The sister saga has been announced. 
The spell for identifying Vis that seems to make the most sense is a Wizards Eye for Vis. From other sources, that Would appear to be base 1, personal, +4 for vision.
I am inclined towards diameter duration, since recasting when not under pressure is a simple die. That would give a net 10. As I have a lab total of 31 (before Aura), I could use the other available points to actually learn Scale of the Magic Weight (inVi 5).
There are several variations on that basic idea using T:Vision. D:Diam only lasts 2 minutes, so you would end up casting it many many times if you are hunting for vis sources. D:Conc is of the same level and can last up to 15 minutes multiplied by your score in Concentration (only drawback is that you need to concentrate on it so other actions are more difficult). D:Sun would completely solve the duration problem, although it would add a magnitude (still within your capabilities to invent in a single season) and stay active even after you no longer have a use for it (a potential source of Warping of you use it too often).
Another variation (which one of the departed magus used) is to go with T:Hearing. The range of hearing is not as great as T:Vision, but in some instances to can help you find vis that you would otherwise miss. For example, something hidden by a piece of fabric, under a bush, or simply covered by sand. It is also easier to invent, with one less magnitude required.
The aura around the oak is 3.
I think that D: Sun T: Hearing will work out best.
Joel feel free to join in the Heart of stone story with any of your characters. Tristan perhaps?
You may also play Yulia, just remember that she is either 8-9 months pregnant or just have given birth, I don't remember when she got "knocked up".
More like 4-5 months pregnant. She announced she was pregnant in the winter (third bullet point of the second part).
Okay. Happy to handle those two. I mixed the two characters in this post. I will try to keep them separate in general, to keep it cleaner.
(And then the board complains that I "cannot make another post so soon after your last.")
Ah ok. Sorry, I thought it was earlier.
Commenting here because that is totally OOC
Hmmm, fun could result in that. Herman's rather dismissive comment -- delegating presentation of the plans to Tristan -- combined with the Gift of the magi and Prochorus Difficult Underlings flaw... Well, I could very well see Lothar building a house that is not quite what the magi asked for. Say, with too many fireplaces, or with rooms proportioned a bit differently than what was expected for use as labs. You see what I mean? I'd encourage Bearlord to be creative in the way things can be just slightly off. 
After all, it happens fairly often that communication breaks down between the customers, the architect and the builders even nowadays. So I can just imagine such a situation happening here, since Lothar is not familiar with the weird requirements of magi. At least for the first large house. This would provide a reason for Lothar to come back -- to fix some of those things when the magi realize what happened, and benefit from him having learned better for the second large house.
I submit that to the troupe. I'm not going to force something like that on any of you, but I felt this was an opportunity. After all, things are not supposed to go smoothly for this covenant. :mrgreen:
Although I agree with everything you say, I'm not so sure it would be fun to return to the building story from a playing point of view - it would be a story with fairly similar themes, I suppose, but just with added in-character experience of the situation.
So far Lothar is not particularly impressed by his new contractors and I'm not sure we have decided on payment for the construction yet. Yulia and he seem to have agreed on some price according to the autumn 1210 thread and it was more expensive than expected (expected price was 20 pounds per large house). He may want some further compensation for the extraordinary circumstances (magi and ghosts primarily).
I'm not playing Lothar as part of the covenant (yet at least) so his actions may actually be counterproductive to the overall welfare of the covenant. We'll see how it turns out.
Arthur will you start a story for Japik this season? He will swim alot, looking for dolphins in the waters and try to communicate with them, then getting closer to the pillars as well.
I intend to.
No hurry. I was just checking.
I thought I had posted somewhere in this forum the spell Herman was going to work out for making Vis visible or Audible. I need to make a final decision on exactly what he has been working on for the season, preferably before Arthur clarifies when in the season we are going to visit the pillars. Or did I post an explicit plan and I just can't find it now? (If I did, then I stick with whatever I said.)
It's in this very thread, about one page ago.
Thanks Arthur, simple blindness on my part. Will the pillar expedition be within the first two-thirds of the month? Unless it is a matter of just a few days, Herman won't try to delay it to have the spell.
Unless the others decide to wait until the very end of the season to investigate the pillars, Herman will not be finished with his spell. Whether they do, or not, is really up to them (and you).
And as I said, Herman will not be urging delay. He is happy to cast fatiguing, stress based, spontaneous spells. He probably shouldn't be, but he is.
Japik wants to go as soon as possible. Eager as always.