All right, here's what I envision for the resources and the journey from Fudarus to Heligoland.
First, when he left Fudarus Pytheas did not leave empty-handed: his mentor had put together a small pack with a few 'essentials' for the journey. Nobody was so gauche as to say, or even think too hard, that this was a reward for betraying his parens and switching sides in such a spectacular fashion, of course.
This is the part where I get a generous allotment of silver and possibly a text or two, to be determined. From his apprenticeship Pytheas should also have a copy of the Analects of Tytalus (HoH insert p.74 and all along the chapter on Tytalus for snippets of the book), and a copy of the Book of Instruction unless he decided to burn it and scatter its ashes over the ocean...
The Analects of Tytalus, collated by Hariste
Summa on House Tytalus Lore, Level 4, Quality 11
Summa on Philosophiae, Level 3, Quality 11
Tractatus on Order of Hermes Lore, Quality 8
The Book of Instruction by Tytalus ('has absolutely no instructional value')
Second, when he left Fudarus Pytheas decided to head North and East along the coasts of Brittany, Normandy, Picardy and Flanders, buying passage on a series of coastal merchant ships. He made a point of going ashore at a few points of interest and even explore a few interesting bays, among them:
- the Domen of Kerguntuil, which stands on an island and was once the site of a Diedne covenant (Northern Brittany)
- the general area where the regio in which Branugurix stood is located, but he did not try to find the entrance (Branugurix was the Domus Magna of House Diedne, in Norther Brittany near the border with Normandy).
- the isle of Jersey where the covenant of Aedes Salii once stood (Flambeau/Tremere covenant founded to coordinate actions during the Schism War, abandoned afterwards)
- The site of the covenant of destroyed covenant of Pagus
- he stopped for the night at the quaesitorial covenant of Confluensis.
- he also stopped for a couple of nights at the Mercer House of Dragon's Rest (a possible place to hook up with our redcap. There's a Mercere Portal there.)
- the site of the abandoned covenant of Infelicitas (founded by Rancrax ex Tytalus, abandoned at his death)
- he again stopped for a night at the covenant of Spider's Palace (Quercus would love it, there was once a thousand year old oak spirit there).
Each time Pythaeus made only a token effort exploring the land (or not at all in the case of active covenants) but spent a few hours swimming in nearby waters.
(Note: basically every covenant along the coast from Fudarus to the border with the Rhine Tribunal, according to L&L)
Basically one or more seasons of adventures along the coast, to gather resources, including
Attacked by pirates
Pytheas was traveling on a ship along the Brittany coast when it was attacked by pirates: a large rowing boat filled with armed men, several times more than enough to take over the small merchant ship he was traveling on. Or it would have been, had he not been on board (and the captain who had only been persuaded by a very fat purse of silver was suddenly very glad his greed had gotten the better of him). Pytheas had reason to bless his parens' insistence that he learn on good offensive spell and learn it well, as he blasted the ship and its occupant with torrents of water, sending half the pirates overboard and eventually capsizing the boat. One of the pirates shouted out, promising to serve Pytheas forever if he would just save him, for he could not swim. Pytheas did so and acquired a loyal grog, and a large rowing boat (missing most of its oars).
Acquired: a shield grog, a large rowing boat.
The stopover at existing covenants are also a good excuse to turn some of the silver from Fudarus into lab equipment, possibly ordered ahead.
[hr][/hr]
The goal here is to make sure Pytheas brings his 'fair share' of wealth to the covenant. If this setup works it would give Pytheas
- some silver.
- possibly a text or two if it is appropriate; maybe a few lab texts for useful spells ?
- a copy of the Analects of Tytalus, which is a decent starter book on Philosophiae if nothing else.
- a large rowing boat (which he arranges to be towed by his merchant ships)
- an ex-pirate shield grog
- possibly some lab equipment (it costs 5 Mythic Pounds to outfit a basic laboratory) - this is merely converting silver from above into equipment in a storied fashion.
- whatever the ST judges appropriate for a season of adventure that incidentally produced a large rowing boat and a shield grog.
- I still need to recruit a servant somewhere; not a problem, I just haven't figured out the servant yet.
I still feel this is low for starting a covenant, so unless the troupe feels otherwise I'll travel more slowly and add as many seasons of adventure as it takes. If I happen to find vis, my stopovers at covenants would give me an opportunity to trade it.