Go Go Gadget Pants!
We just scratched the surface of the Tribunal Market and then did a flash-forward to start "Fall and Rise" from Tales of Mythic Europe.
The obese Quaesitor was VERY interested in Magic Pants of Comfort, but was distracted by legal issues and has not yet managed to go down and purchase them. I'm figuring they're worth 2-3 pawns of vis based on my construction of said pants.
The Lady Pellegrina asked of a vendor how she might get a bird, trained to delivery spoken messages. I posited a magical cage of some kind, and told her the vendor would get back to her, as I didn't want to work out specifics at the time.
Any thoughts on how that might be made? I'll crack my books and give it a gander after I return home for the evening.
I'm looking forward to seeing the group return to peruse the various wares, both exceptional and flawed.
3 effects must be intilled on the bird:
- Ability to speak in human voice (CrIm)
- Ability to repeat your message faultlessly (CrIm)
- Ability to move to the desired destinaton faultlessly, deliver the message and come back. With or without an answer depends on you. (ReAn? InAn?)
Moon duration for them all 
That would be how I would start working on this, at least. Fall and rise is specially cool if you take the "further developments" into account. If not it is quite a linear (mostly bashing) story. I found higly rewarding to have my players read the story before running it. It is a dramatic story, so they knowing when the drama is unfolding is cool.
Cheers,
Xavi
Hrm... I'm wondering if there's any way to do a waiting ward to do something like this, keyed to a specific person? Perhaps make it an item? And then a ReAn effect to make the animal go to the point specificed by an Arcane connection?
Hm hm hm...
V
How about practical jokey type devices like a cushion that makes farting sounds or a glass that stains mouths black when it is drunk from?
Given the (feasibly) limited number of seasons a magus has in his lifetime to work on projects, I can't see these as something one would invest the time or vis to complete.
-Ben.
How about toys for kids/princesses? And you don't have to be a white-bearded old verditius clad in red to see that money can be made with these...
Hm, good point and potentially interesting. Might give the relatively new players some insight into how to make money through middle men in the Normandy Tribunal.
Vrylakos
My Verdi will buy all your busted/screwed up items... I'll give you 10% of the combined magnitudes....of all the "junk"...
I will even throw in a couple of pawns if you include the lab texts for each...
:mrgreen:
Think about it...
They are ALL hermetically made items...
Double that(or at least add double of the vis the caster could draw in a season). Otherwise its too close to zero profit to be worth it. And for something that is either rare or unusually powerful(or convenient/useful) make it triple or more because its going to be in high demand.
Approaching a Verdi like this at Tribunal would likely get a raised eyebrow and sweep of the goods into a sack, I would think-- as you trigger some aspect of his hubris. "Why does he want them all? What is he going to do with my handiwork? I certainly won't allow my things to be broken down for vis. What does he know about this that I don't know? No sale, go away!"
The non-Verditius might be ok with it, but then again, I don't think a Verditius would put out a flawed item for sale at all-- there's too much pride in their effort to offer anything less than their best.
I don't think they'd be functional arcane connections-- those would only last for days or weeks, and so I'd anticipate those connections would have expired by the time tribunal rolls around.
...otherwise, I'm missing your point. Are you suggesting that your Verdi would smelt them all down for vis? In which case, yes, trying to pick them all up for 10% of their vis value and then smelt them would provide a limited return over the course of a few seasons, but I would think you'd have easier ways of gathering vis-- unless you were dead in the heart of the Roman Tribunal or the Normandy Tribunal... places where the resources are very tightly controlled.
-Ben.
Ah,... selling the flawed item is perfectly acceptable behavior for a Verditius, as long as you put your vendetta enemy's name on it. 
IN that case remember NOT to tell the buyer that the invisibility cloak make his footsteps glow brightly for Diameter duration from dusk to dawn, and that the POF wand requires you shooting at yourself with it to activate its magical properties.
Cheers,
Xavi
...otherwise, I'm missing your point. Are you suggesting that your Verdi would smelt them all down for vis? In which case, yes, trying to pick them all up for 10% of their vis value and then smelt them would provide a limited return over the course of a few seasons, but I would think you'd have easier ways of gathering vis
I am a little confused here...
Limited?
Say for our conversation: an item with three effects instilled: The total of the effects is ten. Upon smelting, I would get nine pawns. Having paid one pawn (say..) I am up eight pawns of vis...
easier ways of gathering vis
Easier? 
Even if it takes me a couple of seasons, that four pawns of vis each season, and I didn't have to go out and get it... I don't get clawed, burned, chased, hacked at, or any of the other (um) dangerous activities that normally go hand in hand with "gathering vis". All I had to do for it is attend the Tribunal, pay a small amount and take the time to practice my craft...
How much would you normally expect to get out "Gathering Vis" in a typical saga? I would typically expect zero to four pawns.
As an added bonus, the item that I smelted, is still available for enchanting, or in the case of an item that is valuable, I can sell it for the silver to pay my bills.
In addition to that, if I purchased more than one item, I have a steady supply of vis to fall back on (remember: Form-specific pawns of vis used to instill those powers-so its not just Vim)
This means that I can purchase items that have the type of vis that I NEED.
Another added advantage is that when you "Gather Vis", you need to be cautious of legal matters...Ie poaching someones vis. I have seen this several times... You gather the pawns of vis from yon tree, and a couple of seasons later, the Quaesitor is pounding on your sancta portal, and asking all kinds of questions... Questions that inevitably lead to losing your gathered vis and PAYING fines...
If I had purchased smaller items, (?with a payback of one to four pawns?) I can give those to my apprentice, while I (study) for the season.
Of course "larger" items are more of a challenge (lab totals and all that), but we need not discuss the value of Smelting an item with thirty or more pawns in it... Such a payback is obvious.
How about enchanted party favors to sale? :mrgreen: