Character Creation for Houlio (OOC)

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: The Heir of Laimunt Valley
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The HoH:S section on Titanoi already state that the cult can initiate Hermetic Theurgy, so we just need someone who'd be interested in developping the cult with some specific initiation scripts.

Note the end of the section, which mentions that someone who is open about his membership in the cult often has the Enemy Flaw, representing the attention of "a suspicious member of House Guernicus,
determined to uncover the diabolic roots of the magus." This might be an alternative to Dark Secret, or combined with it (some members of House Tytalus suspect that you lied and are trying to prove it, and some members of House Guernicus are keeping an eye on you - and them).

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Cool, I just wanted to make sure. I don't plan to start further in the cult, or even to seek further initiation for sometime yet either.

I was thinking about this fact. I'd rather stick to a single story flaw - Dark Secret in this case - than have a bunch of story flaws all targeting one character. I think his Dark Secret has plenty of potential to become the Enemy flaw in and of itself given time.

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You can only take a single Story flaw anaway. That is why I was offering the possibility of having a hybrid Dark Secret/Enemy flaw, combining parts of both into something tailored to your character. :grin:

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Here's my initial write up for my magus:

Childhood
Robert was born the sixth of seven children in a peasant family near the coast of Normandy. From the start, ominous events seemed to dog Robert, as his oldest sister died the very same day of his birth by slipping from some cliffs and falling into the sea below.

Despite the rest of his family having brown eyes, Robert's eyes had a vivid green hue, and many people suspected his mother of infidelity or worse. As an infant, Robert developed a strange reputation, as he never seemed to cry. He simply stared, seemingly fascinated by nothing in particular. When Robert started to form words, he always tried talking to things or people who weren't actually there. His family found it increasing difficult to just ascribe this behavior to a child having an an imaginary friend or just playing pretend when Robert started to talk about the rather horrific things that his imaginary friends would tell him.

This seemed to take a more sinister turn when Robert started to say that he could see and talk with his oldest sister. He was able to describe her features and mannerisms exactly, despite never having had the chance to meet her. Rumors quickly began to swirl about Robert, and it didn't take long until Rhea ex Tytalus heard about the boy who could see ghosts. Besides being a hermetic maga of House Tytalus with all that implies, she also dedicated herself to the spread and propagation of the Titanoi. Ever looking for more potential apprentices, Rhea sent agents to test the boy, and they found he possessed the gift. Rhea sent her agents again, this time declaring themselves to be in the employ of a bishop at a cathedral school far off in Brittany. Having found that the boy had been given a great gift from God, "the bishop" offered the boy a place to study at a cathedral school "he" oversaw. Robert's parents agreed readily, thinking of the promise of a better life for their son as well as the relief of having his troubles brought elsewhere for a change. Robert left that very day for Brittany.

While Brittany proved to be rather similar to the stormy coast of Normandy that Robert was born on, the cathedral school was by far the grandest thing Robert had ever seen in his life. He quickly came to love his life there. He ate better and more often. Learning Latin and letters was much easier than having to haul rope to and from his family's fishing boat. Robert even enjoyed the physical activity pushed at the school, having had to do so much more of it as a son of a peasant compared to the children of nobles and townsfolk there. His successes produced no end of envy or jealousy from the other children. The more he proved his equal to them, the less the other children would include Robert. Despite his difficulties with the other children, Robert found a great deal of happiness at the cathedral school.

4 years passed in this manner, when a man, claiming to be sent from the bishop, arrived at the school and said he must fetch Robert right away, as the bishop has some urgent need of the boy. Despite the unusual nature of the request, most of the staff of the cathedral school were rather happy to see Robert leave. Despite his quickness at letters and his willingness to compete in athletic activity, Robert's presence seemed simply to cause problem after problem. The man left just a few hours after arriving, driving a wagon with Robert squeezed into the back.

