A little curly-haired boy named Daniel comes to Cygna's cottage and knocks. When she answers, he says, "Are you Cygna because if so Lilly sez to assemble your awn-terrodge and meet her at her pool tomorrow at an hour past sunrise and if you don't know where it is then I can show you where it is if you need." He gulps for breath, then sticks out his hand expectantly.
Cygna smiles at the lad. [color=red]"Thank you. I'll be with you in just a moment," she says, then ducks into her room to get a tip for Daniel (of the appropriate amount, I'm going to assume a penny, and then that amount again).
[color=red]"Here you go," she says as she hands him the penny. [color=red]"If you would be so kind as to show me where the pool is, I would be greatly appreciative."
As they walk, she will ask him his name, what Aunt Lily (and, with no Guile, has next to no chance to avoid a sneer in her voice) said about what the entourage was planning or where they were going, and just general information about the place, being a newcomer herself. Once she's been shown to the pool, she will thank him again and hand him the other penny.
Sometime between the end of the Council meeting and the entourage's departure for Chez de Montfort, she will track down Marcus (the turb captain). [color=red]"I will very soon find myself in likely need of a shield grog, Captain, as the man who had served in that capacity for several years was killed while trying to clear out a band of bandits last year, and I have not had the opportunity to replace him. I hope you have someone who will be available starting tomorrow."
((As I have no idea who to take, or even to ask for, I'm hoping people will volunteer characters to go with Cygna and Hiems to deal with the Baron de Montfort.))
(We could assume Hiems brought part or all of his entourage with him. These are already developped characters, so this'd make it easier. And who's not to love Gerard?)
He looks down at the coin in his hand, then looks back up with a scowl.
"She didn't tell me anything about what you are doing. I'm just a page. I was born here but my brother wasn't. The fishing is really good in the es-chew-wary. This is the pool right here." He scowls at the penny and shoves it in his pocket reluctantly.
The pool is a bubbling spring with the bluest, purest water imaginable. Despite being only 10-12' across, it seems to extend down infinitely, as you can't see the bottom. There are four piles of smooth, polished stones of various colours arranged around the pool; Daniel picks up one of the shiny white ones and drops it in, then sits down in the grass, pulling his knees up to his chest and folding his arms across his knees.
Nothing happens at first, but just when Cygna is ready to leave, Liliana rises from the pool clad in a strange dress of diaphanous blue and green gauze, which does not appear to be wet (neither does her hair, for that matter). Daniel rises and pipes up, "I brought her!" and sticks out his hand expectantly; Lily smiles and a small tart appears in his outstretched palms. He chows down with gusto as he runs off.
Since no players volunteered any characters--
"Michiel might be interested, or perhaps Timothy. Michiel is most apt, I think, but his Latin is still poor; his native tongue is Norman, however, so if you intend to go to the Baron's castle, his native tongue could be of use to you. Timothy speaks no Latin yet, and his native tongue is English, which unless I'm mistaken on your accented Latin, sounds like your native tongue as well. Would either man serve your interests, at least temporarily?"
He looks down at the coin in his hand, then looks back up with a scowl.
"I'm Daniel ben Josef. She didn't tell me anything about what you are doing, I'm just a page. I was born here but my brother wasn't. The fishing is really good in the es-chew-wary. This is the pool right here." He scowls at the penny and shoves it in his pocket reluctantly.
The pool is a bubbling spring with the bluest, purest water imaginable. Despite being only 10-12' across, it seems to extend down infinitely, as you can't see the bottom. There are four piles of smooth, polished stones of various colours arranged around the pool; Daniel picks up one of the shiny white ones and drops it in, then sits down in the grass, pulling his knees up to his chest and folding his arms across his knees.
Nothing happens at first, but just when Cygna is ready to leave, Liliana rises from the pool clad in a strange dress of diaphanous blue and green gauze, which does not appear to be wet (neither does her hair, for that matter). Daniel rises and pipes up, "I brought her!" and sticks out his hand expectantly; Lily smiles and a small tart appears in his outstretched palms. He chows down with gusto as he runs off.
Since no players volunteered any characters--
"Michiel might be interested, or perhaps Timothy. Michiel is most apt, I think, but his Latin is still poor; his native tongue is Norman, however, so if you intend to go to the Baron's castle, his native tongue could be of use to you. Timothy speaks no Latin yet, and his native tongue is English, which unless I'm mistaken on your accented Latin, sounds like your native tongue as well. Would either man serve your interests, at least temporarily?"
((Woops! I forgot all about Timothy, I submitted him as a Grog. I'll run him if you like))
((I'm actually working on a shield grog for her by the name of Charles, in between work and stress-naps. Thumbnail sketch is a mute harper. Maxing out his Single Weapon and Music (for his age, 23). Looks like Jericho. I'll try to have him up by Friday, since I'm going to follow up on a job lead tomorrow and we have to go get Mom's new military id Thursday afternoon, and that's going to be almost a day trip, since that's about an hour each way.))
Cygna frowns back at him but manages to hold her tongue.
