"I was taught by a priest, Latin, letters, philosophai, medicine. I was a... nobody knew who my father was, and I grew up with tales of Merlin, and thought I might be a mage because I had visions. I never met a real mage until I was headed here."
Isobel looks at Corbin with a keen eye when the man dodges her question. What is he hiding? she thinks, that he doesn't want me to know what he does at the covenant. She ponders this a few moments, but finds interest in something Corbin says and moves on.
"Mage's tossing fire around? Can that be real? I know that ... other types of magic are possible. More subtle types." Years of keeping her own abilities hidden make it hard for her to say more. "But I've never heard of anyone throwing around fire. Is that the sort of wizard who lives here?" She knew that magic was practiced here, a magic different than her own. But she hadn't realized it was so overt.
"I've only met a handful of the Wizards here and appearances don't always reveal their specialities, but sometimes it's more obvious. And truthfully I'm no authority on wizards at all. " he shrugs and continues.
"That said, throwing fire around is an activity which magi take seriously. It's not trivial to do but almost any senior magi could learn to do it if they cared to. All the magi I've met so far respected the power of magic and wouldn't just waste it. "
"So it's not that the skill is rare so much but more that different wizards find different ways to do the same thing. "
"The real kicker is to think about what the wizard is trying to achieve by throwing fire? If it's to defend themselves then there is such an amazing variety of options to choose from as alternatives. There are just so many styles of the Art. It's very staggering as almost anything is possible but often only the most trivial things are easy. "
Well I don't envy you visions, that's a double edged sword for sure. Are they prophetic?
"They have been, occasionally. Sometimes they are of the past, or something far away. Sometimes they are just confusing."
Duncan turns to Corbin "Well, it wasn't a lot of fire, about what would be I a lamp, I think, and she mostly seemed to want to impress me, to point out I wasn't really a mage, which she did quite effectively"
- note- this is effectively background of when he arrived at the covenant, claiming to be a magus when he wasn't. I'm assuming a small CrIg or CrIm spontaneous spell that simply impressed the young man that he was not in fact the magus he imagined himself to be. Probably a base 2 CrIg or base 1 CrIm.
That would probably be Eilid. She doesn't need words or gestures to cast her spells, and she has Palm of Flame formulaicly. And it's something I can see her doing.
[color=brown]"Hmm. You're a mage, are ye?' she would say as she peers at him intently before holding her hand before her, palm up. foomf A ball of flames appears in her hand, and she holds it up to more closely examine Duncan. [color=brown]"Aren't you a little young for that?
Arthur sighs "I'm going to need to learn the local language as well" *I assume we have been speaking Latin "I just need to make time for that..."
Isobel would have started with Gaelic, but she speaks Latin, so she could accommodate that.
[hr][/hr]
"Well I look forward to seeing some real magic," Isobel replies to Corben. "I've seen some minor magic in my life. But from what I can tell about this place, the wizards who live here practice a different kind than I've seen."
"Where are you from, Arthur," she adds, "that you don't speak Gaelic?" Not many travel very far from home, she thinks. Yet another way that the wizards are different from normal people.
"Stratford Upon Avon. It's a small town in Stonehenge Tribunal, you probably haven't heard of it"
Isobel smiles and nods. "Not the town, and not the Stonehenge Tribunal, whatever that is. I'm afraid I've lived a quiet life so far with my studies focused more on plants and animals than on geography."
"I hope you had a pleasant journey coming here, though, and that you'll settle in quickly."
"We are settling in quickly, thank you. I can't say much about the journey, not having others to compare it to, though I suspect it would have been more pleasant had we traveled by day."
As the new arrivals talk and hopefully begin to get to know each other, Kevin and Corbin relax. Kevin has his back against one of the revel hall's walls and he gives Corbin a nudge with his elbow and nods his head to the main entrance of the hall.
Just opening the door is a tall somber man, armed and armoured. He steps into the room, says something out the door, and begins taking off his weapon belt which he hangs by the door.
Corbin looks back at Kevin with a look of who/what:huh? "The Red Hand" with a whisper, and seeing that Corbin's blank stare does not change, "Seamus the Red?" And quickly looks down at his drink as the man walks through the room looking through the inhabitants as he moves toward one of the bars.
OOC Seamus the Red was going to predate the Magi's arrival but it might not have been by much, or he could have been here a while now (? We didn't confirm) His manner (humourless, driven, and interested is very little outside of training and warfare) would be known to anyone who had trained with him. He's an expert weapons trainer who takes everyone's practice as critical.
I'm not sure how the rest of the room would react, but Kevin is an experienced grog who would have heard of The Red Hand.
As Seamus walks by Isobel hears the whispered name and openly stares at the man for a moment. Then she catches herself and quickly looks away. "Is that really Seamus the Red?" she whispers to Kevin. "I heard he was a mercenary leader. What's he doing here? Surely we don't need mercenaries here."
[hr][/hr]
Isobel is a local, so I figure a reputation check is warranted.
Reputation check: 1D10+4 = [6]+4 = 10 vs EF 9 for same county; success.
Kevin whispers back "I'm almost certain its him. And that means some of the men here are his mercenaries too. Perhaps the covenant was low on trained men and they had no other choice. It's happened around the south where we're from many times. Especially with the way southern covenants are open targets for raids from the borders. "
"That's a man the raiders used to fear. Or perhaps he's here looking for work?"
Seamus walks to the bar and looks to be buying a small keg, which is brought from below the bench. There is a short exchange and he turns to leave.
One grog stumbles to his feet then the floor, and bumps into the back of the armoured man also knocking him against the bench. Seamus turns and stares down, his left hand quickly arcing down to a hand opened to the grog to help him up. His scowl deepens, as his right arm still holds the keg. When the grog gains his feet, Seamus grey eyes hold on the grogs as he places his his left hand to his hip where a small knife also happens to be.
The grog looks t his toes and Seamus moves away toward the door again.
"Heck!" Mutters Kevin.
"I don't know," mutters Isobel once Seamus has left. "If even half the things I've heard about him are true, then he's done some cruel and inhumane things over the years. One act of forbearance doesn't make up for all of that."
[hr][/hr]
Seamus has a bad Reputation of level 4. It's going to take more than one act of kindness to overcome something like that. 
Kevin replies to Isobel a bit louder too now that Seamus has left the room, "I've heard a few stories as to how he got the name Red Hand and none are children's stories." To Corbin he asks "you've seriously not heard of him? What do you do all day?" Shaking his head in good humour.
"I um, never really cared for all that swinging and dancing in metal Kevin." replies Corbin with a grin as he taps their wooden cups together, "seems a good way to get hurt and not the best way to solve an argument."
I should hope so! Agree totally. Just wanted to get Seamus into the mix as a player character. He's in play and could be approached or used as a trainer.
He's been here for a while - at least a couple of years.
Isobel wrinkles her lip. "The people who run this place seemed reasonable to me," she says. "And I have observed this place for some time from afar. I'd seen Seamus the Red from afar, but never realized who he was. I never saw him do anything ... unpleasant. But I've heard such stories. It makes me wonder how this outpost could have hired a man like that."
Arthur snorts "What is in a reputation? I'm certain others have done far worse that none may know about while stories may be exaggerated depending on who tells them."