"I could use a bite to eat before I call it a night. You say you normally eat together, all the magi?"
Tintavius smiles. "It's been a while since I've been around people who thought they were my peers. Could be pleasant."
He gets up out of the chair. "I'm going to rest for a little bit. Come get me when it's time for dinner." He then heads back to the bedroom.
Aodhan shows him the door and then returns to the chamber that they were visiting in. At this point Aodhan waits quietly for several minutes, listening carefully for any movement from Tintavius in the other room before he begins to sneak around the room. He looks critically at any place his master sat, anything he touched. Picking up the crockery he drank tea from and inspecting it closely.
((He's trying to find an Arcane Connection if he can of his Master, but he won't use magic:
Perception + Awareness (1+2)
1d10+3 → [1,3] = (4)
invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3745286/
I assume it's not a stress die, but just in case, here's the exploder:
1d10 → [3] = (3)
invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3745287/
So 4 if it's normal, 9 if it's Stress.))
((Searching is always a stress die under normal circumstances, or (rarely) a quality die if you can take your time and search carefully without fear of interruption.))
It sounds like Tintavius is as good as his word. He spends a couple of minutes grumbling quietly to himself (nothing that sounds Hermetic), but then grows quiet. It's not too long before Aodhan can hear a quiet snoring sound coming from the bedroom.
A through search of the sitting room shows nothing that can be used as an Arcane Connection to his pater.
Tintavius sleeps until sunset or until Aodhan rouses him, whichever comes first.
Aodhan tidies up after his fruitless search and then begins to write down his initial theories on the item he might ultimately enter into the contest. As Sunset approaches he stands up and waits for his Parma to fall before he raises it again and the approaches the door to his bedroom and taps on it quietly. "Pater? My Pater, it is Sunset, wake and put on your Parma, supper awaits." he says in a tradition-forged method that had been enforced upon him over long years of a trying apprenticeship.
((anyone that wants to head in, we're about to have dinner with a crabby Knocker-Wizard 
))
Thomas is at the Revel Hall, with Janet and their child. They sit amid a small table of other covenfolk, Thomas looking miserable, and the covenfolk doing their best to look like they're enjoying the company of the Gifted heathen.
"Unh, what, Unh, is - oh yeah, right there, keep doing that! What is it?" Talia calls out to the page who was trying to get Talia to understand that there is a guest at dinner. The page does finally make it clear after several agonizing minutes of having to listen to her cries of pleasure. She screams out, "Yes! Yes! I'm coming!!!". The page flees with his answer.
Talia arrives for the communal dinner in a red imaginary outfit.
Aodhan arrives, walking in front and to the left of his pater. Aodhan is dressed in his usual clothes, making him look like a succesful journeyman craftsman. Behind him comes the wronkled and mischievous looking Tintavius, dressed like he just woke up from his bed deep within a mine. He wears rough breeches and tunic, with pouches and belts for his various tools and accessories. On his head is perched a miner's cap, complete with candle, though the candle is not lit.
Aodhan leads them to the table he usually sits at, stopping to get more crockery for his pater.
To elaborate, Tintavius is very short (Small Frame, just a shade over four feet tall) but sturdy-looking. His skin is the brown of freshly-turned earth, and his long hair looks silvery. His eyes are in constant motion, but lingering on anything that might be construed as being of value. When he gets to the table he'll be sharing with his [strike]apprentice[/strike] filius, he waits for Aodhan to pull out a chair for him.
Talia tries to recollect (for an OOH lore check total of 13) what she's gathered from Aodhan and tidbits she might have managed to loosen from Douglas's tongue when it wasn't otherwise occupied about Tintavius.
((And thus continues Talia's record of stellar Order of Hermes/Code of Hermes lore checks...))
Aodhan seems mostly downcast and sets the crockery down before pulling out the chair and even offering him a hand to get into it, before pushing the chair in for him again. Once that's done he fills his cup with the ale being served and holds it over a candle for several seconds.
