You'll hate Apprentices, then. It is suggested that the Gentle Gift is teachable. In fact, all the Virtues are teachable, but must be possessed by the teacher. This radically alters the variable nature of magi: filius should look like parens. This isn't something I subscribe to on any level, I totally hate it. The parens should work hard to shape The Gift of the filius into something manageable, ameliorating the worst flaws and tuning virtues into useful assets of the character. It makes some sense that Virtues and Flaws the parens has should be easier to introduce, it does not make sense that the parens can't introduce flaws or virtues he doesn't have.
Note that 2 years advancement from 1222 represents a lot of decision making for the aSG, as far as Viscaria and the Tribunal Field goes:
- spells/enchantments that Viscaria trades for
- rulings on certain questions about Guernicus involvement at this stage
- political research
- plus time spent focused on V's Story Flaw about her mother
Some spells are available from the Tribunal, such as creating the housing necessary, and preparing a suitable "blank slate" to be a Tournament field. These are available as spells or casting tablets. Anything beyond that is up to the covenant, and the resources that Viscaria spends are up to the covenant, if she needs something she needs to figure it out and do a make/buy analysis and make the recommendation to the covenant.
I'm not sure what you're asking here. Are the Guernicus going to be at the next Tribunal? Yes. Beyond that, well, you'll have to wait and see. When they get involved and start making ME's life more difficult and begin investigating will be closer to the start of the Tribunal, making it very difficult for Mons Electi to demur requests to come.
Are you doing some? For what reason, isn't that going to impact your hired tasks?
Oh, I have something there, and as I indicated and may have subtly suggested I'd like to do it this year. When you were posting more frequently I hatched a nugget of an idea, and then your posting rate diminished rapidly. My big concern is getting out of the morass that is 1222. I can do the story in Autumn 1222, but can you and get it done in a month and feel satisfied? Viscaria has lots of things going on, and that's fine, but you need to be realistic about the stories you're involved in, given that you are moving into a busier time of year for you. The Viscaria mother story can wait and germinate a bit, IMO, and I can tackle it in later where the dreams become plaintive and insistent and she can ignore them no longer. SGs can activate story flaws whenever they like, not on a schedule the player wishes. The story flaw is just your way of telling me that you won't put up a fight about it, because it's a flaw you chose, indicating these are the kinds of stories you want to be involved in, above and beyond the stories related to the overall saga. I try and blend the two, so it takes some time.
So, do you want the story flaw in 1221 and can you finish it on my timeline? 'My plan for this period where people are hunkering down and trying to get through the years and get things they need to get done was to activate a number of players' story flaws, yours would've been one of them.
Boy, way to burst Ulrich's bubble! 
They did hint at that in Rival Magics. Since PM is a Supernatural virtue that is taught that was brought into the Hermatic fold. And mysteries give virtues and flaws. So, in theory, any virtue could have a "hermatic mystery" attached to it and be taught and a flaw be given.
Bwaaah? Gentle Gift is teachable? Wtf? I don't think Gentle Gift is teachable, any more than Giant Blood or Large is teachable. Some Virtues should just be innate or the result of magical misfortune.
Haven't sat down and read Apprentices yet...read the first few pages, and can already tell that I'm going to have issues with it - first one being that, if you play a character from birth, using the "Abilities for Infants" rules on p. 13, she's going to have 120 xp to spend by age 5, instead of the canonical 45. I mean, really – how much rp can you get playing a one-year-old.
"Okay, PB, next round, all the grown-ups are fighting, lots of clanking and grunting and people going 'Ow!' What's your action?"
"I'm going to cry."
"Next round, PB, pretty much the same dealio. Action?"
"Um...I'm going to poop my diaper."
Seriously? I hope it gets better after that. I will be sitting down and reading it during the Spurs game this afternoon.
I should've qualified that as all Hermetic Virtues.
I suppose that the Gentle Gift could be ruled to be only created through some similar Supernatural Virtue of the character that gets transformed by the master, but that is still problematic. What Supernatural virues fit? I'm having a hard time coming up with that. And then there's the issue of teaching or transmitting only flaws one has. I like the idea of a magus trying to make his apprentice better. I have this Flaw, I hate it, I want to make sure my apprentice never has it. This is a natural parenting tendency, often times the alternatives are worse, in that by focusing so much on one Flaw an even worse Flaw develops. It also completely undermines my concept of an incompetent master which is fundamental to my character concept for Tektonius (for a while this applied to Talia, but I'm thinking her Deficient Ignem was innate, and the master tried to compensate but was unable to; it was beyond his Arts and skill to fix).
I'm extremely disappointed in the supplement overall.
Gentle Gift should be innate only, and never teachable. They state flat-out in the Jerbiton section of HoH:S that Jerbiton magi tend to have lower Intelligence than average for the Order, because Jerbiton parentes select for Gentle Gifts rather than smarts. If they could just teach the bloody virtue, they'd pick the smartest kids they could find and do that then.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Gentle gift can be gained via a mystery script and is in one of the Creimon(sp?) Paths.
Quite true, but such a character would have an extremely difficult path to follow. And how many people play Criamon magi? Although, maybe I should give one a try...
I have tried that exact path. I think you gain pious flaw for getting gentle gift. It is a very tough path.
Apropos of nothing: we have a fully functional kicthen. 4 months it took, but I did most of it. I didn't do the last bit of plumbing, I hired that done. It took them about 3.5 hours, so I figure it would've taken me 24+ and then I'd have to redo it.
We pulled out the wall between kitchen and dining room, installed recessed lights[1], hired someone to do the drywall work on the ceiling, installed the floor, installed cabinets, acquired the counter top. It's done. Tonight's dinner was a request from my wife and daughter: spaghetti and meatballs. I must make good ones, my niece and nephew ask for my meatballs whenever they visit. We still have a few finishing touches left, backsplash, a new dining room light fixture to install, a wall to cover up with paneling, one custom cabinet to build next to the refrigerator. A desk to build that goes next to that. But, as of now the kitchen works, and our house is relatively back to normal.
Holy shit! Congratulations!
Post pix, or it didn't happen. 
See, for me, that would be dangerous. If I put my desk next to my fridge, I would balloon up like a puffer fish.
I say that, and I get called a perv. 
[1] left a hanging footnote. We hired an electrician to do a lot of reworking of circuits in or living room, kitchen and dining room. It was a huge mess that quickly exceeded my how to capability.
@Arya I will. We have before during and after pics. And as I said its not all finished, but it is now fully functional. I do have an exposed air vent though, so I have concerns about neighborhood kids who can take out wamp rats. 
It's kitchen porn. Kitchen porn is non-pervy porn.
Or really, super pervy porn. Depends on how you look at it.
but would they be wrong? 
That's great! Congratulations! Although everything's not finished, things sure seem to be becoming decent enough, and you might end up having a nice place in which to live.
I'm quite impressed by the lot of work you've done, I'd be unable to do a tenth of that.
Wow..déjà vu.
Wait, like you dreamed it would happen like this? Or what? I'd had this setup for a while, I hadn't really forgotten the letter. I was just looking for Fiona to be away like she is now. The other times she'd been away were too close in proximity.