There's a section in HoH:TL (pg 76) talking about Fenicil's rituals, which says:
Like Hermetic rituals, mastery ability can be gained and developed by practice. The magus practices parts of the ritual, becomes familiarised with the details and contemplates the subtelties. This process requires no vis or risk.
Granted this is talking about Mercurian rituals, but the initial comparator makes me believe it is possible to practice Hermetic rituals in a similar fashion.
OK, fair enough.
Scott
This is why I said you probably don't get the quality 5 practice, since that's what requires repeated casting. But quality 3 or 4 is still available, which one depending on SG's choice, but tending towards 4 since that's the default.
Chris
There's a couple of reasons why the first covenant was set up there. First, the magi were Seekers. As such, having a covenant with as strong an aura as possible was not a priority. Second, the aura was stronger at the time. Something happened to tone it down, or it is simply from lack of use (our magi simply do not know).
I could have designed a simple, vanilla aura that's simply +5 and leave it at that. What I'm working on is much more flexible and... well, organic would be a way to describe it. Expect some surprises along the way, as I am integrating a lot of the ideas that were thrown about. This is a saga of exploration, after all. 
As it is, the aura on the surface is +3, but rises to +5 in the caves (and may be even higher in places). That will allow the magi to set up their lab in the high aura right away, if that's what they want. It also makes the covenant less conspicuous to mundanes -- remember that in a magical aura things are more intense. "Magical auras are intense. Colors are more striking, sounds more piercing, the day brighter, the night deeper." (ArM5, page 184)
Places like that tend to attract attention. When they're close to a mundane city, well, that attention can be a bad thing. So I'm creating something that can pass off unnoticed while at the same time providing fertile ground for a covenant. Leave me some latitude here, it's not the first covenant site that I've created.
I will soon post a few in-character descriptions of the previous covenant. These will be available to the magi as part of the preparations to set up the new covenant. Will any of the magi have visited the site beforehand?
Aetos hasn't been there himself before - but it's likely a little bird told him something.
I had the idea originally that we'd re-use the old labs. If they have an aura of 3, that simply won't be used, because you'd have to be stupid to do that when there's an aura 5 readily available. And the idea of every lab being in a cave doesn't really appeal to me. Isn't there some other way to do this?
Scott
As I said, there's a lot of twists that may be possible, if the characters use their imagination. They will have to be discovered in play (it's more fun that way). And things may be more fluid than they look. 
Re-using or moving labs is possible. Maybe some of the specialists lent by the sponsor can do a part of the work to set up new labs, at least for the first season of work (to a -3 lab)? There are a lot of labs to set up, so this would make sense to have many people working on this. It would certainly ease the burden. And is there a specific time delay for us to be up and ready to host visitors? There should be some time when only the members will be there, so they can familiarize themselves with the site, surrounding resources, mundanes, etc.
Maybe the members will want to keep the labs in the best aura for themselves, while visitors are stuck with the lower aura. Those are decisions that will have to be taken by the magi. Have your lab in the caves to get the higher aura, or have something outside with a lower aura? Keep the good aura for members, or share with visitors? Accept things as they are, or find a way to improve things? Life is compromise. 
And, personally, I think that simply arranging to get the best safe aura (+5 for no warping) with no drawbacks or work feels a bit like... rules-optimization? How many sites with a great aura, no drawback, easily accessible, and providing a good starting point for exploration can there be? At some point, the sponsor would have to settle for a less-than-optimal site, at least in some way. Else, someone would have already settled there, certainly!
Someone did already settle there--despite the fact that it we're in an area so wide open in Hermetic terms that they could have settled anywhere they wanted. Yes, an aura of 5 is optimal, but it's as optimal to the characters as to us players: most magi, given a choice, will choose the strongest aura possible that doesn't harm covenfolk, which means places with Aura 6 and above typically get ruled out. Thus, 5 isn't an arbitrary cut-off, but a very rational one.
If there are variations in the aura, the old covenant's members would have situated their labs wherever the aura was highest, to the extent possible. If the aura varies across the covenant grounds, it would actually be optimal to have an aura no greater than 5 where the grogs live, but as high as possible in the labs, but most magi would probably accept, say, an aura of 3 over most of the grounds, but 5 in the labs, since for most purposes that's just as good an as overall-5 aura.
