Marko, that shit cray. 
I just rolled 3d29 on roller. Getting mixed messages from that site.... 
This behavior is totally consistent with someone letting a domain name lapse.
I can get it to my phone, on the cellular network. OpenDNS hasn't updated...yet. And I forgot I use that here at home and at work. I don't know what my ISPs native name servers are. I can look up the ISP's at works, too...
Arcane connections...
Should they be consciously taken from people? Thinking about it for a while, are your magi really always paranoid about the stray hairs and flakes of skin that they might accidentally leave behind? Does it make sense that the connection should be consciously taken (or given) for it to have any meaning as an arcane connection (to a person).
Discuss...
In stories, people are real careful about these sorts of things. But if they were that dangerous, you would think that the first spell learned by everyone is a PrCo that destroys all of those things. you could say that things like stray hairs have a weaker connection than something given away or something with meaning. A lock of hair is a better connection than a stray fingernail.
In my opinion, conscious knowledge on the part of the target isn't part of Arcane Connections at all. I think flakes of skin are a bit too tiny/weak to make sense as Arcane Connections, but stray hairs ... I guess, if a snooper was following me around intent on getting an Arcane Connection, and did so for a full day say, then he could probably succeed, if I'm not taking equally paranoid precautions. That's my initial reaction.
Just made me wonder: would Tranquillina (who can Disguise of the New Visage all she wants) be the kind of person to shave her head before Tribunal, to mitigate the stray hair phenomenon? 
This kinda of proves my point. Someone is actively trying to acquire an AC to her. Perhaps catching the stray hair the moment it leaves her body, but there's a chance that he's caught/noticed. Not like, it fell off her, and two days later the hair is found by someone and used for a nefarious purpose. Stray hairs last for months, and are, honestly, rather easy to acquire.
My idea behind the discussion is about what makes interesting stories. I mean, Tranquillina left hairs of hers at Nigrasaxa and Le Maison, someone could have picked those up and fixed the connections.
Well, Tranquillina specifically can spont room-sized PeCo spells pretty easily. 
But the larger point is well taken.
I guess what I'm saying is, to me the RAW reads like it is that easy to acquire Arcane Connections. (Or, at least, the only hard part is detecting random hairs or deciding where to search.) But if we want to tweak something to make it harder, I can see the reasoning behind that.
Depends on how you want the theme of paranoia to work in this saga.
My opinion? If a stray hair randomly fell off of it's own accord, it looses it's conncection much more rapidly. A strand of hair that lasts months is one that was deliberatly plucked while still in the folicle.
Makes things simpler. Otherwise it makes sense for every magus in the Order to be taught to PeCo on a regular basis since apprenticeship (meaning it would be logical for everyone to have this spell automatically).
So, if someone were to cut a strand of hair, that would be a valid Arcane Connection; if they just picked a stand off of their pillow, it wouldn't?
I think there should be some intent involved in there somewhere and not just "Hey, dandruff! I can kill him now!"
I'm just thinking that (at least in this saga) having a bunch of paranoid magi running around in Hermetically-sealed nbc suits doesn't feel right.
Perhaps we can get some mileage from the last sentence in the Arcane Connections section (ArM5 page 84): "Arcane Connections must be stored carefully, or else they become links to different people or places." Woops, that hair was lying on the ground for too long - now it's an Arcane Connection to that patch of grass....
Yeah, I'm thinking intent is important.
A stray hair has a few minutes of life, unless it was deliberately acquired within those few minutes, or from the person directly.
Someone sneaks into Fiona's sanctum after she's just gotten out of bed, and acquires a stray hair from her pillow just as she's out of bed, out of her sight, it's a valid AC. Someone who walks in an hour after Fiona has left, when she's no longer present, and finds a hair in Fiona's brush, that's not a valid AC.
The shed skin, must be acquired from a scratch or something, not just, dandruff, score, like you said.
That works 
Off topic, had a minor aging crisis yesterday, called an Atrial Fibrulation, basically heart flutterings. Had it last year and got a procedure done to fix it. It came back as they warned it could and I had to take it easy. Shouldn't be serious, I have medicine and a top class heart doctor. My posting could be a bit spotty though. I'm feeling much better already and i doubt we'll have to do what they did last year; a cardio reversion. It's where they put you under, stop your heart and then start it back up again. So we'll see.
My ex's uncle had issues where he had to get shocked back into rhythm. He said it was very painful. Have you had that happen to you, or is this what you're kinda describing when you say stop the heart and start it back again?
I'm glad to see you're feeling better!
Thank you. Mine wasn't painful at all, the process; cardio reversion, made me feel instantly better once i woke up. During the time I had the A-Fib I felt run down and was acutely conscious that my heartbeat was out of rhythm, but I wasn't in pain.
For those involved in the Dimicatio, I'd really like to get that rolling...
And with Gerg's new signature I am thus immortalized! Thanks dude!
My pleasure! Flabbergasting roll + casual comment worthy of a comic book superhero = 8) :mrgreen: 
(PS: after "immortalized" add "until gerg gets bored and changes it 
)
I just want us to all be on the same page. The mute magus probably has the virtue Quiet casting, and probably has spells designed such that they allow him to cast it with the sound at the end, that makes sense and is thematic to the flaw/character.
There is a difference between casting silently, when you normally don't, and having enough presence of mind to utter a shout at the end of the spell to make it reach to the target without any sort of concentration checks to act as a reminder or check on the ability to do this. If the troupe wants a world where this can happen, I'm fine with it. I don't care. This also becomes a tool I can use. I don't think, a spell, not normally mastered for quiet casting should get the benefit of being able to issue a shout to get it to fire off. But again, I can live with whatever the troupe decides.
If the troupe also wants to turn Quiet Castingx2 into a poor man's Obfuscated casting, and allow a shout to carry the spell, I'm fine with that too. I would have less of a problem if someone had mastered a spell for Quiet casting, and then tried to get it to reach to the target with a shout, than if they hadn't mastered the spell. What seems more mythic?
You tell me how it works, so we're all on the same page, and then I'll run it that way, too.
Can't post in Joust right now due to websense, that and this forum in general having issues, makes it tough. If we switch to a different forum, odds are I can't post at work. Given the way some of these threads go, that's not necessarily bad for me. It'd confine my posting to the evenings and I wouldn't have issues accessing all the sites and rolling dice.