"I can spontaneously create a living hut, like I created the boat. In this aura I can likely keep it for a moon. To create a tree built like a mystic tower is beyond me at the moment."
"I don't really see Betula agreeing with us doing some slash and burn farming with the surrounding forests and the more we clear up, the more evident will the covenant become to travelers. The river Uhr is barely a mile away to the north, a small village there could support us, with some fishermen and herders, and some hunters in the wood doubling up as shield grogs and scouts to keep problems away from the site."
(I have said most of this on discord, but to have it on record.)
The closest patch of open and dry land big enough for a cottage is the edge of the pool under Cauldron Falls, if you do not want to build litterally under the oak trees. Around the Oak Circle, there is just as much dry land as the roots need. If you really study this option, you will find that the aura flickers a little, so that such cottages would fall sometimes inside and sometimes outside the aura. The boundary of the aura is somewhere between the edge of dry land and the trunks of the trees.
The 50-pace wide marsh is marsh. There might be a dry bump of straw, but nothing to build on. In the forest, the only open land is also marsh, so you would either build in the treetops or cut trees.
Along the River Ure, the best land is already claimed for cottages and crops, and the second best for pasture. Claiming land there, even for just a cottage, would quickly get attention, even though it looks like there is land to spare. A similar distance in the opposite (-ish) direction, nobody appears to claim the land.
From Discord: Aysgarth does, and there are farms along the larger river. West Burton does not, there would be the wilderness already described. Thoralby might be a lone cottage or a hamlet.
"Edwin, and anyone who feels they can talk to mundanes, can we see what we can learn about the mundane areas nearby? Does the village and farms nearby answer to a lord or bishop? Are we going to have to hide from them? Or is it potentially a village we could protect and help develop in exchange for which serving as covenfolk and a source of income?"
Edwin, and whomever goes with him, find the village of Aysgarth less than half a mile upriver along the Ure. As you remember from first arrival, there were few houses downriver, but several herds of domestic animals grazing.
Aysgarth consists of three hamlets, one on the far side of the river, and two on your side, spaced less than 200 paces apart. The villagers are busy, as you can see from a distance, but they stop what they are doing to watch as you arrive, one first, and then a couple, and before you arrive, everybody is looking curiously at you.
Edwin will approach the villagers, and ask them who they serve, or if they have been granted their land.
«Serve? Oh, we serve the king of course, and his Aeldorman at Bamburg, but they have not called upon us for many years.» It takes a couple of exchanges to sort out the choice of words. The village is quite remote, and the villagers think of the land as their own, and lords rarely bother them. They do send taxes to the shire-reeve in York once a year. Osmund organises that. He is reeve of the hundred, and they can point out his cottage across the river.
Edwin is of course familiar with the main concepts. IIUC, the reeves function more like civil servants than as vassals of later feudalism, but they are succeeded by their sons often enough to blur the distinction.
Edwin takes a keen interest, and asks if any of the land further up the river is not being used. "I represent some free men, keen to clear some land if the local lord is agreeable and his taxes are fair. We wish to live well away from the brutal areas of war, and this land seems peaceful."
«All the valley is used for pasture. Every peasant from Middleham to here send their sheep up the valley in Summer. You want to settle, just like that? Maybe up that way, beyond the cauldron falls?» he suggests pointing. «I don't know, but I have not seen much people there since the old ealdorman died eight years ago.»
It is not that the peasants know an awful lot about the politics and nobility, but they know who the Ealdorman is, and when Ælfheim who was Ealdorman of (Southern) Nortumbria dierd in 1006, Northumbria was united under the Ealdorman at Bamburg which is further away.
The reeve of the next hundred downriver holds an old motte-and-bailey castle at Middleham, but he also has not made himself seen much since he was raided by warlocks two or three years ago.
Meanwhile...
Thom walks over to Cauldron Falls, finding a comfortable spot to sit beside the water. He looks around the area [Second Sight: 7] to see what might be about the immediate area.
Thom does not see anything he has not seen before. After an hour of silent contemplation, if he has such patience, one of the otters pop their head up and shout, «hey, Thom, come and play with us today!?»
Thom smiles and waves to the otter.
"Well hello there! I was hoping you might come visit me. You never did tell me your name. May I know it?"
«If you come and play,» answers the otter before it disappears under water.
Thom remains on the shore, looking at the water.
"I will only come play if you give me your oath that I will not be harmed."
The otter, or the other one, reappears to say, «no harm will come to those loyal to the King, but we could not possibly swear that you will not offend him.» Then he turns to chase the other otter into the white water under the waterfall.
"Well if you would tell me the basic rules, I would be happy to meet the King. How could I be loyal to him if we've never met?" asks Thom.
Turold takes a stroll and sees Thom talking to the otters. He sits nearby, curious.
Sionag takes time for thinking about the situation and how deal with all of this.
"I think the best is the magi stay inside here, in the oak circle. The aura is good and we have enough place to sit. Do we prefer little individual structures or one bigger ? Both are advantages. Preferently, a structure who respect or, at least, mimic the environment, to avoid to trouble the majesty on this place. Do you think that's a equivalent of the traditional mystic towers but in Herbam could be created ?"
One thing before the next. First, a place for the magae...
"Perhaps," Betula says, "smaller structures would be easier to invent but more costly in Vis and we would need to invent the ritual if we wanted the structure to be permanent. I might be able to manage something..." and Betula begins casting
[Cottage of a Tree CrHe 20+ (Base 3, Touch +1, Sun (or more) +2, Ind, Size +2) 1+13+8+8+7+Stress = 44 / 2 = 22 so SUCCESS for Sun Duration]
A squat, wide, hollow tree rises up out of the ground with a large hole. The floor of the hollow is covered in a bed of leaves. Betula stands back and gestures towards the tree, "see, this is near the limit of my current abilities and I am not sure if this will last the night or last a Moon."
«The Rule is the King and the King is the Rule. You people want to overthink everything,» sighs the otter and resumes the chase.