Now, it's possible parts of the site weren't known/accessible back then (e.g., the caves), and it's possible that the covenant, its destruction, and/or subsequent events could have changed the aura or created regiones, but I'd really like the original settlement decision to have been recognizably rational.
I do sympathize with your desire to give the magi a choice of where to put their labs, but unless there are serious and obvious downsides to the caves, I can't imagine anyone not situating their lab there. And if there are serious downsides, then we don't really have an aura of 5 (in which case, it might be appropriate to have an aura of 5 up top, at least in the labs, and a 6 or 7 in the caves, but with problems in the caves that make the choice a real one).
And yes, you're right that a higher aura would make the area very noticeable to mundanes, but that might be one big reason they've stayed away from it and not built on the ruins either of Tanais or the covenant.
Doesn't anyone else have an opinion on this?
Scott
Yes, someone did settle there and they were Hermetica magi. But the Order of Hermes is not alone out there on the fringe, and other traditions also have use for magical auras. And I question how accurately magi can evaluate the strength of auras. Can they really tell, "Hmmm, that aura is of strength 4, better settle at that other place where it's 5." That's game mechanics. I firmly believe that magi will say, "Hmmm, this aura is nice and strong. It may be slightly less powerful than at (such place), but I'm not quite sure. Looks like a good place to establish a covenant."
It takes years before the effect of warping appears in mundanes. So how could the magi be able to tell their the mundanes were being warped, or that they themselves were getting warping? Again, it's mechanics of the game.
I was rational, based on their priorities. They were Seekers, looking for relics, magic and sites of Ancient magical interest. Lab time was not their highest priority. They found something and wanted access to it, perhaps? (Do I need to be any clearer than that? Want me to spoil potential stories before we even begin playing?)
Isn't it better for the characters to wonder, asking exactly those questions? (Why did they settle here? What happened to the aura? What happened to them?)
As I said, when they set up their (first) labs, they did not have the full range of options. I'll just say that they were in the process of moving them, when "something" happened. (And yes, I had to decide roughly what happened. If you had plans on this, let me know.)
And to investigate quickly once word reach them that someone else is moving in.
I agree, we need the other's voice on this. Knowledge of the real-world area does not matter, it's really a question of what drives magi to select a site for a covenant.
Isn't there a spell that tells you the strength of the aura?
Perhaps. But I, the player, want an aura of 5. Is there something you can't do with Aura 5 that you can do without it?
Yes, but what about the rest of my question?
Sure. I expect them to investigate when a whole bunch of people set up a new village, no matter what. Relations with the mundanes are almost always an issue, and make for some interesting stories.
Scott
I tend to agree with Scott concerning the rationality issue; I would expect magi to be able to distinguish between aura gradients considering the effect is only 2nd level in the guidelines.
I do like Arthur's approach to the aura as something to strive for, investigate, and compromise on, though. I think both of your approaches to this are fine - couldn't the Seekers in Arthur's narrative have known about the deeper badass aura when settling, having just postponed moving to it because of [insert problem for players to conquer here]?
Yes, at Touch range with Mom duration, it's a level 3 spont--a lot of magi can manage that even without a die roll (esp. in an aura!), and you'd think Seekers would be good at InVi! The spell just to detect an aura is InVi2.
Scott
Yes, there are now guidelines in 5th edition for detecting a magical aura. I'm just used to previous editions where the rule was that you could detect the power of an aura as weak/medium/strong/very strong rather than knowing the exact number. At the time, a spell would not give you the exact number. Reading the guideline, it still doesn't say you have know exactly how strong the aura is. But if that's the way the troupe wants to do it, then that's fine.
They knew there was something down there. They suspected it was a stronger aura, although they theorized that it could also be some really powerful artifact or entombed creature. They needed to have labs to investigate things from the surface before they began digging, to avoid damaging (or accidentally releasing) whatever was down there. Think archeological dig -- you dig slowly because you don't want to damage the artifacts. Think exploration mining -- you dig a little to gather samples and analyze them before exploitation begins (and imagine if what you dig for can explode if you're not careful).
