Bastion will Seek out Other Bonisagus, see if there are any particularly popular items of research in the tribunal, their opinions of what appears to be the "big three" issues and any issues unique to the house that they would like to press.
You have spent a few days mingling with the other magi, and since you are new, many show at least a passing interest in you. From bits here, and other bits there, you begin to form a picture of the other covenants, but you avoid to commit. They find it hard to gauge your political stance, so at the moment, they seem inclined to postpone your admission towards the end of the tribunal as they shy away from the political risk you pose.
As time passes, it becomes clear that most covenants would accept supporting an earlier admission in exchange or a promise of voting with them on one issue that matters to them. For example, the Coenobium representative, a bald thin Redcap, offered their support in exchange for a promise of your votes against any legislation tempering with the status quo on chapterhouses.
Basically, it comes down to this: You can (but do not have to) make each covenant one offer on how to vote on one topic at this tribunal. The promise is not binding of course, but breaking your word will raise eyebrows. If you manage to convince enough magi that admitting you early is good for them politically, they will do so. Of course, you can simply refuse to make backroom deals, which means you don't get to vote and can't be blamed for any results.
There are a quite a few magi that are willing to trade with you - and they seem to be willing to separate politics and business.
(ooc: I assume that anything that happens in the ooc thread is your musings. Anything posted here is a promise that counts.)
The sun was up on a lovely day in Normandy, and the St. Averys were watching water gush out of a tent. The tent itself was rather nice, of course. Stella Duris obviously wasn't wanting for funds, and the quality of the five-sided, mauve monstrosity, pitched as it was on a bit of high ground near the northwestern side of the encampment, showed. The Oroburos-style Celtic snake delicately woven into fabric was a nice touch; the occasional shouts of manly men with manly beards doing manly things with manly swords was a bit of a contrast, though.
"There was a time in my life when I might have thought this odd," Emily said, shifting one of her newly-minted summae to her other hand, while observing the men in question do their daily calisthenics. "Now my main concern is 'will this kill me in a month if I drink it?' and 'don't their feet get wet?'" One of the men in question seemed to have incorporated the water into his exercises, and was leaping from bank to bank with ever-more elaborate displays of bladework.
"Don't normal people have those concerns with unknown water sources on their doorsteps?" her brother said, poking the side of the stream. "The spring it magical. The water isn't. It's like the milk we got from Galdys the Green Cow." His poking broke off bits of dirt into the stream, which dissolved fairly quickly into the meandering brook. As the field was rocky, the streambed had already been scoured of most of the mud through what seemed to be a previously-used path, and drained into the existing stream on the far side of the camping field.
"It turned you olive and could be used as paint thinner," she replied, and smoothed her skirt down with her free hand. "Excuse me, Sir Renauld!" she called to the leaping man-at-arms.
"And yet, cool and delicious. Wait, how do you know everyone's names?"
"Because it's my JOB. Also, we spoke with him yesterday," she murmured, as the man began to stride towards them.
"I did no such thing!"
"I spoke with him, while you got bored and argued with Marcella about angels and pinheads." She turned towards the man, and curtsied. "Sir Renauld, it is a pleasure to see you again. My brother, Michael St. Avery of Bonisagus."
"Oh, hello!" he said to the knight-wizard. "We concluded that the answer was 'yes, but why would they bother?' We're supposed to come and talk politics, but really we're looking for books to trade."
Cornelius will pay Beatrix a second visit, to explain that although our new covenant has decided to take a generally neutral stance regarding the main issues, he would be willing to meet with Castra Solis to learn more about their positions of the various issues. Perhaps more specific proposals can be supported by Solis Fons, but we need to know what these are first.
Renauld finished his move with a flourish that left his blade sticking in the neck of a wooden dummy, continued to turn with the grace of a dancer and kissed Emily's hand without pause.
"Enchanté", he purred, before he turned towards his fellow magus and greeted him in Latin. "Trade you bring and politics, well, if that isn't a reason for us to go inside and enjoy a cup of Ethiopean Kaffa bean tean, a refreshing beverage that will permit us to combine business and pleasure.
