I have a question about focus item slots.  Is the lore limit for:
A) all focus items,
b) one focus item or
c) one category of focus items (tracking thaumaturgy and evocation separately?

The text on YS 278 is vague and can be read as either A or B, and I have been using C as a compromise.

Wouldn't this fall under the declarations bit?  You have a high quality sniper rifle?  Make a declaration using firearms to temporarily give it the "Accurate" aspect.  Or when dodging a cheap crappy gun make a declaration to place the "Inaccurate"  aspect on that.

The problem here is that there is no realistic way to stat out the darkhallow in this system.  It is a plot device, pure and simple, it involves exploiting a few loopholes in the way magic works in the Drsednverse, but I don't think there is any mechanical way to stat out any ritual that increases your refresh cost, all of those are plot devices that remain between you and your GM.  

All that being said,  Here is a weak attempt to stat it out:

 It is mentioned several times that Harry could pull it off, so it can't require actual necromancy sponsored magic, or be too difficult, in effect every single use of necromancy in the book is a declaration towards the ritual working, slowly building up the necromantic energy of the area, then they tag the declarations of every single spell they cast in the last few days to get the needed power.  I would personally set the difficulty at 10 shifts per point of refresh gained, and then allocate the points as the caster sees fit.

Would that still be two scenes even though there was absolutely no rest time in between?  Heck, the duel hadn't even quite finished when the battle started.

This was my bigest problem with the RPG system too, when I first read it, so I've developed a few ways around it, some more house rule-sy than others.

1)  Take the breath weapon power and replace the weapons roll with a discipline roll, and you have a combat spell that you can use at will for weapon 2 attacks.

2) Sponsored Magic.  Pretty handy.

3) Use Enchanted items.  A dedicated enchanter with a good crafting foci can get pretty big effects with a good number of uses each session with no stress at all.

and 4)  the house rule I've been using is that if the power is half your conviction or less then it doesn't cost a stress, so somebody with conviction 4 could throw around 2 shift evocations with no problem.

It is noted several times that running water drains magic, so rivers would screw up a spell, as would a costal area as the waves roll over the beaches, but once you and your target are both out on the water there's no problem.  I've just been thi9nking of it like a border to a zone that prevents magic from being effective.

OK, I know there has been a lot of debate about the lawbreaker stunts, I don't particularly want to rehash all of that, I just have two questions:

1) when do you stop getting these stunts, non of the denarian write ups included lawbreaker stunts, but I can't imagine that cassius never killed someone with magic.  Are they merely omitted because the Denarians are NPCs?  What about a Denarian PC?

2) would enchanted items cause the stunt?  If your intent at the time of creating the item was to have a generic force attack (Like Harry's rings) and you ended up using it to kill someone would it grant the stunt?  Unlike casting a spell you don't need to believe in everything you do when using an item, so it seems that it might not twist your soul like black magic does.  (In the books Harry mentions that the wardens still prosecute under these circumstances, but I'm asking about the stunt).