Sheelagh is Fiona's new apprentice, sent here by her mater Marós due to some shenanigans going on in Hibernia. Marós sent Sheelagh here to be trained by Fiona while Marós relocated to Insula Canaria. This happened while Fiona and Laetitia were off in the Land of Giants.
So, basically, he walks to Ariel, gives her a fistbump, nods, and walks away?
Something like that, yes 
Ah, yes, I see it now.
I just have trouble with names (IRL too 
)
Me too. I hate first day on the job, when they take you around and introduce you to, like, fifty people, and fifteen minutes later you have no idea who any of these people are.
Did we ever decide on the mechanics of the Tribunal Book?
Also, does Sheelagh have any Virtues and/or Flaws that Fiona's going to have to deal with (e.g. Giant Blood, which I don't think should impact anything mechanics-wise), or is she going to have to teach all the Virtues/Flaws herself?
If we manage it lightly, I can do Sheelagh, if it can help you.
Works for me.
I don't recall, I'm find with you coming up with something reasonable.
As far as virtues and flaws, this can be wide open. You have Apprentices, correct? You and The Fixer can select the virtues and flaws you wish to be inherited. One thing I still think makes sense is that a Hermetic flaw is inflicted when the Arts are opened, this again can be negotiated, it will act as an Ordeal and give a bonus to subsequent Source Qualities for teaching a Hermetic Virtue.
Make sense?
Not necessarily then, but one should have one IMO. Possibilities:
- Your gift is flawed (this, IMO, should be common, as one is rarely, if ever, perfect)
- The opening is flawed, or barely succeeds
- An accident happens at some moment during the apprenticeship.
- The parens is so dreadful he cripples the apprentice
In game terms, this is just an inherited flaw, and thus may differ from the ones possessed by the teacher.
This is independent from the flaws inflicted by the parens when teaching virtues, which comes from his worldview being imperfect (he teaches you magic "as he knows it", which ain't perfect). I dunno if I'm keen about it lowering teaching totals, but this ain't a bid deal, so I don't care much.
Yeah, I know, I'm conservative 
My point of contention is that getting to 21 or even 15 SQ is not all that easy. I think inflicting a flaw at opening ("randomly determined, not set by the parens, call it inherited, if you like) and giving the corresponding -3 or -9 to the required source quality.
Take Fiona, her SQ is
Com 2 +0 Teaching +3 +6 (single student) +3 good Teacher=14
In my opinion, if there is an Inherited Hermetic Flaw it should make itself manifest at Arts Opening, and should count as an Ordeal for purposes of subsequent teaching. This reduces the necessary source quality for Fiona to Impart Flawless magic on her apprentice, should she so choose, because the 21 quality is reduced to 12 for the Hermetic Major flaw previously inflicted. However, Fiona is going to have a tough time imparting other Virtues because her SQ is only 14 AND the difficulty for the next virtue increases. I'm doing this from memory as I don't have apprentices in front of me, and won't until next Tuesday night at the earliest, more like Wednesday when I get home from work. Feel free to make corrections in the arithmetic as necessary. 
Why do I keep forgetting about her Good Teacher Virtue?
But yeah, she's able to do her House Virtues and Flaws as i described over in the Training Thread (namely, doing Mythic Herbalism and Rigid Magic at the same time, with the RM counting as an Ordeal to lower the MH target level, and then gradually doing Minor Magical Focus over the 10 seasons of one-on-one interaction).
Beyond that, each Minor Hermetic Virtue adds +3 to the Target Level, and Major Hermetic Virtue adds +9. For now, she's fine, since (as far as I know) Sheelagh doesn't have any Hermetic Virtues, and if we do MMF like this, there's no Target Level involved, it just happens (p. 42 of Apprentices, under "Acquiring House Virtues".) If not, she could teach MMF in one season with a Target Level of 15 (which means she'd need to get her Teaching up to at least a 1 first).
Beyond that, Inventive Genius is also a Required Virtue that she has to teach Sheelagh, she also has Inventive Genius (Minor), Root-cutter (Minor), Affinity with Muto (Minor), and Flawless Magic (Major) that she would like to pass along if she's able, but that's gonna be hella-hard.
And with my proposal, inflicting a major flaw at opening and counting it as an ordeal, Flawless magic does become teachable.
And if other virtues are make or break, like Inventive Genius, you might need to "hire" a teacher with that virtue. Or consider that it is Inherited, that Maros saw something in her...
So, Sheelagh has a Major Hermetic Flaw (doesn't matter which one) which manifested when Marós opened her Arts. This Flaw adds +9 to subsequent teachings of Hermetic Virtues.
Fiona teaches Sheelagh Mythic Herbalism and Rigid Magic. SQ is Com 2 + Teaching 1 + Bonus 3 + Single Student 6 + Good Teacher 3 + 9 for including Rigid Magic = 24, vs. a Target of 21 to learn a Major Hermetic Virtue.
Fiona then teaches Inventive Genius (Minor Hermetic Virtue), with a SQ of Com 2 + Teaching 1 + Bonus 3 + Single Student 6 + Good Teacher 3 + 9 for including the anonymous Major Flaw that Sheelah got when her arts were opened = 24, vs. a Target of 15 +9 for already having a Major Hermetic Virtue = 24.
And any subsequent Hermetic Flaws that Fiona teaches, she's going to have to jack her Teaching score first, and/or include her Hermetic Flaws.
Is that right?
Yes.
