A day or so has passed since the first meeting of the magi and the feverish work of dusting of old lab equipment has just begun. Aelianus sits at the end of the table and when all the magi have been seated and the food is on the table he speaks. [color=red]This meeting is the first formal council meeting that this covenant has. We will discuss how we will work to get our covenant forward. But first I would like to introduce the mistress of the covenfolk Colijne Boone. Aelianus gestures towards a archway where a large woman enters from. [color=red]Please speak mistress Boone and introduce your self to the council.
[color=red]Good evening, gentlemen and missus, she says in Latin that is easily as good as David's. [color=red]My name is Colijne Boone, or Mistress Boone, if it so please you, and my job is to do all the things that you don't. She smiles, and the room seems to light up. [color=blue]Pre 4 Charm 4[color=red]I do hope you're all settling in nicely, and that you're getting some of this lovely weather before the clouds come in off the sea again - after all, spending too much time in them dusty laboratories will fade you out - another warm smile [color=red] - and I trust that everything's to your liking. She pauses for breath. [color=red]I must warn you, though, we haven't have any magi except Master Robur in a good time, so some of the newer hands might not be as accustomed to your gift, or pay you the reverence that I'm sure you think you're due. Until they get to know you better by sight I suggest very strongly that you not threaten, insult, or try to bully them. She fixes Roberto with a somewhat less-than-friendly gaze. [color=red]Else, there's no telling what will happen, because I'm sure wise folk like you can figure how it might be less than comfortable to irritate them that cook your food, shoe your horses, guard your gates, and thatch your roofs.
A peek inside the private thoughts of Roberto of Flambeau. None of this is said aloud. It is the reader's privilege 
Roberto scowls. [color=orange]What the? I mean, who does this woman think she is? Ever since the other day, Carlos (the guitar playing grog with a small frame) has been talking endlessly about this "amazon goddess" he met the other day at the guest house. Marcello would laugh, claming she was almost as tall as himself.
Pushy broad. Where does she get off? That little pipsqueek steward. I shoulda poped hin in the nose for talking back. It's all that stupid cat's fault for mislabeling my freinds as servants. Maye I am unused to you and your mannerisms. This place totally lacks the order of the military camp. In my day, I have had to cook my own food, hunt it even, shoe my own horses, and guard other peoples gates. The thatched roof is nice though.
And that other girl, the easterner. Zoroastianism is interesting, though a false religon. I remember a Zoastian Flambeau magus once told me that the Founder certainly did not die in the last battle. He immoliated himself and became a spirit of pure flame, and the spirit of the Founder dwells with us still. I like the sentiment, but they are still strange. And who teaches their daughter to be a swords woman? What man will take her for a wife? Crazy dames.
Roberto simply eases back in his chair, relaxing. He knows that, whatever the problem is, it surely must be someone elses fault.
After Mistress Boone's speech Havlard looks around the table.
[color=red]"Sodali, we have had several days to look around our new home. I think we have a lot of work ahead of us. We need to increase our income in some manner. We also must make this place more livable for the covenfolk. I think it could be an easy goal to clean up the streets and houses of the town."
[color=green]Wirth
[color=orange]this sounds like great news... This cold weather is lovely???
Broods even more
[color=orange]
Who does she thinks she is anyway? Treating us as stupid children who'll enjoy bullying our own servants, and menacing us???
[color=red]Do you mean that it's ok to bully servants if they know you? Why would we do this?
[color=green]Iolar
[color=red]My dear Colijne, the weather today is going to be fairly unpleasent for those who have not protected themselves with appropriate magic. We will have a gale and a sleet storm before too long or that at least is what the wind tells me and it seems fairly honest to me unlike some of the moutain winds they can lie to you.
As to the coven folk and yourself you will learn to deal with our eccentricties and gifts after all that is why we employ you. You can call me Mistress Firewing.
You may also tell me if this covenant has a dressmaker in its employ as my luggage was apparently destroyed a few decades ago and I am somewhat short of material possessions at the moment.
She turns to look at Havlard
[color=red]I agree we need to secure a mundane income and perhaps we can clean the place up with reasonable ease. I must admit to having had little association with the mundane world and most of that fifty years ago so I can offer little advice about how we could raise money .
[color=green]Roberto(smiles)
[color=red]I have an idea that can kill two birds with one stone. I noticed that there seems to be a definite lack of custos in this covenant. There was one guy with a spear at the gate when we arrived, and I don't think he even knows how to use it. Most of our fighting men came along with us, we the new members. Highly skilled though they are, it is not nealy enough. Optimally, we should have a ratio of two or three custos per magus.