Apprenticeship
Traveling well into the night, the man eventually stopped the wagon by a crouched figure standing near the side of the road. Robert felt a sudden sense of terror as he made sense of the figure: an old woman by the gray streaks in her hair, but she held herself with the vitality of one much younger. She tossed a sack to the man that clinked in the air and simply said "That's for a job well done." As she stared into Robert's eyes, he suddenly felt his body moving like he were a puppet. As he got out of the cart, the old woman chanted something briefly, touched him lightly on the shoulder, and he suddenly found himself in a dark stone chamber.

That year, Robert came to find out that he actually was going to become the "apprentice" for this woman Rhea. She did teach him like an apprentice, but she also forced him to do all sorts of things he had never heard any apprentice needing to do before. Robert still doesn't really understand what having to clean all the delicate glass equipment while crouching and biting a piece of wood had to with magic, but he had to do it a lot.

After 10 years of an increasingly cruel and difficult apprenticeship, Robert found himself wondering what it would take to end the ordeal. He found the answer sooner than most, as he made a rather severe mistake while his parens was attempting to summon some sort of powerful spirit. Exhausted from having to scrub the floors all night as punishment, Robert stumbled and spilled a vial of ink all over the carefully prepared summoning circle. The spirit Rhea summoned consequently broke free of its bonds and destroyed her. Robert watched in horror as his parens aged rapidly into nothing more than dust and a pile of bones.

Regardless, Rhea's sodales found Robert soon after the incident. Robert, expecting to be terribly punished for the crime, rather simply told the Tytali "I killed her". Instead of being punished, Robert was immediately invited to join the house, believing that he had actually managed to purposefully sabotage the ritual. Robert has since spent years since his "gauntlet" doing his best to remain unobtrusive without calling attention to the fact that he didn't actually kill his parens.

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Alright, I've been picking away at my magus' build for a couple days here. I'm off at work now, but I'm thinking of the following virtues and flaws:

Virtues
Hermetic Magus, The Gift, Self-Confident, Major Focus: Spirits, Affinity for Rego, Cautious Sorcerer, Cyclic Magic (Fall and Winter), Puissant Mentem, Educated, Independent Study, Second Sight

Flaws
Dark Secret, Blatant Gift, Cyclic Magic (Spring and Summer), Weak Parens, Busybody and Pessimistic.

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Ok, here's the stats for Perion filius Rhea Tytali:

Description
Birth Name: Robert
Hermetic Name: Perion filius Rhea Tytali
Casting Sigil: Perion's magic produces a shudder or shiver like a winter wind just buffeted the target, but it does not actually make anything cold or produce a wind.
Age: 21
Birthday, Astrological Sign: December 21st, Sagittarius

Characteristics
Strength: -1
Intelligence: 2
Perception: 1
Stamina: 1
Presence: -2
Communication: 2
Dexterity: 2
Quickness: 0

Virtues
The Gift
Hermetic Magus
Self-Confident
Major Focus in Spirits
Affinity for Rego
Cautious Sorcerer
Cyclic Magic (Fall and Winter)
Inventive Genius
Puissant Mentem
Educated
Second Sight

Flaws
Dark Secret
Blatant Gift
Cyclic Magic (Spring and Summer)
Weak Parens
Busybody
Pessimistic

Abilities
French (Norman) 5
Athletics (climbing) 3
Brawl (dodging) 1
Swim (oceans) 1
Folk Ken (peasants) 2
Guile (looking innocent) 2
Awareness (searching) 2
Hunt (tracking) 1
Latin (Hermetic usage) 4
Artes Liberales (rhetoric) 2
Philosophiae (moral philosophy) 1
Intrigue (gossip) 2
Concentration (spell concentration) 1
Church Lore (personalities) 1
Magic Theory (Inventing Spells) 3
Parma Magica (Ignem) 1
Magic Lore (spirits) 1
Titanoi Cult Lore (politics) 1
House Tytalus Lore (history) 1
Second Sight (ghosts) 1

Cr: 0 (0)
In: 5 (15)
Mu: 0 (0)
Pe: 5 (15)
Re: 8 (24+12)

An: 5 (15)
Au: 0 (0)
Aq: 0 (0)
Co: 0 (0)
He: 0 (0)
Ig: 1 (1)
Im: 5 (15)
Me: 5 + 3 (15)
Te: 5 (15)
Vi: 5 (15)

