Oh, and my ability to initiate Tories is changing, without Princeps for particular seasons, I have to initiate them in different ways. I'm ok with that. But a tool I used to limit who does a story is being removed. Now I have to focus on stories which relate to a function, and hope the players see it. I can still and will still use story flaws, of course.
Let me also clarify Apollodorus's stash, OOC. Apollodorus was originally going to die much later, after the Normandy Tribunal. He would not have offered anything to help with the Tribunal or Viscaria's task.
This is an endemic problem to summer covenants. There is a lot of shiny, which can distract from the task at hand. I've created a plethora of options for the covenant. Not everything presented is about the here and now. In Gerg's introductory thread I used an alternative method of introducing what is in the stash.
Playing note: day at the zoo followed by dinner with friends and possibly some shopping mean I won't be posting until later tonight. From my iPad.
Multiply this by 10, and have half the petitioners be min-max munchkins. This is what I dealt with in my old Andorra game. Amul, no slight intended. Different situation. But I had to deal with two or three pm's like this every day, and they were not always so reasonable 
What if, on his way to Mons Electi, Roberto gets sidetracked and winds up rescuing Viscara? Ties things up quite nicely 
Viscaria's story is 2.5 years before Roberto's. One of the things that can be frustrating.
That is better than trapped indefinately forever 
I'm just saying that, unless you expect Viscara to esape sooner, we can put a definitive end to it with Roberto. He decides to help Valarian for whatever reason (even though I think he is a dk), which coincidentally leads to freeing Viscara. Then we can pick up her lab texts and I can help with her project.
All sewn together nicely
Marko: my sense is that amul would like Viscaria to find her way out after only one season or so, and that he's reasonably optimistic OOC that it will be arranged that way; it's just that it hasn't been actually decided/played out yet, so he can't base future decisions on it.
This was one of the few statements that surprised me. I think Benner (yay, the teacher has a name now!) is teaching Greek to magi continuously for over two years.
As a newcomer to this saga (I guess now that Marko's here, I should say relative newcomer), I found myself having to make a judgment of this sort as well. I decided that if I ask a question a couple of times, wait decent intervals, but don't get an answer, then I should just assume that my best-guess answer is correct and go from there; any slapping down that might result from a bad guess would be mild, I have faith. So far (admittedly, there's a limit to my perspective's "so far") it's worked for me.
That's not to say I don't hear your frustration though.
Silence id for the acquiessent and submissive. I advocate being vocal.
I have followed Viscara's story a bit. Seems like she is trapped in a "phantom zone" covenant, not unlike Taglyn as described in the old original Val Negra.
I notice that you have VN in this saga. What is it like? I ran an expeditio to Val Negra before, and I passed some ideas on to Sally who may have passed them on to you (that, and the whole adventure is in the PbP forums).
Sound cool though!
Anyway, Phantom Zone.
Has Viscara tried looking for a back door into the Magic Realm or some such? Can you learn some powerful spell to transport you back to reality?
Pendantic comment on the Walid thread (I am an ameture expert on the Spanish middle ages).
Iberia is indeed the geographic term for the peninsula. But I doubt it would be used by mundanes in reference to a home. Walid would prolly be from Andalusia, Valencia, or even a northern kingdom he would refer to by name.
Probably? maybe not.
Umayad Arabs stopped migrating hundreds of years ago. The latest waves of Almohads and Almorvids are from Morocco.
And, though "Spanish" as a language is an achronism, it groups together Castilian, Leonese, and Arogonesse. Mutually intelligible dialects and virtually the same language.
Then there is Mozarab Latinus, which is virtually Latin with some arabic influence.
Moors generally speak a Berber dialect of Arabic and their own native Berber tongue.
Umayad Arabs are pretty much gone by now.
And some southern Moslems, especially nobles, are Visigoths who converted generations ago to save their lands.
Indeed, with Heims and Cygna he could have probably convinced them to switch with Viscaria and Mnemnos. Right now, Amul appears to be trying to switch Virgil and Mnemnos. That hasn't been advanced since I tried to ascertain what amul was trying to do.
Not going to look at the magi planner on the iPad, but what I recall was Fiona a few seasons and Jacques and Korvin enough to get to 4. I'll look at it more in depth when I get to a computer. I want to get a sense of what he is doing otherwise to keep him interested in staying at Mons Electi, besides the Vis.
I'm generally an ask for forgiveness instead of ask for permission kind of SG. I want to be dazzled, especially in this area. I've felt I've been asked to answer questions on what to do and provide all the answers. I am the world, visiting Mons Electi for Tribunal, if you, as a Troupe want to have dancing monkey butlers and made a believable enough story of why it was necessary, I'd probably go with it. The Tribunal is the opportunity for the Troupe to create something for me to respond to, in the form of many characters.
So if you ask, and I don't answer, ask again. Maybe push it via a PM, if it is really important, and you really need an answer. If you go overboard, I'll rein you in.
I probably won't have quite as much of a time jump like this again. It appears that it is too much of an obstacle and not a s much of a benefit as I thought it would be.
Man ... I really want a dancing monkey butler now.
Actually as a player I really like the plan-five-years-at-a-time thing for a maga character. Slow advancement always makes me chafe at the bit. I can see how it's harder for an SG though. Originally I left a few seasons empty in the planner, and that helped Tranquillina take on a couple of lab projects for the Tribunal (it's all but filled by now though).
Just a heads-up: if you haven't heard, Hurricane Sandy is due to hit land Monday evening, and is supposed to be incredibly big. I'm 125 miles (200 km) inland from the nearest point on the coast and 170 miles (275 km) from where it's expected to hit landfall. Because of the high winds and heavy rain, even as far in as I am, they're talking about power outages that could last for several days. To be honest, I would be surprised if we lose power for more than a few hours, if that...but if I disappear this week, that's why.
I've been swamped at work and home (not weather related though).
Should be able to post tomorrow. Good luck and God Bless everyone that might be near the storm.
I'm probably done for the day. We don't have power at the house. Going to conserve the phone and iPad.
Hmmm...was I detecting grudging respect or scorn from Rotgers on the Road to Bibracte? Did he switch Houses?
Respect? When he wasn't budging and expecting Roberto and his party to go through the small passage between his men?
Well I was more thinking of respect for Alexei...
Mighty was italicized and SMALL was in caps. It was meant to be subtle sarcasm. It's possible that Roberto didn't catch it, but the players should definitely catch it.
Yeah but then he shut his men up for laughing too hard.
No matter, I'll slap him around again if he gets uppity.
Keep your Perdo hand strong!