I  have re-organized my response to Blinkin’s questions to highlight what I think is most important<br/><br/>TL;DR - I would like pdragon and blinkin to discuss how they want things to work out before I process this turn.<br/><br/>Player vs. Player<br/><br/>This scene is getting close to PvP.  I have no problems with characters that don’t always see eye to eye.  A bit of drama can drive the story.  However, I don’t like it when drama spills out onto the players.  I suggest a fairly simple rule.  If you think a player is going to be surprised by what your character is going to do to their character - ask before doing it.<br/><br/>In this case as long as pdragon and Blinkin think it would be a good story to silence Natasha - go for it.<br/><br/>Spells Outside of Combat<br/><br/>Mechanically, you cannot take an action (e.g., cast a spell), without rolling initiative.  So, spells take time.  Narratively, I’m not going to worry about this unless it effects the story. For example, rituals take 10 min, so I’m only going to be worried if 1) the PCs might not have 10 min, or 2) The PCs is doing a bunch of rituals.<br/><br/>Spell Components<br/><br/>Spells require some combination of verbal, somatic and material components.  I tend to run characters that fight and cast spells, so I’m up on the details of this.  Generally, I’m not going to worry about the fine points unless it would clearly effect a characters ability to do something (e.g., cast a spell with a somatic component while restrained).<br/><br/>However, an effect of need verbal and somatic component is that it is usually pretty obvious when a someone is casting a spell.<br/><br/>Area of Effect<br/><br/>Spell caster do want/need to pay attention to the area of effect (e.g., target vs. area) of spell.<br/><br/>Now the specifics:<br/><br/>Yes, casting silence would take an action. If this was an enemy spell caster, Drip starting to cast a spell would likely require an Initiative roll (to see who acted first).  Depending on the situation, Drip might get a Sleight of Hand roll to disguise/hide his spell casting.<br/><br/>Yes, Silence creates an Area Effect (20ft radius) and so anyone in the area would not be able to hear or make sounds.<br/><br/>Also, using a 2nd level spell slot can be a big deal as well as announcing your abilities to the crowd.  Consider alternatives - e.g. playing/singing over Natasha’s attempts to speak.