Sinmore takes more time to consider what Rhodri told her and returns again, careful not to bump into any of the new construction.
"A high quality item is what I would like Sodale. I may take the option to enchant it myself later on, or perhaps comission you to do that, but I will not make it into a Talisman. I thank you for your advice, it was well worth listening to. But something that will compliment my skill as a swordswoman is what I would like. Also, I'm not sure if this makes much of a difference, I often enhance my blade with the spell, 'Blade of the Virulent Flame'. Early experience taught me that too many castings in a short time will ruin the blade." she holds up the hilt of a great sword, the blade protruding from it reduced to a mere melted nub. Sinmore laughs. "But it did provide me with a voting Sigil."
"Whenever you have the time Sodale, I'm sure you are quite busy, and please let me know the price, vis would I assume?"
Sinmore is also going to spend some time trying to find out who is in charge of the Grogs and what the state of the Turb is like, typically while she's taking her meals or her evening ale.
((I haven't seen anything about the turb so far in the other threads, did I miss it?))
((Found them in the Covenant building section; 25 archers and 5 professionals from Coeris and assorted Shield Grogs.))
Sinmore notes the archers' skill, and is impressed, this is the home of the longbow ((right?)). She's also quite impressed with the professional soldiers that fight as a group under a Tremere Magus she hasn't met yet. What has her concerned is the state of the remaining fighting men and their unity and morale. She has yet to see them truly mobilized. She begins taking down their names and their stated expertise and watches if they drill at all.
The Tremere grogs are called Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. They are trained to fight under the leadership of Justinius Tremeris, or also under Alpha's direction. Their morale is as high as can be expected for their commanding officer being MIA.
The archers are rather disparate and rowdy, as they haven't seen any action in a couple years. They train regularly but while highly skilled they are disorganized, doing what they please when they please, and generally living as though they have no cares in the world.
Then there are the shield grogs:
Emilio is an old Spaniard who is lives with his family on a generous retirement pension, after a lifetime serving as Lamentus' shield grog. He fights with two Toledo shortswords.
Annelise is a big flame-haired Scottish-Irish woman who serves as a shield grog to her cousin, Aislinn. She fights with an enormous claymore.
Groth is a goblin-blooded warrior who serves as a shield grog to Liliana, though he spends most of his time working in the Mercer House pub with his Sidhe-blooded alewife wife, Sansa, and their legion of fae-blooded children. Groth is rumoured to be able to use anything as a weapon with equal proficiency.
Devorah is a young Jewish woman who served as Maribus' shield grog. She fights with sword and shield.
There's a huge talking polar bear named Knut who is Leona's familiar; he has the ability to shapeshift into human form, and can fight with a poleaxe nearly as well as he can with tooth and claw, and he spends some time training with the other shield grogs.
The turb captain is an aging fellow named Marcus. He has great leadership quality and teaching ability, and after a lifetime of training grogs, he was rewarded with a longevity ritual. He is grooming his and Devorah's eldest son, Benjamin, to replace him.
Michael and Keith are two grogs trained in single weapon who mostly handle guard duty.
Sinmore will get to know them casually, trying to gauge an esprit de corps, but as a guest so far she will not make any impositions on them, mainly observing their interactions. She will ask the Turb Captain Marcos and his son to see what exercises they follow for 'what she calls shield Groggery'.
They run through drills every morning and afternoon. In OOC terms, they get two seasons of advancement for every year. IC, I'm not really sure what you're looking for here.
I believe everyone's taken care of advancement through Winter. If you haven't done so already, this is last call! Please update your character sheets if you haven't already. If you have not posted that your character has established a sanctum somewhere, I will assume they are staying in guest accommodations in the Great Hall and do not have a sanctum at all. The Covenant thread will be kept updated with current sanctum information.
Also, callen, please note the 3 pawns of Corpus Rhodri got from Guillaume somewhere on your character sheet, and Attravere should update to include the Ignem pawns he got from Geirlaug.
The fact that they are drilling to protect a magus as a shield Grog was what she was looking for. She wanted to see if implementing a drill was necessary or not. It looks like the Archers need the most work to act as a unit, nut otherwise the Turb seems ok. That was mainly what Sinmore wanted, should she be tasked with working withe the Grogs in the future she'll know where to start.
It seems that each of the shield grogs pretty much belong to a magus, should newly accepted Magi seek out their own then, or can they use someone else's?
Technically shield grogs are in service to the covenant, and not to an individual magus, but in practice everyone finds someone they like and stick with them. The exception is the Tremere grogs, who are not on the covenant payroll, and their room and board is paid by their House.