[centre][h2]Morgana Faith[/h2][/centre]

Oh, so they weren’t going to be taking part in the assault, but rather Madeleine was to go in by themselves while she and Xaviron followed at a distance? Well, she supposed that meant her complaints about her skillset not being taken into account were a bit presumptuous.

That was a relief. Though if Morgana were being honest, she didn’t much like the idea of Madeleine going in alone; true, neither she nor Xaviron were the best suited to back her up, but surely they could have requested backup from the local OMR office for this task? The intent may have been to give the cultist a chance to negotiate, but nothing she had seen of them thus far suggested that they would be amenable to that; there was no chance that this ended in another other than another fight. And Madeleine would be fighting alone, most likely. The division of labour really was skewed if this was how things were going to end up. 

But unless Morgana was willing to voluntarily step into the line of fire, the only thing she could do to help was provide information on the kind of threats she might face. In truth, she thought it unlikely that her mother would teach the cultist anything; knowledge was power, as the saying went, and power was influence. If there was anything her mother coveted if was influence and she would not lessen hers by sharing power without a [i]very[/i] good reason. [color=c4df9b]“That’s quite a broad topic, witchcraft covers many disciplines, but I don’t think you have much to worry about; my mother is… prideful. Even supposing she is in league with this group, either as an ally or just taking their money,  she wouldn’t lower herself as to teach them anything important and would never give away any of our families’ secrets.[/color]

[color=c4df9b]“An assault on the Faye ancestral manor would be exceedingly difficult, even for the OMR, but this?”[/color] Morgana gestured vaguely to encompass their surroundings, which were decidedly rural. [color=c4df9b]“They won’t have been given access to anything that another witch of moderate skill wouldn’t have also access to. But assuming they have been given support, they will be more or less immune to most scrying attempts, will be protected from all but the most determined of curses and the defences will be mostly retaliatory in nature. A curse for a curse is the way witches work.”[/color]

They would not be using wards exactly, at least not in the way that Morgana did. Those were not typical for witches and the kind they did make use of were the kind that needed time and effort to produce; the kind that sank into the foundations and strengthened themselves through time and repetition. But witches balls, witches bottles and other such trinkets? They were simple, easy to make and effective; witches had been selling them to suspicious villagers to protect them from evil for centuries and when they wanted them to they [i]worked[/i].

The ones made by skilled witches could be particularly vicious too.

[color=c4df9b]“Avoid crossing any thresholds, just to be safe, and it would be best if you stuck to non-magical means of combat as much as possible. While it should be fine for you to use magic that is not based on the principal nature of cursing an individual, I can’t say that there won’t be some backlash if you throw a fireball or the like at someone. If you want to use magic at all then the more indiscriminate the better; the defences should be thwarted if you don’t target anyone directly.”[/color]

Individual protections and protection of the household. The tradition of English witchcraft was one of curses, both ‘creation of’ and ‘protection again’; for a long time the greatest enemy of witches were other witches and that caused their practices to develop along a certain line. But that didn’t mean they hadn’t adapted their methods to be broader when different magical practices became increasingly common.

[color=c4df9b]“Hmm. Don’t break anything made of glass, other than windows of course; things that look like ornaments, bottles and so on. I can safely disarm those later and they may provide a clue to their origin.”[/color]

If the did have anything created by her family or on their instructions, then it was best is she deal with it personally.

[color=c4df9b]“I believe that’s everything of note.”[/color]

[@Kumbaris]