For a saga in actual play this would be a really good storyline.
For our design project I have trouble seeing much to do with our time which actually shows something. I see where you are going and the Bas-reliefs need to be re-created (or maybe Janus can make a single, larger invested device without Effect Expiry since he has progressed a fair deal since then). Plus the covenant buildings may not actually have berths enough for a great deal of visitors. Although construction of a new wing is easily done with the collective devices and spells of Janus and Andreva, and the devices providing comfort and minimizing workload of covenfolk. I dunno.
Some of the things I'd like to have Janus do would be to design some useful and creative Charged Devices for Redcaps. It is outside his Focus, but he can invent something quite hard and produce only a few charges, but using the lab text subsequently makes a lot more charges. He could even sell these texts (blast! now he needs another apprentice to do the paperwork!) to other magi who would like to spend time creating charges for a little vis from House Mercere. Like Bridge of Wood to cross treacherous terrain, Veil of Invisibility to evade trouble, Leap of Homecoming to help them escape.
That, plus some Lesser Devices to represent the Magic Item virtue Redcaps have. Like bags to preserve food, lighten the load, protect books and documents from water etc.
And this idea smells like some outside demand to make the Redcaps more effective.
How about the magi get together and make something as a group. Create a flying castle, enchant the bejezsus out of a sailing ship, enchant a road that passes through faerie, deck out a knight in a set of dragon slaying equipment, create an island ...
Is there something on the scale of the menagerie, the flying castle, the tower of babylon, or the covenant in a volcano that hasn't been done yet? The enchanted kitchen of the gorgiastics? The caverns that lead to everyplace (wait Janus can already do that needing very little assistance)?
Faerie antagonist
Wizard's wars
People just hate us and the magi need to do something about that
host a huge event
All of the magi contribute a few enchantments make a really cool [thing].
andreva is going to deal with a wizards' war this period regardless because just as Jason72 noted she has a story flaw and it has had only limited effect on her.
My preference would be that the covenant decides that it wants a ship of its own. Yes, Hector has been dealing with a Tremere fleet, and yes the redcaps have their own vessels but this is a ship for the covenant. The magi are all going to contribute at least 2 enchantments each to it (preferably without repeating the examples from the Marius chapter of MoH, or the ship from Mythic seas, or from Hermetic projects, or from the Sub Rosa articles about the hermetic shipyard but that does seem like a lot of ideas to avoid, perhaps if we just refrained from going back and rereading them until we've posted a plan of our own). I'm thinking that we have a mundane ship (although building it would be fine as well) and the magi create devices to add to an already existing ship rather than making the ship itself magical.
Sure, this seems like a good project to cooperate making. Especially if weather than a focus on adding devices to improve a mundane ship (or magical tools to actually build the ship) rather than a magical one. There should be plenty of good options here.
Also, I can't recall a single of the aforementioned effects from all the other ships.
The Floating House: Re(Mu)He(Te) based on The Hut remade. It will allows to travel to any location and settle for a while, without drawing too much attention.
Depending on how big is the ship, you could invent a spell to turn into a cart or several ones to allow for transport accross land and sea - without resorting to the usual flying ship.
If the ship is carrying horses to be used to pull the caravan once the ship is turned into carts, then probably a spell to control and sooth the horses would be useful - it will manage to keep horses under control despite the presence of Gifted individuals nearby.
Since there is little Herbam specialist in your group, maybe you build a stone ship, and make it float and stir through spells, and hide its unusual appearance through Imaginem.
My initial ideas was to follow the suggestions and not make a magical ship like the Hermetic Shipwright. I was thinking first to build the magical tools to build a good mundane ship. So skilled mundane ship builders assisted by Anulus Connectens' covenfolk who are used to using Finesse to perform chores using the devices Janus has built.
So starting with the materials for the ship: wood! Janus is no expert in Herbam but 8 is a start. Sadly he sucks at Intellego due to his Defiency, but an InHe device to spot hidden flaws and help choose the very best trees to cut down seems useful. The ReHe needed to cut down, transport and process the trees into finished planks is easy enough. I think we should aim for simple processes requiring moderate Finesse EFs so the tools speed up things and help the mundane masters rather than do their work for them.
Or is that too simple and small potatoes so not worth the bother?
Effects for a finished ship could be:
Making the hull, masts, rigging and sail more durable (and/or flexible so it doesn't break under stress but is pliable)
Wards against weather or devices to break up undesirable weather phenomena
Wind at the quarter (as IIRC is better than in the back, if the ship has more than one sail)
Magical bilge pumps, leak-pluggers etc.
Ward to keep water outside the hull and superstructures
Device to shrink cargo in size and/or lighten the load
Device to help navigate or better vision for the helmsman (see in darkness, see in fog)
Some way of checking for dangerous reefs, shallow water, floating wreckage (again, Intellego is not Janus' strong suit)
Mentem effects to help morale, if not magical happiness then effects to stop bad behavior spreading, like the inverse of 'GOssip of the Marketplace'
I thought we were, but it isn't too late to change our minds. Andreva is going to do wizard's war stuff as well.
With ceremonial magic (including casting props and the covenant's +3 aura) Andreva can get to level 20 rego Herbam with reliability, her applicable finesse + perception is 13. This should be of great assistance in the effort.
