The boys go and return with an assortment of items "The families said they have been practicing the safety guidelines, burning hair when it is cut and that they carry their most personal possessions with them, but we were able to collect these."
Lares asks for descriptions of the five grogs and writes them down with their names, with a particular focus on distinguishing features.
Then he casts Tunnel on all of the stuff his sons gathered, after which he sponts touch-range vision InIm to see which of the connections are to the right people. He marks down the grogs he has proper connections for.
Note: obviously this is happening the next day since his sons did not get arcane connections from their families at night.
There was one apparent mix up, as one of the arcane connections yields an image of a grog inside the covenant whose description matches the person he is scrying for.
Another one the arcane connection is apparently not as strong as believed or two old, and he gets no connection.
The other three he spots traveling together (along with the two he cannot scry directly) through the desert. It is hard to be sure of direction given how high the sun is in the sky, but they are likely headed north.
Ah, I didn't realize it was quite so late.
If possible, before Lares headed to bed, I would like him to lifelink spont Posing the Silent Question at Barshako at Touch. Whether he goes to bed depends on the outcome of this.
His casting score before die should be 25 with gestures & al., so 12 or 13, whichever way this is rounded. Target is 20.
He shoots for a penetration of 5.
His question is: "How do you intend to accomplish your plans for the covenant of Al Kufra?"
You only take the one fatigue for spontaneous casting, the reply is "I am done with Al Kufra if they will be done with me."
Lares furrows his brow.
Really?
He rests briefly, then casts the same spell again, with a different question:
"Why was Argentius killed?"
"For oppressing the Berber covenfolk."
He sighs, rests, then once more.
"How was Argentius killed?"
"With spears."
"What were each of the people present doing as Argentius was being killed?"
This time you botch the spontaneous spell, and feel her peering into your mind instead.
Urgh. Welcome onboard, Barshako. Like what you see, hmm?
He tries again.
"What were each of the people present doing as Argentius was being killed?"
Speaking of the passage of time, if you are taking time to rest from the fatigue of each of these castings it will already be close to midnight.
Casting Posing the silent question you have Int(5)+Me(7)+sta(3)+aura(8)=23 with a final target of 25 you need a total with your roll of 50- meaning you have to "roll" 27, making up the deficiency with your fatigue. The first time you rolled a 1 and 9, giving you an 18 (technically I messed this up, you should have taken 2 fatigue, not one) which would take 10 minutes if done properly or 2 minutes as I ruled it to recover. Since then each casting has ranged between 2 and nine- meaning you were short by 25 to 18- in fact by this point you should have already passed out from casting.
I think the life-linked levels are only calculated after dividing the casting total by two, so you don't divide the levels you get from fatigue.
I.e. since Lares' total without dice is 25 (with gestures & voice, obviously always used since he's in his lab), roll on average 5 = 30 then divide by two for 15. So he would expect to spend 2 fatigue on average.
The description simply says "roll to cast a spontaneous spell" which indicates the standard rules for spontaneous magic are in effect. Spontaneous magic specifically states (casting score+stress die)/2
So the die roll also gets divided. Before the die your total is 23, not 25, with a roll of 3 (on the low end) this would be a total of 26, divides to 13. You are correct that the fatigue levels should only apply afterwards, bout this would be 30-13=17 for 4 levels, with 3 for a more average roll. 4 levels would take an hour to drop to 3 levels, which requires an additional half hour to drop further, so while you would not be unconscious, it would still be getting very late. Of course fatigue levels from a botch are not specified, but if we use 0 as the calculation basis that is 11 or 12, which is another 4 levels. 1 spell was cast with minimal rest time, 3 at a half hour each, one at an hour and a half, and then the botch, which would mean you have been conducting this "interview" for about 4 1/2 hours. Resting from the botch would take this to 6 hours total. At minimum you will need a stamina roll to stay awake with it being so late, or pick it up in the morning...
When you do get the question asked (this one will require only a half hour rest afterwards) the answer is "some were stabbing him, others were watching."
There's something here I am not understanding. Sorry for this back-and-forth, but it would be good that I get this for future reference, so I don't make the same mistake again.
We are in agreement about Int(5)+Me(7)+sta(3)+aura(8)=23
Then I would add +1 for loud voice and +1 for exaggerated gestures - I don't understand why Lares doesn't get this, but this isn't really that important.
We were in agreement in your previous post that Posing the silent question (level 20) + 5 for penetration is together level 25. You seem to have raised that to 30 in your second post, though, and I don't understand where the extra 5 levels come from.
So I would expect, on a botch, to get 25/2=12. Deduct this from the 25 specified above, and you get 13. So three levels of fatigue needed.
So I suppose there are two questions here: does spontaneous casting get the +2 from exaggerated/loud, and is Posing the Silent Question at level 20 + 5 penetration a level 25 target.
I was under the impression for some reason that you were aiming for penetration of 10. That would shorten the rest time required.
As to the +1, you hadn't specified you were using a loud voice and exaggerated gestured- trivial, I suppose, but I try to base my numbers on statements rather than implications.
Fair enough, now we're on the same page. I'll use the expression "exaggerated and loud" from now on to make things clearer, and spell out the math every time, so it's clear what is what.
So how late is it now? I'm not sure of the rolls. Shall we call it midnight, have him go to bed with what knowledge he has, and continue in the morning?
That works, with of course also sending his sons out in the morning as well, and the results from that spelled out as above.
Alright, so Lares saw that the grogs are traveling somewhere and that he has the right arcane connections to three of them.
He rests off fatigue, then lifelink sponts Posing the Silent Question at one of the three traveling grogs for which he has connections.
Score before die should be 25 with exaggerated&loud. Target is 20, no penetration.
His question is, again: "How do you intend to accomplish your plans for the covenant of Al Kufra?"