Just to be clear, are you thinking of all the books, only the 4 summae from Gulla, or only the Creo and Corpus summae?
Sorry, the ones from Gulla, all of them.
Done.
That was actually my original intention, apologies for not mentioning it.
I updated the finances to correct a mistake. I was erronously calculating the cost savings of craftsmen by multiplying it by the number of seasons they were working for the covenant. Re-reading the rules that is not so.
This brings up our expenditures to 133 pounds per year, against a current income of 160 pounds (will potentially rise to 200 pounds in the early years of the saga).
So right now we have a positive balance of 27 pounds per year, with starting reserves of 200 pounds. So we should be able to finance some minor improvements to the covenants (meaning mostly the labs) and absorb the increase in the number of inhabitants as mundanes begin having kids and older ones retire.
I'm not quite finished with the build points, but Praxiteles will be submitting cash reserves, or equivalents, too.
Part of my reasoning for keeping Gulla's allocations, was, if he returns, it's there. And because some of the books I'm bringing with Praxiteles will only be useful by him, until he teaches others Greek, or learns enough Latin and translates the text. I'm bringing a Finesse summa (L4), which was originally in Greek, that Praxiteles has already read, but he managed to locate a Latin translation, and acquired it for the covenant. He also came across 4 commentaries on the summa (tractatus) but these are only in Greek, of use to him.
I'm reluctant to do too much more in Greek, and I'm weighing it in my mind... What does everyone else think?
I had thought about this a little, and figured that most of the books available locally would be in Latin. Only books that he could have obtained from Thebes would be in Greek.
Also, it is a foregone conclusion that Praxiteles will learn Latin, sooner or later. So having too many books in Greek provides him with little long-term advantage. At best, it means we'll have to get those books translated, and I doubt that this could be done by a mundane very well. So either Praxiteles would end up translating them, or the books would go unused. I don't see any of the other magi learning Greek to a score of 4 anytime soon. This might happens after a few decades, but even that is doubtful.
I even considered that removing the lab texts of Praxiteles' spells from the library. Right now they provide essentially no benefit to anyone. Praxiteles don't need them, and the others can't use them before spending 50 xp to Greek. That's over a year learning a language they have fairly little use for. It will be much easier to acquire Latin lab texts for those spells.
All of that is for shared build points. Personal build points, of course, are a different matter. For resources that Praxiteles doesn't plan on sharing, it would make sense that they would mostly be in Greek.
Just my thoughts. 
Well, this is all about the long haul... So, I do have visions of Praxiteles doing translations. Part of what I wanted to assess is this multi-lingual order concept introduced in The Sundered Eagle. How does it work? Who translates?
And as far as Praxiteles lab texts, I was going to say that he went and procured Latin copies of those texts, while he was looking for the book.
Regarding vis sources, we currently have the following:
- 5 pawns of Creo (25 bp, Tellus): Unspecified source.
- 3 pawns of Rego (15 bp, Arthur): Heron Nests on the Roman Bridge Piles. (Suggestion: inactive at saga start)
- 2 pawns of Ignem (10 bp, Arthur): Gemlight from the Laacher Lake Caves. (Suggestion: inactive at saga start)
- 4 pawns of Imaginem (20 bp, Archimedes): Water from a witch's hearth.
- 3 pawns of Mentem (15 bp, Archimedes): Ghostly Remnants from the Forest.
- 7 pawns of Vim (35 bp, Arthur): The Mercuralia ritual at the main site.
- 12 pawns of Vim (60 bp, Tellus): Unspecified source.
- 3 pawns of Terram (15 bp, by Archimedes): Spherical pumice stones thrown onto the shore of Laacher See.
I would suggest the following reshuffling/arrangement.
For, the 5 pawns of Creo (Tellus) could be the silver bowl used in the Mercuralia ritual. The 12 pawns of Vim (also Tellus) could be from the laurel branch and variable (3 pawns per participating magi, up to 18 pawns if we add more magi later on).
The 7 pawns of Vim (Arthur) would be used instead to bring back Animal and Corpus sources (4 and 3 pawns) located at the secondary site. This would explain why, in addition to the aerie for Crintera, we invested resources to restore this place and keep a contingent of grogs there, in addition to the farmers.
I would further submit that at least some (perhaps most or even all) of the small sources (Rego, Imaginem, Mentem, Ignem) be inactive at saga start. We would still have access to decent sources (12 Vim, 5 Creo, 4 Animal, 3 Corpus and 3 Terram). Then, as we (as players) want our magi to have access to more, then we weave in the discovery of one of those sources.
