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. As she did so, Sandor stowed his weapons and slowly walked about, his eyes focused on the ground. Many times he stopped and knelt, brushing away the soot and soil. Sometimes he picked up an object, most of the times he did not. Those times that he did, he dropped it into the money pouch at his waist, secured it, and began the process anew. By the time that Eirlys had finished bidding the trees fare-thee-well, he had made several deposits. When he saw that she was done, he returned to her side , his hammer once again in his hands.

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."

Longinus paused, choking, his eating bowl suspended in mid-air in front of him. Thumping his chest with one arm he gasped "Do as you see fit Maga. I will strive to put aside any offense I may or may not feel." OOC: or does he lose concentration on the spell and have the bowl drop. ;-)

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."

"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. Within a few minutes, Eirlys spotted that the arc he was scratching into the ground was hugging a shallow depression. "There's our boundary," she mused aloud.

Eirlys turned towards Longinus, and spoke with caution in her voice, "I'm going to throw around some blind Perdo Vim. Would you mind moving far enough away that you're not in range of my voice? I'll be speaking quite loudly."

Nodding, Longinus called Llewellyn to follow him, then called again until he was sure Llewellyn had heard, and carefully and slowly traversed around the shallow depression until they were well away from Eirlys and her companions.

The satyr folded her legs underneath her and hunkered down, elbows resting on knees, and chin resting on hands. "Well Aly, I suspect that perhaps you may be held at bay by a Terram spell, as you're descended of a mountain fae," she said in Welsh. "I should be able to dispel a fifth or sixth magnitude spell without too much trouble." There came the sound of trotting horses and a strong chill, but nothing happened.

"Hmmpfh. Nada." She began to pace more. Crouching in the dirt, she picked up a fallen leaf from the ground, then tossed it at the ring. The leaf fluttered harmlessly to the ground. She pulled a silk dress from her pack, and tossed it across the ring, where it settled lightly on the ground next to the leaf. She stuffed it back in her pack and muttered to herself. "Animal, Herbam... requisites... Vim... non-mundane..."

"Sandor!" Eirlys bounced up. "Would you try walking through this area so I know whether it holds you at bay? Also, swing your mace at it?"

Sandor nodded determinedly and stepped up to the edge of the depression. He carefully took his coin purse from his belt and held it out for Eirlys to take. When she had, he held his hammer head down and swung it around his body much like a pendulum so that it did meat resistance, it would not risk hurting him or any of those around him.

Sandor is first going to try and breach the ring effect with his hammer.  
Assuming that meets no resistance, we will attempt to walk through it, 
still swinging his hammer.  Does he mean any resistance?

"Hmmm." The fae grumbled deep in her throat.

Aloysius slinkered up to his friend and licked her leg, smoothing down a stray patch of fur. "I think you're making this more complicated than it needs to be." He scampered up her body to perch on her shoulder.

Eirlys tapped her forehead with a finger. "You're probably right," she conceded. "I suppose were I some bumbling old mundie who wanted to abuse the resources of a forest without suffering the consequences, I'd just invent a really big Vim spell with a ton of requisites, to keep out every kind of fae and any mundane Corpus." She raised her arms and opened her mouth, as though preparing to cast.

The polecat shook his head, then lifted one paw and rapped a tiny claw against the girl's temple, in a mockery of her own gestures. "No, you nincompoop. How long do you think it's been since someone's been here? Do you really think anyone's been around to cast your 'really big Vim spell with your tons of requisites?' every year? No! This nose and these eyes are as sharp as the formidable intellect they serve! And I can tell you, no one's been here for AGES! So why are you bothering trying to pick apart really old magic, invented by some crotchety old mundie wizard who spent seasons of his life trying to keep fae away from his summer hunting lodge?"

"I don't see what---" Eirlys blinked twice, then sighed heavily as realization dawned on her face. "Of course! It must be an enchanted item maintaining a constant effect here!"

Aloysius snickered. "You know, maybe if you keep up this trend of thinking so well, I might bind you as my familiar someday," he joked.

She began to pace the perimeter of the ring, eyes straining to pick out any signs of an object lying at the center of the etched-out circle.

Further around the boundary, Longinus was still engrossed in his own investigations. After checking his Parma, he stepped across the boundary and waited for a moment to see if he could feel anything.

His next step was to cast a variety of spells to see if there was any particular difficulties, hindrances or assistance to spell casting. He started with the spell he struggled most with, his own version of Wizards Sidestep ReIm15, Re(6)+Im(0)+Sta(2)+/-Au(?). After taking any required time to recover (each time), he tried to recast it silently and then continued by throwing some Iron Darts through the ward at random trees. Hope they aren't fae!

The aim here is to establish whether there is any significant penalties or auras by experimentation. It may become apparent that there is not very quickly if all the difficult things like Wizard's Sidestep, fast cast multiple iron darts etc succeed. The next bit assumes (for now) that the ward does not impair his spellcasting and can be re/overwritten if it does.

Once he was satisfied on that his magic was unimpaired by the ward he motioned for Llewellyn to join him, weapons prepared, and together they advance into the centre of the ring.