Ah, the Gathering of Twelve Years complicates this - as a character with a Mentor, Pavo really must go. Peacocks range far less in a day than a human does, so he will take a month there and a month back walking, taking a grog as a bodyguard and leaving the grog in a port on the isle of Rugen while he goes off to the Gathering. Will that count as my adventure for the year - if not, I'll have to join Things Left Buried Too Long in Autumn.
(ST EDIT) No that doesnt not count as an adventure for the year. You will get 5 xp though.
Am I right in thinking any labs currently only have the Basic quality, and need another season to finish? Do we have enough funds to finish them in Spring?
(ST EDIT)You need another season. The materials you are bringing them with you, so you do not need to pay more. See also Build Points
Clan mysteries - HoH:MC p25 says all except the Ilfetu divination one follow the same format - they require a mystagogue who knows the sought virtue and has Presence + House Bjornaer lore of at least 8. The scripts are based on the types given. If Arni is going for second sight, then the script follows the "deed of" pattern - discover a quest, do a quest (reclaim ancestor site), then spend a season composing a poem, lay or song about it, for a total of +7 bonus.
(ST EDIT) Guess what? He is going for the Divination Major virtue! Whats the format for that?
Ah, I see then. Winter is removed! Wait is the first adventure the first winter?
While long term Raven would like a lab outside the tower, how about she sets up a lab inside the tower first? Anyone could use it, even guests. Raven has plenty of activities she can perform outside the laboratory. (Six seasons of Arabic Practice, finishing up Latin 5, getting Classical Greek up to a decent level will take at least three-ish years, unless we get absurd teachers to help out.) Raven
Spring: Raven will take a language class in Classic Greek or Latin if those are available. Otherwise Raven will hang out with her family. (Practice Arabic 8xp)
Summer: Raven will finish lab set up inside the tower. This shall be designated a "guest" lab or "spare" lab as Raven wishes to settle outside the tower on a long term basis.
Fall: Raven will write a tractatus on Ig. Q11
Fall Adventure: Raven will join Things Left Buried too Long
Ioannes
Spring: Ioannes will teach Artes Liberales class (In Classical Greek). Open to everyone. Q18! Take that!
Summer: Ioannes will follow along to the tribunal!
Summer Adventure: Ioannes will follow along to the tribunal!
Fall: Ioannes will write a tractatus on Philosophiae in Classical Greek. Q14
Spring 1215
Negotiate a lab with the other magi. Attend the Artes Liberales class run by Ionnes.
Summer 1215
Attend adventure "of wandering isles" - focus on finding out, sources of superior quality mundane items, silver rates for magic items and items of quality, acceptable sales routes and try to establish an "honest" broker/sales person (Red Cap?). Also see if any of the Verditius are keen to act as a mystigogue and if so, for which mysteries.
Autumn 1215
Attend the class run by Anastaj if he teaches Latin. If he is teaching a different language, set up lab's second season.
Miklos
Spring 1215
Attend "of things go bumping in the night". Attend Artes Liberales class run by Ionnes.
Summer 1215
Explore local towns to get an understanding of availability and quality of wares and what they are having to import in. Make criminal first contact.
Autumn 1215
Attend "Perama caves". Attend language class run by Anastaj if he teaches anything but Romaic Greek. If not repeat Summer 1215.
[tab][/tab] From what I read, those Mystagogues need a minimum of 8+. So the Trial gives 13+8=21. I don't think you need to do the vow script also. What I am saying is we do the Trial script and you just have to add a Vow (for the extra +3, because the initiation requires it). I am fine with this.
Good. This makes sense.
I have updated the tentative plan. Could you delete the messages with discussion which are no longer needed? That will make it easier for the players to see the tentative plans.
Labs. Sorry to return to this.
If I understand it correctly, each of us have personal equipment to set up, presumably personal, labs. We are required to set up four shareable labs, for which we do not have the necessary funds/equipment. Is that right?
The dilemma we are heading for, is that many of us, setting up a lab presumed to be personal, will start upping refinement, making it unsharable.
Arni shall be quite happy using a standard, shared lab for the time being, much like Raven aiming for something completely non-standard in the longer run. However, if the lab is in principle shared, setting it up is a season of service to the covenant. Giving up personal equipment for a shared lab, without a clear promise to get it back, is also a very bad deal. We need to settle this before the annual plan can be completed in full. Do we settle it OOC now? Or IC in the Winter prequel?
I have done a wee bit of research on the travel time to Crintera.
By modern road, the distance seems to be about 2400km (google maps has 2347 Tymfi mountains to Rostock by car), or about 1500 miles.
Under medium conditions ArM4 estimates 15 miles/day or 100 days(!) More than three times the one month that we guestimated.
Even with a horse and perfect conditions, ArM4 would only double the daily distance. It is still closer to two months than one.
As the eagle flies, it looks like about 1000 miles. Googling a bit, it seems that a daily flight of 75-125 miles is normal for a migrating eagle, and more than 200 miles has been recorded.
