Does anyone else want to play him? If not, I'll treat him as an NPC for the moment.
Scott
Here's a draft of the interpretation of the rules on taking over labs, and a new Lab Virtue for labs for transient use. I'd like to get any comments before posting them to the House Rules thread.
Taking over a Laboratory
For purposes of the rule on pg. 118 of Covenants, a character must take a season to familiarize himself with any laboratory with positive Refinement built or used by another character before using or modifying it, even if the lab in question was built at the first character's request, and even if the lab is his own lab, but was modified by the second character. However, a character who has assisted another character in a lab for at least one season has familiarized himself with it, and need not spend an extra season before using or improving the lab on his own.
New Lab Flaw
Transient Use (Free, Outfittings): The lab has been designed to be used by any magus. As such, its layout and equipment are not quite as optimal as in a lab designed for a particular magus, and the lab requires extra stores in order to meet a wide variety of different needs. This Flaw can be added to any newly constructed lab, or to any other lab in a season in which it's Refined, or Major or Minor Virtues or Flaws are added or removed. -1 General Quality, +1 Upkeep
Making it a Flaw, rather than a Virtue, not only reflects the fact that it hurts the lab's efficiency, but also makes it so that removing Transient Use requires a season.
Scott
The +1 upkeep means we're going to be paying extra for our extra labs even when they're not in use? (I know that labs not in use cost less than ones that are, but it's a percentage multiplier so it'll potentially still have some effect).
Good point. I would recommend a Safety penalty instead. When someone else has been moving stuff around, that's when a lot of accidents can happen. I had a teacher who lost the ends of all his fingers on one hand because someone raised the jointer blades way too high and he didn't check them before starting to use it. That screams Safety to me.
Chris
Please don't do that.
Yes, but not much, given that most of them will be maintained magically by Portia (though it would probably be a good idea to keep at least one maintained the normal way, for magi who don't like Warping).
Scott
Yes, I also considered a Safety penalty. The main thing is the penalties need to be non-trivial.
Scott
Talking like Yoda, or talking to the grog? 
Scott
I was meaning the talking like Yoda, although I'm also not convinced Aetos can hear what the butterfly is whispering in my ear (andI don't think he's near enough to Gregorius for casual conversation?). His bird probably handles the former and talking to other people handles the latter, though.
Apologies. I'd been going off the text on page 81 that says "The chosen effect may be open ended. For example, the maga may want to create the brightest light she can, with a duration of at least Sun. In this case, the spell will fail if the final level cannot produce any light with that duration, but otherwise greater totals will produce brighter light", and the the fact that different intensities of light are different base levels under Creo Ignem. Is the problem that I hadn't been going for an open ended spell (i.e. I'd been going for "The Unseen Arm" rather than "A variant on The Unseen Arm with the highest level of force I can apply at voice range and concentration duration)?
Oh, all right. I had forgotten that passage.
Scott
What time of day is it by now? I'm not very sure when we started.
Early afternoon--you started unloaded in the village in the morning, but that took some time.
Scott
10 days? That is 6 pawns per month or 72p/year (unless I miscalculated)
Wow! That is enough vis to consider a year duration hair combing ritual!
OK, where are you getting 6 pawns/month from? I never said how much vis is collected per day.
Scott
uhmm
You're just going to have to wait and find out how much there is.
Scott
I'm missing something here. Why is Vrahos able to help, and how is he able to contribute more might in one casting than he has?
Edit: I may have worked out where you're coming from. Are you using the bit of the Hekate cord which says "but in addition, the magus can apply his Hekate Cord score to any Stamina roll (including fatigue) if his spirit familiar spends one point of Might. The bonuses are cumulative, so by spending 3 Might points he gains a bonus of (Hekate score) x 3. Up to 5 Might points may be spent on one roll", and interpretting it to apply to any roll which includes the stamina characteristic?
I think a) that's not what it means and b), if that is what it means it's broken. With extra broken.
a) I'd interpret stamina roll to be any roll which was purely Stamina + die ( +any other bonuses from virtues etc.), such as aging crises, wound recovery rolls, etc. Not any roll which included the stamina characteristic. My view on this is re-inforced by the fact that the Hekate cord is the equivalent of the bronze cord, and could thus be expected to affect the magus' body rather than his magic.
b) A magus with a Hekate cord of strength 4, a might 5 familiar and Fanning the Magical Flames in the familiar bond could add 20 points to every single casting total, including spontaneous spells.
I'm pretty sure that's exactly what it means. I thought I found that written, but things aren't organized really well for reference in ArM5. I'll check if needed.
It wouldn't surprise me if everyone wants to rule this way. OK, let's just do that then. I think I may adjust my Spell Mastery options to get rid of Still Casting and add in Ceremonial Casting in that case.
Regardless of the earlier points, that line of reasoning is fatally flawed in that it totally fails with the other two cords and using such equivalence is clearly not part of Spirit Familiar.
Chris
Hmm. Okay, so it's a bit tenuous, I admit, but enigmatic wisdom is inherently concerned with the magus' understanding of magic (or at least Criamon philosophy), and the golden cord affects magical abilities, and the magus gains a greater understanding of spirits from the cord connecting theirs minds. Okay, it's pretty tenuous. I'll cede you that point.