Yet another sanctuary idea

Here is the first of the enchanted items...

The Storm Oar
A oar made of iron. The oar is opened with 15 pawns of vis and would have the following effects:
-Banish the Storm
( PeAu Base 15, +2 Sight, +2 Sun, +2 group, +3 size, +1 two uses per day) final level of 65 .
Works like "The Cloudless Sky Returned" p128. Only with more range and can effect more powerful weather.
*I feel this isn't quite right. May need to rework.

Other items I'm working on:

-Throne to steer the island
-magical arms and armor
-item to calm the sea around island
-pendant to transform into merperson

Other items needed

A couple of feedback:

  • If you want this to be constant, you would need a +3 for environmental trigger, otherwise it will have to be manually triggered twice a day;
  • If you're going for an item that needs to be triggered, I would drop the +2 Sun and optionally add an extra charge or two per day, which would make for a simpler item that costs less vis. This may be beneficial, as you do want rain and clouds from time to time otherwise the island will dry up, overheat, and the nature may burn;
  • I'm not clear on whether +3 size is required due to lack of a description;
  • An oar has a S&M bonus to affect currents, not the weather. Iron does nothing either, and if you're picking that just to ensure you can put more pawns in the item, a simpler effect as above may be a solution. A fan with a bonus to banish weather phenomena might work well instead of an oar;

Lol.. Opps...
When i started the item it was going to be to calm the sea around the island...

The size modifier would allow affect an area up to 56 miles. This would allow the item to be in the center tower.

Brief information on the 4 archmage's,

  • Ditwin of Bonisagus, From the Rhine Tribunal (I think from Trianoma's lineage)
  • Polina of Tremere, From Transylvanian Tribunal (maybe a necromancer or spirit summoner)
  • Isabella of Guernicus, From the Roman Tribunal (Chief Quaesitor and Terram mage)
  • Boris of Verditius, From the Novgarod Tribunal (Hermetic Shipwright)

There will be a mage from each of the other house's and most of the other tribunals

One thought about the income - while you could do Charity (getting lots of Tribunals to send some money as it's a noble cause), you could instead do it as Hermetic Services - "Do you know what will happen to you in the event of a Hermetic disaster? For the low, low price of one Mythic Pound of silver or equivalent goods per year, you can have peace of mind with The Sanctuary, Europe's largest covenant, set on its own floating island. Our gigantic towers have laboratory space for hundreds of magi! So contact our representatives now to find out how you can protect yourself and your sodales!"

Next thing you know, you'll get people whispering this insurance business is all a scam.

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Firstly I love darkwing's sales pitch for the island!

Secondly I'm thinking of either starting the island as its own Tribunal or working it into the storylines I'm already working with. I was already spilting the wizards between the 4 Great Towers so its almost already it's own Tribunal.

I know I'd be skipping alot of development (both character and setting).

For a new Tribunal you will need at least 4 covenants in the Tribunal.

Note though that technically a covenant is a certain kind of agreement among multiple magi, not a place or a settlement.

I don't think a covenant with several hundred magi getting along is likely. so yes, more than one covenant in the same location splitting the various towers sounds more plausible than a single covenant charter to bind the entire order. It will still dissolve into civil war when the 100 resident magi realize how little vis they have locally, but hey :smiley:

I think even if all the order moved to the island there would be charter house's hidden around. Plus flying ships that would go around collecting vis. Plus whatever ideas my player's will throw at me!

The main reason for me not to seperate this into 4 covenants is I'm not sure how I'd redue the hooks and boons...

Talking about the income sources, the two listed would only be the initial ones and would most likely be rapidly overtaken.

First having 30,000 acres of cropland ready to harvest, plus the support structures to store it, setup right from the get-go is a huge income potential. That is sufficient to support 50 knight manors, 1,000 pounds of silver. This does not even use up all of the land in one of the three sectors.

You have another sector which you could use for more cropland, for grazing animal herds, or even more specialized production such as vineyards. While not having as immediate an income potential (unless you go with more cropland of grains), this will eventually grow to the same income potential.

You could transform a portion of the forest to orchard. Even just the outer 10% along the waterways could net you 2,000~3,000 acres of orchard. Depending on type, this would provide a standard income source of 100 pounds of silver per year.

You plan on including a Hermetic Shipyard which will allow you to support a trade fleet and fishing fleet. This will eventually grow the size of both to fairly large income sources, even if you never sell a ship. And the island itself is part of the trade fleet.

