Chapter IV (1234-1240)

Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Light of Andorra
501

The Summer Council Meeting, 1237

It's at the council meeting in the summer of 1237 that Lucas makes a proposal to the gathered magi.

When recognized, the magus sets forth his plan. "I don't know if you've all heard or not, but we had an incident a few months ago involving one of the Redcaps from the Mercere Quarter being where he wasn't supposed to be in the castle. That got me thinking that we don't really have any rules about where guests can and can't go in the castle without permission from a Member of the covenant. I propose we correct that by specifically enumerating the public, private, and secure locations in the castle."

"Public locations would include the outer bailey, most of the inner bailey - except for the barracks, the entry hall, the great hall, the red parlor, and the guest chambers."

"Private locations would include the council chamber, the library, the blue and green parlors, the kitchens, the servants' quarters, the barracks, the entire third level, and all levels below ground."

"Secure areas will be defined by the officers of the covenant. Each officer can designate a secure area if they wish. For example, the Treasurer could declare the vis storage a secure location; the Warden could declare the vault a secure area; etc. I don't expect every officer to need a secure area, but the option should be there."

"Sanctums, of course, are a special case, and are covered by the Code."

"Under my proposal, Pontifici and Masters can go anywhere in the castle without restriction."

"Journeymen, Honored Guests, and Past Masters can go to all public and private locations. Going to a secure location requires the permission of the officer associated with that secure area or a Pontifex."

"Protected Guests and residents of the Mercere Quarter can go to all public locations. Going to a private location requires permission of a Member, and going to a secure area requires the permission of the officer associated with that secure area or a Pontifex."

"Now, this is only at the proposal stage," Lucas adds with a wave of one hand. "I'm certainly open to any variations to these proposed rules that people think reasonable. The important part of the proposal isn't where we draw lines in the castle; it's the fact that we draw those lines so that we'll know where we stand in the future."

"I don't think we have to amend the Resolutions of Charter for this," he concludes. "Making it a covenant rule ought to be sufficient."

502

Fleur mentions "We will probably need to assign guard staff to enforcing this, especially since not everyone who enters the covenant as a guest or otherwise will be aware of the restrictions, and some who are might not be inclined to follow the rules without some visible enforcement. There are after all numerous people who run about the castle on a daily basis who are not necessarily even guests. For example if the wheat delivery needs to be made to the storeroom instead of the kitchen, there should probably be someone on hand to inform the carters of this."

503

Two points. The Resolutions are covenant rules. Any rule or proclamation we make carries the same weight as the Resolutions.
Second, none of this needs to be brought before the council at all. We have a Warden. Madam Pontifex Arachne. She has full discretion and authority in this matter.
Thus I motion to table this discussion and instead refer the matter to Arachne. Talk to her, and she will bring it to the council only if she feels it is needed. And if it does come back to us, I am simply going to tell her to do what she feels best.

504

Oh? He's got my attention now.

Arachné looks at Carmen, then nods.

To lucas: You can tell me more about this later, then. I see several problems with this situation, and am glad you raised the point. Care to join me for dinner, say, tomorrow?

505

"Tomorrow would be fine," Lucas replies. "I'm in Andorra for a couple of days anyway."

506

Ok. Fewer being a bother, so... shortening.

This is a serious concern for Arachné.

This means that, basically, any guy can come and go as he please through our castle, possibly leaving as many booby traps behind him as he pleases.
Worse, this is a security nightmare, and any automated defense (like the eternal guardians) needs to be monitored so as to avoid it attacking a visitor it mistakes for an intruder... or failing to do its duty.

She'd almost cut the deal short if she could. You're telling me this guy just came through a portal, said he was a redcap, and began wandering through the castle? I don't know if I must have the guards flogged for incompetence, or just be happy they didn't shot him.

So yeah, we need clear cut zones. Easy to define and watch.

507

"Well, he didn't just come through a portal," Lucas replies. "The redcap in question is actually stationed here. But it could have been someone just coming through the portal. There seems to be no restriction as to who goes where, at least none that I can tell. That's why I proposed limiting access to people who are not members of the covenant. And even members of the covenant should be limited in some situations."

508

The old woman shakes her head in consternation.

Madness... This is madness... Sigh...

I agree very much with your proposal, and that is, even before we factor in a shapeshifting intruder. We have an agreement with the redcaps, but this doesn't mean that our home should be their home, even if being a redcap suddenly meant you can't be under the thrall of some ennemy of our covenant and that you're entirely trustworthy.

That being said... I'd keep the entire castle off-ground if it was just me. This makes it waaaaaay easier for our guards and defenders to just shoot at a new threat than having to first think if it looks like friend or foe. Or course, with an entire tower dedicated to them, that option is unavailable, meaning we must live with our predecessors failure.

Still, our castle is, conveniently, cut in 2 by an interior wall, most of our towers being on the "right" side of it. All save yours, in fact.
Since I happen to like your 3-tiered classification, I'd make the half in which the mercere tower is located* "Public Quarters", to use your terminology. You could stay here, or relocate on the vacant tower between Antoine's and House Mercere's. This would make things clear, simple, and easier to control and patrol.

Our side would be, of course, Private, save for those zones deemed Secure.

  • That'd be the one not on number 21's side.
509

A note to throw in here- that plan is simply non-functional. A castle like this has all kinds of mundane people going in and out to various locations and needs them to keep the place running. What Arachne proposes would essentially be laying siege to yourself.

510

Thanks for the reminder.
But this is also a limited population, people know each other, so I just discarded the servants and guards. It is evident that you just can't stop them from crossing what would be the private part. But you know he's supposed to be here, because it's alberto foul mouth. And if you don't know him, your pal diego does.
So if you see a stranger in the "secure" part of the castle, you can be reasonnably sure he has no right to be here.

