"Actually that is a very good precept and point that we are establishing. You want to gamble and play dice with your fellow magus, that is fine but you can only gamble what is yours alone or your service. You start to gamble part of the communal library like Detwin gambled the family home, you have gone too far and gambled that which is not yours to gamble. If you gamble away lab equipment or things we provide you to do your duty to the covenant, you are gambling away that which is really not yours to gamble. Indeed you infringe on us who must either be put out to replace that which you lost or suffer the loss of your effort . This is the law we are establishing and it is just." Tatiana likes the turn of phrase that the redcap is speaking. The rule of law.
"As for rule of majority, I do not know it to be a tyranny and if respect for each person's vote in tribunal as equal and majority sways things will work for tribunal, it will work here. Still I have not seen the charter that I can swear to it. Oaths have power and that is our rule of law. I have never heard of these communes in Italy and I don't care about them. Let them worry about themselves." The maga doesn't care if this is democracy like the order or monarchy with the founder ruling mostly or meritocracy with the mages ruling with equal vote as long as things get settled..
[color=red]Is Detwin's home not his own? Who owns it then? A man is the master of his family, head of the hosehold, and ruler of his wife. It is his property.
[color=red]See what I mean? Dangerous precedent. Whatever is found inside a magus' sanctum is the absolute property of that magus. He can sell, trade, gamble, refine, remodle, and redesign as he wishes. And you have no right to know what he does with what is in his lab. A magus' sanctum is sacrosanct.
I am not a Redcap, at least not in the classical sense.
[/quote]
[color=red]See, that's the thing. We have no right to make new law, only to rule upon law that is already established. Every detail of the Periphreal Code is a ruling, not a new law. It gets its force and authority from the Original Code. Rule of Law supercedes majority vote. For example, a Tribunal cannot simply choose to disregard the prohibition agains molesting fae just because 19 of 20 member magi vote for it.
"and yet there are limitations to that. If you take a book from the covenant library. It is not your book because it is in your sanctum. While most of the contents of the lab belong to you, the actual lab building and perhaps some of the equipment in it also might be on loan to you and belongs to the covenant. The fact that it is in your sanctum again does not make it yours and should you leave the covenant, you could not take it with you. It is not saccrosinct and should you not return items or even the lab under certain circumstances, the case could be brought to tribunal where while the punishment by default is march, most likely you would instead be charged with returning it and perhaps fined for the matter. Your rights though to what is in your sanctum are governed by our Oath and the peripheral code. You can not take your lab and suddenly say it is some strange wizard's lab. You can not give away the lab. You can let them use it but it is still yours by your membership here and they have no claim to ownership and they can get no claim of ownership without first getting membership here."
"There is already law in place to govern you with rights AND limitations. If you do not respect the limitations that are part of being this covenant as determined by the charter, then you can always move on." Tatiana will have to see study the charter of the covenant to get details on that matter.
"These peasants have not sworn the oath to the order, they are not governed by its oaths, code and other provisions. We are the law and we judge what is best for the community and ourselves. They do support us and we should consider what is just what is fair and what will hurt the community. If some gambler takes all the lands that the farmers and othes have to leave as they have no homes, we starve. That he might try to hire workers doesn't mean he will. It is a disruption and damage to something that is necessary to OUR livelihoods and that of the whole community that as the Law of this land, we can say that it is not allowed."
Mariella's glare is deadly
"Do not mention those scum in my presence. Marching was too good for them."
OOC The shadow Flambeau are probably not a good point to raise around most Flambeau
"Justus in the past we have decided these matters with a majority vote I see no reason to change that now"
True Mariella we have made rulings by majority earlier. Let’s finish this now. Justus call for the courts attention and declare the judgement as Tatiana suggested. The audience listens with great interest and the sentence is carried out.
When the villagers clear the court room the magi notice that the villagers are eagerly discussing the verdict. When the room is emptier Justus speaks to his soldaes. We must move back to the council chamber. We have a hedge magician to welcome to our covenant. He is a member of house Ex Miscellanea and thus a soldae.
