Rhine Tribunal - Peregrinatore requirements and benefits

I'm getting ready to run a Rhine Tribunal game, and so have been thinking about what the different canonical covenants offer to peregrinatores. I've worked up something for all of the convenents, but am a bit stuck on how to make some of them more flavourful (especially for Irencillia, Fengheld and Roznov). Has anyone else developed these requirements for their game? Any comments on the list I have so far would be appreciated - my plan is that the PC magi will have spent about 5 years as peregrinatores before the game starts, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them take up this opportunity even after they establish their own (Rhine Gorge) covenant.

Note: in all cases, ‘access to the library’ does not include copying books!

Durenmar
Attitude
Wants to attract guests to maintain prestige, but only wants the ‘best’ guests rather than spotty newly gauntleted magi.

Requirements

  • While guesting, must spend at least one season annually attempting to perfect and refine Bonisagus’s Hermetic Magic
  • All guests must submit complete lab notes on improvements to Hermetic Magic generated at Durenmar to the Great Library within 3 years of generating those notes

Notes: these requirements tie into Durenmar’s main goals. The lack of coordination means the Great Library is home to a lot of lab notes on partial breakthroughs. A more sensible requirement would be for guests to spend 1 season/year helping in the lab, but Durenmar is too conservative for that.

  • 10 pawns of vis annually

Notes: This is partly to keep Durenmar solvent, and also to keep the number of requests to a managable level and to discourage weak/poor magi from guesting

  • Peregrinatores will refrain from declaring Wizard’s War while at Durenmar; if they do declare a Wizard’s War, the Prima may terminate their stay at her discretion. Furthermore, no guest may commence their stay at Durenmar if they are the target of a Wizard’s War. If a Wizard’s War is declared while guesting, the Prima may terminate their stay at her discretion

Notes: Durenmar does not want to get caught up in Wizard’s Wars, or people trying to use the Protector of Durenmar to keep them safe during a war

Benefits

  • One season of access to the Great Library annually
  • Unlimited use of a specific guest laboratory; the sigil of the Protector of Durenmar must be placed over the sanctum entrance. If there are too few laboratoes available, higher rank guests (and those of House Bonisagus) take precedence; disputes betwen those of equal rank are to be determined by certamen. (Guest labs are as detail
    ed in GotF)

Crintera
No peregrinatores are allowed; only members of House Bjornaer may become visitors but this is extended to non-Rhine Bjornaer also.

Irencillia
Attitude
Not too fussed one way or another. Merinitae peregrinatores will often be given greater access to texts on e.g. House Lore and Faerie Lore, and teaching or initiation into House Mysteries, but these aren’t covered by the peregrinatore charter.

Requirements

  • 3 pawns of vis or one season of service. Faerie vis is acceptable!
  • Some kind of fae-based requirement, but what??

Benefits

  • Access to the outer library (has a reasonable selection of Faerie Lore and faerie-oriented spells, but no House Lore or the best texts)
  • Access to one of three guest laboratories (normal labs)

Fengheld
Attitude
Actively encourages peregrinatores; often recruits new members from these guests. Almost all peregrinatores are guested at Fengheld proper, rather than the chapter houses.

Requirements

  • 3 pawns of vis or one season of service.

Benefits

  • Access to the outer library of Fengheld (a reasonable selection of books covering a range of arts, abilities and standard spells especially combat-orientated ones. Structured in a way that makes it clear how shiny and amazing the inner library for ‘real’ members is). If a member of Fengheld requires the same text, they take precedence.
  • Use of a guest laboratory for the duration of the stay. If no laboratories are available, Fengheld will provide half the costs of establishing a new laboratory for the guest to use. (These labs are fairly decent labs, and probably the best available to peregrinatores in the tribunal)

Neither the requirements or benefits feel very flavourful, but I’m not sure what to add.

Dankmar
Attitude
Generally not that interested in attracting visitors, and may even forbid them at times. I want to make Dankmar less of a covenant for Disney Villains though, and so they do allow guests.

