As Morticia slows down to try an locate the source of the rustling, she spots a suspicious-looking shrub-tree -- its branches are swaying slowly. And there between the branches she sees a pair of bloody dead eyes looking back at her. Just as Lizetta and the other seem to realize that Morticia has stopped walking, the eyes blink once, twice...
Something limp drops on her left foot, still warm and twitching a little. Taking her totally by surprise.
((I'll leave it up to you to decide what her reaction will be, considering that 1) her attention was fixed on something else completely, 2) what dropped on her foot had the feeling of something dead, even if it's not heavy (about a pound), and 3) she was probably thinking about the ghosts that supposedly inhabit the forest.))
Morticia shrieks, takes a couple of steps back and to the right, and starts casting Rise of the Feathery Body to hopefully get her up out of harm's way so Lizetta can have a clear shot at whatever just dropped some kind of body part on her foot.
Lizetta scrambles out of Morticia's way as the maga stumbles back a few step on a collison course. Kat's sword comes out of its sheath with a rasp as she looks around, trying to locate the threat to the magi. Petronius, who'd been turning right, has a better view of what dropped on Morticia's foot.
"Rufus! Naughty! I told you not to do that." The tawny-striped cat who dropped a dead squirrel on Morticia's foot just looks at Petronius, not looking like it feels any guilt at all for its behaviour.
Morticia looks down at the squirrel, then up at Rufus, then over at Petronius as she tries to calm down from the start. [color=blue]"Your familiar?" she asks.
She then kneels down to examine the dead squirrel. She's pretty sure the cause of death is cat-related, but she will still check to be sure. She doesn't have the knowledge to cast a spontaneous Animal version of Charm Against Putrefaction, and she knows the lab they loaned her doesn't have even the basics to properly examine the carcass, but all that does cross her mind.
((True fact – there is no cat word for "regret" or "remorse." The closest they have is a word that means "inconvenience."))
Morticia reaches over to try to skritch Rufus between the ears. [color=blue]"Good...boy?" she says uncertainly before she gets up and looks at Petronius.
[color=blue]"He doesn't expect me to do anything with it, does he?" she whispers.
The cat flattens his ears and backs off a little. He's apparently not the touchy-feely type. Petronius shrugs, "I've never been able to figure that out, those times that he did this with me." A mischevious smile, "For all I know, he expects you to eat it. And yes, he's a boy all right."
Rufus looks at the maga, then at the squirrel, then at the maga again. She can almost see him shrug, before he picks up the squirrel in his mouth again and walks back into the forest. A few blood-red butterflies erupt from the shrugs he moves into, flying away.
"Well, yes, of course," says Petronius with a small nod. Thus the two magi resume their hike along the path, followed closely by their respective protector. As they walk, Petronius asks her some questions, regarding her apprenticeship, her mater and her coming projects. "You mentioned researching matters of life and death. What did you mean by that?"
(Since it is an hour's walk, unless Morticia makes it clear that those are not subjects she wants to talk about, it would be difficult to only state generalities. Unless she's ready to just tell him that it's none of his business, of course, which present problems as well.)
[color=blue]"When I was a child," Morticia says as she carefully steps over a tree root that's grown into the path, [color=blue]"I saw my family killed by Frederic's men. I saw thousands of dead, mostly the Emperor's men from what I hear, littering the fields around the city, so thick that you could almost walk from one side to the other without setting foot on the ground. And I wondered why? Not just the question of why men war, why men kill one another. That's a question that's gone unanswered since Cain slew Abel. It was more along the lines of, why did they die of their wounds?
"As my studies progressed, and I saw how it was possible for men to be pulled back from the brink of death, not just with magic but with the mundane healing arts, I could not find an explanation for why here and no further? Why is there a line beyond which we cannot prevent one from dying, from their wounds, from an illness, from old age.
"It has become my project, my life work, to tear down the barrier between life and death, to ensure that no one need ever die unless they so will. I'm convinced there must be a way, that this need no longer be man's lot."
"But isn't death part of our lot as men, as decreed by God? I have not spend much time considering theology, but doesn't the Church explain that our lives in this world are simply a transitory state before we move on to heaven and hell, depending on how we live?" Petronius seems a bit hesitant, an unusual state for him, but geniunely curious.
[color=blue]"I haven't either, although I should. My understanding is that it was never God's intent for man to be mortal, but that we became so after the Garden of Evil. 'The wages of sin are death' and all that. But our Lord and Savior paid the price for our sins so that we wouldn't have to. Which raises the question, if the Lord has already paid the price, why must we pay it again?
"I'm hoping that Aedituus's appearance is more than just a facade and that he can give me some useful insight. I freely admit that some may find my advances troubling, but think the good they can do mankind will be beyond compare."
