How I see this whole thing working:
The Grand Observatory of Adelbert is a cavernously huge and exceptionally well lit room in Adelbert's Covenant (suitable for setting cool scenes with the PC's in). It was the focus of this fifteen year period and it grew out of a lot of stuff which he had worked on previously.
The room has 5 major features of interest
The Aviary of the Watchful Covenant, this enchanted device (check the character sheet ) creates flocks of ravens and gives them complex instructions it has an instilled enchantment to search for information in the minds of the animals that touch it but this has largely been replaced by the gabbro matrix. The aviary sits next to a large window that allows the birds to pass in to and out of the observatory to the outside. It is also a place where there is occasionally bird poop. When this device is use to create a group of birds generally three arcane connections are taken from each individual bird for later use.
The Gabbro Matrix of Connection,AC's harvested from the ravens created by the Aviary of the Watchful Covenant are placed into the Gabbro Matrix of connection in a systematic way. This allows the people that Adelbert has working for him to quickly survey all of the available targets and use the Opening the Not Completely Intangible Tunnel enchantment to further control and augment the animals with additional magic. While targeted animals do get quite warped in short order, they are as a rule spell effects themselves and disappear after duration moon anyway.
The Board - the board is not an enchanted device it is in fact, as the name would suggest, a large board. On this board are a series of hooks that exactly mirror the holes in the gabbro matrix. On the hooks are both wax tablets containing notes regarding the information concerning the animal who's connection is in the matching hole and a small pouch containing the unused arcane connections.
The Table of the Diminutive World Because you want your PC's gathered around a huge model of their objective, arguing about what they should do, that's a scene that's worth playing out.
The cabinet of enchanted implements. This is a set of shelves containing the rest of the enchanted devices that are used with the observatory, the place for each device is clear, labeled and both Adelbert and his employees are fastidious in their discipline to not leave the devises in any other places. This self contains
Shears of Indirect Trimming
Crown of Inhuman Perspective
Bag of Endless Squirrels
Stick of Bestial Obedience
Stench of Feigned Malice
Wand of Mnemonic Engraving
Wand of Animal Recollections
Sphere of Inadvertent Interrogations
Wand of Makeshift Fire Drakes
Glove of Animal Celerity
While with the use of the unlimited arcane tunnels provided by the Gabbro Matrix of Connection Adelbert could use most of his spells at a distance some of the most relevant ones are:
Retrieval of the Feathered Agent
Cloud of Gold and Ebony
Coterie of Burly Advocates(a squirrel can be used to ferry AC's of the bears back to the covenant)
Sight Hounds of the Order
Open the Tome of the Animal's Mind
Mastering the Unruly Beast
Commanding the Harnessed Beast
Summoning the Distant Image
In practice I see the observatory being manned by one or two custos who run it most of the time and make requests to Adelbert when they need his help, most frequently for teleportation of animals.
Also it's so much easier for Adelbert to gather AC's from a flock of newly created ravens that he'd be kind of a prick not to do so. I posted this spell a few weeks ago. While written with thought to the ravens from the Aviary, it would work just as well with any group of animals:
I imagine that he'd cast it three times to get three connections from each creature in a group.
I think it would work best for day to day functioning with only 120 ravens. 120 ravens is the output of the aviary for 4 days. specifically two days after the full moon and two days after the new moon - that way even the days after the setting of the full or new moon the observatory would have 90 birds in the air. Also it means that most of the time (6/7th's of the time) an additional flock of ravens is available at a moment's notice. The ravens are, even if there is no other need, constantly used for updating the map. Obviously he observatory can employ a whole lot more animals when needed. By use of the other devices and spells, the controlled creatures could also detect thoughts within hearing range of any of the animals, detect faeries that the animals can smell, or detect vis that the animals can see.
Use of only 120 animals allows the surveying ability of the Gabbro matrix to finish reading the minds of the animals in just two minutes. If the custos want to enchant all of the animals through the matrix it wouldn’t be too strenuous to get through it in a half hour, and much faster if they’ve trained.
When something of interest is found Adelbert can use Retrieval of the Feathered Agent to deposit a few extra ravens or squirrels in the vicinity. He could use Summoning the distant image on the critters or the custos can use the Crown of Inhuman Perspective.
By use of the Shears of Indirect Trimming controlled animals can grab AC’s from native, non-creo magic created animals and use them for their purposes. Controlled creatures could also be instructed to grab items that would be AC’s to locations (Such as picking leaves to serve as an AC to a tree). After grabbing an AC an animal and its new AC can be collected using Retrieval of the Feathered Agent.
When Adelbert wishes to converse, he can use Summoning the distant image often along with a magic to maintain concentration for him such as his talisman’s Magically Attentive Talisman enchantment or the spell Minute’s Respite then use non-fatiguing spontaneous magic to cast a creo imaginem spell to allow him to carry on his side of the conversation.
While the Wand of Makeshift Fire Drakes can be exceedingly destructive to some targets, it can't be used directly against anything with magic resistance higher than 2. Also, the Table of the Diminutive World's image collection ability fails against anything with magic resistance at all. While the controlled creatures can see and interact with magical targets, things with MR won't show up on miniature to be examined.
With this set up, I see him having tools to let him find and interact with most anything that is within a 14 day raven flight of his covenant, and thus be an interesting NPC to have players interact with.