This is an unsual idea, and so I wanted to run it by everyone first. I can't believe how much work I put into this...
(I accidentally deleted several paragraphs in the middle of typing this. Arrrgggh.)
Viola’s Lab
When Florenzo invited Viola to join the covenant at Andorra, she found the library impressive, but what really attracted her was a remarkable discovery she made on the covenant grounds.
Many years ago, the secluded lab of an elderly and Twilight-addled magus [Mark, maybe you could suggest a name and date?] disappeared into a regio, leaving a swath of bare ground nearly eight paces across in the middle of a single-story building. The magus in question mentioned the event to a couple of his closest sodales and a handful of covenantfolk, but, while the newly empty space was clearly visible from the castle’s wall and towers, the development had little real impact, since the magus continued to use the lab normally, and the area it had once occupied could be entered only through the magus’s living quarters. As time wore on, though, observers looking down could see that plants had taken root in the vacant square, which came to be dominated by a young black pine growing in its center.
When the magus passed into Final Twilight a couple of decades later, the covenfolk opened the door from his quarters to the “courtyard†and found a tiny bit of woodland, complete with ground foliage and even a few animals. The other magi were able to enter the regio easily enough—to do so required an individual using Second Sight or Piercing the Faerie Veil to place a foot in a specific position while crossing the threshold—but none of the magi at the time had Second Sight, no one wanted to have to cast a spell each day just to enter his own laboratory, and labs were not in short enough supply to make it worthwhile to enchant of an item to do the trick. Thus, the magi scavenged the specialized equipment and ingredients they could make use of, and then abandoned the lab. The covenfolk converted the remaining rooms of the late magus’s suite into storage space (the regio and the magus himself were sufficiently creepy that no one wanted to live there), and even the courtyard remained largely neglected, since by that time it was so overgrown that converting it into a garden or some other productive use would have required a great deal of mundane work, and the magi were reluctant to tamper with the area’s magical nature by casting spells to transform it; it became a secluded refuge for solitary poets and sulking children. The lab was not exactly forgotten—the black pine continued to grow, and soon towered over the structures in the interior of the castle, a visible reminder that prompted every child born in the covenant to ask her parents for the story of its origins (and if the tree gets much larger, its roots are going to become a problem for the surrounding rooms). However, no one had reason to visit the laboratory, apart from the occasional exploring apprentice, and later magi seldom considered the possibility of making use of it; the few who did found the lab’s interior a little too strange for their tastes.
When Viola visited the covenant in the early winter of 1220, at Florenzo’s invitation, she became extremely curious about the large pine in the middle of a building, especially after looking down on the interior of the courtyard from a nearby tower. She asked to see the courtyard, and when the door was opened to her, she immediately spotted the entrance to the regio (Faerie aura 6). Stepping inside, she found a well-equipped and fully functional lab…more or less. A stem from an ivy plant growing from the base of the pine had found its way into the regio through a broken floorboard (which makes the lab Deformed)—this is actually a second entrance to the regio, though any human would be hard-pressed to make use of it. The ivy had thrived in the confines of the lab, which, despite its skylight and unnaturally bright interior lighting (Magical Lighting as Excessive Lighting; unless commanded otherwise, the lighting only functions during daylight hours), was still shady compare with an outdoor area lit by direct sunlight. The plant sent its shoots throughout the room, covering the walls and virtually every other vertical and horizontal surface (Infested). Four stems wound around square pillars supporting the roof at the corners of a skylight. The original occupant had enchanted the skylight to exclude rain, wind, and other foul weather, while admitting sunshine and (except during the colder months) fresh air. Strangely, though the room now formed a regio, light continued to pour in, and the atmosphere was much fresher than might be expected of a long-neglected laboratory. It was here that Viola made her most interesting discovery.
Stacking a chair on top of two tables, Viola climbed through the skylight, and discovered a second, higher level of the regio (Faerie aura 7). The upper level must have developed later, after the passing of the magus into Final Twilight, because it went unmentioned in the covenant’s lore, though it seems hard to believe that it hadn’t been found by an adventurous apprentice or two. Rather than mimicking the lab on the level below, the upper level represented an idealized version of the overgrown courtyard at the mundane level (further evidence that it must have formed after the lower regio level): a wall of ivy, climbing heavenwards beyond sight, enclosed a circular space eight paces across, with the familiar black pine (or rather, its idealized counterpart) at its center. The four stems of the courtyard ivy joined to wind around the tree, appearing from nowhere 10 feet up the trunk (the height of the lab’s ceiling), and growing both up and down from that point, and Viola found herself clutching the tree there. Gripping the ivy for support, she descended into a tiny world inhabited by fae versions of the plants and animals living in the mundane courtyard.
Despite the high ivy walls, the regio is lit during daylight hours by sunlight from directly above. It experiences the same weather as the world outside, with the exception of strong winds, though the area does see the occasional circular breeze. The most important inhabitants are the pine and the ivy, both of which are awakened. A few of the plants can move around freely, though neither they nor the animals visit the lower level of the regio very often—for the most part, the vine has this room to itself. Fortunately, ivy tolerates pruning quite well, both physically, and, in this case, emotionally, meaning that the floor and work surfaces can be cleared relatively easily (or the ivy will simply move itself out of the way). At present, the upper level has not been incorporated into the lab, and so the Regio Virtue modifies only the Warping of the lab, and not its Size. The first season of Refinement will change this, though the new space will remain Empty until Viola is able to spend two seasons adding the Natural Environment Virtue; the extension of the lab will also add the Inhabitants Flaw, and, provided the inhabitants cooperate, the Faerie Ingredients Virtue. I don’t think the addition of the upper level will add the Exposed Flaw, since half the lab will not be exposed at all—and Exposed isn’t necessarily required for a lab that includes a Natural Environment; however, I’d like to hear opinions on this. The future will probably see Viola’s training the flora and fauna to act as a Horde, and adding Pot Plants to the lower level, to provide a little horticultural variety.
For purposes of lab work, I’ll consider the aura for the lab as a whole to be 6 (the aura of the lower level). An individual spending half her working time in each level of the regio could work in the lab the entire year with no Warping, assuming she sleeps outside it (this would amount to spending time in each level “very frequentlyâ€). In those seasons when Viola works in the lab, she is assisted in the lab by a Servant, a sharp girl (Int +2) named Anais, who was born in the covenant.
Lab Stats:
Size: 0 (0)
Refinement: 0
Base Safety: 0
General Quality: +1
Upkeep: 0
Safety: +4
Warping: +1
Health: +1
Aesthetics: +1
Specializations: +1 Items, +1 Vis Extraction, +1 Mu, +1 He, +2 Im, +1 Me
Free Virtues: Superior Construction (+1 Safety, +1 Aesthetics), Servant (+1 Safety, +1 Aesthetics, +1 Me), Superior Equipment (+1 General Quality, +1 Safety, +1 Vis Extraction), Superior Tools (+1 Safety, +1 Items), Magical Heating (as Superior Heating; +1 Health, +1 Aesthetics, +1 Ig), Magical Lighting (as Excessive Lighting; +2 Im), Regio (+1 Warping)
Minor Virtues: Familiar (+3 Safety)
Free Flaws: Deformed (-1 Safety, -1 Aesthetics, +1 Mu), Infested (-1 Safety, -1 Aesthetics, +1 He)