No, you can only count the flaw once. However, if Fiona teaches Inventive Genius first, I'm good with that.
SQ of 15 is sufficient to teach Inventive Genius, without using the bonus for the Hermetic Flaw inflicted at Open.
Then, later on, as long as nothing else has manifested in Sheelagh. Your SQ then becomes 24, and you need to get 21+3. How's that? Yeah, it's mechanical, but I think the SQs are extremely high. Most normal magi won't be able to do much more than one or two minor virtues...
I thought I had it worked out to where she was only using each flaw once.
Mythic Herbalism is paired with Rigid Magic, but Sheelah doesn't have any Hermetic Virtues yet (that I know of). So, her Source Quality would be 15, +9 for including Rigid Magic, for a 24, and her Target is a 21 for a Major Virtue.
Later, she teaches Inventive Genius, and she would have a Source Quality of 15 + 9 for including whatever Major Hermetic Flaw Sheelah got when her Arts were opened, vs. a Target of 15 for a Minor Virtue, +9 for already having a Major Supernatural Virtue for a 24.
But either way works for me...she can teach Inventive Genius first using the existing flaw, then teach the Mythic Herbalism/Rigid Magic combo, and work on Minor Magical Focus over time.
Sorry, reading this on a small screen doesn't help.
Teaching a minor virtue first seems to work best, yes.
Well, we do have different views on this.
I understand the point about teaching. Now, my variations, and objections
The beauty of the system is that inherited virtues are "story" virtues: They may come for any reason, manifest at anytime.
As such, having the hermetic flaw manifest at the opening means that, if, for the story, you want the character to have only one hermetic flaw, it must come from that, and not from another source. That is, if you want a character whose gift is weak/imperfect or that suffered from a lab accident, you must take another hermetic flaw.
=> Even if having a mandatory flaw reducing further mechanics, please, reconsider having it come from the opening. Saying that "once the flaw manifest, next initiation is easier" is enough, IMO, and allows other backgrounds that "At the opening, sheelagh's otherwise perfect gift was randomly crippled, despite fiona taking great care and having increased all her arts above 10" (I exagerate to display how this might break a little suspension of disbelief)
And why would she nescessarily gain a Major hermetic flaw? Especially with Fiona inflicting on her Rigid Magic, this makes 2 hermetic flaws, which is quite heinous.
Then, there's the teaching. Sure, the ease factor are quite difficult, which means that a magus will have trouble teaching more than a couple virtues to his apprentice.
This is, IMO, by design, both to ensure apprentices don't become better carbon copies of their parens by having all their virtues and some spare (while still keeping a sense of continuity through similar virtues and flaws), and to limit munchkinism by forcing the parens to impose flaws and limiting the number of virtues that can be taught.
If you find them really too high, you may instead either lower them by 3 points, period, or take a cue from mysteries initiations (since the 2 are quite similar). That is, if the teacher takes 2 seasons instead of one, she gains a +3 to her totals.
Note that, if PB really wants sheelagh to have some particular virtues, it's perfectly possible to have them as inherited ones, and have them manifest either as the girl's own gift being that way, or as fiona's tutelage shaping her gift like that.
But as I see it, PB wants to teach a total of 4 minor (Root Cutter, Inventive Genius, Minor MF, Affinity with Muto) and 2 major virtues (Flawless magic and Mythic Herbalism) and one Flaw (Rigid Magic) to Sheelagh. And that's above and beyond any hermetic inherited virtues she may have (like a Deft Art, or Mythic Blood) with her Giant Blood, aside turning Sheelagh into "little fiona". See my point?
Inherited flaws don't give a bonus to installing later virtues, or at least I didn't get that impression from reading Apprentices. My views on a hermetic flaw being inflicted at the opening of the arts comes from reading the first full sentence on page 30 of the main rule book. The Gift is never perfect. It is unpredictable. One flaw, major or minor, is chosen at opening. It counts later as an Ordeal, I was assuming it would be major for Fiona so she could pass on Flawless Magic or something. Your objection appears to be one of timing, nothing else. The Flaw at opening is chosen by the player, so it is an informed decision. When I start seeing source qualities in excess of 24 then we can talk. I
Can any flaw be added during training or only flaws the master has? I would think the former but I would treat the virtue/flaw adds for an apprentice like mystery cult scripts. Not that a magus has a script to give a flaw or virtue but in that by adding a flaw at the same time it can make it easier to add a virtue.
A teacher can only give a Virtue or Flaw that he has. It is possible for an apprentice to gain a Flaw by mishap, though. And if a master wants the apprentice to get a Virtue that the master doesn't have (and that the apprentice doesn't have as an Inherited Virtue or whatever), then he has to find a teacher that has the Virtue in question and have him teach it.
And mechanics-wise, Apprentices treats the teaching of Virtues just like initiation into mysteries (with the exception of House Virtues). The teaching Source Quality is Com + Teaching + 3 + Bonus (which is the same as for Teaching on p. 164). Target Level is 15 for a Minor Virtue, 21 for a Major. Granting or using a Minor Hermetic Flaw gives a +3 bonus to your Source Quality, while a Major Hermetic Flaw gives +9. If the apprentice already has Hermetic Virtues, that increases the Target Level by +3 for each Minor and +9 for each Major.
If we're taking about Alexei, he can grant his House Virtue (whichever one(s) he has) by spending ten seasons of one-on-one interaction with him. The seasons spent teaching or helping in the laboratory all count, as long as it's one-on-one.
(this is all from Apprentices, pp. 40-42.)