I imagine he does it with vis or services. I'm choosing to roll his service to the cult into the 30 xp per year time periods. Keep in mind that I'm doing about two years of "study" to one year of other stuff (lab, initiations, apprentice and so on). That means with exposure taken in to account he's only earning 26 xp per year. That easily leaves a season of doing something for someone else getting only exposure and still collecting the 24 remaining xp. during the rest of the year. With two quality 11 tractati (tractatuses?) he could have two seasons free to curry favors and so on.
Also teaching medicine to aspirants might well be the sort of service that the cult requires of its more advanced members. so it might be done pro bono.
While Adelbert is observing the stars on a mountaintop for a month he saw and was seen by an eagle of virtue. He spent a few extra weeks at the location of his initiation getting to know the bird. I've posted what the animal looks prior to being bonded as a familiar. I'd be happy to some more eyes look over the creature. Also I spent one of the ten points of magical qualities on improved soak. This isn't especially in theme, if anyone wants to suggest a different use for this point of magical virtues (like an appropriate personal power or minor power) I'd be eager to switch in order to do something more evocative with it.
The magical eagle is written as a beast of virtue in summer season. I took the statistics for a falcon (the numbers in lords of men and RoP Magic are identical) I added the qualities grapple and imposing appearance x2 to match up with the golden eagles used by the Turks in Cradle and the Crescent p 117. I used two extra mastery points from improved powers for 10 xp in penetration (that would be tough to see if I didn't tell you).
Just started following this thread. Great stuff. Generally I like the initiatiations you've designed, particularly for the "flavor component" if you will. The spells I leave to the other mechanics out there -- they are far better than I at those design rules.
A couple quick points to consider:
A mature mystery cult (and I agree that the Magoi would be quite mature) is likely to have more scripts with higher bonuses as various mystagogues have modified the previous by adding components to the fisrt few experiemntal scripts. If you look at the rules for experimenting to develop a brand new script, however, the math seems to imply the script bonus would be lower so as to even be successful in experimentation so I would recommend that as he gains maturity in the cult, the scripts you design could have lower bonuses so as to represent that the advanced degrees are newer territory for inititiation.
Start developing a relationship with his mystagogue (perhaps "loyal to Magister Visionus Aethereum +1"?). Pardon my awful Latinization.
Include two Twilight accidents in the next 15 years, just for flavor. A positive and a negative. Kind of curious how that would manifest with this guy.
Take on a few seasons of "adventure"/investigation and be sure to knock out a season or two for each Tribunal to represent duties in his office. I recoomend that he get at least a bit more exposure experience in Code of Hermes and Order of Hermes Organization Lore Abilites. They seem awefully low a Queasitor that is 30 years out of Gauntlet. Just my view, but a Queasitor that mature with little knowledge of the law and little knowledge of the Who's Who of the Order would, in my estimation, lose his Hermetic Prestige virtue and may take on a negative reputation in the Order (almost certainlly in his House) as Lazy or Ineffective. Perhaps the lead Q for his Tribunal checks in and has a very uncomfortable conversation where she starts with "I noticed your comments at last Tribunal didn't bring out (failrly obvious legal point) ..." and ending with her slamming a summa down on the table stating "I meet with the Primus and the Interior Council in two years. You do NOT want to mentioned in that conversation." Again, maybe your vision of the Order and of House Guernicus may be different...
What has he done for his covenant, if anything?
Love the familiar. Totally behind this. MAYBE take another Quality that includes Second SIght. Not necessary, of course, but could be interesting.
Anyway, I really like the character as is, but there seems to be a little less of his profession/position showing up in his experience than I would expect.
Combat-oriented: Either improved Init/attack/damage (The eagle's strike is lightning fast, its claws are fierce, its beak is sharp)
Movement-oriented: An essential virtue related to quickness, a personnel power to improve movement
Perception-related: Eyes of the Cat, True Sight of the Air (Since I guess Vision that Pierces Matter is more InTe), an InIm effect to see through illusions, Second Sight.
Away from my books, though, so I don't know what can be done in terms of powers.
IMO, 2 and 3 are good points.
For this:
He's doing it with the 30XP/year rule. This, IMO, covers already both adventure/investigation lost time and tribunal time. It's all in the abstract already.
Very much agree about CoH and OoH lore, though.
I'll have to check but I think that I wrote up Vision that Pierces Matter as intellego imaginem.
I think that a version of discern the images of truth and falsehood would be a good fit, I'll look at the books and see if it can be done, thank you for the idea.
I can do that (I think)
I can try and write up some descriptions even if I don't integrate it into the experience structure. (although if you have ideas I'd be more than happy to steal them)
I'll write up some steal-able ideas and send them via PM so that you can truly make them your own.
Entirely understood about this being abstract 30xp/year. And the fact that he spent so much effort on non-Queasitor duties (or at least didn't learn much from them) can be a good story point to leap from.
If you are planning on him being a master investigator, eventually hitting the following before he peaks might be worth considering:
Order of Hermes Lore 6 (who knows who and what are their general agendas and maybe a few specific ones)
Intrigue 4-5 (enough to suss out some conspriacies and watch for patterns of suspicious behavior somewhat reliably)
Code of Hermes 3 (Enough to know what to focus on, legally)
If he is to be a master prosecutor, then I would flip the scores for OoH and CoH.
If you want him to (eventually) be the Queaitor that everyone is worried might look his way, I would look into agencies in HoH:S and investing in Leadership and/or Folk Ken as well as developing a relationship with a truly powerful Hoplite (perhaps from MoH)
Ok looking at his 30-45 year xp spent I can pull the 20 out of penetration and instead raise OoH lore and Code of Hermes to 2 each.
as for modification of the eagle, here is a personal power to replace increased soak:
The cost is 1 point per every 2 magnitudes for personal powers, I rounded up to 3 rather than down to 2 (I don't like rounding I'd rather have it cost 2.5 points).
