He's kneeling on the ground, bracing to be hit, arms raised. Those arms are covered in tattoos of complex winding vines and flowers.

Nothing hits him.

After a fraction of a second he stands up, breathing hard and alert. He scans his surroundings, looking for danger, keeping an eye out for the glimmer that magic gives off in his vision, and paying special interest to the people with plant parts—can he feel them with his magic the way he can with normal plants?

Some of the people have picked up spears that were hidden in the undergrowth, but don't seem to be making any immediate threatening moves - in fact they seem as ready to defend from something coming from elsewhere than from those who have just appeared.

There are little glinty bits of magic in the water. The plant elements of the people are much more subtly magic, and also are actually plant bits.

The plants here are not currently magic but have been regularly affected by magic over both the recent and the distant past, and are somewhat more... legible and verdant than they would otherwise be?

One of the closest men takes a step towards him, cautiously, keeping a fair distance. He's in pretty basic medieval-ish clothing, quite heavy on the hide and leather despite the mild climate, and has quite a well made belt with a tool roll of some kind on it. "Uh, welcome to Foundhome. Are you okay? Do we need to prepare for something in particular?"

“I don’t actually know how I got here. I was in the middle of a battle and got hit by some weird magic. Are more people from where I was going to show up?”

"Possibly? That doesn't sound like - uh, I'm sure Allegra will be down in a minute to work things out. Are you hurt? I'm the Steading's physick."

"I'm uninjured, just exhausted. If other people are going to show up, we might have trouble, I was in the middle of a battle—and I'm unfamiliar with 'physick', is that the local term for a healer?"

"Yes, at least one that uses herbs rather than magic. And can deal with more complicated wounds. Unfortunately we don't have much for exhaustion other than to sit and rest, maybe a nice energising drink..."

The people with spears are organising a patrol and a watch on the area that Briar Moss appeared in, and advising people to take their children indoors for a while.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. We should talk magic... I don't know what you mean by 'more complicated' wounds, usually healers—people who can do direct healing with magic—can stabilize people with much more severe wounds than people using herbs. Of which I am one. Uh, usually. Do we need to move somewhere else?"

"There isn't anywhere fortified in the area until you hit the watchtowers of Seren, which is a good few hours down the trod?"

A middle aged lady comes jogging out of the settlement, with considerably more magical-looking items on her - she is wearing a leather circlet inset with a green gem, bracers with matching green gems, and a wide belt with a tree motif; the quarterstaff she carries has silvery veins and autumn leaves which appear to be sprouting from it directly. 

She appears to be an entirely normal human apart from the brown hair and extensive tattoos on her face - a very stylised fountain or possibly tree on the right cheek, a deliberate brand on the left cheekbone, and a horrible blackened scar deliberately shaped like a line with a hook at the top under that, as well as one of the thorned branches over her left eye.

The rest of her clothing looks extremely handmade, with big chunky wool stitching.

"Welcome to Foundhome!" she calls as soon as her voice will carry, which is quite far away but not unusually so. "We're not exactly a fortification, but we do have some Thorns and it looks like they're getting themselves organised. Can you tell us anything about what we might be facing? Possibly the portal only had space for one and you're it, but I'm not counting on that, at least for the next fifteen minutes or so."

"What area of effect are we looking at? If it's only 150 yards or so, it will only be Gyongxin soldiers, which should be fine. If it's further than that, we could get some Yanjingyi soldiers or mages, which could be a problem. If it's much further, I suppose we could get civilians too. If you see anyone wearing a different style of armor than this," he gestures at the cuirass and leather armor he's wearing, "they're probably a bad sign. If they're wearing black and gold robes, they're definitely a bad sign—Yanjingyi mages."

"I have no idea what a Gyonxin or a Yanjingyi is - you didn't come here through the Sentinel Gate, did you?

The widest separated portal I've come across was about half a mile between the two drop points, but it sounds like something different is going on here.

Leather armour and those tattoos will fit in well around here, and black and gold robes or full metal armour will stand out a lot, so I'd expect people will be Vigilant about the latter."

"The Empire of Yangjin is the largest empire in the world. If you haven't heard of them, I'm further from home than I've ever heard of. Maybe this is across the Endless Ocean? I likewise have no idea what the Sentinel Gate is."

"Certainly there is a considerable quantity of ocean, and although we know what is across a fair amount of it, there could easily be another continent we've never run into - especially if they haven't got anywhere themselves.

There isn't any known magical effect that can cross continents, so we're dealing with an unknown effect - I'm just going to check the area for residual magic, then you, if you don't mind?"

