Aodhan ex Verditius

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Canaries Are Dying
1

Name: Aodhan (pronounced OOGHan) Birth Name: Aodhan MacFhearghuis
House: Verditius Age: 23 Size 0 Confidence: 1/3 Warping: -/- Decrepitude: 0/0 Gender: Male Year Born: Race/Nationality: Scottland Place of Origin: Loch Leglan Tribunal Religion: Christian Title/Profession: Magus Height: 5’7” Weight: 165 Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Handedness: Right

Characteristics:
Int +5 Str +1 Pre 0 Dex +1
Per+1 Sta +2 Comm +1 Quick 0

Virtues:
Hermetic Magus Free
The Gift Free
Verditius Magic Free
Inventive Genius Minor
Puissant Craft (Blacksmithing) Minor
Puissant Craft (Jeweller) Minor
Increased Characteristics x2 Minor
Great Characteristic x2 Minor
Method Caster Minor
Skilled Parens Minor
Puissant Magic Theory Minor

Flaws:
Difficult Spontaneous Magic Minor
Chaotic Magic Major
Tormenting Master Major
Infamous Master (Mystery of Himinis the Mad) Minor
Oversensitive (Slights against craftsmanship) Minor
Bound Casting Tools Minor

Skills:
Native Language: Scots Gaelic 5 (Crafting terms)
Folk Ken 2 (Craftsmen)
Awareness 2 (Flaws in craftsmanship)
Brawl 2 (Punch)
Artes Liberales: 1 (Geometry)
Latin: 4 (Hermetic usage)
Magic Theory: 3+2 (Enchanting Items)
Parma: 1 (Mentem)
Bargain 3 (Magic Items)
Leadership 2 (Craftsmen)
Craft: Jewelry 3+2 (Gem setting)
Craft: Blacksmithing 3+2 (Weapons)
Philosophiae 3 (Verditius Runes)

Personality Traits:
Perfectionist +1
Eccentric +2
Brave +1

Magic Sigil: The smell of iron

Voting Sigil: Right triangle, engraved with runes

Arts:
Cr 4 An 4 Ig 4
In 4 Aq Im
Mu 4 Au Me 4
Pe 4 Co 4 Te 4
Re 4 He 4 Vi 4

Spells
Scales of the Magical Weight InVi 5 (+13) Pan from a balance
Sense the Nature of Vis InVi 5 (+13) Jeweler’s lens
Gather the Essence of the Beast ReVi 15 (+13) Pliers
The Miner’s Keen Eye InTe 20 (+13) Miner’s hat with candle
Touch of Midas CrTe 20 (+13) Hammer for striking coins
The Spell of Wrought Iron ReTe 15 (+13) Smithing hammer
The Phantom Blacksmith ReTe 20 (+13) Smithing hammer
The Crystal Dart MuTe 10 (+13) A wand of ash
The Chirurgeon’s Healing Touch CrCo 20 (+13) A carved piece of Amber
Aura of Rightful Authority ReMe 20 (+13) A small carved scepter

Here is my character, post Gauntlet, I still have some developing to do. One thing I'd need to know is if Inner Mysteries are available, and if so how would they be done. I've suggested that for Minor Mysteries using the script in the book it takes 2 Seasons (losing 20 xp) plus acquiring any imposed Flaws. For Major Mysteries then 3 Seasons (lose all xp) and acquiring flaws if any.

Aodhan (OOGHan) might be one of the smartest person in any room, but his mannerisms and shyness tend to downplay this a bit. He's on the run from his Mater, a notorious follower of Himinis who believes that his filius that he was once so proud of, now claims that he stole his secrets. Aodhan is trying to find a Covenant that will appreciate his brilliance and craftsmanship and eye for detail. His magic style is that of a generalist, allowing him to create any number and variety of items, though he tends to prefer to forge items or make jewelry...so a rich covenant would also be important.

2

Aodhan is pronounced EEY-ahn. When Anglicised it became Aidan, but in the original Gaelic the "dh" sounds like a subtle long i, and "ao" sounds like a short i.

3

Really? The website I went to had it pronounced OOGHan: namenerds.com/scottish/gaelicdude.html

EEY-ahn works too though.

4

Year Born (if he's 23) would be 1199? And did you want him Irish or Scottish?

Not familiar with that Mystery...where's it from?

Also....interesting combination of Parens V/F, there. Is his infamy stemming from his Mystery, or something else?

5

Darn it! I thought I corrected the nationality. I'll fix that, he's Scottish. As for year born, it will be 30 years before the game starts, I'll be posting the 7 post years in just a bit.

The Mystery of Himinis the Mad is the Mystery of making cursed and trapped items/effects. That's in the Mystery Houses book page 131, the Confraternity of Himinis the Mad is on page 122. They have a bad reputation among the House and the Order as wizards of all Houses may have run afoul of them. Aodhan's parens is a member of that Confraternity, but also has rumours of meddling with the Scottish Clans and nobility. Having said that, he was an excellent master and did an excellent job teaching Aodhan, but his paranoia got the better of him post Gauntlet, and that's when he started going after him.

