Planning the work of the seasons ahead began with a slight hangover.
Unaccustomed to such excesses and their consequences, Uillorard is quite grumpy as he gets up and re-dons his travelling garb from the previous day. He thinks over the list of things he has to attend to, but the first minor task that nags at his mind is the gift for the redcap. A gift? Or a debt? Probably the latter, considering how important the goodwill of a redcap can be. Taking his pouch with a handful of copper coins and his token, he goes off in search of the turb leader.
The lady captain (whose given name is âMaudâ but youâll never hear her referred to by anyone as other than âthe Captainâ) was out in the courtyard supervising the turbâs excercise and practice. Half of them had taken up bows and were taking potshots at haybales with targets pinned on them and the other half were taking turns facing off in pairs with different combinations of weapons.
âYes, Magister. How may I help you?â
She seems polite and full of respect if a little wary. You have just become (if only provisionally!) one of her employers and she is perhaps wondering what sort of unreasonable request she can expect from you: in her experience all magi are unreasonable in some way but some are more bearable than others.
Uillorard is often painfully aware of the effect his Gift has on people. His head still hurts, but he forces the pain down and tries his hardest to be pleasant. He looks up at the Captain, who towers over him as most people do, and tries for a disarming smile. âGood morning, Captain. I just have a simple request. Can you strike a heroic pose for me? And hold it for just a little bit of time?â
He digs in his purse, coming out with the handful of coppers, and holding them in his left palm, he chants a few words in Latin, making gestures with his right hand. The tangy scent of hot copper fills the air, and the copper itself pools into a liquid mass, which he focuses on intently, periodically looking up at the Captain, one finger extended, pointing at his own work. The copper shapes itself into an oval, and from the smooth oval a figure slowly rises, that of Maud. Finally, his finger twitches, and a loop pulls itself from the coppery mass, forming into a chain, from which now hangs an oval medallion, embossed in high-relief with a depiction of Maud, in a heroic pose reminiscent of Athena.
With a sigh, Uillorard relaxes. âThere.â He inspects his own work, shaking his left hand to get rid of the impurities his magic separated from the copper. Then he holds up the finished jewelry, shining with a pure copper gleam, for Maud to look at. âDo you think William will like that?â
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[for the crunch;
this is a ReTe effect, Base 2 +2 metal, Concentration/Touch/Individual, so level 10 which is successful on anything but a botch; and he should make a finesse roll which would be 7 finesse (terram) +2 perception +3 for having the relevant craft at 5.
but⌠I donât know how we are rolling dice.]
Replace braces {} with square brackets [] and:
For normal dice, {roll 1d10}, {roll 1d10+5}.
For stress dice, {stress 3}, {stress 3+5}. First number is the number of botch dice; second is the modifier.
Your post will become owned by the system user to prevent editing.
@MichaelCule asked for a die roll:
âHeroic?â The Captain looks at you as if you are the daftest magus to ever pass their gauntlet and the sergeant standing by her struggles to keep his face straight.
âYâknow Capân like that statue we saw in York! The one of St George fighting the dragon!â
The Captain glares at him but draws her sword to stand looking martial if bewildered.
(Casting total of 25 and Finess plus Int is 4)
stress 1+25: 4 Ă 7 = 28, +25 = total 53
stress 1+4: 1 Ă 7 = 7, +4 = total 11
The Captain looks at her likeness and blushes a little.
âI donât look like that do I?â
Being assured it was a good likeness she blushes quite a lot and says itâs very kind of the magister⌠And he would have to ask the Redcap how he felt about it.
And at that point someone comes up and takes her away to deal with a request from Acerbus.
Uillorard asks if the guards around know where William is, and goes off to find him, either following their directions or searching systematically.
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[Not sure what happened with the dice, but all that matters is itâs a good representation.]
{Yes, the multiplier looks suspiciously wrong doesnât it. Iâll ask Roger to take a look at it.}
William is very pleased with your gift and thanks you sincerely. âIs it that obvious how we feel? Ah, me. Iâll keep it in my rooms: the other Redcaps will mock me but who cares!â
And he goes off to assure Maud that he needs no artistic representations to keep her in his heart.
