Now that we have the thread up, maybe we should start working on the covenant building.
Insula Canaria is almost 80 years, and deep into winter. With 12(!) people signing on, if we go with High Power, that means everyone can contribute 200 Build Points for whatever. It's Winter and High Power, so no limit on lab text level/level of effect in enchanted device. Although if you build a Death Star with your 200 points, you will get the scowling of a lifetime.
Note also that you only have to spend Build Points for Specialists if they're not fleshed out. If they have a full character sheet posted on the wiki, they're free. It only cost points if you have something like "Aristotle, Teacher, Com 3 + Teaching 5 + Artes Liberales 7 = 15 BP".
In addition, the magi can bring up to 75 build points of their own personal equipment, texts, people, etcetera – either for their own use or as largesse.
There are some things that are what I consider a "must" for the covenant, and won't count against the point contribution and/or the Hook/Boon balance you come up with.
Limited Aura: The island of Eilean Chon has an Aura of 6.
Seclusion: Insula Canaria is located in a remote part of the Highlands, 15 miles from the nearest city (Inverness), and 75 to the nearest good-sized city (Elgin)
[strike]Vast Aura: There is an Aura that encompasses the entire Loch, up the the tree line.[/strike]
Monster: Niseag, the Loch Ness Monster, inhabits the loch, and her eggs are one of the covenant's Vis sources.
I also have a list of Lab Texts that I will be putting in the Library if no one else does. Some canon, some original.
I can't find the Limited Aura boon, so I'm going to make the bold assumption that it's the Major Site version of the Aura boon.
With that in mind, I'm going to suggest we purchase the Minor Site version of the Aura boon twice. Bringing the default aura of the immensely magical Loch Ness up to 5 (allowing the major version to bring the Eilean Chon up to 6).
To pay for those boons, I'm going to suggest the Major External Relations hook War Zone. This is not a friendly part of Scotland, if any part of Scotland can be called friendly during the 13th and 14th centuries. The whole area is rife with rebellion - the MacWilliams have been fighting against the ruling MacMalcolms for some time. Admittedly, this quiets down in 1230. But then shortly after that, the English start invading the area. Then you get the first Scottish wars for independence, and then...
You get the idea.
For the last point of boons given by War Zone, I'll nominate the Minor External Relations boon Ungoverned. Despite the odd army romping up and down the highlands, the constant back and forth between noble powers and out-of-the-way nature of the covenant should let us govern as we see fit. Basically, I don't think there are any powerful nobles or land owners that could easily project their power over Insula Canaria - not casually, or for any length of time at least.
Along these lines, I figure everyone's not just spending all their 75 points solely for their own characters. Rather, hopefully a lot of those points will be used for the covenant in a way that suits the given character well. I know I'll need to spend a handful of points on Beatrix, but mostly I'll be spending them as I suggested.
Hm..there might be a crimp with Ungoverned boon. I've just noticed there's a dirty great big castle not 20 miles up the loch. This...probably put us in range of whoever owns the castle at the time. It's possible the covenant's Seclusion would make Ungoverned workable anyway, but it might need to be changed.
But I wouldn't mind if it got swapped out for something else. Suggestions? Maybe something like Veteran Fighters because of the conflict in the area, or something like that?
The castle was built in the 14th century- though the same article gives a first historical mention of it in 1296. We are in the 13th century. There is archeological evidence of a fort from the 5th and 11th centuries in this area, so we appear to be hitting a gap in fortification, and records of rebellions in the general area up until 1229. SO at the point in time we are at ungoverned sounds accurate.
Did you miss the OP that as players we each have 200 bps to design the covenant? I believe that PB is using the 75 bps the way I've used them in the past; the bps are meant for the character, and he can do whatever with them.
No, didn't miss it. I just look at that number and see it differently. I'm fine with it, just a thought. I will still be planning some of my 75 BP to be for others as well. For example, I expect to have already taken advantage of lab notes for Aegis of the Hearth, but others may want to learn it.
It seems to me that with an established covenant like this the "Rights and Customs" Hook might be appropriate (some customs are detailed on the wiki already -- Revels).
Likewise since there's only one original maga left there may well be "Hidden Resources" (Boon) hiding around somewhere.
?: Concentration summa
35: L8, Q11 Magic Theory summa
20: 2x Q10 Rego tractatus
20: 2x Q10 Vim tractatus
3: Lab Text (Spell) - Wizard's Leap [ReCo15]
6: Lab Text (Spell) - Seven-League Stride [ReCo30]
7: Lab Text (Spell) - The Leap of Homecoming [ReCo35]
5: Lab Text (Spell) - Thoughts Within Babble [InMe25]
4: Lab Text (Spell) - Piercing the Divine Veil [InVi20]
4: Lab Text (Spell) - Piercing the Faerie Veil [InVi20]
4: Lab Text (Spell) - Piercing the Infernal Veil [InVi20]
4: Lab Text (Spell) - Piercing the Magical Veil [InVi20]
8: Lab Text (Spell) - Sight of the Active Magics [InVi40]
4: Lab Text (Spell) - Opening the Intangible Tunnel [ReVi20]
8: Lab Text (Spell) - Suppressing the Wizard's Handiwork [ReVi40]
15: 5 Pawns of Vis of each Art
2: another 10 Pawns of Corpus Vis
3: another 10 Pawns of Vim Vis
My char will begin play with it, [strike]but with my scribe level you might want to take it anyway...[/strike] forget it that's latin x20 so I guess that's possible to take season to copy 2 or 3 labtext...
Likewise here. Bea could write a lab text for Suppressing the Wizard's Handiwork [ReVi40] and maybe a couple other spells that wouldn't offend (don't want to fill the library with necromancy).
I don't see how you could have both rights and customs and ungoverned. If we are ungoverned we essentially are our local government- so we bestowed rights upon ourselves?
It is an existing Covenant that is in Winter. The local population has their own way of doing things before anyone arrives and the previous Mage agreed that they could. Ungoverned means there is no lord over the land. That can change quickly if the local clan decides.
Rights and customs is good, logical starting hook for this setup. I would disagree with ungoverned only because the local clan would have a say in what we do. Now as to not being part of the clan could cause issues but unless we want them raiding us all the time, I would be a really good terms with them.
Except that we are on an island in the middle of a loch in the middle of a civil war in an area where the local fortifactions and government infrastructure have fallen, so I would say ungoverned pretty much hits the nail on the head.