Story : In the deep forest
From Ars Magica
Revision as of 08:20, 28 April 2006
Exploring the forest had proven difficult. Even with Eirlys's ability to take to the skies, they had trouble. It was easy to lose one's orientation in the wood, and sight was limited by what little light found its way through the canopy and trees blocking the view at every turn.
The first few forests they had been directed to turned out to simply be where an old tree had fallen down, taking some of its neighbours with it. The floor of clearings was filled with dense foliage competing for sunlight with young saplings.
A larger clearing proved to be the result of human activity. There were signs that some sort of camp had lingered here for some time, possibly a couple of years, but had been abandoned in the past year. The forest had still not reclaimed a large blackened ashy circle where a number of the surrounding trees had met their end.
Eirlys moved somberly among the ashen remains of the fallen trees, placing her hands on each stump she could find, and saying a few words quietly over each one.
Aloysius quickly spotted that there was only one path into the clearing, and it appeared to lead directly out of the wood.
"Try to remember this location, my friend," she requested. "I'd like to return here when I have studied more, and am better equipped to help this place recuperate."
As evening turned to night, the group stopped to make camp. Eirlys was vehement in insisting that no fires be burned. She quietly ate some mutton jerky, and dried pears. After eating, she and Aloysius played about, chasing each other, hiding behind tree trunks, and jumping about in a quite undignified manner. Once a watch rotation was set, she settled down onto a mossy bank and curled up into a ball, cradling her polecat friend in her arms.
Over breakfast the next morning, Eirlys addressed Longinus: "Sodalis, my pater has always insisted that I wear clothing when at Tribunal, or dealing with others who are like to have their sensibilities offended by my bare flesh. However, as we suspect we may be dealing with other fae, it would be quite unseemly for me to be cloyed with wool or silk. I hope you would not mind if I proceed through the rest of our journey unhindered by these ghastly garments."
Question to Longinus above.
It was toward lunchtime on the second day as they headed toward possibly their twelfth clearing, when Longinus noticed that the trees seemed to be getting larger. Eirlys was rather accustomed to seeing impressively large trees, which if anything, formed one of the more mundane things she had seen in the faerie regios she had visited.
It wasn't so much the width of the trunks that struck Longinus as odd, but rather the general scale of the tree, the height of the lowest branches, the size of the leaves. It was hard to put his finger on, but they just seemed a bit too big, and as they progressed further into the wood, his doubt faded as the increasing size of the trees stretched the notion that they might be quite ordinary beyond the point of credibility.
As they were advancing through the wood, an uneasy feeling settled upon them that they were being observed discreetly. Looking about at the trees, nothing could be seen amidst the branches, or lurking amidst the ferns and leaf litter of the forest floor.
Suddenly, from up ahead, Aloysius's voice cried out in surprise, and pain. The undergrowth was knee deep, and a few metres ahead it dipped as it encountered what looked like an old ditch which crossed their path.
- Aloysius was scampering along looking for clues when he ran into a ward. Noses are sensitive things, and he's just bumped his, hence the cry of pain. He hasn't yet made a concerted attempt at penetrating the barrier, though it is possible he will fail to get inside. It also affect humans, as per Ward against the Curious Scullion; Covenants, p104.
"Aly!" Eirlys rushed to her friend's side. Seeing him all in one piece, she gathered him up in her arms and rubbed his red little nose soothingly. "Be careful, love... I couldn't stand it if anything happened to you."
He grinned crookedly. "Well, SOMEONE has to keep his eyes open around here. Anyway, I found something." With one paw, he gestured towards the place his nose got tweaked. "There's something invisible there."
Cautiously Longinus moved forward to the edge of the ditch. "Something invisible you say?" His head sinks deeper into the shadows of his hood for some time and then a small pebble rises and floats towards the place where Aloysius gestured.
- OOC I'm away from my books and have no idea what the Terram guidelines are. Aside from using The Unseen Arm to try and test the boundaries of any ward (and if it blocks magic - the first attempt will be penetrationless and if the pebble is blocked then he will try again with a strong voice for maximum penetration), Longinus may try some Intellego Terram perhaps to determine, if possible, whether the ditch is a closed shape that could be a ring boundary, as well as whether there is any component in the ditch like a buried stone ring etc.
- 0 Pen ReTe spont passes through the point where Aloysius claims to have had difficulties. He's evidently faking it. :P You are unable to locate any resistance to your magical pebble at all. Seeing through the earth is level 20, Sensing properties is 15, natural properties is 10...
In between testing the ward Longinus moves close beside Eirlys. "Maga Eirlys. Two questions for you if I may, since it is clear that the forest is more your province than mine. First, about the trees hereabout. I'm not expert, but they do seem impossibly large. Is there any import in that."
Eirlys rose to her hooves and peered up into the air. "They're fairly large, but nothing out of the ordinary, I don't think." She approached the nearest tree and placed her hand on its broad, steadfast trunk. "Trees can grow quite enormous, when humans don't come along with their iron axes and torches."
Longinus paused for a moment as if thinking. "And secondly, would a small controlled fire be amiss to clear out the foliage from this ditch?"
The fey girl gave a wry grin. "If by 'amiss' you mean 'potentially disastrous' then yes, yes it would," she replied. "If your studies have been so inclined, perhaps you could try moving them without causing damage to them. I have studied only a little Herbam, and no Rego. I think I shall try to enter, though." She scooped up Aloysius into her arms, and attempted to walk forward to the area where the polecat had bumped his nose.
She cradled Aloysius in her arms and walked over to the depression. As she neared it, she slowed her motion, not wanting to hurt her pet, and approached cautiously. Inching her way forward, she could feel Aloysius being pushed against her breast, gently at first and thereafter with rapdidly growing force until her pet decided he had quite had enough of the tightening embrace, and scrabbled over Eirlys's shoulder in a slightly painful manner. As he struggled free, Eirlys lurched forward, and stumbled hapharzardly into the depression.
- Eirlys appears unhindered by the magical force. Alyosius's fur is lacking volume after a slight pressing.