Story wise, Adelbert spends a few additional weeks on the mountain reflecting on his initiation and now occasionally using creo animal spells to give the eagle new information that Adelbert's intellego spells can uncover that the birds natural perception can't. The bird's curiosity brings it closer to Adelbert who uses Open the Tome of the Animal's Mind to understand it and become a better companion. The bird comes back to Adelbert's lab with him and he forges the familiar bond.
Adelbert's intellego Vim lab total is 50 he makes a bronze cord of 3 silver cord of 1 and gold cord of 2 (he needs the help with aging rolls).
The bird accepts the name Claritas it now has a soak of +1 and an intelligence of -3. She gains scores in Latin, the Tyrol dialect of Italian, and Portuguese equal to Adelbert
Adelbert's intellego mentem lab total is int 2 + aura 3 + MT 10 + intellego 24 +Mentem 14 = 53
The Shared senses power from p 105 of the core book is level 30 for one time per day. The effect has range touch and no penetration. This seems to be an annoyance. Also, since it is the bond that is enchanted which of the two needs to suppress their resistance in order for the power to take effect:? A moment of reflection and I come up with the one who invokes the power doesn't need to suppress to invoke it but the creature who's vision is being shared does. Just as if it were a wand of mind reading.
Adelbert spends two seasons enchanting the effect at level 35
Now they need a way to tell one another when they need a peak through the others eyes, and they need personality traits for the bond modification.
Adelbert gains love of winds in high places. Claritas gains a busybody as a personality trait at +1
Edit; A further look a the rules shows that the power can only go one way (unless I want to give it target group and and have them switch perspectives... if that would work rather than crashing due to some infinite regression of he sees what she is seeing but she is seeing what he is seeing so he sees what she sees but he is.. etc. )
The effects in the core just don't have penetration in them. I'm going to use this as an example and just not put penetration in, even though the other rules would suggest that it is necessary.
Adelbert wants to get his hands on a copy of Gift of Reason to use on Claritas so she's not so dumb. It would take him more than two seasons to invent it so instead he'll use his new ability of periapts to create something worth trading for a copy of the lab notes.
Adelbet's lab total is 53 (from a few posts up) +1 for MT specialization + 2 planetary magic + 4 glove and touch spells shape bonus, +5 rock crystal material bonus = 65. Periapts allows him to work as if he already had a lab text so he makes 13 charges. The charges can be split up in any way that the creator wants Adelbert will make 2 gloves, one with six charges and one with seven. He trades the lesser glove for a lab text of Gift of Reason and keeps the seven charge glove for a future trade or to be used by a grog or companion.
Does Gift of Reason work on an animal if it has an intelligence score rather than a cunning score? I'm not certain.
The core book actually has guidelines for detecting beings with might (in the text in the InVi box), and yes, it comes to about the same.
This also matches the InMe spell from Societates IIRC, so that's fine. Indeed, I was designing this spell myself a while ago, until I remembered that character had Second Sight
Looking at that passage, it seems that the more powerful a spirit is the less easy it is to hide so Humiliate the Unclothed Spirit can detect spirits of any level but a base 4 version could only detect spirits of might 15 and higher. Of course penetration comes in to it too, but it leaves the possibility that when sponting magic, characters will sometimes only be able to detect spirits that are strong enough to be seen (due to level) but weak enough to have their MR penetrated. So just some spirits of moderate power missing both the exceptionally strong and the exceptionally weak. That's rather cool.
Adelbert's Creo Mentem total for familiar bond is 7 creo + 14 mentem +10 magic theory + 2 int +3 aura = 36
So the mental communication effect in the core book on page 105 for sharing complex thoughts such as images and emotions is level 15. Adelbert chooses to enchant an effect to allow Claritas to communicate with him in a season and allow reverse communication in a second season.
These effects have no penetration. They might need some but that is a real pain. Every time the magus raises their parma score he or she needs to double check to see if any of the previous installed effects in the familiar bond no longer works. It would perhaps be best if effects of the familiar magus bond do not need to penetrate their familiar/magus target's MR.
Adelbert has a minor magical potency with the astrological house of Genetor: this means Parents, childhood homes, and seclusion. The next three spells are attempts to use that potency
Here's the first
Adelbert develops this spell in one season. It is the weakest fit for the idea it might be possible to argue that it is outside of the scope of the potency
I used base 5 with one additional magnitude for detailed information. My original notes used base 5 + 3 magnitudes instead of one and I'm not sure why. Certainly the level of this spell is open for reinterpretation.
The second potent spell is ward against the Curious Scullion from Covenants p 104 9the errata corrects the spell to level 30. This spell requires a crown and a floor to cast. incorporating these things gives a +10 to the casting total.
Adelbert learns two spells from Lab notes this period, well three if you count Ward Against the Curious Scullion.
On that subject I looked up potent magic to ensure that if Adelbert gets a hold of a lab text for a spell within the scope of his magical potency that he can use it to create a potent spell. The answer is not completely clear but it looks like -no. Adelbert would have to learn the non-potent version and then invent potent spell in a single season). I think that I'd prefer that not to be the case. Anyway, for Adelbert I'm going to postulate that he's not the first member of the Magoi of the star to initiate potent magic in this astrological house, and really Ward against the Curious scullion is to my mind the very most straight forward application of it so a having a potent version available is believable enough to pass.
Restore the faded threads at level 30
Veil of invisibility
)
