Malta, the long run

actually that wouldn't all be at first glance, that is spread between multiple rooms on each of the two floors...

It was Sun.

okay, from the entirely of the caves, you get:
125 statues of people with creo vis in them
15 pawns of creo vis in stone spheres, all in the same room
15 pawns of perdo vis, in a group that looks like calcium deposits on a wall
15 pawns of corpus vis, collected in what look like stone bones under one pile of skeletons
75 statues of various animals with animal vis in them
75 pawns of terram vis in various forms and rooms, mostly in pieces of pottery
50 pawns of aurum vis under the clogged shaft to the surface in what appear to be spider webs but are not.
50 pawns of aquum vis in drops collected on the walls around the cistern/pond

Since Naples is where Guccio is I was not going to have Taliha travel there. I was speaking of Guccio as my character that will take front/center in that thread.

Taliha speaks Arabic as her native language so she can get by here (I believe that makes her effective rating a 3?), probably hire builders and buy stone. The issue is do we have enough money to hire the builders and buy the stone. I believe C&G or LoM has costs for building something like a manor house but I'd need to check, which have not yet done. We can probably begin building on the cash we have on hand, 5MP minus travel expenses and I believe Archimedes had significantly more. At the very least she could find an interpreter to help with these things. I kind of doubt that the dialect of Malta is going to be easier to find an interpreter for in Naples than here on Malta.

«Wow. I am not sure I am comfortable with this,» Marcus says, «we have to guard this well.»

In the language chart, Maltese is not a dialect, but a separate language, sharing only the highest family (semitic) with arabic. But, sure, Taliha should check how far she can get in Arabic.

We had £10, I think @Plot_Device said. That should suffice to get started. We won't be paying to full cost in advance in any event, and by the time we need more, we should be able to return from Naples.

"We need to divide this vis, so it can be protected as our personal property. Without a covenant, there is no communal protection. I can refine it, I should have it done by the time you return from Naples."

The idea here is (a) give a chance for Prometheus to join before the division, and (b) he starts setting up his laboratory, and refining the vis gradually with non-fatiguing magic at the end of each day, a few pawns at a time. (I'm not sure if you can refine with spell instead of lab, if not that means moving it into the smallest part, like the finger of a statue, and breaking that off.)

It only split from the dialect she grew up speaking a couple hundred years ago. I would ask if a similar reduced negative, as mentioned in GotF (p138) between English and Low German (Friesian) and West Norse and Low German (Saxon) could apply.

You can definitely move vis between two things though the only example spell doing this is the one that takes all the vis in an animal and moves it to a particular part. Would have to check the base for that spell.

Base 10.

If there's a way to move it out of the statue and into a pure vis crystal he would. Or maybe a coin or something? He would like to avoid defacing the statues if he can.

So touch/mom/ind is 15, which he can hit without rolling (see the InVi spell just cast) but it's fatiguing spont. Though with only 1 botch die there's not a chance for twilight, so hopefully don't have to roll it out 125 times :slight_smile: He can make a room perfect with a spell which makes the ceremonial magic much faster.

Someone hasn't read Ancient Magic.

Also, it's 125 statues, not 125 in the big statue.

I guess up to @silveroak if Sense the Nature of Vis would reveal that the vis in the statues is something special that would bear further investigation beyond just refining it.

It does, and each statue is about 2 1/2 inches tall

Archimedes is not refining any of the sculptures of humans. When his sodales are around, he will inform them that there is something special about the vis in the statues, that someone should investigate further. The rest, he will refine as planned.

Should we get some books too? Can those be obtained in Naples at the Mercere outpost or do we have to get them from a covenant?

In terms of paranoia, we should look into the mundane ownership of the temple, and maybe someone should put their sanctum marker on it.

Sorry I keep suggesting things that Archimedes can't actually do himself.

The easiest would be to place an order in Naples, but not necessarily wait to pick them up now. It may take time to get them. I have traded books before. This is no problem to deal with for Marcus.

The question is, how much vis should he take to Naples. He can bank some of it. Sell some for silver, and trade some for books. He can probably spend a few rooks without arousing too much suspicion, a queen will attract attention.

How are Taliha's chances of recruiting workers speaking Arabic?

I would suggest you take 60 animal. It's the least useful to us, and looks like you stumbled upon a single source with a lot of built-up vis. (And we keep 15 just in case we need it for something). Buy a set of roots and we pick 2 sound summa each, and bank the rest? afaik a 15/15 costs 8 pawns, and the roots cost 1, that would leave us 11 pawns banked.

@silveroak, what do we know about book prices?

If I buy books at such quantities, they know we are settling. I don't object, though. Merely pointing it out.