A +4 or +5 Aura is clearly better then a +6 one, beside shouldn't the saint not only be meddlesome but also a ally?
Although I know we will have 2 superior way to extend the live of our cove folk & magus compared to the normal longevity ritual I think we should have some healthy improvements.
(the 2 way I was talking about are lesser elixir and Gematria with the later only be usable once but appear to be a instant magic that have a durable effect as it change the true name to confuse the angle of death)
It depends on your point of view. If we're looking at preventing the grogs from Warping, then you're correct. But if we're trying to maximize lab totals, I can see a desire to squeeze every point of Aura we can.
I wasn't sure that Demetrius of Thessaloniki could be considered an ally, since I'm not sure how motivated he'll be to help us with our own personal agendas. I suspect that, as a saint, he'll be looking out for our spiritual well-being, which may or may not be in agreement with our desires. In short, I don't see us being able to make requests of the saint that he'll comply with. Heck, even talking to him when he doesn't want us to might be an issue. You typically can't compel a saint to do anything.
I'm all for having one or more healthy features at the covenant. But we have to be able to justify them. What improvements might we have that would effect the covenant, but not the city in general? Because I don't see Thessaloniki itself having a healthy feature. That issue gets even more difficult if we're spread out across the city. We'd have to answer the question of why us and not them?
our Verditus will most likely want a lab assistant earlier or later
we can legal own slaves from my understanding (at last the holy mages in the book have some) and then probably some of us would like to have some to clean up the lab and other menial task.
A aura that warp our most trustworthy servants and porter that are allowed to enter the lab or at last go till the doors would have a negative effect on the loyalty.
For healthy features
herb garden that when using the products in the food we eat gives a +1
breeze from the sea if our outside is restricted to the seashore and harbor
local restricted holy aura from a building within our school ground that also affect the buildings around it (could be i.e. a chapel or church) although this would restrict our homes to be close to the school what from a story point isn't to bad.
our main well provide healthy water (if we have no clean watter source in the Regio then trusted slave / servant are becomming even more important)
Income Source
Thessaloniki have silk farms (at last if I remember right) and is a big transfer site for goods from and to Europe and Assia. Fishing would also be a good idea.
a +6 aura in a region forces us to deal with the mundane world in order to prevent warping of our covenfolk. In fact my forge companion has a magical supernatural virtue (mythic carpenter) and so he is not warped by the aura. Others can avoid warping by spending at least 50% of their time outside the aura. It does help squeeze more out of lab totals, but it also acts as a plot device to push for greater interaction.
not sure why the magi would be invested in silk, education and scriptoriums seem a very natural match to me, and silk farms tend to be, well, farms- outside of a city. Of course we could be involved with just about any craft guild (especially woodcarving, since the verditious and his companion are already involved).
If we are looking to finish off the boons and hooks I would suggest a few possibilities:
felicitous tribunal and local ally
local ally and a "floating" boon which may vary from sanctum to sanctum across the city- so perhaps your sanctum has a healthy feature while someone else's sanctum might have a different virtue (though none jump out at me at the moment)
and of course we can find a minor hook and take powerful ally...
however, since we are rotating storytellers I think the next step would be for everyone who has a mystery hook they would like to introduce as a storyteller to go ahead and post how many mystery hooks they want to add- there should probably be a limit of 2 or 3 per storyteller (minimum obviously is 0)
I'm agnostic about the Aura. Obviously, a higher aura is useful. But I don't feel strongly one way or another as between 5 and 6. Silveroak does make an interesting point about the +6 Aura forcing people to live outside the Aura, though I should think that practicality would also urge that outcome.
I tend to agree with silveroak on this one. Let's play to our strengths.
Why not go with both. We could easily add the Rights and Customs hook (we've been a covenant for a long time; rights and customs could easily have developed), and get all three.
FWIW, as for boons for individual residences, the following jump off the page to me:
Healthy Feature: as silvereoak said, there might be a healthy spring or a sea breeze or something at the individual residence.
Immunity: the residence might be a holy site that grants immunity to some disease.
Mystical Portal: the residence might contain a mystical portal of some sort. (A little of this goes a long way.)
Criminals: the grogs at a given residence might be mainly criminals.
Famous Resident: one of the residences might have a famous guest.
Hidden Ways: the residence could be located in a series of confusing alleyways.
I avoided any Fortification, Resource, or External Relations boons since those seemed like they should apply to the whole covenant. Otherwise we could all take Hidden Resources or Secondary Income and break the bank. Granted, Healthy Feature is probably the most appealing of these (barring a special back story). But there are others.
We might also consider having a floating hook to go with the individual residences. Here are some that might apply:
Haunted: the residence is haunted.
