Chapter 8: Council meeting

Once more the magi where seated in the council chamber. Justus had made sure that there would a good meal for everyone in his usual manner.

Justus: Welcome back soldaes. Tell me about your journey.

The MAgistrate of the town was a murderous hedge mage. He has been execueted, his possessions are in the wagon

Justus: Most interesting… Tell me more. [I assume that he listens to a tall tale while the magi are eating] How about the possessions that you have confiscated from this murderer do you have any plans with them? I have a plan on what we could do with them… I could trade them with the witches in the forest for insight into their magic. That should help me get a good start on the research that I intended to start when we moved here.

"Before we give away anything, we should get a copy. I would eventually like to look them over to see if they have the proper respect to the old gods or not. Playing with the elements without such respect is asking for trouble." Tatiana says softly. She is Volhkzy after all and of the blood of the faerie lords of summer. She continues softly "and we should check if there really is potential for control or not. Last thing we need is rogue air elemental creatures running around perhaps even hurting our folks."

Justus: I also have a friend from who also follows Pralix footsteps and he would be most interested in this material. He has conducted some very interesting research that indicates that hermetic magic could gain several advantages by incorporating some non-hermetic lore. It should be a quick thing to have our Latin school copying the texts. Justus makes a short pause. While you where gone I made some effort to come into contact with the witches. They are reluctant to give up any magical mysteries but at least my contacts where not that hostile. Anyone with an idea on how we can form closer relations with the witches of the forest? For now we have little to offer and their mystical powers holds some most interesting possibilities…

"I agree that we should make more contact with them but I suspect Ardath and I would make better ambassadors considering that we are females and our traditions. The old ones would appreciate us making peaceful contact with the sisters in the forest. We might be able to have something to offer once we look over the books. Then again, the parma itself when extended over them might show them a very strong incentive for joining the order." Tatiana is waiting to see what Mariella has to offer in this. She still needs to learn more spells and focus on developing things and that means lab and study time.

Most of the witches that I have encountered do not have enough magical power to be allowed membership into the Order and they are also quite suspicious towards us. I think that they have been harassed by members of the Order before and see us a threat to their power here in the region. For now I have established some trade of mundane items with the surrounding community, nothing big more of a way to make our mundane communities to grow closer.

Justus takes a sip of the wine. This time it is a rich red wine imported from the Normandy tribunal.

Also we must discuss your place here at the covenant Tatiana. In the recent events in Kolberg you stood by my soldaes in times of trouble and as such I see no reason why you should not be voted in as a full member of Ad Fons. Also you must take a look at the empty labs. There are quite a few and each of them has their own unique peculiarities.

Tatiana pauses and considers seriously, "I most definately would like to stay and having a lab and sanctum would be good. We need some spells that can help up learn the truth in questioning situations. Having a place to develop them would be good." The maga is happy about the offer but she looks at the other mages. "Do the others of you echo the welcome that I have been given?"

I leave dealing with the local hedge mages to you Justus , thats why you founded the covenant. If they attack us I will kill them otherwise I will ignore them unless there is something you want me to do with them. I have no objections to Tatiana joining the covenant .

That should settle it then… Justus looks at Tatiana. Formally welcome to the covenant. Then he takes a short pause and looks at all of his soldaes in turn. Regarding the hedge tomes we make sure that copies are available as soon as possible. But what then? I would most happily trade them for mystical insight into the witches of the forests magic. His border to an even bigger issue that perhaps we must vote on. What can a member of the covenant do with the covenants resources? Is it fair to assume that a member can make up a copy and trade it for his own good or should such matter be handled by the council or should the profit belong to the covenant. For example my book “What can be learned from studying hedge magic’s? A hermetic perspective and reflections upon non hermetic magic.” Is a part of the library and can be easily copied by our Latin school and then traded. If one of us other than me made a deal for that copy… Perhaps it is going to be traded for two pawns of vis. To whom does the vis belong? The covenant or the magus who made the trade? Also who has the right to make such a decision?

Tatiana listens to the words and starts to think. "Well, I am thinking that anything that is part of the covenant library or copy of something in the covenent library belongs to the covenant as do the rewards from such. We might as a council of mages in the covenant chose to award a fee for taking the time out to arrange a sale or trade of something in the library but that would be for council to decide. Anything that a mage writes themselves or is bought for their personal collection is theirs and anything they do with it goes totally to them. For example, we got these hedge magic books as a group for the covenant, they belong to covenant so any rewards from them belong to the covenant to be shared out by council, charter or however we organize among ourselves as a group. Had I bought a book in town though, it would be mine."

She considers, "Which makes me wonder about stipends of vis and silver that we can acquire goods of our own. I think trading copies of these books might be good but we have to be sure we are not trading it to those that will use it against us."

