OOC: Planning the journey

I have Realms of power: Magic and have read it. That where Valerius interest in magical being come from. :slight_smile: Valerius is all for a lab for him, even if it is a simple one. He also wish to make use of magical spirits to guide our way.

Do we have any idea how big our entourage is, yet?

OK, let me put some ideas out to get things moving.

  1. We need enough gear and equipment for at least one lab, this includes building materials to make it more stable, and is likely going to be a big tent with a wooden floor.
  2. We need one camel apiece for riding, and more camels to carry gear.
  3. We need enough food and water to make it to the first oasis, and then probably double that so we can hold out between trips back and forth to Sousse.
  4. If possible we need to be prepared to take the oasis by force.
  5. We need a shield grog each.
  6. We need attendants or servants, I'm thinking 1 each.
  7. We need a turb of grogs, I'd like an even dozen.
  8. We need guides. 1 primary and en extra or two just in case, we might need to split up. A total of 3 would be good.
  9. Animal handlers. We probably need a few for all of the camels.

That covers the basics, maybe. So we're talking for the 7 magi:

7 shield grogs
7 servants
12 grogs
3 guides
6 camel handlers

That's 42 camels! Just for people to ride. We'd need more to carry the gear. I would think that with another 8 (an even 50) we could carry all the gear and people between them. That's a whole tribe or caravan pretty much.

Now then, we can drop this number down a bit, but we can only travel as fast as the slowest person, if that person isn't riding, then we're basically all walking. We might be able to double up a few riders and save some camels, maybe bring it down to a more reasonable number like 36. Can horses or carriages be used (I think I asked that before)? Some spontaneous magic that can be done to make this work (I can't assume that people have the actual spells or not):

  1. Need something to make the camels carry the magi.
  2. Might need something to make the grogs and servants not abandon or kill us.
  3. We can save on camels if we can make the gear smaller and lighter (Muto).
  4. We can also save by making the gear lighter (Rego).
  5. Some of the gear can be made with magic of a limited duration, creating it only as it's needed. The one that comes to mind would be tents, they're very bulky and heavy. If they were created at night and then disapeared at dawn that would save a lot of space and weight.
  6. Rego Aurum can be used to draw water from the air as needed so it doesn't need to be carried.
  7. Can anyone teleport?
  8. Rego Terram can be used to make the way smoother and easier to travel on.
  9. Can anyone fly?

We can travel lighter and assume our first foray is to scout and take the sight and then send back for the rest of the gear. We can make several trips from Sousse to the first oasis, the oasis being our main camp. That will require less gear and less camels, and make it look less like we're a caravan of nomads or a marching army.

Just some ideas to spur things along.

Calming a beast is base 4, add +1 touch, +2 sun (assuming they camels have to be constantly calmed. I'm not sure on that point) and we are looking at a ReAn 15 spell. Octavius can't do that, but perhaps another can. Same with Mentem spells to control the grogs.

With a good roll, Octavius could get off an unseen porter type spell, letting the object just hover in the air and we could rope it to a camel to tug it along for the day.

Octavius can cast Rise of the Feathery Body at sun duration on people if they wish it, and just rope them to a camel to be pulled along. He can also cast Trackless Step, sun duration if we wish to go unoticed. Both spells would cost him a fatigue level if he doesn't get a good role though, so don't expect a lot all at once. Octavius also has Eyes of the Treacherous Terrain that can be cast periodically to scout out problems.

That is the best he can do, that I can think of that would be helpful.

ReAN 15 is beyond Sekhmet. She is good in some arts but Animal is not one of them. Grogs can be reasoned with. Might be best to walk and have grogs lead the supply camels. This would let the camels be behind us in some distance. I doubt that many of us having a riding skill while we are at it.

Akoe has ReAn 17, so that's up to 8 spontaneously, assuming he fatigues himself. We'd need an effect with a duration of sun and a target of group. Maybe there's another solution then calming them.

