Roots of the arts (stats)

[Fafnir]

@Salutor

@loke

A point which I did not see before, and seems to have been overlooked, is that being cheap and available, the roots are probably copied quickly. There might be only 2-3 careful copies with the original (say) 6/24 stats in the Order. The copy you can buy from the Redcap has been copied quickly once or twice, or maybe even three times ending up at 6/21.

For the same reason, I'd lean towards them being capable of achieving the necessary qualities without relying on even the basic level of resonances - acquiring pearls and eelskin for every copy of your Aquam root is going to be a nuisance and an expense.

This is obviously very saga-dependent, but from my experience magi can easily muster such an abundance of mundane resources that it's very, very rare for them to give up a morsel of magical power because of they lack silver, mundane servants etc.

So.

Magical texts copied imperfectly, because of sloppiness, haste etc.? Maybe if the text was only made accessible once, by a faerie queen, to a young apprentice distracted by her beauty. Maybe if some supernatural doom burdens the author, so that some "accident" befalls each copy of his work ever made. But in "ordinary circumstances"? Inconceivable.

Pearls and eelskin, for 1xp (to each and every new member of the covenant)? A bargain! Throw in topaz and aquamarine, coral and turtleshell, turquoises, emeralds and opals, and it's still a bargain. Now, the skin of a selkie, the comb of a mermaid queen and the horn of a sea unicorn? Ok, that starts to be iffy.