AAAARGH

MY 4 PARAGRAPH REPLY I SPENT 30 MINUTES WRITING IS GONE FROM A SINGLE MISTAKEN KEY PRESS

I will try again alter

I would say that if a mage has written a book or spell andmade it avaialble to the other magi that book or spell remians their property and it can only be traded with their consent unless they have specifically given it to the covenant as we did when we scribed spells we knew for the covenant library.
As to the assorted loot we have taken from enemies of the order all of it qas aquired as part of collective efforts so I would say that it is the propertyof the covenant. Trading it to the hedge witches of this locality is perfectly reasonable as this covenant was established with the aim of making freinds and learning any magic tricks these people have and Justus as you are the founder of the covenant and it is your project I leave the judgement of what is needed to you. I don't think even with some additional knowledge a few hedge witched pose a threat to this covenant , I am after all a Flambeau and the rest of you have had hermetic training.
As to giving vis or silver to ourselves on a regular basis I see no need to , the covenant is short of silver indeed we are running at a loss so we cannot afford to give a signifigant amount of money to each magus , so if there are any substantive purchases a magus wishes to make they should bring it to the council and we will see if it can be afforeded. As to Vis we do not need to hoard vis , while Vis remains in the covenant store it is available for anyone who needs it and can be used to trade for books or other hermetic materials if we indiovidually fragement the covenants wealth and hoard it then the wealth cannot be used for anything. If there is a project you need Vis for ask the council and unless it is a truly excessive project I am sure you will be able to take what you need for item creation, familiar bonding , study or ritual casting.
This brings me to another area there are two outstanifn hermetic relations we have the first is that we need to see that Constantia and her covenant pay for threatening us and we should see what we can do to harm them within the code. The second is the covenant of Rastevan we have a tenetaive alliance agaisnt Constantina with them and an agreement to trade vis for books with them"

Mariella's voice goes flat with hatred at the mention of constantia

"Constantia? Who is this Constantia and why do we have emnity against them? We could seek to learn the source of their income and seek to make it ours or destroy it. We also then must seek to find another source of income for ourselves we do not have enough for what we need. What is our current income sources? Keep in mind, I ask this because I am from Novgorod and I do not know this tribunal well." Tatiana says softly.

Constantia is from Novograd :open_mouth:

Rastevan
https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/chapter-5-a-strange-covenant-in-novgorod/3102/1
Constantia
https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/chapter-5-visit-of-constantia/2931/1

I second that motion heartily.
Tatiana as proven a valuable and reliable sodales, and I am happy to welcome her to Ad Fons.

I wonder...
This magic seems pretty inferior to our own. We should look into it. If some simpleton like this magistrate could master it, maybe anyone can? After all, he didn't seem to be gifted.
If so, maybe we could form some of the best and brightest of our young latin graduates into this form of magic? While weaker than hermetic magic, this could still be useful to have around

Anything found together belongs to the covenant.
Anything obtained through covenant ressources belong to the covenant, with artefacts being a special case. This include trade of books and vis.

Anything you write belongs to you. Anything obtained through your own efforts belongs to you.

We should have a personnal right to some of the vis. Say, 4 form pawns per year. (I seem to recall we had some, but can't recall the numbers). What you do or gain with this vis is yours.
We can ask the council for more vis. If possible, this should be given away, but each 4 form pawns counts as a boon, save if used to create an item for the covenant, trade for the covenant, or cast a ritual for it (like the Aegis).

We need to track boons... What of this?
Every member shall have a 0 count of Boons. If 2 members vie for the same ressource, the one with the fewest boons shall have it, and increase its received boons number by one.
Any season of service performed for the covenant decreases your boons number by one, including creation of magical items and writing of books.

Any new member after this shall enter the covenant with as many boons that the highest total + 1.

I believe this should cover it all.

A fine point.

These witches are not our allies. They may even become ennemies someday. We should be careful here. Maybe give them only part of the knowledge, or withdraw some informations from the books (ie lower lever and quality)?

Agreed.
Sadly, this is an important point. We really have a problem with mundane wealth. While this demeans ourselves we must take steps to solve this. I believe our efforts have created wealth, but the constant growth of our projects drains it even more.

That witch! :imp:
Yes, we must find a way to make her pay, and, more importantly, to ensure our security from her.

We should also use our alliance. What books do we want to trade for?

"I am always interested in unusual spells. Perhaps a copy of a stronger Aegis if we have the vim for it. Perhaps books on tribunal lore and laws so we can know more about the precedents of hermetic law in Novgorod. I never paid much attention to it." Tatiana says about the book trades. "As for revenge, we need to send agents to gather information about the enemy. We know little about her other than that she is skilled in the arts."

Actually we know that she is unscrupulous, treacherous ,ambitious, and vindinctive she is also a follower of the school of Flabeau if I remember correctly and the leader of her covenant in Novograd. She also employs spies and agents such that she has been able to gather information about our local area with some effectiveness. I certainly think it likely that she has tried to secure a spy within our covenant although I doubt she as foolish enougth to use magic to do so

Tatiana considers and frowns, "I do not like this. While we need to get an agent into her covenant, we need to take steps to insure she has none here. I guess my next project will have to be study of Intellego so I can get a spell to determine loyalty of all our grogs." she really needs to know more about the details of this maga and her covenant. "do we know anything about her covenant and the mages there other than belligerent nature of the woman herself. Anything of arts and skills?"

We have never met any of Constantias minions , I assume they are mainly magi of House Tytalus and Ex Miscallanae as most magi of the other houses would have nothing to do with someone like her.