6

Here is Aodhan 7 years after Gauntlet. He had 5 years of advancements then 2 years in the lab.

Name: Aodhan Birth Name: Aodhan MacFhearghuis
House: Verditius Age: 30 Size 0 Confidence: 1/3 Warping: -/- Decrepitude: 0/0 Gender: Male Year Born: Race/Nationality: Scottish Place of Origin: Loch Leglan Tribunal Religion: Christian Title/Profession: Magus Height: 5’7” Weight: 165 Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Handedness: Right

Characteristics:
Int +5 Str +1 Pre 0 Dex +1
Per+1 Sta +2 Comm +1 Quick 0

Virtues:
Hermetic Magus Free
The Gift Free
Verditius Magic Free
Inventive Genius Minor
Puissant Craft Minor Smithing
Puissant Craft Minor Jeweler
Increased Characteristics x2 Minor
Great Characteristic x2 Minor
Method Caster Minor
Skilled Parens Minor
Puissant Magic Theory Minor

Flaws:
Difficult Spontaneous Magic Minor
Chaotic Magic Major
Tormenting Master Major
Infamous Master (Mystery of Himinis the Mad) Minor
Oversensitive (Slights against craftsmanship) Minor
Bound Casting Tools Minor

Skills:
Native Language: Scots Gaelic 5 (Crafting terms)
Folk Ken 2 (Craftsmen)
Awareness 2 (Flaws in craftsmanship)
Brawl 2 (Punch)
Artes Liberales: 1 (Geometry)
Latin: 4 (Hermetic usage)
Magic Theory: 3+2 (Enchanting Items)
Parma: 1 (Mentem)
Bargain 3 (Magic Items)
Leadership 2 (Craftsmen)
Craft: Jewelry 3+2 (Gem setting)
Craft: Blacksmithing 3+2 (Weapons)
Philosophiae 3 (Verditius Runes)
Verditian Cult Lore 3 (Acting as Mystagogue)
Finesse 3 (Crafting with Magic)

Personality Traits:
Perfectionist +1
Eccentric +2
Brave +1

Magic Sigil: The smell of iron

Voting Sigil: Right triangle, engraved with runes

Arts:
Cr 5/5 An 4 Ig 4
In 5/5 Aq 4 Im 4
Mu 5/5 Au 4 Me 4
Pe 5/5 Co 4 Te 4
Re 5/5 He 4 Vi 5/5

XP Break down per year:
1: 30 xp on Cult Lore
2: 10 xp on Im, 10 xp on Aq, 10 xp on Au
3: 30 xp on Finesse
4: 10 xp on Cr, 10 xp on In, 10 xp on Mu
5: 10 xp on Pe, 10 xp on Re, 10 xp on Vi

7

If it's Irish, I'm sure. If it's Scots Gaelic, I have no clue.

Remember, these are the folks who spell Molly Sullivan "Mallaidh Suilleabhain." headdesk You know how Cymric looks like someone radomly pulled tiles from a Scrabble bag with only consonants? Gaelic is what happened to all the extra vowel tiles the Welsh threw away.

8

Items made by Aodham in Years 6 and 7 past Gauntlet

Vulcan’s Anvil Season 1 open item for enchantment: Base Metal, Medium size 15 pawns. Magic Theory 4 (+2), -5 pawns for Craft. Magic Theory x2 = 8 + 2 for Puissant MT. Enchantment opened in Season 1.

ReTe Lab total: 5 Int + 6 MT + 3 Inventive Genius +3 Aura + 5 Craft + 4 Philosophaie + 2 (Max) Shape and Material bonus + 5 Rego + 4 Terram = 37

Vulcan’s Anvil Season 2
The Phantom Blacksmith ReTe 20 Uses per day 24 total level 25 (Covenants page 51)
Lab Total: 42 (+5 for similar spell) 17 levels accumulated

Vulcan’s Anvil Season 3
Lab Total: 42 (+5 for similar spell) 17 levels accumulated, item effect completed 3 pawns of vis

Vulcan’s Anvil Season 4
Cleave the Hardest Stone: Allows the user to accurately cleave or cut gemstones, improving the jeweler’s craft and reducing the time.

ReTe Base 3 (control dirt in a very unnatural fashion) +2 for Gemstones, +2 for Precision Range: Touch +1 Duration: Momentary 0 Target: Individual 0 Total 20
Uses per day 24 +5
Total item effect 25
Lab Total 38 (+1 for similar TeFo in item already) First season 13 Levels

Vulcan’s Anvil Season 5 (year 7) Lab Total 38 Second season 13 Levels, Item effect finished 3 Pawns of vis

Year 7, Season 2 in lab

Traveler’s Comfortable Sleep: A bedroll that softens the rock and earth beneath it as soft as a feather bed. Lesser Enchanted Device
MuTe Base 3 R: Touch +1 Duration Sun +2 Target Individual 0 1 use per day
Total 10 1 pawn of Vis (lab total is 21 before Arts are even added)