Requirements

  • Only one peregrinator may reside at Dankmar at any time
  • All guests must be in good standing with the fae of the Black Forest, and any guests who angers those fae will be ejected forthwith (basically a way of stopping Durenmar people; Dankmar gets to define who is and isn’t in good standing)
  • 3 pawns of vis or one season of service.

Benefits

  • Full access to the outer library of Dankmar (which is not very good)
  • Unlimited use of the guest laboratory (a fairly cruddy lab)

Roznov
Attitude
Ex Misc half actively doesn’t want them; Tremere half is neutral. Fairly standard t’s&c’s (3 pawns of vis per year; access to part of library and guest lab). Again, not sure what to add here to make it more interesting.

Triamore
Attitude
Normally fairly positive; recently very positive as Triamore is trying to recruit new magi.

Requirements

  • 3 pawns of vis or one season of service.
  • Guests must contribute a new work to the library, of suitable quality. The librarian of Triamore will determine if a work is of suitable quality (i.e. no vain tractatus or summae unless they’re in super rare areas).

Benefits

  • Access to the library of Triamore (this is a recent change; the previous charter only allowed access to the outer library. The library of Triamore is fantastic for mundane abilities)
  • Use of a guest laboratory (the old guest labs are all normal labs, but Daria may open up the labs of the recently deceased magi to guests she particularly wants to recruit. Those labs are much better, but often highly specialised)

Oculus S
Attitude
Overall neutral towards peregrinatores, in part because of the limited space available in Lubeck.

Requirements

  • 5 pawns of vis (a season of service is not acceptable; Oculus S. need vis badly!)
  • Only magi with the Gentle Gift are permitted to stay
  • Must agree to avoid doing anything which would draw mundane attention towards the covenant

Benefits

  • Access to the library; members of Oculus S. have priority if there’s a dispute over books
  • Use of the guest laboratory

Notes: Only 1 guest lab, which is mostly set up to help learn spells.

Waddenzee
Peregrinatores are not permitted. Waddenzee are being sufficiently illegal that they don't want outsiders nosing around (and the description of the covenent doesn't sound like there's any spare labs, or space to easily add them).

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I think this looks pretty complete.

The Tremere side of Roznov, I suspect, would actively support Tremere visitors more than other houses. So would Fengheld, to a lesser extent; Fengheld is actively trying to supplant Durenmar, and showing off its power through hospitality to all.

Dankmar is so anti-Durenmar that I expect it would put extra effort into a mage who is even mildly opposed to Durenmar or a Durenmar mage. Its pretty poor, though, so I doubt extra effort is much more than some deference and possibly esoteric wisdom. Don't forget the youngest maga of Dankmar is either a real sweetheart surrounded by evil aunts or the wickedest of them all and just waiting to bloom.

Oculus Septentrionalis does have limited space, but I expect it to be very comfortable and cozy; they're rich in both mundane and, to a lesser extent, magic wealth. They're also in the midst of a city, so probably prefer magi with social skills or at least who are not offensive; who wash, don't cackle, and know not to cast spells in public. So, they're selective and may have a reputation for stuffiness.

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I'm literally working on a list at the moment of who the peregrinatores are in my own Rhine campaign. I want to work out who is likely to descend upon the covenant once it gets ratified at Tribunal.

Re: Durenmar. On page 61 of GotF (top of the third column) it says: "There is a long waiting list to be a guest at Durenmar, and magi are often willing to accept ludicrous deals with the covenant to gain unrestricted access to the Great Library. Such guest magi are usually required to provide the gild training to at least one Rhine apprentice during their stay, taking two seasons." So you may wish to factor that into your thinking.

Re: Crintera. I'm not sure they're allowed to say that they don't accept peregrinatores. The first bit of the Peripheral Code ruling says: "A magus may request hospitality from any covenant established legally in the Rhine Tribunal." They might make the conditions so hard that nobody wants to stay but, as it says, "this would reflect poorly on the covenant." I suspect the same might be true if the conditions were such that only a Bjornaer maga could achieve them (eg: "You have to patrol the regio in your heartbeast form for 1 season").

