Hermetic Tourneys in Normandy

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

It's a bit unclear to me from the text, but given the number of prizes (IIRC "Sieges"), can teams from covenants outside of the Normandy Tribunal ie. Provencal, Stonehenge and Rhine in particular, compete for the vis sources?

Thanks,

Lachie / Jarkman

2

Teams from other tribunals certainly can compete; a large proportion of the vis (not vis sources) available as prizes come from the fee charged foreign teams. I'd imagine that a non-Normandy team would not want to bother with a vis source as a prize, and instead take a lump sum or a book (under the same 7 year loan as a Normandy magus).

However, if your covenant is close to the vis source which you win as a prize, or you don't mind making a trip every year, then there is no reason why you shouldn't take it. However, the vis source still 'belongs' to the Normandy tribunal, and you have no rights over it following the seven year lease. The latter point may not have been tested under Hermetic Law yet.

Mark

3

Thanks for clearing this up a bit - I must have missed some of the detail in the initial reading.

Given that Castra Solis is just over the border and House Flambeau apparently migrated from the Normandy Tribunal in around ~1060, taking with it the rest of Gascony to join Provencal it seemed reasonable that these former Normandy covenants would still be tempted to compete for vis etc.

Regards,

Lachie

4

I thought it looked like a fantastic opportunity for a light-hearted couple of competitive sessions, maybe a good way to present an important text, or even a good arc with a political subplot or murder mystery thrown in, but that could be the shenanigans of the horse track here sneaking in again...

-Ben.

5

I ran a tourney a few sessions ago and your covenant is preparing up for our second competition.

The Hastiludium was our best event it was mad fun with sponts going of every which way. We were able to destroy the other teams mules twice. Once with a spontaneous perdo herbam. Merinita road range for the win and once with a verditus crossbow.

We also got a sense of how deadly the joust is. The only thing that saved our magus who entered was a fast-cast wizard's leap as he was about to be skewered by a pegasus riding faerie magus. As a piece of advice, doublet of impenetrable silk doesn't cut it in the joust.