Yes, I like the +3. It could be up to +3 in total maximum for all virtues, with +1 per minor virtue, or +3 per major virtue (in this case, paphos woul need only to work onone major virtue.)
Speaking of labs, what is the general policy on lab upkeep? I'm not sure if the covenant has much in the way of income. That could really make a difference on what kind of a lab Talus can afford.
I think right now we should try to keep it reasonnable, i.e. as close to 0 as possible. I think +0 is 1 pound, +1 is 1.5 pound, +2 is 3 pounds and +3 is 6 pounds. We should probably taqke upkeep reducing flaws until we get some form of business running.
I think we need to revisit the source of income we plan. Right now, the covenant is shaping up to look magical a lot, and I am not sure have an hospital as a source of income, considering that:
-We as magi have a poor reputation.
-There is not a ton of people in Matla
-We are secluded right now, which I like, we don't have to worry to much about our open uses of magic, which might become more problematic if there is more people coming to our little town.
I think it is a really fine career project for all interested, but not viable as a source of income for the covenant. I don't think we own enough land to produce food, timber or cattle. Also, I don't think there would not be a lot of demand in Malta for our goods, so we would probably have to export it to the europe and/or northen africa and the levant by boat. Furthermore, I think we could use this land to become more self-sufficient with regards to food and timbers (thank you Tartessos' Instant Tree (tm)), and do some cost saving instead.
What we have going for us, income wise, is our location at a crossroad of commerce. We can go anywhere relatively easily, and some high demand, high value conjured (or not) goods could go a long way.
-Madaleen can produce good quality clothing
-Talus can probably produce good quality glass
-We can probably CrHe spices or CrAn silk
If we do that, we can drop some of it in each major trading port, so we don't unbalance the market, and get away with it, gaining a good source of income albeit vulnerable to piracy. Plus we already have most of the staff for it; we have vincente who is a ship captain, a few other sailing grogs, a ship. All we would need is a merchant and we would be ready to go. Another interesting thing with that source of incore, is that it is bound to generate a lot of stories, and having our own shipping company would enable to get rare or expensive stuff more easily.
What do you think ?
I've been thinking along the same lines. Nothing we will ever produce will be absorbed locally; we will need to be an exporter using our crossroads status. I don't think we actually have a boat - that came with a character who was never introduced. Given how piracy abounds in this local area, it should be very easy to TAKE a ship. Once we have one, I expect it will see intermittent combat just sailing local waters.
As mentioned, Vicente will be our captain, and he just trained as a group with grogs that just coincidently are strong in sailing/swimming/ranged skills.
Tartessos, as a side project when he was making the tree growing item, also made an item that is a ballista in all but name.
In terms of actual exports, a date palm produces about 25 lbs of palm sugar (jaggery) every five years. We have forty of them, for half a ton every five years, or two hundred pounds per year. This alone will give us an income of 5 Mythic pounds per year if we export them (C&G pg 142, sugar is a standard spice at 50 lbs per ton). If needed we can speed production, either by planting more trees, or harvesting EVERY year, then re-growing them. All we need are a few laborers to harvest and we are up and running. Date palm can also be used for fruit (the dates), liqour (date wine), date seed oil, and seeds can be used to make a drink similar to coffee. Very versatile trees.
Other planned income ideas (all indigenous to Malta):
Once the covenant is built we will have an excess of masons, used occasionally as a forge circle. In their spare time they can make high quality tile (they will likely also be artists).
Other agriculture: Figs, pomegranates, almonds, capers, carob syrup, truffles (soil is perfect for them and we have oak trees - just need a sniffer), fennel, rosemary, peaches, honey (Malta was named for honey, and we have a companion who can speak to bees), Maltese Kummin/Cumin has a unique flavor, Mulberry, hawthorne and myrtle all make jellies and wines.
Aquaculture - fish, shellfish etc.
non edible organics: Sandarac for resin, calligraphy and incense, Allepo Pine for wood, charcoal and resin (prized in nautical circles), cypress for wood (unique pleasant scent), White Mulberry supports silkworms, Mastic tree produces a resin prized as a varnish, Spanish Broom makes a yellow dye.
I still want to make underwater salvage a high priority. Besides the straight salvage, we can also dive for pearls at the same time.
We have a city sized lot to support single manor. Let's use it to produce things, then export them.
I've also been thinking about sources of income.
Two main problems with Malta are: (1) there's very little fresh water on Malta; and (2) there are very few trees on Malta. We can get around both of these with magic. But too much of that will draw unwanted attention. I think we can certainly make enough water and wood for our own use. But to make it an industry might be pushing it. Best we could probably do is 'find' a spring and start cultivating some agriculture as a cash crop, or maybe sheep.