The only real impact on the saga is that raw vis from those sources won't accumulate in our stores for years before we actually begin needing them. Anyway, I expect the first couple of years to be mostly focused on exploiting the library.
In short, we start the saga with only sources covering 5 Arts, and add some more as play develops. (Note that we could swap out one of Animal/Corpus and replace it with Mentem, to provide for Aedituus interest in that Art.)
Thoughts?
Why?
Whay what? Why the changes in Arts? Why less vis sources initially? Why does the universe exist? 
Why the changes: Well... I got to thinking. Does it make sense that both the silver bowl and the laurel branch contain the same kind of vis? Does it make sense that a single object get infused with that much vis?
This lead me to think that maybe the silver bowl should represent the other part of vis creation, namely Creo, whereas the branch gets infused with magic as the ritual progresses. And every time the branch is passed from one Gifted individual to another during the ritual, the more it magic is gathered and infused in it. The silver bowl itself is also involved all year long in the altar rituals -- and I was thinking that as part of the shared lab personalization, the altar might be installed as a major feature for a Creo specialization.
Also, I feel like, by concentrating so much of our sources in Vim, we are loosing out on a lot of other things that make sense location-wise. Are we really going to burn through 20 pawns of Vim vis per year? A single source yielding 12 pawns is already a lot. Having a scattering of smaller vis sources, in Arts that will be just as useful to us, seems to make more sense to me. Corpus is quite valuable for longevity rituals and healing. We also have a small Creo source that can complement that. Animal is always good for familiars (and Petronius will quickly want to bind Rufus).
Why less vis sources initially: We're supposed to be founding a Spring covenant. We discussed a rule that any resource that cost 20 bp or more should have a story before it gets activated in the saga. But obviously we need good reasons to have picked that site, so the sources that exist directly at the main site should be there; that's the biggest source. So it makes sense that, instead, some of the smaller sources are initially inactive.
And as I mentioned, I expect the first couple of years to be about reading books more than using raw vis. Are we simply going to stockpile rooks or queens of vis in the meantime? And then what? Burn through those stockpiles as if raw vis wasn't worth much? As magi, our characters are already ebyond rich for the setting. Do we also want to be rich hermetically? To me, that doesn't sound fun. As I wrote, there is nothing preventing a player who plans on needing vis from one type to activate a source a few seasons or even years before his magus needs that vis -- he just needs to integrate that into the narrative.
As always, my previous post is a suggestion. If people don't like it, or feel like it doesn't make sense, just let me know. 8)
These changes are perfectly acceptable to me, but as the originator of the Vim and Creo sources, Tellus should probably have the final word.
Regarding the availability of sources, I would say that we should probably start with the bowl (Cr) and branch (Vi), the ghostly remnants (Me), either the gemlights (Ig) or the stones (Te), and either the An or Co from the secondary site. Having the three sources from the main site, and one from each of the secondary site and the caves provides good reason for choosing the way we did. I would suggest the An source first, as that would be a good reason to agree to set it up as a favor to Crintera. I don't have a preference for the gems or stones.
Why the changes, obviously.
But mostly why you felt it necessary to re-arrange how people had spent their alloted points.
If you like.
I intentionally went for a lot of Vim vis. I don't know if we'll be able to use it all, but Vim is exceptionally useful.
- Aegis of the Hearth.
- Longevity Rituals (ArM5, p. 101)
- Preparing Items for Enchantment (don't know about you, but not all of the items I hope to create can be done as lesser items).
- and then invest them with Vim effects.
- and probably end up wasting a fair bit, because I'll have to experiment to achieve any sort of Breakthrough.
Mind you, I don't really care if it's in a single source or multiple.
[strike]I should perhaps also mention that Vis-based healing is rarely worth it, given the alternatives, and that Creo is just as useful for both Longevity and Healing.[/strike] <- forgot we had a mercurian. That helps, alot.
Er... you do realise that all forms are (largely) of identical use for binding familiars in 5th edition, right?
You can do so without eg. an Animal score of 10+ like in 3rd edition.
And you (effectively) always bind your familiar with your best Te+Fo combination, so Titus rather expects to use Vim for that.
Yes, it's useful if you want to manipulate the body of the poor thing, but it's mind is Mentem (it has an intelligence score) and any other effects uses Vis aspected to relevant effect. I think the vis-type I've seen most of spent on familiars, was Mentem vis to boost that base Int -3.
