Vocis will eventually want Hauberk of Sublime Lightness, but that's probably it. Can IoQs be enchanted as lesser enchantments later or do they have to be prepped as a full invested items from the start?
Items of quality are basically mundane items. So it's separate from the enchanting process (which is why non-Verdi can have IoQs as talismans). Thus you can make them either lesser enchanted devices or you can open them as proper enchanted items.
Only reason I'd need to know which beforehand is Verditius Magic lets you open an item for enchantment at the same time as you create it, which lowers the opening cost.
Oh. In that case, yes, Vibria would like her armour opened for enchantment. Thank you.
OK so the plan is:
Vibria's armor, he names "Courtesy."
1: First season, creating armor and opening for enchantment. Close inspection reveals that the chainmail is actually not made of interlinked rings, but is woven out of two contiguous pieces of metal. One of the filaments has been alchemically tinted golden and the other red, so that when Vibria bends or moves, it creates a minor optical illusion suggesting the flickering of flames. The armor will have a capacity of 20 pawns, and it will cost 14 pawns to open it. (Does Vibria have the vis now, or do we have to postpone her armor until she accumulates some vis?) He will attune the item's [strike]Verditius[/strike]Iberian Runes to give the item a +6 bonus to fire-related effects.
2: Second season making into an item of quality, giving it +6 to Soak (or 7 if I have time to study Philosophiae first). Takes 1p of Vim.
Further enchantments TBA.
If Esteban doesn't want his armor open for enchantment, Bernhard can spend one season making both Vocis and Esteban's suits of partial chain. They will be finely crafted, though not with Verditius runes. Note that this part of the plan is contingent upon VendiTom being able to convince the covenant to pay Bernhard generously for his time.
Vocis' armor ... well, it's up to him to name it. I didn't make it.
1: First season spent making it an Item of Quality. Cost: 1 pawn of vim.
2: Second season spent enchanting it with Hauberk of Sublime Lightness. It's within Vulc's focus and he gets the bonus for enchanting a similar effect previously, so he can easily pull this off in one season.
Esteban's armor likewise doesn't have a name by default. Vulc spends one season making it into an Item of Quality. Any other requests?
Sweet!
Let's see....flips to Vibria's character sheet Luckily, her Avaricious is only Minor, so she should be able to talk herself into parting with the vis (when she gets it), for an even prettier and more awesome piece of her hoard. She should be able to talk herself into parting with the one pawn she has. But not yet...she rolled a 2 on her Avaricious Personality Trait, so she's not admitting to having any [strike]treasure[/strike] vis just yet. Hopefully soon.
I dunno if this is valable under Marko (IMO, under a strict reading of the rules, it shouldn't, but, well, people differ 
).
But if it is, Arachné would like to have her staff opened as an item of quality for "Project bolt or other missile".
I don't think that Item of Quality bonuses work towards magical effects that come out of them. At least not from their description.
If folks say that's kosher then it's fine with me, and Vulc is willing to do it.
Yeah, I don't think that would work either -- unless you can make that staff shoot missiles in an entirely non-magical fashion. There's already a way to have items help you with magical effects: Talismans.
?
Is it spring loaded?
Nope, that would be to help with the finesse roll with invisible sling of vilano when waving her staff around.
As I said, I tend towards the restrictive view of the rules (Vacation parma but in short, if it is used by a mundane to do/enhance his work, it's legit, if not, it ain't) which says it wouldn't work, but I've been in the minority on this, so I'm asking.
Aaargh!!! Thought I had more time on me, we're going out. I will see if I can post again this week but I doubt it, if not, next week guys!
Now that I could actually see working. It's not strictly by the RAW but it kind of makes sense to me. I'd allow it in one of my games, is all I'm saying.
The Item of Quality brings out the intrinsic quality of the item itself; it makes the item better at the item's function. It doesn't make sense for the process to make the item give bonuses to the wielder that are unrelated to the item's function unless you change the definition of an item of quality. If the Item of Quality can grant bonuses to magical abilities, then an item of quality would itself be magical. I'd be okay with that change, but it would mean that your talisman could only be an item of quality if you made it so yourself.
I reread the appropriate section of Mystery Cults, and I'm forced to agree with Ryu after all. "Select a tool or item that would be used by a professional in his trade." Don't think a staff qualifies -- not for what you want it to do. Sorry. 
I'm okay with redefining IoQ as a magical process that can grant magical bonuses. Honestly it does make more sense that way to me because the process takes vis, but I'd speculate that they went the way they did so that items of quality would be effective against creatures with MR, since you can't put penetration on a process that doesn't generate a lab total.
You could make a staf-slin or a throwing-rod of some kind maybe? The OoQ bonus applies to using it to throw things with regular abilities. The bonus would not apply to other magic, and it is not magical magic per say (it is "sympathetic magic using runes).
However, other magic coud be used to enhance the weapon otherwise. So say you have a sling-rod or even a staff with a spearhead attached to it. The IoQ bonus would be a +3 to Attack/Accuracy. Then after that, another spell/enchantment increaces the velocity with which the projectile is hurled. Still a regular attack roll with the IoQ bonus (since you are still aiming), and the enchantment increases the damage (allowing you to hurl a heavier &/or faster projectile using Rego). Invisible Sling of Villano allows you to use Finesse for attack. This weapon would require actual weapon ability and cannot rely on finesse.