Resident Nuisance: there is some mystical creature plaguing the residence.
Unhealthy Environment: the residence could be located in an unhealthy part of town.
Hangout: there could be an inn or tavern near the residence.
House Church: the residence might be attached to a house church.
Refugee: the residence might be host to a refugee.
Sanctuary: the residence could be attached to a church that can be used as a sanctuary.
I'm good for a point or two of hidden flaws (depending upon what we need).
Of course, with some hidden flaws, we would have a corresponding number of boons. Some might be hidden, though there seem to be fewer hidden boons than flaws. We might be able to afford a tertiary income source or a powerful ally.
I've also been looking over the hooks and wonder if we need to take Seat of Power, given that we're right in the middle of the power struggle that will engulf Thessaloniki for the next few decades. THough I suppose we could avoid this one by saying that the leaders of Thessaloniki aren't jealous of the power that the magi have.
Okay, so here's a second attempt at a covenant, taking into account some comments from above. We ended up getting a lot of boon points from the inclusion of mystery hooks. Let me know what you think. Again, this is only for discussion purposes. Nothing is set in stone by any means.
[size=150]SITE[/size] +1 Regio: the covenant is based around a regio accessible throughout the city; all entrances are not controlled by the covenant +5 Aura: the regio has an aura of 6; auras of individual lacunae may vary +1 Healthy Feature: the covenant has a pure spring in the regio where all of the residences gather their water -3 Urban: the covenant is in the city of Thessaloniki -1 Road: Thessaloniki is a port city
[size=150]FORTIFICATIONS[/size] +0 Manor House: the various structures of the covenant are normal buildings
[size=150]RESOURCES[/size] +1 Wealthy: the primary income source is a major income source. +1 Secondary Income: the covenant has a secondary income source +1 Vis Grant: the covenant grants vis to the members of the covenant as a matter of right
[size=150]RESIDENTS[/size] +0 Peasants: what covenfolk exist are commoners +1 Literate: the covenfolk are by and large literate (this seems appropriate especially given that we're centered around a school) +1 Loyal Covenfolk: the covenant has been around for a long time; what covenfolk we have are loyal +1 Strong Community: we're an old covenant; the covenfolk are more tightly knit than green covenfolk -1 Rights and Customs: the covenant has been around for a long time; the covenfolk have come to expect some things -3 School: the center of the covenant forms the grounds of a local school; all of the magi are publicly associated with the school
[size=150]EXTERNAL RELATIONS[/size] +1 Felicitous Tribunal: the Theban Tribunal is easy to get along with +1 Local Ally: the covenant has a friend in the city government or the Church -3 Mundane Politics: the covenant is involved in the mundane politics of the city +3 Powerful Ally: either a powerful nobleman or a prince of the Church has allied with the covenant
[size=150]SURROUNDINGS[/size] -3 Meddlesome Saint: the patron saint of the city is the covenant's patron as well, and has taken an interest in the covenant
[size=150]OTHER[/size] +1 Floating: each residence gets to pick one boon that applies only to the residence -5 Mystery: I'm assuming we'll have at least 5 points of mystery hooks
[size=150]0 TOTAL [/size]
I'm guessing we're all okay with the regio not being under our full control. We easily have the boon points to pay for that if we want. The jury is still out, I understand, about the regio's Aura. But I figured it was easier to pay for the larger Aura and have points left over if it drops than the reverse.
I'm still not that happy with the +6 aura but ok I agree to your suggestion.
The -5 Mystery mean everyone of our group will have to come up with a secret hook that he can bring up any time in the future?
Can our regio have a access for ships from the ocean and some pier? (I ask because I put my lab on a ship and a pier would also help if something larger need to transported in or out)
We still haven't heard from everyone on this issue, so it's not categorically decided.
Yes, though I'd say that everyone gets to come up with a secret hook that he can bring up in the future. It seems like a bonus rather than a penalty to me. But if you'd rather not, I'm sure someone else will take up the slack.
That does lead to a good question as to what the nature of our regio is. What does it take to access it, and how could others do so? (As it stands, we don't have full control of the regio, so presumably someone might wander in.)
One idea I had is that it might be keyed to something from an old Greek temple (if that's not too pagan for us) - or maybe it's a relic of a saint, or something else. Anyone who passes through a stone archway holding such a token passes into the regio. We have a ready supply of the tokens, but they are by no means the only ones in existence. It's possible that someone might get hold of one from another source and wander through a stone archway with it.
That would allow access from a pier, though I think getting access to a ship (i.e., allowing it to go into and out of the regio) would be challenging. Perhaps the regio has water that you've installed a ship in ...
I also can remove this 2 free features for a lab on a ship during the next refinement of the lab.