Even after deducting the land for the Towers, roads, and waterways you are going to have several thousand acres not used up by the croplands, forest, and third sector crops/grazing/vineyards/etc. This can be used for supporting industry such as rapid tree growth (to support the the Hermetic Shipyard), brewer/vintner, bee keeping (along with the sub-industry of wax/candle making and mead), meat processing (sausage, aged/cured meats), carpentry/furniture making (if you are already rapid growing trees), leather working, vellum making, etc. While many of these will be used to support the Covenant there will still be excess which can become income.

Mentioned above, but bee keeping is going to be a major activity. Bees are important for your croplands and with 30,000 acres you are going to need lots of bees. The total land needing them increases depending on the third sector and if you use any of the forest as an orchard. Lots of bees produces lots of honey and wax. You are going to be producing tons of each in short order. How many tons depends on what plants they are collecting from. On the low end, you are looking at 15 tons of honey and wax with the bare minimum hives just in the croplands (though in reality it will be closer to 750~1,500 tons of each max). On the high end you are looking at 5,000~7,500 tons of each from the grasslands if they were nothing but sweet clover. However sweet clover is to rich from most animals to graze exclusively from (cattle will develop Bloat), so the amount will be lower if the land is multipurpose.

Then you have some truly exotic income types possible. Over 90,000 acres on the underside of the island that can be used to farm undersea delicacies. Finding and collecting items from the sea floor (vis, mollusk, pearls, shellfish, ship wreaks).

You problem will rapidly shift from "how to get income" to things like "how to use all income", "how not to piss off city states and nations", and "how not to break the Code because you have to deal with mundane governments".

Your first issue is going to be getting recognized as your own tribunal, since it requires the existing tribunals to 1) sponsor the change and 2) approve it, where the first is actually harder due to the limitations on each tribunal only being able to sponsor three motions every 33 years.

I think I'm going to not have this as it's own tribunal. It will just skim around the boarders of the others!

Each wizard (at least the founders) will have a 3 story hexagonal tower. Most will be on the edge of the Great Towers top floor.

The bottom most level would be for living quarters and storeage. The middle floor would be a size +3 lab. The top floor would have the enchantment of "The Distant Council Chamber" from Hermetic Projects.

While looking to stat the covenant I started brainstorming for Vis sources.... I think I've found one that works with the income source...

Each Tribunal gives one pawn of vis to the Sanctuary per year. I'll have to make a chart for random vis selection (that will be easy)

It seems this concept is very dependent on the generosity of others, without much explanation as to why they are so generous.

The generosity "pays" for the contruction and maintenance of the sanctuary that any member of the order may use if war/plague/other destruction come to any member in any tribunal. With the exemption of being marched.

Last night my group meet for character creation and to get a few house rules made...

The biggest decision made was that anything that can hold an aura can have a Aegis of the Hearth.
I know Aegis has been discussed on the boards before but are there any major drawbacks to this change?

There is also a request to replace the Verditius Automata with Mechanica of Heron. I haven't read too much on House Verditius but my player has and claims the mechanica house virtue isn't really worth it. Has anyone else done this? (He got the idea from the Peripheral Code fanzine .

The PC's decided on a short (3 floor) flying tower with a cloud disguise.
They will be junior members of the Island Covenant of New Atlantis. They will be sent hunting for vis, spread good will by visiting other magi, then returning to the Island for a couple seasons.

*A Bonisagus Alchemist (Working towards The Great Elixir).
*A Verditius with Dwarf blood
*A Flambaeu monster hunter

Main drawback would be that your rule seems highly unclear. What exactly would be protected by the Aegis, and what do you see as the advantage compared to the standard rules?

Standard rules is that Aegis of the Hearth has Target:Boundary, and can thus be cast over any area that has a well-defined boundary (and isn't too large.) Doesn't matter what aura is there or isn't there.

Sorry... I'm just the main storyteller for the group... together we decided the base, now it's up to me to polish the house rule.

According to The Flying Castle in Legends of Hermes that a Target:Boundary spell stays in one spot and doesn't move. Our house rule is looking something like: "anything (ship, island, flying castle) that has an aura the boundary moves with it".

Also house ruled that Aegis Boundary can be any size (not just the 100 pace diameter the main book give) that can be walked while casting the ritual. This would allow either the Great towers or the whole Island to be covered. Also explains how larger covenants are protected.

drawbacks on the aegis- what happens when the aegis moves towards something it should keep out? What repels what?

good point.. did not think of that..