Having experienced one of Fixer4 megalong stories, I can say from experience that it is well worth it. He plans things out much better than I do. And he has the true grit it takes to see it through (as opposed to me, who has a tendency to retcon or retire).
I can help. A lot of what I do is improvisation. And I like to draw on my favorites for inspiration. For that one, I draw from one who is perhaps the most influential author of the 20th century.
I speak of none other than Stan Lee.
Old Fantastic Four from the 60s, a group of superbings called The Inhumans. Warped and mutated by these mists.
As for this game though, Sigmundo once droped that name and mentioned it was how he learned to shapeshift. I also has Maurice take a dose and learn to adopt a human form.
As for the wiki wording...
I had once imagined wilderness mystery paths, like those in GotF, but based on the Pyrenees. Old fashioned style: Sacrifice/Quest/Fruit.
That one mystery alluded to, hinted at but not detailed, was supposed to be a two step shapeshifter deal. The first Fruit is a lesser form of shapechanging. Such as Persona. Or maybe even Shapeshifting with a restriction (all forms must have sympathy with your true identity, which would let Vibria become a drake but not a bear).
Blahblahblah. Just tossing out the original inspiration source and thoughts that I had. The two of you can feel free to get creative and have fun with imagination.
Gargle
Thanks Marko, coming from you, that's very important praise to me
Well, this doesn't help as much as you think. As a fellow comics fan, I recognized the inspiration perfectly Likewise, I recognized the GotF bit. So... Well, this actually teaches me nothing new
But, well, what's important to me is to fit this into what you've established. I thought about this this WE, and have an idea among these lines, I just didn't want to contradict anything you'd written or wanted to use.
So, Peregrine:
I have this outline about the mists, the quest, the fruit. It is clear, although rough. I'll try to keep it simple and short.
Questions:
When do you want to go for it?
What degree of disclosure do you want beforehand? I imagined something like:
Hardcore Gamer (Also called "Play it like Wujcik"): You want power? You go for it, without knowing what changes this'll bring. This is more akin to the original comics roots. You will get a virtue and a flaw.
Experienced Gamer: I tell you rough outlines, such as "You gain Puissance in an ability, and a minor personality flaw"
Casual Gamer: You get full disclosure, such as "You gain Puissant Bargain and the Busybody flaw"
Note: I'm still shifting precise details, so I may not currently be able to give you the Casual Gamer level of info.
Also, this isn't a mystery, this is a more primal path of Initiation, so, although there's always a chance for failure, unless you fumble something (like, if you're supposed to hang a week from a tree, cutting yourself free on the 3rd day), it should work fine.
My phone has been out of comission. Virgin pay as I go deal, and it is my interweb link. Sorted it out and back in action. It wasn't for lack of funds. It was an issue of timing and being lazy and avoiding certain people.
:mrgreen:
Give me a few days and I will drop cluster bombs again. I have reserved my whole Wednesday for gaming
As for the Mist, very little has been established. Sigmundo alluded that this is how he learned to shapechange. Maurice used it and can now take human form (and a housecat shape too). Some wilderness path stuff. And blahblahblah. The rest is wide open. I have no lingering plans. I tend to improvise a lot but like to have lots of miscellaneous tangibles to build from. So whatever you do with it, at some future point I will improv off of it and pretend I planned it 10 years ago
I am not sure if Felecia is capable of assisting. She does not have The Gift. Not sure if you made her a familiar yet, but even if you did she is capable of helping you but not another. I will check up on that though. It is not a game breaker if she can though so I am inclined to let it slide of the troupe agrees.
The basic concept I could see involves control over actions of a potential patient or person being examined. For example sleep would be the most basic, or helping to overcome modesty for an examination.
Ultimately the goal is to get a +3 corpus effect for Fleur's lab.
Off hand I can imagine something like Heinliens Lethe field generator. Which blocks out all knowledge and memory of pain and allows the physician to work complex surgery without drugs.
If so, my idea is mostly useless, then, I thought about original research, and affecting the humors :-/
For an enchantment, I'd refer you again to covenants: Imagine a cool effect that may help. If it looks like an existing a Laboratory Virtue (including a Lab Focus!), you gain that virtue. It's only if it doesn't that, as a rule of thumb, you may gain points based on the enchantment's effect. This isn't the default option, it's the fallback plan when all else fails. Why do people keep going right at this????
