A few in game questions

[Metis]

1. How rare/special is/would it be for someone to have (visions like the PC does in Cloudy Skies adventure (semi-)consistently?

2. Do Mimics, as in monsters that disguise themselves as treasure chests or other assorted items of (seeming) value, exist in the Academagia universe? Obviously traps exist, but are there any "open chest to reveal the many-toothed mouth of a monster" type creatures?

3. Say that someone dreamed of becoming the star of the Academagia's Rimbal team, but to their eternal disappointment wasn't invited to join the Academagia as a student. How would this person best pursue their dream anyway?

[Legate of Mineta]

Metis;

"1.  Rare enough that if it were publicly known it would be talked about - at least in magical quarters - throughout a county/duchy/big city.  Maybe not a source of singular fascination, but weird enough to be worth recording.

 

2.  Qualified yes.  It's the sort of thing Gates wizards of a more decadent age might've created, but they're not common and I don't think they'd breed.  It's much more common for malicious fairy sorts to load treasure chests with murder bees when they see hapless adventurers coming.

 

3.  The best bet would probably be to play in one of the more visible Minetan junior teams and hope to perform so well that Professor Massioti notices her or him and offers an invitation to Godina.  With any other Regent it would be unthinkable, but he would genuinely be tempted."

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Is there at least one hospital in Mineta that specializes in treating people with incurable diseases and permanent conditions? If so, what is its name?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

And the reply:

"Mineta has a massive, ancient hospital called the Valetudinario - it's very nearly as old as the Academy, and it's got divine fingerprints all over it (so to speak).  The main structure is between the Admiratio and the Ponte Roscius, but it also owns a dozen smaller structures scattered around the city.

What you're talking about is one of those: the Nosocomio della Sciarpe.  It's also known as just "the Bathhouse," since that's what the structure used to be.  (There are still bathhouses in Mineta, mind you, so people will only know what you're talking about if you lay on the context.  "Grandfather's cough is getting worse - they've had to send him to the Bathhouse.")"

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: How much money would it cost to receive treatment at a hospital in Mineta, on average?

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Is there any tradition of creating, through alchemy, people whose very touch is poisonous? Akin to the Visha Kanya in Indian tradition.

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"It may be theoretically possible, but there's not a whole lot of evidence that it was ever successfully done - creating an assassin by these means would be extremely expensive and time-intensive, even assuming you had the expertise to pull it off, and there are more reliable means to kill someone (with or without pheme-activated magical effects).

To be clear, there are reasonably well-documented stories of seducers/seductresses with lethal touches - most famously, the 14th century Comtessa Erenhilda Reveille, who killed the Warlock of the Diamonds with a kiss - but in those cases the lethal powers were generally the result of magical curses/Gates madness rather than alchemy and conscious preparation.

And, again, it may be theoretically possible.  It's just that there wouldn't be a lot of research available to show how you could do it without poisoning the intended assassin along the way.

 

...

 

And yet we can somehow see poor Cante doing it to himself by accident."

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Any answer to my hospital pricing question?

[Legate of Mineta]

Oh, you know what? I thought I posted that last Thursday!

"Making the assumption that you are asking about the Valetudinario- it is old, old, old, and the charter specifically calls for giving care to the poor (and the Dragon-afflicted) as an act of religious charity.  And, sure, it's hopelessly corrupt in a lot of its practices and richer than anyone ever intended it to be - but if you can get into one of its 200 beds, you'll be taken care of.

 

Real, practical cost depends on the type of treatment.  If it's life-saving or (ahem) plague control, it's free - the Valetudinario owns an obscene amount of land around the world, and (in compliance with its charter) covers the costs of its Minetan operations through rents and fees, along with massive donations from the Chards and their peers.  If you're an adult patient, you might be asked to give a voluntary donation, if you have means - and if you're a high-society sort it would look really bad if you didn't - but it's not mandatory.  If the care you're after is elective, or even precautionary (i.e., getting a check-up) - that'll probably cost you thousands of pims if you can even get in.

That said, the Vale has only a limited number of beds (about 200) and rarely more than 28 doctors, and though they genuinely care about keeping people healthy it can be really, really hard to get them to see you.  So you have a better chance of being seen within twelve hours of your arrival by going to one of the smaller subsidiary hospitals, and they do generally charge, unless on pilgrimage - temples around the city raise emergency funds the destitute can tap to cover at least some of the cost, if need be.  Figure maybe 1 to 3 malin for basic nursing care (i.e., getting an arm magically set), with costs rising to upward of 50 malin for anything that requires specialist training or unusual supplies.  Long-term hospital stays tend to also run 4 malin a day for a semi-private room, or about 25 pims a day for a bed in a sick hall.

Note that medication isn't free, even at the Vale, and that depends entirely on market prices - which can be horrific."

[Schwarzbart]

Is the concept of insurance known?

And if so what kind of insurance are actual offered to the wealthy?

I suspect there might be some kind of early insurance against piracy from mercenary group that offer money in case they fail to protect the ship and goods, or pay money to the family when one of their fighter get killed or badly wounded.