The magi and Horst return to the council chamber where they will meet with the new member of the covenant as he is sent into the council chamber to introduce himself.
Tatiana speaks on the way back to the council chamber, "I think that we do need to investigate the latin school. It might be worth taking a look, As for a ghost though, I have no magics for warding off or dealing with ghosts and spirits. It would be some seasons before I could probably have one that would be very effective. Against corporeal foes, I am much better."
Fighting ghosts does take specialize sets of spells and while Tatiana hasn't spoken of what she is good at, she obviously from her fae appearance hasn't focused much on human ghosts.
Justus listen to Tatiana and when he is given the opportunity he replies. I sure that there is nothing to worry about concerning the Latin school. But sure an investigation would be nice, however we must be discrete as there is not easy to find a grammar teacher who willingly settles in the middle of the Pomeranian. Regarding the ghost… we can’t even be sure that it is a ghost so an preliminary investigation should do us good. We show our support and we can see what the problem is. After all it could be a lunatic killer with a knack for stealth.
The magi enter the council chamber at take seats at the table.
After the magicians have returned from the village and reentered the council chamber, one of the grogs announces the arrival of a new guest, and shortly afterwards the man enters the room. The first impression is not very remarable, as Petrulus is of rather slight build and more than a bit clumsy, even so he has a friendly look on his face (should any of the magicians have their Parma down, they might feel a wave of spontaneous sympathy, but that seems unlikely). After getting an invitation to speak he introduces himself to the council members in a pleasant and melodious voice, using eloquent Latin, which certainly is able to enchant people withlout the use of any magic:
Salvete Sodales!
I am Petrulus ex Miscellanea, Filius of Parvulus ex Miscellanea, who was brought into the order by Justus’ esteemed pater, after he had gained a reputation as formidable wizard through his own studies. Four years ago I passed my gauntlet and started to roam the German lands in order to learn more about the magic of traditions outside the order and to integrate those powers they wield into my own arts. Now it is time for me to rest awhile amongst my peers within the order, to renew my studies of hermetic and classic lore and my magical arts, to write reports on my research and to show the order the wonders found outside its traditional approach to magic. - I certainly wouldn’t dream of insulting the Bonisagus and the other founders, for the achievements of hermetic magic greatly surpass those of any other magic tradition, but I have learned that there are many things out there which are worth to look at in order to improve the arts. Having been apprenticed to my master before his joining of the order and having been far on his way of magic use by then I couldn’t learn the arts of Bonisagus, and so it is my fate to show all those who follow his path a bit of what is left to be integrated. Now your covenant, situated in a wild area, dedicated to research into the local magical secrets and traditions and not yet crippled by the stiffness found in many older covenants, seems to be an ideal place to start my work on that agenda. Here I can easily think of ways, my arts can be put to good use for the covenant and its servants, and the charta seems to show a spirit of equality among mages that encourages fruitful cooperation. All said and done, I would like to join your ranks, either as a long term guest under the Rhine tribunal’s rules of hospitality or – preferably – as a member of this covenant. And now I am standing in front of you, dear sodales and am willing to accept your decision or to answer questions you want to ask previous to your decision.
After this speech Petrulus becomes quiet and looks confidently into the face of his sodales.
OOC: Petrulus isn’t rude, he has no active magic on himself to improve his chances but believes his natural talents to be sufficient.
Salve soldae and please take your seat here at the council table. You are our guest and does not need to stand. I can tell you for sure that I share your interest in the non hermetic magic’s. Justus looks pleased to see his new soldae. Justus make sure that Petrulus are presented with food and wine by the servants.
Petrulus thanks Justus for the warm welcome and takes the offered place at the table, but regarding the food and wine he seems to hesitate. But then, with a barely noticeable shrug of his shoulders, he helps himself to some snacks and a glass of that excellent wine and obviously enjoys the stuff. While the other magi still consider what to ask, he simply starts to take over the conversation, just as if he had always been sitting at this table.
