This thread is to discuss plans, both for advancement and for resolution of character motivations and plans.
Liliana returns with Rhodri's sword. He apparently fell in battle while guarding the Knight of the Golden Locks against a mob of attackers. The Knight lived, but Rhodri seems not to have-- his body was never found, however. The Knight stayed at Gallus Florensis briefly before wandering off into faerie in search of her lost immortality.
Blackthorn sends a message reminding all that Liliana and Aequi must come and pledge their loyalty at their first opportunity, else there will be hell to pay. Aequi seems to have disappeared into the Twilight Void, leaving Lamentus' laboratory uninhabited (Aequi never finished moving in). Liliana goes to Blackthorn to pay tribute.
Sinmore's provisional membership is up, but she does not get the necessary unanimous vote to establish her as a permanent member. Liliana wants to throw her out entirely, but Attravere and Sophia talk her into allowing Sinmore to start a provisional membership anew.
Shmuel returns to the covenant at the end of spring, and is happy to be home. However, he seems to be under a lot of stress, as he fears the awkward position he will be in as a magus of House Mercere with no trace of the Founder's blood.
Sophia receives new orders from Coeris to return to the House immediately. She tells her sodales that they are quite displeased to hear about the oath she swore to Blackthorn, and will be investigating whether there was any compulsion placed upon her. She renounces her membership before she leaves.
Claudia would like to know if, in those seasons that she's not being used in the laboratory, the covenant would like her to copy some of the books in the library, whether as duplicates if the books are in high demand by the magi, or to trade for books on subjects that the library doesn't have.
In particular, she would not mind the covenant acquiring a decent text on Lex Hermeticum, especially as how one almost needs to be a magister in arbitus to even begin to read the covenant charter.
She is currently studying the books on mundane law, so that she may be of service to the Council in their dealings with their mundane lord...or lady, as the case may be. After that, she would like to further her studies in magic theory.
When Cygna returns to Schola Pythagoranis with Fredegisa, she has a request concerning the study of her brands. She would like Fred to begin with the one for Lust. She doesn't want to say anything, but she is terrified that, by breaking the Limit of True Feeling, that the brand has somehow manipulated her and Hiems's feelings for each other. That what they feel, or think they feel, isn't true love as she had thought but an infernal mockery.
Which, of course, puts her in a moral quandary (yay!) To want to be in love with Hiems, and/or vice versa, would put her in conflict with her Vow of Chastity. But she wants whatever she does feel, and must put aside in her service to God, to be true and not a gift or tool of the Devil.
He had planned to arrive very shortly after the Tribunal ended, yes? She'd still be there when he arrives. It takes a few days longer for the information to go back and forth from Coeris.
When her orders come in, Sophia will invite Tektonius to come to Coeris and make her longevity ritual for her, if he wishes her to honour their agreed-upon price, but she does not have the option remain at Gallus Florensis due to her reassignment.
He'd go, he's got an agreement in principle. If the resources she'd previously had at GF aren't availble, that changes the equation a bit, but if she wants him to do it, he'd do it. He can only transport his lab and himself, after all. You'll have to flesh out what is at his disposal, and how much time away from the lab this will take. I'm sure she's being transported more or less directly, and can provide an AC to a nearby location for his own transport?
((I'm not sure what plans Attravere/Kui had for Shmuel, but with already opened Arts and a keen intellect he might make a good Bonisagus, especially if he's a labrat/bookworm.))
Liliana tells Claudia that the texts on Creo, Intellego, Auram, Magic Theory, and Parma cannot be copied without the express written permission of their authors, due to contractual obligations. The rest of them are fair game and can be traded.
Liliana tells her that if she can find a trade, to feel free to bring it before the council.
Fred tells her she's not planning on sharing any information about what she finds with Cygna, in case there are any problems with destroying them. "The more you know about how they work, the more likely you may face charges of diabolism if it turns out we cannot remove them. You've used them before, but unwittingly, so Trutina decided not to investigate further, but if you knew how they worked and used them again..." She lets the implication hang in the air.
Claudia thinks that sounds fair enough, and begins to write letters. She doesn't know anybody in Stonehenge, but she does have Order of Hermes Lore 1, with a specialization "Magi of the Iberian Tribunal". She will say that Gallus Florensis is looking to expand its library by the addition of a quality tome on Lex Hermeticum and is willing to trade for it, vaguely describing some of the texts that are available.
(p.s. She is going to start with the Roman and Neutral covenants/magi. If she doesn't get a reasonable response from them, she will try the Reconquista ones)
[color=red]"I see," Cygna says. Maybe after they're destroyed, she thinks, I can find out if I'm right.
((Just throwing this out there. Sophia had some seasons of unspent time, my original intention for her, since she had a lab she couldn't use was to index and work out the Charter a bit. I'm fine if she never did do it [since I never said she did, I never got around to putting it down in print.]))
((I have to go through the last posts for Sinmore's plans before the Tribunal, it was to build something to protect from fire))
"Bloody Hell." mumbles Sinmore when the vote fails. "So what now? May I stay? Please forgive my tone...but how much longer, how much more service is required?"
Hiems is... Worried. When he's alone, with time to think and brood.
Otherwise, he's just happy, and enjoying it while it lasts (he doesn't think it will).
But when he thinks... He recognizes he's fine with lisette because she soothes him, make him at peace. And it would be okay, it would even be great, if there weren't cygna. Cygna, who both his human and his inhuman side like, although differently. She could have been his great love, had he met her first. But he hasn't, and this is a mess. This would still be okay, if she didn't love him: He knows what to do, and is fine anyway when he's with lisette. But with what's going on between the two of them, and what happened the other day, he fears he'll cause her to break her vows, and end up hurting everyone. And he doesn't want to hurt either of them, as they are quite innocent of any wrongdoing.
