V- will look forward to your e-mail, and we'll go from there! (btw, I'm the "sacrificial DOT account" addy)
BeV- Coolio! Likewise as V said, I'll e-mail you with ideas/questions, and whatever specific requirements that Mathius might be looking for in a Shield Grog.
Shield Grogs, and the Players running them, may well have to keep "secrets"- I'm ready to do that, and do my best to keep that info separate from my mage's decisions/reactions, to the full extent the human mind can do that. Let's hope, anyway!
And remember, early on the SG said-
...which gets them access to both one group of restricted skills ("martial" would be my guess, ahem), and Speak Latin (but not Literacy!).
(Now Brutus needs a mage to run a Shield Grog for, and Verticius/Stephan a Shield Grog for his mage- anyone? Bueller?...)
Dinner and a council meeting is up, and 2 hooks revealed.
Sean Dulidh is a senior redcap, but not the local one. Quintus, however, is the senior Quasitor in the tribunal. Flavius is his bodygaurd, and a senior hoplite. They will be here for the duration of this council meeting, and the next morning.
The question will soon arise about the dreaded topic of ... The covenant's charter. For simplicity's sake, we'll start with the one in Covenants and modify it to meet our needs.
Fortunately for all, I'm not running the Bonisagus I did last game, who was quite opinionated about Charters & etc. Daggin can distance himself a bit more from those details, so long as there is a favorable balance between the magi.
It's nice that my players are so enthusiastic about replying. However, your poor SG has been trying to write a reply in the last 2 hours, and having 2 more replies pile in hasn't made my job easier. However, my reply should explain a few more things in detail.
Diedre can blow up real good, on a regular basis, and survive unscathed. Last Flight of the Phoenix lets you do that, you know.
Mab. Mab, filia Babh, was gauntleted in 1002 AD, at Circulus Ruber. She helped found Lough Caillte in 1018, and moved to Irencillia in 1050. By 1100 she was back at Lough Caillte, looking like a teenager, and nearly as daft as one. She's been there ever since.
Quintus Guernicus. Trained at Duresca, expert at the arts of persuasion, intrigue, and investigation. Currently resides at Circulus Ruber, making sure that actions taken against the Normans by covenants on the eastern side of Ireland don't step beyond the code. His Brother is...
Flavius Flambonis. His normal stomping grounds are the Transylvanian and Levant tribunals; He is one of the most senior hoplites still on active duty. Iron willed, disciplined, with a commanding presence. He is the kind of man other men want to follow, wherever he leads.
Sean Dulidh (Sean Dooley): A senior redcap, member of Harco, typically at large in the order. Shows up wherever the Mercere have business to be taken care of. Something of a rogue and a tomcat, known to have broken hearts in many ports.
Just as fair notice, I've got a bit of a busy and extended weekend coming up, not this weekend but next (27th-29). I'll be incommunicado from as long as Thurs 'til Monday, but possibly much shorter than that- a bit chaotic and hard to predict.
This is with Vis, right? Covenant's stores? Even if this is a lesser version of "Conjuring the Mystic Tower" (CrTe 35), and only uses perhaps 5 vis, that's 20 or more we're tossing away just to get instant labs, and we've only spent the points for about 100 vis in stores, of mixed varieties, so... there goes all the Terram?
While flashy, I see no advantage to spend such when we have ready mundane labour. Or is there a reason I'm missing?
Alternately, our Verdi's spend a season or two to make the following items:
MuTe 20
Pour the Stone
(Base 3 (Change Dirt so it is slightly unnatural- = thin mud), +1 Stone, +1 Touch, +1 Dur Diam, +10 unlimited uses/day.
Quarried blocks are "melted" into reusable wooden forms. Standardized building blocks are produced. Technique can also be used to make flagstones. Complex, multiple uses can create decorative patterns (tho' probably structurally weaker.)
MuTe 20
Free the Block
Base 3 (Stone to Dirt), +1 Touch, +1 Part, +1 Complex, +10 unlimited uses/day.
Breaks one "standard" block of stone from a quarry or other source. May require repeated castings, as wedges are inserted to pry it free from the "dirt" that forms into gravel around it.
(Others may come up with a better way to achieve some of the same effects. I chose MuTe in the (over-optimistic?) hopes that both items could be made in one season.)
With those two items, a small crew can harvest as much stone as they have transport for, and another can then turn that into uniformly finished blocks, hundreds/day, allowing the basics of construction to proceed without need for worrying about materials.
A ReTe 20 item would help move such, allowing even faster progress.