Thus a week is rather optimistic for a mundane eagle, and ten days might be closer to the mark. However, Arni is an Auram specialist, and a constant favourable wind should be pretty straight forward to achieve, making the one week estimate that we had a tad more realistic.
[tab][/tab]Thanks for checking the whole travel time. I see two ways of making this:
a) You can start traveling as eagle earlier. It will 'eat' 5 days off the previous season and 5 off the next season, it will not affect those seasons. Problem solved
b) For those going on foot (Pavo mainly), this is Mythic Europe.... use Hermetic gates. I don't have the books in front of me right now, but its almost certain Crintera is at least linked with Durenmar, if not Harko. Find a Mercer gateway close by (or even in Italy), pay the price and you cut months of travel. Could anyone look into this?
I am pretty sure this is left for each saga to define, with a few exceptions.
In Stonehenge, there is a portal between Mercere house and Harco. Within Stonehenge outbound redcaps go by mundane means, returning using an enchanted device (Leap of Homecoming). I don't think there was any mention of allowing others to use it. (Note that a Hermes' portal is permanent in ArM4 and year duration in ArM5. Rewriting the Stonehenge book for ArM5 would probably say Mercere portal instead.)
I searched for «portal» in the Theban book, and as far as I could see, all occurrences where «natural», i.e. non-Hermetic, portals.
The best mention I have seen of Mercere portals is HoH:TL page 80. The going toll rate seems to be 1p vis/hop, assuming you can convince the gatekeeper that you pose no threat. Many houses decided to close their portals after the Schism war, and others had them moved outside their aegis. The Mercere are the only ones who know how to create permanent portals, and therefore, I think the best we can hope for is links between Harco and Domus Magna and between Harco and Mercere houses.
The best we can hope for is 4p vis for the return trip, taking about a week each way. This assumes a portal at Crintera and less than a week travel to the local Mercere house. More conservatively, the return travel will take the season + 4p vis, as there is significant mundane travel time on both ends. The worst and very plausible case is that Theban redcaps do not trust us, and will not allow us to use the portals, Although, in this case, it is possible to go by ship to Venice, onwards to Harco, and do a single hop to Crintera or nearby; this could plausibly allow return travel in one season for 2p vis At the end of the day, you/we need to decide how commonplace portal travel ought to be.
There is a third option. Probably not plausible, but possible. An eagle can carry a peacock (or any other magus for that matter) using ReTe and big basket (think hot air balloon). Arni does have the relevant spell. It does not sound like a comfortable way to travel for either party.
EDIT A fourth option, which I had completely forgotten about, is river travel. There are old Scandinavian trade routes to Constantinople (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_rou ... the_Greeks), but I am not entirely sure what the relevant rivers would be for us. I find it just plausible that a return journey is possible in a season (three months) using sea and river routes, but I think it depends on a lot of luck, getting ship opportunities without delay.
Speaking of tolls. I skipped over the question of how to entice the help of a mystagogue. Vis payment? When do I petition the covenant council for a grant for the purpose? Owe a favour? Other?
Portal travel is not common. However the Mercer house will have at least one permanent portal to each Tribunal, plus one to each Domus Magna. The price sounds about right. It would be faster to go to one of the Italian Domus or Harko, then to Crintera. River travel, not safe. Basket solution definitely too much Julious Vern. You could have Arni fly to and back, while Pavo uses the portal.
As for 'enticing' the Mystagogue, you will have to see there and then
Maybe not common, but you are making it more common than the books suggest. Stonehenge really does say that all travel from the Mercere house is via Harco, and HoH:ML states that not all houses wanted to keep the portals after the Schism. NP. I don't object.
Arni will probably fly, unless it becomes absolutely clear that portal travel will not take longer and there is vis to waste. In fact, he will prefer to keep the vis to trade at Crintera, rather than use it up on the way.
Fair enough. Can cause inconsistencies when seasons are played in parallel, but I'll wait and see.
Scylax ex Miscellanea:
For Spring 1215 will join Ioannes AL class
For Summer 1215 joins Of Wandering Isles adventure
For Fall 1215 join Perama Caves adventure, finish Lab setup
Maia:
For Spring 1215: Redcap services, don't know if she can join Things go Bumping in the Night (it's 1 night)
For Summer 1215: Redcap services, I imagine she is excluded from being able to participate in "of Wandering Isles" because Scylax is going
For Fall 1215: Adventure Of Things left Too Long Buried, will craft figurine of wood afterwards.
(ST EDIT) Yes Maya can join the Spring Adventure (it will be her debut). If Scylax is going to Delos, she can't go with him.
Been looking over adventure and seasonal assignments. As per AM5 rules, you get exposure on seasons you dont get xp from somewhere else. If you go on adventure, you either get the adventure xp or (if its a brief) adventure you may wave that xp and get the seasonal xp (thats is mostly about Miklos).
