If he would have left you a note it would have been with the orphanage in Syracuse.
someone took the book while you were focused on lab equipment.
someone even took the plate that the fire-ruby had been on.
The Guernicus turns to Prometheus "What personas did Chronos have that you can recall?"
He had 5 at the time you left... 1 if Thebes, 1 in the Rhine, 2 in the Roman Tribunal and one in Provence.
Kronos personae, the question was obvious to come, so Prometheus had thought about it for a while. Which ones would be harmless to disclose?
He had known Kronos for the better part of his life. If this was all planned - and as radical as a march was, Prometheus wouldn't rule out yet that everything was still going according to the plan - Kronos would have a Persona that he had never used before. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if a young but talented magus would soon join a Roman covenant, even Luctatio, and Kronos wouldn't be seen again. Even if things were going badly, he wouldn't expect Kronos to be far. Either close to home with one of the Roman personae or close to the tribunal that sentenced him with the Rhine persona seemed to be the most likely.
«He had personae in the Provencal tribunal and in Thebes. I am sure he more local personae as well, but he had never revealed any to me» Prometheus says and adds some details about the personae.
«He had some deep cover disguises in the south though. I don't think it will lead us very far, but I can try to find out if he used one again more recently», he adds.
The Guernicus confers with the Tremere magi for a few moments before they reach a decision. "Ferrus ex Tremere will accompany you to the south, I will take whatever volunteers will accompany me to Thebes, and Lupin here will take another group of volunteers to Provence. We have enchantments which will allow us to communicate daily over any distance, and the redcap will allow us the use of their network to pursue these fugitives. Good hunting."
Ferrus walks over to stand by you, he is a large man, possibly giant blooded, and does not talk much.
Marcus has made his list of names, and the group reconvenes with what they have found- several probable arcane connections have been found and there is some debate over whether it would be better to give immediate pursuit, attack by way of arcane connection, or take the time to fix some arcane connections. A quick scrying spell by the Guernicus puts Leo on the ocean between Italy and Sicily.
When the Guernicus announces the result of his scrying spell, Marcus steps up. «That fits well with one of my findings,» he says. «Leo seems to have had a persona with connections at Queen Co-h,» he stops and looks quickly at his parchment before he continues, «Constance's court, recently moved from .. euh ... to Palermo. If we send a group to Palermo, I hope I can be of use. I have visited the city a couple of times before.»
One of the Tytalus speaks up "I believe we should take a three pronged approach, first we should pursue, second use one of the arcane connections to attack from a distance while the pursuers close in, and someone should fix the third connection while the pursuit is taking place, as a backup in case this Tytalus eludes us."
Marcus nods. «Good idea. Do the two first groups go together, to be able to communicate during the operation? Or do we have means of long-distance communication?» he asks.
"We can communicate over distances. The Tremere have contracts with Verditious magi in their tribunal which they provide lab texts for these devices they have lent us. It might be wise however to maintain some degree of proximity as well. Who has spells that have an arcane connection target, and what can we do?"
«Good hunting», Prometheus replies briefly and turns to Ferrus «Sodale, when will we set out?»
‹Good, one magus is the right count. Returning alone, empty handed, would raise too many questions›, Prometheus thinks.
[The plan is to gain time for Kronos while being as insuspicious as possible. Traveling south Prometheus will 'present' a rather recent but abandoned deep cover that will require thorough inquiry to find witnesses and a deep cover that is old but very well remembered (maybe an affair with a married woman, or some other very personal thing). In a third place, there will be nothing to be found, because there never was.
Feel free to allocate those to cities on the way south. I could imagine Pisa, Florence and Naples. Prometheus is curious, whether Kronos did leave anything at the orphanage in Syracuse, however he doesn't want to lead Ferrus to the orphanage or his little secret covenant. Maybe, depending on what he sees or thinks of Ferrus on the way, this could change.]