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

From the Team:

"In place of what we think of as insurance, Minetan commerce has what are called "freight loans."  The owner of a good being shipped essentially asks a banker to gamble that the thing is going to get safely to where it belongs.

Say you have a package valued locally at 30 pims that you're shipping from Mineta to Langsey.  If you have a good enough reputation, or if you can produce someone willing to make guarantees on my behalf, you can go to a banker, or a merchant house, or a shipping agent, and ask for a freight loan of 30 pims  - to be repaid with interest upon the delivery of that package.  If the package gets to its intended destination (where, ideally, it sells for 90 pims) in a day and a half, I return the freight loan with a ridiculously high interest rate - call it 40 pims total - and everybody's fairly happy.  I've made 50 pims, the banker has made 10, and the package got to where it was going.

If, on the other hand, the package is stolen by air pirates en route, the peculiar conditions of the loan aren't met, you can simply keep the 30 pims the banker gambled on the package's arrival.

Now, if you read that and see all sorts of ways in which an enterprising con artist could abuse the system, you're not alone.  This is why bankers and merchant houses don't offer freight loans to just anyone, and why they employ mercenaries to track people down and make examples of them."

[Metis]

Do these freight loans ever get split across multiple bankers/houses/etc. (where reputation allows), or only ever the one (if any at all)?

[Legate of Mineta]

Metis:

"Splits aren't uncommon, actually - particularly with large, urgent/short-term loans. Of course, you have to pass the same bar of reputation for all concerned."

[Schwarzbart]

Is it common that depend on the route the goods of a freight loan the protection of the goods with mercenary is required to get the freight loan? Maybe even down to what mercenary group need to hired or how many of what type of mercenary?

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

"Yes.  Unless you're either the Captain or a Chard (or their peers) - i.e., your reputation is pristine and supported by borderline limitless resources - when you apply for a freight loan you supply a very detailed plan of the steps you're taking to ensure that the package gets to where it's going, and the bankers/merchant houses evaluate it for risk and set interest rates (or refuse the application) as a result."

[Schwarzbart]

Would it possible that a Gate magus trick other that a summoned ghost or other creature is his / her familiar and so is allowed to have it by his/ her side?

(I don't have any story idea on this my self but this could be lead to an interesting NPC student or at later year allow a player who sacrificed the familiar to pretend to have a familiar while using i.e. a Library Ghost)

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

"Given that the player character can have a ghost familiar, this is absolutely possible.  Though, obviously, if the wizard in question actually used Gates magic herself to summon or create a familiar and the story got out, the consequences would be unpleasant."

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Is the Chorian alphabet known in the Empire of Man? Is it used in any ways?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"It wasn't systematically eradicated or anything - academics still know the characters - but, no, it's not something you'll often see people using in polite society, even in a place as cosmopolitan as Mineta.  There's a widespread belief, or intuition, that the "Elumian" alphabet and script are almost akin to phemes; they may not have magical effects, but most people on the street would guess that they were revealed by the Gods rather than invented by human beings.  (Scholars would dispute this, but that doesn't count for much.)  Alternative alphabets are seen more as corruptions of the true system than as equally valid parallel developments, and are generally dismissed.

That said, some criminal organizations with roots in the southeast will use it as a kind of simple code.  Not for spycraft or anything, but grafitti on walls in certain neighborhoods will mean nothing to passing Guards, but can offer warnings and instructions to people in the know."

[Rhialto]

Just now, Legate of Mineta said:

Rhi;

"It wasn't systematically eradicated or anything - academics still know the characters - but, no, it's not something you'll often see people using in polite society, even in a place as cosmopolitan as Mineta.  There's a widespread belief, or intuition, that the "Elumian" alphabet and script are almost akin to phemes; they may not have magical effects, but most people on the street would guess that they were revealed by the Gods rather than invented by human beings.  (Scholars would dispute this, but that doesn't count for much.)  Alternative alphabets are seen more as corruptions of the true system than as equally valid parallel developments, and are generally dismissed.

That said, some criminal organizations with roots in the southeast will use it as a kind of simple code.  Not for spycraft or anything, but grafitti on walls in certain neighborhoods will mean nothing to passing Guards, but can offer warnings and instructions to people in the know."

I take it, then, that Miya's script would be another strike against her normality. Are she and Malthezar the only Y1 students raised with another script?

[Legate of Mineta]

Mmmmm. That is publicly known, yes.

[Schwarzbart]

1) Will a later year have penalty for the player for wearing outfit  of the wrong colour or pattern? (like wearing a magic item that have a design or colour only noble are allowed to wear)

1b) If so can this mitigated trough magic? (I.e. Glamour and Revision that change the colour / pattern)

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

1) It's possible to do, but not likely for Y2.

1b) Yes.

[Schwarzbart]

A bit mean question: Is the person that said we have to roll up the development and get to a release for Acdemagia and Scheherazade still working for BCS? I somehow have the feeling BCS is missing such a person now as there is always something the developer say they need to improve for a big game.

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

Not mean, and yes, they are still here. But as you know, we're chipping away at it.