Chapter Three OOC: Not in Kansas anymore

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Phoenix - Rise from the A
101

Yes and no.

If you're attuned to the realm in question, you don't suffer warping (Corebook p168), so we're safe from that.

On the other hand, our clothes and the environment aren't, so any place with an aura higher than 5 will probably be far from normal, even if we discard awakened trees and such. For that reason, I'm not sure the magi will feel comfortable living in such an aura, as it may bring about as much trouble as what it's worth (story hooks)

This should go even faster than this.
Cygna can quickly spot potential sites from the air, at least in terms of mundane ressources. Once that's done, all we have to do is travel by foot there and investigate some more.

Really, we are lucky: Cygna saves us an awful lot of time in all things (and her animal ken will probably be a boon), viscaria will be priceless to establish a home and mundane ressources (she can do steel!!! this is unvaluable!!!) and Hiems can spont a lot of spells, hopefully with ring/circle parameters.

Yup, that's what they are (if viscaria comes along hiems) doing right now, while cygna is, as far as I'm aware, scouting the island from above.

Hiems doesn't care at all about this, unless it gives him more work, so he'll say nothing.

No

At least Hiems can help with that.

We'll need to find a hard surface, such as stone. Then, if someone (viscaria, probably) can engrave an indestructible circle (so as it is not destroyed by some random animal) into it (possibly with PeTe), he'll be able to create the following enchantments:

Using ceremonial casting and Life-Linked Spont Magic, he'll try to create the following enchantments:

  • a "Circle of Eternal Fire". He'll do this at some distance from his sodales, in case he botches:
    CrIg 15
    Base 4 (fire doing +5 dam), touch +1, circle +2, ring +0
    This circle contains a fire that burns as long as the cirle persists
    Cr 5 + Ig 6 + Sta 2 + Aura 3 (assuming the "minimum") + 2 Artes Liberales + 2 Philosophiae = 20 - 3 summer (It is summer here, isn't it? Or do I count winter?) = 17 + 1d10=1 woot!, 1d10=2 oh = 21/2 = 10. Spending 1 more fatigue gets it to 15 :smiley:

  • a "Circle of Stomacal Purification"
    PeCo 15
    Base 4 (between superficial damage, which could be appropriate, since it destroys hair, and destroy a corpse. I'm giving myself a magnitud of safety vs the GM :wink:), +1touch, + 2 circle, +0 ring
    This circle enchantment destroys any shit into it. This is our latrines ^^
    Pe 10 + Co 5 + Sta 2 + Aura 3 (assuming the "minimum") + 2 Artes Liberales + 2 Philosophiae = 24 - 3 summer (same as before) = 21 + 1d10=9 = 30. Woot! I spont this without any additonnal fatigue! :smiley:
    We can set up a chair above it, and here we go!!!

I'd suggest we use similar methods as much as possible, since it'll save us a lot of potential botches. We should be able to engrave a circle in a large enough stone we'll dump in the ocean to catch up fish. Maybe the same thing with land animals!!!
Hiems at least will limit his casting to the maximum, save for formulaics he can cast without stress (such as his Warm Aliments and Wizard's Leap spells, which he's the most susceptible to use).

Hiems second sight comes from free due to his faerie blood, like viscaria's.
So they both can see in the dark :smiley:

(more later)

102

I thought about the PeCo Circle for a dunny afterwards , when i went back to bed at 4am.
However , unless we are all paranoid about Arcane Connections ,
poopies is good for our garden plot and urine has household/craft and possibly alchemical uses.

103

We are even luckier than that. Helena is one of the few magi who actually memorized Aegis.

And we have Berengeur and Serrano to get us home.

Think abouut it. Easiest way to get back to Europe is gonna be by faerie trods. Serranno makes exsquisite clothing, which we can bribe fae lords with. Berengeur can fight down any who aren"t vain.

Not to mention that Serrano can talk to all the plants to find out what is edible and what makes a good seasoning.

104

I'm beginning to think that we wandered into a House Tytalus Gauntlet by mistake.

105

Awareness (Alertness) 05 , Perception: +02
Clothier (Embroidery) 05 , Dexterity: +02
Finesse roll for magically created clothing is much higher.

106

The bathroom spell is elegant - circle spells can be so useful!
Aura 5 unless I tell you differently.
I'll deal with botches in little texts in the other thread.

