That's fine for most characters. Paolo is a bit of an academic, and Talia relies on him to know stuff. So, I would probably have his head in a book whenever I could arrange it. But if the numbers work out the same, es macht nichts...
Since, this way, it's a de facto seasonal advancement, it stands to reason that academic-type grogs would be able to study for one of their exposure or practice seasons.
I've been thinking a little bit about Aegis of the Hearth for a long time (well, actually, I thought about it a long time ago, but I haven't gotten around to posting this yet).
I want to run a proposed House Rule and a flavor text past you, see what you think.
First, the Flavor Text. The description of Aegis of the Hearth says that "when approaching the border of an Aegis, a...Hermetic magus feels a slight tingle in the extremities." I've usually seen that run as "when you touch the border of an Aegis" or "when you cross into an Aegis" or "if you're in an area protected by Aegis". What I would like to do is say that you feel the tingle when you're approaching the border. When you approach within (the square root of the Magnitude) paces, you feel a tingle. Once you cross into the Aegis, you don't. For example, when approaching the weakest Aegis (level 20), you feel the tingle at two paces. The Aegis in the Insula Canaria library (level 25) is two paces. The Aegis that Eilid casts (level 30) is also two paces. If a covenant had a Level 45 Aegis, you would feel the tingle at three paces.
The proposed House Rule is how Aegis affects the Parma Ritual itself. Aegis does not dispel or suppress Parma. But Bjornaer must roll on their Sta + Heartbeast against an Ease Factor of 3 + (magnitude of the Aegis) (HoH: MC, p. 22). I'm considering doing the same for Parma Magica. If you're in a hostile Aegis and want/need to perform your Parma Ritual, you must roll Sta + Parma Magica vs. an Ease Factor of 3 + Magnitude for it to succeed. Of course, under most circumstances, you can just try and try again...but there are times when you can't.
What do y'all think?
So...simple die most of the time, but sometimes a stress.
What would a botch look like, out of curiosity?
Probably a "false positive," I would imagine.
It's not a warping type of event, then? I could live with that.
Nope. Not a spell, or even a spell-like ability. I can't see any reason why it would cause Warping.
If trying to put your Parma up in a hostile Aegis is difficult, then most magi who aren't furiously skilled at Parma magica will have to leave the Aegis (and its protection) around dawn and dusk. This is deeply antisocial for magi visiting another covenant, and forces them to ask for casting keys or be up just before dawn and moving around just before dusk so they can renew their magical protections. If this was the case, it would curtail travel between covenants unless the magi could be sure of getting a casting key at the other end.
Well, I think it's implicit that it's a foreign Aegis, since that's what the Heartbeast ability is referencing...
Right. This is only in a foreign Aegis, in a covenant in which you don't have a casting token. if you've a casting token, then you have no penalties whatsoever.
Which doesn't change things a whole lot, really, I don't think.
Well, it's not pretty, but I've got a page for Iolair (http://canaries.referata.com/wiki/Iolair) up with a couple of pictures. I'm gonna spruce it up a bit and get an XP/season table up later, but wanted to get something up.
Does anybody know how to do wiki infoboxes, and can talk/show me how to do one? I'm having no luck with the one I'm trying to make, and it's making me cry.
Thanks.
Apparently, Invisible Castle has gone the way of the dodo. Luckily, people over in Bibracte have pointed me to another online dice-rolling service, The Unseen Servant.
I've already registered (under the name "Peregrine_B", because apparently my whole name has too many latters 
), and the Campaign ID if you need it is 96.
Edit - Never mind, it's back up. So we'll continue using Invisible Castle. Although, if you want to, or if Invisible Castle goes down again, we can use Unseen Servant. Either or.
From the "better late than never" department:
No, not really. Apparently there is cold-water coral growing off the coast of England, Scotland, and Norway (Lophelia pertusa). However, it's a very deep-water coral (more than 260 feet/80 meters deep, and up to 10,000 feet, but typically 200-1000 meters. So, it would be pretty dangerous and chancy to get it, even with magic to make the divers able to breathe water and be resistant to cold. It's possible, but is it worth it?
Wow, totally missed that.
Maris, in Magi of Hermes has a spell whihc allows him to dive up to like 50 feet, IIRC...
And I'm not particularly interested in doing this, unless we need the income...
I did too, just stumbled across it while working on the wiki. Just thought I'd throw this out there in case anyone was interested, although it sounded more like an idle "what if...?" than anything else.
I'm having a hard time tracking down who did what during which season. So, if everyone could please fill in the blanks on the wiki page dedicated to just that purpose, it would be much appreciated.
On the plus side, I've finished summarizing every closed or well-under-way thread on the wiki. So now I can post stuff from the books or find some other make-work stuff to do when I'm home and wondering why I haven't walked out at work yet.
Hello all. I'm working on a Mercere magus who will probably join the saga at the upcoming Tribunal meeting. I'm still working on his background, but the basic concept is a Mutantum magus who is trying to escape the social pressures and expectations of the House. His primary magical focus will be crafting practical items for use by Redcaps and others.
Sounds good. Go ahead and make a magus creation thread when you're ready so we can bandy it about.