Anulus Connectens: Bausas

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Bausas was born 6th son to a minor noble family in the south of europe.
At the time there was 3 older living borthers and while he was afforded a decent education, there was little prospect that he would inherit the family lands.
Instead he was given an education so that he might perhaps advance his family's ambitions within the church.
This seemed like a better choice both for the sake of peaceful inheritance and for the brilliant but physically weak boy.

His family still believe Bausas died as a child, killed by falling rocks. Obviously this is not the case. His master engineered the collapsing cliff face and made sure the Gifted child was save, to serve as his apprentice.

Apprenticed at age 10, Bausas was refused his Gauntlet until 16 years had passed, for reasons his master refused to explain. Since Bausas did not contest it, no Quesitor cared much about it.

Bausas still practices with a staff from time to time, more for the exercise than because he expects to ever wield it in anger.

Bausasis a friendly sort who likes to talk with people - magi and mundanes alike. He believes that his house will loose sources of understanding if they simply isolate themselves in closed clutches, which is also the reason he has chosen to "wander the world" as he calls ii, living in a mixed covenant.

Bausas occasionally has premonitions about upcomming dangers. He attributes this to his other incarnations (prior or later) trying to warn him across the gulf of Circular Time. The Truth of this is secondary.

For this character it is not only encouraged, it is the whole point really :slight_smile:

2

Most newly apprenticed Criamon would not be disfigured by their stigmata. That usually happens through initiation, but at very least over time as Enigmatic Wisdom grows past 4. Also, already having this Flaw presents problems for Initiations. Depending on a Path being chosen, Deficient Perdo might also be problematic for Initiations, but that's not really a problem as written.

3

Well if you want us to object you're going to have to present something more objectionable. :slight_smile:

You don't have a specialization for premonitions
um.. your virtues and flaws aren't in alphabetical order?

4

If you want nitpicking...Stamina +3 seems odd on a character described as physically weak.

And giving Privileged Upbringing to a magus annoys the optimizer in me; Skilled Parens is just better, and instinctively I feel like choosing the weaker option is going to cause a balance problem. Which is a non-issue here, but still...

5

Valid argument.
I will change this to Clumsy Magic right away.

Not a problem with Path of the Body as far as I can see. but thank you for the attention.

Very good then.

EDIT: Suggested corrections added to initial post.

6

Fair enough. I see him as one of those frail-looking, tough-as-nails dried up people who will keep going no matter what you throw at them, but he's far from bulging with muscles.
Perhaps I should correct the descrption?

I thought abut it, but since I explicitly wanted the wealthy upbringing, not the powerful master, it had to be Priviledged Upbringing, despite it probably being the most restrictive virtue of it's kind.

7

I wasn't actually serious about virtue and flaw alphabetization. :blush:

8

I assumed not, but since in Metacreator it's about 2 mouse clicks, it seemed like a good joke :wink:

9

No, you're fine there. The Path of Walking Backward would have an issue.

10

To be a further stickler I do believe the ArM Line lists The Gift and Social Status first among the Virtues, followed by major Virtues alphabetically and finally minor ones alphabetically. For Flaws again start with Social Status and then major before minor, all alphabetically. :wink:
Unfortunate not an option for sorting in Metacrator.

As for the +3 Stamina this could represent strong will and endurance through these means rather than anything physical.

As for having Gentle Gift and wanting to speak with people this is obviously made very challenging by Stigmata. That's great, will we see some creative solutions for this?

11

Bausas has spent some amount of time trying to deal with ordinary people's dislike of tattoos, and thus of Criamon Stigmata.

One solution would be Disguise of the New Visage as Corpus is easy and practical. But this is not an Apt action, and indeed Bausas discovered that (in his version of the spell), the Stigmata would "bleed through" and manifest on whatever face he'd adopt, as clearly as on his own. Clearly, that's 2 strikes against, and not the solution Bausas will use.

Option two involves the commonly known spell Disguise of the Transformed Image (MuIm 15). This works, in the sense that Stigmata do not "bleed through". However, it still conceals the Stigmata, like he was embarassed about his markings. Is this Apt behaviour?

After some pondering, Bausas has come up with a different solution

This is essentially a slight modification of Trust Me (HoH: TL, p. 73), invented from first principles.

Comments?

12

That's a great idea for a Criamon!
I know a specific spell is good design, could you make this slightly more diverse to cover any physical aspect of the caster? Such as limp, hair lip, scruffiness, etc?
I'd also consider Voice and Diameter too just in case shorter duration is ok for targets you want to alter before meeting?

13

I think that this qualifies as proper for criamon philosophy. I like it.

14

Thanks. I suspect I will end up with fewer original designs than Erik or Christian, but hopefully Apt ones. :wink:

To be honest, that could be done very easily, but I was planning to use MuVi ("Cosmetic Change" parameter) to deal with that.

If no-one objects to the design, I suspect there will end up being a whole series of them

That really was/is the crux here.

15

Bausas, after 15 years:

Effectively, 7 years was spent on Arts, 5 years on abilities, and 3 years in the lab, including creating Longevity Rituals for himself and for Andreva.

Bausas has experienced 2 Twilight episodes, both of which he managed to control.
I had my better half roll for it, to be certain.
For both Twilight episodes, I chose Minor Virtues, as being probaly the least disruptive option.

16

Never Mind Those is your only new spell?

17

Yes :frowning:
It turns out I'm so busy trying to think 'Criamon' that I'm not very creative, sadly.

18

I just noticed that this guideline specifies that it heal s a single Light Wound.
Since it heals (repairs) rather than bring something new into existence, this guideline should be usable with T: Circle - but what happens then?

A Circle is drawn around a group of humans (valid Corpus targets) with light wounds.

  1. A single Light Wound is healed from a single individual within the circle (Heals a Light Wound).
  2. A single Light Wound is healed from each individual within the circle (please explain)
  3. All Light Wounds within the circle is healed - regardless of distribution across individuals (Circle trumphs all)
  4. Other (please explain)

I did not expect this spell would be in any way controversial, but then I noticed the actual guideline.

EDIT: Request for further information

19

The effect is as your option 2, imo.

20

But why?