I'm glad to see you seem to be enjoying yourselves. :smiley:
You can roll if you are sure you want to do something - I suggest using this thread for planning, and real actions happen in the other thread (you have plenty of good, and a very few less than perfect ideas - but unless you post there it is hard for me to tell plans from actions). Obviously, after Cygna's flight, you spend most of the day discussing how to go on (probably in the cave, because it rains from 2-5. Sunset will be at around 6ish. There is no need to hurry in the other thread: When the others come back from their seasonal vacation, they might be disappointed to find a completely built covenant.
But there may be some things you want to know for sure quickly (Is the water at a site poisonous? Is this creature easy to kill? Does my spell work? Can I talk to birds?).

By the way, even when you were creating your characters, I was impressed how well-prepared they would be for such a story.

107

Interesting question.
It may need to penetrate. I don't know.

Hiems is very impressed by Viscaria's abilities. And her ideas seems fine to him. So long as he's got a personnal space for the times when he wants to be alone (that is, often), he'll be content, but that plan sounds very sound to him.

Until that's done, he'll sleep slightly appart from the others, and often wander the surroundings of the camp alone whenever he feels bad.

:open_mouth:
Yeah for Helena!!! :smiley:

And yes, the rest is pretty right, too :smiley:

Of course. Especially as Viscaria's covenant building may take quite some time for her to recover between each casting.

But in a short time at least, we can make fire and latrines (even if we want to later use poo for cultures, that ain't a nescessity for now, and destroying it is probably easier than doing latrine duty). Maybe set up traps for animals. We can also explore at least part of the tunnels.
The proper covenant building can (and should) wait for the others.

108

I also vote that Cygna pick an animal at random and try talking to it with Animal Ken over in the IC thread!

Nonsense. Cygna is the French one. She'll be the one with the outrageous accent.

See my post about the arcane connection sponts for ways to keep in contact, but I agree with the home every night plan, especially we're doing night watch shifts.

And this is why I'm suggesting we spend the rest of the season selecting a site. We need to investigate the various high-magic areas and see if they might have beneficial magics which we can take advantage of. Sentinel trees, a nest of eloquent and friendly spider monkeys, Mangoes Of Unusual Sustenance...I would rather spend the time looking than to miss out something really useful.

I really like Hiems' magic chamber pots, and will happily let him make the cooking fire (I've also got a way figured out how to make an oven - CrIg Ring/Individual instead of Ring/Circle on the bottom of a clay pot. Tandoori-style oven!). Is Hiems also willing to set up Viscaria's forge fires in the same way?

If we decide to use ring/circle animal traps for food, we should make sure to keep the penetration 0, so we don't accidentally step on the mystic food chain around here.

Agreed. Assuming everyone is comfortable with the teams we've set up, we can start separate Chapter 4 threads for each 2-mage team as our explorations. It seems like the big questions left to agree on is how long we explore for. I would like to suggest that the correct OOC answer for this is "until Berenguer and Helena come back."

Therefore, I suggest that we explore the island and caverns for "as long as a thorough study takes, up to the rest of the season." What do you all say?

To recap

109

Sadly agreed :cry:

Ah, yes. Agreed.
We can quickly find the best mundane sites, but discerning their more arcane properties may take some time, or not (I don't expect living trees to be that difficult to spot)

So long as he doesn't use his life-force too much, Hiems will be glad (well, somewhat, at least) to help viscaria, especially as it'll mean helping us all. So yes.

As per penetration, as this is spontaneous magic, this shouldn't be a problem. I imagine something like a simple compulsion to linger. This shouldn't prove enough to stop dead a rushing animal or trap it until it dies (like a ward would), but should keep them there until something more pressing (like starvation) forces them to depart.

Agreed to all

110

Before you start new threads, I suggest spend the night somewhere - the cave? (unless you want to stay up past your bedtime, which is sure to incense the sleep fairy - if it exists).

Start new threads when you are ready for it. Call them appropriately and number them 4a, 4b 4c....

111

Yeah, the cave is easier to defend, unless there's a better site nearby. It also shield us from the intemperies

112

What kind of vis detection spell is it (range: touch, smell, hearig,.. and duration: conc, day,..)?

113

See the massive block of quoted text above:

Also, I just re-checked the info on Fatigue penalties from the main rules and crafting from City & Guild. With six long term fatigue levels, she gets knocked out cold for a day. The next day, she's at -5 penalty to everything, which will still let her meet the Ease Factor of 6 to create standard quality glassware. ~boggles~

114

Okay, so I'm really liking this spont spell idea I have...I'm just a little fuzzy on the what the proper Range would be, so I thought I'd throw it out for input/ideas/whatever.

