I wasn't sure if you were assuming +6 for one on one or not... it does work out.
Also will probably put some of the wilderness sites near the lake...
Understandable. I was wondering why you'd dropped it at first.
You know, at first I was going to say no, you couldn't seed and set up the lab at the same time. But in second consideration, if you save the fields close to the covenant for the lab season, you can do those and the lab. It would just be a morning constitutional to the fields followed by a day in the lab.
That'll easily feed the covenant, and will significantly reduce supply issues, There are plenty of supplies that'll still need to be brought in (including animals). But food is not likely to be one of them.
The area around the covenant is temperate. Most anything that you note will be able to grow there.
The tops of the tallest mountains do. But most of the mountains were underwater. So there's plenty of reforesting to do in the mountains as well.
None of the magi have done a serious survey of the island. Much of the information you're getting comes from Duncan and Sophia, who have spent some time exploring the island. Unfortunately, they can't check Auras. I'll give Meliai two 1d10 rolls to see if she stumbles across an Aura:
Magical Aura check: 1D10 = [10] = 10; big success.
Faerie Aura check: 1D10 = [1] = 1; nothing,
So, Meliai comes up blank on Faerie Auras (sorry), but hits the jackpot on Magical Auras. By chance, she finds a spot where there is a level 5 Aura. It looks like a place where a powerful sea serpent died (there are large bones at the center of the Aura), The spot is on one of the ley lines (Meliai surmises that Auras will be more common along the ley lines) and looks like it would be a decent spot for a future covenant if the magi ever want to expand. There are no ruins nearby, so Meliai guesses that the Arua arose after Atlantis fell. I'll post a revised map to show where the Aura is (and to post some trees.
She will put a forest in that aura.
1220 is a busy year for the magi. After raising the island, Magnus turns away for a time, scouring the Scottish countryside, running down rumors that finally lead him to a young Gifted child named Finlay, who he takes as his apprentice. The boy comes from a poor family of farmers, and Magnus gets the boy with promises of an education and a future. The lump sum of silver he gives them for their own future doesn't hurt either. Meanwhile, Meliai opens the arts of her own apprentice back in her old laboratory in Europe.
As this happens, the founding of the covenant proceeds apace. Volunteers from friendly covenants all over load onto a couple of Tremere ships that sail off into the Atlantic, filled with supplies for the new covenant. It's a long couple of weeks at sea for the passengers, most of whom had never even been on a boat before, but by late spring, the two ships arrive in the as-yet-unnamed main harbor of the island. (It occurs to the magi that they'll need to start naming things soon.) From there it's a trip of a little over ten miles overland to the temple city, which will serve as their new covenant. Thankfully the passengers include several capable administrators as well as a contingent of soldiers, so everything moves smoothly. And Duncan remains on the island, ready to direct and assist as needed.
By Summer, much of the covenant staff is present, though things are still quite crazy. There is much building going on, despite the fact that supplies are scarce. True to form, the stone from fallen buildings is salvaged to make new homes for the covenant's members. Meliai travels the island seeding forests and the like, and is fortunate to find another relatively powerful Aura on the island. She quickly plants trees inside it, making certain it will be a magical forest. Magnus brings Finlay to the island and leaves him in the keeping of Duncan to begin his education. Then Magnus returns to Glen Airgead to devise a spell to allow him to bring his laboratory with him to the island. He's put too much effort into it over the years to just give up and start over. By the Summer solstice, he has the spell perfected and casts it to move his lab. The spell works as planned, though his lab is a little the worse for wear once it makes the transition.
The solstice is also a time of concern for the magi and the covenant. It was on the solstice that the Atlanteans came to the temple of Poseidon to perform their rituals. No one is quite certain of what will happen this year when they see that Atlantis has risen again. But the day comes and goes without trouble, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief.
Autumn brings more work for the covenfolk. They're creating something from nothing here, and there's much to be done. Thankfully Meliai is there to provide crops for the people to eat, which sets everyone at ease. She continues her seeding of the island, covering large areas every week. But the island is big and she knows that she has her work cut out for her. Magnus, for his part, spends the season in is newly relocated lab devising a ritual that will cover the island in good, rich topsoil. At present, much of the land is rock and sand. There's some soil, which Meliai has been using for her own seeding project. But if the bulk of the island is to be made fertile, it will need topsoil. On the first day of winter, Magnus is finally ready to cast the ritual and in an instant, all of the island is covered in several paces of fine soil, ready for Meliai and others to seed it with crops and woods and grass.
