One of the many reasons why I'm playing a character with a reason/hope to learn the Merinita mystery. If I can get that, and then get my hands on a lab text for Mercere Portals....well, let's just say she won't be leaving the lab anytime after that.
The Mystery houses are extremely tight with their secrets, like a Mystery Cult, one could say. You would have to renounce your House and be initiated into the Outer Mystery to get those ranges and durations. That's how I see it, you can try and convince me otherwise...
I have no intention of trying to convince you otherwise.
On the other hand, Viscaria's is Driven to discover the truth about her mother and pursue the merinita mysteries which are her birthright. And nothing, not even telling her the truth about her mother or offering to teach her the merinita mysteries, is going to stop her from her quest. I mean, how is she supposed to know that its the truth? How is she supposed to know that's all of the mystery she was supposed to learn? Huh? What's that in your pocket? I can tell you're hiding something there!
This raises some interesting story questions. The desire to follow her mother's path and her inability to do so.
A good portion of the Gifted Mercere is done and up on OP as a background page
Thanks. I certainly think so. I got the idea from a conversation where a friend of mine pointed out that the American Upper Middle Class tends to have this worldview that there is no problem that can't be overcome by working hard enough," and that this makes it very hard for that demographic to deal with things like long term medical problems or having to sacrifice one path for another.
Plus, I was in a conversation with someone else about Shock:Social Science Fiction, the RPG whose designer is constantly going on about how cool it is when your goals as a player are counter to the goals of the character.
Actually, I was thinking of doing just that.
Or having them as traps in Watching Wards: Trigger the ward, say hello to Mr Elemental!
Well, Isen wouldn't do anything with Communal Vis without the council's agreement, but he'll propose this as part of our defenses.
:-/
Although, since she's able to control them, that's all the better for the covenant 
Let's shift this conversation to IC in the Defense Prep thread. I want V to react to the ideas for the RP opportunity.
JL, are we to decide what this is, or are we waiting on you to adjudicate the results?
While I'm thinking about things that I'm still not sure if I'm waiting on you for, here's a list of other things:
- Reynault's trip to Confluensis. Should we just start that chapter, or are we waiting for you to have an idea for running it?
- various letters that I've written, specifically:
- when/whether Cygna and Hiems get the letters and if so, do they show up, and if they do, do they get played as PCs by players?
I'm ruminating on the side benefit.
I thought we were waiting for jebrick to be ready for that. He's been busy transitioning to a new job, so I hadn't pushed it, it's up to him.
I will get responses, of some sort, out by the end of the week. I've been ruminating (can you tell I like that word?) on those, too.
As to the Cygna/Heims thing. I wasn't sure if they went to Gallus Florensis and returned, I think that's what the plan was. So, logistically when it is reasonable for them to have received the letter? Redcap delivers something to Mons Electi, it gets forwarded to Gallus Florensis... A season is probably reasonable which suggests that the earliest that they could respond/be available would be in 1222.3 or later. Those issues are primarily in Peregrine's hands, I'm not sure how he's handling Cygna's availability.
My preference is that I play Cygna as an occasional PC.
I thought I had posted that she had gotten the letter and just shows up without bothering to send a letter back. After basically a couple of years of buyer's remorse on moving to Gallus Florensis, she is jumping at the chance to leave Gallus Florensis and return to Phoenix (via Mons Electi), after talking to Hiems about it.
I'm thinking that she hasn't quite gotten around to telling Hiems "I love you," but she probably hasn't done a very good job of keeping her feelings a secret. She knows him well enough to not want to cry when he says that he's not the kind to want to share his life, his quarters, whatnot, with somebody else, since he's always seemed to make an exception for her. And she still prays every night that she will be able to help put together the pieces of Hiems's heart that were so cruelly shattered by Madame.
She's had her Longevity Ritual, which means she won't be able to give Hiems any children, but they will be able to be together longer, so there is that.
And I'm thinking the whole taking vows and everything to do with the false madame over there didn't happen, either.
Yeah what Cygna was doing was less than explicit.
How is she orchestrating transport? IMO, Gallus Florensis is dirt poor (in practice), and she has no vis or funds to arrange transport. Interested in how you might solve that problem.
Cygna still has some of her own personal vis supply. If GF is still a Mercere House in this saga, then she might be able to arrange transport through them.
Same thing here with Hiems
We're on the same page, I prefer everything that way too. Especially for the vows and all.
It's difficult to say where Hiems is, since time as passed. I do'nt think he can admit any feeling, save from the tip of the lips, and begrudgingly. Like "Okay... She is someone I care for very much". But when he's okay, he'll spend time with her, and when he's not, she'll be the only one he doesn't send away scowlingly. And he will support her, be there for her, and help her. But he'll deny anything more, even to himself.
As per the children, there's always adoption and apprentices Funnily enough, they could even share an apprentice.
That'll work. Decide on whether you want Cygna and/or Heims to get an additional warping point and use the price agreed upon in Fiona's Big Foot thread... They can transport the pair to Harco. From there you'll need to negotiate with someone from Mons Electi to let you use the Hermes Portal between Harco and Mons Electi
Or, you can travel to Astalon overland and take their Hermes Portal between Astalon and Le Maison and travel across the width of France.
Hiems would prefer that they use the portals. Such a long travel may be dangerous, especially for a fair lady such as Cygna. And the fact that he'd do his best to protect her doesn't mean he would succeed.
Nonetheless, he has no vis per se, so, in his eyes, the choice rests with Cygna.
Okay, this really needs to be adjudicated before the combat happens in Stop, Collaborate and Listen.
In the interests of saving myself from having to stat out multiple combat forms, I'll suggest that at least part of the Major Side Benefit is that her stats don't change when she is in human form.
Another easy answer would be for her to be able to speak all human languages (or maybe certain subsets based on her appearance?).
The third option that I'll suggest is that she has increased health levels. I never intended her to become a combat character, but the chance to use the spider webs and venoms get far too tempting.
The major side benefit is the ability to understand any human language when in human form. She was created as a creature of communication and politics, so I'm going to double down on that aspect. Please observe the distinction, she can understand the language but she cannot speak the language. This is useful in situations where people are speaking another language to hide what they are saying in plain sight.
I don't understand what you're asking from Prospero here. If the intention is to have help assisting with matters of protocol and organization with the Tribunal, then Maris would be the one to contact.
Okay. If she has different stats in human and Spider form, then I'll work those out later and just say she's in Spider form right now for the other thread.
Who is Maris?
This letter was meant to be a general introduction, with a sort of "shall we have tea and discuss something innocuous" overtone to it. In this letter, Theraphosa is just proposing that Prospero spend an evening telling stories about his recent activities, and getting to know Ra'am former covenant-mate. It's an opening gambit -- whether it pans out or if they have additional information they want to share/offer to sell/etc, or whether it just establishes contact with Normandy magi, any of that is fine.