actually if it is infernal then the money is cursed to not be productive as an investment...
I will address your crucial edit. It's very hard not to metagame with a Story Guide.
I personally find bean-counting in games gets in the way of the story. Even in games with detailed money systems, I tend to hand waive the cost of staying in inns, buying a meal, etc, as it's dull. If I presented this Mercer free money to players, they would probably assume I just wanted to hand waive the bean counting, but wanted a spring covenant.
If you had a SG who has a reputation for diabolical plots, it would be challenging not to see sinister intent.
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It doesn't require sinister intent to generate a diabolical plot... redcaps can be patsies.
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Somewhere there is some left handed intent. Maybe not the red caps, but if there's a diabolical plot, the demons are not dexter, that's for sure.
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A truly diabolical plot will be one where they are damned one way if they d ad damned another way if they don't, though of course more convoluted. a competition, for example, between a demon of greed and a demon of pride.
He who pays the piper calls the tune. So no.
It is unlikely that the Redcaps have any nefarious plans. Why give them the temptation to exert control over the covenant?
According to House of Hermes True Lineages, Redcaps are traditionally paid 12 silver pennies per visit, and covenants that fail to pay are visited less often. I am not sure how to reconcile that with a Redcap that casually offers to supply all of a covenants mundane needs.
I'll accept the money.
However, I'll still try to find a regular and controllable source of income for the covenant. The problem is that the redcap source can disappear without notice, simply because they have a shortage or simply because politics shift within the house and they decide to reorient money.
Even if the redcaps motivations are good, it ties your covenant to the health of house Mercere, making you de facto political allies.
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My character would accept it and use it to finance merchants who were just starting out. (invest it) Then keep investing at a high rate, while he waits for the "ask" from the redcaps. But he is a Tytalus, so seeing what house Mercere is really after would be the aim. So, use it as bootstraps to develop a distribution network.
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Note: Covenants usually pay (or rather "tip") individual Redcaps, not House Mercere.
In this case the supply offer is made by House Mercere, not by the Redcap (albeit through the Redcap).
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Ok, thanks for all the votes, and even more so, for all the explanations. It was very interesting (and at times surprising: people seem to see demons everywhere, which may be very medieval, but it's definitely not the case here).
Just in case you may be wondering, here's what happening in the background (leaving out a few less important details). Basically, there's a (struggle for a) change of leadership in House Mercere. The new up-and-coming faction is a mercantile one that focuses on trade, loans and the like (see HoH:TL, and C&G). They realized the following:
They just can!
a) Through magic, the difference between creating a given amount of wealth for a single covenant, or for half the Order (i.e. for about 100 covenants), is marginal: just 2 magnitudes.
b) The fundamental problem with mundane wealth is then not really creation, but (re)distribution. You can easily create hundreds of thousands of Mythic Pounds in spices, silver, silk etc. But what then? An individual covenant wants food, weapons, lab equipment, books, a little silver to pay for its specialists (and a way for them to spend it) etc.
c) House Mercere already has a vast distribution network interfacing with mundanes. It can ship bulk goods throughout Europe thanks to its portals, and has several Redcaps working as merchants, ship captains etc. So, for them, "redistributing" enough wealth to support the whole Order is not that hard.
d) Note that c) covers the second part of the trade too: acquiring those goods that covenants need, and that are more or less the same for all covenants: food, lab equipment, weapons etc.
So the mercantile faction sees a huge opportunity to gain power for House Mercere within the Order, and by reflection to gain power for itself within House Mercere.
Here's the plan!
House Mercere plans, subtly, to start replacing the Sources of Income of individual covenants with their own largesse. They won't press the issue. But Sources of Income constantly come and go; whenever a covenant looks for a new one, House Mercere will simply freely offer its own largesse as an alternative. From the point of view of the covenant's magi, it means getting what they need without effort, from a party they already trust with their correspondence, so House Mercere expects most will accept. Over several decades, perhaps a century, they expect to be in control of the greater part of the mundane wealth of the Order.
Of course, not all magi will accept. House Tremere will likely keep its own reserves. A few shady, Tytalan covenants will prefer to retain their untraceable wealth for their nefarious purposes. Some will keep on producing their own wealth because of tradition, because they enjoy it, etc. But the more widely accepted "Mercere support" becomes, the more natural it feels to accept it, and the shadier it looks to refuse it -- what do you want to hide, and wouldn't it be way safer to let the Redcaps handle what they clearly can handle?
Once in control of most of the Order's mundane wealth, House Mercere will have enormous power even if it never explicitly pressures anyone. From its purchases, it will have extra intelligence on what's going on in the Order. Covenants will be mildly dependent on it, and likely to defend it in a crisis -- and to help it with magic and votes on a regular basis even without any pressure. In fact, given that they delegate that part of mundane interaction to House Mercere, most covenants will likely slowly come to delegate even more -- asking for House Mercere's information on the mundane world, mediation with nobles and the church, etc. etc. Eventually, interaction with mundanes will really mean interaction with House Mercere for the rest of the Order ... and mundane-powers-that-be will come to believe that the Order is House Mercere.
