So I have a mage who, for a variety of reasons, is too terrified to leave the Covenant. He wants to solve this using a variety of spells and items, but I can't work out the details. I get as far as Opening the Intangible Tunnel and some sort of InIm spell?
Basically, what would be needed to, say, put an item on a grog that would allow you to communicate with them, as well as see and cast spells as if you were there?
Thanks (I say that a lot, here...)
Arcane Connection range Creo/Imaginem and Intellego/Imaginem spells would be useful for allowing the magus to interact with others at a distance.
Maintaining Concentration on both could be problematic, however, so I recommend Enchanting one of them into a device (probably the Intellego effect).
A familiar would be the perfect "grog" since somehow enchanting Shared Senses on a normal grog would warp him.
I am not sure how Tunnel would help you for Range:Voice/Sight spells, if at all. Now, if you somehow manage to make your familiar your talisman and Tunnel allows you to touch him... Range:Touch would get anywhere 
Totally munchkin, but if your familiar opens the tunnel to you... "he is considered to be touching you."
The invisible Assassian section of Hermetic Projects explicitly discusses this: it says you can use Intangible tunnel at touch range to start and maintain the connection to your grog (of say, Moon duration), and then use Touch-based InMe effects to read their surface thoughts, to see out of their eyes. (Whenever the mood suits the character.)
EDIT II - Here we go: HP, pg, 81, "The master's Message" - touch/moon intangible tunnel you use on a grog, and then have the grog go wander around to do your bidding. As well as the related "Fingers For Eyes (pg. 84), a touch-based lvl 5 InIm that lets you see the room your target is in (note they actually have to be in a room).
EDIT - also, Intangible tunnel-style effects can be used with touch/voice/sight range spells - if you are in range of the tunnel (ie, touch for touch-based, voice for voice-ranged, etc.) you can target through it. Again - this is explicitly discussed in Hermetic Projects.
Another option is to do a Wizard's Sidestep (ReIm) variation through the tunnel, so that you can see through it, and people can see you. I'm...not sure if that would work, though (I'm away from my books at the moment.) It SOUNDS plausible, though.
See also Image from the Wizard Torn (147) for more ideas on more personal interaction.
I was wondering if the magus could try to work around his fear, but conjuring an illusion which surrounds him in comfortable and familiar surroundings, even though he is actually elsewhere. In effect he might still need to be lead by a grog, or contained in a wagon or some-such, but he would only perceive something which is less terrifying for him. A MuMe effect upon himself to alter what his mind sees, kind of like being affected by a glamour which changes what he thinks is there.
It could become a little like an inception scene when he travels and the effect tries to alter his perception to hide things which are confronting.
There is a device in Transforming Mythic Europe that would be useful if the magus did venture out. When activated it grabs an arcane connection from the area then teleports the user to safety. You can then use the gathered AC to spy on the location and teleport back when the cost is clear.
How about just using a ReMe effect to suppress the fear?
If it was too perfect, it makes the flaw worth less; which is not ideal in a meta-game kind of way imho.
Depends on duration- day duration remember to be inside by nightfall, some version of the mystic tower may be required in a pinch...
of course using terram magic to travel underground is another relatively simple work around...
No, it doesn't "depend on duration"...
It's not just IBT's opinion that this would not be allowed, it's part of the rules of Virtues & Flaws...
"Some Flaws... could be fixed using Hermetic magic. A character with easy access to such magic can only take such a Flaw if there is some reason why it cannot be fixed... In general, characters cannot take Flaws which will quickly be removed in play." (p 36, col i-ii)
Note that this refers to actually "fixing" the flaw" (which a ReMe effect would do if of any Duration to be useful), but not "avoiding" it in the first place (altho' that, too, could fall under the same concept imo). So any "work around" has to be exactly that - a solution that is neither a cure nor removal of the Flaw.
Such as...
CrTe 10 Panic Room [list]R: Touch, D: Diam, T: IndCreates a small, solid stone room around the caster, approximately 2 paces cubed and walls a full hand-span thick. Anyone (and anything) immediately adjacent to the caster will be inside - all else will be outside. By default, the room has no openings whatsoever (and so is pitch black and air-tight), but if desired some small opening could be formed with a Finesse roll as the spell is cast. The effect will conform some around barriers, but any obstruction that would cause the room to be too small, or that would pass through a wall, will cause the spell to fail without a Finesse roll, but the caster must be aware of the obstruction to form the appropriate openings. The effect does not last long, but hopefully long enough for the caster to (better) prepare to meet any threat(s) before it ends. (Base 3, +1 Touch, +1 Diam, +1 Size)[/list:u]
Of course, this ignores the obvious question of, if the mage is so afraid of "being outside", how did they get there in the first place, and what do they really expect to find changed when the spell ends? 