"My Pater likes it slightly warmed." he says to any that observe this. Once he gives him the cup he sits down himself and sighs.
"I can do that for you, Aodhan."
Talia can generate a CrIg 3 effect spontaneously without effort, which should be enough to warm something to the touch. Maybe even if it needs a requisite?
Base 2, warm something to the touch, R: touch, D:Mom, T:Ind=3, Requisite would make it 4. Her CrIg CS is [strike]37/2/5=3.7[/strike] (13+3+14+2+3)/2/5 is 35/2/5 for 3.5), which would round up to 4.
If Aodhan (and Tintavius) lets her, she'll stir a finger in his Ale, while bending over and letting Tintavius get a good look at her cleavage...
Edit:corrected CS for the correct aura bonus.
Tintavius barely acknowledges Aodhan as he clambers into his seat, merely grunting as he accepts the warmed ale. The older mage continues to look around the hall critically before the servers come around with the food.
Talia has heard of Tintavius of Verditius. The kindest thing she's heard is that he's more than competent in his craft(s). Originally Welsh, he had to leave his former covenant when their mine was destroyed. In his 40s or 50s (Hermetically), he's been an aonaran for much of that time...in part because he feels that any sodales may be trying to nick his stuff. He belongs to a confraternity of lunatics that are known for boobie-traps; Tintavius's traps have killed at least one member of the Order; he avoided censure at Tribunal because the trap was set in his sanctum marker, and he successfully argued that the fact that the trap was set off meant that the magus was within Tintavius's sanctum and, thus, had forfeited immunity.
Tintavius is greedy, jealous, arrogant, and condescending. He's strongest in Rego, Perdo, and Terram. Strong Faerie blood of some kind.
Thomas notices the visiting magus, but lacks the etiquette to extract himself from his current social situation to get up and greet him.
((OOC: In other words, Thomas is there, and sitting among a bunch of covenfolk, including his wife, for Tintavius to make trouble with, but I'm not having the character get up and introduce himself.))
Aodhan gasps at Talia's forwardness and suggestion and discretely looks over to his Pater wondering how he'd respond. Back at his master's Covenant there were no women that ever looked at his Pater with anything but revulsion.
Tintavius takes a good long look at her cleavage, with a smile on his face. When she finally straightens up, he looks at Aodhan. "You getting some of this, boy?" he says, a little too loudly.
Talia giggles a bit and returns to her meal.
Aodhan blushes and harumphs. "Here...have some potatoes." and scoops some onto his master's plate while trying not to look at him or Talia.
Tintavius guffaws loudly and slaps Aodhan on the leg. "About time you did something right, boy! Could do a lot worse than another maga."
He then looks at Talia. "Then again, she could do a lot better. I hope my arrival doesn't inconvenience you two." He sounds totally insincere with the last, and makes no offer to find other lodging. He merely dives into his food with gusto.
Aodhan's eyes widen a bit at the revelation of new lore, and makes a mental note of this 12 year ritual the newcomer mentioned. Then he heaves a heavy sigh and returns to the table and refill his Pater's cup...again.
"Pater, why also are you here? Don't you have preparations of your own for the contest? Or are you looking for new business?" 'Undercutting my business!' he thinks to hmiself.
((The fact that the Gathering of Twelve Years exists, and that it's pretty much mandatory for all Bjornaer, is common knowledge within the Order. Beyond that, nobody knows anything. Some say it's where the Bjornaer gather to discuss their plans to take over the Order, some say it's a week-long fur-pile. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of rumours about what goes on. And the Bjornaer say nothing...in fact, some of the rumours are about how grizzly your death will be if you do talk about Twelve Years. It's a mystery...what happens in Crintera stays in Crintera.))
"What, I can't come see what my favorite filius is up to?" Tintavius says. ((Aodhan is Tintavius's only filius, so far.))
"I was just at a good stopping point in my projects, thought I'd take a little time to myself, and realized that I hadn't taken the time to check on your progress lately, thought I'd remedy that."
Eilid smiles. "We still have the best salmon in all the world."