Actually, let's make that beginning of Winter 1228. While Spring would be a logical time to bring in new characters, if we can recruit a new magus able to cast Aegis of the Hearth, we can assume Tasia cast the second one (Winter 1227), and write her out after that point, without having to get Gregorius or Viola to learn the spell.
Scott
Could we make it Spring 1228? I think the Barrows thread was set towards the end of Winter 1228 - Gregorius spent most of Winter 1228 making a Perdo Mentam ghost killing spell. We could have Tasia cast the Winter 1228 spell before she disappears, and that way we've got some time to learn it if we don't get an appropriate magus.
We can do that if you don't mind keeping Tasia around (in body if not in spirit) until that point. ironboundtome, how do you feel about it?
Scott
In terms of Tasia leaving - I think one of her objectives was to determine who/what destroyed the covenant last time? As such I don't think she's off the hook yet. Perhaps she needs to come and go more now to get to the heart of the issue; to work the Order a little.
If the Aegis is a real issue we have some options (a) have Tasia return periodically to cast it, (b) use A as a back-up plan but have a Magus learn the Aegis, (c) fudge a pc character to say another player Magus already has a version of Aegis, which would serve till it can be raised up to 25.
I think Fray arrived in 1226-ish in his arrival thread, but that was predicated on a rough guess at the time I started so it could easily change/handwave. If so, I'd be happy to expend the time in study to "solve" the aegis problem. Maybe Fray arrived, as a recent arrival Bonisagus he spent a bit of time in a lab (to solve Aegis problem) and then the barrow story happened when he surfaced. Not uncommon for a Boni.
I'll go with your call, and happy to be very flexible on dates, solutions, etc.
Actually, I think we need to have Gregorius or Viola learn the Aegis at some point: the charter says non-members can't participate in the Aegis, and Gregorius and Viola are the only two members. I suppose it's possible to amend the charter, but I'm not sure how to do that, since whoever wrote it didn't include an amendent procedure.
Even without that problem, though, how can we expect a non-member to spend a season learning the spell?
Of course, if Viola does learn the spell (aside from the Waster of Vis problem, Viola is the only one of the two who can manage a high enough casting total to guarantee success barring a botch), then we can write Tasia out as early as we like. Yes, she came to the covenant for a reason, but I guess her plans changed.
That being said, if you guys want to keep Tasia around as an NPC, that's possibly doable, but I don't know how I feel about having the covenant leader by an NPC.
Incidentally, given the fluctuations in the aura, I think we want to make a habit of casting Aegis in the Spring, to get the extra point of casting total.
Scott
Casting the Aegis in Spring makes sense, and since we arrived in Spring in the first place probably doesn't run into the usual problem of trying to move it (i.e. that we either waste vis, or have three months unprotected).
I've no strong feelings either way as regards keeping Tasia around as an NPC.
BTW, would someone like to stat out the autocrat? I need to know his stats--at least his Pre and Professions--to caculate Prevailing Loyalty properly. (And actually, I didn't even realize until just now that we actually had an autocrat 
).
Scott
Wow, the "Seasonal Activities" thread is a mess. OK, I'm gonna clean it up by moving some stuff into "OOC Discussion", and deleting a couple of things that are repetitive or largely devoid of content.
Scott
OK, I've moved most of the posts in "Seasonal Activities" to "OOC Discussion" (hilariously, some of the posts I just moved were originally in "OOC Discussion", and are being moved back), "Covenant Development" (discussion of building projects, training the grogs, and fixing the hypocaust), and "Character Development" (two posts with draft character sheets for the cook, Spyridon), and split a bunch of posts about Patricks Trough of Warping into a thread of their own.
I still need to go back and edit and delete what's left, since there are multiple revisions for many characters. If either of you would like to do this yourself, please do, especially since you'll need to revise the activity plans in light of actual events.
Also, I changed my mind and went back and moved the rules discussion in the "Palace" story to "OOC Discussion", and the lab discussion in the "Barrow" story to "Covenant Development", except for one post in the latter that also contained story material. I've done a little editing of couple of the remaining posts so that they no longer refer to stuff that isn't there, and I deleted one (basically irrelevant) post of mine.
Scott
I'm happy to write up the autocrat. Found ref to building and masonry skills in his background, plus the obvious human management abilities.
Won't be straight away, but can do.
Is it better to it include permanent advancement logs within the character posts, as Salutor and I have been doing, and then use the "Seasonal Activities" thread for discussion, or to use the latter thread for the logs, and discuss them elsewhere, or something else?
