I'm way too pressed for time to do a good job of it this week, but I've whipped up a rough draft illustration of our site based on Google Earth and your maps (not to scale...yet). Please feel free to give any input on future drafts:
It isn't as easy to read as the appropriate-scale images, but it does give a sense of the geography.
Based on this, I'd say Patrick's tents and the associated livestock/farming areas should either be in the corner by the Tower, or on the northeast corner, on that little hill.
I say we place the 10 lamps like this:
1 Lamp at the Tower,
1 on Cave Lvl 2,
4 on Cave Lvl 1
4 on the outside perimeter of currently inhabited buildings
"Theodoric has been able to tell me a few vis source locations, in addition to one we've already found. I suspect the local wisewoman may be reluctant to give up her sources, although there may be some she knows of but lacks the ability to harvest. There are also other approaches, of course, but those have to be balanced with our desire to maintain good relations with the local village. I'm not sure how well trying to destroy her memory of having ever had the vis source would work after use of Posing the Silent Question would work - it's the sort of thing it can be difficult to avoid leaving loose ends on." He adds slightly belatedly: "and there's the moral implications of doing such as well, of course."
[OOC: MTKnife, whilst Theodoric was able to give Gregorius some more source locations, Gregorius knows more than I do at this point, as you said you'd have to get back to me on the actual details.]
I suspect that the features you see in the Google Earth picture represents what's been excavated more than what was originally there, but yes, this gives as good a sense of the site as we're likely to find. If you search hard enough, you'll also find one or more pictures of the tower, which is still present today--though I had to guess at its location.
"Well, we were expecting more magi to settle here, and I would support your candidacy. Let me see what the charter says about becoming a member - you see, we did not write it." Tasia looks through for the relevant section (which Chris doesn't know at all).
It's relatively simple--he just has to maintain residence for three years. And the other magi might decide to treat him as a real member for most purposes even before then.
(Becoming a member is discussed in the 1st para of Members and Council)
"You're really not joking. Ten laboratories! We'll be the target of every greedy tribe of horsemen on the plains, if we don't put up a strong show of force. No wonder you went with the glowing magic aura. Without ten magi to defend them, superstition and fear is the only thing I can think of that would keep any marauders from such a wealth.
"In the interim, perhaps we can find a blank book somewhere in your library and turn it into your guestbook with my signature? We have a lot to do before the spirits awaken, and we can discuss possible amendments to the charter's membership section after that.
Oh, hey. What are we going to do once the spirits show up, anyway? Do we have some agenda, or plan of attack?"
"I will prepare something for visitors. After all, we need to be able to show evidence of residence and presence of sancta. It won't take me long. You can then be the first to sign that." Tasia heads off to find a blank book in which to start recording such things. The first entry will be his presence as our first visitor. Afterward she'll bring it to be signed.
"I'd like to increase our actual defences as soon as we're able to, but in the meantime superstition and fear will have to do what they can. Unfortunately I can't think of many good ways to use wards in our defences against human raiders - most of the ideas I come up with would also stop our own grogs. I've briefly wondered about a ward against horses - apparently the last lot of raiders were mounted, but we'll probably get those as well. Also, there are the problems of casting and maintaining large circle wards."
"The only thing I can really think of is refuge circles - have circles set up in advance and ward them against humans, metal and wood. Rather a short-term solution, at best, but might save a life. You're the expert, though - would those be possible? And is there any way of providing something similar to the grogs that wouldn't require a magus to cover them with their Parma?"
"Initially, information gathering. What I've been told on the ghosts so far is that they appear to be former romans - so they should at least speak Latin - and have occasionally been seen to move things and possibly to "mess with people's minds". I'd like to check they're actually magical - which makes me think a set of concentric circles might be a good idea for our main group - and what type of ghost they are. Based on the description so far, spectres seem like the most likely, but I may be wrong or there may be a mix. I'd definitely like to know what keeps them here. Beyond that...it depends a lot on the answers we get. In an ideal world, we'd come out of this with an agreement for the ghosts to serve us in some way, and possibly a vis source or two. More practically, I'd like to ensure they're not going to be a threat, or be able to get rid of them."
"Step One: Collect Loincloths. We're doing the thing as was told us to do. Step Three: Profit. We know what we want to get out of what we're doing. Only, what is Step Two? Step Two is all the bits that get us from Step One to Step Three, and we haven't got a clue how it goes. It's a bit like whittling, you know. We have to carve out bits and pieces from the great big question mark that is Step Two, until it looks like it is something we can do to get from One to Three.
