Further Advancement
Mustering Out
I am looking at The Woad, and it appears he only advanced a few years and not a whole cycle. I also see no indication of chronology. Not that this is required, but it is useful.
How old was he when he was Gauntleted? How many years of development? He earned 3 pawns per year on average.
I am not worried about proper ratios of advancement versus lab, since this is such a short period of time. The Cycles system was created to prevent certain abuses that are possible even with strict RAW. I had one pllayer spend 20 years building up just two arts, then at the end spent a year or two making a super talisman and mega familiar. Then, with only two art scores above 0, he thought he could make a challenge for archmagus.
Andorra may be a powerful covenant, but not unlimited power. And The Woad is not from Andorra. Plus, this saga is not at the top power level. It is second from top (Low, Medium, High, Legendary).
In my pov, there are mainly two things that mark this saga as high powered. Mainly it is the advancement HRs, granting 33% more xp and letting characters achieve mysteries and such before play. The other part, probably more significant than we realize, is that I don't dk pllayers over with artificial limits and HRs to stymie you. That seems to be the trend for most others (from what I read in forum discussions).
Looking at this spear though, it does seem very minor. Opened with 4 pawns, invested with 2 pawns. That is only two years salary. Making it a superior spear costs only a half pawn (economics). Though technically you receive your salary at the end of a cycle (or the few years), this is a very small amount and I am willing to hand-wave at it. No Retcon is needed.