Grass is next on Magnus' agenda. For he spends the winter devising a ritual that will cover much of the island with grasses. The soil is a good start, but it isn't the end. By the first day of spring, Magnus is ready for his ritual and in another instant, the topsoil on the island sprouts all sorts of grass, including some fine fields of wheat, oat, flax, and barley. Meliai has not been wasting her time either, By the end of winter, there are acres of fruit trees as well as some groves of pine that can be used for building. But more importantly for the winter is lumber for heating. With few trees on the island, the covenfolk have little in the way of wood to burn for heat during the coldest of the winter months.
Throughout all of this, Arviderax remains agreeable. He accepts his cows and sheep with great relish, as well as his vis and silver. It is a great and terrifying moment when, in the Autumn, the great drake emerges from his temple and takes wing. The covenfolk, though warned about the dragon ahead of time, come close to panicking. But Arviderax is just out to hunt and fly, and returns later that day without much fanfare. Still, it's clear that the covenant will take a little time getting used to sharing their home with a dragon.
Then there are the ghosts. The covenant is located in a place of power, and that has made it easy for ghosts to remain. Many are faded to almost nothing. But enough remain to be of interest. And enough members of the covenant have second sight that it's not uncommon for ghost and covenfolk to interact. Thankfully, being around magi has made the covenfolk used to oddities, and they take to their ghostly neighbors better than they do to their draconic one.
But the biggest problem with the covenfolk is not dealing with thier neighbors, it's dealing with themselvs. They are gathered from covenants across the Order, and while a few speak Latin, most speak the native language of their homes. The end result is that over a half-dozen different languages are spoken throughout the covenant. This tends to make the different groups somewhat insular and keeps the covenant from becoming truly cohesive. If the covenant is to thrive, the magi will need to pick a language for the people to speak and make some effort to bring it into common usage.
So, we have our first bit of trouble with the covenant. We need to figure out what language we're going to use. Do we teach all the covenfolk Latin? (Losing our 'secret' language 
)Do we pick one of the native languages and go with that? What we do for the covenant will probably carry over for the island itself. So we'd best choose wisely.
I'd say that our primary choices are as follows (in no particular order):
- Latin - the language of magi
- Gaelic - a common language for many magi and covenfolk
- French - a common language used throughout Mythic Europe and spoken in the covenant
- English - another language with a strong contingent in the covenant
- Magyar - there are a bunch of Tremere recruits who speak this language
There are other languages spoken in the covenant, but these are the major ones.
What do people think?
FWIW, I'm giving the covenant a -1 Loyalty for the inability to easily communicate (Minor Hardship). It's not that they're disloyal. It's just hard to be cohesive without a common language. This will get worse over time if it's ignored as the covenfolk come to think you don't care about them.
Another issue came to mind today. What does the covenant want to do about its Tribunal? Does it want to petition for entry in a Tribunal (Iberia, Hibernia, Stonehenge, Loch Leglean, and Normandy are all strong possibilities), or are the magi happy to stay in a no-man's-land where they don't officially belong anywhere?
We have a grand teacher who can teach 50 people at a time (or is it 55?) so lets teach everyone Latin. Meliai would love the idea, along with keeping independent of any established Tribunals, at least for now. Let us build our island into something wondrous and let the tribunals come begging...
He could teach 55 at a time with a SQ of 22. GIve a grog two seasons of that and they'll have 44 xp in Latin. Another season of practice (assuming everyone is speaking Latin) and that should get them to 50 (I'm not sure I'd give them the whole SQ of 8, but 6 is reasonable). Of course, that's a fairly rough teaching schedule if Barclay is your only teacher. You'll have over 200 people in the covenant. That's what comes from having nearly 50 soldiers and an overabundance of dependents and laborers. (It seemed reasonable that covenfoilk would bring their dependents and lots of people to do odd jobs given that you were going far away from anywhere.)
In any case, that's 8-10 seasons of straight teaching for him with no break. (Duncan and Sophia might be able to pitch in to help.) That's sustainable for the covenant. But you'll need to get more teachers if you want to cover the residents of the island in general (assuming you get people to come move to the island, that is. 
).
And there's no saying that you have to join a Tribunal right away. They might have something to say about it when they find out about you. But that's another story.
Quick update, as I'm reading but not able to create a lot at present:
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Language - Agree that we should adopt Latin as the common language, and educate the people. "Let us build our island into something wondrous and let the tribunals come begging..." ... Indeed!
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Tribunal - Stay outside for now. I'd like us to push to be our own tribunal, and setup smaller covenants (chapter houses/outposts/whatever they are called) on the other sites/areas. And to eventually recruit younger Magi to run them for us.
I'm with Iron on both, Latin seems like the smart choice. Plus I'm imagining the Tremere provided folks already speak it decently enough (it would give the House a common language for communication). And again, the Tribunal idea seems best, we're really too far removed from anywhere else to justify joining another.
