1222 Etc

Again with something new. I don't think I've ever read anything that indicated Shmuel could be a PC.
Further, he's designed to be as annoying as heck and not in what I perceive to be an interesting way. He's the most annoying aspect of Wesley Crusher. And people could barely tolerate Wesley as it is. Attravere can have him. :smiley:

I love Wesley!

Shmuel is based on a little Israeli boy, Yonatan, who lives upstairs from Kui's dad. Four years old and frighteningly intelligent, and if he wasn't so ridiculously cute, you'd really want to punch him in the face.

And yes, nearly all the NPCs are available for play as grogs or companions. I had been really hoping someone would take Jondar the Huntsmaster for a companion.

I liked Wesley in his last season and that's about it. He finally seemed to be grown up. And as far as the actor as a person. Hilarious, awesome all that.

And I'm extremely familiar with the concept of frighteningly intelligent and ridiculously cute. That's my daughter, and it's not parental pride speaking. I'm not sure if you're familiar with Accelerated Reader, but she just finished her first year of school (kindergarten) and earned 113 AR points. She's reads 5 or 6 books at a time, and one of them right now is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The other day we were shopping at Kohl's and we picked her up two pair of pajamas, she was complaining about not getting another pair, when the nice cashier said authorized $10 in Kohl's cash so she could get another pair because she was such a sweetheart. And this isn't the first time something like this has happened (people give her stuff for free, out of the blue). That being said, I can't see that concept extending to a teenager.

I myself have very biased opinions of Shmuel because of his interactions with Deiectus.

  • Iapetus needs another season of covenant service to finish off his trial period. I need to figure out what to do for that (Because I'm so damned good at that, hah). Then he needs to do more studies in the elements and transformations. Actually, I was thinking of spending time doing a season of study on any art he had no skill in, since our library is bloody fantastic.
  • Iapetus's other goals are quite simple: He's going to find a place where he can go flirt with women with some success. Iapetus has a Tytalus-view of romance, and really has a lot of fun with the flirting and seduction, whereas the more carnal rewards (though amazingly fun) aren't really a challenge once the seduction is done. He's probably begun to annoy the local Jewish populace with his tendencies to flirt with their daughters.
  • At request for any Arcane Connections to Aislynn or Justinius, Iapetus shall send a letter to Audax in case he has suggestions. This is a rather obvious thing, so I'm actually assuming that people have looked for connections and not found much. Still, Iapetus will check out the lab and living quarters for anything. Would their amazing books actually be Arcane Connections? I don't think so but it's worth asking.
  • Whenever the Faerie Music Contest occurs again, Iapetus will go to it.
    *Speaking of the contest, Iapetus would like to open up a correspondence with Iulia. Yeah, I know we're now stuck on completely opposite sides of the political spectrum. But she's still very attractive, and a bit extra challenge doesn't hurt. And he feels that many of her changes would have been good if she'd gone about getting the votes in a more acceptable fashion than social intimidation.
    *Iapetus is also going to send a letter to his childhood swords-master teacher, with the intent of possibly seeking out more grogs through that contact.

Iulia is the severe-faced princeps of Voluntas. The gorgeous maga from the contest is Lucia. They're both Jerbiton. Which are you interested in?

Interesting, I just got it mixed up in my head due to the name similarities. Iapetus would be more interested in Lucia, since she's got such a sweet personality. Plus, hot.

If you want to write to Lucia, post it to the Correspondences thread :slight_smile:

In Autumn of 1222, an ugly man with a big nose shows up, demanding an invitation into the Aegis, and hospitality. He introduces himself as Tabanus scholae Guernicus, and declares that he is conducting an official Quaesitorial investigation.

Cygna will, if she is able, try to spend at least one day a month at Duos Flumen with her families.

((I don't know if they're going to be done with her at Schola after the one season, so I'm leery of making any plans or anything beyond Summer, or even acknowledging that she'll be back at Gallus Florensis yet.))

((Also, I notice in the Lab Texts that each one has the magus's initials after it. Does that mean that they've not been translated yet?))

At the next Council session, Claudia will ask to speak.

"I was going through the library, to be sure that the catalogue is current, and I notice that we don't have a text for Aegis of the Hearth. Does someone have that text out of the library for whatever reason and forgot to let the librarian know?"

Everything in the library is translated. I put the author initials there mostly for background flavour.

If Lamentus's lab text is offered for Aegis, and translation is needed, Iapetus will offer to work on translating it as covenant service. Now' he'll honestly state that he's not very good with the arts needed, but if nobody else is able to he's willing to spend the time doing such.

To those who are good at judging intent, Iapetus's goal is to get someone more suited to it to volunteer.

Claudia would, but her ReVi lab total is only...um...13. And that's without the Aura or any Arts. Wow.

edit. Cygna has a ReVi LT of 25, plus whatever Lab bonuses she gets (which looks to be +6 General Quality and +3 Rego, so that's a total LT of 34, I think). She's willing to do it for Covenant Service...or even if it doesn't count, because having an Aegis lab text is something that needs to be done. And since the Aegis we're using is a Level 30, she can do it in one season.

What level is the Aegis? 30?
The rules of translating the lab text suggest it needs to be converted to your own, and then I can write it out understandably.
If you want to break it down, I can decipher his text in 2/3 of a season, ReVi LT of 45.
I can write out 120 levels of spells in a season (Latin 6 x20). a Level 30 is 1/4 of a season, which is less than 1/3 of a season and he can have it translated for library use in a season if Arya's fine with dividing the seasonal activity up like that.

Assuming that's fine, "I can decipher and write it up for someone to learn in a season. I'd offer to learn it myself, but my Gift is damaged enough that I can't cast the spell."

You could spend one whole season learning Lamentus' shorthand, and then transcribe as many of his spells as you wish.

Lamentus has a level 30 Aegis and a level 50 Aegis.

((Logistics. Needs to happen during summer if it is to be learned by someone else in autumn and cast on the winter solstice.))

Just out of curiosity, with Sophronia out of the picture, who all's looking into the disappearance of Justin and Aislinn?

If you spend a season learning his shorthand, you can invent the aegis in autumn. You can transcribe the lab texts later.

((Sure, Tektonius can learn the Aegis. It just would be utterly useless for him to do so given the nature of his Gift. Again Logistics. Tek can't cast Aegis of the Hearth due to Rigid Magic, but he can decipher Lamentus lab text for Aegis lvl 30 and convert it into a readable format in one season based on my arithmetic above. Would it be better, in the long run, if he could decipher his shorthand entirely and then write out his lab texts as necessary? Sure, but that leaves us without an Aegis for a period of time. This also, IMO solves one of Tek's covenant service problems, but I can see Lilly disagreeing with that.))

Once Sam starts pointing out all the lab texts and what they do? Almost assuredly.

Also, remember that Shmuel can read Lamentus' shorthand. He has Inconprehensible, I am not sure ifthay applies to lab texts though, I'll have to check.