I'm playing around with ideas based on the rules for wards - some require penetration and some don't. I figure the best way to cast a specific ward is spontaneously, at least as a general rule. However, there are different ways to do so spontaneously. I'm not sure which route is easiest, and it may well depend on the specific need.
I was? Basically, all I had for her background is that she's French. Other than that, it's a tabula rasa.
Tabula Rasa it is! My mistake.
Indeed, it is quite concievable that you were transfered/chose to move around a different each cycle, and maybe even switched tribunals once or twice or thrice 
As for Wards, changing from a general ward to a specific one, I would call that a significant change. (and visa versa). Why? Because you can take the one spell (either category), and just Muto cast it 4 times (specific to each realm). I would rather go with the middle guideline instead of the low because of this. But still, this is a very effective tactic.
Ya. I thought the low one was too low myself. I only accept that one for things like casting sigils and other really minor stuff.
I'd say a significant change. I don't think it's a total change, and I don't think it's a superficial change.
I am thinking about what sort of plan the Cult of Mercury could have for sending Mercuria and a bunch of Redcaps to Andorra. If we are going to be members of a group of secret agent Redcaps (the Red Berets? the Blackcaps?), and it sounds like we might be, we should have some idea of the problems we are likely to be charged with solving.
I am thinking we are part of a special task force designed to deal with powerful threats to the Order of Hermes, specifically Doissetep's part of it. Doissetep is very Flambeau-focused, doesn't like Castra Solis (that's putting it mildly), and has an ancient temple to Mercury. Many of the magi are pagan. We will be located elsewhere to protect Doissetep against reprisals, and to give them plausible deniability should our activities come to a Hermetic trial.
I can think of five major threats in the surrounding area into which they might set us to meddling.
-
The Reconquista, in Iberia. Other magi are and have been taking care of the Shadow Flambeaux, but Iberia is very important to the Doissetep magi's narrative of Flambeau the Founder's history, and the cult wishes to ensure that the war goes smoothly in the right direction without evidence of Hermetic tampering. If that means taking on a few demons that escape the others who are investigating the Tribunal, all the better.
-
Rival Orders Geonim and Suleiman. As a corollary to the Reconquista, Doissetep is aware that there is a power bloc of Jewish wizards in Barcelona and another of Muslim wizards in Cordoba. Both surely mean the Order of Hermes harm, and Doissetep is the largest and greatest covenant in the area, so they will certainly make it the focus of their campaigns, much like Val-Negra of old. It could fall to us to ensure that they do not ally against us, that we do not become embroiled in an arcane war with either or both of them, or if we do that we win.
-
The Albigensian Crusade, in Provence. It stalled in Toulouse in 1229, but then the Pope established an extraordinary investigation called the Inquisition, empowering Bernard Gui and his Dominicans to suppress the Cathar heresy through any means necessary. These witch-hunters need to be kept from finding the Order of Hermes, and our allies in the area must be protected against their overzealous predations. Doissetep doesn't particularly care about the Cathar heresy specifically, but as many of its magi are pagan heretics they sympathize with them against the northern churchmen and knights who have come to burn them all in Christ's name.
-
Castra Solis. The magi there have effectively taken over House Flambeau since the fall of Val-Negra and the Schism War, with no regard for the Founder or his memory, and Doissetep is convinced that they are up to something nefarious. They must be caught and punished. It may be that the best plan is to frame them for something heinous, if no evidence of whatever it is they are really doing can be found, but it is unlikely that Doissetep would ask us for that service directly. However, action against the domus magna is complicated by the fact that it is the home of the Chief Quaesitor, the Primus of House Flambeau, and the Praeco herself.
-
House Mercere (!). The House is run from Harco by an unGifted and incredibly wealthy noblewoman (Insatella), and it is said that nothing happens in the Order that she doesn't know about. Most Redcaps not from Doissetep are assumed to be spies in her network. The magi don't trust her, or them, and has suspicions of a vast conspiracy and coverup of some kind in the House. They want Redcaps they can trust unconditionally in case they ever need to act against Harco, and a stockpile of weapons (both conventional and unconventional) that would aid them in this endeavor.
Remember, these will be ideas to develop. Our first order of business is repairing the covenat and finding out what happened.
Erik, I can discuss these in more detail later when I get a chance. But #1 & #2 are in the works 
, and #4 & #5 are cool ideas 
No interest in #3.
Just to explicitly remind you of this fact, Pythos will be entering the game on the 3rd level of Path of Seeming[1], which includes a psychometry-like ability that allows him to relive the memories of objects. His base roll is 6+stress, possibly 9+ we think that Clear Thinker applies to sifting through other people's memories. With a Labyrinth meditation, he could then be up to 11+die, vs a target number of 15 for the really gritty details.
