It's not a normal magic item. To my understanding no magic item is able to concentrate vis into a specific form or technique. It's mystical beyond Hermetic understanding. If you learn a secret from it, you shouldn't get vis from it, and vice versa. That's my sole concern.
Is this belonging to the covenant or Siobhan, while I agree that personal build points, even personal virtues (Talia's Personal vis source) can be given to the covenant, I think it is highly unlikely for the source of the vis to be given, rather than portions of the vis harvested.
Ah, that is the trick. Thankfully almost no one will know when Siobhan uses posing the silent question so she will have almost all the secrets of the mundane population of the covenant. The key and trick is in using them.
Remember a smart person when they learn a secret will find a reasonable way for them to have learned it if they are going to reveal it.
But yeah, the truths admitted by the stone for vis basically will be ones that siobhan doesn't mind going public and becoming useless. She won't benefit from the information revealed by stone because she will already have it in most cases. It might even promote honesty to the mages by a tradition of no repercussions or penalty for making the admission.
My main concern with the vis sources using Personal BP is making sure that it doesn't do an end-around and become a Personal Vis Source. Qcipher's vis source is pretty stationary and is in the general vicinity. I was actually picturing Cloch Firinne as being a good-sized rock (about two feet by one foot by one foot) as opposed to a few inches cubed. Unless this is a chunk chipped off of the Stone of Scone, which also explains how it wound up here.
Although, thinking about it, if this is (either part or whole) of the real Cloch Firinne/Lia Fáil seems almost like it would be Divine, as it's part of the coronation process or the site of coronation of the true King of Scotland by Divine Right.
Maybe if we tweaked it so that it's a large stone in the area that has similar properties?
The same covenfolk that have the Rebellious Covenfolk Hook and have a -75 Loyalty Points regardless?
Exactly. We will already be spending time and resources on trying to improve covenfolk loyalty. Having some megalomaniac parade around all the covenfolk, forcing them to humiliate themselves publicly every season would be exacerbating an already precarious situation.
The fact that Shavon automatically knows who to embarrass is going to be a dead giveaway she's scrying, and as entertaining as it's been watching lp sabotage every saga she's been in with her total disregard for continuity and roleplay concerns, it'll be a lot less fun when I am in the position of playing the character responsible for having her marched.
Legends say Cu Culain smote the Lia Fial (the one that Arya mentioned), other legends say that it was split in twain, that it was taken to scotland (and then england) or that it is still in ireland.
In any case, when it was smote, a chunk broke off that was not part of the so called halves and became the Cloch Firinne (stone of truth). Size is debatable. I was thinking fist size at most.
Once the Cloch Firinne is actually approved. Siobhan will present it to the council with how it works.
The key is with diplomacy and perhaps saying "confessing on the stone." will have no penalties or repercussions (Amnesty) might make people willing to confess their sins. After all the mages get vis, the guilty get to get forgiveness for crimes. Keep a roster of covenant members and say something like "don't you have something you can confess?" and other subtle urges to some that is known to have something might get them to spill beans. It might even lead to stories as mages realize something messy has been done and needs cleanup.
Whee, I love personal attacks. If you were going say that a mentem expert can't read minds around her, you should have said something when I first proposed the character. The fact is that the code per true lineages clarifies that the section of the code was specific to protect magical secrets and research of the mages and that is why mages and their personal servants are protected. The rest of the covenant is fair game.
KNowing the secrets can also work for us as in knowing what will help improve loyalty, what bothers them that they get relief to problems unasked for (we might have to finesse a way to know without revealing the mind reading) and solve festering social issues.
That's the funny thing about a train wreck. No one needs to point out when a train is headed at full speed towards a brick wall, "that train's gonna wreck," it's self-explanatory. Everyone sees it and knows what's going to happen.
You have a habit of building characters explicitly designed to be incompatible with everyone else, and then bemoaning how mean everyone is when faced with the consequences of your ill-considered decisions. You're always aiming your train straight for the brick wall, but this time you fault others for not warning you ahead of time? Why would anyone say anything about your character proposal being disruptive, when making PBPs suck for everyone else has been your MO in every saga you've participated in on this forum? Even if you miraculously made a character that plays well with others, just once, your track record gives no one any reason to expect you would actually play it that way.
Can we turn the personalities down from 11? No. Good.
In all seriousness, This needs to stop. I think ladyphoenix has been effectively put on notice? Harping about every little thing is counter productive. I can't believe it, I've actually become the voice of reason. Let me be clear, I'm going to take a dim view of throwing around a lot of Me effects on coven folk, especially any sailors. I have ambitions of playing them, especially once Talia can get the boat back out to sea.
I will make it easy for you. Since it was Anya's character that was start of this. I will let her nitpicks about every little thing and her horrification that the line that Cu Culain smote the rock means nothing can break off, nothing happened as result of it work and remove the Cloch Firenne from the game. I will at the same time remove the horror that a character or someone might actually read minds of people at the covenant from the game either.
My character is probationary member, she has consumed no resources other than some food. She and her thieving relatives will return to ireland and vanish into the mists.
