1226.2 You Get More With a Kind Word And a Crowbar

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: In the Ruins of Bibracte
1

Without any notification and announcement, three Quaesitores appear outside the gates of Mons Electi. A man with snowy white hair steps forward, "I'm proctor, Chief Quaesitor of the Tribunal, I request hospitality for a period to last no more than one month for the purposes of investigating the facilities prepared for the Tribunal and tournament. With me are Aristarcus and Valerian, Chief Hoplite."

((This one is wide open to whomever wants to interact then. I didn't look at the princeps rotation, but this is when they were going to visit, regardless. Princeps, or anyone can greet them during this time.))

2

Viscaria has Princeps duty (and is expecting to earn 10xp in Leadership for the effort), so this makes for good timing.

"Ah, lovely. Your timing is most fortuitous, Archmagus." (or any other appropriately ingratiating title). She nods briefly to Aristarcus and Valerian, but

"Allow me to show you the place from the first footstep, as it were." With that, Viscaria leads them back down the hill, away from Mons Electi, and out to the other regio boundary that lets people in closer to the other mountain.

"As you can see, I am preparing a more suitable entrance for the baggage trains of our guests."

(OOC: How many different paths have we found by now?)

She then leads them to the plateau, where the Colosseum, Bath Houses and Museum (Arts and Crafts Building) have been assembled, among the wide, smoothed roads, separating the many squarish indents laid out where villas will be conjured later.

"I've nearly completed the necessary enchantments. All that remains [strike]are the scrying spells upon the tribunal field so that spectators may watch, and[/strike] is the magics for the kitchens, and then conjuring the actual buildings."[strike]Truth to tell, I was waiting on your arrival so that we might discuss the scrying enchantments in person and at length."[/strike]

A single Villa has also been constructed of real stone, its placement clearly central to the design of the small city, but not ostentatiously so. Viscaria will lead them here and suggest that they can reside here while they inspect the Tribunal Field and its grounds. She waits attentively for their questions.

(OOC: By now, her Hubris is at least 2, maybe even 3, depending on the spell selection. Her particular brand of Hubris is the "Aggressively Humble About My Achievements" variety, which is why she's explaining how "I did this," and "I've directed that.")

EDIT:

She leads them into the villa, and then pulls out a small silver wand, shaped like a drippy candle, which she uses to trace several circle-sconces to provide light, and to conjure a fire in the hearth. After this, she shows them the three largest bedrooms, pausing in each one to apply a silver spade to the interior rim of a chamber pot.

3

"Scrying enchantments? Heavens, no! The code is clear, and I don't wish to be seen endorsing that some scrying is fine while other scrying is not."

There is a two way regio "portal" outside the gate on the mundane side. Funnily enough, Viscaria discovered it at a convenient spot for getting people arriving from the mundane side to the tribunal field on the regio side in an extremely orderly manner. The entrance from the mundane side had been hidden from view by the gate house, but it was easily discovered from the regio side. Crossing over was quite easy. Once the Tribunal is over, the gatehouse can be expanded to enclose the regio entrance. IT almost seems as if someone made this, as it's easy to cross the border and is quite obvious.

How big is the venue? How many does the coliseum seat?

4

OOC: I could have SWORN that Le Maison's Tribunal had TV screen-like enchantments that let people in the food tents watch the proceedings happening in the grand field. If this was not the case, then please be explicit about that. I have been waiting for you to answer that question since before Jan 24. On the other hand, this could easily be them playing double-standard, and what happened in Le Maison is suddenly not okay for our Tribunal Field.

The entire thing is laid out like a Roman city in miniature, and ends up being about 4-6 square blocks, with the Colleseum in the dead center.

  1. Coliseum - seats 200-300, is partially underground (it doubled as our quarry), and includes tunnels and ramps to get horses and wagon-loads of goods in and out.

  2. (16x or 20x) Roman Villas will be conjured to form the exterior perimeter of the Tribunal Field, with the (permanent) Mons Electi villa being in-city and next to the Roman Baths (one of the other permanent structures) (for the 9-13 Normandy Tribunal covenants, plus some outsiders that decide to show up).

  3. A large Roman Style Bath House could also comfortably serve 150-200 people at once. You could probably play Water Falconball in it. If we divide the city into quadrants, with the Colluseum in the center, this would be in Quadrant 1.

  4. Space has been allocated for Small vendor Booths throughout the "city", intermixed with smaller Baroque-Peasant-Hut sized "longhuts" that will be available for rental on a first come, first serve basis, for people to teach classes, conduct meetings, etc. These 3-room long huts

  5. Building for Arts and Exhibitions, to glorify the labors and skills of our mundane craftsmen. If there was time and material enough, this will also be a permanent building. It is equidistant from the Colleseum in Quadrant 3

  6. Three (3x) Residence Halls will be conjured that can each serve about 30 people, in Quadrants 2 and 4.

  7. The Flambeau Field is down a large winding path that leads to the other side of the mountain, to a secondary quarry site. This other quarry site is for the more explosive games.

