Wherein Viscaria and her assembled party investigate the covenant's regio.
Note, Viscaria is the star, but any other players are welcome, I'll set the pacing according to amul's speed.
Let's start by taking a visit to these gnomes, and seeing if they have any guidance to offer. (Or if they'll run shrieking in terror when confronted by an Terram Abomination).
The gnomes exist under one of the halls in the castle. I haven't hung anything off them beyond the fact that they are a vis source. Of course it's a ginormous vis source of 24 pawns of ReTe vis annually, but the area they occupy is rather small and consists of a chessboard. When you go down there, outside of the normal vis harvesting time, you do observe that the game seems to be playing itself. Other than that, the gnomes have no knowledge of the grounds beyond this particular chamber.
No society of gnomes living beyond the chess board then? How secure is the vis source? Ie, are there a lot of the swiss cheese regio boundaries near it?
Nothing I'm particularly prepared to handle ATM. By the way, when Viscaria visits she only knows about 6 pawns annually, harvested in the spring. I do forget where in the timestream stories are sometimes.
Ooo, a sign-up sheet!
Wen would like to continue exploring ("That was fun!")
I, as a player, would not mind seeing Wilhelm help with the to exploration, as he was built to be a woodsman and possible explorer-type (Keen Vision, Sharp Ears, Ways of the Forest, a kick-ass Awareness in the forest (+10 in the woods for hearing/seeing, a mere +7 for the other senses), excellent archer, excellent Survival skills.
Okay, so Viscaria first examines the paths leading to the chess set, looking for additional boundaries (with Vin's help) -- if she finds any, she'd like to close off or block those boundaries so that they can't be used to get to the valuable vis source.
After that....hrm....can we get a recap, or links, to the terrain description?
From the previous exploration thread:
Using Google Earth on that part of the world, a 20-mile diameter centered on Bibracte is a pretty hefty area. I've been assuming that the regio basically looks like this area, only with steeper climbs to higher altitudes.
Also referencing that map, I'm guessing that the Tribunal Field site we've selected is Glux-en-Glenne or Les Morts (north-ish hills).
At any rate, Viscaria gathers her surveying party at the top of the mountain, by the tree where Wen had discovered the nest. Mindful of the language barrier, she pulls out two silver rods marked with the sigils for Creo and Imaginem, and makes rough sketching gestures at a cleared out space between them all.
"The Ill Designed Battlemap"
CrIm, Base 1: single sense (image)
+1 Touch, +1 Concentration
+2 image responds to mental commands
+1 intricate details (roll up for additional intricacy)
=Total 10
Cr 7 + Im5 + Aura 5 + Words n Gestures 2 + Sta 0 = 19 + die roll 8 = 27/2 = 13.5
An illusory page of parchment first shows the covenant, in as much detail as Viscaria can render (it's pretty obvious that she knows a lot about architecture, but very little about, for example, trees and herb gardens). It then zooms out to include the peak we are standing on, appearing as if an expensive illumination drawn by a very fine hand. She pauses, looking at the landscape around her, and the illusory map now includes these details as if they were the rough underpainting of a larger canvas.
Vin, having been instructed beforehand, makes a great show of considering the view and the painting, and then points to the stream below, and how it seems to connect to the mountain north of here. He makes a two fingered walking gesture from the well-illuminated covenant down to the stream, and Viscaria causes a red line to follow Vin's fingers. From the stream, Vin suggests we follow it upstream to the next nearest mountain, and then carefully explore that.
Broken words of French are spoken and repeated, possibly including the word for "stream."
Vin then gestures for one of the others to make a suggestion.
Thera counters by speaking in Latin, "I suggest a more rigorous search, where we cover the area sector by sector." As she speaks, a series of silver lines spread out across the map, dividing it into rough squares (and blurring out the previous Vin-suggested lines). "Yes, like that. And then we'd start there and then go there..."
Neither Viscaria nor Vin seem to like Thera's suggestion. After some debate, the map-illusion returns to Vin's suggestion.
The regio doesn't actually look like Mont Beuvray and its surrounds the area seems wholly divorced from the Mont Beuvray location in the mundane world.
Sorry, didn't realize that this was explicit requests:
Yes, please, to Wen and Wilhelm.
Wen's parents, Daffid and Catrin, as well as Deykin, with an eye towards finding some good sheep-farming land on the regio side. (As part of the subplot where Viscaria picks up responsibility for the abandoned grogs)
Also available to play: Vin and Theraphosa
Anyone else want to come along? The more the merrier, as this should be a low-risk, RP-heavy chapter.
Any character who isn't actively played is assumed to be part of the "supply train" that comes behind the active participants, marking the path, maintaining food supplies (either through foraging or returning to the covenant for resupply as necessary), etc.
Okay, then what I'm picturing is a steep-angled mountain, with sheer drops and the occasional plateau mirroring the one the covenant mansion is located in. Is that accurate?
If the entire regio is about 20 miles diameter, what's the diameter of the mountain the covenant is on? Apparently, we're going to discover that an adjacent mountain is the best choice for the Tribunal, so there's at least 2 mountains. Any other major geographic regions for us to easily label?
I'm being a stickler for Wilhelm, because PB is playing him as being apart from the covenant. If someone wants him they have to go get him, he isn't just hanging around the covenant, usually.
Oh, I get it, it's just hard for me to respond with appropriate quote-ness when on my phone and sometimes I lose messages by accident.
And that'll work.
The adjacent mountain has a rather large plateau area, suitable for housing, tribunal amphitheater for holding tribunal and tournament events, and also a separate fairground. The plateau is also of nearly equal altitude as the area where Mons Electi's halls are, so a bridge for easy access is possible to build. Beyond the immediate vicinity travel is going to be difficult, but more information might be discovered after a thorough investigation of the plateau. Getting to the plateau will be tough. Getting anywhere else is going to be tougher.
So, of mine, I'm taking Wilhelm and the entire Daffyd clan? (although I'll probably be focusing on Wilhelm and Wen)
Seems like. Nobody else has volunteered up anyone yet, though it occurs to me that I have way fewer grogs to throw at a story than you do, PB.
I got excited for a minute and thought that Viscaria could spont a "Understand all languages all day" spell until I realized that it was Target: Hearing (+3)....~grumbles~
The way down the mountain is quite treacherous. Combinations of skill and judicious use of Arts will enable the party to make it down safely. Getting up to the sister area to the halls of Mons Electi is even more challenging and requires some skill. The cliff face is nearly sheer, and there exists only about a foot wide path to make it up.
Jacques is going to come along ( he has it set for the spring task). He will bring his flock of crows 
Is Viscaria (or her duly appointed representative) going to try to negotiate with Wilhelm to convince him to take a couple of months off from his busy schedule of trying to stay alive to go exploring the regio side?
((Note that I would really like him to go, but he needs an ic motivation beyond "Hey, we're going exploring, wanna come with?"))
((Yes, amul indicated she offered after she made his house, somewhere, OOC.))