"Oh yes, when I was a child I had been invited to feat at the smith's house, but I arrived late and he had already put his hound to watch. I was attacked and killed the creature in self defense with my bare hands. The smith was of course upset because it was such a fine and massive hound, so I promised him I would guard his house until he could raise another. Thus I became his hound and the name has followed me since."
Her eyes widen into an expression of being suitably impressed as he talks of killing a hound with his bare hands. "My goodness, that sounds like a frightfully dull job for a man such as yourself! I hope it didn't take him all too long to raise his next dog?"
He shrugs "A couple of years, He had raised a new hound before I reached puberty"
Variana finds herself walking away from the tribunal, though she has no memory of leaving her seat to do so.
Varinia stops in her tracks. Well, it seemed the drink did have something in after all. How rude! Her eyes quickly dart upwards, checking the position of the sun to estimate how much time she'd lost.
You seem to have lost several minutes, though there are no gaps in your memory, its more like time has simply been passing differently for you.
Well, the bally cheek of it! Varinia spins on one hoof and begins stalking back towards the Tribunal, fuming. She throws a skip and a trot into her step as she goes, kicking hard at the earth, and begins the incantations and gestures to weave a spell. Unusually for her, she forgoes music entirely in the casting, too annoyed to care much for appearances as she attempts to determine what's been done to her.
OOC
Varinia will cast a spontaneous (fatiguing) Intellego Corpus spell to determine whether she seems to have been mistreated in some way. This is Personal range, Momentary duration and Individual target, so no modifications for the guideline. She's aiming for base 5 "Sense a specific piece of information about a body," but if she manages a level 10 spell she can get "Sense all useful information about a body."Bonus is 4 for Intellego, 2 for Corpus, 2 for Stamina and 6 for Aura, for a total of +14.
Roll is a 0, but not a botch, so she only manages the level 5 version.
She can sense nothing wrong with her body. As she turns to leave Chulainn grabs her arm "Nae, you gave your word you would come with me to my castle, and you wouldn't want to be going back on your word, especially after having taken my drink."
"I gave you no such word, Cú. If you recall, I merely enquired as to where you lived, and expressed my esteem for your abode." Her tone is clipped. "Not once did I promise to accompany you there. And I do not appreciate being dragged prematurely from my business to do so."
His face screws up with thought "You're right, you didn't. Guess we do this the old way." And he draws his weapon.
Fear flashes across Varinia's face, but she soon leaps into action. Or rather, bursts into song. She wiggles her hips, and her hooves tap, staccato, on the turf. And she seems to start singing halfway through a song, beginning straight away with the main refrain, her voice carrying as far as she can make it.
"Numquam potest ericius pedicari!"
Spines appear to erupt through her flesh all across her body, and Cú Chulainn feels them stabbing into his hand. At the same time, she twists violently away, trying to break his grip, and begins legging it back towards the Tribunal.
The spines were all an illusion—she was fairly certain she'd never puncture his magic resistance with anything else—but they didn't need to fool him long. A split second of loosened grip would hopefully be enough to get free, and give her space to run or cast something else.
OOC
Varinia's using non-fatiguing spontaneous Muto Imaginem. She'll use subtle gestures, which'll hopefully be easier to pull off while she's grabbed (she still one arm free). She'll use music in place of words, and she'll do it loudly—not for the bonus, but just in the hope that someone will hear her. Her Casting Total is hence 8 Muto + 6 Imaginem + 6 Aura + 2 Stamina - 2 for subtle gestures + 1 for loud music, coming to 21. Non-fatiguing, that's a level 4 spell.Personal range and Individual target, and she'll make it Diameter duration. As such, she can manage a base of 3, and change three sensations of herself. She'll change the visual and the tactile as two of them. I believe, according page 63 of HoH:S, that she can actually cause the appropriate pain as her third sensation, as pain is transmitted through haptic species, much like the sense of touch.
So that's the spell. I suspect she'll need some other roll, but I'm not sure if that'll be Athletics or a disengage or what. Let me know and I can roll it.
- You first indicate you are using MuVi then proceed to use MuIm, you should probably correct the post
- p. 63 of Societies clearly indicates that pain as a sense has to be targeted with mentem, not imaginem.
- You will need to make an initiative roll since spell are not instantaneous and if you do not beat his initiative you will need to make a concentration roll against the distraction of being stabbed (at) with a sword.
- Blah, sorry. Corrected.
- Ahh, right, I was reading the bit about those senses being affectable by Imaginem at touch range, and somehow skipped the bit that it's not actually a sense... Hopefully the sight plus feeling of spines coming out will be sufficient to twist free, before he realises it doesn't actually hurt.
- She's rolled a 0 on initiative, for a total of -1. How many botch dice?
2 both dice. assuming you don't botch go ahead and roll for defense and concentration- target 12 on concentration (if he hits you will be penalized for the injury)
18 damage is incapacitated.
You wake up some time later, your clothes have been changed to a thin green night dress and you are laying in bed with an elderly woman taking care of you. You have a heavy wound (faerie magic helped you recover, because there isn't much of a story if you die). The old woman sees you are awake and comments "That Sétante really is a good boy, he just gets a little out of hand sometimes, you will see, he can be a very loving man."
Varinia comes groggily to, then suddenly jumps to full awareness as she recalls what happened and realises where she is. She tries to sit up, then groans and lies back as her wound sends a shooting pain through her chest.
Instead, she simply fixes the old woman with a glare. "I can't say that reassures me." She frowns in disgust, but her countenance soon softens. It seemed likely this woman was as much a victim as Varinia herself. "Did he say why he brought me here?"
"Aye, apparently he's smitten with ye, and intends to keep you as his lover."
"Hmmph. Would've been better served courting me than stabbing me, if that's his intention." Well, that was about the impression she'd gotten. And he may be a handsome fellow, but she certainly had no intention to stay with a man who'd treated her like this. Still, she'd have to be careful in planning her escape; best to learn all she could first. "How long have I been here?"
"A few hours, since he brought you in, he did mention he was sorry, he didn't mean to stab you so hard."
Only a few hours. Hmm... that was good, at least. "I don't suppose he intends to do anything to fix it? It does sting something awful." Varinia begins pulling back the sheets of the bed, hoping to take a look at the wound.
The wound has been cleaned and bandaged, apparently expertly.
"All healing takes time, but he has told me to make sure you recover quickly."
Given that both wound and healing are faerie the healing will take how ever long the narrative requires, especially given that they have your blood as an arcane connection from the wound, but the good news is that since you were dragged unconscious to this location it is probably a regio or a faerie aura and not faerie itself. Given the number of boundaries you were facing the possibility of unwittingly summoning a threshold had been a very real possibility.