Deforestation is a problem in modern day Malta. There are basically no trees except for what's cultivated. That's almost certainly not the case in medieval Malta. But trees are on the way out. Having an unlimited supply of wood might look odd.
Another possibility is to get into merchant shipping. Malta is at the crossroads of the Mediterranean. Trade is a big deal.
Looking at the list in Covenants, my thoughts on what would be useful sources of income are:
- Agriculture: Olives, citrus, and/or grapes/wine would make sense, plus all the things Kuiti says.
- Fishing: We are on an island, after all.
- Livestock: We could have some grogs raise sheep.
- Manufacturing: We could make tile, glassware, clothing, etc.
- Trade: Trade is starting to become important to Malta. Lots of ships are poised to go between Europe and the Levant through Malta.
- Wizardry: As Kuiti points out, using our magic to find salvage/pearls is another possibility.
As a side note, did you know that in the early 13th century Malta there were a large number of Muslims on the island (50% or more)? Numbers from 1241 indicate that of 1119 families living in Malta, 250 were Christian, 836 were Muslim, and 33 were Jewish (though the historian who quotes this believes that the number of Christian families should actually be 1250, with the total number of families at 2119). Furthermore, the historian opines that it wasn't until 1224 that Christian rule was established in Malta. These numbers also tell me that the population of Malta was really low (in the thousands, maybe as much as ten thousand) in the 13th century. I'm not sure that there will be many patients for the glorious hospital we're building.
Actually there's plenty of freshwater on Malta. There is a "small" Aquifer at the Blue Clay level stratigraphically (can support 25k people), but that's not near Tarxien. The "main" sea level aquifer can support about 175k people, and that is what we are currently tapped into. The difficulty is getting water where we need it, which Antonius has solved in a magnificent manner.
Yes. We can use "assisted" trees as firewood, especially if we are re-growing them next year. Eventually we will want non-timber alternatives such as lamp without flame and self heating cook pots. Fortunately the climate is so mild we need far less timber than is average in Europe.
The Maltese population is not our target. First, the Count engages in frequent combat up to the scale of full warfare. He, his family and his men would be our primary clients. In addition we could attract clients from all over the Mediterranean once our reputation is established. Likely we would offer a free clinic for the regular Maltese population, but they tend to be poor and will likely have nothing besides meager foodstuffs or labor to trade.
Looking at Covenant, a large merchant ship is a regular source of income for trade. I think 100 pounds should be enough. We could add a secondary income of manufacturing.
I think we should aim for having a covenant/town of highly skilled, highly paid specialists (and keep our population low) and use their skills reduce our cost and boost our trading operation.
Having a ship, well armed and well equiped, is a good way to have a second ship, an a third... (or 0 haha).
The +1 for aura listed in C&C is the increase in difficulty for someone who is not realm aligned. It does indicate that someone who is touched by magic uses the aura interference charts to determine how the aura affects their ability, while maestro indicates that they receive a bonus (to aesthetic quality) equal to form bonus. I'm feeling a bit embarrassed that I did not address this issue in the article, it does seem like an oversight, but I will convert this instead to a bonus to his effective craft skill equal to form+aura divided by 5. This adds +3 to his effective craft ability raising it from a +3 bonus to +4, and multiplying all structural bonuses by 4
Well, depending on our level of antics we might increase the population a good bit. On the hospital people got sick a lot in Medieval Europe. In Mythic Europe it should be similar. A lot of disease hit kids and killed them, but families also were rather large. Given those numbers over two thousand families, probably leaves a good bit over ten thousand people. We'll probably get a good churn of people. If we assume everyone gets a light wound, either disease or actual injury, every decade, and it gets cured within one week we have 70,000 people/days of treatment and 3650 days to do so. That's plenty of people for one hospital, if we can convince them to come. I very much doubt many have enough to pay a real doctor so if we offer charity work to those unable to pay we can get plenty of people to fill the beds. Hopefully word can spread and we'll get people coming in. Finally, if we provide high enough quality we might nab paying customers.
To summarize:
- We have plenty of people who need treatment.
- Most can't pay.
- So if we do charity work we'll get plenty of people.
- Hopefully we'll get lots of paying customers based on high quality service.
- We can always sell slavers into slavery to make up shortfalls in the interim. Justice?!?
On the craft bonuses from City and Guild:
I certainly wouldn't multiply anything. That's crazy talk. A sword for example isn't multiplied, but just flat adding.
Second I would treat the building or lab as one item. Applying bonuses to the lab instead of any virtues.
Third, I would argue that Superior Construction is the same as Superior quality work. Then by the same logic invent a new virtue of "Excellent Construction."
Probably something like +1 Aesthetics, +1 Safety, +1 Health, +1 points to a lab Specializations, and taken a number of times equal to the bonus the excellent quality would normally provide.