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For what its worth the plot you describe is pretty much exactly the nefarious kind of plot that many posters (myself included) expressed a concern about.
So I dont think you are being very honest when you say that the suspicion of nefarious action is unfounded. What you describe is nothing less than a plot to gain control over the entire order of Hermes. So in the case of the current thread I think that much of the suspicion is kind of on point.
I dont doubt that the Merceres in question believe that they are acting for the betterment of the entire order, but speaking from the perspective of someone who is not among that group of Merceres I would rather they didnt get that level of control over me, good intentions or not. Most evil overlords begin with good intentions and it is only once they have you in their power that they show their true face, and sometimes even plain change for the worse.
The problem with this plot is the time it takes. Many decades for sure, centuries likely - while Mythic Europe, in particular mundane Mythic Europe, will develop, and the Order of Hermes with it.
How they develop in your saga is your business - but would the Order really withdraw from the world because it could do so and remain materially secured? Do magi have no interest in scholars, universities, cosmology, trade routes and discoveries, but just in Hermetic lab research?
That's why I wrote that our covenant would consider such an attempt pollyannish and bound to fail rather quickly. Indeed, with the magi besides House Mercere not being all introvert lab rats, taking care of the immediate material needs also of the curious and outgoing magi should in the end speed up the integration of the Order with the mundane world, not block it.
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Though of course that would not necessarilly prevent teh mercere from trying. Tremere might even aid the process along in order to fabricate a new threat for the order to respond to, and Tytalus will involve themselves in any number of ways...
Actually, there may be some misunderstanding here. I meant "demons" in a very literal sense. Several people expressed concerns about the Redcap being a creature of Infernal Might. This is much more mundane.
Also, let me say it's a bit of an exaggeration to say this is "nothing less than a plot to gain control over the entire order of Hermes". It is significantly less. It's about gaining control over an entire aspect of the order of Hermes (mundane wealth; possibly mundane interaction in the long run) that most magi would rather have someone else take care of; and to do so in a fairly benevolent way that actually makes life easier for everyone.
I mean, imagine if you had a nice ... niece of yours who said "I am into house-cleaning. I do it for a living. I like seeing houses go from dirty mess to spotless. And honestly, uncle, I mean no offense but yours tends to gravitate towards the first group. I'm of half a mind, on my way to work on Thursday afternoons, to spend an hour at your place just giving it a quick fix. How about it? It would help me discharge my debt to you for all the times you've baby-sat me when I was a small kid." Would you see that as a nefarious plot to gain control of your entire life?
I think it would take significantly less than centuries. I mean, ask yourself -- based on either your own covenants, or published ones: how old is on average a given Source of Income?
Yes, that's indeed one possibility of why House Mercere may not fully manage to isolate the Order from mundane society. There are three crucial points though.
a) I do not consider the plan "pollyannish". So, at least a fraction of House Mercere would likely assume it has a fair chance to succeed. It would not be the first time that the "inconceivable!" happens.
b) Even if House Mercere does not manage to become the Order's "mundane interface", the rest of the plan -- getting a large fraction of the Order seriously dependent on it, is very very likely to succeed. And if it doesn't, I mean, what have they lost? They just created a lot of goodwill by offering to help covenants (and making good on those offers when accepted) without asking for anything in return.
c) But if the large majority of the Order does start to accepts "Mercere money" as normal, House Mercere may well try to exert a final push (ideally immediately after some big case of mundane trouble caused e.g. by a Jerbiton, Flambeau or Tytalus): get a vote at the Grand Tribunal where the "do not interfere with mundanes" clause is reaffirmed, but in recognition of how things have changed from the time of the founders, House Mercere is exempted from the requirement in exchange for freely acting as proxy for the rest of the Order -- a little like Bonisagus magi get apprentices in exchange for freely sharing their discoveries with the rest of the Order.
part c would be difficult unless redcaps suddenly started voting, in which case why bother with the middle man since by sheer numbers they can probably win any vote.
Well, not really; redcaps are worth maybe 2 Houses in terms of sheer numbers.
But -- keeping in mind that House Mercere does not need to win c in order for their plan to be a success -- this is how I would see the vote, assuming House Mercere times it well.
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House Bonisagus would be in favour, after many decades in which the arrangement has kept their research extraordinarily well-funded, and reduced nuisances from the mundane world. Besides, another House having a "privilege" (which they do not care about) would make their oft contested "apprentice privilege" more solid.
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House Guernicus would be really in favour, given the evidence that Mercere management of mundane interactions in the past few decades has kept "interference with mundanes" to a minimum. Plus, Mercere has always been a loyal, solid, dependable house.