Re: Irencilia. I suspect that they don't get many non-Merinita peregrinatores because of the Faerie Aura. But they seem so disorganised that I would imagine the conditions are fairly lax. Perhaps the 'oath of fellowship' tends to lead to people getting involved in faerie politics?

Re: Fengheld. I would tend to agree with what you've put. They obviously want to encourage people so would make it attractive and, clearly, money/resources/space are not a problem for them. I wonder if one can be a peregrinatore-guest at one of the chapter house locations?

Re: Dankmar. Who'd want to go there?! :slight_smile: I note that the covenant is covered by a Penetration 20 "Shrouded Glen" equivalent. Given that most peregrinatores are Journeymen, I would imagine that many of them would be unable to get to the covenant. Perhaps any that do are considered interesting enough that they are permitted to stay. What you have seems fair enough.

Re: Roznov. As you say, I can't imagine the Radegost worshippers wanting anyone getting that close. This seems one of those covenants that might set the bar so high that everyone is discouraged (but they don't care). The Tremere half, on the other hand, might find this incredibly irritating and be trying to change the covenant's terms.

Re: Triamore. I'm doing something different with them as I wanted a small, hostile covenant close(ish) to the PCs so Triamore is going to be rather more difficult to deal with. But they are recruiting so guests are encouraged but are absolutely required to help defend the covenant. I think that they don't require vis but do require a season of service (because they want to experience working with the guests to see if they could become permanent members).

Re: Oculus S. Perhaps they have a chapter house outside of Lubeck where those without the Gentle Gift can lodge?

Re: Waddenzee. This is the one I have most difficulty with. If they turn everyone away, I would think it will serve to make other magi and the Quaesitors even more suspicious of them. The covenant location, as I understand it, is on an otherwise-uninhabited island of a reasonable size (Terschelling is several miles long) so I would think there is probably space, in the canon version of the covenant.

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Collem Leonis from TtA?

Thanks for the input. I'm not going to use Collem Leonis in my game, mostly because there are already enough NPC covenants running around :slight_smile:

A few minor alterations:

Durenmar
Requirements

  • Should an Rhine apprentice seek tutoring by a gild, a guest may be required to spend two seasons teaching them during their stay. If multiple guests of the same gild are available, the head of that gild shall decide which one will teach the apprentice. (Murion would like to be the one who decides, but this condition was added long ago)

Crintera
Requirements

  • All guests must spend 1 season per year patrolling Crintera in their heartbeast form (i.e. only Bjornaer are welcome!)

Irencillia
Requirements

  • All guests will refrain from molesting the fae, and are encouraged to interact with the fae residents, especially their own caricature

Roznov
Requirements
Currently very onerous (2 seasons a year of service, in addition to a payment of vis). There is only one peregrinator guesting at the present; it's widely known that the Tremere half of Roznov will be pushing to amend these terms once the current guest has left. Meanwhile, Igor is trying to find a member of the Ash gild to start a stay before the current guest leaves, as the charter can only be amended if no guests are present.

Oculus S
Benefits

  • Use of the guest laboratory (there's only one set up at the moment, but there's room for more. The lab is very well appointed from a mundane point of view).

Waddenzee
When the covenant was effectively re-founded in 1207, Hygwald declared that no peregrinatores would be welcome until the covenant was able to host them suitably. He promised that Waddenszee would start accepting guests in 20 years time (i.e. 1227).

Would you mind sharing that? I was also planning on having visitors descend on them once they have a covenant.

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I would think Collem Leonis welcomes peregrins. They have space for a few, although in many respects they are struggling - but with potential for greatness. Their resources are disorganized, and they have a need for...everything.
Their vis income is not great, so I think they might like vis payments from peregrins. Their price range should be higher than most, since they aren't desperate, but not so high as to discourage visitors or give them bad reputation.
Many of their resources require time spent to consolidate or rediscover, although they will not readily invite visitors to help with this - it should be kept secret.
However the time the Collem Leonis magi spend watching their Uncontrolled Portals and protecting against the things which come through could easily be outsorced to skilled visitors, leaving the local magi more time for other pursuits.

The library has few remarkable books, but in time it should grow, as the lost and forgotten reources are recovered, making the place gradually more useful to visit.

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