I could also see just flat out applying the bonus to all characteristics except, Refinement, Upkeep and Size. +x Safety, +x Aesthetics, +x Health, +x General Quality, +x Warping. Again x is equal to the excellent quality bonus.
The rules I am using for craft/art bonuses are from an article I submitted to SubRosa, and I am not planning on changing them.
I think I may finally be wrapping my head around the Rego Craft rules and how they apply to building.
Crafting a Laboratory Ready Room:
Assumption 1: The rules for Excellent crafting established in C&G are being applied to building/rooms. The crafting total can either be a normal Workshop total as defined in C&G, or it may be rego craft using the standard modifiers (-3 for rego crafting, an additional -6/-9 for a spell that does a season/year worth of work in an instant). The end product of this, either by normal crafting, or rego crafting is an empty room. This room may be shaped weirdly, or have other architectural features so long as it is still an empty room.
Asumption 2: These rooms can be used as a lab after following the standard lab creation rules (1 season for a basic lab, a second season to remove the basic flaw). If the craft total is a 12, it adds the virtue Superior Construction. If the craft total is 15 or higher, it replaces Superior Construction with Excellent Construction, which essentially just adds additional Superior Construction virtues, which stack with each other. I.E. Excellent +1 is the same as Superior(x2).
Assumption 3: The so-called "Paphos Bonus" is due to his Craft total of 21, which means he grants the virtue Excellent +3, which in turn adds +4 to Safety and +4 to Aesthetics.
Assumption 4: The "Paphos Bonus" can be equaled by an rego-craft mage who can make an unmodified finesse roll of 30. 30, minus 3 for rego-crafting, -6 for seasonal work = 21, the same as Paphos.
Both Talus and Antonius can make an adjusted Finesse roll of 21+, especially if they are using an IOQ (work glove) and/or confidence.
Talus: Per 3, Finesse 9, Finesse specialy +1, Puissant Finesse +2, Familiarity +3, IOQ Workglove +4, Confidence +3 = 25. Modify (-3-6) for rego craft seasonal work is a finesse total of 16+die roll.
Antonius: Per 2, Finesse +7, Puissant Finesse +2, Familiarity +3, IOQ Workglove +4, (2) Confidence +6 = 24. Modify (-3-6) for rego craft seasonal work and he has a Finesse total of 15+die roll.
Conclusion:
Thes magi, working together, can, on a terrible die roll of 1-2, make a lab ready room that gives an Excellent +1 bonus (+2 Aesthetic/Safety). On an average roll of 3-5 they get Excellent +2 (+3 Aesthetics/Safety). On an above average die roll of 6-8 they equal the Paphos Bonus at Excellent +3 (+4 Aesthetics/Safety). On a great die roll of 9-10 they get Excellent +4 (+5 Aesthetics/Safety). They can repeat this as often as they care to use confidence.
Alternately they can do this without confidence, tearing down the result if not satisfactory until they both get a modified Finesse roll of 21+ which will happen approximately every two minutes.
Is this all correct?
Aside from one detail, according to craft magic rules the finesse roll is Int+finesse, not per+finess
Which gives Antonius 16+die roll and does not affect Talus' total.
I spotted one other error: Antonius is listed as using two confidence (taken from his question in the House Rules thread). He does not have Self Confident listed as a virtue, but presumably could have taken it from his transformational experience. Regardless, it means that if he casts without using confidence his modified roll is 10+die, meaning the maximum he make on a moments notice would be Excellent +2.
Tartessos would like to order his lab from the pair IF they had a moment to spare from their busy schedules! If they had a second moment, he'd love a set of Superior Equipment and Superior Tools.
Random thought - Talus, you arrived at Domus Aureus early Fall 1220, did you want an introduction or council meeting? As far as I'm concerned you came recommended by two council members, so its nothing more than a formality.
It would be nice to get a formal invitation. 
As for finding a moment to spare to do Rego Craft magic, that's what Talus does. He'd be happy to oblige.
Antonius is currently our council head, so I'll let JP start a thread for a council meeting.
Oh ok. I'll start a thread for a council meeting, and we can discuss in character what source of income we intend to have.
(An adventure to capture a pirate ship would be cool ! Yar! )
Step 1: Rego-craft a war galley in about 3.2 seconds.
Step 2: Realize we crafted the war galley AT the covenant, and therefore it's floating on our lake.
Step 3: Realize we are magi, so we levitate it to the ocean
Step 4: Adventure fighting pirates, taking a ship.
Voila, we now have a captured pirate ship!
The covenant has a ship, from the beginning.
silveroak: you'd mentioned an economics spreadsheet. Is that on Dropbox? I was trying to look at some of the economic numbers and I realize that I have no idea exactly how many people we have in the covenant right now, and in what category they fall.
It isn't currently. I would have to figure out what the status of my dropbox account is- I will look into that.
Looks like this may be the link