As I said, Seekers are not necessarily interested in settling at a site based on how powerful the aura is. IMHO, they tend to settle in places where it is easy to investigate ancient magic, artifacts, etc. Not having to travel days between your source of artifacts and your lab help improve efficiency. That was their thinking, at least.
As I also mentioned before, the aura was more powerful when the Seeker covenant was established. There are records of this (from visiting redcaps, Quaesitores and other magi). The aura seems to have gone dormant (meaning weaker) since the destruction of the covenant. The magi will also notice a discrepency between the power of the aura as reported by the investigator of the covenant's disappearance and the current power of the aura, but there's a reason for that. It's a piece of information that is part of the puzzle.
Once the puzzle has been solved, the magi should be able to have a +5 aura in the surface labs. In the meantime, they have to make a choice between a lab with the +3 aura on the surface or with the +5 aura in the caves.
Sounds fun. I haven't been chiming in because I'm not part of the decision. I figure my Quaesitor will be there to ratify the charter, and I've got my own reasons for staying, so I'll probably be the first guest. But as a guest I'm not the one choosing the spot.
Chris
Ha, but that's the thing with troupe-style play. Your magus may not be part of the decision, but you should be.
If we only get involved things that affect our characters, isn't it just self-gratification? My understanding of troupe-style play is that the troupe makes the decision for the saga, or delegates to one person to handle a specific part of the saga while specifying the limits of the responsibility/power granted to one individual.
That's why I asked for characteristics that were needed or desired when looking for a site -- it was a description of my mandate as SG for the site. And that explains a bit of frustration on my part when being told that "the aura must be +5 on the surface of the site, and right away pretty please because as a player that's what I want." Sorry for saying so, Scott, but that particular line has been highly irritating to me.
What was approved then, regarding the aura, was:
None of the comments after I submitted those characteristics (but before I detailed a specific site) even hinted that starting labs needed to be in a +5 aura at the start of the saga. Being told that repeatedly, after I've put a lot of time creating an interesting and complex site where it simply doesn't make sense to have that right away (the potential is there)... well, it's made me think about whether it was a good idea for me to be involved at all in the role of a SG for the saga.
Because there seems to be a basic philosophical disagreement on how common strong auras are (even in areas not settled by the Order of Hermes), what a strong aura is (to me, anything above +3 is strong), and how closely the in-character decisions should be impacted by the system's mechanics (the distinction between +4 & +5 auras for the magi).
Sorry for venting a little about this, but as I've just said, the whole episode has been quite frustrating.
I was thinking that in-character, I'm not looking for a site. It has already been selected by others who had their own preferences. So my character's interests in choosing a site wouldn't affect the choice.
Regardless, I like a lot of what you've written. I agree that above +3 is strong. I'll make a lab in a +3 area, though if better exists, I'll be happier with better. However, there may be trade-offs. I'm not interested in hazards within the lab. I'd rather go for +3 and safe than +5 and lose 1/10 or 2/10 of my work. I would say +3 (formerly +5) with extras is worth settling.
As a player, my vote would be for a lot of what Arthur is doing. Better to have stories driven in lots of ways. What's up with this aura? Investigate. If everything's cushy and perfect, why leave home?
In my pen and paper game we have a huge +1 aura with a +4 area that shifts around seasonally. In that case we'd had several spots we'd quickly sketched and decided between our characters which one we'd prefer. We ended up liking this site for a variety of reasons. So we have four different covenant sites, and we share labs at the moment. Eventually we'll probably each have our own labs; the buildings are certainly large enough. But for the moment the efficiency of setting up only two labs per site and coordinating our lab work is worth it. This has made things more different and challenging, meaning more fun, not less.
Chris
Before you took over designing the details of the covenant, the troupe had already discussed it and decided on an aura of 5 (it's in the second post of the thread--Salutor suggested it). If you can sell something different to the troupe, but you do need to sell it.
