Ancient History (Spring 1242)

Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Light of Andorra
461

So right now Roberto is -9 (three Medium wounds) - 5 (Dazed) = -14 to all his rolls.

Does anyone want to pay any Fortune to help out with that?

It's 3 Fortune to lessen one of the Medium wounds to a LIght wound, and another point to get rid of the Light wound.
It's 1 point to bring him back to Tired (-3), 3 points to bring him back to Weary (-1), and 6 points to bring him back to Winded

So, for a cost of 18 Fortune, Roberto could be uninjured and only Winded, with no penalty. But 10 Fortune will get him only to -6 (three Light wounds and Tired).

Who wants to spend what on Roberto before someone rolls for his sleep spell.

(Poor Tytalus. He did all the right things and he's probably still going to go down. :wink: )

462

I (Mark) have points I can spend and return to others. I also need to check what was written up for Fortune rules. That seems a bit generous. But I will take it!
And poor Tytalus my ass! :laughing:
He stole magical secrets and threatened the life of an innocent. And he took the first shot at dealing damage. Three wrong things to do!
And this still goes down in history as Roberto getting his ass kicked. That has never happened before! This will cause Roberto to rethink his strategy and try to improve his "toolbox".

463

This isn't a failure of Roberto's strategy; it's a vindication of it. The Tytalus magus didn't beat Roberto's strategy; he stole it:

  • Step One: Hit enemy with fast cast spell to drop his Parma Magica
  • Step Two: Follow up with multicast fast cast damage spell
  • Step Three: Repeat damage spell as needed.

I just got lucky with some rolls and happened to have the right advantages to make things work. The underlying strategy is very, very sound.

464

My points (8) convert 2 wounds to winded fatigue levels...

465

Hey two things: Diego has mastery 3 which should add 3 spells, for a total of 4 and only three were in the summary. And secondly the damage should have been 5 points higher on each spell. I incorrectly did the damage as d+10 and it's a d+15 spell.
Damage totals are 18, 20, 17, and 24 each vs 16 soak.

466

Yikes, I made the same mistake with the Tytalus magus. He has Mastery 3 and Multicast. I was thinking the 3 meant that he got three attacks. But Mastery 3 = 4 attacks. Here's the fourth attack against Roberto:

Wound that Aches: 1D10+19 = [4]+19 = 23
Penetration = 23 (CT) - 20 (spell level) + 4 (Penetration plus specialty) + 1 (Penetration mastery) = 8
Penetrates Roberto's 5 Corpus. That's another Medium wound.

And here's where the Tytalus magus meets his downfall. A player can brush off damage by spending Fortune and a bad guy can't. (Yes, I realize that a storyteller could theoretically spend their own Fortune on a bad guy. But that penalizes people for running stories, which I think is counterproductive.)
The four attacks result in three Minor wounds and one Medium wound. Ouch.

467

muttermutter

There were many errors on all parys I am sure. And questions raised in referece to

But I am willing to waive all of that, because this encounter was awesome. I instead propose that this NPC, stats unseen by the public (yet), has knowledge of a new Mastery ability not yet known outside his circles. His score is one point higher to accomodate this. However, this new ability limits you in that you must first have both Fast and Multi Cast mastery first, and the fast-multi number is half of what you can normally multicast.
So only three Medium Wounds :smiley:

I checked the Fortune rules on the Wiki, and it seems I am that generous. And to complicated. Oh well.
I checked by points, which are 21. So my score should be 6. I will reduce two Medium Wounds to Light, and suffer with the third for now (spend the next season vacationing in Heracleion to recuperate).
If Silveroak cn help with Fatigue, then Roberto can use Life Boost and his last Confidence point to add to this roll.

