I tend to favour a more narrative approach to post-Gauntlet advancement (which I also personally use when developping a character).
Basically, in that approach you tell a story of what you character is doing, whom he meets and study, what he finds, etc. It takes some writing skill and thought. The exact rewards (xp, vis and other stuff) are then discussed with the troupe depending on what makes sense. The amounts stated in the post-Gauntlet advancement rules in the ArM5 book is only used as a guideline.
For example, here is what I once wrote a few years ago while developping a magus (a Gentle-Gifted blacksmith of a slightly modified Rustic tradition from HoH:S p.130). Tthis is a bit long-winded and could be shorter:
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Year 1, Spring Season: “After gathering my tools, clothing and few personal items into the cart that was provided by my pater’s covenant, I have taken to the roads of the Kingdom (of Poland). Travelling proves a little more difficult than I remember, as my mule is headstrong and the roads themselves badly maintained. But I am learning to take care of the mule, at least.”
“ The first three villages that I visited did not require much of my services. They already had access to a blacksmith from neighbouring villages, so had on small work for me. Nonetheless, they were warm enough in their welcome.”
“ The fourth village was a different matter. Going farther upcountry brought me to a place sadly in need of my skills. I spent the rest of spring there, fixing a host of farming tools, hinges, and such. The villagers were quite happy about this, since it made planting season easier. I did not make much coin, for they did not have much, but was paid in what little food they had, as well as shelter for me and my mule.”
“ One woman had a lingering sickness. I told her I would pray with her for her recovery, and did what I could to strengthen her health with magic. By the time I left the village, she seemed to be doing better.”
Exposure: 2 xp (Craft: Blacksmith 1 xp, Animal Handling 1 xp) -
Year 1, Summer Season: “ Travelling ever further upcountry provided me with another village where I could practice my craft. This one had a nearby mine and already had a blacksmith, but he could not keep up with all the work. He agreed to take me on as a helper for the season. This proved quite fruitful to my skills as a smith.”
“ There was an orphan girl there named Maria. Her mother had died the year previous and now her father in a recent mine accident. She has no relatives in the area, so she was begging for food and almost starving, the poor thing. So I took her in. At 7, she doesn’t eat much.”
“ The villagers are decent folk, though. When they learned I was taking care of Maria, they got much friendlier and open with me. I spent a few nights drinking dark beer with the men, listening to stories. The women have been good to me too, letting me purchase food for me and Maria, or cooking for us.”
“ One of the stories I heard is about a mineshaft that was abandoned some years ago because miners kept getting disoriented in it. I went to investigate, but the shaft looked to dangerous for me to go into, it was very unstable. However, some unusual flowers growing near the entrance caught my attention. Their roots proved to have some bulbs growing on them that contain a little Herbam vis, so I gathered as much as I could, but also left enough that they could multiply. This proved to be worth 2 pawns. When I came back in the area later during the summer, another patch of the flowers did not contain any vis. I went back to the original site but they showed no raw vis there either, so this may be a seasonal source. The dried roots have retained their potency.”
Training: 6 xp (Craft: Blacksmith, Training Source Quality of 8, not full-time training)
Items obtained: 2 pawns of Herbam (root nodules of mountain flowers) -
Year 1, Autumn Season: “ Maria and I have travelled on to another village now. She is getting less scrawny and she sometimes smiles at my jokes. After a season spent at a mining village I wanted to get back to growing things. And harvest time means a lot of tools to be sharpened and repaired for farmers. So down-country we went, but eastward.”
“ We found another village that was happy to have us. It is far larger than the villages I grew up in, with an inn and a separate tavern. They also have a smith there, but with so many farms scattered around, having someone like me who could make the rounds to make small repairs was welcomed. I also helped the local smith when he had larger jobs or simply making nails for him. A boring job, but nails are always needed. And he taught me some new things.”
“ One of the wenches working at the tavern was quite friendly with me, and she thought Maria is cute. Anna was surprised when I told her the girl isn’t mine. It was clear that she had no intention of leaving her village, but when I left we were still friends. I may come back around here.”
“ While making the rounds around the farms, I learned that something was digging holes in the fields at night. The farmers were puzzled, so a few of them decided to stay up one night to see if they could catch whatever was doing this. After putting Maria to bed, I joined with them, curious as well. We saw nothing, but heard grumbling noises coming from the fields. Whenever we would close with the noises, it would move off and start elsewhere.”
“ The next night I came back alone, after giving myself the eyes of a cat. What I discovered was what looked like a small stunted man, no more than 2 feet tall, digging with a large wooden spade. He was grumbling as he dug. He jumped when I asked him what he was looking for. Since I had no light source, he had not seen me approach.”
“ The faerie (for that was surely what it was) told me that he had buried a cockatrice egg so it would be safe, but that the marker he had put on top of it had been removed. So now he couldn’t find it anymore. If it hatched before he found it, the cockatrice would die and poison the field. All the while the stunted man was grumbling, and he grumbled even more when he asked me for my help. The egg looked just like a rock to humans, from his tale. So I asked him if he could bring me a feather from the cockatrice that had laid the egg. We bargained a bit as to the price of my help, and struck a deal. He said he would get the feather the next night.”
“ The next night, he was back with the feather. Using spontaneous magic and the cockatrice feather as an arcane connection, I was able to pace the field until we found the egg. As a price for my help, he let me keep the cockatrice feather, and would bring me the shells of the egg once the egg is hatched. He fulfilled his part of the bargain and brought me the shell before I left the village with Maria.”
Note: The spell used to locate the cockatrice egg was based on Probe for Pure Silvers (InTe 4). The cockatrice feather was not really used as an arcane connection, but to provide a reference to the smell of the cockatrice’s egg.
Training: 6 xp (Training Source Quality of 9, but not full-time training): Craft: Blacksmith 4 xp, Animal Handling 1 xp (from talking with farmers), Bargain 1 xp (diverted from training xp to account for the very short story and accumulated bargaining from the season)
Items obtained: Cockatrice egg shells (proved to contain 2 pawns of Terram vis, he didn’t know this, he simply took a chance that they would be valuable), Cockatrice feather (no obvious magical properties, although it might provide some Form and Material modifiers for a magic item) -
Year 1, Winter Season: “ Winter on the road did not appeal to me, and I had Maria to think about. So I headed back to the covenant where Brictius sometimes live. I made some efforts to shelter my protégé from the worst of the weirdness by having her stay at the nearby village with a good family.”
“ I bargained for the use of a laboratory and access to the library against 1 pawn of my newly acquired Herbam vis. I also traded the information about the Herbam flowers against future access to covenant resources for 2 more seasons, provided some raw vis could be harvested from them.”
“ I spent most of the winter learning more about Intellego, as the covenant had a very good beginner Summa on the subject.”
Books: Summa with Quality 12 and Level 5, so 12 xp added
The end result for that first year was 26 xp, 3 pawns of raw vis and a cockatrice feather with no obvious magical properties. He took a child under his protection (Dependents flaw).
The amount of xp was on the low side but it seemed to make sense based on what he did during the year, but I had him find a few pawns of raw vis to make up for it.
That goes on for 10 more seasons before the magus arrived at the covenant we'd created for the saga. Over the total of 3.5 years, he accumulated 76 xp, 3 points of Warping (for botches), 19 pawns of raw vis (stories and trade), a Q10 tractatus (which he has read) and a few interesting items.