Raid Leader's mind previously, I learnt that their home was "in" a sea to the east of where we were. If we're lucky, that just means Fray has to fly around until he finds a sea, and then fly around more until he finds the right island. The fact that the forces we've seen appear to be cavalry based make me unsure whether that will be the case, however - it's possible to put horses on ships, of course, but not trivial." He shrugs. "Maybe there's a ford. Alternatively, there may be a regio. I have Second Sight, which may help to detect such, subject to the local auras and regio level differences. However, I can't cover ground as well as Fray. Does anyone else have any Second Sight, or any of the varients of Piercing the Veil?"
"Once we've found it - what can we do to scry on it?"
"My only Intellego spell is such that I can see Vis for a full day's duration, so I am no help in the area you specified" comes Wishbone's reply.
Fray adds in response, “I’m afraid I cannot help with scrying at all, as I find most Intellego unintelligible. However I might be able to help with Tunnels and other effects. One of many items to be rectified eventually”
"Timaios?" asks Gregorius.
"Considering the matter more," muses Gregorius, "is what we want a spell or an item? The latter would allow us to have grogs observing over a long period of time. Maybe a variant of Summoning the Distant Image that isn't limited to rooms?"
[OOC: Is Viola in the room? If so, Gregorius will aks her what her Intellego Imaginem item building capabilities are like. If she's not, he'll ask her later.]
She's there, but giving no signs of paying attention....Prompted, she'll assure Gregorius that Intellego Imaginem effects are not terribly difficult--but it's going to be several seasons before she can manage to do lab work.
Scott
[OOC: I think we're in Autumn 1230 now - does that still hold true?]
Looking at her advancement log, I think that's around the time she'll be finishing the lab quest...and that means a few seasons tinkering with the lab after that, though that's not a complete bar to lab activities.
Scott