I just rolled a real 3 on a real die at home. Accept that if you will :mrgreen:

468

And in an instant, it's over. Roberto reaches forward and taps the paralyzed magus on the chest, casting a simple spell of sleep. It's a basic spell, and with his wounds, it doesn't penetrate as well as it ought to. But the magus has no Parma Magica up right now and must rely solely on his Corpus resistance. Alas for him, it proves insufficient. The magus's eyes immediately close and he drops to the ground unconscious, Roberto's paralyzation spell fading as his concentration slips.

The scene would be quiet now if it weren't for the people on the street looking up and pointing and calling out at the odd fight on the rooftop where Roberto was shouting and gesticulating wildly, and flames were coming down from the sky.

[hr][/hr]
Ah, my bad. I guess I was thinking that the magus had Deft Corpus so could Fast Cast it without gestures and words.

As to the attack, Roberto touching the Tytalus magus requires no roll, since the man is paralyzed.
Roberto changes two of the Medium wounds to Light (6 Fortune from him), and drops back to Winded (6 Fortune from silveroak). (I'll spend some Fortune if you need it.)
(I note that silveroak was willing to spend 8 Fortune to eliminate two of the Medium wounds. So Roberto could take those away and use his 6 Fortune to get back to Winded)
That should leave Roberto at -5 from one Medium and two Light wounds (or -3 from one Medium Wound). With a roll of 3, his CT should be:
CT = 3 (roll) + 15 (ReMe) + 2 (Gestures and Incantation) - 5 (level of spell) - 5 (injuries) = 10
Penetration = 10 + 2 (1+2) = 10 + 6 = 16; that beats the Tytalus' 10 Co.
The enemy magus falls asleep. (No need to spend Fatigue)

FWIW, here's the Concentration check to keep the paralyzation spell up:
Conc Check = stress die + 4 (Conc) + 2 (Sta) - 5 (Wounds) = stress die + 1
Concentration Check: 1D10+1 = [1]+1 = 2
Multiplier: 1D10 = [2] = 2 = 4+1=5; fail
So the paralyzation spell fails (unless you want to spend Fortune or Confidence).

Wow, Fortune really changed the outcome of this battle.

I've posted the Tytalus magus (Cassius ex Tytalus) to the wiki:
http://andorra.wikidot.com/cassius-ex-tytalus

He never got to fight with swords. I was hoping for that back at the house. He was pretty good at Single Weapon and had at least one surprise up his sleeve. He's close in experience to Roberto (a little less, I think, but not by much). He doesn't have Roberto's Life-Linked advantage, but he does have a focus in dispelling. He's built to follow Roberto's tactics of hit 'em early with a Lancea Magica and then follow up with damage spells. His primary damage spells are The Wound that Weeps, the Wound that Aches, and The Wound that Bleeds (same as the other two except for a Heavy Wound), and the Wound that Incapacitates (same except Incapacitating wound). But he should have taken another page from Roberto's book. Instead of wounding Roberto, he should have learned a spell to put Roberto to sleep. :slight_smile:

469

BTW, I didn't find that quote because I was looking to nullify anything. I was trying to think of ways to exploit fast-multicast and wondered why I never thought of it before.
I was plotting future strategy...

  • Improve Mastery of Lancea Magica, learn the Resistance ability so as to double MR against attacks like this in the future. There is a Tractatus on it in our library.
  • Then improve Mastery of Thwarting the Thaumaturgical Threat, learn to Multicast it, and use it as a fast cast multi-defense in situations when his MR is insufficient against an incoming multi-attack.

Then I thought to myself "and you do this? why haven't I been doing this all along?"
So I looked up Mastery for a refresher. And yes, number of multispells possible is up to Mastery +1. Penetration Mastery adds the full Mastery score as a bonus. You cannot exploit Shouts & Eggagerated gestures or go without.
On that last point, I would think that specific Virtues should overcome that. Not sure about further mastery though. Long ago Roberto invented a Flash spell to blind enemies in combat. The level was made higher because it is designed without words and gestures. That was so he could fast cast it while weilding arms and without alerting the enemy as to his magical nature.

