OK. One more piece of information he searches out at night, before Prometheus' meeting. Are there anybody out of doors at night? I assume town guards and nightmen belong to a later era.
When Prometheus appears from his meeting, he says: «he keeps himself to himself. I have not tried much yet. Maybe tomorrow. Have your visit been rewarding?»
Larione wants to leave it 2-3 nights after the last scouting mission, before he makes an attempt on the shop.
That's a lot, how many were there?
There were 23 people, including the serving wench
Wow, that's a fourth of the House according to HoH:S.
I tend to ignore the numbers of magi in the books because I find them ridiculously low. 96 tytalus spread through 13 tribunals would average 7 per tribunal with a few extra. The description of setting up a cabal indictates that a tytalus will send an invitation to all other tytalus within a fortnights travel. travel by foot is considered to be 20 miles per day, which puts a fortnight at 280 miles, typically, which is about 1/2 the length of the Roman tribunal. If we went by canon numbers the invitation join a cabal such as this would go out to 3 mages, at which point preserving anonymity would be pointless. obviously the authors didn't put any real thought into the writing, so I ignore their numbers for membership in the houses and order.
«The visit has been interesting and still will be. I have another visit planned very close to here» Prometheus replies.
«And the carpenter keeps sitting on his coins, you say? I would pay him a visit, but I'd prefer not to be the last stranger visiting just before his coins disappear. Does he really never leave his workshop?»
«He attends the guild, it seems, but that isn't often,» answers Larione. «You have business with him too? I didn't realise. I was going to wait a day or two anyway.»
«Oh no, I don't. I just thought you might use another pair of eyes or a helping hand in the preparation phase of your next business endeavor», Prometheus replies with a sly smile, «I have an appointment in a couple of days and no specific plans until then.»
[Not sure if that is lack of creativity, but I don't see what kind of research or activities Prometheus could undertake towards his own plot in the limited time. On the other hand, intensifying his relation to a capable thief and potentially make some coin in the process for himself doesn't sound too bad]
«Oh. Thanks. That could be useful.»
Prometheus is looking expectantly at Larione.
After a while, he harrumphs and asks: «What would you need to know? You say the wife and the journeymen do leave the shop regularly? Do you think any of them knows where the silver is?»
[I thought about Posing the silent question with 'where do you hide your coin?', but with him not leaving??? I should be able to spont InMe around 10 (2+11+11-6+stress/2=9+?) or In* or *Mearound 4 or 5 (2+11-6+stress/2=3+?, anything else doesn't make sense, especially with the aura. Thinking about InTe, but something like probe for pure silver will not work without entering the shop. Still browsing through spell guidelines...]
«The journeymen do not live in the building, and they also leave for lunch. I get the impression that the master locks up himself and is very private about his treasures. The wife goes shopping once a week.» Larione explains. «What I need to know? All information is good information. I don't expect to learn exactly what I want to if I choose a strategy first, so I gather the information I can first, and look for opportunities. I need to know if the windows at the back can be broken into; I have not checked it out yet to avoid being seen in the area too often.»
«I think I can't really help with the window and neither the wife nor the journeymen are likely to know what you want to know - given the carpenter's avarice. So, I think I'll better leave it to professional hands.»
After a brief pause, he adds: «Would be good, if you didn't get into trouble and needed help for the next three days.»
When the time of the next meeting comes, Prometheus leaves Palermo to the east, finds a quite spot and Benessa, disguised against recognition, goes to the caves south of Palermo.
After a few days' break, Larione decides to give it a try in the darkness of the night. He has, in advance, scouted out all possible escape routes, identifying both roof top and street level escapes, as well as hiding places. Is the town walled?
Approaching the house, he consults his guts. Do they give any bad premonitions¹?
He takes the dowsing² stone in his hand, and thinks about an opening to get into the house. If his dowsing does not give a positive response, he will try every window and door to see if something is open, or easily breakable. With the dowsing stone tight in his
hand he enters the narrow street between the buildings. If necessary, he will scale the walls, pressing against the opposite wall, to enter on the first floor.
It is a bit early to take big risks, so he is very alert, and may abort if the premonitions suggest so.
OOC¹ Do I roll premonitions myself, or do you want to keep the roll secret?
OOC² I can probably roll this myself, or?
You feel unusually calm as you contemplate the potential outcomes of your breaking into the house.
The dowsing is of no help, as you do not have a sympathetic representation of an opening, leaving it up to his reason whether to try a shuttered window, the door, or some other method.
note: medieval windows are not like modern windows- they typically are a simple opening covered with some form of frame to prevent easy entry. these range from simple loose wicker to thin mica which works like glass but requires a fairly small area as the stones can be of limited size. The windows on the bottom level have an exterior protection of iron bars in a hatch pattern, while the windows on the top floor have a simple wooden frame covering them. The shutters are closed for all the window however, and closed from the inside.
You don your disguise and head to the meeting, where there are 13 members present, the cave is lit by glowing orbs floating in the air. A short period passes while you wait to see if anyone else is coming, before the meeting begins. "Unless anyone else has further suggestions on how to proceed, the three main methods we would need to start with it to identify which covenants would be willing to establish chapter houses in Africa, seeing if we can recruit mage errants to try and start a Roman covenant in Africa, and to decide how to handle the Malta settlement. Ideas?"
Benessa speaks up early. «I think Malta is the key to open the door. A group of magi - that are not us - has inquired information about the legal situation of Malta and apparently decided to take their chances. That, and the fact you mention them leads me to think it is a grey area, just like chapter houses further south. The subtlety, or lack thereof leads me to think they are mage errants, searching for a place to live. We should ensure they successfully whiten the first grey in the treaty.»
another Magus speaks up "There is more to this I think, one of my agents has informed me that Queen Constance, as one of her first acts taking the throne of Sicily, granted a group a charter for a hilltop in Malta that sounds like it might be the same group. This sounds like it could well be a sign of interfering with mundanes. I agree that we need to use this covenant to whiten the grey, but we should keep this in our back pocket as a way to undermine the settlement if we need to in order to prevent things from going the other direction. Simultaneously we should prevent anyone else from discovering this potential problem until we are ready to make use of it, either to disarm it or to eliminate the settlement."
Another chimes in "We need to discuss existing covenants, which of them might be persuaded to set up chapter houses in Africa, especially if this gray is whitened, and who might offer our canaries a charter as a chapterhouse?"
«They have a royal charter? Interesting. However, they need to lay low for six years. We already know about them. If we presented them a chapterhouse charter from one of the covenants, they might accept. If need be with some convincing. The mundane interference could be a card we keep in our sleeves anyway, but influence from within is more likely to guide them smoothly.»
"Certainly, if anyone has the opportunity to join them, without sacrificing their existing networks of agents and resources, they should definitely take it. failing that we should try and get an agent within, intelligence at minimum, hopefully they will recruit an autocrat, steward, chamberlain or turb captain that we can either recruit or ensure our agent is hired."
«I suppose none of us should join, as he or she would lift his or her secrecy. But, I know a mage errant I could send their way.» Benessa gauges the reaction to the proposal and adds after a brief pause: «We should make sure, he comes well equipped, not as a desperate applicant.»
"Well of course they should join then, perhaps with an offer to find a covenant that will offer a chapterhouse relationship until they achieve membership as a covenant. If anyone has pull with the council... but it would be hard to promise that this early."