Whatever the metaphysics of it, I don't think the bonus to Sta rolls was intended to add to spont rolls--that's arguably better than Life-linked Spontaneous Magic, which is a Major Virtue, and that would make the Hekate cord far more powerful than any of the various other familiar cords. (Yes, I recognize it's limited by the familiar's Might, but LLSM is also limited.)
I've updated the house rules thread with a rule for increasing the XP's required for Transformation and with a note that we're using the extended book rules from Covenants, including correspondences. I've also added this paragraph to the character creation guide:
If you haven't already, go ahead and add the appropriate correspondents and XP's to your magi (and possibly companions).
This is pretty much my understanding of what's going on - Portia and Tasia are looking in the caves (for which my understanding is that they only have a fairly small area easily accessible, but including a lab); Gregorius, Aetos and Viola are exploring the main village (well, possibly Viola's now exploring a faerie regio). In other words, we've split up to cover more ground.
Maybe splitting into separate threads would help avoid confusion?
Hmm? I'm confused. I understand that the difference between the levels of the aura of the regio and the aura you're currently in determines the difficulty of seeing the regio (e.g. if we're seeing from a level 4 faerie aura into a level 6 faerie regio, the difficulty is 5 + 2x(6-4) = 9, whereas seeing into it from a magic aura of level 5, say, would be 5 + 2x(6 + 5) =27. I don't understand why that means the aura bonus/penalty to your supernatural ability isn't important as well, though - one modifies the ease factor, one modifies your total, but they don't do it in the same way, and may re-inforce as well as mitigate each other. Am I misunderstanding you?
Still there, character is waiting for the people in the caves and the temple to do whatever they are doing (I didn't read it since my character wouldn't know).
You didn't ask to have them actually made--you only said we'd need grogs so that they could be made. At any rate, I said that Viola is going to the village first, to recruit a guide.
I've taken over running the horse hunt in the Faerie Regio thread, but would prefer not to run the regio itself. Please let me know if anyone wants to take over Bogdan and Godzimir, or run the regio story.
I'm missing something somewhere, I think. Do you mean that you can use the standard Summoning mechanics, but just substitute Rego for Summoning and Vim for Realm Lore (which does seem to be what you're saying)? If so, could I have a page reference? I've reread the RoP:tI section, and also had a quick look through the Titanoi magic in HoH:S and some of TM:RE, and haven't found it. The only thing I can find is a note in HM:RE (pg 72) saying that it would be a Major Breakthrough to adapt an Elementalist Art to Hermetic Magic (and that that would have the effect that you can substitute appropriate Hermetic Arts for Elementalist Arts).
Alternatively, do you mean it's possible to summon a spirit using Rego? I agree with that, but it would be a spell with base 15 (TM:RE pg 28) and usually with a requirement for an Arcane Connection.
Hmmm. As you say, it's not actually going to make any difference here, but I'd like to make sure I know what's going on. I think there are two slightly different points here - firstly, can it ever apply to other traditions, and secondly, does it apply in this case.
On the first part, I'm not counting focuses applying to use of the Hermetic arts in mystery virtues - Living Ghost, for example, is quite clear that a focus in ghosts would affect your Transformation of the Living Ghost ritual. Are there examples of it applying to non-Hermetic Arts, or even non-Arts, though? Rival Magic is fairly explicit that Mythic Blood can only be taken if the Minor Focus is swapped for a similar virtue like Special Circumstances, and Magical Focus isn't in the list of allowed Hermetic Virtues. On the other hand, I've just spotted that it explicitly is allowed for Gruagach, so that would appear to be a fairly resounding "yes, for at least some Hedge Arts". Do you have an example of it working for non-Arts? I wouldn't have thought it normally made sense, as they don't usually come in pairs.
I was assuming it didn't apply in the Summoning + Area Lore case because it wasn't a pair of Arts but rather an Ability + Whatever Summoning actually is.
Ah, I've found it (apologies for the doubt). RoP:tI pg 124, in the section on Goetic Magic. My only further comment is that it would make sense for Tasia's summoning to substitute Terram rather than Vim for Realm Lore, as her summoning is inherently concerned with Terram magic might beings rather than with spirits.