But I really like the idea of a new Fast-Multicast special ability.

470

One thing I've learned from this fight is the true importance of Lancea Magica. It really is the game-ender in a wizard battle. Once Parma is down it's largely a question of initiative to see who can take their enemy down first.

It does lead to the question of why more combat magi don't know the spell. It seems a no-brainier to cast that spell first off in any wizard battle.

471

Oh, and FWIW, way back when Rilcheaux tried to use Posing the Silent Question on Cassius, he had his Parma up. That's why the spell didn't work. Rilcheaux's ring doesn't have penetration.

That's also what put the bad guys on alert. All Cassius knew was that someone had tried a spell on him that bounced. But that was enough for him to know that there were now magi involved who were interested in his movements.

472

Perhaps it is because not all combat magi are Flambeaux of the Knights of Seneca (lineage of Delendos)?
As for a defense, I calculate that Resistance Mastery will quickly render that spell inefficient.
Keep in mind that this is not the true Lancea Magica. I borrowed that name from Societates, where it was used in reference to some greak breakthrough mystery Flambeau created/was working on. I wonder what the effects of that would be. Multiply Penetration without an AC maybe?

As for Delendos, he and Delendar have been returned to Ars Magica cannon. Originally Delendar was Reculed's Master, the founder took the nomme de guer Flambeau after Reculed was killed, and Delendar was one of his only two surviving followers (the other being Apromor.
Fifth edition cannon, I have my issues, but in the Val-Negra chapter of Faith & Flame I was able to add those two back. Delendar was Flambeau's mentor and founded Val-Negra, and Delendos was his apprentice and joined Flambeau after the founding.
Cannon again :slight_smile:
I like to mix the old and new. I cannot unburn what was burned. Fire is unforgiving. But I can build upon the ashes of both stories and create something new that honors both.

So what about my resolution? And a ruling on Fast-Multi Casting? Once I put this guy to sleep, my next move is to cast "PeIg5 Touch of Winter" repeatedly to drain him of Fatigue. Mastered spell, can be multicast, and Ignem is still Roberto's ace specialty. Learning the voice ranged version from RAW comes next. Should have been doing that all along. The only reason he has the lesser version was to use up the leftovers of a high lab total in a previous project long ago. And he also lacked the relevant Lab Text at that time. But the Andorra library has it :slight_smile:. The library has many resources Roberto has never had the opportunity to enjoy before. And I am slacking on using them!

473

My bad. I just noticed you responded way earlier and I must have missed it. Allow me to read and digest before I respond again.

474

Why is he using Corus to resist a Mentem spell? And I think you should be able to silently fast cast with Deft Form, just not Multi-Fast. Though the letter of the rules suggests you cannot do either.
And Roberto's tactics are not "break mr and deal damage". In fact, I think this is the first time he has ever cast this spell in-game. But anyway, the plan was (and worked out to be) "break MR and immobilize without damage". I don't know how much trouble we are in for what we have done. But I am confident that this guy will keep it personal and not Q business, so long as we leave him uncrippled and not hurt too badly.

475

Okay, read and re-read, and well digested. The scene is as set: Bad Guy asleep, Roberto wounded and winded, but not as bad off as he feared. A few cracked ribs (MW), a black eye (LW), and a gash accross his leg (LW).
The crowd gathers below. Roberto hears them muttering. Looking to the sky, he waves randomly trying to signal Diego in.
Then he thought projects.
[color=red]Cidito! Stay where you. I might need to home in on you to evacuate. Tell Lucas I have been in a fight and neutalized an enemy.
Then Roberto will steal stuff from the guy. Whatever loose and easy to take. His sword? Need to be quick. Need a solid AC.
As soon as Diego arrives, hopefully quick, Roberto tells him the plan.
[color=red]Cover me while I turn invisible. Then fly to the Target house and back up Lucas. Here, take this sword. I will teleport out of here and let this guy deal with the public

476

"Understood" replies Diego. "If I may, we will risk another immediate confrontation by not further incapacitating him. Could you manage the sleep effect to be re-cast as a Ring?"

