[I'm not OOC sure exactly what has and hasn't been agreed here, largely because I don't think it's ever actually been defined. The charter just says that the covenant is granted equipment for establishment of ten laboratories (and that the covenant has a duty to provide laboratories for visiting magi).
Portia's arguments, which she'll give to Tasia if it comes down to it are:
The covenant was indeed given the vis rather than Portia. Portia is doing a service for the covenant by creating it at all - there's nothing that says it has to be created by her.
She's creating lab equipment for all the covenant's needs save Viola's. The sponsors' needs are being met; Viola brought this problem on herself.
The laboratory spells are seventh and nineth magnitude, so 64 pawns are not sufficient for 4 better labs and 6 lesser ones.
In summary, it's not a legal issue, it's an issue for Viola.
Portia will try to be reasonably polite about presenting this to Tasia.
From Viola, Portia will make an initial demand of:
A public apology for the insult given.
6 pawns of corpus vis as a remedy and compensation for the damage done to her familiar.
Tasia will try to make sure the word of their charge is followed accurately while adjusting things as best possible to suit their new circumstances (changes of magi and all). She thanks Portia profusely and attempts one last time in vain to get her to reconsider leaving.
So, how many labs are created before the ghosts show up? In other words, how many more buildings does Patrick need to ward? I know he still needs to do the watch tower, too.
Is anything else happening before the ghosts show up?
If aware of the discussions regarding repayment for familiar damage, Patrick will stick his nose in it, probably offering to take on the Vis debt, in exchange for Viola initiating him into the ways of Faerie Magic when the debt is paid. If Viola agrees, then he'll see if Portia will let him repay her in vis of any type.
For the record, the biggest problem here, even with the lesser labs, is that the Quality bonus can only persist if the labs are maintained with an Upkeep of +3--which the covenant can't afford, esp. for 10 labs; the cost for the better labs would be +4 or +5. Portia had intended to maintain all of the labs for free with a spell cast periodically, but that's not an option anymore, unless someone else learns or invents that spell.
MTKnife said we had a couple of days, so probably assume that only the first two spells have been cast by that point. I'd also been assuming that labs weren't being created at the same rate as glassware - i.e. Portia is casting the spell into a convenient room, then the stuff is getting taken out and put into storage, then Portia repeats the process. (With a few exceptions from where people have already staked out specific rooms as labs). This does mean that people are still going to have to spend two seasons on setting up their labs, however, which I think the Laboratory of X spells usually avoid.
I'm also inclined to agree with Callen that your Hut building spell needs a magnitude for size (10 cubic paces isn't quite enough, probably), and a finesse roll. The finesse ease factor is going to be quite high. For a standard quality building, it's 6 (standard quality item) + 3 (using craft magic) + 3/6 (month's / season's work done in an instant) for an ease factor of 12/15.
Vis type she's willing to be reasonably flexible about, but, yes, there's the joining the Merinita issue.
I don't think there's any fundemental reason the quality of the labs couldn't be allowed to lapse (other than it meaning irritating bookwork) - say start off with the bonus, but say that after 4 (say) seasons' usage it reduces to just being standard labware as breakages are replaced with more standard items.
While they're investigating the aura and everything around it, once per day Tasia will use Sight of the Sigil. She will warn the other magi in advance, both so they're aware that she's using Intellego magic and so they're aware that she won't respond to them. She will cast it ceremonially in the highest aura and then wander about. Rolls 7, 18, 2. So she spends 1 Fatigue the first day trying, none the next day, and does not succeed on the third day. She won't bother trying again on the third day since a single casting takes her two and a half hours.
Meanwhile she'll leave Vrahos to start setting up their home and lab since he isn't getting to move many things around as she investigates.
(I figure by the time you read this it will be well-timed: Congratulations!!! . )
The spell lets you see all active magic and ended magic with a non-negative trace. You can see the sigil and identify the Arts. You get the rough idea of the spell's function eve if it is non-hermetic. It's the level 50 Quaesitor spell for such things. Tasia also has 2 levels of Acute Sense mastery with it.
That's (stress die)+39. So a roll of 2+ (1 is impossible) grants success with the cost of 1 Fatigue. A roll of 12+ (11 is impossible) pulls it off without fatigue. So all three days were successful, the second day not even requiring Fatigue.
Sorry, I was on a plane. It can detect a trace of 0 magnitude or higher (which includes active), but any strength spell. How long ago the spell must have been cast to reach 0 magnitude trace depends on the duration of the spell itself. For Hermetic spells you can read the Technique, Form, Sigil, whether it was cast or came from an item, and a rough idea of the effect. You get the same for non-Hermetic spells, but you may not be able to interpret the information correctly. I would suggest Magic Lore for that. It detects magical stuff but not faerie, infernal, nor divine.
