I think I mispelled Renewal
Anyway, afaik, all active player characters are now at Andorra. Fedora and the Redcaps first. Vibria & Guillme & Carmen head back to the townhouse in Valencia then potal to a house in Barcelona (near the HQ for that covenant).
Carmen is hurt pretty bad, more than she lets on. Some non-ritual medical assistance is offered by the magi there and her injury is stabalized. But she needs to take it easy. Her brother Alexandro is there. If no one else said anything, he will b the first to inform her of the situation. Or one of you can break the news first.
It is a short trip from Barcelona to Andorra, and the magi there help speed it along somehow (handwave).
The situation there is bad. Everything I described. Carmen freaks out.
Guillaume fills in some details about who's on the way. He'll tell her he would like to investigate this attack later. He'll communicate with those riding the carpet before they leave Doissetep through Astrid. After leaping to Andorra, he'll summon Astrid to him with an intangible tunnel plus his touch-ranged leap spell.
As I mentioned, Carmen just totally flips out once you get to Andorra. All the dead; she knew many of these people personally. Either since she was a little girl or knew them since they were born.
And the chilren...
Ghastly.
She screams a lot. Calls out for her father and flies up to his sanctum on the top of one of the towers of the main keep.
Total panic attack.
[color=blue]Father! Where are you?!?! Daddy!!!!
She sends several lightning bolts into the air out of frustration.
Not all of the covenfolk are dead. Just the ones that were in the walls of the castle during the attack. Those that were down in the villiage below at the time have gathered together and come up the hill to the covenant, as well as several villiagers. They don't have a lot of information. They saw the fire break out in the libary tower and helped the Redcaps get into the covenant. The main gate could not be opened from outside, but they showed them the easiest part of the wall to climb and told them how to open the gates from within.
How is Alexandro reacting? (Same father, right?)
Guillaume will protect whomever he can beside himself and Astrid with his Parma Magica while giving Carmen some time to vent. Astrid becomes a wolf, and Guillaume dispels her clothing. Then she keeps watch while he contemplates the fight he just partially witnessed. He needs to talk to Carmen and examine the scene.
Correction: there are a few survivors after all. Specifically, an old grog named Moses Mendez. He is hurt pretty bad, but is awake enought to tell you what he saw..cough it happened so sudden. A guest, who we thought was cough Tyronicus of Tremere. It was a disguise. He unleashes something, God knows what. But everyone unshielded from magic instantly cough-cough instantly dropped dead. Antonio, he has a habbit of sharing Parma with a few of his closest guards to protect cough us from his Gift. We were unaffected. wheeeze Then the bastard conjured his henchmen. We few survivors were outnumbered. hack-hack Then he hit Antonio and Dimir Taar with some kinda spell from a wand. The cough, he disappeared and it was all downhill from there. I got stabbed three or four times. I'd be dead if it wasn't for Valentino. Wh...cough where is he?
And I saw demons! I have the Sight, I could tell that he had invisible monsters aiding him. cough
Moe is spitting up blood with every cough. Valentino of Flambeau lies next to him, with an axe stuck in his skull. He was a member, and died a hero's death.
Yes. Same father.
Alexandro has gone emotionally dead. He plays the part of a stoic general whose army was wiped out, and regrets not being killed by their side. But he is all business like. Assessing the damage, speaking of repairs and hiring almogavars & mercenaries to replace the fallen Andorran Guard.
carmen has colappsed to her knees atop her father's tower, sobbing uncontrolably.
Guillaume casts Bind Wound on Moses. "This won't cure you but should help for the moment. How long ago did this happen? Do you know where the imposter was when he cast his spells and used the wand?" He thinks a bit. "Alexandro, could you let me know when you think your sister is ready to chat. I will need her assistance, but I would give her a moment."
Moe: kaff Right there in the middle of the courtyard.
Alexandro: (yells up to Carmen) Carmalita! Compose yourself and get your ass down here. Now!
And she does.
"Carmen, I want to take a look at the magic that was used here. I also want to compare the sigil with the sigil of whomever attacked you in Valencia. Also, if the wand was of Verditius manufacture, perhaps we can ask to whom it was sold. But I will need to investigate within the Aegis here. Can you invite me in?"
Vibria looks around her at the devastation and destruction, stunned. She had heard stories of the Andorra covenant, and knew that it was a shining jewel of the Order. And to see it practically reduced to ruins leaves her practically speechless. How much worse would it be for someone who lived here, who had lived their whole lives here, she wonders?
Alexandro's yelling at Carmen jogs Vibria as well, and she starts to look around, examining the rubble. Although she's no Quaesitor, she knows fire damage when she sees it, and maybe she can find something that would help the investigation.
[hr][/hr]
Fédora will head directly down to the vault, to see for herself that it has not been violated. She tries to ignore the bodies, the charnel smell of death and burned flesh that hangs in the air like a fog. Someone's going to have to identify all the bodies, she thinks. Let Harco know so they can notify the families, maybe try to get some more Redcaps out here so we can continue to serve the Order as only we can.
She asks one of the hoplites to accompany her, in case any of the attackers are still around.