"Aedituus' way of life is no facade," Petronius says, "I have known him for several years now, and I can assure you that he is indeed a devout man. He spent many years in a monastery, and would still be there if it wasn't so difficult to reconciliate our magic with Divine auras. A quandary he hopes to solve by researching ways to do just that. A worthy endeavor, certainly, for the benefit of the whole Order."
"Should he succeed, of course. I have doubts about that. I prefer to focus on more practical topics."
Petronius pauses for a moment as they negociate over a small stream running at the bottom of a gully. "What are your plans for pursuing your research? Do you have specific experiments in mind?"
[color=blue]"At this point, most of my magic is geared toward healing, although I do have a few spells dealing with the dead. And I can see spirits.
I will probably continue my studies on illness and injury, and as circumstances permit compare healthy bodies with unhealthy and dead ones, studying how to keep the sick and injured from becoming the dead. There has to be some point, some line that's crossed that we can find and either move or do away with."
The discussion about different lab projects to pursue their respective research continues for a little longer, until the two magi reach a large clearing.
"Ah, there we are!" Petronius says. "When we first settles in the forest, we discovered indications that this may have been a farm of some sort a long time ago. The tower over there," he points to a small square tower located about a hundred paces to the right of the clearing, at the edge of a steep slope, "was just a shell and totally unhinabitable.". It still looked badly damaged, particularly the top part. "We restored much of the interior, but tried to keep the outside ruined look, for it is visible from the Rhine. Wouldn't want to make the mundanes curious, now would we?"
As they cross the fields within the clearing, Petronius continues. "We try to grow as much of our food here, as well as raise some of our livestock. Our mundanes don't generate nearly as much food as we need, but Laurent, our chamberlain, tells us that this keeps our expenses down." He smiles, "I'm all for that, of course, as it leaves more money to outfit our labs."
Near the tower, but not really close, are a number of other low buildings. They look like barns and peasant houses to Morticia. Some mundanes are driving a herb of pigs towards the woods, while the small fields look almost ripe for harvesting. Overall, the clearing is perhaps three hundred paces wide and half that deep, with the tower and buildings located on the northeast edge of it, where the ground looks rocky.
[color=blue]"It definitely looks like it's seen better days. And I'd imagine it has quite a history."
Morticia looks around for a couple of minutes. [color=blue]"You said the covenant, the woods have...maybe not shades but imprints of those who had gone before. Are they perhaps drawn here?"
Petronius shrugs, "I don't know, I haven't studied them at all. But apparently some of the grogs have stories about strange things happening here. Again, you'd have to ask Aedituus about that, it is more his area of interest. What I've heard, though is that the grogs themselves are unwilling to sleep in the tower. They even prefer the cruder accomodations of the peasants' houses."
Continuing towards the tower, "Technically, we could install some additional laboratories in two of the tower's floors. There's just enough space for a standard lab there. And there is a small aura inside. In fact, it extends a little bit outside of the tower, but is very weak there." He gestures towards the base of the tower, "There are also rose bushes around it," which Morticia can indeed see now that they are closer. "Please to not disturb or damage them, for some vis concentrates into the plants during the winter. Fortunately, they do not block the entrance."
Morticia looks over the roses from where she is, but makes no move toward them.
[color=blue]"Perhaps after I speak with Aedituus, I can interview some of the covenfolk about what they have seen and heard around here. I suspect that this place will be a treasure trove of occult knowledge, if we just know how and where to look."
Next, Petronius leads Morticia inside of the tower by climbing a ladder to a walkway going around the first floor, where the door is located. "This is damn incovenient, if you ask me," the thin boned magus is huffing a little from the climb. "But we have had higher priorities for our mason and carpenter's time. A set of stairs would be much better, if you ask me."
Once inside, Petronius gives Morticia a quick tour of the tower. Quick, because there is only minimal furnishings. At least, the interior is indeed better maintained than the outside looked to be.
On the third floor, Petronius points to another ladder, this one leading to a trapdoor in the ceiling. "Are you of a mind to take a look outside? The view is spectacular, if you don't mind heights."
[color=blue]"Stairs would make it quite easier, yes." Morticia doesn't seem to be near as winded by the exertion as Petronius does.
[color=blue]"I would love to. Heights don't bother me in the least. Would you like me to go first?" If so, she will cast Rise of the Feathery Body on herself, coming to rest at the top of the ladder and pushing the door open to climb the last couple of steps. ((As near as I can tell, the Aegis here is 20, and Morticia doesn't have a casting token yet. Her CT is 23 – Aegis 10 + die roll of 7 = 20, vs. a Spell Level of 10.))
Once she gets to the roof, she will look around in all directions.