So far I got:
Spring Adv: sir Georgios, Miklos, Maia (3 out 4 spots)
Summer Adv: Aristocles, Scylax, (Pavo?). Ioannes.
Gathering of 12 years: Arni, (Pavo?)
Autumn Adv1: Raven, (Pavo?, Arni?). Maia
Autumn Adv2: Scylax, sir Georgios, Miklos (1 of 2 magi, no more companions)
I will need Pavo's itinerary. As for Arni you need at least one character in adventures (so as not to get bored). You don't have to have Arni participate in an adventure, you already got Gerogios in 2 (you may of course). If Pavo goes to the Autumnal adventure Arni won't. So that means I need some clarifications for Pavo, finishing up the Alchemist Alexios and Solon's magus.
Ioannes will be teaching Artes Liberales on spring. He will have three students (Scylax, Aristocles, Miklos) so far. I count Quality at 17 somehow (5 com+ 4 Teaching, not a large lecture +3 +5 good teacher=17).
Anastaj's Spring class is so far Raven. Anastaj's Autumn class might have two Aristocles for Latin and Miklos for anything but Romaic Greek
(EDIT) I'll be posting/adding the contributions of the magi in the Library sections. So far I got Arni, Pavo, Raven and Aristocles, will add Scylax and Roland when posted. Raven used 8 pawns of vis, but added 4 creo from personal stash plus three tractatus (though those three are still hers), so no penalty incured.
Out of curiosity, A character who goes to two adventures in a season, will he get xp from both?
I find it a bit odd to let the companion fullfill the adventure requirement for the magus.
If it is necessary to make the jigsaw, we can swap sir Georgios and Arni on the two Autumn adventures. Even if it is not ideal for Arni, it may still be the best option.
It's the player requirement that needs to be filled. I want each player engaged in at least one adventure per cycle with a magus or companion. I have seen PbP where players put both magus and companion in the background to gather xps and play grogs instead.
Spring: If there is a class in Latin, he will attend this. If there isn't, he will practise Parma Magica instead.
Summer: travel to the Gathering of Twelve years - he will need to go to the coast, get a boat across the Adriatic and travel to Harco and negotiate portal transport. Let me know the vis cost and I will hold that back from the gift I make to the covenant (I would have budgeted from my parens' gift enough to get me to our houses' biggest event)
Autumn: Go on the adventure of Things too long buried. If that's no more than a week, spend the rest of the season finishing a laboratory.
(ST EDIT) Ok, we still are going to see what language will be taught, I have you down. Gathering fare (vis and money) will be covered by the Covenant, not your gift.
Ioke? You want to change Georgios and Arni's Autumn quests? Perama is in a cave mind you
I noticed that it would be in a cave, and it is obviously not Arni's favourite location, but he is an eagle - not a chicken
Basically, I want to play Arni on a proper adventure; the Gathering is just a mini-adventure just because we twisted your arm, isn't that right? Arni wants to explore the region, with what that entails, so it is not out of character either.
If there is a chance to study Classical Greek under a master teacher, I might reconsider, but only then. Artes Liberales is not important enough at the moment.
(Can Georgios do both Autumn adventures and get xp for both? Hypothetically.)
(ST EDIT) Only one source of xp per season, so no. Also both adventures run at the same time. I am changing Arni and Georgios Autumn stuff. I think Anastaj teaches Latin in Autumn. So....do a lab? something else?
It really depends on what we agree about labs and lab space in Winter, but doing a lab is probable. Can we get back to it when we see the Winter outcome?
BTW. While setting up a lab, can I train one of my personal grogs in Magic Theory, to do some of the lab construction in the future? If I understood you correctly, these grogs are loyal to me, and you only objected to training random grogs, not known to be loyal, in this way.
A propos teaching. For future reference. Can a character with (say) Romaic Greek 6 teach Classic Greek up to level 4?
The big question, of course, is which companions are available to teach what langauges ...
<_< How can you teach and prepare a lab at the same time? They each need a season. Or you can teach the grog MT till she gets it to 1, then have her help and get exposure xp. (I have no idea who started this grogs setting up labs idea....)
Lol no. Those are two different languages. The rules frame is for making people with dialects and similar languages understand a modicum of each other.
As in «magi don't earn a living», and therefore magi cannot train? Or as in «preparing the workshop you need for your trade is not part of the trade»? The book explicitly state that Hermetic arts are not trainable. If, as you might suggest, MT never is trainable, the rules would surely have been kind enough to include MT in that sentence. Lab work is what magi do for a living, and MT is the skill used for lab work.
In this particular case, setting up (shared) labs may be the service required by the covenant literally to earn one's living within it, and Magic Theory is the skill needed to actually do it.
Sorry for keeping on about this, but it is going to pop up again if we get to train apprentices, and I really want to know where you put the limits for training, so that we know what to expect at the next crossroads.
Sure, but why the speciality in lab help?
OK. So writing Church Greek, having 6 in Romaic Greek is irrelevant, what it takes is a speciality in Church Greek?
Whats the format for that?
