Viscaria has Profession:Architect.
At a gaming con. More later.
Awesome.
Almost finished working on the lab. Very bare, in part because that's how I see it, in part because I tend to be harsher with myself than with others (I've got more flaws than virtues 
), but it seems to be okay for a start. I'll try to equilibrate virtues and flaws, but I'm not sure I will.
Hope you had fun!
Just to keep things moving along, we'll say that Viscaria stops by after lunch on the following day (two days after the arrival of this batch of magi).
Where is Hiems' sanctum marker?
"Hiems!" she cries as she leaps forward to hug him, as if surprised and delighted to find him precisely where he told her he'd be. "How can I help?"
Well, on the outside of the tower, the first door to enter it. The entire tower is his sanctum, he wants privacy, at least for now.
Aaaargh!!!!
For Hiems, it feels like being torn apart by a paradox, 2 conflicting realities, what is and what can't be. Viscaria is telling him "you can be loved", when his entire reality tells him "you can't". And to be near someone, physically or otherwise, reminds too much of Her. It is kind, and he longs for it, but it hurts, too. For viscaria, well, it feels like hugging someone left freezing in the midst of winter.
Luckily for Hiems, his carapace holds up. So, gently pushing back the lovely dwarf
Lady viscaria... I thank you for the warm welcome, but... This makes me quite uncomfortable.
But I thank you for coming so quickly, and for your assistance. Please, enter
He'll show her the tower, detailing his plans, near and long-term.
As you can see, the tower suffered some kind of accident, and is in pretty bad shape. Before fully settling in, I figured I might ask for your expertise as to what might be nescessary to do to support both my current settling and my plans to restore and embiggen the tower.
[Stupid phone not posting my stuff! That was days ago! Grrrr.....]
"Well, it does seem to be leaning to one side a bit. It should stand a bit straighter after I give it my magic touch, though. The trick is to start at the base, and then stroke it smooth. Do you want to go down with me, or shall I start by myself?"
She gestures innocently to the stairs and the rolled up carpet, then takes the lead heading down stairs.
"Have you found any of the vis that's supposed to be here? If I don't get an idea of what sort of resources are available to me to work with, I'll end up just spending the rest of the season reading or something. We've got Mentem. Big whoop. Who wants to work with abstract concepts? I really want some Rego Herb....what in the four shades of winter happened down here?!"
Viscaria is staring aghast at the basement walls.
Of course. I doubt I'll understand much of what you say or do, but I might be able to pick up a thing or two, or even help with some minor magics.
And thank you for taking the time, by the way. I didn't even notice the problem, and this might have become an issue.
As the two descend, Hiems begins to answer, or at least tries to through viscaria's barrage
Well, I've found some of it, sure, and...
Oh. Let's say I had some problems with a lot of rubble and, perhaps, was a little too efficient in cleaning it. But surely, that'll make do? pointing the wall with the terram vis
BtW, the lab, as I see it for now.
I had a little problem, in that I found plenty of flaws, but no real virtues.
So, I dropped 1 or 2 flaws (such as Deformed, because I cleared out the rubble) and added Superior Construction to equilibrate somewhat.
Still, well, although IMO most of the flaws will quickly go away, it is quite unbalanced and a crappy lab .
Hiems Tower (Ex-Salamandrus)
Owner: Hiems
Location: Salamandrus Tower
Floor: 2
Build Points: 10
Names Added to Sanctum Marker:
Size: +0 (-2) [50 sq. m.] Refinement: +0
General Quality: -6 (-5 for Hiems)
Upkeep: -1
Safety: +1
Warping: +0
Health: -3 (-2 for Hiems)
Aesthetics: -1
Virtues
Spacious (Minor Structure Virtue): Safety: +2; Aesthetics: +1
Superior Construction (Free Structure Virtue): Safety: +1; Aesthetics: +1
Dedicated Building (Free Structure Virtue): Upkeep: +1; Aesthetics: +1; Rego: +1
Flaws
Basic (Free Outfittings Flaw): General Quality: -3
Missing Equipment (Minor Outfittings Flaw): Upkeep: -1; Specializations: Enchanting Items
Damaged (Free Outfittings Flaw): General Quality: -2; Safety: -1; Aesthetics: -1
Defective Heating (Minor Outfittings Flaw): General Quality: -1; Upkeep: -1; Health: -1; Aesthetics: -1. Being due to a "normal" cold he is immune to, the Quality and Health modifiers don't affect Hiems.
Undecorated (Minor Outfittings Flaw): Upkeep: -1; Aesthetics: -1; Note: Specializations with score of 2 or more reduced by 1
Exposed (Free Structure Flaw): Safety: -1; Upkeep: +1; Health: -2; Aesthetics: -1; Auram: +1
Specializations
+1 Auram
+1 Rego
Impossible Activities: Enchanting Items
Toss Basic, as it feels redundant. The lab was blown up during Claudia's apprenticeship, so maybe add some bonuses to Teaching? Also options: previous owner stuff, a focus, supernatural byproducts of the explosion. It also gets (mandatory) Infested, which will get shifted to Ice Cavern (or similar) the longer he lives there.
Well, this goes against my tendency of being harsher with myself. I'll try .
Infested is fun, it'll drive Hiems mad.
