Some details about the covenant site:

Site

The site itself is a ruined manor in a haunted valley towards the bottom of the south slope of the Crimean mountain range at its southwestern edge--also the edge of the mountain principality of Gothia. The manor is in a forest (though it's good land, and used to be farmland), and located at the site of a particularly nice spring. The area is (really and truly) haunted, being a the site of a massacre during the Cuman conquest of the peninsula--and it's not terribly defensible, since it's in the middle of the woods at the bottom of a valley. The local inhabitants are about 15 "bandits" (petty criminals, really) who hide there because no one will follow them in.
The buildings are ruined, but are made of stone. Wooden outbuildings, and indeed a while village, existed at once time but have long since rotted away. There's enough room for perhaps six magi, though lab space will be cramped.

Aura

The area around the manor itself, including the old orange orchard, is a +5 Magic Aura. The rest of the forest is a +3 Magic Aura, except for the old vineyards, which are the site of a faerie regio (the area outside the regio is a +3 Faerie Aura).

Vis

The spring itself, which often produces strange apparitions (in addition to the resident ghosts), is a source of both Mentem and Imaginem vis--two pawns of each a year; the trick is to get the vis out of the water (in concentrated form) and separate the two types of vis. The courtyard of the manor is a potent source of Perdo vis, for obvious reasons--3 pawns a year can be extracted from the unearthly black roses that grow there.
Outside the covenant grounds themselves, the grapes in the old vineyard beneath the faeire regio are a source of two pawns of Muto vis a year; however, the faeries will have to be convinced to part with it, which they'll happily do if Viola can figure out something they might want. Finally, Auriane has found some vis-bearing lichen growing on the rocks in an old quarry--this amounts to two pawns of Terram a year, if husbanded and harvested carefully (it could provide more if you stripped it, but might take a couple of years to grow back).
It's important to note that the above covers only the immediate vicinity of the covenant; though Viola and Auriane have searched the woods pretty thoroughly, there are undoubtedly other vis sources elsewhere on the peninsula, since it's largely unexplored by Hermetic magi (though Ahmed may be able to remeber a site or two), though of course such a concentrated quantity of vis is unlikely to exist elsewhere.
First, I neglected to mention a vis source: the orange trees in the orchard produce a sap (odd, orange trees that can be tapped for sap, but they're magical, you know...) worth 1 pawn of Herbam vis a year. It should also be noted that certain of the sources are seasonally dependent (the grapes can only be harvested in Fall, the roses in Summer, and the trees in winter.

Income

Though it's a little bit wild, the bandits say that the orchard produces very nice oranges (not entirely surprising in a +5 Aura). The forest could be harvested for various other products, including meat of course and perhaps a few furs. And although the old vineyard is too valuable as a vis source, Viola says that the analagous vineyard in the faerie regio produces quite excellent wine--if the faeries can be persuaded to part with it. Keep in mind that much of this will have to be traded for food as well as for things like lab supplies.

Inhabitants

The bandits might make half-decent warriors, at least. In addition to them, by my count the various magi and companions have eight grogs tagging along, plus the baby. There are sure to be other refugees from Constantinople that might be recruited in Chersonesus, particularly specialists.
As for the less mundane inhabitants of the area, there are various ghosts around the manor--most of them inoffensive and relatively harmless, save for "the big one". In addition, there are the faeries in the nearby regio, who often pass through the forest, sometimes to the fields and villages beyond. Most of them are relatively benign, but a few are of rather dark temperament (and are part of the reason the woods have a reputation as being haunted).

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Letztes Update: 17.Jun.99 by Varius