Anulus Connectens: Magi of Hermes Covenant

Seeing as Metacrator did not complain I assume Janus made his Aging Rolls.
But I'm sure things go awry during the next period.
Are there any things Basuas needs or wants which Janus can make for him (in year +76-90), to pay for his time performing Longevity?
Otherwise I'll just when the time comes assign Janus to be "performing some lab activity re-creating a previously invented yet still awesome device and selling i for vis"

We'd better start thinking about what the overall story is for the year +76-90.
I'm drawing a blank here. What haven't we done?

I had put aside two seasons for Andreva in this period.

How much leadership does Bausas have? We could organize to have 3 assistants to him for every longevity ritual without too much difficulty. Grace (Andreva's familiar) could certainly spare some seasons.

So
I imagine we could do something like this

Bausas does Janus' ritual assisted by Janus, Andreva, and Grace
Bausas does Andreva's ritual assisted by Janus, Andreva, and Grace
Bausas does Hector's ritual assisted by Hector, Sarose, and Grace
Bausas does Sarose's ritual assisted by Hector, Sarose, and Grace

But it all depends on Bausas' leadership

Bausas has leadership 3, specialized in Labwork, so really 4 for this purpose.
The above works for me - and we even get to add in Callidus for free, as he is Bausas' familiar.

That would be fine with me.

Works for me then.
I'm still a little unsure if it should be in the 60-75 periode or the 75-90 though.

I was thinking 61-75 that's when I set aside the time. Andreva ends this period at age 101, I don't think that she's the oldest. How high is Bausas' applicable magic theory? if It's 10 then we need to go in 61-75, if 11 then early in 76-90 if higher we might be able to wait even longer.

So can we get numbers for the longevity rituals

Andreva's applicable int + MT is 11
Grace's is 14

If Bausas doesn't have flawless glassware in his lab (+2 general quality) he should certainly use Andreva's Chest of Laboratory Equipment to get it while working on rituals.

So, what is the status of the magi for year +75?. I sort of lost track.
Janus is done.

It looks like the Longevity rituals will be done in the early years of 75-90, which was the information I needed to get on with the previous periode.

OK if we're going to push longevity rituals to the next period I'll find something to fill up Andreva's two seasons she had allocated to that project and finish out.

Me too, but people seemed to be filling up those seasons.

Apparently we did not need new Longevity in this period

OK, I've edited Hector to allow 1 season for him to spend with Bausas for a longevity ritual. He may as well get it this period rather than next, knowing my lousy luck with the dice. Hector is complete to age 75.

What're we doing next? Attempting to sit on top of a volcano so we can catch a comet being exhaled from the planet and sail the cosmos? Create the tribunal's greatest library?

I've been thinking about the next project, and trying to work out what we haven't already done.

I thought about faeries but couldn't get a grip on a more precise theme. I thought about us having to interact with a noble farie court.

But then I realized our previous project of outfitting a ship could mean Anulus Connectens' trade intereste could take us further away than ever before and that we might want to establish a permanent presence in foreign lands. So what if we decided to establish a trading post and/or embassy or sorts here? Apart from the physical establishments (which would sort of be repeats of what we've already done) we would need to establish positive contact with foreign officials, schmooze local rulers, trading guilds, customs officers etc. We would need to unerstand the local language and customs (even religion, perhaps?). We would need to find, establish contact with and deal with local mystical traditions and/or supernatural beings.
Until now we've been deliberately vague with the location of Anulens Connectens. If we assume it is placed in a Tribunal near a coastline or major river to the Mediteranean then the entire African continent is a potential place for our colony. We don't necessarily meed to be specific, but if we want to develop effects to adapt to local conditions foreign from out own (heat, sandstorms etc.) we may have to stop being vague.

How about that?

Building a library may also be an idea, however much of it seems to be with writing, procuring or copying books for it. And I guess some more specialized devices to ensure a good envirnment for the books and perservation of them could be an idea. But I think my money is on the trading post/embassy/colony idea.
There seems to be potential for lots of non-physical effects, and by being less aggressive we're not excluding any of the magi (as we would in a Wizard's War theme). And most other Forms could be useful for building devices to dazzle and bribe the locals.

And what about exploring the Sea of Sands on a ship ?
Since you already build a large collection of items to turn any regular ship into an America's Cup contender, why not keep pushing the envelop by making it able to cross the large Desert.
The ship will be outfitted with a lab since the magus in charge of the expedition might be travelling for extended period of time.
Any item designed to make life easier on open sea can be relevant on a sea of sand.