5

Well, I don't recall writing that, but I've written things before and forgotten them, so I'm not going to say that it is a double standard automatically. Tell you what, you find if I said it somewhere and you can prove your point about a double standard. You can't find it, we can chock it up to being a double standard...or not. Fair? I honestly don't remember writing that and remember comment about a grandstand and viewing area, tents were for competitors...

The events can run all in the coliseum over a period of 3 days. The only potentially dangerous event to spectators is the Dimicatio.

6

I can't either. It's entirely possible that I saw it in somebody else's game. I was reading through a bunch of Tribunal chapters in retired games around then.

Let's say that Le Maison didn't do it, and Viscaria wasn't planning to do it either. She desperately needs the free seasons. Viscaria isn't trying to raise a fuss, and generally prefers that no one knows she knows Intellego at all.

Presumably, we needed a second quarry site one way or the other -- I imagine that the excavations here don't quite match the quantity of stone needed on the other projects. The path and quarry are there, whether they're going to be used for Dimicatio or not.

7

Keep in mind, you're the hosts, you provide the venue, you don't run the Tribunal, the tribunal apparatus does that. You manage the fair, and are expected to meet the needs of the tribunal apparatus. Providing places for magi and retainers to stay, place to hold the tribunal sessions, and a place for the Tournament. How Viscaria and the magi of Mons Elect wish to do this is up to the troupe.

Also, since Regio was taken as a boon, I'm just reiterating that this will be used for the players' benefit and not an SG club. :smiley:

So, why don't you lead off from wherever, edit any posts you feel appropriate (I can delete this post and others and edit my responses accordingly)...

8

~blink~ The plans we've laid out for what we perceived as our responsibilities have only had minimal changes since January. I think the only recent addition of any note is wanting to get warding spells and Lab Texts. The list has been there, waiting for your input, for months. Aside from the scrying spells, are there other ways in which we seem to be taking on responsibilities that are not ours?

I've edited my post, above.

9

I don't have any input as SG.

10

One can hear Isen's teeth grinding from a mile. He could do obsequiously insulting, but he's not in the mood (when is he?)

He'll come with viscaria, but will be too busy scowling to say much.

For what it's worth, I've finally done Isen's 75BPs.

And you're lucky, since, although I didn't know you wanted something like that, I've included a lab text on a lvl 40 Watching Ward :smiley:

11

(Possibly, this thread is stalled while waiting to figure out the exact magics used?)

Viscaria waits a few minutes to see if there is anything else they need before she'll depart and warn the others of their arrival. In particular, she'll make sure that Theraphosa has the body well and truly hidden in several places.

It is worth pointing out that the Tribunal field is outside our Aegis, and so no tokens have been given to them.

12

When viscaria leaves, Isen stays.
He will not let the 3 quaesitores alone, especially Valerian.

Time to be a little hypocrite... What would Axion do? does he think

13

((For the record this thread is stalled pending the outcome of whatever it is the Council of Mons Electi decides to do in regards to traveling to Confluensis and retrieving lab texts and other things related to hosting the Tribunal. There's been a bunch of talk, but no action. Let's say that there is now a deadline of August 6th, my return from vacation, for the council to decide what to do. That doesn't mean that whatever started has to be complete, it just means it must be decided and appropriate action taken based on those decisions.))

14

((For some reason, i thought we were going to be sending Abagail and possibly Sheelagh to break down the lab, pack up all of his stuff, and bring it all back. Definitely Abagail since she has more Magic Theory than Sheelagh, I believe.))

15

Sounds like a pretty good plan.
"Go there, clean the place, catalogue everything. Set appart anything strange and unusual. Try not to blow yourselves up in the process."

16

You're talking about Apollodorus's lab, JL is talking about sending someone to Confluensis to pick up the lab texts, etc regarding Tribunal hosting. Last suggestion on the council thread was for us to send Renauld, but his intro story isn't complete yet.

17

((Wouldn't we have been given those the same time we got the Tribunal book that Fiona's been studying from for years?))

18

Nope.
Edit: because the book was given by Maris and not returned to Confluensis and Le Maison didn't use any other resources from the Tribunal.

19

((So, did we wind up sending Renaud, or did we not get much in the way of books/resources from Confluenisi?))

20

((The player has never notified me that he's ready to do anything with Renaud. This thread can proceed whenever amul is ready to proceed with it. If he needs to do something else, first, we can get that done and then move onto this thread.))