Can also use Beast of Outlandish Size. Maybe on four camels a day. That's one to carry Sinmore, and three to handle extra baggage.

Also, would want to shave some hair off each of the riding camels daily. If I can bundle the hair in seperate stacks, and if we become seperated (they do have sand storms out here, don't they?), Akoe can track the camels using the arcane connection.

QC, I agree with your estimate. We're going to have a fairly large group. We would probably want our Grogs on Horses. How well do camels do in battle? Don't know. But I guess Sinmore is our General.

The camels can do very well in battle for mounts but don't expect them to fight like warhorse.

Speaking of horses, most of the horses will be arabians. Slightly smaller than europeans, bred for speed and carried unarmored rider. We can have 7 of our grogs to be animal handlers as well. Cutting numbers down.

7 shield grogs, 7 normal grogs is a lot for desert conditions where food is not as plentiful. Do we really need 7 servants. One good cook, a couple servants to carry food to serve us. Grogs can set up tents with servants help.

So 7 magi, 7 shield grog, 7 normal grog, 3 guides, 4 servants, gives 28. Still very large for a nomadic band trying to find a place to settle, we can get more once we find a stable place. A lot better than 42.

A group of 28 can work, I'd rather have a few more regular grogs, that even dozen I mentioned, but we can make do.

Sinmore can do the general thing, basically being in charge of the grogs, assuming they listen and understand. She can be pretty effective in that regard.

Just make sure the servants also have animal handling skills so they and the seven regular grogs can lead 11-15 camels whcih should be enough for all our supplies if we are on foot.

In case of battle, camels generally will just stand there unless attacked unlike horses which as skittish (camels are ornery) so that guards can just release reins and fight leaving servants with camels.

This also means that magi aren't on camels so there is not that issue. Sekhmet would like a camel any more than they like her. (No ride skill so 3 extra botch dice riding). Now if you wanted to get 28 servants so we are carried on litters, Sekhmet could go for that :).

If Sinmore is going to lead the grogs, I'd like to spend a season training them and also that she can learn the basic Arabic so she can command them effectively. Actually I'd like to write a few sessions of the training she'd do, and the magi would benefit from it also as Sinmore would like them to participate.

Sinmore is fine with walking, that wasa bit of nickname she had back at her covenant. The main thing is how slowly we'll be travelling. Rego Corpus spells of a personal range can be rather easily cast to help prevent feeling fatugue from the walk so we'll make decent time if everyone else is riding.

If no one minds, I'll start an IC post regarding the handling of the grogs.

Claudius wants to help with grog-wrangling. He doesn't know Arabic, but he's very capable with mentem.

Sekhmet is level 5 fluency in ARabic being of Egyptian birth. She is an arab by appearance.

Do you want to take a few seasons here to train the Grogs or head out first?

We do probably want to spend some time making them a cohesive unit.

A season of study might be good since set up one lab and then invent a spell to make beasts tolerate magi if that can be done in a season?

My ReAn Lab Total would be a 21. I think we're looking at a Level 20 effect. (Base lvl 4, R Voice, D Sun, T Group).

Akoe knows Aura of Rightful Authority. I thought instead of working out something to make the beasts tolerate the Gift, make a spell that makes them think the Gift is a sign of a dominant creature. It would let me use the similar spell bonus. Might also bring the Magnitude down. If I can get the spell down to a Lvl 15, I think I can invent it in two seasons.

Any thoughts?

Why aren't you doing it as Base 4, +1 touch, +2 sun for level 15. With a lab assistant or two, you might make it in a season. Touch works because we can hold hte camel still by grogs while you approach and touch it. . Target Ind since in no aura or magic aura, you could walk up to it and use a simple die roll. If you have good enough ReAn, you could do several a minute while they are saddled.

Trying to limit the number of times I would have to cast. Even if it's just for the Magi's mounts, that would be six castings a day. If I do it as a group, I could get them all as one.

But your point is taken. If I can get it done in one season, better than not. Especially if we'll be training Grogs at the same time.