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House Tremere would try to (and possibly get) something out of it, either concessions, or a loophole that only they can exploit ("It does not apply where magi rule openly"). But ultimately, they would probably be mildly in favour. Because they have the organization to produce everything they need (food, weapons, books, etc.) "in house", while other Houses do not. Going with House Mercere's plan would make most other Houses weaker, leaving Tremere comparatively stronger. House Mercere would be made stronger ... but being mostly non-magi, are no threat. Last but not least, it would be a vote in favour of a more centralized, stable Order, which is the type of cultural revolution the Tremere really dig.
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House Bjornaer would be somewhat divided, but -- especially if the Wilderists are in charge at the time -- would mostly welcome a stance that insulates the Order from the mundane world.
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House Criamon would be similarly somewhat divided. But if the Mercere had done a good job so far, they would probably be mildly in favour of an arrangement that just seems to work.
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House Merinita would be divided. Basically, Merinita care about faeries, and faeries care about humans, so that's a reason to somewhat oppose the proposal. At the same time, the vote could lay the foundation for a similar ruling where interaction with faeries is given as exclusive privilege to House Merinita...
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House Verditius would be mostly in favour if House Mercere has proved that they can work as excellent "distributors" for their magic items to the mundane world, has kept them pampered and well-funded for a few decades, and is a major client.
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House Flambeau would be mostly against the proposal, given their long history of meddling in mundane affairs. Then again, the opposition of Flambeau on this principle would be something that pushes other Houses to be more in favour.
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House Jerbiton would be unanimously against the proposal.
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House Tytalus would be, as usual, split 50/50.
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Ex Miscellanea would probably be somewhat opposed per se, given that many of its members interact with the mundane world often. At the same time, it's so divided that a careful bribing campaign would probably turn most of it in favour.
Tallying the votes ... I guess the proposal has a chance to pass by a small margin, even with the Redcaps abstaining.
I think you have to begin with reduced houses to far too much of a stereotype- mages vote individually not by house, except Tremere who would definitely be against the plan- why would they voteto let redcaps achieve the goal they have been seeking to achieve? Bonisagus lab rats who aren't too paranoid might support it, but seekers would feel to hampered by it, and Trianoma in general would feel it as giving away too much control of the order.
Guernicus is explicitly divided on topics regarding interferance with mundanes between those who want to allow greater freedom of interaction and those who want to maintain the status quo, so neither of these would favor the redcaps plans.
Many bjorner want to interfere with mundanes to preserve the wilderness and especially magic areas from them- as noted houses do not vote as a block and some might prefer not to involve themselves with mundanes but I expect the house would result in a small number of net votes against the measure.
Criamon would actually largely be in favor- they seek to leave the world behind and disengaging with mundanes would be a step in that direction.
Merinita would certainly be mostly opposed.
House Verditius would be massively opposed since they do sell to mundanes fairly routinely and don't want extra middle men involving themselves, especially as a monopolistic clearing house.
Tytalus is also largely defined by interfering with mundanes, though through numerous proxies, and would be about 80% opposed (20% believing the extra regulation will work in their favor as they circumvent the new rules)
Ex Miscanea would be largely insulted by the idea that they would accept greater dependence on the Order in exchange for some measly bribes.
Finally house Flambeau is likely to take the approach that if redcaps want to pretend to be real mages then they can deal with wizard wars likely the rest of them and they will find a different way to get their mail.
Now the first part of the plan to make the order more dependent on them is okay, but flawed in that 1) they won't win trust that easily and 2) mages will likely desire more and more resources that will be hard to meet the demand.
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Think about your own life. Are there people you have to deal with, but it's uncomfortable? That's every interaction in the mundane world for people with the gift.
Think about tedious admin. Paying the utilities, land rates, school fees. Would you accept someone just doing this for you?
For those who want to interact with the Mundane World, nothing is stopping them. This plan just acknowledges there's a lot of tedious interactions that Mercere could generously offer to do, and if enough of those interactions are done by Mercere, it will bring power with it.
I think the only big issue would be the power play aspect. Other magi would be blind not to see the cost of becoming dependant on House Mercere, however, how high is the cost?
They are magi. If it goes wrong, they can use magic to sort a solution.
Any magi knows they can, if they have to, use magic to crunch out mundane wealth. Activities that take scores of mundane workers months can be done in hours with magic. It's just most magi would prefer to do interesting stuff, then deal with the day to day. Modern day comparison again. I'm typing on a web forum. Why aren't I weeding the garden? 
The arrogance of the magi, combined with their dislike of dealing with Mundanes who hate them because of the gift, means this is a win-win for many magi.
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Interesting! Do you generally play without companions? No
- autocrat, steward, venditores and agents,
- sages, librarians and scribes,
- grog sergeants, craftsmen and teamsters,
- tame chaplains, legists, merchants, knights and nobles?
But even then, most other covenants have them in most sagas. See also Covenants and TtA.
Yes, RedCaps can be verrry versatile. I like playing a resident RedCap.
House Mercere provides indeed (HoH:TL p.88 box Hermetic Charity) surreptitious help to needy magi, like those just founding a covenant and having few companions and no mundane connections yet - but so far it has not sounded an all out attack on companions.
Not even the OP of this thread suggests something that radical.
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