How far away from the covenant does a vis source have to be so that it is reasonable discuss if it is in another Tribunal? 3 days travel? 1 week?
Anyway, I'm thinking of the following:
The Light in the Cave
In spring, summer or autumn, after traveling a few days south towards the mountains through an old Roman road, a traveler might decide to exit the road towards east just after a huge broken rock with roman inscriptions, and walk until he finds a stream. Following the stream to its origin you will arrive at a cave; a very dark cave.
For only a few minutes in the end of winter the sun is in the right position to shine inside the cave, and a single ray of light reflects on a frozen pound in the cave floor, that immediately melts. That water shines with gold light and contains Ignem vis, but if not harvested in a few hours the stream awakens, flows down from the mountains, and the vis is gone.
About 26 km from Laimunt there is a pierced stone, close to Porrentruy. The coordinates are (if anyone wants to check: 47° 24′ 21.6″ N, 7° 07′ 07.28″ E
I'm thinking something faerie, but not sure about what yet.
There is also the Clendy Alignment about 100 km away (but then we are talking about around 5 or 6 days by foot to go, another 6 or 7 to return, and a lot of ups and downs through the mountains).
I think 1 to 3 days away (for a mundane), I think. Basel is about a day away, just for reference (the city would be out of bounds because of the redcaps' strong presence). Travel is clower in the mountains, of cours, but that still leave a fairly wide area.
Using modern names, the area would be from Besançon (west) to Zurich (east) and from Mulhouse (north) to Bern (south).
@Arthur do you have any strong ideas for the vis from the snake? Your recent description of it and the galley kinda matches something I was thinking: it somehow sheds its skin, even petrified (maybe in large flakes, like flakes of mica) and the petrified pieces of skin contain Muto vis.
Question:
When we are assigned labs, are they all completely standard? This isn't an attempt to grab a wonder lab, but small imperfections and peculiarities would make them more personal.
I have left the description of the labs vague on purpose. Essentially, the covenant has plenty of room for your lab to be set in whatever type of room you would like -- small or large; in a tower, underground or in its own building, etc.
That gives each of you access to a variety of lab virtues and flaws based on that. Pick whatever you would like. These will be the labs that were at least partly installed before the magi arrived.
Then I get to add a few twists to make it interesting and balance things out. Elements that were not so obvious when you selected the lab, but that you discover once you are moved in.
After that, you get to evolve your lab in ways that you want, provided the covenant can afford it. Since we are not doing detailed finances in this saga, any improvement in the covenant finances will be based on how much efforts the magi invest (seasons and stories).
Should the mutable nature of the covenant be tied to either the major hook "Highly Mutable" or the minor hook "Mutable"? I mean, this is going to cause us trouble, right? If so, should we balance it with another boon? Something simple like Healty Feature or Extraordinary Book?
Because no one wants to be the bookkeeper of the finances, or as a design decision? If it is the lack of a bookkeeper, I'd be happy to take the mantle (and keep the finances organized in a public spreadsheet). But I'm also cool if that's a design decision.
Not doing detailed finances is a design decision. Even if someone else was to do the bookkeeping, I would feel compelled to check the calculations and it would require nailing down too many chamber pots (How many covenfolks does the covenant have? How many grogs? What is the quality of their equipment?)
Then there is the inherent instability of the troupe in PbP mode. Players can drop out at any time (we lost half the player during character creation), which would force a recalculation of the finances each time. Then what happens if the player doing the detailed finances is the one to drop out? Even just temporarily?
Finally, and this is the more important point, I think doing detailed finances dilutes the focus of the saga from stories to bookkeeping.
I'm also having trouble thinking of Regulus' Lab. Too many options. =9
But for Eikona I think a two easy and "obvious" virtues/flaws would be Studio (to help display her mirrors) and Person (either her son or her father spends a lot of time inside her lab). Both are free, little to none extra math. Other virtues and flaws could come slowly with stories. =)
Having mundanes in the lab isn't tempting at all. I'd think they are as far away from it as possible.
There is the diminuitive flaw that fit for her and Renardine. All other virtues would be something with nice architecture (she loves beautiful and comfortable surroundings). I think it's unlikely she'll take a liking to some kind of cave.
Thanks for pointing that out:
It's true for alomst anyone else helping in the lab: But this is more about personality than about optimizing the numbers.
I'm still not sure about the architecture bit, which is necessary to make a description.
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