Sunrise? Winter solstice is connected to midnight, not sunrise.
Thats part of the reason i count the solstice as being essentially/roughly the night of the solstice, because otherwise it gets overdetailed to try and nail it down on the second.
I once had a player try something vaguely similar with violent intent.
My ruling on the spot was that forcibly transporting a creature across the boundary of the Aegis was metaphysically equivalent to offering an invitation. The invitation was unstable and terminated as soon as the creature was no longer being restrained unless he was given a token, forcing him to vacate the area as soon as possible. But no other approach made sense to me. (Of course, this was in part because one of the persons doing the forceful carrying was a magus who had participated in the Aegis. I think my ruling might have been different had it been nothing but a couple grogs.)
Solve it the Ars Magica way:
- Which spell is the highest magnitude? The highest magnitude wins. This more or less happens with creatures who's might is higher anyway...Versus both spells.
- If both spells are of equal magnitude, the highest Penetration wins.
In the case of the Aegis winning, the entire box would stay out. In the case of the Ward winning, the box would pass through.
This would follow other spell designs that use wards as weapons... Which is kind of what everyone is talking about.
Serf's Parma: The magi could put his Parma around it as well...This would use that resistance instead of the mouses...
Giving the mouse a token would be a bad mistake (IMO), but could be done.
Actually a solstice occurs in a specific spot in the earth's orbit around the sun (where the earth's axis of rotation is pointing away from the sun as directly as possible), which happens at different times of day in different years. Each winter solstice, for example, is a little less than six hours later in the day than the previous year's winter solstice. (The fact that this six-hour difference adds up to a full day every four years, and that we have a leap day every four years, is no coincidence.)
[table][tr][td]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solstice[/td][/tr][/table]
aegis is not a force shield...
so creaturs with might can enter, but not use their powers (as magus not from the convenant would have a penality to make magic...
So, as long as the mouse stays quiet, and I don't see why there would be any troubles...
First sentence of the 4th paragraph in the Aegis spell description.
So it DOES act like a force field for supernatural creatures 
It ALSO has huindrances to their powers if they manage to cross the Aegis, but they need to enter in the first place
Cheers,
Xavi
It may not be a force shield, but it is wearing a force shield's uniform.
No, they can't. It's pretty well spelled out in the spell description. Creatures with a Might score can only enter if they're A: Invited, or B: have a Might score higher than the Aegis
Magi (generally) don't have Might scores. Those few magi that do have Might scores are kept out of an Aegis as above.
The only trouble they could likely make are what troubles they could cause via mundane means. That is until the creature discovers where the Magi hide their vis...
In regards to the original post, my personal opinion is: Unless someone with authority to do so invites the hapless critter into the Aegis, it gets squished between the ward and the Aegis until it dies, then its corpse gets carried through, inside a slightly shifted barrel.
Something very close to this actually ahppened, back in the 4th ed saga where we had retaken Calebais and lived there. At some point out quite high aura started fluctuating, and a lot of wierd stuff happened. One of the things were the sudden appearance thumb-high gnomes or pixies or something. We caught some with difficulty, but they could not be contained, as they simply onened a tiny door in the side of the box and disappeared. Once my maga's fox familiar caught one, we stunned it and took it outside for some reason. I think we were trying to find out if they came from the outside, and how they could do this with our Aegis running, or if they just came into being inside. It came out allright, but going back in it failed to enter the Aegis and consequently was squashed to a pulp against the side of the box.
But we never had any thoughts about larger, and more serious creatures. There should not be an exploit for either party. The Aegis protects but also has some drawbacks. SO I hope not to find a demon enter by sewing himself into a horse and having it be brought inside.
Creatures with might higher than the aegis level (assuming sufficient penetration) can't enter the aegis. There's no dispute there. What's under discussion is the non-standard cases. I don't see anything in the rules to suggest that the satisfying answer is a mouse compote in a the bucket he's being carried in.
So if the mouse is carried in, he gets in. He couldn't willingly or knowingly cross the boundary, but in this case it isn't the mouse who decides.
Analogy... remember the scene in The Omen where Damien is in the car going to church. His dread and unease increases until he flips? Now, he could have been carried in (he was in the end) but he wouldn't have gone willingly.
That, to me, is more satisfying than than mouse soup or moving buckets.
That sounds reasonable, and I agree that it is propably the best way to do it.
I also agree. But in situations where the Aegis is very much overwhelming (like a Might 1 mouse vs a reasonable Aegis), this could still result in the creature dying (or a heart attack from fright) or go mad... 
Something just occurred to me that might make me change my mind about the 'mouse soup' issue.
When (certain types of) magi capture critters for their experiments (I'm certain I've read something to the effect that some magi indulge in such things), they're not going to invite them into their Aegis, they're just going to drag the poor critter in and start the vivisection party.
For the sake of potential story-fodder, I'm going to rule for my saga that dragging a creature into an Aegis is possible, and that dragging a creature into an Aegis, knowingly or otherwise, is not an implicit invitation. However, if the creature gets loose, it isn't forced out of the Aegis, it's treated like something that's had its invitation revoked; its powers are suppressed and it can move freely within the Aegis, but if it leaves, it can't come back in under its own power.
Then, when the critter breaks into the covenant vis stores, all Hell (possibly literally) could break loose.
Great, now I have ideas... 
Sounds better at least.
Spot on.
I thought the token you give folks is a physical item that is just a gesture of the invitation... The token just lets others know a guest was invited. That's how I've been running it at least.
I think that if you knowingly bring a creature into the aegis, you are implicitly inviting it in. But once in, the invitation can be revoked, which doesn't expel the creature, but affects it's ability to use powers. "You are not a guest, you are a prisoner." I don't require any official action to take place to offer or revoke hospitality. Though it is polite to verbalize it.
Actually the token is important. If you want to invite 7 people in but have only 6 tokens, one of them is left suffering the whole effect of the Aegis. It is a kind of "arcane connection" to your Aegis.
Xavi
My interpretation is based on not needing to retrieve the token to revoke the invitation nor notify them. It does say you need to formally invite them. I rather like the formal invitation and revocation of hospitality, but think the token is superfluous.
IMHO the Token is needed to be handed to the gueat, along wiht a formal invitation. So stealing the token won't let a foe bypass the penalty. So the number of tokens created at casting is important, since you might not have enough to all guests.
When revoking the invitation, the token becomes worthless, but foes not need to be retrieved.
OK, here is a related question.
What if the Redcap has a pair of boots with the Leap of Homecoming on them, with all the form requites built into it, but the boots do not have any penetration. If she is holding the mouse in her hand when she uses the boots to return to the covenant , does she take the mouse with her?
I am thinking no, the mouse stays behind, since the effect of the boots is not strong enough to penetrate the mouses magic resistance. Does anyone have conflicting thoughts?
AFAIK correct. Bloody mouse....
Xavi