Well, sodales, I am glad for such a warm welcome, and, Justus, your own reputation as a true follower of Pralix line, was actually one of my reasons to come here. Anyway, I think that we still have to settle some things, like you telling me what is expected from my side in exchange for access to this wonderful place's ressources. But I am pretty sure that your demands will be reasonable, so we should either get over with this soon or put it back a bit and first have a look at more urgent matters, if there are any. I was given the impression by your servants that my arrival just coincided with your regular council meetings and they assumed that there were still problems unsolved. I'd like to hear about this, and perhaps I can be of use with one or two things immediatly - that would be a better introduction of myself than I could have hoped for.
After this second short speach Petrulus falls silent and waits for the other mages to make a response.
"One more Ex Misc is this covenant is no matter to me. We seem to have a tradition of attracting magi from the fringes of the order.
There seems to be no emotional charge to Mariella's comment
The spirit is Kolberg does not seem to be directly an issue for us , but it may be beneficial to look into the matter. If it is a spirit someone with Second sight would be most useful in finding it however given our limited information and that our source is largely ignorant of magical matters it could be almost anything from a magician to a ghost
"I have second sight, it isn't very strong but I have it. I can perhaps deal with many sorts of threats but if it is a spirit, there is nothing that I could do about it." Not everyone can deal with ghosts, that takes a special sort of art and spells. "Sneaking into a school to listen to what is being taught is a different matter. I have some skill at that."
Depending on the nature of the spirit Justus has a spell for attacking the might of magical creatures , I have a talent for destruction and should be able to handle anythign which is not too powerful and if there is a powerful and hostile spirit there and we cannot deal with it by any means except combat and it's power exceeds ours then we can withdraw and deal with it later.
After listening a while to his sodales discussion and having gotten an impression of the matters at hand:
Well, sodales. If you just need somebody with Second Sigth to find that ghost, I know a charm that would work well, even though I have never had a violent encounter with a spirit up to now and so lack any agressive spells to help in case of a violent confrontation. Well, giving a study and some days time to write some chartae, I might offset this at least partly. Anyway, I would like to get to know our surroundings anyway, so I volunteer for the trip to Kolberg.
Well, and if there is a problem with the teaching at the local grammar school, we should probably abstain from any approach using stealth. Tatiana, not only that unless with the help imaginem effects you would even stick out without the Gift, I can't imagine that you would like to spend the amount of time there you would need to find out anything definite by chance. If it is just a case of heterodoxy we should probably hold a semi-public disputatio between our parish priest and that lector. I am not really a master of theology, but I hope that I would be able to identify at least blatant heresy. This can't take too long, but our parish priest should perhaps be a bit more specific in his accusations before we take action, so we shall call him back.
Ah, and then there is this court you just had in the village. Well, the verdict is certainly fair, but I wonder whether we shouldn't investigate that gambling house a bit more closely in the future. At least the charge of infernal seduction had been brought forward by that drunkard. I agree that it is most likely just an excuse for his own weak nature, but still, It has repeatedly been observed that places of regular vice - like brothels and gambling-inns - can strengthen the powers of the infernal, in extreme cases even to an extent that hell starts to get an influence on those who frequent these places. At least if complaints grow we should make sure that we don't ignore hell's plots to seduce the population.
OK, that was a long speach for somebody new to this council, but you all had a headstart on me in this discussion, so I had to make some ground.
"For the school, I have some talent with making myself totally unseen that inside where light in only candles, I can probably walk totally unseen. I can probably manage a spell or two to help me listen in better as well. I doubt it would have been brought up to us if there was any think in specific that could be brought up to us. Some teaching that wasn't right would have been mentioned if it was known. This means we will have to take a look. A couple of days would not impact my studies this season." Tatiana seeks to handle the probably that she is most likely to be able to do something about.
"If you want to go gambling, that is your choice. I think the claim of infernal was just a drunk sot to get out of paying his debt. Still I will not say you no if you want to do it. However if your second sight is very strong then you should go with Mariella to look in on the ghost first. " She doesn't see a huge urgency to investigate the gambler though to check for cheating should be done at some point.