Year 7 Season 3 in lab
Boots that Leave no Trace: While walking over mud, dirt, vegetation or snow, the wearer produces no footprints. It is not a constant effect, Aodham reckoned that perhaps sometimes (like when needing to lead a group or in case of rescue) it might be an advantage to leave footprints. In reality he just didn’t have enough of a lab total to make it as a lesser enchanted device if he gave it a constant effect.
ReTe Base 2 (move dirt in a slightly unnatural fashion) +2 for 2 Requisites R: Touch +1 Duration Sun +2 Target Individual 0 Base: 15 2 uses per day +1 Total effect level = 16
Lab Total 32 (21+5 Rego + 4 Terram +2 shape bonus for Boots [walking])
Lesser Enchanted Item 2 pawns of vis

Year 7 Season 4 in the lab
Hat of Duck Feathers: While wearing the hat the user makes a quack sound and receives protection from the rain and water much as a duck or goose, including his clothes and worn or carried possessions. Note, this is not a ward but actually mimics the duck’s ability to shed water, so water will touch the person but not get them wet.
MuCo Base 2 (Requisites Animal, Herbam, Terram) +2 Requisites (Animal is free per Eyes of the Cat) R: Touch +1 D: Sun +2 T: Individual 0
2 Uses per day +1 Total: 16
Lab Total: 32 (21 + 9 TeFo + hat with duck feather in brim [+2 shed water]) Lesser Enchanted Item 2 pawns of Vis.

9

My headache was almost gone until I laughed so hard I went into a coughing jag.

I've always thought written Welsh was something they invented to trap spies. They'd go "Here, read this," and when the guy (probably English) couldn't, they had him dead to rights.

And for what it's worth, the Academy of Saint Gabriel has a couple of different pronunciations, including AY-ahn (in Irish) and #gh-ahn (where # represents a vowel that doesn't exist in English; you can produce it by trying to say \oo\ (as in ) with your lips positioned as if you were saying \ee) and "gh" is the voiced version of the rasping sound in the Scottish word or the German . Too bad we can't go back with recorders to see how they actually said pronounced things.

10

We'll go with OOGhan. I took the name because it was based off a Celtic fire god.

11

PB, that's probably accounting for the Ulster regional dialect-- where the gh dipthong is a glottal cough, and not a hard G sound as per English.

Will confirm whenever Aoife (that's EE-fa, for the record) decides to respond to her texts.

12

All this name-talking is making my eyes bleed

Hum... I'm thinking, since you use Rego to cut this, this must be Rego craft, isn't it? Doing a skilled artisan's work in a moment and all that.

In which case, since your arts scores are so similar, shouldn't you instead to this as PeTe effect?
Based on "Gleam of the Freshly-Polished Glass", you don't even need a free creo requisite :unamused:
This'd be Base 5, +1 touch, +1 Part. Add maybe a + 1 for precision if you want fine cut, this must be the same level if I'm right. But you won't need any finesse roll at all :smiley:

Just my 2 cents, of course.

13

Why don't you call him Peter?

14

I based it off of Rego because of the precision and the tendency for Perdo to only make things worse, so I kept it simple, plus he gets a bonus for the TeFo for similar effect. My hope is to incorporate the item into the lab for some overall bonuses on labwork using the Covenants guidelines. I need to come up with some more effects for this though.

15

Oh that's it! Certamen!

16

Agree on perdo, which is why I was all :unamused: about "Gleam of the Freshly-Polished Glass", which is a pretty similar effect.
What worries me is that, as this is craft magic, the ease factor would probably be pretty high, so I sought other solutions...

17

Agree about Perdo, which is why I was all :unamused: about "Gleam of the Freshly-Polished Glass" :wink:
Seems that, more than once, Legacy trumps Arts redefining... :confused:

What worried me is that, as you're actually doing a craftman's work through Rego, you'd have to face a pretty high ease factor, so I sought solutions to that...
Now, if all you care about is the lab bonus, who cares if all these gems are badly cut! :laughing: This should work all the same :smiley:

EDIT: OTOH, you could take my effect, and add a Creo free requisite. This has the added benefit that further Pe or Cr effects would get bonuses.

18

There's a lot of assumed skill when it comes to Verditian craftsmanship. If they enchant an item from raw materials as it says in the book they can do things an ordinary craftsman couldn't, presumably that's done without either the Craft skill or Finesse being used, since they don't mention it.

But yes, the main application is to improve on the lab functions with efficiency and eve safety, as metals wouldn't need to be made hot to shape them. Still need a few more enchantments though, there's like 90 levels of effects he can still add.

19

Maybe a CrIg effect to smelt metals? Or a MuTe one to make them supple and maleable?

20

I developed a CrIg application, but it seemed superfluous for metal work when he could use the Phantom Blacksmith. Plus he can still make a crucible and enchant it and get that as a feature as well. Destroying things might be a decent idea. Something like a strong Perdo Vim for destroying items maybe. But that might be wasteful. If he gets the reforging Mystery he can always render them down and collect the vis. I'll keep thinking of stuff for it. When it comes to improving the lab I'm a big fan of incorporating items.