Now, though our talent pool is small, they are highly skilled. Then there is the girl that was sent to serve Wirth. I know, I know, she is only a woman. But her training is exceptional. I mean, simply phenominal. I wouldn't want to utilize her as a soldier of course, mayhaps a specialist, but in any case she would make an invaluable trainer.
And we have other such resources at our disposal. Now, you may think that this has nothing to do wih our magic or our income. But it has everything to do with these. The Sheild Custos at your side will save your life one day. You may think that, since yours is not a military focus, you have no need of fighting men at your side. I say ypu need them even more! Need I tell you the tale of the Verditius magus who owed vis to the Mercere? They sent a mundane Redcap as a collection agent. A Mundane! The Redcap broke the arm of the mighty magus and fractured his ribs.
What's more, we have the advantage of a rural location. City covenants have just as much need for custos, perhaps more. However, they have neither the resources nor facilities to recruit or train them. My former master hired out mercenaries to the king of Castile. We can hire them out to our sodales in the Order.
With that, Roberto leans back to let others discuss their own ideas.
Colijne gives Wirth a bit of a told-you-so look as Iolar speaks, but it only lasts for a moment before her normal kind smile returns. [color=red]I do hope you won't do anything too grave to our little town - remember, until you've been here more than a few seasons, you're guests. As for your request, Mistress Firewing, we've no dressmaker but we do have a very capable tailor - his shop is down by the tanner, but he's probably still asleep, seeing as it's before midday. She curtseys. [color=red]Now, I've other business, as I'm sure you do. If you need me, just ask anyone and I'll get word.
[color=green]David
David keeps silent - he has been told how the covenant makes its money, but as he hasn't been asked, he isn't going to share potentially useful information. Besides, if there's one thing he's learned from life, it's that a jew should never seem to care too much about finances, lest he be called out as a pagan and a usurer and driven out of town by an angry mob.
Okeanos, looks at the "mistress" then at the others,
[color=orange]
bah this weather is nothing compared to the novograd.
His fey upbringing making some of what is discussed a little hard to follow.
[color=red]"I will gladly help with the docks, the water at least i know - bah all this talk of mundane this and that, I need to get my services out of the way so i can get back to my studies." looks to the rest of the magi [color=red]"is any more need for me here? i have docks and a lab to see to..."
Once mistress Colijne has left the room. Aelianus sighs and speaks. [color=red]Soldaes I know that you have come a long way for joining this covenant and you need to accept some of the peculiarities of the coven folk. They are extremely close knit in a way that few communities are, so don’t treat them as the mundanes they are. I will tell you a short story about an apprentice who lived here, and he where gauntleted a few years before me.
He had a remarkable skill in mentem magic’s that man and he where as ugly as an dogs rear. On top of that he had lust towards one of the servant girls, though he where not able to use his charms to win her affections. He used his magic’s and managed to get his will through with the girl. He thought he was untouchable due to the fact that he where soon a magus, and he thought that he could do as he wished. The girl had two brothers, who are old now but in their time they where strong and short tempered. One night the brothers and the apprentice meet outside the tower… I haven’t heard from the now magus but I think that Creo magic where necessary to restore the apprentice, it sure where an ugly sight.
Once he recovered he demanded that the two men where hanged due to the insult that he had suffered and because of the rearrangement of his face. To tell a long story short, there where a number of incidents and the covenants servants, guards and other where close to rebellion so the whole affair ended in that the master of the apprentice where forced to give the father of the girl a large amount of silver to compensate the daughters lost honour. The apprentice moved from this covenant as soon as he became a magus and the years until then where not pleasant for him.
They are our servants but they must be respected. And there are men and women amongst them who won’t hesitate to do grim deeds for their fellow men.
[color=red]Respect is a two edged Sword, I respect those who show me respect unlike this Coljine who seems to have forgotten that. I have no plans to kill, maim, mutilate , or mind control mundanes of this covenant that is somewhat rude and lacking in respect for their humanity and Free Will. However I will not tolerate disrespect and insult.
That is a realtivly minor matter, I suggest we decide what we can do with our service to the covenant this year.
I see no problem with Roberto's suggestion of froming a fighting force for profit although we would need to check on the rulings of the periphrel code and the local conditions for mercenaries.
