No information at all (i.e. the spell doesn't work)? Or just no new and interesting information?
The spell works, but it doesn't reveal anything he hasn't already told you: he really is doing his best to help you out.
Scott
But he doesn't remember what the complaints were, or how they were resolved?
At the mention of local hedge wizards, Gregorius' ears definitely perk up.
- Does he have any idea of the (group or individual) names or capabilities of the hedge wizards? What type of magic did they do?
- Does he know where any of them can be found (or at least, could be found at the time of the previous covenant)?
- Did he hear of any of them getting offers to join the Order?
- Were there any local hedge wizards the covenant had good relationships with?
He'll also ask for any details Theodoric knows of the problems with local villages.
Might have to get him teaching some of the other covenant staff, then. Does he have any experience of teaching? Come to that, what was his job in the previous covenant?
Not really. He was 20 at the time, and newly recruited as a grog, and therefore was very fuzzy on how magic works.
He can't tell you much about them, other than one or two of them showed up at the covenant a couple of times, and that they seemed to be Kipchaks.
One village to the northeast wasn't so keen on the magi's intruding on hunting grounds, but for the most part they got on all right, especially by trading limestone to the local villages for building.
By the time the covenant was destroyed, he was a grog sergeant, meaning he has leadership experience, and rudimentary familiarity with teaching.
Scott
Good, good. [Sorry, but 15 years spent camped in a pillaged, haunted ruin on the offchance a new covenant will be founded is a little too loyal not to meet with a certain amount of suspicion.]
Gregorius will go on to ask Theodoric what he knows about Kipchuk customs - are there any pecularities that they observe? What do they value? What do they fear? What would mortally offend them?
They're a tribal society, which means extended families are very important--that's true of any traditional society (that is, any society you'll run across in Mythic Europe), but it's especially true of the Kipchaks. Since they raise livestock, animal theft is a constant threat, and that places a premium on honor and the threat of retaliation--thus they're prone to feuding. Their society is also probably more equal than any Gregorius might have encountered before, with leaders having not so much power over their followers, and it's not even uncommon for women to have martial training.
Scott
Since the others are not coming back, Aetos looks around (in both forms) for a place to start building his lab. He'd prefer something that can only be accessed in bird form (like a cave in a cliff). He instructs the mundanes to set up huts and do the chores (washing etc). He'll take care of hunting if food is needed.
I'm not sure where you'd find such a place: there are no cliffs anywhere around here: there are ravines, and you might find a relatively inaccessible spot there, but the aura would be 2. You could try the upper floor of some building and block the entrances, of course.
Scott
What's the leader of the local village like? And who else has influence in/over the village?
You met the leader, briefly, on landing at the village, and he seems reasonable enough--Theodoric concurs with that assessment. As Theodoric tells it, villages are largely independent, though they have ties to one another, based on kinship, and they can unite against outside enemies.
Scott
No one else in the community of particular influence? Religious leaders, or anything?
Of course. Theodoric stresses that the headman in a village doesn't have all the power there--he's just the most influential person, and a lot of other people are important as well.
Scott
Okay, but it's a case of lots of other people are slightly important, without there being anyone else who's notably important?
It's more than there are different grades of importance. But are you driving at any specific goal?
Scott
There's no one specific goal. Gregorius is assuming that as the only gently gifted member of the covenant, he'll largely be the one interacting with the village, and he wants to develop good relations with it. What Theodoric's said about the headman sounds promising, but he wants to know if there's anyone else it's particularly important to pay attention to (either because they're likely to already be hostile, or because if they did become hostile, it would cause a lot of problems).
OK, then to put it in general terms, without detailing a lot of extra NPC's I haven't had a chance to think up yet 
, the magi will need to be concerned with their relations with the community as a whole, not just one person--you could, for example, set off a feud by accidentally killing the goat belonging to one seemingly unimportant farmer.
Scott
[Sorry, yes, general terms are absolutely fine - I'm not meaning to try to make loads of extra work for you. My posting rate here's largely trailing off because I'm running out of ideas for things to ask, without starting to try to go into the minutiae of the previous covenant's economy or something.
If you've got anything else for Gregorius to do, that would be good - unfortunately most of the things I can think of really need to have the magi meet-up first.]
Would you like to play the grogs on the hunt?
Scott
[Scott, do you want to move this back to the main thread?]
Gregorius is easily found coming back from the woods with Theodoric as Tasia leaves the caves. He nods to the quaesitor.
"The village should be free of traps now, and the grogs are arranging quarters in the main building. We've found a Rego vis source in the pool in the ruins of the old temple to Neptune; Aetos has claimed it until there's an official covenant for him to hand it over to, but there's a couple of pawns there now none of us were able to collect which he said anyone could harvest. He's using his birds to scout the local countryside now, but I think he's about somewhere nearby himself. We also found the entry to a Faerie regio in the temple."
His face darkens slightly, and there's a definite hint of distaste in his voice: "Viola's gone hunting for an animal to sacrifice to Neptune. She thinks it'll open up the regio so she can enter it."
He continues more cheerfully.
"What are the caves like? Did you find anything interesting?"