Now, for an effect... Anything that could keep a target in one place is always useful (I believe there's a prison feature? Or something like that? Holding Pen?).
You could bind a ghost as a guardian (I believe this helps with corpus), force it to possess a corpse acting as a servant, or maybe as a... the name for a non-gifted person in the lab? Person? Wirth had this with clara before.
To try and recycle my idea, a looking glass with an InMe effect may help you perceive the effects of imbalances in the humors otherwise brought by disease, wounds or Corpus magics (this'd be a nice feature), giving you insight on that last form.
First, your emphasis on the word "may" seems incorrect to me. The rules in Covenants state: "Second, if the effect does not resemble a Laboratory Virtue or Flaw, then the final level of the effect determines how many points of Characteristics or Specializations may be gained. Every ten levels may grant one point in a Specialization, or every 20 levels may improve a Characteristic by one point." (See, Covenants, p. 121.) There's no "may" in that statement. It clearly says that if the the effect does not resemble a Laboratory Virtue or Flaw, then the final level of the effect determines how many points of Characteristics or Specializations may be gained. No ambiguity or conditionals there.
So it seems to me that the real question is whether a given effect resembles a Virtue or a Flaw, and here is where I run into a conundrum. Lab Focus, as you note, gives a +1 to a given Specialization. That can theoretically apply to any effect that grants a +1 to a Specialization. Why then do the rules allow for a situation in which Lab Focus does not apply, and in which you look then to the magnitude of the resulting enchantment? Why is there a second option at all for Specializations when the Virtue Lab Focus exists. Under standard legislative interpretation, the conclusion would be that the drafters of this rule assumed that there would be some situations in which Lab Focus did not apply as a bonus for a Specialization. This is further supported by the inclusion of the Bookstand of Hespera and the Prodigious Plant Pot, which each grant a two point bonus to a Specialization, rather than granting a similar one point bonus for the Virtue Lab Focus. We have to ask ourselves what it is about an item that does or does not make it a Lab Focus.
Let's look at the Bookstand of Hespera and the Prodigious Plant Pot by way of example. (Curiously, there is no example of an item that grants the Virtue Lab Focus.) Why is the BoH not a Lab Focus in Texts or in Rego? Likewise, why is the PPP not a Lab Focus in Creo or Herbam? It would be easy, under your interpretation, to simply make such an interpretation and be done with it. +1 to Texts or +1 to Herbam; problem solved. But that's not what the game developers clearly intended. Both of these devices are to be interpreted under the Secondary rules, granting +2 instead of +1. Why?
One could argue that while these are useful items, they aren't a "focus" of the lab. Odd, I'll admit, when they would give a +2 and a focus would only give a +1.
Perhaps it's a matter of magnitude. As you get higher in magnitude, there may be an expectation that you ought to get a bit more than a simple +1. For example, if I create a moving statue that's a ReTe 60 item, I'm gonna feel kind of gypped if it only gives me a +1 Terram when a TeRe 15 enchanted statue could do the same thing. Perhaps the secondary rules are there as an incentive (and a reward) to reach for higher magnitude items.
In addition, I note that Lab Focus only adds points to a Specialization; it does not add to a Characteristic. So, if someone wanted to create a device to increase General Quality or Safety, for example, they would have to use the second rules, in which each 20 points corresponds to a +1 Characteristic. Furthermore, given that this rule exists, and given that the Tireless Servant specifically demonstrates this rule, we must assume that there are items that give such bonuses.
Of course, one might look at the Tireless Servant servant and ask why it's not simply interpreted as a Lab Focus in Re or Co. Based on your comments, I strongly suspect that you might have been tempted to make just such an interpretation absent the specific write up of the Tireless Servant in Covenants. All I can say is that it isn't, and as such clearly sets the precedent that there are Characteristic-improving items that are not Lab Focuses.
So, the only conclusion I can come to is that there are non-Lab-Focus magic items that add points to Specializations and Characteristics based on their magnitude. The rules clearly provide for them, and the game developers clearly intended them to exist. Furthermore, the line between a Lab Focus item and a so-called Secondary Rule item is fuzzy. In the end, I welcome any guidance you can give that is consistent with the exemplary items as to how to determine which rule to apply. What, under your interpretation, would be a non-Lab-Focus item that gives a +1 to General Quality? What would be a non-Lab-Focus item that gives a +2 to an Art? Any examples would be greatly appreciated.
