I didn't want to clutter the topic by bringing this up again, so I discussed it privately with Jonathan.
What we're proposing is that equipment for extra labs (such as the shared lab and visitor labs) will cost 10 bp if acquired before saga start. They will still need to be set up, either before or after the saga starts. The personal lab of each magus is free (bp-wise) but also requires that magus to spend some time setting it up (2 seasons).
I plan on having Petronius spend some time on the shared lab (and possibly his personal lab) before saga starts. You can be sure he will ask for first dibs on the shared lab, for at least 2 seasons.
I've also noticed that Aedituus has some time described to set up his lab before the start of the saga.
Since I had 30 build points left over, I will allocate them as follow:
10 bp for the standard equipment for the shared lab
I am also changing the lab virtue I am purchasing with my build points from Extensive Stores to Spacious, since Spacious can be installed at the same time as the lab is being built (does not require an additional season).
I've calculated what the stats of the shared lab will be when Petronius will be done setting it up. I may end up moving this information to a seperate page so that we can log the changes as they occur.
Just to avoid any confusion, these 10 bp will be for an improvement? Just to be clear -- the equipment for your standard lab does not require any bp -- that this is for an improvement. If it's not installed at the start of the saga, I don't think you need to pay for it at all -- you'll just have to spend the time and resources when you are ready to build or improve that lab.
Note that I've updated the page describing the main site with the size of each of the sancta.
Who will live there? I was kind of expecting Hippocrates (Gulla's magus) to settle there, but I haven't seen any messages from Gulla since the end of August.
Here's what I envision, but since my magus will not be living there, this could change quite a bit to fit the expectations whoever's magus settles there.
About a mile northeast of the main site, on the outskirts of the forest, there used to be a large Roman farm. Its inhabitants and all of their animals were slaughtered when the Franks drove the Romans out in the 5th century. Ghosts of those inhabitants still linger here, as well as the spirits of their animals. They only come out occasionally, but that has still been enough to drive any mundane settlers away.
The remains of a small square stone tower was restored to provide living space. The tower is four stories high, enough for the sanctum of a single magus, space for a few mundane servants and grogs, and the aerie that was promised to Crintera in exchange for their sponsorship of the covenant. A magical aura of 2 is present in the tower. The aura quickly weakens when leaving the tower, with a strength of 1 within 10 paces of its walls.
Around the tower are a few fields and pastures where the covenant raise food animals (pigs, a few cows, some sheep). The servants living here take care of the animals.
Very rustic and simple. Being assigned there is considered a chore or even punishment for the grogs, although Ortolf prefers to live there when not serving the covenant as a scout.
Suggested boons and hooks for the secondary site:
Small Tower (free fortification): A small 4-story tower has been restored at the secondary site. This tower is located at the stongest point of the aura.
Healthy Feature x2 (minor site boon): The secondary site benefits from clean air (from the Rhine gorge below) and very pure water from an underground source that feeds the nearby stream.
Weak Aura (minor site hook): At its strongest point, the aura is only 2 at the secondary site. This strongest point is fairly limited in size.
Massacre Site (minor surroundings hook): The Roman farm where the secondary site is located was sacked and all its inhabitants massacred. Ghosts still linger in the area, as do the spirit of animals who served their masters and were killed at the same time. Fortunately, these ghosts and spirits only manifest themselves a few times a year.
I ran some number on expenditures for the covenant, based on 6 magi and about 60 mundanes. With labs for everyone, including the shared lab and labs for visitors, we are currently running at 70-80% of our 2 sources of income.
So as soon as we begin improving our labs (shared lab at +4 Upkeep, 5 labs with average +2 Upkeep, 2 visitor labs at 0 Upkeep), we'll go over our income by about 20%.
This means we'll need to develop our sources of income, or develop ways of reducing expenditures in various ways (such as magic items). It expresses dramatically how laboratories quickly become the biggest drain of cash for a covenant.
This is probably not something we'll want to track in detail, I think.
I am going to change the 25 bp Terram Summa I was thinking about to a Quality 10 Terram Tractatus (10 bp) and a Terram vis source. The description of the CO2 bubbling up in Laacher See gave me an idea for a vis source: In the fall, as the surface temperature of the Lake decreases, the warmer water at the bottom rises, along with bubbles of trapped gas. Along with this turnover, several perfectly round pumice stones are deposited on the shore, yielding a total of four pawns of Terram vis. If not collected in a reasonable amount of time, the stones get crushed into the shore and the vis is lost. An interesting story may be about where the stones washed up in previous years might now be located; perhaps a monk from the Abbey or a peasant from the village has been collecting them for years ...