You lead Ferrus with the two old covers as you travel, and his investigation into each is thorough- as expected it provides no leads on where kronos currently is, at least through mundane means, but kronos keeps picking up items along the way, and eventually hits paydirt. He reports having located an arcane connection, and apparently one has been located in Thebes as well. You have been leading this merry chase for a month now, and you stop for two days while scrying takes place, and locates Kronos in Hibernia.
«Hibernia? I am not sure I am prepared or interested to travel that far. Ferrus, I wish you a good hunt and please give my regards to our Sodales.»
Prometheus travels further south, making sure he is not being followed. When he finally arrives in Syracuse, he will give the orphanage a visit. Later, Serafino arrives at home.
Marcus watches to see if anybody else speaks up. He has nothing to offer when it comes to arcane connections. If the silence becomes to too long and awkward, he shakes his head and apologises, «sorry, I have nothing to offer for arcane connections».
There are no messages at the Orphanage in Syracuse.
There is a flambeau present who apparently has an arcane range perdo Ignem spell that he is almost too enthusiastic about trying, travel however is going to be mundane, and mostly by ship. The Guernicus scries daily, and the target seems to stop In Palermo, and with a couple of weeks travel you are able to arrive in the city as well. He seems well ensconced in a Divine aura, the flambeau decides to break off from the rest of the group to seek a magical aura to cast from, along with the Guernicus.
[OOC. By the level of detail you give, it does not sound as if mundane investigation is going to be worthwhile ...
Does Marcus know anything about Leo's persona and the scribe connection at the court? Anything he can use as a starting point to seek more intel through gossip?
Do the Flambeau and the Guernicus expect to go far to cast the spell?
Marcus considers using a MuCo spell to avoid being recognised. Did I understand it correctly that all magic is stressful within the Dominion? Is there a chance to find a neutral or magic lacuna within easy reach?]
It would take a season of searching to find a lacuna casting within a divine aura is stressfull, has a penalty equal to 3x the aura, and a number of extra botch dice equal to the aura level
And the two who went to find a magic aura did not say where?
Is it possible to go out of the city to cast or would that be several miles away?
It would be at least a few miles to simply have no aura, to actually find a magic one would be much further.
Marcus spends the first day scouting out the area around the palace, trying to identify people who come and go. Maybe he can find a maid who can be charmed into explaining who's who at the court? Maybe he can gossip with some of them over a game of dice? He takes an opportunist approach.
Should he talk to any of the anonymous magi in the group? Since they have not been introduced, I do not know where to start, so I can only assume they are not worth talking to.
At this point you are down to four magi who have not yet been identified- all of them mage errants and likely trying to win a spot at the newly emptied covenant that has been promised as amongst the spoils to be divided. One is a Verditius who does not seem to have much to contribute but is sticking things out on a long shot. The second is another flambeau looking forward to a direct confrontation, the third a criamon who seems to be projecting the idea that their contribution is something inevitable that has yet to manifest, while the last is a wolf bjorner, who has taken some of Leo's things to literally get the scent, though the traffic of the city is working against him- he has a companion with him to pretend he s a domesticated dog to avoid issues with scaring the natives any more than the Gift would do anyways.
The maids apparently have quarters in the palace, and asking around for the scribe with whom the Tytalus had correspondence runs into trouble with his Gift, similar to what happened at the palace at Lesi. However he does discover that Constance's court wizards are in residence...
After one day of futile attempts to stalk washer women leaving the palace and playing dice with guards on leave, Marcus decides to take more risk the following day. In the evening he goes through what he knows about the court wizard and his brotherhood.
Mid-morning the next day, he goes to the palace and asks to see the court wizard. Preferably, they can arrange to meet outside the palace, but as long as they can make the meeting private, he does not object.
He apologises for intruding, but, as he says, there is a matter which may affect our little alliance. «Hypothetically,» he asks, «if a fugitive wizard, were to have gained a position within the Queen's court, would he be a friend of your Order or of the Queen or both?»