Later on, the magi are sitting in their warehouse to avoid drawing unwanted attention to their conversation. The ones that are staying at the more fancy inn look somewhat disgusted, but they manage. their grogs are nearby, and they are eavesdropping for sure, but this is not something that concerns the magi. Not this time at least. They have summoned Dietlinde, Fresse and Alice to act as representatives, since they are the ones that externally look semi-competent at dealing with mundanes. Alice has been summoned at Dietlinde's request; apparently the young girl is proving quite capable of handling mundanes by herself. it seems that leaving Triamore is making her bloom. Still new to being so close to magi on a regular basis, Alice is still skittish around them, but she seem to manage to hold herself together. It would seem she is trying to appear mature and dependable in front of someone. Fresse, perhaps? When the grizzled cousin of Quercus smiles at her reassuringly she blushes like a strawberry and looks to the ground*.
Well sodales, we need to decide what attitude our gorgs should adopt tomorrow. I vote for a conciliatory tone, but firm in our desire to settle there. That should be out of the question. We can promise to try to make the smallest impact possible, and to provide services at a discount price for them, but we cannot refuse our control over the oak or the location of our community. it should be clear that we want to be friendly, but this is not negotiable. Any of you has any idea on how to make this work? I am not yet very well versed in mundane social graces.
* I wrote tomato, and then realizes that she would not know about them for another 300 years. Ah the wonders of time travel
"Maybe one of us could go with them, but let Dietlinde do the talking. Make it clear to them that we will settle by the oak but we want to be good neighbours and offer anything they might want. They have no reason apart from our Gift to be suspicious about us." Japik smiles at Alice and the other grogs listening.
Not anything, but a fair deal and generous contributions in some fields: fairly generous wages, cheap firewood and maybe some other things. We are not that rich. Yet, at least. Still we can offer these things.
Pytheas keeps his distance when the grogs are around. With his blatant Gift, even those who would become covenfolk had difficulty near him. Better to let the others give the grogs their instructions. But when it's just the magi, he's more forthright. "I agree. We should be firm, but fair. Make it clear that we will be staying, but also try and show them the benefits of having us nearby."
While the magi are discussing at great lengths the whats, whys and hows of the second meeting with the village elder and their demands, Fresse looks at Dietlinde and Alice. He rolls his eyes and uses his hand to make a motion of people talking and talking and talking... Dietlinde smiles evilly and nods, while Alice giggles.
Firm, wood, money, hmm? They will fall for that for sure, Dietlinde says looking unconvinced. You just leave this to us, hmm, and we'll be sitting on that rock in no time.
"I shall go and tend to the sailors before their drinking and whoring gets too much," Pytheas states. "I think I'll have them take me on a slow circuit around the island so that I can properly scope things out. With the ship and the ship's boats, I should be able to stop and explore any areas of particular interest."
Dietlinde as frontwoman, and she is supported by Alice and Fresse. 3 characters so more people can contribute to the scene. And they are even semi-capable socially
The three grogs are shown to a smaller house, where they are met only by the main spokesman of the elders, whom Dietlinde recognizes as the one named Louke. He explains the main points of the village's requirements as follow:
You will only build 3 houses, no larger than the largest one from the village (which is about 25 by 40 feet with a single floor). Their exact location will have to be mutually agreed to.
Any building materials from the plateau (stone, for the most part) shall be provided by the village, based on their capacity to do so.
Any building materials brought from down below (wood and metals, for the most part) shall have one part in ten paid to the village.
For each worker you hire from down below to work on the plateau, you will hire a worker from the village. That is true both during the construction and afterwards. Workers from the village will be paid wages equal to those from down below.
You will not farm the land, beyond a small garden. You will not raise animals. You will not excavate the land.
You will build an enclosure around the tree, to prevent the village’s sheep and goats from reaching it.
(Note: I am using "down below" to indicate anything outside of the plateau.)
If they work on Oberland for you, or live there, they would be counted as "workers". So that would include the covenfolk and the grogs. If you bring up the sailors to work on the construction, they will count. If they remain down below and only work the ship (or in town), they won't.
Magically created materials will raise questions if it is seen. Where did it come from? Are you ready to be seen as sorcerers? That would certainly give the village a way to get rid of you, by denouncing you to the Church and the Danish lord...
Louke'position on the clause about excavations seem fairly strong. To them, excavating = less land. What is there to exacavte for, anyway?
Remember, it is the grogs who are negociating for the magi now. They don't have the same priorities as magi do. To make it worse, your main negociator is Dietlinde, who likes to stick it up to Prochorus (expression of his Difficult Underlings flaw).
I find these limits to be quite harsh on us considering what we are offering. 100 feet is not suitable for a lab (IIRC it is 500 square feet) so Quercus will find these conditions unacceptable. Maybe we should put this forward as an open consultation to the village. Better health, better supplies and good wages to the plateau inhabitants for a fair job.
More on this tomorrow, night (24h from now) at most, but we are not done with the negotiation. Quercus is seriously considering forced relocation of the obberland village now.
About "being seen as sorcerers" I would like a statement on what level of power the OoH is in this saga. In my 5th edition sagas magi have happened to develop inotwhat account to demigods when they are middle age, even if we tried to screw them up. I would like to know the apparent power level of the stablished covenants in this saga to act accordingly.
I am in concurrence with Xavi. Pytheas would find totally unacceptable any agreement that did not provide adequate space for the magi's living quarters and labs, as well as sufficient covenfolk for support and security. At present, this opening bid on their part is as unacceptable to us as our opening bid was to them. Fine. Time to start negotiating for somewhere in the middle.
Of course, as you point out, this group is very, very badly designed for such negotiation. (Fatally? Perhaps) Blatant Gift? Check. Difficult Underlings? Check. Does anyone have Enemies who might be undermining the effort? that would be the icing on the cake.
Perhaps this would be time to request aid from the home office. Perhaps they might send a new magus (one with the Gentle Gift) to aid in the negotiations. Perhaps they've already sent one, anticipating this problem, and he'll arrive any day now. I only mention this because It's been over a month since I joined and Arthur said to raise the issue of a new character after I'd been here about a month.
I'm also with Xavi on wanting to know what the level of magic in the world is. From what I've seen in much of the ARM5 I've looked at, magic isn't right out there in the middle of things. But it seems to be very much on the edges. There's the wise woman with the second sight, the skin changer that lives in the woods, the man in the village with animal ken who seems to have a way with beasts, and even stories of the old witch who can do real magic. How much are we living under a "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" regime, and how much is there a tacit acceptance that there is some magic in the world?
