[Krsqk]

Fortunately, Arthur is already busy contemplating his detection spell and doesn't hear Jack's sudden dawning of understanding. Of course, he does manage to keep track of D's and Jack's progress and to store it for review later.

John "Oh, he wasn't exaggerating about the need to retrieve it. As executor of his apprenticeship, I am obligated to protect the ring with my life. If you hadn't gotten it, I would have to immediately return to the castle myself. Doing so would have opened me back up to the telepath, and I would prefer a few hours to build my defenses up again first. The amulet would have helped with that, but it wasn't worth the risk when you were capable of saving so much time."

John "And you're right, it is a good thing you didn't touch the ring itself. It has runes in there I've never seen anywhere else. There is even a mechanism to amplify and transform incoming magical energy before returning it to--more properly, redirecting it at--its source. I performed only the most basic of probes, and the backlash nearly put me out of commission. I haven't heard of a ring with this much protection since--well, I shouldn't say any more about it." John pauses for a moment. "Say, you happen to have any more of those food rations on you?"

Arthur quickly incorporates specific mental snapshots for the baron and the telepath. "I won't put too much hope in these, since the telepath could easily redirect them or return false information. The hope is that he won't be expecting the probes, or at least will be too busy to pay them much attention." He puts the finishing touches on the spell, takes a deep breath, and casts it.

A swirling cloud appears before the party, gradually coming into focus as a bird's eye view of the area. Five dark smudges appear on the map. Unsurprisingly, the town shows several hundred people. The manor only indicates thirty or forty, causing John to raise his eyebrows and look slightly concerned. The other three were far more interesting. A group of one hundred fifty was headed toward the mountain and would arrive within half an hour. Another group of one hundred, presumably the bandits, was headed from the manor to the woods, and would arrive in twenty minutes. And under the hills north of the manor, the response was over two hundred fifty.

Arthur "I'll pass the reins over to you now, Jack; the telepathy responses should come back soon. You may have to actively probe if they give odd results, but given the plain responses from the destination probes, I don't think that's likely." Arthur takes a seat, obviously fatigued. "There was some sort of defense up which I've never encountered before. I had to push and prod, and finally force, to get the spell to take effect. All that talk about scrying not working well definitely has some truth behind it. If it shows anything, though, it's that the telepath's defenses can be breached if he's distracted."

[ July 12, 2003, 06:48: Message edited by: Krsqk ]