Now can I congratulate you two? Congratulations!!! Do you have a new son or daughter?
IIRC, the spell creates a complete lab. I had suggested that we designate where we want the labs to be, and then have Portia cast the spell there, regardless of whether or not a building had been constructed around it yet. Meanwhile, Leon and the other grogs would use their Survival skills to hack together temporary camp buildings around those sites (tents, lean-to's, branches lashed together for roofing over ruins, etc). We could ReTe stone over the temporary buildings later.* Worst case scenario, Patrick could put warding circles around these labs to keep out all mundane intrusions (including wind, rats, etc). In mechanical terms, these labs would gain the flaw Outdoors (and possibly also Natural Environment) until we built around them.
Edit:* As I mention below, I forgot that we have a carpenter specialist, who can also help set up jury-rigged buildings. See additional arguments below.
As I said before, he cast it due to his addiction, so if it's a strange pile of rocks, that's fine by me As the player, I wasn't expecting him to accomplish anything functional. As an aside, according to City and Guild, pg 68, a skilled carpenter can complete 2 townhouses in a season, while a skilled mason can complete a stone tower in 2 seasons, so the Ease Factor, and therefore the result of his spell, is pretty much up to the discretion of whoever wants to rule on it. Personally, I vote for half of a 3-room long hut
So, does Viola make a counteroffer, or do we just drop the subject?
From the description in Covenants, it defaults back to a standard lab "unless rigorously maintained." This is the primary reason why I suggest building around the labs, rather than packing them up and storing them once conjured. We'd be saving 20 seasons worth of work that can only be done by a Magic Theory expert, and only need 5 seasons worth of work by a carpenter (which we have) to build 10 townhouses around the labs (2/season). For the vis spent, that's a much better deal.
As soon as the spell ends, the magnitude of the trace halves (presumably rounded up).
The magnitude drops by 1 for each duration that passes (1 round for Momentary) until it reaches 0.
After reaching 0 the magnitude drops by 1 per month for non-ritual Momentary, Concentration, and Diameter durations. For all other spells it drops by 1 per year.
Once the magnitude reaches -10 it ceases to exist.
So, in terms of years, a Year duration spell will retain a non-negative trace for half its magnitude in years. I would need to combine a CrVi spell (Restore the Faded Threads) with my spell to temporarily strengthen traces to examine negative traces with my spell.
Some of the potential labs, in the caverns, are blocked off with rubble, and flooded on top of that, and Viola might like to set up a lab in the faerie regio, though it's not clear when it will be available for her use.
BTW, though Arya deleted Portia's character sheet, I went back and looked at the original conversation, and her "Laboratory of Verditius" is actually the Laboratory of Bonisagus in Covenants (with a +2 bonus to Quality and +3 to Upkeep, I think), while her "Laboratory of Bonisagus" is a lesser ritual, I think with Quality +1--or to put it differently, the greater spell is equivalent to Flawless Equipment and Tools, and the lesser spell to Superior Equipment and Tools.
In this context "rigorously maintained" means paying the increased Upkeep.
You don't find anything, other than old wards (such as the Aegis) and a few traces of In spells that were probably cast by the Redcap scouts who visited earlier. Recall that the attack on the old covenant occurred 15 years ago--too long ago for traces of most combat spells to remain.
It sounds like we're all thinking in different scales of time: season-long, month-long, day-long, adventure-long, etc. Based on the adventure so far, Viola's regio will be explored to the full extent of her abilities before the party ends, and she's already seen the room I had assumed she'd be using for her laboratory (still waiting for Scott to describe it beyond what I already have given). So she'll actually know if she wants to use that room for her lab/sanctum BEFORE Patrick even arrives. The potential labs will get explored at some point AFTER this chapter (that is, after the poltergeists), and Portia can only cast perhaps 2 Laboratory spells/day.
So, I think that we should just focus on what we want our characters to be doing between Patrick's arrival the day after Viola's faerie party and Tasia's election to leadership, and the night of the new moon. Based on the assumption that the ghosts will arrive on the night of the new moon, and that this is three days after Patrick arrives, what do we want everyone to be doing? I've already given suggestions for what I think Patrick, Leon, and Portia should be doing, but I'm only "in control" of two of those, and both of them will defer to decisions by the full members (though Patrick will vocalize strong opinions about everything, he won't actually defy any decisions).
Edit: Kept confusing "new moon" with "full moon," and forgetting to finish half my sentences.
. )
It's a daughter.