Meanwhile, Carmen takes the Invisibility Cloak and flies up to the balcony. She lands with no trouble, despite the wet stone. She looks within and sees that this level of the tower is completely empty. There is a huge staircase leading downwards and another leading upwards; I rolled a Perception + Awareness check for Carmen, and she notices that she cannot hear any sounds coming from the staircase leading upwards, but she can hear the sounds of the kitchen from the staircase leading down to the second floor.
Ok, I'll try the balkony, then.
Hum... for flying, I was thinking taking it to the balkony, and that afterwards, she'd crawl.
Can I keep her flying while inside the tower? Probably yes, if I cast it through the IT, but a flying wooden spider wouldn't be very stealthy, so she'd avoid this
Talisman attunements add to totals to spontaneous, ritual and formulaic magic, it's in the talisman chapter of the corebook (around p95, IIC), and one of its greatest benefits.
Hélène's Talisman has the following attunements: Magnet: +4 Rego Terram; Basalt: +3 Perdo; Mercury: +5 Muto
So, for exemple, when sponting a ReTe spell, her total is (Sta + Re + Te + 4)/5
Further, spell focis (in HoH: S) is an ability of the ristuciani that allow them to add S&M bonuses of an item they have to their spontaneous casting totals, after division, in order to compensate for their Weak Spontaneous Magic (It was confirmed by david chart on these boards).
So, when sponting a ReTe spell, if the has a magnet (like, with her talisman), she can add a further +4 after division.
So, for exemple, a normal maga with Sta 01, ReTe 30 and a Magnet attunement can spont without fatigue a (01+30+4)/5 ) lvl 07 spell, or a (35+die)/2 spell with fatigue (average lvl 20).
That same maga, as a rusticiani, could only spont a (01+30+4)/5)+4 = lvl 11 spell without fatigue, and that’s all
I’ve got a sheet that displays Arachne’s spont totals without aura or ceremonial magics, before and after spell foci are added, if this may help (it means she’s predictable)
Arachné will describe what she sees.
That’s quite strange. Why would he do such a thing? Anyway, I hope to get a good read of the place, maybe gather an AC that’d allow us to translocate in
She’ll try to have a look around, and have the spider walk stealthily, close to the walls.
(Note: it’s a spider because she likes the theme, but it’s actually about as big as a hand, so, even if small it may be noticed. She could just as well have chosen another theme)
(Oh, also note: She can’t ear through the spider, only see, so that’s a weakness, too)
OOC, I've been in temporary Twilight because the boards happened to be down every time I looked, so I thought they were totally unusable for a month. Esteban had discussed with Vulcanus wanting to assist in this mission, which I think is important for character development. Is it OK with you guys if Esteban is along and has just been quiet up till now? I don't want to disrupt the story, so feel free to say he missed the chance.
Esteban is absolutely welcome along 
Arachne sees the same as Carmen: a totally blank floorplan and nothing inside it, a heavy layer of dust on the floor. There are stairs going up and stairs going down.
Holy balls, I always thought attunements were just for effects that went into the talisman! I need to re-do Vulc's... Thanks!
Got it. Thanks.
That would require breaking a chunk out of the solid stone that the tower is made from... which will probably require PeTe or ReTe.
Upstairs or downstairs? The balcony is on the 3rd floor (which is empty).
At that size it will be quite conspicuous-- I'd say that spotting a spider that large, when it's moving, would only take an Awareness of EF6. Do you want to pick a smaller wooden spider before taking it into areas with people who might notice it?
OK, I'm convinced that the spell can still be maintained while out of range. You still can't cast new spells through the tunnel without an Arcane Connection, though. Without an Arcane Connection, Hermetic magic cannot affect a target the caster cannot perceive, so while the tunnel still exists, you must be able to perceive the spider or use an AC to affect it with magic, tunnel or no.
This says to me that Arachne cannot continue controlling the spider's movement when it's out of range, even if the spell is still being concentrated on. These are all very clever ideas, but they don't work without an Arcane Connection. Hermetic Limits aren't circumvented that easily. It won't affect the adventure, however.
Meanwhile, Carmen is on the third floor of the tower; she hears the bustle of meal preparation coming from the kitchen below, and she can smell baking bread and roasting apples. She hears nothing from the floor above her, and she can see a thick layer of dust on both sets of staircases.
While Carmen and Arachne are distracted, Esteban and Vibria spot the tower's front doors opening. A woman emerges, hunched over in the pouring rain. She is wearing a sling, holding some sort of pack against her back. She looks up toward the sky, trying to shield her eyes with one hand; she then raises the other hand and points a wand towards the sky. Within moments, Carmen's rainstorm vanishes.
Ticeti, ticeti, toc. At its small pace, the spider goes down the stairs.
Yes. Just don't forget that these aren't automatic, you need to do it, one at a time. But yeah, it's awesome 
Yes, I know. It just seemed to me that, woodcrafting wise, unless she dedicated a lot of time and energy on something smaller (and how much smaller can it become?), this'd be about the "right" size. Also, smaller means slower. So no, she hasn't a smaller spider (though, now that I think of it, a MuHe spell could do the trick). Which is why she will be careful.
At the bottom of the stairs is a landing; grand curving staircases flank this one, leading down to the grand foyer.
To the left is a pair of doors leading to a grand banquet hall. To the right, one door leads to a kitchen and another looks to be some kind of common room with servants inside. (According to Vulc's map the only thing past the servant commons is some private rooms for some of the ranking servants. There is also access from the kitchens down to the storage warehouse.)
Vibria watches the (presumptive) maga intently, raising one hand absently to wipe the drool from the corner of her slightly-parted lips. Want, she thinks, as she tries to determine if the woman is indeed a maga or just a high-ranking mortal, and whether she can get close enough to take her out and steal the wand without any repercussions.
Those around her can almost see the wheels turning in Vibria's head.
As the woman disappears back into the tower, Ludwig scowls. "Hure," he mutters.
[color=red]"'Hure'? Hure who?" Vibria asks, not taking her eyes off the door.
"Uhhh.. to be speaking of the Latin in the poverty," Ludwig replies. "Lady is from yesterday lover my boss. Hure."
Vibria looks at the others. [color=red]"Does anybody know what he's talking about?"
Vibria notices Ludwig smirk, and suspects the grog may speak Latin a lot better than he lets on.
Esteban explains, "Ludwig clearly knows this woman, and apparently her name is Hure. Vibria, can you turn invisible?"
[color=red]"No, I can't. I would need someone, or something, to cast it on me."
Bernhard shakes his head. Gemma. Woman of Caduceus. Was woman of Vulcanus.
[color=red]"Gemma?" Vibria asks. [color=red]"She was Caduceus's wife? Lover? After she was Vulcanus's?"
((edited because, like a doofus, I put the same name twice for no apparent reason.))
Vulcanus first, Caduceus now.
(assuming I'm reading old posts correctly)