Now to continue Carmen's lessons on basic Magic Theory. She speaks on the limits of magic, the soft boundaries and hard barriers. I shall not rewrite what is in printed text elsewhere. Instead, more of my made up bs as she enlightens Lucien on the Seven Essential Mysteries.
As I told you, the first and greatest breakthrough of Hermetic Magic was the creation of Parma Magica. It is the cornerstone upon which our Order is founded.
Then there is the Unfied Magic Theory of Bonisagus. His categorization of all magical feats into combinations of what is being done with or to what. The Arts are not states of nature. They are a way of defining states of nature. The Arts are not defines by the vis we find. The vis is defined by our understanding of the Arts. For example, what we call and use as a Pawn of Vim. To a hedge wizard it might be a pawn of spirit used the same as we use Mentem, and to them Mentem is the same as Vim. Or maybe not? Hedge magic has some interesting advantages and differences, but on the whole it is generally far inferior. It is more advantageous to enhance Hermetic Magic with mystery.
I soke of Seven Mysteries! Arcane secrets every magus knows! The first two are unique to the Order, and hold the greatest power. These are Parma Magica and the system of Arts! We take these for grantes for they are the methods and means we immerse ourselves in daily and share as a society. But remember! To an outsider, these are both great mysteries and powers beyond our ken.
Then comes Alchemy! And Astrology! Both which have ancient roots and are intertwined in all systems of magic in one way or another. Simple basic alchemy is at the foundation of many basic principles and proceedures of our Hermetic system. Shape & Material. Form & Effect. Philosophiae Ritual Ceremony.
Astrology times the durations of our spells and effects. The cycles govern our seasons and our rituals.
Some magi choose to delve even deeper into these ancient secrets. Many benefits, but perhaps with diminishing results for the efforts? Some Hedge wizards focus on these alone, such as the herbalists and diviners.
Incantation! Not all wizards can work magic this way, but many do. And not all of our magic is dependant on it. But we have the power of Invocation! Our words have power, not only for defining the intent of our will, but the volume of our voice and vigor of our gestures command the very forces of nature and carry manifestation upon the wind! For some spells, the range of my voice determines how far I can hurl my power. For some castings, the force I put into my sounds and symbols will add strength to my conjurings.
And there are rumors of mysteries that enhance the power of incanting. Names of Power. True Theurgic Invocation. Sensory Magic. Who knows what more!
Then there is the Mystery of Twilight. An understanding unique to Hermetic Magic, a way of coping with Warping in a manner far more efficient than any hedge wizard can manage. Warping is ever present and pervasive when dealing with the magical world. You may have noticed it before but did not know what it was. This you shall learn.
Only Hermetic magi can avoid the efects of Warping and then only to a limited extent. The slow steady natural accumulation will have no effect upon you. But when it comes upon you in a rush, it can still overwhelm you. You can try to control it, but it may be quicker and easier to let it wash you and comprehend Twilight. Remeber what I said about Insight? Twilight can be a potent path to power, or it can damage you or take you away forever into the Void.
Like it did to my Father.
I told you six secrets!
I promised you seven. Truth is I sorta made that number up. Your my first student and it sounded cool. Now that I am at the end of the list, I don't know how to cap it off. There are far more than seven. Certamen is a mystery created by Tremere based on some secret he knew from something. Nightwalkers? It is a minor thing and only works between two Hermetic Magi, and I almost want to skip it. But it counts.
So make it Eight Arcane Secrets. For I want to end this lesson by speaking about Familiars.
Different wizards have different ways of binding spirits or animals as servants and such. Hermetic Magic does it differently. We bond with the creature. They become a part of us as much as we become part of them and extend our magic though them and they through us. Symbiosis.
This one truely is a mystery. Even to me for I have yet to bind with one. You will be helping me do this once you are trained well enough to assist in the lab.
Merinita, the Founder, she introduced the Familiar Mysteries to Hermetic Magic!
The only other tradition system I know of that binds familiars the way we do are the Folk Witches. I think there is a link. Merinita imported their mystery into our magic system and then refined it? Vastly refined!
Most every other magus here has a familiar. Here I am, senior in rank, and what do I have? I will tell you what! I have a talented and powerful apprentice! I will train you well, and when you grow old enough you are going to help me locate and bond the most impressive familiar yet. A griffon from the peaks of the Pyrenees!
Eh?
Likewise, I recognized the GotF bit. So... Well, this actually teaches me nothing new 
