Thread for character advancement for 1222 and planning for 1223.
If, for whatever reason, your character(s) aren't already advanced for Spring 1222, go ahead and so so.
This would also be a good time to talk about if/how you're going to harvest the covenant's Vis. Some of it merely requires that the magi (or their duly appointed representatives) show up, others require planning and likely some dice rolling. Everything from Summer Rain on is in play for 1222.
Halie would offer to harvest the Fleece of the Lucky Ewe, "as my Gift will not upset the ewe as others' might." She would love to harvest Samhain's Judgement. And since she cares about Intellego she will insist on going to harvest the Glencoe Spring.
(If it's mentioned to her, Caoimhe will offer to find and gather up the Monster's Eggs.)
Halie won't be shipping her lab in until after the building on Eilean Chon gains a second story, and the first floor gets partitioned off (extra size doesn't do anything for a lab that isn't getting refined for virtues). I'm thinking that won't be until Autumn (and we may discover a regio for our labs, anyway). If Talia prefers to keep her shipboard lab then the other three new magi could all build their labs on Eilean Chon once the second story goes up. The two on the top floor would need to provide their own equipment, but the current guest lab has enough equipment to make two separate Size 0 Labs. If no one else objects, Halie would like to put her sanctum on the top floor, with no stairs to it. (I'd like to design this building if no one has any objections.)
Advancement plans:
Summer 1222: Reading Joe, if possible (what's his level/quality?)
Autumn 1222: Reading The Trees Have Much To Say, by Drystan of Merinita. +13 Herbam
Winter 1222: Reading A Life In The Woods, by Felix of Merinita. +15 Animal
Aodhan will spend two seasons setting up his default lab (Exposure Magic Theory XP). At the end of two seasons I hope to have a cottage lab with a smithy attached to it on the part of the island that's allowed. This may take some adjudicating as I might have a different idea of where this would be allowed.
3rd season will be spent trying to incorporate his magic item The Anvil of Vulcan into his lab routines to try and get a lab bonus on it. If this takes no time, he'll inquire with the elders of the covenant if they need anything enchanted, any projects for him to work on, and from there the newbie magi if they have any needs. He's willing to set aside his fees if the project is for the betterment of the Covenant in these early stages of settling in.
I didn't include Spring in my character sheet, so adding it here.
Spring: on the way up to scotland, practice Gaelic in a community where it's spoken (8xp)
Summer: Adventure xp - 5 xp into Order of Hermes Lore.
Autumn: practice Gaelic with the covenfolk (8xp)
Winter: Read "Corpus Revealed" - 11xp, giving me an art total of 4.
Here's my tenative plan for Talia.
[table][tr][td]1222 Spring[/td][td]Practice Scots Gaelic[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]1222 Summer[/td][td]Adventure; Learn spells from Lab Texts[1][/td][td]2 xp Creo (exposure)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]1222 Autumn[/td][td]Read The Book of Change while Ysebrand and Eilid do LR[/td][td]15 xp Muto[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]1222 Winter[/td][td]Read Control Your Emotions, Discipline Your Mind[/td][td]7 xp Rego[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]1223 Spring[/td][td]Invent spell, Shipwright's Delight[/td][td]2 xp exposure Creo[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]1223 Summer[/td][td]Copy Rego text from Orientali Litore[/td][td]2 xp exposure Scribe[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]1223 Autumn[/td][td]Copy Rego text from Orientali Litore[/td][td]2 xp exposure Scribe[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]1223 Winter[/td][td]???[/td][/tr][/table]
[1] Learning CrHe spells from texts: Craft the Lasting Pier and Conjuration of the Sturdy Vine. CrHe LT: Cr 13+3 + He 10 + Int 3 + MT 3 + spec (spells) 1 + aura 3 -1 GQ lab +7 lab text lab=42. Level of both spells together is 40.
Edit 1: changed study plan
Edit 2: Added Practice of Scots Gaelic in Spring 1222
Ysebrand is interested in finding a buyer for the goods Aodhan has for immediate sale, and also be looking for a commission.
Edit 3: Added summer spell learning activities given the availability of a full season after adventure and XP gained from sources.
Edit 4 & 5 changed study plan
Edit 6: changed study plan for 1223
She's going for Vim, right (I believe that's what we were talking about when we first got the boon).
Joe provides a very cranky Source Quality of 20. It's not so much "study the book" as being given a PowerPoint presentation by a bitter old man who is very cognizant of his surroundings. He speaks, and the ink on the page reforms itself to correspond to the words he's saying, or diagrams to illustrate what he's talking about.
Also, anyone who deals with the library will encounter the librarian, Edgar. Edgar is the Large, quiet-spoken keeper of the tomes. He has Latin (5), is literate, and quiet as a mouse who dual-classed in ninja.
Are magi required to read in the library, or can a book be checked out?
Books can be checked out, as long as the magus doesn't abuse them.
We probably don't want to check them out though-- medieval texts are giant honkin' things that are really big, really heavy, and difficult to move around. It probably makes life easier to leave them on their pedestals in the library.
Should we advance now, since you'll be posting the 1223 threads shortly?
Yes. I'll post the xp for Exploring Eilean Chon in a minute, and the ones for Intercharacter Goodness, Three Hour Tour (which I think is wrapped up) and A Nice Chianti when they're done.
How many seasons? Sorry, I'm a bit mixed up. I believe Aodhan was going to build a new lab for two seasons, but only if and when we have the lab thing straightened out with aura.
Three seasons. Four, if you hadn't done Spring 1222 in Character Creation.
No one's talking about tearing down the Common Lab. That was my suggestion back when it was a Size +3 lab with no refinements and no virtues, but it's since been sized down and fleshed out, and none of the proposals since then have included doing anything more disruptive than moving it.
And how is it going to be moved? 1 season of packing it up, build some structure, then 2 seasons to unpack it.
How fast can the structure be built? I didn't think, with the lab's present position that it could be built around very easily. Although, I might have missed that.
Again-- we can't expand the building laterally due to the magic shrubs, we can only build up. The Common Lab isn't even going to be moved.
PB, If we could make some progress on the regio, so our characters can stop making plans IC that we know OOC we will not need to follow through, that would be awesome.
If Aodhan should hold off on the lab building he will. Does he have access to a common lab or is it full? And he should have 4 seasons then, but I'll double check to make sure.
Sorry about this, I'm looking through the various posts and just not finding the answer which I'm sure has been said a few times and I'm just missing it.
Call me crazy, but I like the story possibilities of making plans for things that end up not to be true, or turn out slightly different than expected. 
I think part of the problem is that there isn't anything in a single spot that is definitive or authoritative that we as players can make decisions on. And I'm ok with that.
Everyone has access to the Common Lab. If two or more people wish to use it in any given season, they need to work out a deal or pitch it to the Council on who gets it. It had originally gone by seniority, I think, but that got tossed (if I'm remembering correctly).
I'll post a Common Lab Booking & Reservations post in the Covenant Description thread soon.
What is it you're looking for?