"Now, it is darn hard to fight an enemy what as we know nothing about, when we've got no troops and no allies, and don't know what we need to defend ourselves against. Or when, for that matter. No, wait, scratch that last one. I believe our wee Quaesitor said that they came just at sun-down, yes? So they know the weakness of the Parma? So we know they'll come when we're weak, and we know they'll be about, eyeing us up, afore then. That's something to work with...."
" 'Less'n you can tell me what's the difference between them and us, I can't draw a line in the sand that we can step over and they can't. We can ensorcel some armor to protect the grogs, if we knew what to protect 'em against. But I think we're taking too direct an approach. What we need is allies, soldiers and fortifications. So, what have we got and how can we use it to get that, to protect us from this first thing?"
"Now that's the sort of thinking we need, brother! Get the ghosts to serve us. It's that sort of thinking we need to apply to this more nebulous threat."
"No, Theodoric said the attack came several hours after midnight. Whilst most people were asleep, in other words. Raiders on horseback, armed with the standard weapons of the local tribes, but with some sort of magical back-up which we unfortunately don't have any actual details on beyond that the magi here couldn't figure it out in the middle of the attack. No useful details on their numbers."
"We were going to have an early warning network from Aetos' birds, but he's decided to leave, so that kills that idea at least for the short term. I'm considering asking to trade for labtexts of some of his spells, but again, that's a medium term project. "No troops and no allies" is a bit of an exaggeration, if not as much as I'd like it to be. I'm going to start making enquiries to see if I can get a Tremere architect in to build us a wall. We definitely need more troops. It might be possible to get some from the local tribesmen, although we'd need to check their loyalties carefully, and there's the issue of how we'd pay them."
"In short, there's a number of things we can do, but most of them we can't do - or at least, won't collect the fruit from - now."
"Well, we are looking into everything. I believe the ghosts will be the first thing we have to deal with. I suggest this evening we pay very, very close attention to the sun. That way we can start our Parma Magica rituals so they will be complete very shortly after the old Parma Magicas drop. Once we've dealt with the ghosts we can continue our investigations into the local magi. We know we should talk to the village's wisewoman. She may or may not know something helpful."
"Ah, so then they don't know anything about how to fight our kind, they're just sneaky bastards. I can do something about the horses, I suppose, but there's a reason we use the natural boundaries of the world rather than drawing circles everywhere, irregular as they are. I'm not sure if it'd be a good idea to try to enlist some horsemen of our own. They seem like an attacker sort of thing, rather than a defensive measure."
"Birds? Are there honorable birds in this area? I've only met a handful so far, and they all seem a bit flighty to me. If you know of some such as we can trust, I should be able to either broker an alliance, or bring them to heel for me -- they work for next to nothing, and are surprisingly easy to tame.
"I'm leery about building a wall around us. The tree line, properly trapped and fortified, makes a great defense against horses, and we're already on a bit of a plateau with some kind of cave network underneath us. Wall seems a bit repetitive, unless you're talking about fortifying the entire plateau -- which sounds nice, but might be hard to patrol.
"We've only just arrived, so I don't think we have much in the way of trade goods or industry which we know we can supply on a long-term basis. Horsemen won't want stone much, I'd wager. Mayhap there's something I can net which'll breed true, and we can tempt them with that, but that'll be a whole different story than what I was doing in Laguna Sententia. We're missing a Cage of Splendid Growth, for one thing, and don't have the vis or the ritual to turn a nag into a mare worth breeding."
Patrick smiles broadly. "Aye, we should just keep collecting loincloths, and trust that profit will come in due time."
[OOC: Callen, I think you're on a slightly different timescale to me. My understanding had been that the ghosts are coming tomorrow night, not tonight, and that we were going down to talk to the wisewoman tomorrow, chronologically before the ghosts turned up (although the two threads may well be able to run concurrently). I'm waiting on you posting in the "Relations with the Locals" thread.]
"No idea if they were honourable or not. I think Aetos' methods involved a fair amount of Rego."
"I'd been thinking of most of the covenant area, although we won't want to build right up to the tree line. You're right we really need more men to guard such a wall properly, though. And not cavalry, either."
At this point, Viola pipes up: "I believe that I'm more than capable of inventing any spell or item we might need involving Herbam--so long as you can convince Portia to get my lab set up."
At midnight on the expected night, under a dark sky, the ghosts begin to manifest themselves. What you sense first is sounds of movement. Looking outside, you see dozens of spectral figures treading what must have been a road from the center of the city (that is, the fountain) down to the inner edge of the woods. Most of them are on foot, though one drives an oxcart. They seem to be moving phantasmal goods back and forth along their path.
