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.
Just thought of something like a bad joke...
Three normal-Gifted magi and an incomprehensible Danish warrior get into a fisherman's boat.
The warrior says "Tak oz to zar pillers!"
The fisherman says "What?"
The first magus replies "He said to take us to the pillars!"
The warrior adds angrily "Thi wats I says!"
The fisherman looks at the magus fearfully "Don't take my boat, it's my life's work!"
The second magus explains "We don't want your boat, we just need to get to the pillars..."
Meanwhile, the third magus tries to raise the sail, trying to be helpful. He slips and the sail hits the first magus, sending him overboard. "Oops, sorry!"
The warrior cries out "Tis me mag you off!" and pushes the third magus. Plop, he goes overboard too.
The second magus is angry at this, and zaps the warrior, who also goes overboard.
The fisherman finishes raising the sail and turns the boat. Plop, the second magus goes overboard.
...
Ok, ok, not really funny. But I'm sure you can see how the fisherman will feel with three normal-Gifted magi and a grog in his boat. :mrgreen:
Depends very much on how you choose to run people's response to the distrust and discomfort that the gift induces. Since I don't think you intend to make this game impossible, presumably it won't be as extreme as one could justify. (Of course, if we don't try to manage it, we deserve all the grief you give us.)
Indeed, I don't plan on turning the currently developping thread into a catastrophe. But this came to me as I realized that none of the characters boarding the fisherman's boat were any good at communicating with him -- either because of the Gift (for the magi) or due to another flaw (Incomprehensible for Hjalmar).
This doesn't leave much maneuvering room to the magi to accomplish their goals -- the reason behind my warning that any visible spells will cause problems. No, the fisherman is not likely to try to send you overboard. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't talk, and refuse future services. And 'disappearing him' wouldn't really be an option either -- he's a local, with a family, and other people saw you boarding his boat.
No, disappearing him would be a BAD choice. We will see how it develops.
I'm taking this discussion OOC, how to succeed using magic without the fisherman reacting too badly.
Japik can cast his spells quietly and still and he can both make a duplicate image of Herman and make the real Herman invisible. We only need to distract Dibbelt for a few moments, well two rounds more exactly.
But then comes the question how would this help Prochorus lift the invisible Herman without Dibbelt getting suspicious?
Any ideas?
We can assume the magi are discussing this in Latin before they act.
How would Prochorus be able to direct Herman's elevation if he can't see him? Sure, he could target him initially by touching him, but how could he tell how high to raise him if he can't see him?
Making an exact illusionary copy of Herman is also an issue. That would require a pretty high Finesse roll on Japik's Phantasm of the Human Form, probably an Ease Factor of 12. He would also need to concentrate on the phantasm reacting naturally to the surrounding stimuli (such as movements of the boat).
(EDIT: That's just food for thought.)
I don't think we can do it. I'll have to fly up there another time and see if l can find something. l could mind control the guy and then erase his memory, but l can only lift Herman vertically, and even that is too risky in the boat because concentration.
How about ReAq to calm the water then go right next to pillar?