Anastasia nods to Bartomeus. "Very much. We may want to look whether any of these links to the mortal worlds have a similar portal. Until we speak the language though, we'll have some barriers to overcome." Anastasia looks at the young warrior maidens, wondering if they are valkyries... Valkyries are supposed to have wings, don't they? Then again, maybe these ghosts aren't warriors... "I'm not sure what else to do here until we learn the language. Should we visit some of those atriums?"
Kriegeist nods. "Yes, let's do that. Maybe we'll find more rocks."
[When we inspected the vestiges, were we already seeing the atria, or were we at a distance?]
When you inspected the vestiges you saw the buildings they presented as from the outside. You have no idea what is "inside" any of them.
"I agree. Let's look into one of the atria. Perhaps we try the one that led to the area near Berlin or Stuttgart. They might have a higher likelihood of using a language one of us can piece together," suggests Bartomeus as the group turns to walk away from the town center.
"If we don't find more rocks, then perhaps we can cross back over and fill a sack and bring them back over. We can collect them again on our next visit. I could probably convince Aurelius to help us tuck them out of the way near an atrium or two."
Anastasia agrees with Bartomeus and heads towards the atrium connecting to the Berlin site.
Incidentally Halfway between Prague and Berlin is still a very long ways from Berlin:
You step through the door of the house and into a primitive village with domed huts made of what seem to be bleached sticks with leather hides stretched over them. There are around a hundred such huts in the village and nothing else, Aurelius reports these are the same as the houses from the main village, except that they don't seem to lead to anywhere.
Is the place filled with ghosts as well? Is there anything remarkable about the area besides the huts? How large are the huts?
Kriegeist looks around for a rock with vis in it.
(using non-fatiguing spont for a InVi 5 Mom/Per/Sight)
There are ghosts here, but not nearly so many as in the previous village, 5 people are walking around at the moment. The huts are 126 feet across and 15 feet tall.
Anastasia will try and speak to the local ghosts, see if they understand Low German and if she can understand them.
They show no sign of understanding low German. You do notice that spirits are passing through the threshold between this and the realm you were in previously. A rock from the area around the covenant is also located. It contains vis.
"These huts may be rustic, but they are huge, as if we had a minor noble living there... or an entire clan in a hut."
Anastasia will want to visit some of the huts to see what they look like inside.
(I'm assuming Kriegeist will pick up the rock)
"Found something interesting, my dear?"
Kriegeist picks up the rock, and nods, with a little smile. "I did. Now we can be rock wanderers too. I suppose this means we need to check them all."
Bartomeus walks closer as Kriegeist picks up the rock.
"Rock wanderers, perhaps. But I wonder if we could also become rock farmers? If we took some seasons to catalog and track the magical nature of these placesā¦ Identify which rocks take on vis the easiest based on the particular flavor of the vestigeā¦ Track the time required for the substances to soak up the requisite magical essencesā¦" His voice trails off in muttering thoughts as the Bonisagus contemplates the possibilities.
Kriegeist strokes his beard thoughtfully, staring off into space, pontificating.
"Given that these atria correspond to the magical analogues of widely scattered mundane places, I would wager that in each of these locales, there were vis sources that previously produced vis, but since Mingus put these rocks here, no longer do. I think he's found a way to intercept liquid vis before it condenses into the mundane world, but his method is rather simplistic and elementary. Knowing that this is a possibility, since I am here to address the problem, I expect we can find a much more elegant way to drain the liquid vis directly, without doing anything so banal as leaving rocks around. It's a fascinating project, and I'm eager to tackle it. It might be that this is just a way to perform the normal vis extraction procedure passively, but I can hope for something better, to be learned here. Once we've collected all the rocks, I'd like to leave a few untouched, whatever forms of vis are least desired by you, my sodales, so that I may study them and perhaps learn something revolutionary."
Anastasia chimes in "Let's keep track of which atrium yields what type of vis and how much vis was collected from the local rocks. And sure, Kriegeist, if we're able to gather as much vis from these atriums as I think we will be able to, there should be some vis to support your project. Until such a time as we have a more elegant way of collecting that vis, however, we should still leave something, whether rocks or something else, to collect the vis. Finally something to study with."
"Should we invite the fellow we spoke to back to Gardinia for a season? Or find another to help us learn Raetian?" asks Bartomeus as they discuss the situation and possible paths before them.
"Without deeper knowledge of the language, it will be challenging to learn the subjects they seem to be teaching here."
Kreigeist shrugs. "Why not ask? I might have another way, but I'm not sure of it, so an alternative would be good. As for taking care of this vis... I have an idea."
Putting the rock in his pocket, he steps outside, and starts casting a spell. He creates tray, made of wood light enough to write on, in the rough shape of the village, with a cuplike indentation for each house, big enough to hold a rock. It is not to scale, but the placing of the cups corresponds roughly to the placing of the houses. Then he takes the rock from his pocket and plunks it down into the corresponding cup.
"There. We can use this. Just write the names above the cups."
[CrHe 15 Base 3 (create wood in an unnatural shape) R: Touch (+1) D: Moon (+3) T: Ind
Rolls on discord for spellcasting and finesse.
Spellcasting fine, got a 5 on finesse.]
Anastasia observes Kriegeist creating the tray. "That is ingenious. I like it."
Assuming nothing else is in this magic boundary, Anastasia would like to visit another, Saxony this time. GM should weigh in as to whether we should roleplay each of the atrium regios, as I suspect we'll want to visit them all to pick up any rock Mingus may have left behind.
The Saxony site looks like the inside of a single large common sleeping room with a dark grey floor and walls of baked bricks. A single rock sets near the entrance here as well, with sleeping pallets laid out along the ground.