Ah, I see, Cygna thinks to herself as she watches Daniel scamper off.
She then turns her attention to Liliana, and regards her coolly. [color=red]"I must say, I'm surprised to see you here, Liliana. I was told that the boy was simply showing me where we were to meet tomorrow. To what do I owe the...pleasure of this meeting?"
"Surprised to see me? This is my home, child. I suppose the boy thought to show you how to summon me forth from my sanctum.
"Do not disturb me again until you are ready to depart." With that, she sinks and vanishes into the pool.
[color=red]"Wha...why, you..." Cygna sputters, at a loss for words. She grabs one of the white stones and winds up to throw it into pool so she can let Liliana know just what she thinks of this little stunt, when she sees Adorjan watching her intently from the other side.
[color=red]"What do you want?" she says.
"The same thing you want, Katerina. The same thing I've always wanted. I want what's best for you. I want you to realize your full potential."
He then walks across the surface of the pond, his feet scarcely making a ripple, as he spreads his arms wide. "And I want you to accept that I was right all along."
Cygna blanches and takes a step backward, then hurls the stone through Adorjan with all her might.
The shade looks down at where the stone passed through him, then back up at Cygna. "You wound me, child," he says sarcastically, then fades away.
Cygna turns and stalks back to her cottage, trying in vain to regain her composure. When she returns home, she will take her heartbeast form unobserved and spend a good while in the marsh, feeding, and then tries to cast Form of the Phlegmatic Heartbeast upon herself. ((MuAn, can only be cast in Heartbeast form. Mu 6 + An 3 + Sta 0 + Aura 5 – No Gestures 5 + die roll of 2 = 11, vs. a Spell Level of 20. Spell is cast, and Cygna loses a Fatigue Level. My assumption is that, rather than gaining the Cool Headed Personality Trait at +3, it serves to cancel out her Hot-Headed Personality Trait for the spell's duration.))
That afternoon (after Cygna's magically calmed herself), she will track down Aequi.
[color=red]"Excuse me, Aequi. Liliana mentioned during the meeting that you might have, or might be able to find a necklace that will let me converse in any language. Do you happen to know where it is, and would you object to my borrowing it for this business with the Baron?"
She doesn't find Aequi (he seems to be off performing some duties for House Mercere) but she does find Shmuel camping out in Aequi's lab, and Shmuel shows her where the necklace is.
[color=red]"Thank you, Shmuel. I will return it as soon as we're finished." She will then ask how to activate the magic, and then don the necklace.
^-_-^<
The next morning, Cygna casts Form of the Melancholic Heartbeat upon herself (giving her
+1 Sta and +3 to all rolls to communicate across a language barrier; the spell is on p. 36 of HoH: MC). Her Casting Total is Mu 3 + An 6 + Sta 0 – No Gestures 5 + Aura 5 + die roll of 3 = 12, vs. a Spell Level of 20.
Shortly before leaving, she dons her mundane garb (and the necklace), and slip her ghastly yellow member's robe on over it.
At the appointed hour, Cygna (along with her new shield grog Charles) meets up with Hiems and his entourage before heading out to Liliana's pond, singing softly to herself. Once there, she picks up one of the white stones and plunks it into the water.
Hiems politely salutes cygna, being (for him) quite pleased, for once.
Nice day to go out, lady cygna. I am quite please to do this with you. If only we didn't have to wear these... looking at the robes...
I'll tell you, I'll get out of that as soon as I can. But who knows? Maybe the sheer horror of these robes will incite the baron to leniency and pity?
Cygna smiles, glad that Hiems is in such a pleasant mood for a change, and part of her hoping that it's not merely the weather.
[color=red]"I know. Only seven hundred and twenty nine days to go!" She laughs at his joke. [color=red]"I do hope the weather bodes well for our mission."
She introduces Charles, mentioning that he doesn't seem to understand Latin, and that he can't speak.
"I presume you are ready, then. Take my hands, link hands with those who are accompanying you, hold your breath, and most importantly, don't let go." Liliana takes Cygna's and Heims' hands, and in a moment they find themselves underwater.
Cygna is shocked by the sensation of freezing cold water overtaking her, and struggles to suppress the reflex to gasp. The air in her lungs burns with the shock to her CNS, and she chokes a bit and sucks in cold salt water.
Heims, being naturally cold to the touch, doesn't even notice the temperature of the water. Feels just fine to him-- heated bathwater probably scalds him a bit, but this water feels just right to his body temperature 
(Because he doesn't experience any temperature shock, he doesn't need to make any Swim+Stam rolls to keep his breath held.)
You are underwater for less than half a minute (though to Cygna, it feels like an eternity) before the group re-surfaces. As you look around, it seems that you're still at the covenant-- you're in the marsh, and the lighthouse is just there-- only after a moment it becomes apparent that this is a slightly different lighthouse, and the Great Hall is missing. "Welcome to Flint," Liliana intones emotionlessly. She holds your hands as she walks the group to the shore, and only after she releases your hands and dives back into the marsh, does it become apparent that Cygna is soaking wet, while Hiems and any grogs accompanying you are completely dry. 
