1227 Tribunal Preparations

Viscaria is examining the column of rock critically, apparently trying to decide if it is construction grade material.

"Hrmm? You've found something? Good, because I haven't. This is junk rock. Barely worth the name. Look how to crumbles."

When she sees the crack in the ground, she pulls out another one of her stubby wands (only one wand this time). "I could widen that thing up with a little Perdo Terram, if you think there's something down there. Only, the thing that's down there better not be Terram. Or really nice Terram, if it is."

[color=magenta]"Well ... I really worry about a lot of this tumbling down around us if you take away any of the rock," Tranquillina frowns, kneeling and pointing to a crumbling shelf near the long crack (which Viscaria had noticed long before). [color=magenta]"And you could easily fit down there - I probably could too, myself ... but not knowing what's down there...." Peering into the darkness from up here helps very little.

She nods to herself and stands. [color=magenta]"Let me go down there quickly, to make sure it's safe, and then I'll call you down," she instructs Viscaria. She takes several steps back from the crack and easy snaps a jutting knob off of the unstable floor, telling Vin (in Latin): [color=magenta]"Stay clear of this spot here; I will transport myself here in an emergency."

Tranquillina quickly prepares herself for possible dangers, first (and most obviously, especially to those with Second Sight) by casting Wizard's Sidestep upon herself, as well as an easy Muto Corpus spell (with Animal overtones) that seems to be directed at her face, both of which make Vin feel a little bit nauseated. She then balls her fist and slaps her cloak into her abdomen twice, with no easily discernable effect. Finally, she draws the cloak's hood over her head and all the way down her face, and the action transforms her completely into a brownish-red wolf.

It stands there for a minute, looking around, and Vin feels another pang of nausea. Then the wolf says unexpectedly, [color=magenta]"All right, I'm ready to see what's down there. Any last words?" Its tongue lolls out in a passable imitation of laughter.

((Lacking Perception and Awareness, Vee fails to understand what you've done, and watches sort of blankly.))

The wolf admits a sullen growl and slithers its way down into the crack, disappearing from view.

About a minute later, the wolf's voice calls up from the darkness beneath. [color=magenta]"Well, I don't see anything dangerous down here ... but I feel like there's some sort of creature, hiding from me. Something native to the regio, perhaps.... How do you feel about joining me? Other than my sense of not being alone, there isn't much of note down here."

This particular sub-thread is Just For Fun Only (at this point, for "discovering" a vis source I've allocated BPs for), so if you'd like to tick it off your list and move on to other things, I'll just summarize what happens next! Let me know.

Shortcutting: the grotto below the crack within the pocket regio is home to a magical cave salamander who has the power of invisibility. If physically trapped or held, he will drop his tail and run away; the tail contains a pawn of Perdo vis and takes a few months to grow back. The salamander's dung fertilizes the fungus in the cave, especially in a particular corner, where the fungus too is rendered invisible; it can be harvested for Imaginem vis.

Mechanically, the covenant acquires a vis source: 3 pawns Perdo and 4 pawns Imaginem per year, every winter for simplicity (in 1223 let's say we get 1 pawn Perdo and 2 pawns Imaginem only). The salamander probably has a poisonous bite (not fatal) but is not built for combat, so reasonable precautions should allow the gathering of the vis; Second Sight is also helpful. One wrinkle is that the entrance to the pocket regio is smack dab in the middle of the plateau on which the Tribunal city is being built. Maybe the Administration building can surround it...?

(Jonathan, here's your chance to confirm or question this allocation of Tranquillina's build points (see also this post unrelated to the vis source). Anyone can offer suggestions about tweaking the vis source if they want.)

Build points are fine. Where is the entrance to the upper level of the regio, the description is grotto, so I want to make sure it isn't the same place that Tria comes from, as that spot is entirely underwater.

Here I'll collect all the information about the pocket regio level. "Grotto" might be an unfortunate choice of words due to other things in existence in the saga; I mean only "the basement level of the cave".

location of the entrance to the pocket regio
The pocket regio is accessed from the plateau on which the Tribunal city will be built, close enough to the center that it will be within the city bounds.

accessing this pocket regio
The maga holds her arms straight out at her sides like a cross, then shuffles sideways in a very particular spot. She will find herself inching through a cleft between two tall rock walls (that weren't there before). Several claustrophobic steps later, she will emerge from the fissure. The only place to go from inside the pocket regio is back out to the plateau in the main regio, by inching through the cleft in the other direction. (In particular, the pocket regio does not itself have a second level anywhere.)

appearance inside the pocket regio
Whereas the plateau "outside" was relatively flat and orderly, almost to the point of appearing manicured, here the terrain consists of scant trails winding between tall fang-like walls and ominous pits. ("It's like the deeper down you go, the more vertically stretched it gets. Like taffy.") From any given vantage point, one can see at most ten paces in any given direction: objects seem to be blurred and distorted as if seen through a haze of hot smoke, even though the air is uncolored and tastes normal; the sky is a featureless gray canvas consistent with a gloomy day. The haziness hindering visibility does not depend on the distance from the object to the viewer, but rather seems to be a constant feature of the regio's terrain. Details become harder and harder to see the farther they are from the crevice through which they entered; about 20 or 30 paces out, telling the difference between ground, pit, pillar, and sky is so hard that traveling further would be essentially suicidal.

