Ok, hoe do you proceed?
Unless anyone else inteferes with her planning
Mariella takes Ardeth and Yannick , Mariella will carry the adder Yannick in the hood of her robe. She casts protective spells upon herself and coordinates with her sodali so all are protected.
She does not bring Grogs as we know Hedwig has mentalism effects and so will turn them against us easily.
The procedure for entering the regio will be followed with Ardeth on point Mariella just behind her.
Three laps around the tree and the scenery changes, there is a significant heightening of the magical aura. From being just felt in feels stronger, stronger than home at Ad Fons. The clearing around the tree is almost a perfect circle and two paths lead from the clearing. The forest besides the paths is thick and old. Colours are more sharp and there are bird song unlike what you have ever heard before.
Now what defensive spells have you cast?
Yannick has his usual array of boosted senses, along with gift of the bears fortitude and intuition of the forrest.
Mariella will cast a protective spell to rust any Metal object touching her instantly
(Base 5 +2 Sun Duration) (Perdo 10 +Terram 6 (12 with focus) +3 aura +1 stamina total 26 +dice roll so she will cast this spell
She will get Doublet of inpeetrable Silk and Intuition of the forest from Yannick if he does not mind
[color=blue]OOC: The aura is actually 4.
There is a quiet unease about the clearing but Yannick can see in the shadows of the trees and hiding in the foliage there is a man and he is looking straight at you. He does not seem to have noticed that you have noticed him. The man hides close to the path that leads to the north.
I assumed I cast the spell back at the covenant
He doesn't mind
Yannick whispers to Mariella color=blue
[color=red]a maaaaan to sssse northsssss, watching usssss...
Couldn't resist to add a little snake-tongue...
Assuming that Mariella can see the man after Yannick indicates his presence she will challange him
[color=red]"Surrender or Die!"
If he makes any threatening move she casts Evisceration of a thousand knives upon him
The man turns and runs further north into the forest but move along the road. Mariella could hit him with magic but she needs to either use a sight ranged spell or yell a lot. A sound of cows can be heard from the south.
Note to self: need to invent "leg of the infant" in order to keep people from running away all the time...
Mildly dissapointed at the way people ignore her Mariella shouts out the words of her spell (after all we can forget stealth if he escapes anyway).
(Casting total 10 +3 +16 +4 (aura) +2 voice and gestures +1 stamina 36 +dice roll) if it becomes relevant Penetration 5
Mariella cast her spell and the man drops to the grounds flailing his arms and spraying his life fluids upon the ground. A cry of pain can be heard from the man as he falls. After he has fallen to the ground there seems to be no commotion except for the man who makes some vain attempts to save his life, slowly crawling away from Mariella. The noise of the cows coming from the south are intensified. Proceed as you see fit.
Mariella sighs [color=red]"I really wish people would listen to me, I would have preferred to talk to him.
She walks over to the maimed man (It will take him a while to die of an incapitating wound)
[color=red]Yannick or Ardeth do you want to end his sufferring? I am afraid I left my knife behind as my spells would have destroyed it. Also do either of you have a preference to which direction we should procede , I favour North but have no solid reason for my preference
Once closer to the man Mariella can notice that the man wears a collar. Marked with Verditius runes sitting around the neck of the man.
Mariella Curses Vilely.
[color=red]It is possible that the Viper Constantia has tricked us into assailing another Hermetic covenant. Either that or the devil's spawn Hedwig is more knowedgeable in the Hermetic arts than any Bottom feeding traitorous worm has any business being.
She pauses and curses again
[color=red]Do we continue an assault or try harder to negotiate with the next person we meet, or retreat. I think we must press the assault unless we run across solid evidence that this is a Hermetic covenant. Someone is going to die for this
[color=red]We go on.
And this collar... We don't know what it's for. It could very well be used to control the man.
And this is probably an hermetic covenant anyway: Our asaillant used hermetic magic on justus.
As the magi discuss their actions the air suddenly thickens and within moments there is a fog that is so solid that one can barely see his or her hand in front of here.
Mariella responds with a wind of Mundane Silence hoping that will clear the magically created fog
Casting roll 26+die roll, penetration of 5 although I will have better penetration against Hedwig
[color=blue]If you don’t kill him and he gets back safely (i.e. even vaguely alive), I can probably save him and we can question him. Krispin isn’t here, so it’s not a moral problem if you don’t tell him 
. Your call.