I will be out of town for the next few days. I'm still working on my characters and will try to do so over the weekend, but I will be unlikely to post again before Tuesday.
Many apologies to the SG and the group.
beach dialogue:
Is this a companion level adventure, or are we just looking at an inversion of Macbeth (three warriors waiting for a witch to tell her about future events)?
Can the companions do as they plaease, or do they have to ask the magi? Can they ask the magi?
It looks like I've once again fallen afoul of unstated assumptions. I am intending this story to be a free-for all to establish all the 'expeditionary' characters (i.e. the ones who are likely to leave Alerock and go galivanting around Mythic Europe in search of... whatever). I thought that, since it's happening more or less on the covenant's doorstep, it's a good excuse to have everyone there who wants to be there, and a significant threat of unknown power and provenance might motivate everyone to pull together, just in case.
I'll start off future stories in a similar fashion, but will try to be more explicit about the situation that's arisen, you guys can then decide who has come along to deal with it, who has stayed behind, and why.
The inversion of Macbeth is a brilliant idea that I will now claim that I absolutely thought of myself. It's likely that the events unfolding in the story will split the party up on at least one occasion - this is kind of a chance to let the de facto chain of command establish itself. If the companions would logically turn to the magi for orders, then I think that's the thing to have them do. On the other hand, if there's a chance for them to exercise initiative (perhaps in the pursuit of purely personal goals) then I as SG don't have a problem with that at all. For the record, Annaeus doesn't either - he likes people to work out what to do for themselves and not bother him unless it's actually necessary.
Also, since I'm spelling things out, you should feel free to have your magi arrive whenever you think would be suitable, handy or dramatic. Since two of the currently created magi can teleport straight from Ailsa Craig to the beach (assuming Keythleen uses a handful of sand as an AC for Sayan'jin's Teleport) and the third can fly, they probably sent the companions ahead to make sure they arrived on time, then spent the night in their own beds and will arrive when they're good and ready.
SG, what about the concept of elementalist companion?
Padget is nice but he's not very optimized 
(if i could rework it... but i don't want because it's your character with your own flavor and preferences 
)? however i like his personnality ^^.
I like the sound of Vance, and his arts suit Ailsa Craig pretty well. I'll admit, I had my reservations, but mainly that's because I do most of my game-posting at work during my lunch breaks, so I use Metacreator to keep track of the game. Metacreator doesn't currently support HMRE, but I can probably kludge around that.
It's interesting that we keep clashing over this notion of optimisation. I guess it comes down to some really basic differences in play style. One of the main things I look for in a game is believability - I like the places, people and events to feel real, and one of the easy ways to do that is to have incongruous elements everywhere that detract from mechanical optimisation. Real people tend to have a variety of interests and skills, not all of which relate to their main niche in life. For example, one of the sample characters in Metacreator is a thief with +4 Qik and Dex (from Great Characteristic virtues), a few other virtues related to stealing stuff and every single skill point dumped into Ledgerdemain, Stealth etc. I know people tended to focus on a single trade in the middle ages, but to me a character like this doesn't say 'focused', it says 'monomania'. I had almost the same reaction to Keythleen, but somehow it seems more approriate for a maga to specialise in some obscure magical field.
I've had previous players who liked optimised characters, so I've worn down my instinctive objections to the point where they don't bother me any more - I'm only mentioning it here so you know where I'm coming from.
ALSO:
The discussion between the companions is actually happening on Girvan's beach, about nine and a half miles away from the council chamber. Do you want to edit your post accordingly? You can assume Keythleen knows who's there, why they're there and exactly where to find them.
Just checking in to say i'm moved with internet and books unpacked. i'll hopefully have my characters done this week.
You're doing better than I am, then. I still have boxes and boxes of books sitting around the place. One of them has my Ars stuff in it, but I'm not sure which one.
Hello all!
I'm impatient to go on playing... but is there yet anybody??
Not as active as some other game. 
Sorry guys. I usually do my updates during slow periods at work, and there haven't been many of those lately. Or lunch breaks, really. In any case, things can, and will, pick up again over the next week or so.
A read over the Council on the Beach thread suggests that you have a perfectly serviceable battle plan. Are there any objections to starting the story in earnest?
Let's go!
Alright, we're on! I know I've said this before, but feel free to have your magi show up whenever you like. Hopefully things will get pretty interesting pretty fast.
For Elementalist controlling, i'll use (if you don't oppose) to the suggestion i had from a player in this forum :
using the controlling (philosophical) [which mean control the "mundane" elements, not elemental nor medicinal elements] to do Re form spell according the hermetic magic, using half controlling+pres+element +die + aura to determine the "equivalent" level of spell achieved.
It's the way we agreed IRL (where i have another elementalist ^^) and it seems functionnal.
But you have the final word.
Sorry for the wait - I keep forgetting to bring RoP: Magic to work. Coming soon: a roaring rampage of elemental wrath!
It sounds okay, but let me have a bit more of a read through HMRE before I make a final decision, if you don't mind. I must say, Vance's entry on icy stepping stones was pretty cool, so I'm inclined towards saying yes.
Your word is final .
You forgot 'prejudiced' and 'arbitrary'.
Having had a read of the (rather vague) rules, I'm happy to run with your proposal. Remember that Vance can also use his Philosophical Controlling to affect animals of a phlegmatic (watery) and sanguine (airy) disposition - in practice, this means birds and fish.
Thanks for the reminder .
I'm still watching the forum, waiting for people to post their actions. As far as I'm concerned, there's still life here...