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.
I was starting to get that impression, yea... If I wasn't pretty sure Marko is straight, I'd think he wants me to serenade him with "A Whole New World"
Between my NPC venditor turning up her nose at the idea of a flying carpet, and my character saying it's a dumb idea, I'm feeling bad. Maybe I should throw him a bone?
Oh yeah. So see? Even worse an idea
Throwing him a bone... Hrmm.
I think I'll leave now, my work here is done. 
Eh, beats working on a ridiculous helmet so you can get your wick dipped. 
This is spectacular.
Fixer mentioned a flying carpet in tC&tC several months ago...
...and I didn't see anyone shoot it down as inappropriately designed. It's possible it's been shot down on the forums. I haven't been keeping up.
What is tC&tC?
The Cradle & the Crescent, tribunal book for the Levant. I don't own it, so I can't give you any more details about the carpet.
I would be inclined to call it a free Rego requisite allowing it to do what it's supposed to do, instead of just being fluff (which adds a magnitude).
"Stupid"...or "stupidly awesome!"? 
Is it a Tribunal book? Reading the description, it looks like it's just a setting book for the lands beyond the Levant Tribunal - Arabia, India, Mesopotamia, etc. (Which is why I've not gotten it yet...I didn't think it was an actual Tribunal book.).
I don't really know. Like I said, I don't own it.
I do, it's not a tribunal book. It doesn't discuss the Hermetic landscape of the Tribunal. It's more detail on the middle east lands and cultures.
There are several reasons why I keep mentioning a flying carpet...
- I just started doing it, and it has turned into a sort of running gag that I wasn't sure if anyone caught on to.
- I didn't realize I had Roberto mention it. Maybe it was a carry over from being in Carmen mode when I was writing for Roberto. Carmen reallyreally* does want a flying carpet. She used to have one when she was a little girl. During her gauntlet (old school Spartan style), she rescued a genie from a sorcerer and he gave her a ride home on a flying carpet and gave her the carpet as a gift. That same carpet was one of the items stolen from the Armory of Dimir Taar.
- My grandfather was a Shriner, and he got to ride around on a flying carpet at parades. It was wicked cool :mrgreen:
- A Flying Carpet is stupid, stupidly awesome that is! Stupifyingly awesome!
- From a strictly utilitarian point of view, a flying carpet solves so many logistical and transportation issues, that it is stupid not to have one. Or seven! A magus can't fly? Hop on the carpet. Mundanes? Grogs & Companions? The carpet awaits. carrying goods and supplies? The carpet And passengers do not suffer from Warping.
- I think the flying carpet would stay rigid on it's own as part of the Rego effect. You are not pulling it along by just one corner. The whole item is floating all at once. Starting from the Ryu formula, make the carpet large enough for 10 people and add a magnitude to keep it rigid if it concerns you. From the Fixer formula, it already stays rigid, so add a magnitude so that it carries the weight of 10 people. R: Personal, D: Concentration, T: Individual, Item Maintains Concentration, Unlimited use. That brings it up to ReHe30. But your Lab Total is only 50. Let us see how to bump it 10 more points (without experimenting). Carmen could help him (Int +4, MT 7), and bam, there it's done. One season. And now we have a Lab Text
Spring 1231: Vulcanus is going to make a lesser item for the infirmary: a bed enchanted to grant a bonus to Recovery rolls for anyone in it. The effect only needs Sun duration, 2 charges per day with an Environmental Trigger for sunrise/sunset. So Touch with Sun direction is going to add 3 magnitudes to the effect level, and 2x/day+env adds 4 to the item effect level.
Int 5 + MT 6 + Lab 7 + Creo 5 + Corpus 5 + Aura 5 + Egon 6 + Inventive 3 = 42
We definitely have to experiment to get any good bonus out of this. If I shoot for base 10, which would give +15 to recovery rolls, that would be a final effect level of 29, which would require a LT of 58. I can't pull an extra +16 out of experimenting, so I am stuck at going for base 5 (+12 to recovery rolls). At base 5, the effect level is 24, so I need a 48 LT. Experimentation with no extra risk bumps my LT to 45+simple die, so that's a 20% chance of failure.... not bad odds... but...
He can go to a different item-- instead of a bed, something small enough to make out of ivory. It has to be something that can stay in constant contact with the target - I'm thinking just a small ivory earring. (If your ear isnt' pierced when you get sick, it will be when you heal!) That way we never have to worry about it coming out of contact with the patient. Without experimentation that puts his LT at 47, just ONE shy of what he'd need to do it without experimenting. Sigh. WITH experimentation, we're looking at 50 + simple die, and at that point he should really try to squeak out a few more points and then go for base 10. So he'd ask Vocis if he can borrow Mica for the season. (She doesn't have anything pencilled in that season on the magi planner.)