The caves around the lake could have a magic aura of 3 in some spots, and an infernal aura of 3 in other spots. This feels appropriate, given the volcanic nature of the place. It might be that the aura shifts to infernal when a cave fills with gas. If the gas dissapates, the aura again becomes magical. I think the caves would not be hospitable lab space, however, given the gases, and aren't volcanic caves often networks of tubes? It seems an uncomfortable shape for a lab. Now, if we could somehow control the gas and reshape a cave or two ... I'll think about this and provide some text on the Referata site.
As for income, how opposed are we to creating a little silver via spell? In the Stonehenge Tribunal, this has been going on for years, and I think at the 1208 Tribunal meeting, they limited the amount of silver that a covenant can create (but the limit was ridiculously high, if I remember correctly; book not available at the moment).
I'd gotten rid of Petronius' private summa because there was a public one available. Loosing it means I will need to review my build points once more. Not that I'll object to a Terram vis source, of course.
Honestly, considering that we have summae in Magic Theory (L8Q11, Gulla) and Penetration (L5Q11, Tellus), I was about to suggest that you instead consider dropping the tractatus in these abilities, but if we've lost Gulla then we've may have lost the Magic Theory summa as well.
Can I say that build points by player are a mess when people drop out?
Interesting idea. Here's a thought, maybe some of the past pummice stones were ground and used by the monks when making religious texts, so that they end up infused with Terram vis.
Room for fun there. I'd sited a small Ignem vis source in the caves (Gemlight), but this could be changed easily.
Pretty easy, since Petronius has a lab text to the spell Touch of Midas (ArM5 p.153) in his personal resources. It creates of roughly spherical lump of gold weigthing 80 pounds. Which, at the conversion rate stated in Covenants, is the equivalent of 800 pounds of silver (Covenant p.71).
However, Covenants also states (p.61, in the description of the spell The Riches That are Rightfully Mine(d)) that in many Tribunals, magi are limited to spending 2 pounds of silver per magus per year.
Ah! Just found the actual ruling in HoH:TL (p.87) about the creation of silver using magic. It confirms the 2 pounds of silver per magus per year (A.D. 1208, Stonehenge). Gold is not specificallt covered, as it is not used for currency in England, but most magi are careful not to make this an issue that could be brought before Grand Tribunal for a ruling.
Note that 2 pounds of silver per magus is small change, compared to the resources the covenant needs. With 2 sources of income, our basic yearly income is 200 pounds. So adding 10 pounds isn't going to help us much anyway.
Oops, found a mistake in my spreadsheet for the expenditures. Labs are not that important to the total. So forget this, we're good to go for a long time.
But if we need to reduce expenditures, it will be simpler to achieve cost savings, either through craftsmen or magic items.
How about I sacrifice some of the spell levels instead? I think between you and Tellus we probably have enough Lab texts anyway.
Do I need to expend build points to personalize/specialize my lab? Since Aedituus' time up to the start of the saga is already accounted for, he will need to spend seasons in saga to make lab upgrades.
I don't know where my head is these days, but I got mixed up again. Petronius still has a Terram summa (L20Q8) in his personal build points. It has not been removed during my last review of the build points. (That why we write these things down!)
So you're fine to change your 25 bp Terram summa for something else if you want.
Actually, I have a story for the Rego summa, which I hope to post soon, but the Level and Quality are probably too high given the details of the story. So I am rearranging my build points a little bit:
Rego Summa: Level 18, Quality 8 = 26 bp (-4)
Auram Summa: Level 10, Quality 9 = 19 bp (-8)
Mentem Summa: Level 15, Quality 9 = 24 bp (-1)
Terram Summa: Level 15, Quality 8 = 23 bp (-2)
Terram vis source for 3 pawns = 15 bp (+15)
I am also going to move the Rego Summa to Aedituus' private stock, and move the Enigmatic Wisdom Summa out. To account for the difference in levels, I will also drop the Dominion Lore tractatus to Quality 8. This gives me three more bp for the Library, so I thought I would add to vis stocks to represent some of a possible gift from one of the other covenants. But then, I remembered JL's prohibition on purchasing stocks with bp, so I will need to spend those bp elsewhere. I'll think about this a bit before making any modifications here or on Referata.
Regarding the library, should I add (to the wiki) the lab texts of spells known by the magi? Each player should let me know if there are spells that they would want to share.
