A young Magus who would not have even been in the area if the Covenant had not been made so welcoming and friendly.
Bob Dillon
Spot on Mr Dillon.
And the blame-game can start:
"But honored Tribunal, all my effort was for building a comfortable spot for Redcaps to stay, but how should I know the hospitality was to be abused as a base for so delinquent actions? Should we not stop being hospitable? Should we stop improving the conditions for the Order's messengers? No I tell you. Never! But about that dragon..."
Maybe a side business in selling "Hunting license for supernatural creatures"... but it might fall in the area of not alienating supernatural beings which could endager my sodales or the Order.
I think the best choice would be putting the creature back to sleep for a period of time longer than a century. It would be better on the magic auras and such (is it a magic creature? If it's from some other realm things change).
Barring that, Andreva has some tools that can be used for dragon hunting.
She has spells (Sounding the Bones of Atlas, Mystical Quarry Workers, Stones of Formic Discipline and others) to engineer rock falls capable of squishing any creature with tons of of purely mundane rock.
Indolent Duelist of Vilano can do a sizable amount of damage while bypassing magic resistance.
She can erect a screen of defending swords that temporarily make her nearly immune to mundane attack (Turb of Insubstantial Shield Grogs)
However both she and her screen of swords may be removed by a well placed blast of fire (her parma probably won't go higher than 6 by year 45).
Another issue is both her magic to locate the Dragon and her transportation magics are both pretty rudimentary.
Since all of the characters are learning a wizard's communion type spell in the 31-45 time period might it make sense to penetrate with an intangible tunnel type spell and some deadly or "go back to sleep" magics pumped up by an arcane connection and sympathetic connections.
As a second, less safe, choice, a quick and dirty manner of dealing with the dragon would be as thus:
We have lots of masonry magic and the ability to build walls very quickly, Andreva has a spell that can see through limited amounts of stone.
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We use our magic to wall the dragon in its lair.
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We observe as the dragon tears its way through the tremendous amount of rock that we've sealed him or her in with.
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As the dragon sticks its head out of the wall we drop a rock the size of a house on said head from 30 meters up.
This plan requires that the dragon not outsmart the magi (potential issue). It also needs the magi to be able to hit with the rock reliably (probably not an issue if the dragon isn't using illusions or some similar tactic).
How are everyone with familiars?
Do you expect to bind one? When?
Bausas will probably find and bind a familiar during the last years of the second 15 years block.
It will probably be some form of ape or monkey, as suggested in the box, p. 62 of HoH: MC. Stats will then be taken from Land of the Nile, box on p. 22, except that obviously it becomes intelligent, with Intelligence -3.
Some time may be spent increasing the intelligence of said familiar - would such effects be of interest to anyone else?
Andreva is going to bind a familiar at the end of the second period (year 30-ish). She has already learned Communication of the followers and presence of the followers I was going to have her learn Intelligence of the followers also known as gift of reason to bring her familiar up to intelligence 0 over the course of many years as vis became available.
What effects were you considering? My present understanding is that since the familiar has intelligence it is a valid target for mentem spells and still also a valid target for what you'd call mind affecting animal spells. Is this controversial?
Seems sensible
Ah yes, I had noticed, but haden't connected this with familiars.
I was thinking about creating similar spells, but with T: Circle, for Vis efficiency reasons.
Bausas' lab total at the time would be around 44 IIRC
Absolutely agreed.
Well, my thought has alwyas been that beings are subject to 'mind affecting' effects of either Mentem or[sup]1[/sup] Animal, never both.
Re-reading it, I agree that (because of the word 'only') it could be read either way though
[sup]1[/sup] make that XOR for those familiar with that expression
Andreva's Creo mentem rituals were originally just to deal with her abysmal presence and communication. It would be irrational for her not to take advantage of Bausas' target circle spells instead of spending a season, extra vis, and the effort of obtaining a lab text to do it herself. Is there some additional service that Andreva (or Grace?) could perform for Bausas in compensation?