477

[color=red]I can cast Multicast Touch of Winter and sap him of all energy.
I will roll this up in a bit.

478

Okay, with a base Casting score of 22, an Injury Penalty of -5, and an Aura penlty of -3; I am rolling a die +14. With that breathing room, I shall have Roberto take the precaution of using Quiet Guestures as to not wake him. A further -5 for a total of a die +9. Then minus level 5, plus 2x3 Penetration, equals Penetration Total of a die +10
With a multicast mastery of 1, he casts twice per round. He will start off with a single, then a double and another double.
Typing out code is a giant pain. I made five rolls. Code numbers...
131657 = 8 (=18)
131658 = 3 (=13)
131659 = 9 (=19)
131660 = 8 (=18)
131663 = 5 (=15)

Then once settled, he turns invisible. This one I should type out.
1d10=1
then
1d10
for 20.
+13 Casting Score, -5 -Injury, -3 Aura, equals 25.

479

Because I'm a dingbat who wasn't paying attention to the Form of that spell.

[hr][/hr]
[color=orange]Which is it you want, Cidito quips back when Roberto gives him his instructions. [color=orange]Stay here or warn Lucas? Remember you called me away from Horus to help you defeat that magus. How did that go, by the way?

[color=orange]I can either go back to Horus and pass on the message or stay here and wait for you. By the way 'here' is now downstairs at the inn. That soldier bolted as soon as you disappeared. I followed him downstairs, but when he ran out of the inn I didn't go any farther. I did scent mark him before he left, though, so I can find him again if you need me to. You want me to go back to the room?

Then Roberto turns his attention to the sleeping magus. The man doesn't have a sword, just a long dagger. But that's close enough. Roberto takes that and passes it on to Diego. The energy sapping spells go off without a hitch, and now the magus is well and truly out. Between his burns, the sleep spell, and the lack of energy, he's not going to be getting up anytime soon without significant help.

But as he casts his spells, Roberto can't help but feel the eyes upon him. People from the street and people in windows of nearby buildings. An uncomfortably large group of people are watching Roberto as he deals with the sleeping magus. That's why it's with great relief that he turns himself invisible, though he can't help but wonder what the wathching people will make of that.

Meanwhile, back at the house:

A short time has passed, but Rilcheaux and Vibria haven't settled on a course of action yet. Lucas is overdue from his surveilance of the house, though not by much. The real quesiton is what to do about it. As they quietly discuss the matter in an alleyway near the house, a pretty blonde woman enters the alley and walks toward them. "Hello," she says in Latin. "My name is Flavia. Lucas just rescued me from captivity in that house across the way. He said you are allies of his."

"She was being imprisoned in the garret," Lucas' voice adds, revealing that he's around somewhere. "That's what took me so long. Apparently she knows what's going on here, though she says that she'll only talk to Santiago. She's still not sure that this isn't an elaborate ploy by her captors to trick information out of her."

"I apologize if you're really working with Santiago," she says. "But what I know is too important to give Darius even a chance of learning more than he already does, which I fear is too much already."

[hr][/hr]
OOC: I apologize for the delay with things at the house. But I didn't want the house part to get too far ahead of the battle at the inn.

480

[color=red]Got my ass kicked, but I was fortuneate enough to pull through by the skin of my teeth.
It seems I have drawns a lot of attention so no one should be watching you. Head back up to the room. I will join you shortly.
...
Roberto hands Diego the blade and tells him the plan. Then he chills the BG and turns himself invisible. And so, unseen abd with the guy out cold, Roberto quickly checks for anything more substantial to snatch. A ring? His side bag? Anything?
I should make an Awareness roll.
Then to exit, he will home in on Cidito using Wizard's Leap. Well Mastered and cast calmly while invisible.