So, he figures, the lesser evil is to remove himself from the equation. To that end, he'll seek out liliana and discuss with her. Spend time in the marshes, too, basking in the magical aura there, which did strange things to him before.
This is not what he wanted, but he figures that, if he can supress/destroy his human side and feelings, his "ice" self will still be there for both lisette and cygna (since he respects them, and act on duty, too), but without the emotionnal mess. Lisette will still suffer, since he won't be able to love her anymore, but a lot less than if she discovered he had feelings for cygna, or worse.
He'll search for books on Perdo and/or Ignem, too...
So, just to clarify what's going on with Tektonius....
When does he take the Oath of Covenant?
Does he go with Sophia when she's recalled, to complete her LR? We can handwave all the assistant stuff, as it's not really material if she's no longer in the saga. Does he get paid? Does he find a place where he can set up his sanctum at GF? Does he have to construct it, since his lab is rather large? Moving his lab twice, to Coeris and back, roll the finesse roll?
Does anyone want him to visit or write his grand parens about the demon, when he casually mentions that his grand parens (his Hermetic Patron) is the Quaesitor investigating the demon in the Rhine. He's not going to do this lightly, as he's never gotten involved in investigations before, and has little interest in it...
Does Attravere really want an apprentice? I think Tektonius has a pretty interesting take on being an apprentice, and it could be some interesting dialogue. Plus, he'd probably make Shmuel teach him magic theory when he figures out the apprentice knows more than he does, which I think would be a hoot.
Some of those questions get answered, I think I can ask other questions, engage in dialogue with Cygna about Iudicium looking tired and we can put some pieces together and try and figure out what really happened to us.
Tek can take the Oath before Sophia gets recalled to Coeris. She'll offer to pay him one pawn for every five magnitudes he can manage without her aid, so he can decide whether to move his lab and take the commission, or to stay and set up shop.
There are a couple empty buildings that would be available. Rhodri's lab is available (Size +2, Dedicated Building, Flawless Equipment and Greater Feature: Forge). It's a stone cottage with built-in armoury, and if you remove the forge it'd be big enough for a size +3 lab. Lamentus' lab in the bottom basement of the tower is still available, as Aequi never finished moving in (Size +2, Flawless Equipment, Teaching Gallery, Magical Heating, Magical Lighting). If you knock down the wallthat separates the living quarters, it's big enough for a Size +3 lab. There's an old herbarium that has become overgrown with vines and is otherwise empty (wooden building large enough for a +1 lab and separate living quarters). The herbarium will be large enough a +3 lab if you remove an internal wall (not structurally required, it's just a convenience partition), and living quarters can be added on at leisure (negligible time required if made from wood).
((Tek can only do an LR 11 without assistance, assuming an aura of 5. Two pawns of vis isn't worth it, and he has to locate a suitable permanent spot for his lab. He'll wish her well. Presume this happens early enough in summer that he can do something else as a distraction from the lab? What kind of distraction are we talking about?))
((don't worry about distraction, you can just spend longer days in the lab to make up for it. I am not an accountant and game mechanics will not turn me into one.))
((Don't forget, barring conflict, both Claudia and Cygna have open offers for assistance to anyone who wants it. Cygna's at Schola Pythagoranis for the summer, but other than that, they both look free.))
Would it surprise you to know that I am/was an accountant[1]? Logistics and what not are kinda fun for me. They create points of conflict for the characters to address in some manner.
For example, Sophia's leaving I viewed as a logistical exercise for Tek, he just can't do her LR; it's not her fault she's leaving, but I think it's fair that the agreement is that he come to GF to do the LR, not follow her wherever. Since the support he would have had is now gone (losing Claudia, Schmuel and the Creo bonus is a 24 point hit to the LR, which drops the LR from 15[2] to 11).
[1] I haven't done any accounting in 3 years, I'm strictly IT now.
[2] I think we had discussed adding 1 pawn extra of vis to get it to LR 16, but that's neither here nor there...
Destroying the partitioning wall: Base 4 destroy an amount of dead wood R: T D: Mom T:Part, for a total level of 5. A ceremonial casting of it yields a CT of e 5 + He 5 +Int 5 + Philo 5 +1 (spec) + AL 5+1=27/5=5+ That wall comes down in 15 minute increments, depending on the size. I can do finesse rolls to control the size and shape and destruction as necessary. let me know how many.
Using the Wand of the Ambulatory Laboratory, moving his lab into the (former) Herbarium is automatic, but the Per+ Finesse roll Ease factor is 9: Roll is Per 2 + Finess 4 + specialty (terram) 1 + Die roll of 9=16, success!
OR, you can let two grogs take out the wall. It will take them about 10 minutes. It's not a real wall, it just lets the south-facing chamber stay hot while providing shade to the north-facing chamber. Unless rolling dice makes you happy, in which case call it three rolls
Tektonius gets so few opportunities to actually use magic, unless it's in a device, I'll go with the magic/finesse.
So it takes him 45 minutes, big deal... Die rolls of 11, 9 and at least 16
Now the poor grogs don't have to carry anything away, either.
If I am able to do an LR for someone not from GF, and donate the Vis fee to the covenant would that count as covenant service?
e 5 + He 5 +Int 5 + Philo 5 +1 (spec) + AL 5+1=27/5=5+ That wall comes down in 15 minute increments, depending on the size. I can do finesse rolls to control the size and shape and destruction as necessary. let me know how many.