When Nicolae leaves there is a short conversation between the two adults, then they place the black-silver stone at the entryway to the cave.
(OOC: Was Nicolae hampered by the rock in any way?)
No
Unaware of all the activities Frederic wants check the awareness of the guards at night.
With all that folks around he wouldn’t be surprised if someone will try to sneak in our new covenant to steal either information or food or something else.
Better let our guards know that Frederic will get them if they would take a nap at watch.
He takes a rope and a hook, warped in some fabric with him
He will cast Vision of heats light on himself and fly over the new wall. While landing his magical vision let him see the heat of a Human and a dog somewhere close to the caves of the natives. Curios what they are doing out there at night he decides to fly over and watch them.
Frederic believes they cannot see or hear him, so he will hover in place around 50 paces over them.
Vulpus will spend most of the night observing, then about an hour before dawn will leave, assuming nothing prevents him.
Terra will do roughly the same, first returning the Atlas to whatever they use for a library and then returning to whatever she is using for her room to recast her Parma.
The man returns to the entrance of the cave after a while, then comes back to gesture to the children to come outside. They spend a few hours playing outside under the unseen eyes of magi and familiars before they head inside and to bed. The man and his companion stay up until the children are asleep then... Vulpus may want to diver his eyes for this part...
He also wishes he could stop up his ears, too. What is with humans and all this loud drama?!? Unfortunately this has been permanently seared into his brain, and he is a rather visual fox....
Before dawn Frederic goes back to his original plan. He tries to climb over the wall like a (normal) intruder. If the guards get aware of him he is happy. If not Frederic will have a serious conversation with them.
OOC - we still only have four fighting grogs, and the wall is huge, well over a mile long. Therefore we would have one guy patrolling the tents at night, but that's pretty much it for guards. Nicolae and Vuplus probably help a little. I believe at this point in the story Tartessos, Terra, and the Atlas (perhaps others, I lost track) are on the wall nearest where the natives were spotted.
In this case Frederic will do some night shifts in the next days. Frederic will check the wall and tends each night one or two times. Gustav will assist. Each round shall take around one or two hours. They try to compensate the lack of sleep during daytime.
OOC plus a sleeping Maffeo. He put one extra guard at that spot of the wall just so we could see if anything happens at night, its a temporary things as we have few people for guard duties right now.
since we appear to have stopped investigating the locals I'm going to call this as the end of this adventure.
5xp
confidence:
Vulpus:1
Nicholae:1
If Vulpus invests a season staying with the family in a similar manner as tonight to practice language, would he be able to take the 8 xp in Mostly Dead Language (Vaguely Semitic)?
I think we should investigate the Cave (the one we can see from our wall). There might be some more caves. Frederic would be happy to visit them. But he is not the best choice to do this secretly.
Assuming Frederic knows about Nicola´s ability to become a bat he will ask Nicola to see how deep the caves are.
It would be ancient Maltese, and while the base SQ would be 8 you are not studying with your magus so you would need to consume vis since 8 is also your might.
Flavius: I agree, but it might be better to start a new thread for it. I know that Antonius has probably mentionned to the council that there is a regio in the blue grotto that has a lot of magical crabs which might be a potential source of vis. It could be good idea to go back there and see what we can gather. I am also up to exploring the cave near the covenant with you as Nicolae if you are up to it.
Vulpus will report back to the council about the evening, and liklihood that the aboriginal Maltese likely know the cave networks well, including caves unknown to the current inhabitants. He volunteers to spend two seasons learning the language to make further contact, but it will take eight vis to overcome his "learning disability" (four per season). Vulpus can cover two and requests the council provide the remaining six. After Vulpus gains basic facility with their language, he could teach it to anyone else (such as one of our Puissant Language peeps).
[tab][/tab] Maffeo is slightly disappointed to miss the encounter. He also wishes to learn the language, but on second thought he capitulates. Sadly this early in making the covenant work there is a lot of organizational details to be taken care of. He will take a turn learning from the willy fox later. The Mercere points out to the Flambeau that those particular caves are under the Count's direct control... and he doesn't like us (or just Maffeo...). The young Italian asks in Council who needs rooms in the Pyramid/s so he can co-ordinate things. All ready he takes one or two of the covenfolk to "modify" the basements for immediate use as storage cellars... winter is coming soon. He also arranges a sack of provisions to be left near the entrance of those caves each week, containing grain, fresh fruit and maybe some cured meat.
"Yes! Let´s explore the caves!
First the ones close to us, and second the blue grotto. We should be well aware what is close to our home before we start to explore sites around.
But I must agree with our young Merecere:"
"If we go to investigate our cave I suggest we change our appearance to one similar like our natives.
On the other hand the blue grotto might be more rewarding in terms of vis…
Whatever the Council decides to do first I will volunteer."