Ice Cavern would have been awesome to have in some years... Save that it has the worst lab problem ever: Warping. As erick tyrell said, not only is there no way to compensate for it (contrary to other problems), but each point gives you 10% chances to screw things up, which is absolutely awful.
Viscaria pulls two short stubby wands off her mini-toga, and invokes a spontaneous InVi spell. Her eyes glow purple, and the iris breaks apart into individual petals which curl out of her eye before they snap back into place a moment later.
"Okay, you have a couple of problems here that I can see. First, your efficiency has obfuscated the condition of the building. This is balanced by the fact that you seem to have moved all the rubble into a place where we need it to be, which eases up the necessary repair magics somewhat. I think we could probably do something nicely with a 4th-magnitude Rego Terram spell, maybe add a dash of Creo to shift the project towards perfection. Actually, pretty much the same magics that I need for Unity Hall. Perhaps I should make something to do the work for us....
"The second problem seems to be that your spell targeted all of the vis we were looking for, and packed it into that opening as well as everything else. I can transfer the energy into suitable containers, once I make some, but the spells that I have for such activities are all touch-based, and don't work on piles of rubble or sections of earth. So we'll need to excavate, which will be a delicate affair.
"The third factor, which I'm not entirely clear on, is the vines. They may be providing integral support right now. They're magical, and contain essence which could be harvested. I have a spell which would let me transfer the vis from the vine into a suitable container, but this may destroy the vine's personality. Given their capacity for speech, I'm surprised they haven't been using such a spell for harvesting before now. Most objects capable of speech will protest if you try to chop their arm off...."
(brief cut-away flash to Cygna talking to Marguerita)
"These alcoves seem like a good idea, though. And handy, too. I wonder what the ring spells were. Shall we see what's happening on the level below?"
OOC: Does Cygna, Amos or ByMyLastBreath want to play Damien?
Hiems is very happy and relieved to have viscaria check things out. Given what he hears, he can't help but ponder how close he was to catastrophe.
Thank you very much, lady. I was clearly lucky, but, without your input and knowledge, things might have degraded over time, or I might have done something foolish.
Now, a fourth magnitude Rego Terram effect? That is quite a powerful effect. If you intend to create such a spell, or know one already, all the better. If you don't... I may be able to manage it, but drawing on the fae magic inside me can be quite dangerous indeed, so I'd prefer to avoid it, although I understand the need for it.
For the vis, I am sorry to have made things so difficult for you, and conccurr that we'll need to excavate. But on this again, I must defer to your expertise, as I know next to nothing about these matters. I will help you to the best of my ability, though.
I worry about the vines, too. To speak frankly, I don't like them very much, and would see them gone from my tower. I don't intend to harm them, of course, they've done me no harm at all, but... How to put it? Well, I would prefer if they just... left me alone. But given what you say, we'll have to take this into account when rehabiliting the tower, too. I don't know how much of that is possible.
Quite surprised...
What level below?
(And yes, please, do! 
)
"That trap door, just there."
Viscaria is pointing to a wooden door with a large hole in it, near some of the broken egg-sacks. It is in approximately the center of the room.
facepalm
...
...
...
Oh. That. Sure.
Using both his second sight and his magic-smelling spell, Hiems prepares himself to open the door, but is interrupted by damien.
Master, remember the trap above. Allow me.
Confident in his armor and, more importantly, his lightning-fast reflexes, damien open the trapdoor
Okay, I tried.
So, I scrapped Basic, added Infested. Added a summoning circle (actually a low-level ward allowing to control things within without risk) as a Lesser Feature.
Problem is, unbeknowst to Hiems, the explosion and twilight episode combined to create a small Gateway to the magic realm (which gives us more potential story hooks)
Tried? You did a good job. I just felt the need to insert my SG-tweaking action grip into the design. Cuz I have plans for young Darth Hiems, all alone in his tower and feeling sorry for himself. 
And you, sir, will absolutely love the chaos I have in store for you now.
Thank you.
And, yeah, I guess I will
There's something funny with him, in that he could go in a lot of different ways, all of which I find interesting. And I thought you'd love the gateway.
A rickety old ladder descends into darkness. There may be a grue down there.
Damien takes time to light a torch, and throws it down. He then watches if he sees anything suspect, before descending the ladder
(And what's a grue? A crane? I mean, in french, a grue may be this or that. But in english, I'm lost)
Damien sees a lot of spider webs down there.
(Sorry, that was a cultural reference that I assumed was universal. Basically, grues are the things that live in the dark and eat you when your light goes out. They only live in scary places.)
The sub-basement is a large open space with several support columns (unnecessary for the magic tower, essential if this was constructed by mortal men). It is empty, save for dust and cobwebs. Much of the foundation wall was shattered. All of the rubble has been pushed back into the cracks, save for one large opening, which appears to be a tunnel. Clearly, the original building design had not included an opening for it.
Hiems tenses as he sees the cracks, while damien is way more interested by the tunnel. It could be used to assault the tower, or to escape it if need be. After making sure the room is save, he begins to cautiously enter it, as he recalls the spider eggs
On the other hand, Hiems sniffs out for magic and checks the walls and columns.
Lady Viscaria? Why do you think of these? Can it impact the wellfare of my tower?
Turning around...
This covenant sure is shock full of surprises. I wonder how much time we've got before the nasty ones spring up on us.