But my character is also happy with a divine 5 or even a crazy divine 6 aura outside thanks to the holy magic virtue and at last a divine aura of 5 could be at one of the pier of the city.
With the flaw that wounded mystical-sensitive creatures look for my character it might actual better if his lab is not in the regio.
I'm not sure that we get a Divine Aura for what we pay for with the covenant build rules. I think we just get an aura in one realm (Magic, in our case).
The general city would be a Dominion 3, and if you found a site of pilgrimage or veneration it could go higher. But I'd be hard pressed to find a pilgrimage site that's on a pier. What do the others think? I'm thinking a pier is likely to be, at best, a Dominion 3 aura.
I had not realized that. How many times have I read the Covenant's section on boons and hooks and missed that part?
I'm not sure we want to follow that rule, though. Having 10 more boons than we have now would be bordering on the ridiculous (if not well within the bounds of ridiculous). My opinion is that we either have to pick fewer unknown hooks or make them worth less than a major hook.
I would say each of us chose a minor boon that only affect him and minor hook that mostly affect his magus or companion but also others of the covenant and leave the secret part out.
Just that we not forget it as a school we need to have a force less item that detect gifted!
That might be problematic. The whole point of having the hook be unknown is so that the stories resulting from it come as a surprise. For example, if you know that you have the hook Possession Victim, then it'll take the fangs out of any story involving that hook. You'll know what to look for and won't be at all surprised to learn that it involves demonic possession. We have the hook be unknown so that you don't know what to expect.
Thanks for keeping us focused with the list of current Boons/Hooks. My only caveats with it are below:
I'm not sure that I like the +6 Aura. What this seems to me is that the city is covered in a Divine Aura, but in our Lacunae, we have the powerful Magical Aura. Or do I have it wrong? However, it's not a hard requirement, and it may present an interesting challenge: too much magic.
I'm a little confused with the Regio; if we have the tokens we can enter it anywhere, right? So we do all the mysterious stuff such as appearing out of nowhere, because we travel through the regio, which is not the same as the mundane reality.
As I said before, I'm agnostic about exactly what the final aura is, so long as it's reasonable. Anything in the 3-6 range is good for me.) But here's how I see the argument for the aura in general.
Thessaloniki, being a good Christian city, has a Dominion aura. Thankfully for us, there are some lacunae in that aura. These lacunae are places where the Dominion aura doesn't exist, and maye even have a minor magical aura as well (maybe level 2 or 3). The lacunae will not have an aura of 6. (in fact, they can't, since they have to have a level less than that of the regio.) Technically they could have an aura of 5, but that seems too high to me for an aura in the middle of the city. I think we're better keeping them to the 0-3 range.
In addition to the lacunae, we have access to a regio that coexists with the city. Part of that regio is level 6, and that's where we've placed our labs. But there is no level 6 aura that's accessible to the majority of the city, and no level 6 aura that we can use while in the city. Silveroak particularly mentioned that he liked the level 6 aura because it would mean that we would have a reason to spend more time in the city itself, since our grogs could only spend 50% of their time in the regio without getting Warped. The powerful magic aura is separated from the city by the regio boundary.
I was just making a suggestion about possible ways to define the regio. Some people had wanted to say that our regio was not entirely controlled by us. That means that others from the city might be able to enter without us being able to stop them.
The easy way to have an entirely subtle regio is to have it be entirely under our control. There might be specific portals in the lacunae that we could use to get into and out of the regio. No one would ever see us, and no one would ever get in without our say so. But that's not what it seemed like people wanted. (FWIW, we could totally afford to have that kind of regio.) If people want a regio that isn't totally under our control, that means a regio with a relatively broad means of entry. With that in mind, and looking at the examples given in Covenants, I tried to come up with an alternative we could use.
One example given in Covenants was the regio in a certain city that can be entered from the steps of any building, within the city, that contains bricks stolen from the ancient mithraeum, by any woman with a red ribbon in her hair, and any man in pursuit of such a woman. That's pretty broad, and could have people appearing and disappearing out of nowhere across the city.
So, to answer your question, yes and no, If by "anywhere" you mean literally anywhere, then no. According to my proposal you'd have to enter the regio by passing through a stone archway carrying a token. There won't be a whole lot of stone archways in the city (though you can be certain that every magus residence will have at least one). So a person walking down the street couldn't accidentally be transported to the regio. You need the combination of token and stone archway for the transition to take place. That's a pretty specific combination for someone to happen on by accident. But we don't have a monopoly on either stone archways or whatever the token is. Someone might get both together, and in doing so find themselves transported to the regio. It's not likely to be a common occurrence, but it could happen. And if one of our rivals learned about the means of entry, they could enter whenever they wanted. So in that respect, yes, you could enter anywhere a stone archway exists in the city.