Basically, I'm envisioning a circle laid on a game trail. Possibly with a vine or rope or some such. And Cygna would spont a ReAn effect on the circle: any animal that enters the circle would be told/compelled not to move. I originally thought the Base Effect would be 2 ("Plant a single suggestion in the mind of an animal"), but glancing again at the guidelines, it may be more along the lines of 5 ("Manipulate an animal's emotions. Paralyze an animal."). I don't want to paralyze it, though, I just want it to stay in the circle while I talk to it or so someone can kill it, whatever. Maybe both, we'll see.

Anyway...assuming Base Effect 2. Duration would be Ring (+2). Target would be Individual/Circle (+0), since I only want it to affect one animal within the circle (unless Circle would be any animals in the circle, and if I get Mama Lemur, Daddy Lemur, and all the Lemur Young'uns it would still work). So I'm currently looking at a Level 4 spell.

Here's where I have problems with the design, though. Would the range be Touch (since I'd be touching the circle when I cast it)? I'm really not seeing Voice or Sight range, which would mean that it would only affect animals that are either within the range of my voice or that I can see when I cast the spell, which I don't really see working. R: Arcane Connection would probably be right out.

What do y'all think?

115

Based on published examples, I would say yes, range touch.

116

Ok folks , i'm in something of a quandary.
(Apologies to JM , this isnt intended to be a criticism of his adventure.)
While i can sort of get into the "by our bootstraps" scenario , it isnt engaging me as a player.

Not that i feel compelled to abandon the campaign , but putting any effort into this is a real chore for me.

I'm sure we will find vis sources eventually.
page 11 , Rival Magic:
Intelligence + Magic Lore vs Ease Factor of 15

It is also a trial-and-error process for the character

The characters with better InVi totals will obviously make this process easier.

As a player , i would prefer a few carrots now , as incentive ,
rather than the prospect of a whole field of carrots later.

117

I know what you're saying, Ravencroft. As this is my first actual ArM campaign (the other PbP I joined has advanced less than 12 hours since I started playing 2 months ago), I was hoping for a more traditional campaign. This is an interesting plot and I am enjoying myself but would appeal more to me if I had a history of ArM campaigns behind me.

I want to help, RC, but I didn't understand the draw to your character before the plot twist, so I don't know what to offer. What sort of carrots would you want to snack on? What goals did you have before the plot twist?

You mention vis, so I assume you wanted Herbam vis to make magical clothing with? The Chapter 4 threads we are starting will probably be the sort of adventuring that leads to vis sources (maybe JM can guarantee that for you?)

That is just a thought, trying to infer your desires. Give us some examples of what would be interesting to you and I will happily try to help you.

118

Intelligent Design!

119

It is not a traditional campaign. It is an exercise in exploring how starting a covenant from absolute scratch works (which I mentioned in the Players wanted thread). This had to include cutting links to society
Once you've got settled in, there will be more adventures. There will also be small adventures whenever you use a season to do something that is not labwork.

As for vis - once you have a lab it is easy to extract (and being the only magi makes you the most powerful ones too). There may also be vis from creatures or vis sources. There will be grogs and companions.

But there are still a few option:

  1. I could give you a chance to get back from wherever you are (by finding an AC) ot meeting a creature that helps you.
  2. Maybe you are on an island with exotic vegetation in the Mediterranean, and just don't realise it.

There now is a poll thread. If you prefer playing in Europe as you know it, say so.

120

Yup. As far as I understand it, the range is the range to the ring, and you must be touching it.
For the ring to affect a greater area, you need to draw a bigger ring: You can't just draw a 5mm ring, put it on a pole and have it affect anything at sight range.

I think your problem may come in the fact from the fact that we don't have any challenge to overcome, or rather, we're not conscious of it.
IRL, simply finding food would be very important. In a RPG, this usually won't kill our characters, and even GMs who emphazise deprivation can be lenient about it.

Nonetheless, you're right in that:

  • Once we've established a settlement
  • Once we've done that which we can do

What do we do?

Jean-Michelle promises adventures, vis and covenfolks and, anyway, I'd be inclined to give him a go.
The greater problem, for me, will be books, which is THE reward for magi. Unless we study from vis, which is expensive and dangerous, this'll severely stunt our characters, especially as vis probably won't be available for every art. Same thing goes for spells.
I say you should try to think about your character and his goals, and push towards them, even if it is through little steps. I don't see at all magical clothing as out of the question, for exemple.