Chapter 3f (Winter 1230): Reuniting Halia with Her Children

Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Base Camp
121

Viola didn't get quite that point from what he said, but I suspect a modicum of Faerie Lore would suggest that the original story of lovers divided by seduction in disguise needs resolution.

Viola turns to Ipek, "How fast can you make a love song? Something about the girl who went unfaithful because they fooled her? Needs a happy ending for the lovers." She looks around at the statues again. "Might help if Poseidon takes pity on the poor villagers, too." She's not at all convinced this is a good idea from her personal perspective, especially safety-wise, but she also can't leave a bunch of innocents (as some at least of them are) eternally frozen if there's something that can be done about it--for those still intact, anyway. She does, however, take one more look at the figure on the altar, and adds, "No pity for Neptune."

(Also, I'm not sure why I personally missed this issue before, but I can't imagine Viola wouldn't have thought about it, as she's mulled the future state of the lab over the last couple of years. Maybe she thought all the statues would be glory-hunting "heroes".)

While waiting on Ipek, Viola will take out some of the parchment and paints she carries to depict destinations for Arcadian Travel, and starts to sketch out a picture of happy lovers, with the female modeled on Halia. Ipek's song will doubtless be more powerful, but Viola figures it can't hurt to add the power of her own Free Expression.

Scott

122

Viola thinks that reuniting Halia and Poseidon would be a way to turn the regio firmly back towards Poseidon - the water would flow from it once more, and the barley field would probably go away in some way or another.

Ipek frowns. "Plausibility might be a problem - Poseidon did turn Halia into a monster who petrified her own child. Presumably he thought he had cause, but that just means coming up with a reason for him to take back the woman who cheated on him as well as her taking back a man who cursed her."

She looks at the remains of the snake's head which Halia had smeared upon "Pely". "If you want the statues back, you could try smearing the blood on them too?"

[OOC: there are quite a lot of statues - even if this works, Viola thinks the head is unlikely to be enough for all of them.]

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[I could have sworn I checked and didn't see any new posts. Weird.]

Viola nods, "Try it on your bard." After pausing, she returns to the first question. "In your story, how would it go?"

Scott

124

Ipek nods, and carefully collects the remains of the snake's head in a cloth. She then stands in thought for some minutes before suggesting tentatively:

"Maybe she personally takes some form of revenge against Neptune to fully repudiate him? Smashing his statue or something? Although something with a little more style would probably be better..."

[OOC: Depending on exactly what is done, there's a good chance doing things to the statue will have the side-effect of destroying the Perdo vis source. It might be replaced...or it might not.]

125

Viola wouldn't personally be that sad about losing a Perdo source....At any rate, though, her primary concern here is to get the water flowing again, because a lot of the elements of the lab hinge on that.

She replies to Ipek, "And is it good if she's with Poseidon again?" She pauses before continuing, "I think whatever, you have to convince her."

Scott

126

Ipek frowns.

"I think that depends a lot on what you mean by "good". For you? For her? I suppose I could argue that her children need a father - that would fit in with the theme of the story so far."

127

Viola is more pointed this time: "What does Ipek think is good?"

Scott

128

Ipek shrugs.

"I'd have her fully free herself from Poseidon, not reconcile with him. Poseidon turned her into a monster - and I think he's already married. But Neptune's no better."

"I'd say have her dedicate herself to Demeter in gratitude for her aid, and turn the regio over to her. The destruction of the fount of the storm clouds should be symbolic enough there. That is going to anger Poseidon - I don't know on what timescale but you'll need to be ready for it, but at least you'll have potential back-up."

"One other issue is that the plants are going to need water to grow. If there's a way to transfer control of the water here to one or more of Halia's children - they are children of a water god, after all - that would be better than simply destroying it."

129

[Jesus, I keep forgetting to post. Sorry.]

Viola fixes Ipek with a very serious stare. "I need running water. The rest is fine, you do it like you do it."

Scott

130

[I can't claim my own posting rate has been good. Will try to improve it.]

Ipek frowns and thinks for a moment, then heads over to where Halia and Pely are having their reunion. She spends some minutes in discussion with them, before taking Pely and starting to scramble over the remains of the the stalagmites away from the pool before passing out of visibility in the driving rain.

They return after a little while, and Ipek heads back to Viola.

"I can see how this works. Pelagios was the god of the stream that had flowed from the temple. When he turned to stone, the river became dust as well. When he was restored, his river should have been as well - but he was weak, and his source still contained a part of the curse.