FWIW, I would posit that there is not a one-to-one relationship between the regio and the city, i.e., the regio is not a map of the city without the buildings. Rather, I assume that the regio coexists with the city but may or may not be as large as the city. Furthermore, entry would not be tied directly by place, since you'd have to go from archway to archway and there isn't a one-to-one correlation between archways in the city and archways in the regio. Perhaps you go to the most closely aligned archway in the regio - I haven't worked out all the details of every situation.
As for returning, the obvious answer is to say that once in the regio, if you pass through another stone archway, you return to Thessaloniki right where you disappeared, i.e., finishing the passage you originally started. That would mean that if I wanted to go to the regio, I'd pass through the stone archway in my residence holding the token. That would take me to the regio. I can stay there and do whatever I want there. And when I'm ready to leave, I pass through another stone archway and return to the archway in my residence, from which I entered the regio in the first place.
Or the entry/exit points could be keyed to the tokens not the people. A token could bring you in through an archway and anyone who uses that token could return through that same archway. But if you wanted to leave to a different archway in the city, you'd need to hold a token that entered the regio from that other archway.
So, there would not be a whole lot of mysterious disappearing and appearing where most people could see it. The majority of transitions would take place inside the privacy of one or our residences where no one could see. Of course, they don't have to be, but that would be the way to keep a low profile.
In any case, that's the proposal I was making, albeit in more detail. I hope it makes it more clear.
I like the idea with the stone portal but think the representation of each stone portal in the regio, maybe a stone portal it self, should have a place in the regio that have no to direct relation to the place in the city.
If a new stone portal is build in the city then a new stone portal in the regio would appear in a empty space and unless we know where a new stone portal was build we would have to investigate where the new portal lead to.
This way the size of our regio also don't direct have to represent the city and all the changes that happen there.
Edit: That would also give us the reason why we absolut want to keep our houses where the stone portal we use are in as the exits in the regio are close to our labs. If we have to build a new stone portal we can't control where it would exit in the regio unless we manage a Very hard-Impressive Astrology roll and manage to place the last stone at the exact right time.
Edit2: Maybe the token needed to enter and leave is a figure out of metal or stone that representing a titan to give this place some link to the distant history.
I think that if the region is much smaller than the city then the entryways need to be more restrictive and the means to use them more general- I'm sure there are hundreds of stone arches throughout the city if not over a thousand, and having each one have a corresponding archway in the region would be difficult at best.
Also if the region is small we should define whether certain building virtues are possible, such as subterranean, mountaintop (which I expect not for the entire city...), natural scenery, idyllic scenery, or vile scenery would exist within the region.
One point I found in the city history is that the city was greatly expanded into the ocean early in its history with the use of silt from the Axios river- the idea that somehow this silt is the key to the regio appeals to me...
That's if we assume a one-to-one correspondence of arches in the real world to arches in the regio. Personally, I'd say that each arch in the real world has a mystical pair in the regio, but that multiple arches in the real world can correspond to an arch in the regio. Or maybe there's just a single arch in the regio that all the arches in the city correspond to, with everyone entering the regio from the same place,
Or if could be something else entirely, if you have an alternate idea. I was really just trying to get the ball rolling with a suggestion.
As I said, I was looking at the example given in covenants and that was pretty broad too: one that can be entered from the steps of any building, within the city, that contains bricks stolen from the ancient mithraeum, by any woman with a red ribbon in her hair, and any man in pursuit of such a woman. That one doesn't say exactly how the transition is made, but I'm assuming that there isn't a reproduction of the city inside that regio either. If we decide to stick with my idea, I'm sure we can make it work. If not, I'd love to hear other suggestions.
Good point. I'd just naturally assumed that some building virtues were out. But I hadn't figured out which ones they were.
Speaking of which,we ought to decide what building virtues can be taken for free at startup (e.g., dedicated building, elevated, superior construction, etc,).
That's an intriguing connection. Did you have any thoughts as to how the two might be connected? Perhaps the regio is only as big as the area reclaimed by the silt.
I'm thinking the regio is an island in the middle of an ocean- still working out details but it can be left simply by entering the ocean that surrounds it, perhaps emerging from a mirror made with sand from the Axios river. I'm thinking the entry points may simply be fixed points in the city which correspond to fixed points on the island that have been mapped out simply whenever one has been found, perhaps entered by standing in the appropriate spot and burning some appropriate effigy- something fairly easy to make- perhaps anything woven with a particular type of flower, or simply a certain herb (sage?)... the locations probably have some form of relationship to each other but it is unknown, and people could "wander" in- possibly from an unknown spot, but it would be very rare.