OOC: 
Titius ask the nearest of his fellow magi, would these creatures perhaps contain an arcane connection to the master. Perhaps we can use that to strike at the master of them and thus rid our self of one infernalist? It is a rash plan but it would save us perhaps some future trouble as well.
Nice to know the cats cooperated. 
/2
"I'm not familiar with that kind of magic. Maybe the animated dead form a connection to the sorcerer, maybe not." Iohannes gestures to the last experimental zombies. "If I were to judge by the sheer number of corpses, I'd say that none is particularly special to their master, like flakes of dandruff. If I were to judge by their behavior, I'd say they are governed by no master intelligence, as though they were created and abandoned--no connection there. And what if the sorcerer didn't animate the dead himself, but called upon a demon or spirit to do it for him, leaving no direct connection to the summoner?"
Iohannes shakes his head. "But some intelligence was involved, at least at the beginning, when the ship pretended to behave like an ordinary vessel. If that intelligence bears a specific interest in us, I imagine it has withdrawn for a time to weigh the outcome of this encounter and plan the next.
"What do you think of trying Intellego Mentem or Corpus on one of the things?"
Perhaps, it is not my specialty however. Try and see what happens. My specialty is herbam and that won’t do us much here. If you have the power then cast some spell that strikes at a target connected to these corpses if perhaps only to see who is controlling them. Perhaps it is best to watch their controller so that no accidents happen. For example if these corpses holds connections to their former wives or parents then a tragedy is imminent if you cast some ignem magic’s upon them.
Scipio takes a breath, golden eyes looking between Titius and Iohannes grimly. "Divinations of Mentem, cast upon such foulness, I feel would endanger the caster in either the realm of Sanity or Corruption. Perhaps both. I would advise against it. Divinations of Corpus are unlikely to provide much beyond what we already know. A Divination of Vim, possibly focused against the Infernal Realm, would provide the information we need. Assuming the Deceivers are not actively at work to guise the results as they please. No Divinations undertaken with such an Infernal foe should be accepted at face value." he says, stroking his beard and the charms there. He seems more a persian in that moment than a western magus.
"As for Conjurations against an enemy through a link... I am skilled in that type of working, as I said before. I am not certain however if these creatures would provide much of a link to anything. It is I have conceded... unlikely, yet possible that they could link to the Power that animates them. Yet there are dangers. The Conduit flows both ways. We have one here to experiment with, yet... I shall not so endanger the ship via such Conjurings without the leave or orders of our Sodale the Captain. It is his choice so long as we remain at sea."
Scipio has come down from the castle now, standing among the other Magi on the deck in his desire to speak with them. His manner is less strictly militant now, even relaxed, with the enemy ship destroyed. His Sergeants are likewise more lax, spreading out around the deck and not keeping their battle formation any longer. The Magus himself stands easy, hands on his hips and arms akimbo.
"And I offer now to lay about the vessel an Aegis, when you are rested and prepared. I should not like to run afoul of such an enemy without one again."
Out beyond the fog, a lone figure balancing on a flying wooden spar continues his onerous, repetitive task, flying a good distance over the waves as each corpse disappears into a momentary pocket of dust that is instantly engulfed by an equally brief flow of seawater.
Vispilius, shouts Titius, have you destroyed the foul abominations? Then Titus turn towards Scipio, Yes you are right, there is only foul things that will come from these minds. Perhaps someone can try intelego vim on them but for now perhaps we shall exterminate the lot and get on with our travels.
Iohannes says, "You're probably right."
[OOC: Timothy, can you speak to us about what our characters know about how Intellego and the Infernal interact in your campaign? For example, in canonical AM, it is possible to detect an Infernal Aura directly through Intellego, and possible to indirectly detect a demon through DEO .
[In a similar way, I'd find it helpful to read a few words from you about how ACs work in your game; there have been all kinds of discussions about ACs which generalize the idea of 'relationship' in a way that might make sense yet do not satisfy the specific requirements of ACs.]
"I support the idea, unless anyone else has an objection."
Iohannes lost 3 fatigue levels on his last spell, which will leave him fully rested in 2m+10m+30m = 42m. (Serf's Parma, if I have that wrong.) This is probably less time than it takes to discover what the zombies are following.
Iohannes says, "There might be someone we will want to notify about the ghost ship, who will take an interest in finding out who is behind it, and who has the specialized knowledge and experience to do that."
You can find Infernal auras with Intellego. You can cast a DEO and see if anyone near you screams or explodes. THat's fine.
ACs are, well, ACs. They need to work under the law of contagion or sympathy, in an entirely vanilla way. The effects of your spells being ACs to you is a Flaw.
[/quote]
I don’t object to a raising of the Aegis, as long as I don’t suffer the effects. Titius chuckles. Now are the walking dead destroyed so that we can get on with our journey?
