One of the troupe’s magi has taken to using the InMe spell “Posing the Silent Question” at Eye range with no Voice nor Gestures. On all the mundanes at, or visiting the Covenant.
Things like “Do you owe allegiance to people outside” after an enemy snuck in and lay in wait.
Does the mage pause or anything while processing the answer? Or even posing the question?
Is this where Guile is required?
I would think it depends on the exact spell design, maybe sigils, and what the mage is doing at the time. One more person in a receiving line probably doesn’t need to make a roll. If you are holding a conversation then processing multiple an additional “voice” without anyone noticing something off might. If your sigil is the sound of distant thunder then you might as well pack it in.
Casting a spell or activating a magical item takes a round of action, as a general rule. I concur with Silveroak that the Casting Sigil probably has some bearing on subtlety or lack thereof.
This is actually where the Concentration ability is required. Take a look at the Concentration chart in the Hermetic Magic chapter (I can’t easily pull up the data on my phone right now). Casting a spell while carrying on a conversation is Stamina + Concentration vs EF 12 or 15 if I remember, and a failed roll ruins the spell.
Now, instead you can have the Magus just pause talking for a round every time they cast a spell, and then they could roll their Presence + Guile to act or explain away the pauses. But if they want to work it seamlessly into conversation then they’ll need to use Concentration.
Presumably the caster might just let the other person talk - as long as they’re saying at least six seconds worth of a monologue you can space out, then cast the spell while nodding along and making intense eye contact. I might call for a roll to hide a reaction to particularly exciting revelations, and maybe a hard concentrate to retain both the information from the spell and whatever this peasant was rambling on about.
Perhaps I should suggest that the player character should Master PtSQ with the Fast Cast ability.
After all he has practiced casting it so much he surely has gained xp towards Mastery if he so chooses.
If the mage has already Silent and Deft caster, inventing a variant of Posing the Silent Question at Voice range would be the most simple solution. They just need to utter a few words to have the range effective, but they can talk normally. Eventually, he will invent at Sight range, which is scary for any type of investigation bases story.
My character reinvented it at R:Touch. It is designed to be cast using an intangible tunnel at R:Sight D:Sun. It allows to cast as many questions as needed.
My character reinvented it, because when he had to use the R:Eye variant, the approach he used to maintain eye contact resulted in the death of the target after a few questions. That should not be used on innocent people…