What TeFo combination?
Scott
I thought we had agreed it was either InVi, or the research rules on Covenants, pg 98
InVi (in the current crappy lab) will be In 6 + Vi 5 + Int 4 + MT 8 + Aura 5 + Lab Bonus (actually, familiar bonus) 8 = 36.
Research total will be Int 4 + Faerie Lore 5 (assuming the specialty "faerie lords" applies) = 9 or Int 4 + Philosophiae 2 = 6; you'll have to look at the library to decide what bonus would apply there.
Scott
I had meant for you to pick one for each effort.
Assuming you pick the Lab Total for the vis source, Viola discovers that the Perdo vis can be harvested in October, when the moon is three days waning past half-moon (a very precise date on the lunar calendar, and yet one devoid of lunar significance), by ritually abusing the male figure reposing on the altar. First, you fill his mouth (his mouth on this day appears to be gaping open, frozen mid-scream) with the stagnant water from around the dais. Then, one must choke him with seaweed, or some other cord made from the bounty of the sea, while also striking the statue with your fist. Although not strictly necessary, the process takes slightly less time if you shout vitriolic insults against Neptune's sexual prowess while doing this.
After sufficiently torturing the statue, the water in his mouth will turn into a disgusting, fetid and odorous black sludge, which contains the Perdo vis.
(I can't find the original post where we decided how much Perdo vis it yields).
Researching Faerie Lore(lords) for the waterfall, Viola confirms that the temple has been cursed by Poseidon, after the affront by Neptune and the Oracle of the temple. The waterfall will only work if Poseidon is somehow appeased, or possibly if the temple is re-dedicated to Neptune. Viola also learns that the disaster which fell upon the temple happened on the day when the Perdo vis can be collected.
We said it was for you to decide. Anywhere between 1 and 3 pawns a season would be reasonable.
All of this takes two seasons, right? Though this is a Faerie regio, would I be right in assuming that (per canon) both these entities are Magic? Does Viola have any idea how Poseidon might be appeased? Can she locate her guide again and quiz him?
Scott
Call it 3 vis.
Yes, I based the answers I gave on your declared Seasonal Activity. I'm unfamiliar with the canon you refer to, so I should probably read whatever book that's out of.
The guides can probably be summoned in the same way they were earlier brought in. I see that we have a vis source which requires sacrifice on that same altar, so a) we probably discovered the vis source when that first party was held, and b) they probably show up every time we make that sacrifice.
I'm hesitant to let you interact with them as a part of this down time, as it is meant to be an RP thing. I'll give you this much, though:
*Poseidon is a right angry bastard who can hold a grudge for eons.
- It's pretty clear by now that the temple was destroyed when Poseidon discovered his high priestess was sleeping with Neptune. It isn't too much more of a leap for Viola to figure out (if she hasn't already) that Halia was the high priestess.
The issue of pagan gods is I think discussed in both RoP: Magic and RoP: Faerie, and Greek gods in particular are covered somewhere in The Sundered Eagle.
To the first question, yes, and the second question is yours to answer. 
And what kind of fellow is Neptune?
Scott
Neptune started out a bit whiny for a Faerie Lord. Has a huge chip on his shoulder. He came into being as the Greek sailors turned into Romans (who spent far less time at sea and more time on rivers). He initially coveted the grand domains of Poseidon. Really, he coveted everything that Poseidon has. Then he finally got his game together and started taking his role as a River Lord pretty seriously, and has earned himself a reputation among the smaller fae as one of the most even-handed and compassionate Lords that the world has ever seen. Not tempestuous at all, like Poseidon so often is.
Actually, no one has really met Neptune in a few hundred years. He seems to be working mostly through proxies this century. You'd guess that Aral or Don River would be the vassals in charge of this area.
My understanding was that under canon, both Neptune and Poseidon were faeries, and it was the titans who were magic aligned?
I remember seeing something like that--at any rate, we can do it that way.
Scott
amul, how would Viola go about re-dedicating the temple to Neptune? (This would also potentially take care of the Theban Tribunal's requirement for a patron, though that might require more direct involvement than Neptune would be willing to give--you need him physically present or to provide an AC for a Ceremony of Propitiation elsewhere in the Tribunal. One of his vassals might serve, though.)
Scott
Technically, we do have the requirement for a patron already covered - there are at least three supernatural creatures living in the covenant already, any one of which could probably be persuaded to take on the role.
Edit: Actually, make that five. I'd forgotten about the cats.
Halia I don't think we want to mess with, and the faerie guide is probably not patron material, which would leave only an annoyed ghost.
Scott
I was actually thinking of Constantine, Vrahos or Alcimus.
It's been done before. Granted, it's been done before by Tremere showing what they think of the tribunal's paganistic practices, but Gregorius wouldn't really see that as a problem.
Viola probably would, of course, but then Gregorius has a similar attitude to the idea of appointing a faerie god.
I suspect the Tribunal wouldn't allow a familiar as a patron--I"m not sure being a familiar in itself is disqualifying, but my impression is that patrons are supposed to be much more powerful than any of those three.
Scott
OK, Viola is going to go ahead and re-dedicate the temple to Neptune, and we'll see how that goes. She's curious if thereby lifting the curse will have any effect on Halia, the crones, or the other inhabitants. (It's also just occurred to her that she doesn't know where exactly the toga-clad children of Halia live, and that worries her a bit.)
Scott
(Canonically) there's already a covenant in the tribunal which has its leader's familiar as its patron - Gigas, the Tremere covenant.
Have you ever played Day of the Tentacle? What about Sam and Max Hit The Road?
Cleansing a temple of the curse and re-dedicating it to the god who provoked the curse in the first place would be....a mythological event.
That would be a good start.
Finding the children? Where does she start? Down the staircase on the second regio level that forms the entrance to the labyrinth level, maybe? That's the one obvious exit she never explored.
Scott
The children came from somewhere beyond the covenant, though, yes, there is an door that you never looked at. In order to explore either, pick a date to begin her explorations and start a chapter thread.