1225, Summer

Having finished our exploration of the various strange events near our covenant last session, this session of Ars Magica was mostly one of downtime and study. It also featured a lot of game related stuff, rather than story related stuff, as we tried to figure out who needed to spend their time doing what. Our adventures had pretty much taken up the first week of Spring, so we still had the rest of spring to finish off in downtime.

Spring, 1225

We had received offers to swap books, but nobody had written down exactly what the offers had been, and the GM had lost his notes. So we had to recalculate what was being offered to us:

• Rego 13 quality 10 (arriving in Summer). They wanted copies of our Muto or Creo books.
• Mentem 13, quality 12 (arriving in Winter). They wanted both our Corpus and Herbam books.
• Penetration 3, quality 8. They wanted our Parma book, plus would offer 3 pawns of Perdo vis as well.

After some discussion, Pisciculus offered to spend the rest of Spring making copies of our Corpus, Herbam and Creo books. Doing a quick job (which drops their quality by 1), she could copy them all in one season. She had already decided to take the experience points from the adventures (putting them into Vim and Rego), so wouldn’t gain anything from doing study this season.

Allistor is able to make a good copy of the Perdo book, and Maedbh rushes the Intellego and Muto books.

During spring, Jack’s wife Rohna gives birth to a healthy girl, who is named Matildis. She is baptised by Aodhan.

Summer, 1225

Looking through the rules on improving book qualities, we decide to improve our Herbam book. We can get a +1 bonus with just a simple expenditure of money to give it a cover made from some rare wood. It currently has a quality of 14, boosting it to 15 means we get 15xp a season, which would take someone from an Art of 0 to 5 in a single season of study (rather than to 4, with 1 XP short of 5).

Whilst Pisciculus read the Muto book, Allistor decided to invent a new spell – Touch of Midas. Though would provide us with a source of gold, greatly improving our cash flow. Of course, we’re sort of (as in, actually) breaking Hermetic Law by doing this, and we risk destabilising the local currencies if we overuse it. He decided to risk doing some arcane experimentation to try and get it done in a single season, and succeeded. A single casting gave us enough gold to last us a fair while.

Allistor was also wanting to find a unicorn. Apparently he had made a deal with a magus at the Tribunal for some training, but the mage in question had wanted a unicorn horn in exchange. Where to get a unicorn horn without upsetting faeries?

Some of the magi also spent time investigating the inscriptions on the stones within our covenant. This was a project that would take some seasons to complete, and require a range of skills.

Autumn, 1225

The rego book turned up at the beginning of the season, just in time for Pisciculus to grab it and spend the season reading it. Meanwhile, others continued their investigation of the stones.

Winter, 1225

Pisciculus read the newly improved Herbam book, which would hopefully help her in defending herself from unfriendly plants next time she meets any.

The project in studying the stones is nearing completion, and we have a fair idea that the tunnels beneath the covenant are affected by astrological conditions. Another season will probably allow us to predict when would be a best time to enter.