I think that most of this can be sponted, at 45 years out of apprenticeship Hector's got Rego 23, intellego 10, Herbam 12 and has his talisman attunements opened for both living and dead wood. He can do level 20 with a normal spont. It would be sensible to write up the sponted spells but not to spend seasons to make them formulaic
It seems building the ship is easy, all the effects needed can easily enough and reliably be Spont'ed by Andreva and/or Hector so there is no need for Janus to spend time and vis crafting devices. Although this does require time from the magi assisting with the ship building.
Janus will concentrate on other effects, many of which will be siliar to those affecting the covenant buildings.
But there is bound to be more useful effects along the non-physical Forms, something for Basuas to do?
May I suggest something handy: "Shroud of Inconspicuousness", ReMe (Sight, Group (+1 to affect large group of people)), People looking at the ship find it dull and not worth of their attention and time.
As I recall, that is quite difficult to do. About a year ago someone was asking about a Hermetic Battle standard that could rally their troops, and it was tricky to make it happen. I will try and search...
Bob
Edit:
I think this [url]Need help with Magic Item] is what I was thinking of, although I recall the discussion being a lot longer that what I have found. If you don't insist on the Behold Our Mighty Standard it should be OK.
The troubles arise from the people affected. There is a House Bjornaer Mystery called 'Sensory magic' or something like that, where the effect affects people who see/hear/smell etc the animal in question. It would have been nice to have the battle standard affect people who see it, but this really isn't covered by standard Hermetic magic.
HoH:TL has a spell in nthe Guernicus chapter called 'Aura of Inconsequence' which averts attention away from the caster. It is rated as T:Special for a +3 magnitude modifier equivalent to Structure, and it is noted to be connected to non-Hermetic rituals hence the deviation from what is normally possible with standard Hermetic magic. This is more or less 'Sensory magic'. I discussed it with Tellus in my gaming group and the conclusion was that we don't like it, and chose not to touch it especially by magi outside House Guernicus.
Simulating this effect is hard because of the diffuse Target. If people are nice enough to stand around in Groups - like a ship's crew might - it's not so bad, but using it while walking around in a city? You would have to constantly re-cast it as new people come into sight.
Now on a ship passing by I can see Group be used more effectively, although the crew may very well also be dispersed or gathered in several distinct groups. Would T:Structure not be useful here? I know earlier discussions of spells to affect an entire ship - meaning the physical hull etc. - coul be done with a large enough Individual rather than Structure. But Structure affects things and people inside as well, so no matter how the crew is arranged, individually or in groups, the Mentem effect covers them all.
The effect is a little different from the battle standard as you're only trying to affect people looking at it and not everyone. Could a device have two effects to facilitate this? Plonk the device halfway up the main mast.
1 - InIm, Are they looking at me? A spell to detect when a person is looking at the ship, which triggers...
2 - That boats unimportant, Mentem effect.
This mystery also explicitly states it cannot be used for enchanted devices.
If it's just the crews on individual passing ships, Structure would work very well. If it's also people on the shore, not so much.
Not really. That's how the Oriflame is described (as I understand), and how we set about designing that device back then.
Also, the more enlightening thread is probably this one.
Sure.
Mind you, in this particular case, a version of MuIm Aura of Childlike Innocence might be just as useful.
We don't need to actually induce apathy, looking irrelevant is (almost) as good.
I'm actually not sure which Arts would be used to determine if somebody is looking at something...Intellego Imaginem is sensing species, using senses at a distance. Determining if somebody is watching I think would be a Mentem effect - or a Corpus if sensing where the eyes point?
I find this as tricky to work out as in my earlier post without using Sensory Magic.
I agree; its darn tricky. I considered it to be the same as having a trigger in an item which only targets people wearing red hats. That seems more like InIm to me rather than InCo. Detecting the appearance of a thing not some intangible property of a type of thing.
I did not think of the targetting aspect which could be tricky. But I see the issue if we want to have a continuous effect. It is a bit like the Shrouded Glen, which raise plenty issue and was left on the account of being a legacy spell.
My initial idea was more along the line, the captain notices a ship and use a magical item to divert the attention of the ship's crew to ignore it. In this case, probably Target: Room with +1 size modifier should be enough to affect the whole crew.
It could be use to target a house like a lighthouse for example, but it won't be able to affect a city, you will need something with Boundary Target and it becomes a ritual, thus impossible to put as an enchantment.
Disguising the appearance with Imaginem spells would obvisouly be as effective if not more since it bypasses any magical resistance, however I was trying to find something for Bausuas to contribute, thus the choice of a Mentem spell.
I was trying to see if it would be possible to transport the ship into a memory palace, to explore the mind of somebody, but it would break too many rules and paradigm to make even sense. And any other "dimension" will be handle by realm and regio, so Vim. And the Hermetic Ship already proposes such spell to travel the Void.
Couldn't Bausas' contribution be Corpus in nature, items with effects that prevent scurvy or seasickness, rescue overboard or falling sailors, get people from ship to ship easily, make them more secure in the rigging (slightly stick hands? monkey's toes?), etc.?