Soldaes I must say that I must be travelling and exploring the region this season. I will leave tomorrow and will not return for some time. So I am afraid that I cannot help with the matters at hand. I know it sounds awkward but as at least Mariella know I own a great deal of debt to a large number of Bonisagi magi. The debt collectors have made a gentle queries about when they are going to see some return of their investment so that is the reason behind my urgency. Justus draws for breath. I must be making preparations for my departure so I trust this councilmeeting in the hands of Mariella and so you may decide who investigates what.Justus looks like he is about to leave the table.
Good luck on your journey Justus , if you need assistance let me know, I don't think that any of these other matters are serious.
Tatiana I am not sure that you are the most suitable person to investigate the problem if there is one with the Latin school, the problem as I understand it is that the students are receiving a somewhat heretical religous education and I am not sure that your knowledge of Christianity is such that you would be able to understand the problem. We have historically at the insistance of many of my sodali's accepted a diversity of viewpoints in christianity with new settlers and staff as well as hiring a priest who is not terribly pious, energetic or competent in nature. There is no evidence I hae heard to even hint at the possibility of a supernatural influence at work within the school , however I have previously missed signs of supernatural inteference within the covenant so we cannot rule out such a possibility. I suspect that if we where to make a sudden effort to return to a more heterodox religous position it would cause some strife in short term and it is something to be considered carefully
The issue in Kolberg is more likely to be magical and out talants as magi would probably be of more use there.
Well, Justus, I wish you well on your voyage and hope that we will find time to compare our researches after your safe return.
As for the problems at hand, I daresay we should not choose between them. On the one hand, any trouble at the Latin school is of direct concern to us, as this school is attached to our covenant just like the complete village, and therefore we are responsible for the material as well as spiritual well-being of its people, and this is also true for that gambling den or trouble within the militia. I don't propagate to interfere everywhere at once or to spend too much time on insignificant quarrels, but we should always keep an eye open, especially as people like the village elder, the turb captain or the parish priest thought them to be important enough to bring them into the coucil chamber. Well, and a probably supernatural thread in the neighbouring town most certainly is something to investigate for more reasons than I care to list.
So the question should not be, which problems we take a look into, but we should decide on the investigators, the general strategy and the priority.
To me the problems at Kolberg seem to be the most urgent, so I propose that two or three of us take some days to prepare themselves for a violent encounter with a restless soul, gather a small party of grogs and travel to Kolberg. Until we are back, Father Gerald should have had ample time, to write down his complaints about the school's teaching in an orderly form, so that we can consider further steps then.
By the way, Mariella, which kinds of non-standard Christian teachings have been allowed up to now? I couldn't forgive myself if I was actively endangering the souls of the people, we are responsible for.
We have a pastor who has weak faith , lives with his lover and has a tendency towards drink, we also have a lay preacher silversmith who holds services in the local language and who is not perhaps the closest adherent to the orthodox line. The locals outside the village appear to be pagan werewolves. Our hunters are seeking to initiate themselves into the mysteries of the forests , and as a council we have declined to intefere with the morality of the locals repeatedly ignoring the gambling den when it was brought to our attention before. In other words the council has abstained from any responsibilty for the morality of the village and has actively avoided recruting a serious priest.
In Kolberg I may be able to pick up more information as my Brother is a priest there and may be aware of the problem
"You are correct in that I do not understand christianity. I am not christian and I have no desire to become one. I honor the golden court of summer and the lords of that court. Were it just heretical teachings, I would think that this priest would speak to his superiors in the church to deal with a renegade. She pauses before asking "Do christians execute their schism sorts? That it was brought to us though means that the teachings have some impact upon us here at the manor I suspect and formenting dissent against us that rule these lands. It does not take one conversant with christianity to listen for such hostility and rebellion." She seems to feel that unorthodox christian teachings are irrelevant. "Still as the newcomer, I guess the Kolberg matter falls to me as the one whose season of study is least valuable to disturb. I hope that the next incident that arises though, another's season is disrupted instead of mine. It would be sore if all of these activities consistantly fell into my lap."
I am not a Redcap, at least not in the classical sense.