Scott
Thanks.
Scott
Perhaps have advancement with the character itself.
The only problem with that is that most of the grogs have been advanced in a single post--though I suppose we could stick that one in the "Grog Character Sheets" thread.
Let me move things around again...I'll move all the discussion back into "Seasonal Activities". You guys let me know when you've got your characters updated.
OK, new issue: I was looking through the build points rules in order to stat out the Hidden Resources, and my accidentally too-large labs pose a 200-point problem (it's 20 points per extra point of size, with a +4 and a +6 lab). I give you two options (and this is mostly Salutor's choice, because Gregorius is the one occupying one of those labs): I redraw the map to make the labs smaller, or we keep them the present size, and I count them against the 200 points of Hidden Resources (leaving 217 points, after the faerie storytellers and the hypocaust); or we could do a combination of the two, reducing one or both labs, but leaving them still larger than Size 0. Actually, why don't we just shrink both labs, but still leave the Big Lab bigger than normal, and let Gregorius have that one after Tasia leaves? He doesn't need the hypocaust anyway.
And while we're on the labs...actually, that hypocaust should probably count as a Minor Virtue, because it's big. However, if it doubles as a Feature, then no extra space will be required for the Magic Item Virtue; and in any case I don't think there's a need to spend a season installing it, even if it's used as a Feature (that with Spacious would give the lab two Minor Virtues, but we said in the beginning that the 1 Virtue per lab was approximate). As a Focus, it would actually free up space (which is not logical, but it's a game mechanic...).
Scott
OK, I think I have the chronology worked out, and that will help everyone finalize seasonal activities logs.
Patrick arrived at almost the same time as the member magi, in Spring, 1226. That gives him time to putter around in the caves and then go out exploring the delta in the same season.
Viola's journey with Calliope happens in Autumn, 1227. In the "Correspondents" thread there are six letters from Calliope and five from Viola; there's one more from Calliope in the "Palace" story (and presumably an unrecorded one from Viola before that one). The Redcaps are supposed to visit Nova Casta with extra frequency, so we can assume one exchange per season (that means writing each new letter while the Redcap rests); that would place the journey Winter, 1227, but that season is no good for travel. Tasia, however, was traveling to Constantinople twice a season while she was present, which could speed things up a bit.
The process of constructing a new story for Halia would therefore begin in Winter, 1228.
The "Barrows" also happens in Winter, 1228, to allow time for Fray's arrival.
We'll deal with the caves story in Spring, 1228, which will allow the introduction of new players and characters, ifeveryone is agreeable.
In the "meanwhile" department, I'm going to assume that Viola investigated the hypocaust in Spring, 1226, and the Perdo vis source in Summer, 1226, since these are the two most urgent tasks. My one remaning question: did she need to investigate the statue of Poseidon (or otherp arts of the regio) for a season to come to the conclusion that the temple needed to be rededicated?
Scott
[Edited to reflect a point that Salutor raised in a post that's now been moved into "Covenant Development".]
The chronology is now mostly up-to-date, though I still need to add a couple of things, namely Fray's arrival (which would be at the beginning of Summer, 1226) and Patrick's exploration of the delta.
Once I get that done, I'll work on figuring out the Upkeep and other covenant stat updates. I also need to get my characters udpated, and Viola's faerie friend (I think we're going to make him her shield grog) I still need to create.
Scott
One question about having the Barrow story in Winter, 1228--isn't that a bit cold of a time to be exploring?
Scott
I'd got the impression Fray only arrived shortly before the Barrows thread? That's really a question for Ironboundtome to give the definite answer on rather than me, though. (Missed this earlier, somehow).
Whilst Winter isn't ideal, Gregorius does have a spell to keep himself warm he was casting (or at least, I cast it on screen once, I think, but since it's a formulaic and the situation would presumably have been unstressed, I assume I could have been casting it a bit more offscreen). Presumably it wasn't cold enough for water to be freezing...
The story was at the end of Winter, so that's what? End of February? End of March? seems a bit odd to have December in Autumn, but at the same time it's funny to have the season split over the year end.
I think that canonically things go by the equinoxes and solstices, which means winter runs from the middle of December to the middle of March.
SCott
Okay, so the Barrows thread was happening early-mid March. So not brilliantly warm, but getting out of the worst of winter. Presumably. I don't know much about the local climate, I'll admit. Looking at the Rostov-on-Don stats, it seems to have an average of 2.2 degrees in March, but an average range of about -1 -> 7. So not frozen seems plausible enough, even if it is early March.