Talia opens the door to her sancrum, and it is almost completely filled with a desk. In fact the desk takes up so much room that it seems as if Talia might actually have to climb over the desk to get into her sanctum. A door can be seen on the other side, and as Drystan is thinking it, "My sleeping quarters are through that door on the other side. It's not much, but it's what I've got." Talia does manage to squeeze herself in and shows off a number of compartments built into the ship's structure, maximizing storage, for such a cramped lab.
Drystan looks stunned. "How do you get anything done in here?"
Talia looks a bit crushed,"It's really quite efficient for what I do. I can't enchant items in the lab, but I've heard of some magi being able to make smaller labs even more functional. They're probably experts with Magic Theory, though." Talia goes on to discuss how she works in her lab, and it's quite plain to Dystan that Talia's understanding of Magic Theory is extremely limited, but there is a raw talent. The design of her lab is revolutionary and it is extremely well stocked with stores and precious ingredients, yet the arrangement illustrates a lack of understanding of basic Magic Theory one would expect of someone who had passed a gauntlet. Though, Tytalus methods for gauntleting a magus are much different.
"You've done rather well, considering the limited amount of space you had to work with. I've never seen a shipboard lab before, and I was just surprised." Drystan seems a little embarrassed now, and obviously looks for some way to change the subject.
"I hope our pier is good enough to hold your boat in place...obviously, we don't get many that size up here. Perhaps we can work out some better docking for it."
Talia brightens a bit. "Of course, I'll help. I have some vis, and I'm pretty good with Creo, Herbam and Terram magics."
Drystan says that he invented a spell, Craft the Lasting Pier, "Oh, fifty or sixty years ago, I think," that's a Ritual Creo Herbam, with several increases in magnitude for size. "In fact...the pier the surrounds our covenant was created with that spell. The hard part was to get the pilings deep enough. Once you get out from shore, the bed of the loch drops off quite a bit." He would be willing to work with you on the design for a "proper" dock for the boat and either teach you the spell or cast it himself.
((in all, it's a Level 35 Creo Herbam ritual spell.))
((How masochistic am I as a player? This much...))
"If you could share the lab text with me, I could probably learn the spell." Note, Talia's basing this upon the fact that she learned a 45th level spell, Conjuration of the Seaworthy Cog. However, she's discounting or not understanding abilities and limitations: her poor shipboard lab (-1 GQ) AND, her magical focus.
The craftsman looking fellow stops the procession and speaks with the driver and the armed clansman while the well dressed scholar walks on ahead, not noticing he's proceeding on his own. After a brief discussion in Scottish the clansman adresses the folk by the road.
"Oy! Who lives up the road?!" he calls in gruff Gaelic.
The craftsman and driver wince at such a blunt greeting but the clansman seems unperturbed by it.
"That way is Inbhir Mhoireastain," an older woman says as she looks up from her work. "This here is the Covenant of Insula Canaria."
The craftsman looks up in surprise at the answer and then looks around. "Excuse me...are you saying this is Insula Canaria?" he asks in rather cultured Gaelic. "Vermicello!" he calls to the scholarly man. "My friend we have arrived!" he adds in Latin. The Italien man seems utterly aghast at the surroundings.
"Can you tell one of the magi that Aodhan has arrived please?" he says, returning to the woman he had spoken to.
"One you've joined the covenant," he says with a smile, "you will have free access to the library, and will be able to learn the spell"
[strike]((yeah, near as I can tell, her CrHe LT is 36...so, barring some pretty good Experimentation, she's gonna be down there for about nine years. With experimentation...with the bonus from the lab on her boat, she's looking at a year, assuming she doesn't do Exceptional Risk. With a +3 Risk Modifer, she's probably looking at three season. And that's assuming an average of 6 on her Experimentation roll.))[/strike] ((edited for blatant stupidity))
The woman makes her way to the eastern end of the covenant, and returns shortly with a blonde woman dressed in a light blue robe in tow.
"Which one of you is Aodhan?" she asks.
The craftsman steps up rather proudly. "Aye, that would be me. I am Aodhan of Verditius. Who do I have the pleasure of addressing? Have we crossed the Aegis by the way?"
"Does it feel like you've crossed the Aegis?" Doineann says, her tone of voice plainly saying "idiot!"
((The road runs outside the covenant. If you're still on the road, then the crushed stone path which marks the covenant boundary, is still to your south and hasn't been crossed. It's when you set foot on the path that you feel the tingling.))
"I am Doineann Gaothcoisiche ex Miscellanea. I assume you and yours are here in response to our letter?"
Aodhan seems utterly oblivious to the sarcastic reply, instead he looks a bit crestfallen. "Oh...yes, quite, I suppose we haven't crossed it yet. Would ye mind terribly if we did?" he gestures hurriedly to his party to get the cart and themselves moving forward again.
"But yes, I wrote a letter. You have received it yes?" he turns to the scholarly fellow. "We did send it didn't we?"
"My friend, she's talking about their letter, not yours. But yes we sent it, I gave it to the fellow with the Redcap." he gestures with his hand to the woman and makes a bow at the waist, his Latin accent is particularly refined.
"True, true! Yes, I remember now. I'm sorry, I'm a bit turned around most of the time, especially lately. I would like to join your Covenant if you'll have me. I bring many benefits, not the least of which is my craft."
Doineann looks over Aodhan's cart and fellow travelers, then pulls out a casting token and hands it to him with the formal invitation to enter the protection of their Aegis.
Almost immediately afterward, a crow alights on her shoulder, cocking its head and regarding everyone intently. She gives a brief tour of the covenant, then shows them to his cottage.
"Will you all be sharing the cottage, or should we find accommodations for the rest of you as well?
"We'll be having a council meeting in a few days, on the Solstice, where we'll be extending formal invitations and accepting new members."
Aodhan takes the token with a smile and at the mention of accomodations looks to his pary and takes a quick head count. "Well if ye have room for four, that'd suit us fine. If not, I suppose I could sleep outside and let the boys have the cottage. In a few days yes? Great. I shall be there."
He stops and looks about before asking rather quietly. "Ye haven't heard from my parens have ye?"
You should be able to fit four snugly into the cottage. It has two bedrooms (one significantly larger than the other), a kitchen, dining room, and (judging by the size, sparse furnishings, and a couple of broken or otherwise nigh-useless thingamabobs) an abandoned/deserted laboratory – as does the other cottages that the magi are put in, unless otherwise noted.
"No...should I have?"
The gruff looking man starts the cart rolling again with a slap on the donkey's flanks followed by a dodge of it trying to bite him and starts heading towards the cottage while Aodhan and the Italien stay to talk.
"Should you have?" Aodhan looks a bit alarmed. "No! Nono, why should you have? Why would you think that?" he hurriedly adds. The Italien sighs and bows again.
"Please forgive my friend, too many nights on the road he's had. If you'll have us we shall make our stay, and thank you so much for your hospitality."
Experience Points for the thread, in random order:
- Aodhan: 6 xp.
- Halie: 5 xp.
- Talia: 8 xp, 1 Confidence Point.
- Trimalchio: 5 xp.
Who is this Talie you speak of?