I would argue that such a spell suppresses rather than fixes the flaw.
You've effectively already made that argument...
And I'm sure we'd all agree - it's a fairly obvious point. But exactly what difference does that distinction make here?
All you're doing is rephrasing that for some reason you believe "short duration" effects sidestep the rules, which (I believe) the above citation clearly refutes.*
Yes, it's short-term and not permanent, being a Rego effect and not a Creo effect. But so what? How does that move it outside the last part of those rules, that the Flaw has been "removed in play" either way? With Mentem, what is the practical difference, in the context of the above rule, between "fixing" and "suppressing"? The Flaw has been "quickly removed in play", either way, which the rules say should not be allowed.*
There is no reason to read the use of the word "fix" to imply "permanently". And the use of the word "remove" doesn't apply to whether or not the Flaw is still on the Character Sheet, but whether or not it has an effect in play - and in the case of a wizard with access to a short-term magical fix (Rego or otherwise), it would not, and so directly contradicts the guidelines set in that section of the rules.
(* If you want to houserule something, that's entirely diff than saying that the Rules support it. But just say as much.)
For the same reason mages with the blatant gift can cast air of ennobled presence despite the fact that it perfectly balances the extra -3 social penalty they incur for having the blatant gift.
"Trust Me" ReMe 20 from HoH: TL (page 73) is possibly a better example, since that explicitly counter-balances the force of the gift on the target's mind. That said, it only applies to a single target and you have to cast it on them (although you can get around that to an extent by modifying the spell parameters, particularly if you have Sensory Magic and an appropriate heartbeast). I've also known people not to like the spell's existence.
The nature of the solution is the key. A chair which walks for a crippled magus is fine, and I think in old versions of th at was in an old book; a Rego Mentum effect that perfects removes the fear would be a problem.
If you believe that Blatant Gift and an "extra -3 social penalty" are equivalent, you are not familiar with the Rules.
If you believe that that anything like that spell effect can "fix" The Gift, you are not familiar with these Forums.
Which, incidently, is not what I said.
is not the same as
I stated that the blatant gift includes a -3 social penalty which can be balanced with air of ennobled presence. So critiquing me for what I didn't say is really pretty meaningless.
Similarly a ReMe could be used to suppress fear. It would probably have some side effects of suppressing more useful kinds of fear as well, or it might even just suppress the penalty from fear or... there are a lot of possibilities. My point is just that the direct approach is not completely out of the picture.
I believe you could design a ReMe to remove the magus'fear, but to prevent the flaw from being completely negated, the spell will have one annoying side effect: it suppress the feeling of threat. Hence the magus does not feel when he is in danger (unless it is pretty obvious like a dragon in his face), missing all cues like thugs exchanging glances, hands shifting towards hidden weapons, tone of the voice changing and so on.
As a GM, I would allow a spell which temporarly remove a flaw as long as it is replaced with something else. And personnally, I always considered mages slightly disconnected from reality, thus when they create a spell to solve a problem, the fail to see the problems the spell is generating itself.
My magus developped a floating disk to travel quickly from one place to another one. And it is exactly that: a flat disk. Travelling at 150 km/h. In the northern part of the Novgorod tribunal. In winter. Do I need to elaborate about how succesfull his first trial was ? 
Now he is wearing so much furs he cannot bend. And of course, he is too proud to consider inventing a more practical spell.
I think there are a nmber of possible drawbacks you could include. For example he may recognize the threat but be emboldened to the point of being foolhardy by his lack of fear. "What? It's just one puny dragon, nothing to fear!"
Or in suppressing the fear of the outdoors it suppresses natural instinctive reactions to situations that only occur outdoors "Lightning, rain, sure, but we have a cozy fire and a roof over our heads... oh wait, I suppose we don't."
There are a lot of ways to get creative about the drawbacks, or even as to what parts of agoraphobia it doesn't fix- for example maybe he simply can't spend any of his adventure experience on outdoor or outdoor related abilities like area knowledge or survival, because the spell prevents him from focusing his attention on these things or forming memories about them.