Of Barred Ways and Hollow Walkers
Thirteenth Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC
The colonel's mansion is a distraction every bit as much as the vision you had seen earlier is a lie, and though neither had been meant for you both of them could harm your efforts just the same.
"Varys..." you send, the little dragon quick to uncoil herself, eager to be part of the battle as any other of her blood, though battle is not quite what you send her into. Warded against foresight and enchantment, veiled from even common sight, you bid her fly through the townhouse and discover how many minds are within, how many mages, warriors and.... You remember the Abishai in Old Town. "Everyone, find every footman, every cook, every servant," you add. "They might be used a shields by the mages, depending on what that ritual was enacted."
While your familiar flies through the sky, you send forth conjured Janni through the stone below, the dream-spun spirits treading as softly as ghosts, looking for other means of escape, tunnels, passages, even chambers in the stone that might be beyond the reach of your teleportation snare.
The mansion is still burning, there are shapes in the flames now, too obscured by smoke and distance to make any sort of definitive judgement on what they are, but they seem insect-like somehow, black and chitinous and scuttling. You can hear the screams of the dying over the growing chaos below. It is clear whatever the Golden Company had unleashed is far beyond the ability of even the disciplined soldiers of the colonel's guard to deal with.
Rina opens her mouth to speak, perhaps to urge you do something about the battle, but before she can speak one of your conjured spirits returns, far too early to have completed a thorough search. "The house is warded against such as us, above and below. We may not enter, nor be called within."
"Such as you?" Lya asks surprised. "Genies?"
"No, beings conjured for a task. I suspect we cannot be called within those wards, either," the spirit replies.
Part of you wants to curse your ill luck, or your enemy's foresight, though you are also intrigued. There are spells that prevent conjured beings from interacting with a person, of course, a simple talisman of protection can manage that, but to do so with an entire house... You want those wards and from the gleam in Lya's eyes, so does she.
Varys makes her way back soon thereafter with better news. Better for you, at least. There are only two mages inside the House, both of the Volantine sorcerers of the seventh circle, but Raerys Aergyreon is rather distracted, vulnerable even. As soon as Ning had been warned and fled, he had cast a
ward against scrying by means of a talisman and then he had
possessed the unfortunate shugenja, no doubt seeking to use him to sow further discord between the Emperor and his sister.
Thankfully, both the mages within are yet unaware of the snare you have set to waylay translocation, as Raerys has every reason to show his victim exiting the house to any watching servants of Pol Qo. He should be showing himself in three or four minutes, according to Varys.
"I'd say let him come out. The house is a maze of wards and traps, spell-storing glyphs, and maybe other things I could not see at a glance. Best to meet him on our terms, not his," she concludes her report.
"Be that as it may," Tyene muses. "If we let the mage come out in his stolen body, we would have to deal with him in full view of the street, whereas if we went after his body lying helpless inside, we could deal with it behind closed doors. It's not like he can even flee, leaving his true body behind. He is not a demon."
She makes a fair point. There is a reason why you have never made use of such tactics despite all their many uses, but on the other hand Varys was only able to catch a glimpse of the house's protections. If you had been designing a safe house, it would come with considerable wards and... contingencies. Trader Town does not need one more burning house.
What do you do?
[] Target the mage inside watching over Raerys's body
[] Wait for the possessed shungenja to come out and then trap the possessing spirit as you did the Efreeti arch mage over Valyria
[] Write in
OOC: And here we are with my apologies for being so late. I think this may be another two update day unfortunately. Not yet edited.