That is not bad...Quite a few interesting new effects need to be invented here. I wonder what Form a sandstorm would be? Is it still just a weather phenomenon, which just incidentally picks up sand?

It is some sort of hybrid like volcanoes (Hermetic Projects, page 12)? The Burning City example has volcanoes and any volcanic compenents (lava, rock, ash) be governed by Terram. Volcanic fumes is Auram, which makes sense even though Auram shouldn't be viewed as affecting gases in a modern sense, Auram covers air phenomena like noxious fumes, smoke etc. Moving around volcanic ash is listed to be Rego Auram, so it seems particles or substances suspended in air is viewed as a weather phenomenon, and the important part is not what the substance is but how it is acting.
I'd say sand is Terram when just lying about like sand does, but Auram when it is kicked up by a storm. So creating, moving, dispersing a sandstorm is Auram. Although I could live with a Terram requisite if need be. But what then about warding the ship from allowing airborne sand to get inside compartments or even on the deck? Is that still Auram, or do we now need to look at the substance itself rather than its state?

As for 'sailing the sea of sand' I really think the ship needs to actually float above the desert. IIRC either or both of 'Crade and Cresent' and 'Between Sand and Sea' says the endless sand dunes is a cartoon trope and the deserts are to a larger degree rocky plains or dry mountains. Wouldn't want to sail through that. Not if I could just fly over it, which is likely to be easier with Hermetic magic.

Any input from the other Anulens Connectens magi designers?

Instead of the obvious solution, why not try something more original, leveraging the strength of a Terram magus ? For example, a spell that change some of the properties of the groud it is touching to flow temporarily like water ?
MuTe guidelines propose: Level 3 to turn into liquid, Level 4 for highly unusual.
One proposal would be MuTe 4 so the ground the ship is touching is behaving like water (yet still looks like sand/soils/stone), +1 from Ind to Part with an additional +2 for size modifier (only the part touched, but it is a large ship, and since it expand at least a few meters around the ship, it acts also as defense mechanism), +1 from mud/sand to stone, +1 duration from Inst to Diam (leaving a trail behind it for a short while), +1 with Aquam requisit I believe.
So if we total all that: MuTe(Aq) 30, Sailing on Gaia's back.
This effect instilled in an item with unlimited use, and a trigger for cast it every round to insure smooth progress of the ship ? Unless Conc duration with Maintain concentration ?

It also means that most effects to improve sailing on water probably still apply.

Sounds relly cool.
So a MuTe(Au) effect of level 30 excluding modifiers, is that it? I'm sure Janus could do that.
About the uses per day and Duration I'm looking in the direction of MoH page 141 ReTe10 "The Well-trodden Path". I know parts of MoH's spell and device designs have been met with disagreement on the Forum, but I really like this spell. The Spell has D:Conc (which is highly impractical for a spell to be used while traveling!) and reshapes the ground touched to make for easy treading, and the ground returns to normal after the traveler has passed.
So using this method the effect "Sailing on Gaia's Back" could be kept at D:Conc (same difficulty as Diameter) and with a 'Device keeps concentration' modifier for +5 levels it should work fine. IIRC the core rules states that D:Conc effects start to wear off at sunrise/-set and the user needs to concentrate to continue the effect. I don't see anything about the effect ending! So no need for additional uses per day.

This makes it a level 35 device, and with only cursory calculations I think Janus with the assistance of his Familiar and a little S&M bonus can pull that off.

If we can just Throw a MuTe on the sand to make it move unnaturally (in most ways like water) then Andrevea could get it done a a lesser device. If we really need to have the aquam requisite then we'll have to go to Janus (who works so hard for us already) or an invested device.

Perhaps we can make a trip though the sea of sand a focus for this period. At around year 82 a powerful faerie takes something we care about (perhaps that redcap vis site map from the House Mercere section of true lineages) that to a well defended regio that both contains and lies within a great desert I'm thinking of the spirits of the winds from Between Sand and Sea and the desert spirits from Lands of the Nile as related entities to this trip. In order to get it back we'll need to bring a literal boatload of supplies for the trip. We could outfit the boat for heat, excessive sun, a lack of water, angry faeries, wacky regio boundaries (will we need to be able to shrink the entire thing?), and communication with home

In any case, everyone please leave 2 seasons for longevity rituals early in 76-90