Aside from my aversion of the expression "it makes sense", I'm not essentially in disagreement with this.
It does however appear that several of the magi plan to live in the area before the start of the saga. Hopefully they would have found most of these sources.
If not, Titus will have to invent a spell that let's them see Vis - easy enough.
Again, I'm not essentially in disagreement with this, though we should hopefully have some vis - if nothing else then to purchase new books.
As for hermetically rich, I agree that it feels that way, because I'm used to playing in Low-Vis sagas (ArM5, p. 218, box), but
makes for 39 pawns/year.
With 4 magi, that's just under 10 pawns/year, the nominally Moderate-Vis Saga (again ArM5, p. 218)
Another way to reduce Vis stocks, btw, is Vis-debt.
Owing someone a large amount of vis works surprisingly well.
My apologies if I come across as a bit vitriolic, but You have been very active and it felt like if I didn't do something right then, it would be simply decided before others had a chance for input.
EDIT:
editted for bad spelling (hopefully I got it all)
I'm not essentially is disagreement - ultimately we might well want Vis aspected to each of the 15 Arts.
I just want to be sure everybody get's some opportunty for giving input.
I must also note that I went for the 12 pawns knowing fully well that 7 pawns/year had already been declared.
must admit I expect to use quite a bit of Vim vis.
I've added the following to the wiki, including pages for the new spells, but they are not yet showing up in the Library...
Ward Against Heat and Flame ReIg 25
Lay to Rest the Haunting Spirit ReMe gen/20
Circling Winds of Protection Cr(Re)Au 20
The Wound that Weeps PeCo 15
Wall of Thorns CrHe 20
I'm also thinking about the following Lab Text for Enchantments. Let me know what you think.
Hearthstone of Quick Disposal
Intended to be attached to a hearth into which various objects can be placed for destruction if the stone is touched and the command is spoken. (Small, hard stone, for material and size of 8, can hold up to 80 levels of enchantments)
Effects:
Destroy body parts/corpses PeCo11 (Base 5, +1 Touch, 2 uses per day)
Destroy earth or metal PeTe12 (Base 5, +1 Touch, three uses per day)
Destroy plants PeHe12 (Base 5, +1 Touch, three uses per day)
(60 levels of enchantments used, 20 for each effect, room for 20 more)
Total of 35 levels, for seven bp.
Aedituus can teach Praxiteles Latin, and he's pretty good at it: If Prax is the only student, Aedituus Source Quality is 14. (Pretty good, but could be one point better ... If only I had five more experience points to spend... 
)
General points...
I like the idea of being dominant in a vis source, and not having every type of vis local to us. It forces us to trade.
I'm not wild about the vis storage rules from RoP:Magic, is anyone else keen on those rules? If so, I don't have a problem with stockpiling vis.
Vim vis is the single most useful kind of vis, because of LRs, preparing items for enchantment and the Aegis of the Hearth ritual. And it is easily traded, if we find we have a stockpile of it in excess of our needs. And then, when the aura research gets kicked off...well, that'll get burned through pretty quickly. 
And if we conduct multiple Aegides of the Heart rituals, it'll burn up more. While that's not looking likely now, it was and could be a possibility, depending on how things play out.
I'm not wild about Aeditiuus teaching, because it takes up a season of his, and could potentially cost Praxiteles two seasons to get that SQ 14, which makes it an effective SQ of 7...
Pretty sure we have a Tractatus on teaching 
not really keen no.
Anyway, I believe I've promissed to spend my private points by the end of the weekend:
Key to Safety - 20 points.
This will be mainly for lab use (+2 safety, +1 experimentation), but I'll probably bring it along when I travel.
The Tireless Servant (Cov, p. 121, box) - 16 points
Lab: +1 Safety, +1 General Quality
Mirror enchanted with The Endless Repetition in a Bottomless Pool (Cov, p. 101).
- which I trust we can all agree isn't much worry with regards to the code, as it only scries on books.
Lab: +3 texts. Will hopefully be integrated as a feature at some point.
All of the above are high enough level that they are probably invested items, with empty 'slots', and I do plan to makes notes on this, but not right now as it's passed midnight local time 
OR: Can we buy vis sources with the private points?
Buying a vis source with private points is potentially problematic. There's a virtue for that, for one. Needs to have a good reason behind it, and we all need to agree, since these personal points are generally considered the property of the magus, unless you want to immediately donate it to the covenant, don't see a problem... I'd just prefer that vis sources be communal, or if not, come from the virtue.