Base 1, +1 Touch, +1 Conc, +3 item maintains Conc, +10 unlimited. (Similar to a pair of large ice-block tongs)
Other items can be made for turning trees into finished beams or planks, using PeHe.
Minor point of information: Have spent enough BP for 175 pawns of vis in stores.
Your larger point of using enchanted devices and mundane labor as a more vis-efficient way of getting what we'd like makes a lot of sense to me. Yes, it would add time. Yes, we would have to hirse some truly exceptional stonemasons and carpenters to accomplish the same feat. Since there probably isn't enough continuing business, we would also have to do some PeMe/CrMe stuff to protect the covnenant when those folks move on.
For all that are interested, see City and Guild for build times and related. The build times assume that the requiste materials are immediately at hand and does not include transportation time.
As for the proposed devices, I have to check my books, but I'm wondering if (a) when you change the shape of a stone with Muto magics then does the stone return to its original shape (may or may not, but don't know) and (b) if Rego crafting would not be better or at least cheaper for most of the structural stone.
We can account for it by ignoring it.
The resources we are creating are what the covenant will have when we are finished with it, resources that we will have to use in play. We could either pass this terram vis off as a "gift" to help us settle in, or just ignore the cost and use it. It will be used for construction and nothing else, so we don't need to worry about paying and balancing it.
If I recall correctly, Mythic tower has a duration doesn't it? What happens when the month/year runs out?
(not got my book with me)
Mathius could do each in a single season without experimentation, not sure about Fabrica - assuming that we can just walk in and use the labs.
Hmm, I could do the three of them as a GED so I could use Elder Runes, especially if we make the 3rd effect a Muto Terram to make them lighter/smaller....
not got the book but it would be a major change, similar to object of increased size but in reverse. Make into 1/10 of size in all directions, weight goes down by 1000.
Er, yeah, but since it happens after our PC's arrive, after our OOC "building" of the Covenant, IC that would still bother me, or Daggin, or someone. That vis is "here now", and won't be if those towers are magicked into existence.
Creo Rituals with duration Instant = permanent, just like Healing.
A single casting of summon the mystic tower gets you 80 feet of height to play with.. that's pretty impressive.
Assuming mages are willing to share a single tower, you can easily fit in 3 mages, with each having a dedicated floor to bedroom/study and another to laboratory. The size of each floor is 30 feet wide... assuming a square tower (and with less for different shapes), that gets you 900 square feet of labspace, which is a -lot-.. a circular tower (nicer for circle spells) gets you 700 square feet, which is still very impressive and plenty of room to grow.
Not only that, they also tend to come with some easily available bonuses using the covenants rules, examples include Spacious (+2 safety, +1 aesthetics), Well Insulated (make outer walls thicker, +1 Safe, +1 Aes), Defenses (put battlements at top, +1 Aes), Elevated (for higher rooms, +1 aes, +1 au), Superior Construction (inherent in mystic tower, +1 Safety, +1 aesthetics).
In general, if you work on it.. you can get a very impressive and safe lab to work in
Only downside is that it is noticeable.. but there are various Imaginem ways around it and such. Either way, you get a lot for a mere 7 vis
Hmm. Yes, yes. I agree. A lot CAN be had for a mere 7 pawns. I ... uh ... what the ...
[color=red][size=150]DROW!!!!!![/size]
We're going to be dealing with freakin' DROW!!! Steve, if you start talking about Limbo and Undercommon and big spider-centaurs and secret cabals of do-gooders [color=red]I swear you are SO fired!
Seriously, though, I am very interested what you are going to do with this. I always thought the candy-coating in another system was too much.
{we now return you to your regularly scheduled ruminations on magus-housing}
... and yes, I agree that we can do some pretty amazing things. I would vote, however, to defer the discussion on architectural details just a bit further.
I agree that contructing the buildings magically would lead to a better result if we can control the impact of four more buildings on the politics in the area,
Time to invoke Ward against Inane Lawsuits, and intone Font of Trivial Knowledge... (Or, explain and do a quick search on wikipedia)
In Irish mythology, a drow is a stone monster of the Fomori, similar to the Scandinavian troll. (From wikipedia). Hence, you're in a magical aura, in a rocky region, you've got a decent chance to encounter one. Better than finding out the hard way, when rocks the size of your head start dropping on you. From the sound of it, It's happened before.
Now, if I mention the svartalfar ... Run. These guys are serious bad news. Worse than Pratchett's Discworld elves, and they make TSR's Dark Elves look like sissies.