The columns, walls, and even the ground are made of "junk rock", extremely crumbly and barely worth calling rock. There is a hint of a breeze, though mostly near the ground. Dirt and, occasionally, small pebbles are disturbed by the low gusts and disappear into the pits. There is a long but narrow crack in the ground somewhere in the regio, which a large person would have trouble fitting through. It leads to a lower cave, equally convoluted with stalagmites and unsure footing, with a thin coating of dim gray fungus on most surfaces.

magical contents of the pocket regio
The magical aura in the regio is weaker than the main regio: it has a score of 3, and is Perdo-aligned rather than Rego-aligned. This lowermost cave, below the narrow crack, is home to a magical cave salamander who has the power of invisibility. If physically trapped or held, he will drop his tail and run away; the tail contains a pawn of Perdo vis and takes a few months to grow back. The salamander's dung fertilizes the fungus in the cave, especially in a particular corner, where the fungus too is rendered invisible; this invisible fungus can be harvested for Imaginem vis.

I've never had a regio go down. Typically as they go lower, they dump out into the real world. The manor side of Mons Electi is a 3, also Rego aligned, while the castle side is a 5 and Rego aligned. So it's problematic.

First problem is that it goes down a level, which to me, makes me think it's connected to the mundane world somehow, somewhere. And that's fine. I think I had established that there is a regio entrance just outside the south gate of Mons Electi, it's behind a guard house and it does lead to the Tribunal field. Perhaps, if you go through the regio entrance in that particular pose you endup somplace else. Let's give it an aura strength of 4 so as to not violate the rules about moving up/down a regio.

I'm not wild about a Perdo aligned regio existing within, and at a lower level of a Rego aligned regio, it kind of violates my sensibilities a bit. That being said, I don't have a problem with a Perdo vis source being present.

Ok, aura 4 instead of 3, and still Rego-aligned instead of Perdo (although the blurry descriptions, which I like, make a little less sense in a Rego-aligned aura. But there's no really good reason for it to be Perdo-aligned, unless the salamander itself is causing it).

So there's an entrance between mundaneland and this salamander pocket regio that hasn't been discovered yet (at least as of 1223.4). I think there should be some of the same fungus behind the guard house in the particular spot where access to Salamandrio can be gained. Maybe a slightly different pose? such as, stooping tremendously low to the ground, to duck under a low ceiling?

It could be unaligned, as if that pocket were skipped over...

The regio entrance behind the guard house is there to get to the Tribunal field, for all of the mundane travelers to get to the Tribunal without traipsing through the manor house and covenant. It's a boon, benefit to the covenant. I thought I'd detailed the entrance before, but I can't find it. You can have the mushrooms grow wherever, either side or both sides. It's a pocket, between 3 and 5 auras, it's like a bit of space folded in on itself, even more tightly than regios normally are. That protected this area from developing a Rego alignment....
The entrance is going through either direction as described. If you go through normally, you end up either at the Tribunal field or at the mundane side, next to the south gate guard house. Make sense?

Yep, I think so. Same physical location, but two different metaphorical buttons on the elevator.
And unaligned sounds good to me, with your explanation.
When I get the time I'll put it all on the wiki and add the vis to the inventory spreadsheet.

Tranquillina - Certamen
Alexei - Joust
Roberto - Dimicatio
Korvin - Certamen or Dimicatio
Marcus?? - Dimicatio
Fiona -
Jacques -
Isen -
Hastiludium ?? -

Novus Main put a good Melee team together :slight_smile:

Probably as good a place or time as any to formalize Marcus's informal membership to Mons Electi. I think he's partaking of Protected Guest status. That being said, I think someone will object to his being a member of the Mons Electi team, and he either doesn't compete (in which case I can run the Dimicatio) or he competes as a cenobite as he has previously.

Teams are supposed to be limited to 5 magi, but I'm thinking that it is reasonable that there would be two alternates possible. And mundanes never count, such as for events of a grog being the rider in the Hastiludium or the grogs and companions involved in the melee.

Korvin would love to invite Marcus to join. I just never heard he wanted more than protected guest status.

Oh, I think he's politely declined the offer to join. He helps out, does whatever is asked whenever he's asked (within reason). Very giving of his time to service the covenant, but likes being his own man, so to speak. He is a legal resident of the Tribunal, he's just not a member of Mons Electi, and despite the advantages it offers, he's enough of a contrarian to say thanks, but no thanks. I'll have him involved in more meetings from here on out, but of course, feel free to disinvite him from those meetings whenever anyone wants to do so.

Having been prepared by the 30 Cases in November threads I think I could argue that while Marcus has not yet accepted full membership at Mons Electi he has lived here for 7 years. He has a lab and sanctum marker. Redcaps know to find him here. He is not an independent magi as per the compact as he has been at a recognized Covenant for 7 years. We can also not be accused of bringing in a ringer since he has been here for those 7 years.

It might be an interesting case for the main board :smiley:

Maybe, it's not really a Code of Hermes issue, so much as a Peripheral Code issue. It's clear he's a resident of the Tribunal, and is thus eligible to participate in the Tournament, much as any other cenobite or eremite might do. That just means he pays a fee. As the Tournament is a means for dividing up the (vis) Resources of the Tribunal, expect pushback.

It doesn't harm Mons Electi one way or another, although having ringers like this in the future might harm Mons Electi more...if they remain in the Normandy Tribunal, anyway.

IIRC, Isen and Fiona go into the Joust? And Isen will probably try the Dimicatio, once I can recall what it is.

We can have a team of 5. Marcus will act as an independent but perhaps we can still make a deal with him. Korvin will drop off the team as he will be busy in any case.