Wordlessly, she goes into an antechamber next to the gatekeep and obtains a token, hands it to you, and with minimal words invites you in.
As for the wand, did someone grab it? Did it survive Vibria's torching?
(OOC - Fedora, there is only one Hoplite present to my knowledge.)
After being invited in Guillaume proceeds to the spot that was pointed out. He spontaneously casts Restore the Faded Threads (CrVi10 for -1 traces, +5 levels/-1 beyond that) silently and without gestures, so he is only seen tracing a 3-pace radius circle (20-pace circumference; Sta 1 + Concentration 4 + roll 9 = 14). Sta 1 + Cr 11 + Vi 19 + Aura 5 + roll 0 (wow, no botch, but that's 3/4 spell rolls as 0's today) = 36 -> level 18. That will restore traces up to 3 months old (longer for long-Duration magic). He follows this with Sight of the Sigil (also silent and still) 37 + Aura 5 - Fatigued 1 + roll 5 = 46. He quietly spends 2 minutes surveying what is revealed. Afterward he returns to the others to rest (down 2 Fatigue levels).
Vibria's initial perception will ever burn in her memory. But she exaggerates. There was a recent fire in one geat tower, but it did not consume it. It appears as if the top of another tower had exploded sometime in the past. The side of another building is smashed in. There is some stench, the attack happened two days ago maybe? But only a few seem to have died violent deaths (the guards that Moe referred to). The rest simply expired in mid step.
And other than the buidings I mentioned, the structures are undamaged. The attacks seem precise.
As for Fedora, the only available hoplite type available is Guillme, who is busy being a deupty Quaesitor. But you have a trio of other Redcaps and several stout men that will escort you.
The Mercere quarter is untouched. No fighting took place here. The resident Redcaps and staff are dead, but they just passed out where they stood. Or sat (one scribe is face down on his desk pen still in hand). And you confirm what the initial Redcaps reported. Vault intact.
And as for Moe. Valentino had already stabilized his wounds. Bind Wounds would be counterproductive at this point.
Alexandro is doing his tactical analysis out loud.
[color=red]That corner tower was like that already. My sister's old sanctum. That buidling with the staved in wall. That's Dimir Taar's armory. Below is the covenant's vault. That was probably the initial objective. The great tower. That's the library. That looks like a vindictive strike. They didn't break in or stick around to finish the job. There is fire suppresion magic in there. There's gonna be damage, but not as bad as it looks from the outside.
Enemy combatants suffered three to one casualties by my estimate. The attacking wizard stood there. The battle line marked by casualties in a circle around that spot. My fatherms grogs rushed out from his tower. The ones answering the alarm charged from the main gate when the got up here. Someone must have opened it for them, but why did they lock it behind them? Unless it was to lock the enemy in. The battle must have gone on awhile. I suspect the Armory and Vault was the primary objective because the battle dead form a trail. The guard was doing their best to halt them. Magical injuries. Look there, those two. No mundane weapon causes wounds like that.
I have only a dozen men left at my command, and I have them crawling all over this place. Oscar went down into the Vault as soon as we got here. The door, the new door we just installed is shattered. Just about everything has been cleared out of it and the armory. It was a robbery.
As for Guillme, I am not sure how effective this tactic will be. A lot of different magic has been cast in and around this area in the last few months. On top of that, Antonio would often play Certamen and Dimicatio as sport in this yard.
I think you would yield better results investigating specific spell effects.
He'll have to rest a little first. This lets him see all of it. Then he can probe his own memory. Then he can try refreshing only the PeCo spell traces or something like that. I expect it will take some time, but first he must rest.
As you rest, Alexandro directs Oscar to collect reports and deliver information to you (imparting all knowledge revealed above).
Then you try again.
I gotta admit I don't know how to adjudicate this one. Hold on while I consult a seer.
Although no one does notice it at fist, a crack appear in the air, before the Vault, enlarging itself, appearing as though opening into the nightsky. It takes the shape of a woman, staff in hand, arm raised, and then leaves place to the woman whose shape it outlined. As soon as she appears, the woman, whose grey hair betray the age, collapses.
Hand still clenched on her staff, she raises herself a little, visibly weakened, looking with horror at her surroundings, the shock and confusion making her at first oblivious to the characters present.
So it's not that there's that much damage, per se, just a lot of inexplicably dead people, then?
((Sorry, had to go back through the Dark Night thread to re-set the scene for myself...the whole "the covenant is pretty much destroyed" image I had apparently was way off.))
Vibria, after having done her initial look-see, is near Alexandro in case she can do anything useful. ((I take it she can feel that she's in a [strike]hostile[/strike] foreign Aegis?))
For some reason, I'm having a hard time following. So, if I understand it correctly, for every one of "our" men or magi that went down, we took three of them with us? Or the other way around? Somehow, I missed before that there were any enemy casualties, I thought all the dead were ours.
And it sounds like they may have had someone on the inside? Possibly someone who's unaccounted for?
And by "new door" he means the new Hermes Portal that was supposed to connect Andorra and Doissetep (I think)?