You continue on your journey toward Visby, which is a small but wealthy town, of great prominence. You can either dock in port, like a conventional merchant vessel, or you can dock within easy march of the port, to allow serruptitious entry. REmber, though, thast you have a band of young people who are wealthy and your passengers, so if you want to make them walk a couple of miles, or delay them while you send scouts ahead, you will needto come up with a convincing explanation.
The magus you are looking for divides his time beyween the town and a personal lab out in the wilderness, where there is a Magic aura. You can see him out relatively easily in the docklands, where he has business interests, or you can head off toward his lab. You don't know its exact location but you do know where redcaps go to meet him.
Or, you could do something else. What's it to be?
OOC: At this point, I'd like to know what Iohannes learned from and about his passengers when he Intellegoed them extensively before the journey; you may recall that you held off describing this for dramatic purposes.
I'd be interested in both the proceeds of this, and in knowing whatever there is to know about the rulership of the island as it stands and whatnot before we land.
Otherwise I'm inclined to have someone inquire as to whether our redcap has been seen in the area recently and otherwise go to the redcap meeting-point and make contact directly. Any of any contrary thinking?
Well, it all depends on what you do in the other thread. They are fleeing so that if their city is struck by a terrible tragedy (either due to your actions or the terrible thing you may be acting against, or the unfounded rumour of the terrible thing, if you manage to work your way through the first thread without setting it off) their families won't be destroyed and they can come back to the city and rule as its new elite caste.
Which is to say, they are scared and their parents have sent them out of town, becasue they are the younger sons and daughter and they are being sent away as reserves for their family bloodlines, to a place that'srich and unlikely to be affected by the Tragedy (or what you do to prevent the Tragedy, because they might just be acting on rumour, now, if you are successful in the earlier thread.)
As to the rulership of Visby: its a trading city with a town council. It's a sort of model for the later Hansa states. It has a theoretical nobleman, but he's been paid out of his hereditary powers, sothat although he retains some, and has a lot of land on the island, the town runs itself and has a small naval empire, of which Lubeck is bascially a colony, although its a colony that is growing to parity with its parent.
Titius don’t mind the sneak in first plan, although he will complain a little and gruble some more about that this isn’t the way that magi of theOrder should need to act.
Your characters anchor the ship in a small bay a few miles from Visby, and land in some woods. You work your way quickly through them, and then travel through the wilderness, skirting the cultivated land, until you reach the place where redcaps leave messages for the island's resident magus.
It is a small grove, sheltered by the Shrouded Glen, which has a pavillion in it. The pavillion looks recently used, because there are food crumbs and the remnants of a fire. As you enter, those of you sensitive to such things feel a watching ward trigger, but there are no ill effects that are apparent. You assume, correctly as it happens, that this is some sort of alarm to tell the magus he has visitors.
After several hours, in which you can do whatever seems reasonable, an elderly looking magus in a heavy robe of cloth-of-gold enters the grove. He is accompanied by an aged wolf. He looks about for a leader and, failing to determine which of you is fulfilling that role say "Yes?"
Scipio steps forward a step or two and bows deeply to the elder magus, arms spreading outward in his gesture of greeting. "Archmagus Aurian of Jerbiton?" he asks, when finished.
[OOC: I proceed assuming some manner of confirmation follows. ]
"I greet you then Archmagus. I am Scipio, of Tremere, and these are my Covenmates. We follow in the steps of one Roto of Mercere, in his Covenmates' stead. They grow concerned for him and have asked our aid. We were given to know that he was coming here, with tasks to be done at your request. That is why we have sought you and your island out."
Scipio speaks with a mildness and warmth to his manner, all smiles and politeness. He comes forward to stand before the Archmage as he speaks, his movements and words covering the closing of distance until he is at a more informal conversational distance. "Have we been misinformed?" he asks, pausing to watch the reaction of the older man to his words...
...and so this is it. If you don't do anything, a magical plague is going to start ravaging Germany in winter, and work its way across the Continent. These young people have been sent to Visby by their families because its an island, so when the plague strikes the Baltic coast, it will be possible to just lock the island down for the few months it takes the plague to burn itself out.
If you -have- fixed it, then the rumours of the plague which have sent these people aboard are untrue, and that's a buying opportunity for you. You'd also like to know who told these people a plague was coming, because then you'd know who knew.
"He had three tasks to do here on the island, at least only three of particular danger. He was going to visit one of the local weather witches and take her boy to Muscovy, for training at Three Lakes Covenant as a magus. The boy has a natural talent for Rego magic. Roto was going to harvest some of the vis of the Ladies of the Isle of Glass, who are faerie creatures along the coast that seek diversions. He was also doing something for Confluensis covenant...he would not tell me the nature of it. I would presume it some sort of sabotage, if the Quaesitores were not above swuch things. It had to do with a boat yard, the Johansen yard at the port. I am not sure what order he wasto do his tasks in, or indeed if any were completed."