He leads them inside, and they are seated on soft cushions. A moment later, a servant brings three Venetian glasses filled with a hot, black liquid. Renauld takes one, sips, sighs, and looks at you to go on.
Cornelius has to wait a while, because Beatrix is busy talking to an elderly Coenobium wizard. After her visitor has left, Beatrix turns to Cornelius and asks: "Ah, you have returned. More questions, I assume?"
Cornelius greets Beatrix before saying, "I have returned indeed, magistra. I will certainly have many questions about the Tribunal, but now I wanted to tell you that I have talked with my covenant sodales. I thought I should tell you first, as you have been very helpful."
He pauses for a moment before continuing frankly, in his slavic accent, "For now, our position is one of isolationism. Collectively, we do not feel strongly on any of the three topics you mentioned the last time. And we understand that we do not know enough about the situation to take a firm stand. So we feel neutrality is best for now." He nods apologically and adds, "But we are willing to discuss more with Castra Solis, for perhaps there are specific proposals we could support. Do you belive Castra Solis will be interested in meeting some of us? For more talk?"
Sometime when the group is gathered:
"So what did we all bring for trading? I just have my six vis for the pool. Actually, I've been meaning to do this for a while now. I officially gift us six vis. Let no one say I don't contribute. First, anything we need? Second anything we want? I'm all good. Third, anyone good at hermetic bargaining?" Elizabeth puts down six coins, each one having had a pawn of Me Vis transferred into it some time ago.
OOC: Personal Vis Source, paying off.
The inside of the tent was just as fabulous in a subdued fashion as the outside: done in a vaguely middle-eastern style, with crushed-red velvet cushions to sit on, the occasional brazier with fragrant woods to provide light, and rugs all over the place. After looking around for someplace to wipe his feet, St.Avery plopped down on a particularly nice cushion, and accepted his fancy cup with aplomb. "Wow, this smells really good!", he said, then took a sip, "...and tastes...really...interesting? So good, I think I'll save it for later." He then tried to figure out where to put it down so he wouldn't spill it, before Emily gently took it away from him. "Um, right. Politics. Officially, we're shopping our political position around to see if we can get recognized at the beginning of tribunal, on the off chance that something interesting comes up that we may want to vote on. Our official policy, after much reasoned debate and impassioned discussion, is 'we don't actually care.'"
Emily, having experience with the strong beverage from their previous meeting, took a delicate sip of her own, and managed to place St.Avery's cup on a convenient side table, well away from her own stack of books. "The covenant charter allows for the establishment of a research colony of sorts," she said, "for magi who had long-term research projects that would benefit from solitude. As such, while the magi have some slight opinions on the politics of the day, for the most part they are fine with the status quo."
"Well, we think it's kind of bad to kill heretics," St.Avery added. "But we don't actually want to do anything about it that would really affect anything, except maybe keep existing covenfolk from being killed. I mean, the Tytalus are willing to oppose everything, including the concept of heresy itself, and we still keep THEM around. And we think it's fine if people want to go reconquer Spain, but only if they're subtle about it. And..."
"Chapter houses," Emily murmured.
"Right, we don't even really understand why anyone would do that. Why don't they just build a new... oh, is it because it's easier to build a chapterhouse rather than petition the rest of the Tribunal to build a new covenant?" Then he shrugged. "Not really any strong opinions on it."
"Of course," Emily said, "the reality is that failure will result in little difference. Due to the covenant's size, the number of sigils brought to the table is fairly small, and unlikely to change the result of any tribunal vote, unless we have misjudged the main positions on any of the larger power blocks."
"Yeah. It'd be nice if we could get recognized at the beginning, but it's not a big loss if we don't." St. AVery shifted in his seat. "So mainly, we came here to show off my new books!" He made vauge grasping motions towards Emily, who handed over one of the tomes. He stuck it under his nose, closed his eyes, and inhaled. "Ah, love that smell. Anyway," he said, putting the book in his lap and gently opening it, "They're both mostly Primers. Mainly I want to show them off as proof-of-concept, to see if I could find a tractus fellowship to join. But it's also a nice supplement to someone's Root collection, if they haven't' managed to get any Rego or Vim texts to fill it out."