I share the opinion that a mind is affected by Mentem OR Animal, but not both, so intelligent animals at some point get affected by Mentem instead. (there may be confusing points on the dividing line, such as a bjornaer in human form is Mentem but in heartbeast is Animal).
For a familiar, I plan to take a Remora of Virtue - I took Animal Ken specialising in Fish because I was unsure how to communicate with a fish otherwise.
I'd actually bought the argument, then I made the mistake of looking up the answer:
So that kinda ends that discussion.
I wasn't planning on making Communication boosting rituals, though he could.
Bausas will not be going down that path until the 3rd periode (years 31-45), so there is also the question if Andreva can wait that long?
Probably, but again, I'm not sure what that would be.
What about Janus? Hector?
Perhaps something to help with the CrMe labtotals needed? Devices or assistance in the lab perhaps?
So it does.
No desire for that on her side I was only explaining why she had developed the capacity for the spells in the first place
Andreva only binds Grace in year 30. She'll have a lot of work to do to make a warhorse even fit in her lab in any useful capacity. That would be plenty of time.
When I get done posting Andreva +30 I'll take a closer look at Bausas and see if anything comes to mind.
OK I looked. There aren't a lot of areas where Bausas is weak and Andreva is strong. Bausas at the end of the second period's, best techniques are Rego and and creo the same as Andreva. Bausas has a deficiency in Perdo and so does Andreva.
The biggest complementary area is finess where Andreva is very strong and Bausas is very weak but there aren't a lot of things that can be done to transfer finesse expertise. The only form where Andreva is significantly better than Bausas is terram.
With this in mind, how about a cloak that wards against metal weapons?
I just realised: It costs Bausas literally nothing to have Grace in the circle along with Callidus - and whatever servants and covenafolk might benefit.
Why would he ask for something in return? Bausas likes helping people, and considers enhancing Intelligence (and possibly Presence/Communication) Apt behaviour.
If the target exists (that is, you have a familiar) at the middle of the 3rd block (had to study up on Mentem a bit to invent even the first spell), it can be included in the castings for free.
From Int -3 to Int 0, certainly.
Mind you, someone else will have to deal with that dragon, because Bausas has no applicable skills.
As for that dragon...I don't see Janus having any applicable magic to deal with that. Not yet anyway, but he could spend time making charged devices with huge penetration. His arts are sort of scattered but he could study a bit before going to the lab. He was going to look at Animal anyway, but a PeAn spell requires a size modifier - how large a dragon do we want this to be? Core book page 192 lists +7 for a small dragon, but this one is likely bigger so let's say +8. Might? Might 15 is suitable for young magi and 50 is way legendary, we're probably looking at 40-45 to make it a real threat. Base Ind for Animal is up to Size +1, right? And how much increase per magnitude, +2 ? I think I've been through this before, I think maybe there is precedence for +2 mags being +5 size, so +1 mag is +2 or +3. Blunt the Viper's Fangs is designed with +1 size and stated to affect animals up to size +4, so that extra mag was good for +3 size. So if Janus adds +3 mags to a PeAn spell for size he should be able to affect a size +8 (or at maximum +9) beast following this progression. This spell along with Steed of Vengeance are the only core book Animal spells with size modifiers.
A damage-through-medium spell like CrIg is Soaked so that might suck. What else? Cr Aq (or some other form) for a poison? Would a larger creature require a larger dose of the poison? For purposes of balance I think so.
Are we talking about the dragon being vital for the magic aura of the region and hence a need for it to go back to sleep? A mental effect requires Mentem of the dragon is intelligent or Animal if it is not.And no size modifiers, woot I'm hovering towards unintelligent, because otherwise we could talk to it. The ability to speak is that tied to Intelligence vs Cunning question? Could the dragon speak and understand (simple) words but still think like an animal? "Og mightly dragon we are here to negotiate a peaceful settlement". "Dragon want food and gold!". "Yes we can work something out then?". "Dragon eat you now!". "Oh bugger". [Glomp]
And what about Duration? do we assume the dragon once lulled magically to sleep slips back to its normal hibernation. As long as nothing disturbs it again?