Traditionally, in ArM, one of the main reasons for having a covenant on the fringes is access to better covenant sites and more vis, and "better covenant site" usually means an aura of 5. As I said before, this isn't "gamey" at all: given that magi have the means of detecting the aura, and know how high an aura will lead to warping of the covenfolk, it's pretty logical, especially in a situation where there are no other covenants for hundreds of miles around, and you can choose any site you want. In fact, no one ever said that the sponsor of the new covenant required that it be put on the ruins of an old one; I figured that was just something that the characters would choose to do, though obviously there's no reason it couldn't happen differently.
And yes, it's logical for magi to want that aura right away. Now, it's one thing if the magi know ahead of time that the aura will eventually go up to 5, but I don't see how our characters would know that. Even if they did know this, locating their labs temporarily in the caves isn't really feasible, because, once you've spent time improving a lab using the Covenants rules, you'd have to trash a couple of years' worth of work to move it up to the surface. (Notice here that my concern is not over what my Lab Total is going to be next week, but over how the characters would respond to the situation.)
Let me say, finally, that this isn't about my own character: I had already decided when we started out that I wanted a lab in a regio, which would give her lab a higher aura anyway (I've actually been trying to figure out how to do that without its being abusive, and having the aura be 3 in spots would make that easy). The issue for me is more one of flavor.
I think the best way to look at this, as a SG, is to ask, What would the covenant site have to look like in order to attract the characters? That is, you have to sell it to the characters more than to the players. Portia wants to do Original Research, and so probably has some Seeker tendencies, but she's also a lab rat. Viola is definitely a lab rat, but she's more interested in finding a regio within the covenant's boundaries, preferably one associated with a tree. It's also her job to make sure Portia doesn't blow up the place, and so she'll be looking for a location with caves or something similarly isolating, to put Portia's lab in, and if the aura is higher down there, so much the better. Aetos and Gregorius are probably more interested in exploration than anything else (and Aetos, obviously, wants birds around), though they're both young, and therefore benefit more from a high aura. That would be even more true of Gorianus, since his Craft Magic wouldn't benefit as much from lab bonuses as true laboratory activities.
There is however one more "character" you have to worry about, and that's the sponsor, and the sponsor will doubtless want the best guest labs possible--and finding a place with a high aura is the single easiest way to make a lab better.
The way you've got things now, it probably meets Viola's criteria best (especially since no matter what you do, I'm going to design my own regio ), including having a cave we can convince Portia to occupy. Portia would probably be reasonably happy, provided she doesn't mind being shoved (er, gently persuaded) into the basement, and I imagine, given her research focus, that she'd be ecstatic at having weird aura things happening in the basement. Aetos is probably happy as long as there are birds around, but I'm not sure about the other two. I do think the sponsor would be a little worried at the aura of 3 for (at least some) guest labs.
Scott
And that's where, I think, our vision is the most different. I think the sponsor mostly wanted a place with the best access possible (both access from outside and access to best possible exploration prospects). Yes, a good aura is nice for visitors, but most visitors won't spend decades studying in that aura. A basic lab with a reasonable aura is enough for that.
I believe that setting up in a strong aura would be more important to the permanent members than to the sponsor. For any serious research, anyway, those visitors (which are probably not just out of Gauntlet) would go back to their own, customized and improved labs. Our covenant's labs are more there for quick and dirty research and studying between seasons of exploration out there. Basically some R&R and last-minute preparations between expeditions.
Selecting a place where there used to be a covenant was just convenient for the sponsor. They knew there was a reasonable aura there, the site had already been investigated, some existing buildings are salvageable, it's on a good route for travel and easily accessible, and it opens up a huge unexplored area.
I still don't agree, but then, I don't think the sponsor would have picked the site in the first place.
In any case, what is it you can't do with aura 5 that you can do without it? I like your ideas, but I don't see why they can't be compatible with a higher aura. I realize you're irritated at the whole idea of wanting aura 5, but I'm equally irritated at not getting the aura 5 we'd already decided on, and so we can call that even.
Scott
Could either of you please give in on this? To me this seems like a matter of two aura points in one part of the covenant rather than any insurmountable philosophical issue. I don't think it's worth frustrating each other over.