Allegra heads the rest of the way down the path and approaches where Briar Moss appeared.

"This is going to take a minute or two, is there anything you need immediately before I start?"

"I don't see any magic except in people and in the river—I don't mind you checking, it's just we should compare notes. I also have some magically strengthened plants in my mage's kit."

"I don't need anything before you start—can you talk while you work, or should we wait to talk until after?"

As Allegra gets closer, it becomes clearer that there are faint traces of magic woven through her staff, circlet, bracers and belt, although nothing as obvious as the magical signatures of the briars or the stream. There's some contained, dormant magic in objects in her satchel bag, too.

And there are plants with somewhat magical properties in the salves that the self-identified 'physick' carries in a tool roll on his belt, although they are currently concealed in the leather roll and sealed in little glass jars.

"I'll be vocalising to cast, so it won't be much of a conversation; I can be interrupted safely if something urgent comes up."

She starts to gesture, as if drawing a spider's web in the air.

"I am the Spider. Things watch from afar. I am the Web. Things are connected. I see what is hidden. I see the flows of magic. I am the Spider..."

It goes on approximately like this for almost precisely thirty seconds, and is clearly drawing on some kind of reservoir of magical energy within Allegra, although one that is very hidden until it starts being used.

He'll watch closely until she's done, trying to figure out what she's doing and how. Magic traditions which chant aren't unheard of but he hasn't seen any up close before.

The concepts of the Spider and the Web, which are constellations and also natural laws - things are watched with a hidden eye, things are connected - are pulling the raw magic from the reservoir into a particular shape - invoking them out loud does appear to be load bearing, building up a kind of scaffold for the magic to flow through.

The gestures are mostly superfluous, although some freedom of movement is also essential - part of the magic within the staff allows casting through it, otherwise at least one free hand is needed to anchor the flow.

The first invocation is on the ground, and shows up nothing.

Allegra looks slightly disappointed, and moves even closer - not actually touching him, but close enough that she could, which is also an essential part of targeting - to start again.

He readies himself as she moves closer, but doesn't move away unless she does something unexpected.

She does pretty much exactly the same thing again. Should there be anything on him that might yield interesting results to further magical investigation, anything that might be termed an enchantment or a curse or a bond, she will get the idea there is more to find - she doesn't get its detail, yet, only its kind. 

He's innately magic, although it's subtle. His magic isn't pure energy waiting to be called upon in arbitrary ways, but instead bound up in complex and subtle structures, waiting for a catalyst to release its power. If she wasn't looking closely, she would miss it.

Growing out of that power, there are three bonds drifting on an invisible wind, but unconnected to anything; tendrils of a pea plant, grasping for branches, and not finding any.

"Okay, traces of magic, probably Spring, and something about bonds I could probably resolve if I was any good with Autumn magic, which I'm still not.

It's possible something could tug on a bond to follow you through, but unlikely.

I think we are now officially not having an emergency. Do you want to talk out here, or would you like to come somewhere with a table and chairs and something to drink?"

"Something to drink would be wonderful. Nothing alcoholic, please.

"Your magic is broken up into seasons? I can use seasonality as a symbol in spells, and I'm weakest at spells that rely a lot on winter, but I wouldn't call all those spells 'Winter magic'."

"Seasons plus Day and Night. Hala, Sharri, go grab us some apple juice and maybe a chair and table while you're at it?" A couple of young women run off into the Steading.

"Ours is mostly based on tapping into the magical Realms, which come in those flavours - how does yours work?" It sounds like magic theory might be a nice calming topic to get started with.

"I'm a plant mage. I can make plants grow faster, change how they grow, strengthen medicines. I can cast a few academic spells, but they have to be done entirely with plant components—where I'm from, the more common magical practice uses objects and patterns to coax magic into particular shapes, and then use that to cast more powerful spells than a mage could do directly. I can only do that if all of the objects are plant components, and I can only do direct magic on plants.

"I'm not unfamiliar with seasons and times of day as patterns relevant to the practice of magic, but what do you mean by 'flavors'? And what are the magical realms?"

"Sorry, that wasn't very precise of me - I just meant the Realms are the same as the kinds of magic.

Plant magic is generally Spring for us, although you can get some related effects in the other seasons - they tend to work on the people and what they do to the plants rather than directly the plants themselves, though.

We also use patterns and sets of concepts to do magic - I mostly work with constellations, but there's also runes, rivers, essentially anything that you can get the set of concepts you need from. I also do a bit of blood magic which is slightly more direct, but I think you're describing a flexibility we don't have - all our spells and rituals have to be quite exhaustively well specified and work on similar principles to each other."