Maybe?
No no no, no need, we all agree there (which is a first time on this), so I'm fine like this 
Vulcanus is going to donate the longsword he's made, Knight's Honour, to the covenant vaults.
In winter 1231, he's going to enchant it with "Unravelling the Fabric of Terram" base 5, Touch range (dispels any Terram effect level 5 + 20 + stress die). His primary concern is to get the sword to dispel a ReTe +Soak spell for metal weapons, so he only needs a base level of 5 to dispel ReTe25 on any non-botched roll. A sword that cuts through wards against swords is undeniably a better armament, so his Focus applies. Base 5, +1 Touch = base effect of 10; he'll aim for unlimited daily uses to get the full use out of the 2 pawns' capacity, for a total item enchantment level of 20.
The trigger action is any time the blade of the weapon touches anything (so the sword should never be sheathed in a scabbard with Terram spells on it).
By winter 1231 his MT is 6, and his Vim is 7, so his lab total is:
Int 5 + MT 6 + Lab 6 + Perdo 6x2=12 + Vim 7 + Aura 5 = 41, sufficient to complete in a single season with no assistance.
Two pawns of Vim to be deducted from the Artifex budget whenever we get around to advancing.
Hold up, I need to put Penetration on that! Let's get crazy with the experimentation and lab assistants. Can I squeak out an extra 15 spell levels for 30 penetration? Let's find out.
Int 5 + MT 6 + Lab 6 + Perdo 6x2=12 + Vim 7 + Aura 5 = 41
+6 for Inventive Genius and experimentation, +6 for Egon's assistance, +2 for Bernhard's assistance (sorry buddy), +2 for unnamed random groggy forge companions (covenant budget can pay for a couple journeyman smiths), +6 Runes... that makes 63, and I need 70, so let's go for +3 extraordinary risk for a subtotal of 66 + ... 5 = 71. Whew!
And extraordinary results is 3+3=6, Side effect (uh oh...)
1: "Your sigil is exaggerated to many times its normal strength, becoming a significant portion of the effect." So whenever the sword's blade touches an active Terram effect, the sword CLANGs into the target loudly, and the target billows out a huge cloud of steam.
If Vulc were to try and make a flying carpet, (assuming a wool carpet because Vulc has a little Animal but he has 0 Herbam) his lab total would be:
Int 5 + MT 6 + Lab 6 + Rego 14 + Animal 5 + Aura 5 + Egon 6 + Inventive 3 = 50.
Assuming the base effect would be level 5, range: personal, duration: concentration, item maintains concentration, that's a total effect level of 20, which Vulc can do in a single season. BUT, at those parameters, the carpet would need an additional enchantment to make it stay rigid, because a floppy flying carpet will drop people who are trying to ride on it. At that point you're looking at an invested device which is a waste of time for a flight device.
Could go about it slightly differently - have the carpet do a Touch range Rego Corpus effect, target group. So the carpet isn't flying, it's making everyone that touches it fly, as directed by whomever activates it. At that point Vulc's lab total is the same, but the effect level is much higher. "Transport a target quickly in any direction you please" is base 15, range +1, duration +1, target +2, item maintains concentration = effect level of 40. That would take him a year, which is a huge waste of time for a lesser item.
So all in all, Vulc thinks that having him make a flying carpet is a pretty stupid idea overall.
Big problems with it are:
- Lesser items can't take advantage of Iberian Runes
- An invested device would cost too much vis for the benefit a flying carpet would provide
- A flying carpet has no applicable Shape & Material bonuses
- Vulc can only use his Forge Companions toward blacksmithed items (the rules don't explicitly state that FCs can only help on items involving their craft, but it doesn't make sense otherwise because it's all based on their craft scores, which must be in the same craft as the Verditius'.)
What he COULD do is open for enchantment a Toledo steel dagger with an opal pommel stone. It would have a capacity of (6x2+15) 27 pawns, the S&M bonus of +4 to travel, and he can craft it with Iberian Runes to give it +5 bonus to flight-related enchantments. He can pop on the "Ice" Elder Rune, which increases the level of all enchantments in it by 5 but also lets him double his Rego score to enchant it. That bumps the ReCo effect up to level 45 (at only one charge a day), but then his lab total to enchant it would be:
Int 5 + MT 6 + Lab 6 + Rego 14x2 + Corpus 5 + Philosophiae 6 + Aura 5 + Egon 6 + Forge Companions 4 + Inventive 3 = 74. If Carmen helps it's an 85. If we also experiment (no exceptional risk) that's an 88 + stress die, so hitting the target of 90 is a cinch. We could go for exceptional risk to try and include multiple charges.
Unfortunately at that point the base item effect is level 35 and would inflict warping on anyone who used it except for... I assume Carmen would be the user it's designed for.
Would that be something she'd want to do?
Couple of things...
Marko is obsessed with flying carpets. He wanted one for Roberto in Bibracte, or has mentioned it a couple of times, in character...
Lesser enchantments must be completed in a single season.