Story : In the deep forest
From Ars Magica
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."
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.
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.
The faerie girl gasped as she made impact. Even before she collected herself though, she called out (perhaps a bit wildly): "Aly! Are you all right?" Scrambling back to her hooves, she turned around. Aloysius' fur seemed to be a bit thinner, and he was shaken, but otherwise intact. "I'm so sorry, my dear," she said sadly. "Well, I can't imagine what it might be. I doubt it's an Aegis, or I think I'd have felt something when crossing in; I always felt a tingling in my legs whenever I returned to Crun Clach without my yew wand with me, and it was the same tingling I felt when travelling to Horsingas for Tribunal... So, what does that leave us with," she pondered aloud. "Think, Eirlys, think. It almost seems like a Ward Against Beasts of Legend... but Aly, you're not magical, you're faerie-- so that shouldn't affect you. I suppose a version could be invented to affect faerie beasts, but it seems to me that would be a dreadful breach of etiquette in a fae forest. Not that we know for sure this IS a fae forest... but if it isn't, one would have no reason for a ward against them, now would they?" She began to pace as she continued thinking aloud. "You bumped your nose on it-- which means it doesn't affect your whiskers, just your body; so it can't be an Animal effect, or you'd have felt the resistance of the barrier with your whiskers as well. Now, I'd think it a ward against faeries, but you're not of wood, water, air, or the mountain..." she scratched her head. "Wait, Aly, are you a mountain faerie?"
The polecat was grooming himself carefully. "My father is a goblin, it's true," he began, in between mouthfuls of fur, "But don't think you'll be pulling any Terram vis out of THIS rectum." Excitedly, he shook his rear. "I'm aaaall Animal, sugar."
"Then nothing I've ever heard of would affect you and not myself." She tapped her chin with one finger as she racked her brain. "Aly, can you follow this barrier for me, and scratch out its dimensions into the ground? Let's at least see if it is a ring, and then let's worry about how to overcome it."
Aloysius made a *harrumph* sound, deep in his throat. "You COULD just leave me here, and go on without me," he suggested cautiously.
"Never," came the reply, without hesitation.
Clearly happy to hear her answer, the weaselly creature scampered to accomodate Eirlys' request.
(If the barrier is a ring of a size we can easily see, she will explain that she's going to be "throwing around some blind Perdo Vim", and ask Longinus to please move far enough away that he is not in range of her very loud voice, in case of any mishaps. She'd then attempt an "Unravelling the Fabric of Terram" at third magnitude - she has no Vim score and twice zero is still zero, so no need to expend fatigue on it: Casting Total: [15 (Pe) + 0 (Vi) + 3 (Sta) + 1 (voice) +1 (gestures) + (Aura) + stress die ] halved, so .5 * (20 + aura + stress die). If she achieves a spell level of 15, then this will cancel the effects of one Terram spell whose level is less than or equal to 25 + a stress die (no botch possible on this roll). If she fails to cast it at a spell level of 15, she would attempt to cast it two more times, counting on Longinus' distance for him to not notice she's unwinded after three spontaneous castings. If she casts the spell successfully any of the three times, she'll ask Aloysius to test and see if the barrier still exists. If she fails to meet a level 15 all three times, she'd try once more at a spell level of 10, which would cancel a Terram effect with a level of 20 + botchless stress die. If the spell succeeds but the barrier still stands, she'd start tossing things at the barrier to see what it affects. She'd throw a fallen leaf (Herbam) at it; she'd pull a silk dress (An) from her pack and toss that at it; she'd ask Sandor if he can walk in; she'd ask Longinus the same. Let me know how all this works out and then I'll worry about writing it in.)