Mind you, figuring out WHICH objects to relive could take some time. Clearly, the silverware probably wasn't around for the gory bits.
[1] HoH:MC, pg 64-5, "The Avenue of The Unexpected Pages and the Station of Vivid Memories From Objects." The mechanics begin on the last paragraph of the first column of pg 65
Under the RAW, this would probably be superficial.
Problem is, Marko's HR on wards makes this much more powerful, so yeah, I agree with you, significant change.
Just to say that I read it and loved it.
Can my character be a specialist hired to work with the team? Please please please please?
Of course! I would love that. 
Do you mean your maga, or your companion? Or possibly both? If you're still going with a Rusticana, she might be interested in inventing lots of spider-themed devices for the Redcaps to use. We also will desperately need someone to do intelligence gathering, and one of our Redcaps actually has to lead the Mercer House (I'm assuming that's going to be Mark's?).
My maga. If I do a companion, it'll be a non-gifted hedge wizard (being willing to do one of those for ages).
Did someone call my name?
And if you guys are going to insist on calling each other by your real names, could you at least write me up a guide for Username to Real Name? I have no idea who any of you are talking about.
Secret Agent Man!
Perhaps it starts off with being hired to help us investigate, and it turns into an opportunity for a full time job
And Alexandro ain't running no Mercere House! Heck, he just figgured out he was a Redcap last week! 
It will be on us to try and convince Harco to keep a Mercere house.
The initial story, the disaster mystery. I plan for it to be short, sort of an origin story for the new team.
Real Names:
I am Mark. Marko is my name in Greek, and the Markoko bit I cam up with decades ago when we used to blaze one in the garage before school.
MAercuria is Erik. I forget Fixer's name. Jean Claude VanDamme or something.
PErigrine is secretly LAdy Gaga and Amul is Richard M Daley. Ovara is the infamous Ken K.
So, I've been taking Guillaume through some lab seasons as a White Swan (TMRE p.46) - my first time tinkering with Vulgar Alchemy. The requirements after the initiation are a little vague. At first I'd read it in the strictest sense: publish 7+ new Shape & Material bonuses. Then I realized what this entails. Let's say you actually get a successful use from Vulgar Alchemy every other time for a particular substance. For the one substance it would take about 6 seasons of experimentation. Noting overlap, this doesn't sound so bad, but that's for an extremely restrictive +1. Something like +3 to a TeFo combination would take about 24 seasons, and that's not a ridiculously high bonus. Let's say you pull off 50% overlap. Then you can expect the seven bonuses to take about 48 seasons. Then to actually write about them you realize you need a Magic Theory score of 13, or even higher if you happen to have written a tractatus on Magic Theory in the past. So now we're up to 55 seasons and Magic Theory 13+. Let's say you spend 50% of your time in the lab and a bunch of those seasons out of the lab studying Magic Theory. Now you're looking at 110 years. So this estimate should roughly mean that no one completes the second degree of the Order of the Green Cockerel.
At this point I figure my interpretation is off. So what could it be? I figure it means you need to get 7 new personal Shape & Material bonuses. That covers the required number. Then if you publish one of them, you've added to the general knowledge of alchemy. This would only take about 25 seasons if looking at a +3 to a TeFo combination. If this is the case, I figure the best approach is to target a +1 TeFo bonus, expecting the process to take about 13 seasons.
Has anyone looked at this before?
Never did notice that.
Yes. Your interpretation seems correct to me. As written, Vulgar Alchemy and initiations built around its use are sisyphian....
Sooo... What to do? Usually you don't have to put in that many seasons (sure, half a dozen isn't so bad, but even 50ish is outlandish) to advance only one rank in a Mystery Cult, especially when there are more than half a dozen ranks.
That up to Marko /24305852
(I prefer a certain amount of power, also known as munchkin in some circles, , and I love tinkering with game rules, so I would handle the problem by fixing vulgar alchemy to make it cool and useful; the flavor text makes it seem like a cool virtue, but it takes a lot of work to get a small benefit, and there are risks involved. I suspect that whoever wrote the rules was concerned about overwhelming a game with too many modifiers, sort of like miniature minor breakthroughs, and then stacking them for enchantments.)
I say just go with the HR and don't get bogged down in minutae. You pulled it off somehow, cheated, or found an alternate route.
Of course, this could show up later, too, somewhat. Guillaume was trying to work with the defensive end of red coral since he'll want red coral in his talisman to fight demons. So for now I'll just say the seasons of experimentation were sufficient and move onward in the next cycle.