"Very interesting," Lucas replies. "And illuminating. We shall pass your warning on to the other magi at Andorra. And I thank you for the warning."
I shall not allow the Malik to seduce or distract me from our goal, to liberate his prisoner King Kush. And to that end, we have come seeking your help. Andorra covenant wishes to set up a base of operations here in Giza, from which we can launch our expedition. Left uncheck, he powers of the City of Brass pose a threat to us all, and I cannot allow that. We have not much to offer, except for our services and to share our resources. Andorra would gladly donate to your cause and prosperity.
(and now is where other ideas and deals by you guys should be mentioned)
"We had also," Lucas adds with a smile, "hoped that we might be able to engage in a little horse trading with respect to some of the books in our respective libraries. I think such a trade could be beneficial to both of our covenants."
Our library is not what you might expect. Have you ever visited the Cave of Twisting Shadows? It is something like that. Deep within one of the regiones, there dwells a dozen ghosts of ancient wizards whom are able to each us. We do have a few conventional books of Hermetic Arts and such, but nothing as impressive as you may imagine. It has not been a great concern, for we are all mature magi and freely visit a few allied covenants that let us use their resources.
I would be interested in making your covenant such an ally. What we do have to offer, in terms of trade and favors exchanged, is that I have crafted scores upon scores of lesser and charged items during my experiments involving Egyptian magic. As items, the particulars will mean little to you. The activate and are used in the normal way. The items that provided breakthroughs are kept aside for further research. Many items you may find useful in your quest. Flying Carpets, Rings of Camel's Endurance, Boots of Tireless Travel, the Soul Jar, and many more.
"Intriguing," Lucas replies. "I think we can definitely come to some sort of arrangement. I'd love to hear more about what you have some offer. And I've brought a list of the books in our covenant's library for you to peruse."
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I step on the cruise ship in a couple of hours, so it'll be a week or so before I can post to to this again.
No worries 
What he has is a large number of lesser and cgarged items, mainly focusing on making life in the desert comfortable. Rings that resist the heat and hose that resist dehydration, carpets that soar through the skies, crystal orbs that guide and direct you like a magical GPS, and his famous Wand of Ice.
He is quite interested in your catelogue. Unfortunately, he has not the time or resources to copy books. If you have copies made, he will gladly trade you equal value of texts to items (using the quarter-pawn scale, books = level + quality, lesser items equal level plus magnitude, and charged items equal half-level plus charges).
"Let me consult my notes," Lucas replies. "And even if we don't currently have any copies made, I can arrange to have some prepared for trade. Are there any you are particularly interested in?"
[hr][/hr]
Does the covenant currently have any spare copies of any arcane texts?
((Check with Vocis (Fightmaster) about that). As for what he seeks, no real preference. To make this easy, what I will do is this. Select a number of books and I will assess the value (in QP), and design that same amount (in QP value) of Lesser & Charged Items that will be useful to our mission.))
Adan has out his quill and paper to record the list of desired texts. "I'm assuming I will be returning to make copies."
"Excellent!" Lucas says after a discussion regarding various books that the Andorran library has and books that the Pyramids covenant desires. He gives a nod to Adan who has been keeping a list of desired books. "We'll begin copying the relevant texts as soon as we return to Andorra, and should have them ready for you within a season or two."
[hr][/hr]
Presumably the Pyramids covenant will be interested in a couple of non-arcane books that Adan can scribe. In addition, Andre can scribe a magical book for trade. His Scribe skill isn't nearly what Adan's is. But he does have Magical Theory, which allows him to copy arcane texts.
They will cheerfully accept whatever you have to offer. They want to help you and enable you, but the "gods" feel that there should be some sort of fair exchange (there is a mino Ex-Miscellanea cult here dedicated to the Egyptian gods such as Isis, Horus, Ptah, nd other "good" ones)
Who is Andre and where did he come from? 
Actually this is the season Adan reads the summae on magic theory, so by spring he will have magic theory as well...
He's Lucas's man - one of the two grog's that Lucas showed up with. He acts as manservant and general assistant to Lucas. He's listed on the wiki.
Actually, that addresses a question I've been meaning to ask. Does this mean that we advance our grogs season-by-season the way we do our magi and companions. I mean, it makes sense that they're doing things too. But it seems (a) like a daunting task to have to update every grog; but (b) unfair to upgrade some grogs and not others.
What's the standard protocol with grogs?
The world is not fair 
And grogs should only have two free seasons per year (equivalent). With the set averages, 20xp per year is reasonable.
Oh, some have recently undergone specific training in group combat. That will temporarily throw the average off.
We seemed to have missed a beat here. Perhaps to make it easy, you can give me an approximate point value (Level + Quality) for the amount of books you are willing to trade, and I can go ahead and start designing some desert focused enchanted items that they just happen to have and are willing to trade. We can work out the specifics of what books, and the labor involved, after the fact.
Sorry if I've let this drag. I was uncertain about Scribe skills, then my vacation hit and I never rounded my way back to it.
So as I see it, we'll have two seasons of Adan and two seasons of Andre, as well as whatever else the official scribes at the covenant can do. Are there any other companions or grogs (or magi) who intend to scribe books for us?
Adan can manage up to: 162 = 32 points toward a summa carefully, or 96 points copying quickly.
Andre can manage up to: 102 = 20 points toward a summa carefully, 60 points copying quickly.
(Or either could spend a season copying a tractus.)
I'm guessing our regular scribe can manage up to: 12*2 = 24 points toward a non-magical summa carefully, or 72 points copying quickly.
Now, we have a reputation to uphold, so I'd say that we copy carefully. And remember, these points relate only to level, not quality.
So how about this?
Adan copies:
Junola’s Thamaturgica
Vim Summa: Level 16, Quality 11 (27 points)
Corporeum
Corpus Summa: Level 15, Quality 10 (25 points)
Andre copies:
The Magical Art of Magic
Vim Summa: Level 10, Quality 16 (26 points)
Commentary on To Command
Rego Tractatus: Quality 13 (13 points)
Regular Scribe copies:
Physics
Philsophiae Summa: Level 8, Quality 14 (22 points)
De Oratore ad Quintum fratrem libri tres
Artes Liberales Summa: Level 8, Quality 14 (22 points_
A Delicate Matter
Finesse Summa: Level 8, Quality 14 (22 points)
That would give us a total of 157 points to play with. (Please note, this is just a first attempt on my part. Please let me know if you disagree with any of my assumptions.)
Looks good to me. Check with Fightmaster. But I will get to work on items
I tried to be conservative in the copying. I avoided our really good arcane texts, feeling that they should be saved for trades in which we'd get a comparable book for the library. Not that the geegaws we're getting from the Pyramids aren't useful. But they're not books.
Certainly works for Adan