Janus has been advanced for 15 years and has spent a lot of time in the lab - perhaps too much? Within this time he has created many devices to help first build the covenant and later ensure safety and comfort as well as cost savings on fuel, light sources etc. Many of his creations are also helpful for Andreva's rock quarry, and Janus has ambitions for more devices to help with the covenant's economy.
Outside the lab he has spent a great deal of time among covenfolk and villagers in order to seek compatible female company and work on his family.
I'm surprised to see no spells at all.
At first glance the effects all look reasonable.
I think that being in a courtyard while it;s raining/snowing and manor of clear weather is active would be a great place to set a scene in a game. Especially one where characters can find themselves on both sides of the protection.
I don't think we're worried about warping to the covenant structure, the effects target weather and vermin which are ephemeral rather than the structure itself. Do others see it the same way?
I'll wager that the covenant residents will be quite bummed in 70 years when the big stuff expires.
I'm actually kind of surprised about spells as well but I had no good ideas for those. I do have a few ideas or the next period.
But if anybody has good ideas for travel booster spells Janus could use on Redcaps let me know. I've had him be mostly about the covenant for the first 15 years
Fast movement, resistances to weather, protection from insects, the aura spells for better social skills, an internal compass, etc.
Ah yes, some of these are already covered. With 'The Well Trodden Path' and 'Footsteps of the Undine' travel on uneven ground or even water is already made easier. But are there other specific situations where a spell could help? Maybe some ReHe to temporarily part vegetation to allow easy passage.
Janus already knows a ward against animals as well as against rain. But spells regarding more heavy weather should be added to his repertoire.
As for spells allowing the Redcap to find his way and navigate? Much of this should be Intellego spells, and with his deficiency this poses a challenge - excellent, I'll see what can be done. But what? IIRC there was relatively recently a discussion about 'finding the direction of north' and which guideline to use. So if anybody has good ideas let me know.
Intuition of the Forest is an obvious choice which in retrospect seems odd I have omitted. However with Janus' focus elsewhere, scores of 0 in both Intellego and Herbam plus a deficiency there were perhaps more useful spells to concentrate on. But it is an easy spell so we might get there.
Janus did quite a bit of work with his lab, so I might as well post it. I had his first 3 seasons be at his covenant of apprenticeship where he used a basic lab to invent his first 3 devices. These were subsequently used to build the covenant - and more importantly his lab. They are used to explain some of the Virtues taken from the get go with no time spent installing them. The devices are not used for ongoing lab bonus, only the devices affecting the entire covenant and activated by the covenfolk affect the lab.
Edit: Revision 1 adds notes about what bonus the devices give, plus a few adjustments. the Imaginem speciality bonus is inactive due to the maximum of 4 Arts active.
A lab can have at most four art specializations (Covenants p112).
What does the note for highly organized; "increased refinement 16" mean?
I think that's the diceroll?
I think the 16 was the Int+Magic Theory roll. MC adds a lot if extra text.
And yes max 4 Art specialities max 2 Techniques. MC lists all possibilities. I'll note which ones are active then.
Janus' lab has been slightly edited in the original posting, above
For Janus year 16-30 I'm looking into inventing a much better spell to protect against weather. But I get kind of confused by 'Ward Against Rain' which uses Base 4 in the design which is nowhere within the range of 'ward against...weather phenomenon'.
This spell seems to be about controlling rain to not touch the target, rather than be a true Ward against weather. So what would the wards do then? Lab totals suggest Janus aims for Base 20. For warding this affects 'severe weather' like gale force winds. For controlling 20 is off the charts because a 5 affects 'very severe' like lightning.
It seems the core book's Ward Against Rain is seriously overpowered in the design.
I think I'll go for:
Janus +30 years is now ready.
He has spent quite a deal of time in study rather than in lab, in order - among others - to overcome his difficulties with Intellego magics and invent a spell to detect the Gift among his offspring and their descendants. Janus also needed to be ready to take an apprentice so all his Arts have now been grounded.
I've decided he finds a grand-daughter with the Gift and in year 27 she is 10 years old and Janus takes her as his apprentice. This means she was born 17 years after Janus' Gauntlet, when he was 42 years old. Her Hermetic name is Vesta and character stats for her follows. At the end of this period she is 4 years into apprenticeship. The teaching of apprentices is handled like a lab activity regarding exp in this development phase. Vesta will be started out as a regular 10 year old and developed further as per outlined in Apprentices, so she ends with exp and spells as the core rules normally gives magi.
Glove of a morning's afterthought seems odd to me. With duration instant it seems like it would just provide a moment of relief before the hangover returns.
Of course wounds that are magically healed for a duration do not heal during that duration. With that thinking any non-ritual spell would only serve to delay the hangover until the spell ends .
Glove of a Morning's Afterthought affects all in a room with no increase in magnitude?
Also, is it possible to use the ReCo level 10 guideline "Eliminate the penalties of Fatigue and wounds" to accomplish what you want? A Touch(or Eye)/Sun/Ind version should be warping free.
Plaque of Preservation - It needs to be manually activated? And don't maintained concentration effects needs to be re-upped at sunrise and sunset as per the core book, needing 2x/day?
Blah, the Glove of a Morning's afterthought is T:Ind not Room. design is right, the writeup is not.
It is based on a charged device from Magi of Hermes page 29, Conscienta of Bonisagus' chapter. I know MoH shouldn't be taken uncritically since it is a well known fact among my gaming circles that there are some...odd designs.
I'll admit I used this one because I thought it was funny, not because I had actually researched whether this particular guideline was good enough.
Plaque of preservation:
Yes thank you - brain fart - it needs to be +1 for 2 uses/day. Luckily this is still within Janus' capabilities and does not cost more vis.
Both of these will be revised in Janus +30 write up.
Because I lost track:
What virtues do devices Janus have created provide for the labs of the rest of us?
Or do they only boost his own lab?
Sorry, I spaced out. I've been writing stuff for the Tribunal of 1227 for our Rhine saga...
All of Janus' enchantments are T:Structure or otherwise employed by servants and staff in order to affect all labs if so desired:
All of these are done by year 15 and actually built during years 11-15. From year 15-30 no enchantments are made which directly affect the labs of the other magi. Only things for the covenant at large, concerning kitchen and bath house.
Excellent.
Excellent,
Thinking of these bonuses...
so the enchantments mean other labs in the manor have bonuses to +6 Rego, +7 Auram,and +2 health, but also give improved heating (bonus to Ignem), and improved lighting (bonus to imaginem). Now aren't we limited to only 4 arts boosted in a lab? Am I allowed to decline a bonus to leave room for one of my own choosing?
As a rego specialist who will be at sea, I'm happy to have a big Rego bonus and fine with a big Auram bonus, but I might prefer Aquam or Herban instead of the +1 Im from improved lighting or +1 Ig from improved heating.
(as someone with study bonus & study requirement, I'll probably need to tailor my lab if I want to do learning in it - I've already got a plan for this).
As far as I understand, yes.
Or rather, the bonus is there in potentia, but no more than 2 Activity Specializations, 2 Form Specializations, and 2 Technique Specializations active (or installed) at anygiven time. More might be available, but you'd have to spend time to tinker with your lab to make them usable (and de-activating some others).