511

To play Devil's Advocate
(OOC)
:smiling_imp:
If a shapeshifting infiltrator breached or conned his way past Mercere security to gain access to common areas, he could observe the servants and knock one out and adopt their guise and get into our private parts :laughing:
We must install Intellego-Corpus scanners on every doorway!
:mrgreen:
Just kidding. I am a fan of the plan. On the old map, move Lucas on over to #20, and let the Redcaps take 12 and that Quarter of the castle. Having Lucas move again sucks. We should pay to have someone else do it for him while he studies. And because it is a bigger tower, maybe let him have a slightly larger lab?

512

You see a stranger in the secure part of the castle and run to fetch a guard/magi and then when you get back they aren't there... and that assumes they don't find a way to duck into a doorway and avoid being seen to begin with. That is why you need actual patrols or checkpoints.

513

"I agree," Lucas says, "That the right divide is the inner/outer bailey. At present the only people who need to be in the inner bailey are residents and invited visitors. The castle can be likewise limited." He smiles. "That's it in basic form. But the devil is in the details, of course."

"We have a large number of servants and guards, of course. They obviously need access to large parts of the castle and the inner bailey. Then there are the regular tradesmen. I know we get a shipment of beer from the local brewer every month. And there are farmers and such who make deliveries on market days. There will also be inevitable tradesmen that need to come in - stonemasons, carpenters, and the like. We have to maintain regular operation of the castle, of course. And let's not forget deliveries, which I expect will be primarily via Redcap. It would be disrespectful to stop them at the gates of the outer bailey."

"But I think that it will be easy enough to use the gates of the outer bailey as the bottleneck we need. No one enters the inner bailey without approval. We can do something simlilar with the castle. Again, we don't forbid everyone from entering the castle. Rather, we have guards who watch the entrances and only let in those authorized to be inside. That gives us a double line of defense for the castle, first at the gate to the inner bailey and then at the doors to the castle. We could even require certain visitors to the castle to have a guard escort if you like, though that will be a greater drain on our guard resources."

Lucas shakes his head and sighs at the suggestion that he move residences. "And we'd just gotten settled in," he says. "But I suppose that if we're to make my residence secure, I ought to be inside the inner bailey. That should still be close enough for me to assist the Mercere Quarter at need. Frankly, I'll probably nip over the walls in falcon form anyway." He pauses and thinks a moment. "Which, of course, leads to the further question of how we intend to guard from incursions from above. But that's another issue altogether."

514

Actually, I thought about that.

  • If someone enters our covenant disguised by magic, we can very easily accuse her of scrying. Especially in a part that's forbidden to visitors.
  • OTOH, nothing in the code prevents you from casting a spell on a magus, so long as you don't deprive him of his magic. Disguise spells would hardly be considered as such, and even if it was, we can claim forfeit immunity due to 01.

Guess whose magical specialty lies in dispelling magic?
If we follow the exemple of TME, or the guides given in the corebook for Durations (A PeTe spell with a duration which creates a pit you can't fill, as it destroys earth send into it), she should be able to create an effect on, say, a door, or a room, that cancels magical disguises, and another to cancel shapeshifts.
Not as subtle and cheap as an InCo scanner, but still effective.

So we agree on this.
As per visitors, I don't think we'll need to worry much. First, we don't have that many. Second, once I'll be able to get around it, magical spies should be quickly revealed, leaving us only with traitors to deal with. And that's why we have the secure areas.

Don't get me started on that
The witch shakes her head.
Looking up for a long time is both difficult and unnatural. We can assign that duty to my wooden guards, with the order to shoot anything bigger than a pigeon. We can't have them firing on everything that flies, after all.
But this doesn't solve the problem of a flying intruder who'd be invisible, or shapeshifted into a simple bird. And that's where the problem lies. Even if Second Sight were reliable, they don't have it, nor can it be enchanted, or do we have a large contingent of guards with it. It seems like our best bet lies with helmets enchanted with a forceless Discerning Eye*, but even then, this means a massive item production, one I just can't shoulder. Really, I'm open to ideas on this.

  • HoH: TL p72
515

"Yes, we agree," Lucas replies. "Security at the gates to the inner bailey and at the doors to the castle - plus whatever 'extras' you can manage."

"Keep in mind." Lucas notes, "that Horus, Intissar, Celeste, and Sophia are all bigger than a pigeon - as am I when I'm flying in hawk form. I'd hate for any of us to get shot at."

"But you're right, we only have a handful of people and familiars with the second sight. Unless we were military in our assignment of them to duty, we'd have a hard time covering the skies. The Aegis will help with certain magical creatures no matter how they arrive. But old fashioned eyeballs are the best first line of defense. Just having the guards on the walls cognizant that threats could come from that direction is a help. They can't look up all the time, but they can keep the skies in their scanning rotation when on duty. And, frankly, the enchanted helmets isn't a bad idea. Spread out across the magi of the covenant it shouldn't be too great a burden on any one maga."

516

I might mention that our rooftop artillery is swivel mounted to fire at aerial targets or the very tall, such as dragons or giants.

517

Not present to comment, but Felicia can lend second sight to a guard or two at a time... not sue that is a good plan for day to day though...

518

I'd imagine she doesn't want to be dropping that much Might on a regular basis.

519

What are the numbers on that item?

520

I want to thank everyone for being patient. I have been dealing with a lot of personal bullshit as of late and my work here suffers for it. I thank everyone for waiting, and I will correct things soon. I know, I keep saying that, but I am serious and honest.