I was thinking about how to balance our boons/hooks... As it stands:
PB says he dropped Flawed Resources. Also, we were looking for the Minor Boon version for the Regio. I propose the following to balance:
Boons
Criminals (minor residents boon) - drink up, me hearties, yo-ho.
Exceptional Book (major external relations boon) - Joe (Vim, L20 Q20)
Healthy Feature (x3)
Regio (minor site boon)
Aura (x2) (minor site boon) - within the aforementioned regio
Hooks
Rebellious Covenfolk (major residents hook) - y'arrrr
Superiors (minor residents hook) - the existing three magi
Infamous (minor external relations hook) - Duncan
Demonic Interest (major surroundings hook) - Duncan's friends
Monster: Niseag (minor surroundings hook) If we are in Loch Ness and don't get to treat with the Nessie someday, I would be sad.
Deathbed Visitor (minor surroundings hook) "Death" (a demon) offers to wager with the dying. You win: you survive the otherwise fatal encounter; you lose: he takes your soul. This could be an as-yet undiscovered result of Duncan's dabblings, or, it may be how he became involved in diabolism in the first place.
This balances out and also gives the covenant a little more flavour. What think y'all?
Yeah, that balances perfectly with the major hook, Limited Aura.
Doesn't have to be on the island, it just makes sense for the entrance to the regio to be where the aura is already strongest. I have an idea to explain how it works and how it could have been there for decades undiscovered: perhaps the island needs to be approached from the East in order to access a mirrored version of the existing island. Thusfar everyone else has crossed from the bridge, which is the northwest side. Wallace would have been the only one who'd had a chance to discover it before, but he never had much reason to access the common lab... but maybe he accidentally entered the regio after helping Halie explore the underbelly of Eilean Chon.
And sure, a +7 aura would be divine. Though not in the literal sense.
It sounds to me like the troupe isn't interested in having the Boon: Criminals, anymore, is that right? If so, that's not a problem, because I haven't really introduced it yet. Alternately, we can keep the Criminals boon and have it be more along the line of some of the covenfolk have taken it upon themselves to, shall we say, bolster the covenant's income with a few creative wealth distribution projects. That would put the onus more on the muggles, the magi may or may not be aware of it, and may be torn on how to deal with it.
I keep forgetting to post this, even though I've had it done for a few days now. This should be the final Boons/Hooks.
[tableborder][tr][td][u]Name[/u][/td]
[td][u]Type[/u][/td]
[td][u]Description/Notes[/u][/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Criminals[/td]
[td]Minor Residents Boon[/td]
[td]Unbeknownst to either the magi or the Lord of the lands, several of the covenant's residents have taken up raiding other farmsteads, clans, what have you, in the Highlands.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Demonic Interest[/td]
[td]Major Surroundings Hook[/td]
[td]Duncan and his associates.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Exceptional Book (Joe)[/td]
[td]Major External Relations Boon[/td]
[td]Q: 20 L: 15 Vim, apparently sentient.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Healthy Feature x3[/td]
[td]Minor Site Boon[/td]
[td][/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Hunters or Sailors[/td]
[td]Residents, Free Choice[/td]
[td]Many of the residents make their living as fishermen, taking their catch down to Cill Chuimein to sell.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Infamous[/td]
[td]Minor External Relations Hook[/td]
[td]Insula Canaria has gained a reputation as the covenant where its founder/princeps and his apprentice succumbed to diabolism and got away.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Limited Aura x3[/td]
[td](Major Site Boon)[/td]
[td]Limited to the bounds of Eilean Chon. No cost to the covenant[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Peasants[/td]
[td]Residents, Free Choice[/td]
[td]Most of the residents are shepherds, while several grow vegetables in the covenant's gardens.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Rebellious Covenfolk[/td]
[td]Major Residents Hook[/td]
[td]Between the giants, the diabolic goings-on, and having a cannibal as their lord, the covenfolk are not a happy lot.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Regio[/td]
[td]Minor Site Hook[/td]
[td]Eilean Chon has a +1 Regio [spoiler][color=black]that is only accessible if the sun is directly at your back and you cast a long shadow. In effect, from dawn until mid-morning, and mid-afternoon to sunset, you can enter or exit the regio if you're in a straight line to the sun[/spoiler].[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Seclusion[/td]
[td]Minor Site Boon[/td]
[td]The covenant is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, with only a handful of villages within 25 miles.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Secondary Income (Raiding)[/td]
[td]Minor Resources Boon[/td]
[td]Over the past couple of years, the local raiders have gotten rather good.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Superiors[/td]
[td]Minor Residents Hook[/td]
[td]The Elders of the covenant still have more authority than the newcomers.[/td][/tr][/tableborder]
I'm reviewing the library... It's pretty kick a$$ for one that was raided. Can we reopen this discussion and talk about this? I'm thinking the ones that are not named should be...yanked, so long as they haven't been used, at least hidden away somewhere, or require a story to retrieve it, or have to confront Duncan and we score a book... or something.