Unless the grogs are bought with a Virtue such as Educated that allows Academic Abilities, the people provided by House Tremere likely just speak Magyar.
Tell that to the other Tribunals. They might have different ideas. 
A good deal of exploration of the island takes place in the first year that New Atlantis is raised. Duncan spends several months looking around for ruins before teaching duties take over his time; Sophia and Glimfeather, a couple of interested owls, spend most of the year flying overhead poking their beaks into anything that looks interesting; Meliai travels a good part of the island planting her seeds; and Andor does a proper survey of the Auras he can find. What they discover is interesting.
On the subject of ruins, the temple district is not the only place with remnants of the Atlantean civilization. No fewer than seven other sets of ruins are found, the largest being the former city on the bay, which Magnus has started to call Bonisagus Bay; the most interesting being a set of structures in the mountains that looks almost like an elaborate monastery. The rest are of varying sizes from a mere handful of buildings just south of the mountains to a sizable town just west of the monastery.
Nor is Andor disappointed in his search for Auras. During his six month survey, the magus finds nine different Auras of varying sizes, seven Magical and two Faerie. The most powerful one is a small level 7 Magical Aura on the site of the ruined monastery in the mountains, surrounded by a slightly larger level 4 Aura. Three more of the sets of ruins are built on Magical Auras as well, indicating that the Atlanteans were clearly aware of their significance. Overwhelmingly the Auras are located along the ley lines that focus at the New Atlantis covenant.
Also of interest, Sophia and Glimfeather, both with the second sight, identify two regios, a Magical one in the north of the island, and a Faerie one in the south of the island, though neither explores them beyond superficial observation.
Artemis is a fan of a new tribunal and a fan of Latin. She also has several options for spells to help set up:
Spring of pure water - It gives us water sources perfectly placed. Those are really nice. We should probably make at least one.
Blessing of Bounty - Can't go wrong with this. It might cause warping if used excessively on say a forest, but you could certainly make sure it does well for a few years while the eco system gets established.
Sanctum of Stone - Its a good sanctum if you want a big lab.
Field of wheat - Food. The staple crop. Combined with Blessing of bounty it ensures we have food.
Ping+ghost writing - Artemis can text people
Artemis at least wants to conjure up her own sanctum. All the pre-game work getting her lab perfect? She invented the spell with that in mind. Otherwise she'll try and spend the first season writing a summary of magic theory. The best summary with the best words. Specifically Level 8, Q15. She reduces it one level from her max of 9. The bookish wolf horror writer, book learner deal sort of exploded.
Just let me know how many rituals of what sort you're casting so that I can deduct the vis from vis stores.
On a related note, you might want to spend your BPs since we have no Aquam vis in the vis stores.
You'll have to fit the sanctum in with the other temples if you want the level 10 Aura. Magnus will also insist that the style of the temples be mimicked so that the look of the setting is not destroyed. (Be prepared for that Finesse roll!)
Also, Ambulatory Laboratory will allow you to move the lab with likely the only issue being losing Highly Organized.
Please list what you're doing in the Google Drive planner.
ETA: If you need a new lab, we'll probably put you in between the temples of Prometheus and Hyperion
I've added them. Can I assume that she can get a season of work in during the first season? There is still enough time?
Also Artemis would prefer to keep her lab in 5 or less aura. In large part because she doesn't want the items of her lab warped. What with all that work refining. Looking at the map she'd need to be pretty far away from everyone...
Yes, you can get a season of work, But if you want the Adventure xp you'll have to forego the xp for that activity.
Easily done. And she could set up shop fairly close to the others. How does this look for the covenant? Building may not have gone quite this far, but it's something to shoot for in the near future.
In the winter season of planting Meliai will put near the covenant:
Peaches
Plums
Apricots
Dates
Figs
nectarines
Bananas
Walnut
pecan
cashews
blueberries
raspberries
strawberries
blackberries
peanuts
watermellons
pumpkins
summer quash
cucumber
Oak
Holly
8 of each except oak and holly which will be 14 of each.
I assume the plants would be in winter mode (i.e., not blooming) or else they'd die off in the winter cold.
And I'm not sure about bananas thriving in New Atlantis. It is in the Gulf Stream, but it's still only temperate.
BTW, would Meliai be wiling to cast her spell on a few potted citrus seeds for Magnus? He'd love some orange, lemon, and lime trees in his lab. (Not for any numbers purpose, just to have the yummy fruit.)
I guess bananas wouldn't work- citrus is generally subtropical though, not temperate, would they grow either?
I was thinking they'd do fine in pots in his climate-controlled lab. People in temperate climes do occasionally have citrus trees indoors in conservatories. Come to think of it, you might be able to do bananas if you had them indoors too.