"I presume you are ready, then. Take my hands, link hands with those who are accompanying you, hold your breath, and most importantly, don't let go." Liliana takes Cygna's and Heims' hands, and in a moment they find themselves underwater.
Cygna is shocked by the sensation of freezing cold water overtaking her, and struggles to suppress the reflex to gasp. The air in her lungs burns with the shock to her CNS, and she chokes a bit and sucks in cold salt water.
Heims, being naturally cold to the touch, doesn't even notice the temperature of the water. Feels just fine to him-- heated bathwater probably scalds him a bit, but this water feels just right to his body temperature (Because he doesn't experience any temperature shock, he doesn't need to make any Swim+Stam rolls to keep his breath held.)
You are underwater for less than half a minute (though to Cygna, it feels like an eternity) before the group re-surfaces. As you look around, it seems that you're still at the covenant-- you're in the marsh, and the lighthouse is just there-- only after a moment it becomes apparent that this is a slightly different lighthouse, and the Great Hall is missing. "Welcome to Flint," Liliana intones emotionlessly. She holds your hands as she walks the group to the shore, and as she releases your hands, everyone except Hiems becomes magically dry. She leans forward, presses something small into his hand, and whispers into Hiems' ear, "Your Parma is formidable; I cannot dry your clothing and hair. Keep this sapphire with you; keep it safe and dry. When you are ready to return, simply wet it with your own water-- if you willingly place your own blood or saliva upon the stone, I will be able to locate you, wherever you are, excepting Heaven or Hell." Without any further ado, she takes a few steps into the marsh, and promptly vanishes as if having dropped into a sinkhole.
Well, Hiems is happy to go out with cygna, but he can't get too happy, or else it'll just crush him.
And he is pleased to see her smile, after seeing her being tormented so many times by Adorjan
Oh. It does seem we're breaking the limit of time, then, because it sure seems like 10 thousand days to me.
But you know what?
Hopefully, either our robes will scare the clouds away, or the weather will be so bad at this outrage that it'll drain the color away out of this.
Hiems feels like a wet duck, and ridiculous... But, due to his virtue and flaw, he's probably incredibly hot, hot enough to bring quite a lot of trouble upon him, although he absolutely can't realize it.
He squeezes his hair, to draw the water out of them. This day began so well, he feels doused already. Well, maybe the robe? Nah, still as hideous as before... And it clings... 
Liliana... 
It is unseemly for a lady to be that close to a man He doesn't really know what to do, and is a little paralysed. The last time someone was that close... 
this single thought cools him, feeling like a rush of cold water.
Taking a light step back, he says very softly
I thank you for this gift, lady liliana. I shall hold it preciously, although I sure hope everything will go well enough that we won't have to use it.
The baron's manor is a couple miles inland from the lighthouse. The walk takes a bit longer than it otherwise would, given the squickiness of the marshy terrain.
At the gates is a squat, swarthy man, who spots the group nearly half a mile from the gates, and shouts out. With Lamentus' sapphire necklace, Cygna hears, " 'alt! 'oo d'you be? An' wot the 'ell is wrong wi' that 'un's 'air?"
Cygna comes up coughing and sputtering, mad at herself for doing something so stupid, especially in front of Liliana and Hiems. Some waterfowl you are, Cygna, she thinks. She resists the urge to yank her hand away from Liliana, but realizes that the Merinita must have a good reason for not releasing them until they've reached the shore.
Cygna says nothing as this witch leans in close and whispers something that she can't make out to Hiems. She merely growls under her breath, overcome with jealousy.
"I see you haven't forgotten everything I'd taught you, child. Embrace it. Let it make you stronger."
Cygna doesn't dignify Adorjan's goading with a reply, but she does breathe a sigh of relief when Liliana makes her exit.
Yes. Yes, he is 
Won't hear Cygna complaining 
, as she (hopefully) discretely checks him out with a smile.
If there's something to stuff her jaundice robes in, she will slip them off. If not, she will sing a spontaneous MuAn spell to change the color to something more aesthetically pleasing...perhaps a light shade of brown. Looks like it should be Base 1 ("Make a superficial change to something made of animal products (like changing its color)"), with either R: Personal, D: Sun (+2), T: Part (+1), since her clothes are considered part of her as far as spells go, or R: Touch (+1), D: Sun (+2), T: Ind. Either way, its Spell Level is 4. Her Spellcasting Total is Mu 6 + An 3 + Int 4 + Aura ? + die roll of 4 = 17÷2=8½±½Aura Modifier. [color=red]♪♫Magic, rid me of this monstrosity/And garb me in something more pleasing to see♫♪"
As they travel, Cygna passes the time by singing an upbeat tune in English. Com 1 + Music (Singing) 2 + die roll of 3 = 6. Adequate.
When she hears the guard, she will look at Hiems. [color=red]"He seems disturbed by your hair...any chance you can make it look more normal so we can blame it on a trick of the light, or should we come up with a convincing tale right quick?"