Otherwise Okeanos may well be able to locate shipwrecks some of which will have valuable cargo's which he could recover and that would aid our cash flow. There may also be vis sources at sea which most covenants would have missed and which would be difficult for them to access making them easier for us to claim in the long run.
As for vis sources near here I will be able to find those where the winds and weather blow although it will take me some time to learn the ways of the local wind and weather.
[color=red]"I think a goal that will lead to quick results would be to fix roads and houses in the town. If we are going ask the Covenfolk to help us we should help them first. I can see if I can move the lose stones to the road and then embed them in the road."
[color=red]Iolar, Aelianus looks at the maga, [color=red]I agree with you but I needed to warn you. The coven folk are close knit and things have turned ugly before.
[color=red]Regarding the covenant improvement, I intend to craft some item that could be useful to either the restoration or the fishing. I haven’t decided if I shall make a charged item or items that are useful or if I should make a commission work for Dragons rest that might earn me a few vis and some of them could go to a lesser enchanted device that could be even more helpful in long terms. They have been asking me to construct a device that helps their stables.
[color=red]You'll ask him to make something for that Kilica woman. It may be usefull to dress her up as an innofensive woman if we go out there.
(...)
[color=red]Roberto, I like your grogs idea. We could also use our abilities to raid our neighbours for ressources. I can change our appearances so as to throw suspicions away.
After Aelianus's tale
[color=red]That man got what he deserved, nothing less. But that coljine just assumed that we were ruffians, and threatened us.
While I may understand it if that's all she knows of magi, I don't like it either.
Sigh... Ok, let's forget it.
An expression of understanding dawns on Roberto's face. Bemoning that this place isn't organized like the camp is a BS excuse, because he chaffed under that too. This amazon, she is kind of attractive, but anyway, her thing is that she is overly motherly. He gets it now. He is also of the opinion that this covenant raises wussy magi, since the apprentice got beaten so bad so easilly. He prolly deserved it though, but a coward seeks revenge by having somone else hang them. But perhaps that explains why there are no stout fighting men amongst the coven folk. You idiots killed them, and they were probably righteous!
Hmmm..., so they are afraid of me, eh? Well, good! I am not overly fond of this servile mentality. "treat your servent's nice, treat your servant's right". Pfft. Stop being servile and maybe I will respect you! Employes who work, covenfolk who are part of the community with the magi, not a master/slave relationship. My father was a peon and a farmer, but he was no slave or servant. He was a freeman according to the rights and customs of our Visgothic ancestors!
Hmmm, maybe I am being too passionate and reading to far into things.
[color=brown]storyguide voice
All of you hear a furious scratching at the door, and the whine of a cannine.
[color=green]Iolar
[color=red]Do we have many stray dogs roaming the halls of the covenant? If we do thats a seasons service for the covenant for someone.
She rises and heads to the door
[color=red]Its probably a magical dog come to tell us someone has fallen down a well as in all the folktales. If we need to talk to it thats one of the rest of you's jobs I am not that sort of Bjornear.
Iolar opens the door
Dragor bursts in, howling and whining. David knows him well enough to realize he wants us to follow him.
Presuming we do, he leads us outside just as a few townsfolk are walking up the path. An old woman is crying and blathering on in Flemish.
Whether you share her language or not, it is obvious what she is all distraught about. Halvard is the first one to spot it, the mercahnt man is capsized. Despite the storm, regardless of the wind and ice, men are jumping into the freezing water to try and rescue the few sailors trapped inside. They are fools. They will surly die.
[color=green]Wirth follows dragor along, still astonished about how roberto and him think alike, despite their differences.
Before leaving the building Iolar quickly casts a spontaneous CrIg Spell
(Base 2 +2 Sun total 4 spell to keep warm base 3+7+8+6(aura) 24 /5 gives 5) so automatic.
When she see's the sinking boat she quickly assumes the form of her heartbeast
casts Voice of the Bjornear (4+5+6(aura)-10 No voice 5+dice roll . spell goes off with fatigue)
She then flies down to the docks
There she casts a CrIg spell at the people in the water
(Base 2 + 2 group +2 voice +1 concentration level 15)
(Cr 8 + Ig 7 +3 Puissant +3 aura +7 ignem again 28 +dice roll /2)
Takes a fatigue level, while a base level 2 is probably not enough in the long run (Warm to touch probably not enougth in the water) it should give the people in the water more time. She will then have to spend her time concentrating on the spell to maintain the effect)