Uillorard smiles. âItâs something to keep you company on the road. But if you want to hide it away, itâs your choice. Someday I can enchant it for you.â
Then he takes his leave, to go and inspect the laboratory heâs taking over.
[I get the dice now, makes sense. The other thing was that you had the wrong finesse total, but the result was all that matters; though it could come up later. I will post in the character thread.]
Hubertus pops in.
âUillorard, do you mind? I need some help, I believe, in creating my laboratory - what I must do, what is essential. I would welcome your guidance on what I need to do. In return I would be willing to aid you in the construction of your own.â
Uillorard has been tidying, he puts down a crucible heâs inspecting and looks over. âGood morning, Hubertus. That certainly sounds reasonable. Letâs go over and take a look at the space, then we can see what materials are available.â
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What you find when you go over to the centre tower is the following:
The ground floor has a large communal dining room with high ceilings. The kitchen is beneath it in the cellar and there is a spiral staircase in the centre of the ground floor that leads down to the kitchen. At the outside walls are hatches leading down to the cellars where sacks and barrels can be lowered down for storage below.
At the east side of the building is a smaller spiral staircase leaading up. And on the three floors above are three identical round laboratories of the standard Hermetic type. The inner walls are all in place (they could be altered with magic or labour) but none of the equipment or furnishings have been installed, not even shelving in the storeroom.
labmap.pdf (219.8 KB)
It is the sort of layout you have seen half a dozen times in your training.
Uillorard pokes around in the three not-yet-laboratories, making a list of whatâs needed, finding that everything needs to be followed by a (III) to indicate quantity. In the end, the list is very long, and pretty much consists of everything needed to create a hermetic laboratory.
He will wander around the covenant, looking for whomever is the closest thing to a âquartermasterâ, to go over the list with that person, and see whether funds are available to purchase raw materials to work from.
The seneschal is delighted to say that he has anticipated most of the needs you have.
âMagistra Julia has provided me with a list of the materials she used in setting up her own laboratory and I have begun to explore the sourcing of the needed materials and the equipment we cannot make. The glassware is the only thing that I feel we have to import and I have an order in to a dealer in Antwerp who is said to have access to Venetian work. I hope to hear back from them some time this month.â
âThe wood supplies were easily found and the metal we can craft on site. Bricks will be arriving soon but we have no craftsmen capable of laying them. Perhaps you can suggest methods for bypassing the need?â
âIn brief magister, except for a few items which are not on the Lady Juliaâs list and are on yours (mostly a supply of paints and inks) we have matters well in hand.â
He is clearly capable of organising and supplying a project. He lacks the arcane knowledge to do the work himself but is well able to keep you supplied.
The bricks and ceramics will be needed to construct the fireplaces and washstands. How you proceed in the absence of a specialised craftsman is going to be your problem.
âYouâve made my day much brighter, seneschal. Iâm glad you have things so well in hand. As for the fireplaces and washstands, I can handle that myself. If you already have bricks arriving, I may as well use those, but if you can take me to an out-of-the-way spot, Iâll excavate down to bedrock and get some stone I can use for anything else.â
@MichaelCule asked for a die roll:
âI know nothing of the minerâs craft to tell you where such things could best be sought after. There are quarries and outcropings of stone aplenty in the area but I think you would have to travel a distance if you wanted⌠Granite or anything like that. If you just need a random place to dig⌠Well, we have a forest to the north where the Fair Folk are likely to be your only audience.â
He thinks and makes an unstressed roll.
Area Lore 6 (with a specialisation on the local area).
d10+6: 7
âNo,â he shakes his head sadly, âthe granite for all the construction I know in the area comes from Devon and Cornwall. And marble from the tip of Scotland, I believe. You might contact the masons at York Minster⌠If they will speak to a magus!â
Uillorard smiles. âI grew up in Cornwall, actually. After a fashion. We donât need anything so special - or expensive - as fine granite, I just meant to use bedrock. But Iâll wait and see what youâve already ordered, even that may not be necessary.â
âPerhaps if we kept a master mason on site I might be in a better position to advise you. Indeed I might know enough myself to understand what you mean by bedrock⌠Wait! There are master masons in York, at the Minster and in the town. Surely they could tell you where the local stone is good.â