Off hand I see the following plan for Janus: Have his well-eqipped agents scout the area, perhaps boost them with further devices. Ward against Heat and Flames comes to mind here. These could very well be charged devices. And to solve the problem: Create a D:Moon charged device to calm the (unintelligent) dragon down and have a bunch of them om hand to hit it with again when the hunger flares up again. And then work on CrAn spells to bring animals to maturity in a day so we can feed it. Eventually it will be satisfied and go in hibernation again at some point.
I made up a hunger for treasure and trophies (I'm thinking bones and weapons of those he defeats) as well to really make it problematic, what with mundane forces milling about. Perhaps Andreva could do something here? Create shiny objects for it to steal to satisfy this need, hoping it won't notice the loot being gone after a month.
Basuas could perhaps help out using Mentem to stop the mundanes from panicking or doing something unconstructive? Or simply use social skills to negotiate with the nobles before they got to war?
I made up the foreign forces coming by sea to have Hector in his right element.
This storyline was written in a hurry and has no details, names and therefore lacking flavour. I think maybe we should do a bit more about this.
Also, that if the mighty dragon awakening does so slowly but eggs with minor dragons are hatched so to begin with we deal with many adversaries but less dangerous one. I'm thinking Might 15 Size +3 so there is something to battle with but still manageable.
If the dragon is intelligent - we can try negotiating with it, or casting mentem spells.
If the dragon is unintelligent - our Tremere from the Transylvanian tribunal with Animal Ken can try communicating with it.
If unintelligent (i.a. has Cunning) we could cast mind-affecting Animal spells, sort of like how we could use Mentem for the intelligent dragon.
Which is more fun?
Do we have any of the magi who has a good Mentem score? Janus is fair at Animal, but intends to study it a bit during the first years of year 31-45. Could be fun if the wyrms are more animal like and the dragon intelligent - after all if it is an almost legendary creature it stands to reason it is not just an animal. It can still be driven by animal-instincts concerning it's lust for gold, cattle, weapon and armour trophies, young maidens etc. and struggle to control these base desires. Story wise it could be interesting to have it be intelligent enough to try and negotiate with and try to help it - perhaps by Mentem magics - control the hunger and lust for raiding and eventually lull it to sleep again once the hunger is sated. The dragon can at times be in control and be an intelligent party to parley with, and at other times it can't control the hunger.
Janus may invent spells to quickly grow our herds of cattle so we have something to bribe it with. And also a Perdo Animal wand to cause Medium wounds or so, which can be used to hurt and drive off the dragon when it becomes uncontrollable in its animal-like state. Given enough minor wounds even a lame kitchen boy with a dull knife can kill a dragon.
I have plenty of ideas here for Janus. Also for fighting the smaller wyrms and protecting grogs and scouts.
What about Hector and the mundane forces? I threw in the foreign forces coming by seas to really cater to his area of expertise.
What would Andreva do? The wyrms are small potatoes to her. The big dragon she might want to protect herself against using lab text from Janus for a beefed up version of Ward against Heat and Flames.
Basuas? Deal with the mundanes? Help avoiding panic etc? Janus intends to work with magic to enhance animal resources which can be used to help (or bribe) the mundanes to recuperate quicker from a wyrm attack.
Bausas is getting decent at Mentem, i not exactly awesome at it.
Janus is merely Grounded in Mentem, he has had no use for it yet.
My fingers are really itching to get going with the next 15 years. Because I use Metacrator and go year-by-year I haven't started yet, just been planning loosely.
Barring any (major) objections I'm going to re-write the storyline for years 31-45 with a few names plus the old dragon as described just before, as intelligent with instinct driven lapses. I'll try to refrain from using joke-names i.e. the treasure hunting magus who wakes the dragon will not be called Pocus Aroundus.
I should have some free time this afternoon/evening.