Then the wise woman saw this, and spoke to Halia, telling her she must choose between her children and the gods who sired them. So Halia struck down the statue, and removed its pieces from the pool. Then the wise woman took the genesis of the storm, and placed it within the pool, so that the stream flowed from it once more."

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Viola nods, seemingly satisfied, but then notices there's one detail that eludes her. "Genesis?"

Scott

132

Ipek points at the storm cloud above the pool, which is continuing to spawn other clouds.

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Try nods slowly, trying to work out how she's going to get a storm cloud into the pool, but in the meantime she's ready to put Ipek's story into motion. "I need to talk to Halia?"

Scott

134

Ipek nods,

"You're the person who's been active in the story so far - it would be odd for someone else to jump in now."

Halia seems to have all of her children gathered round her now.

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Worried, but trying to project confidence, Viola strides towards Halia and her children, until she's directly in front of the mother. She motions with her arm, taking in all of Halia's brood. "You love your children, or Poseidon and Neptune? Do they love the children like their mother?" She pauses to let this sink in, then continues. "A mother always chooses her children."

Scott

136

Halia has her arms round her nearest two children, and is holding them a little tighter than is likely to be truly comfortable.

"I would die for my children. Neptune and Poseidon made me hurt my children."

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Viola nods, in agreement, and points towards the statue: "Break it."

[I assume we're close enough to the statue to point to it--otherwise, she'll lead the way.]

Scott

138

[Yes, you're still in the area with the pool.]

Halia looks at Viola for a long moment, then nods

It takes a bit of doing, and she waves off the assistance of her children when some of them try to help her. But with the use of some of the shattered stalagmites as blunt implements, eventually the statute is off the altar and in a couple of pieces in the pool.

Directly after the felling of the statue, Viola notices that the rain lessens, and the central storm cloud reduces the rate at which new clouds are being spawned.

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Viola smiles proudly at Halia, then prompts her to take a final step: "The pieces...take them out. Make the pool pure."

As for Viola's own part, that should be a ReAu to move the storm into the pool. Can I assume we're dealing with just one cloud above the pool here ("the genesis of the storm"), making the target an ordinary Ind? Given the lessening rain, this should be at worst a "serve weather phenomenon", so base level 4. A good analogy would be a reverse version of Clouds of Thunderous Might, but we don't need the Group modifier, which would drop it to level 20 (unless the cloud is rather low, within Voice range, in which case only level 15).

So, for a total we have:

Re 9 + Au 5 * 2 (Potent Spontaneous Magic) + 2 Sta + Aura 6 + 2 Loud Words/Exaggerated Gestures (better for dramatic effect in any case) - 1 Weary = 29 before a stress die.

Before attempting this, Viola would like to plumb her knowledge of Faerie Lore (4, probably with +4 Int) to see if she likely has the hour required for ceremonial casting--that would boost the score by 5, which may or may not be worth it. Otherwise, we can throw a pawn or two of Rego vis at the problem. She has two pawns of Rego available, so she would have brought at least one with her, and she could have both within minutes in any case (and given that she has only two pawns to her name, it's likely she brought both). One pawn would put her to 30, two pawns to 32. If necessary, a point of Confidence could boost that to 35 plus a stress die, which, combined with Life-linked Spontaneous Magic, ought to be relatively safe, dropping her to Tired at worst. In fact, being Overconfident Viola, she'll she forgo the vis, safe in the knowledge that the worst she could end up is Dazed.

Also, Viola makes a mental note to, at some point in the future, explain to Ipek the difference between Muto and Rego, and how we might want to frame our stories in more Muto-friendly ways in future.

Scott

140

Halia lugs the pieces of the statue out of the pool, and dumps them unceremoniously.

[OOC: Yes, one cloud, so and Ind target. Viola reckons that she probably needs to do something fairly quickly, before the story sets around Poseidon "winning" over Neptune.

I'll assume you have both pawns of Rego vis (I think you specified earlier you were bringing all your Muto.

I think Viola's already Tired (Chapter 3f (Winter 1230): Reuniting Halia with Her Children), so she's at a -3 penalty rather than -1, and has a chance of knocking herself unconscious. But she shouldn't injure herself unless she botches.

Ipek will undoubtedly be most interested to learn about Muto, and Rego, and anything else Viola wants to tell her about Hermetic Magic. It may even have more benefits than unwanted side-effects.]