Spells
Agony of the Beast PeAn 15
Aura of Rightful Authority ReMe 20
Call to Slumber ReMe 10
Prying Eyes InIm 5
Scales of Magical Weight InVi 5
Sense the Nature of Vis InVi 5
Snap of Awakening ReMe 10
Wizard's Sidestep ReIm 10
Words of the Unbroken Silence CrMe 10

Notes
Perion left home at the age of 7 for a cathedral school secretly run by House Tytalus to prepare apprentices. Educated represents Perion's time there. He spent 4 years there, so he started his apprenticeship at the age of 11. He "passed" his gauntlet 10 years on at the age of 21, and his stats here reflect him at that age. The biggest change was that I decided to switch Independent Study for Inventive Genius

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I'm fine with spirits as a specialty for Magic Lore.

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Alright, I got my spells at Gauntlet added in, which I believe finishes off Perion except for post-Gauntlet advancement. If everything looks good, I could get a stats thread for him.

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Post Gauntlet XP Tracking
Experience:
Magic Theory 4
Intrigue 4
Mentem 23
Code of Hermes 10
Rego 24
Second Sight 8
Muto 3
Corpus 1
Magic Lore 10

Spells
Coerce the Spirits of the Night
Hide from the Sun
Eyes of the Cat
Lungs of the Otter

Vis
Mentem 1 pawn
Vim 4 pawns

Warping
3 Warping Points

Spring 1202
As the warm spring winds blew into Fudarus, Perion found himself a newly minted magus among the ruins of his late parens' lab. The accident had left most of the delicate glass equipment shattered and broken, and his parens' notes were left in a general state of disarray. With a choice between cleaning all that glass again or reading, Perion was glad to express his newly found freedom and chose the latter. Going through one of the piles of documents that Rhea had never allowed him to see, Perion discovered a lab text for the spell Coerce the Spirits of the Night.

Inbetween reading and practicing with the new spell, Perion did manage to clean up what remained of the papers, documents, and notes that Rhea had in her lab at the time of the accident. Perion truly enjoyed being able to independently teach himself, but his joys were tampered by the contents of many of the more mundane notes. It seemed that all the fine, clear glass that Rhea had owned actually had cost her a fortune to acquire. Perion spent the sparse moments of free time that spring considering what he would do should Rhea's debtors ever come calling.

Gains: Perion learns the spell Coerce the Spirits of the Night and puts 2 XP into Magic Theory from exposure.

Summer 1202
As summer approached, Perion found himself sleeping uncomfortably in what he called the muggy heat. Finally having finished going through what remained of Rhea's notes, he decided to finally get around to organizing and taking an inventory of the lab equipment. He had ended up spending just a week when a certain Kore Tytali arrived at the lab. She informed Perion that she was the elder filia of Rhea. Hearing of her dear parens' end, she had hurried back here to press her claim on what she saw as her rightful inheritance. Perion accepted her challenge of a public debate, which he quickly lost to his great embarassment. Kore gave Perion the space of her old lab at Exspectatio, although she of course let him keep Rhea's lab equipment instead of forcing him to take hers.

Perion packed up what little he had and the few salvageable items from Rhea's lab, and he left for Expsectatio. While he was still rather bitter about being publicly embarrassed and forced out of the one place he really knew, Perion came to enjoy the smaller covenant. With all of his sodales at Expsectatio so enmeshed in the plots of the House, Perion found he had even more ample time to spend as he wished. True to Kore's word, he found her former lab empty of any and all materials. With his list of needed materials and some his Rhea's contacts, Perion decided to reach out to Felix, now a senior lector at the Dol Cathedral, where Perion had previously been educated. Vincent had picked up a rumor of a sunken ship in the English Channel, containing looted treasure from the Third Crusade. Perion and Felix agreed to search for the treasure and split it should they be able to find it. Vincent tracked down rumors of ghost sightings in and around the Channel, and Perion managed to eventually track down and interrogate the correct ghosts. With the location discovered, Felix hired a crew with the promise of loot, and they all together managed to secure a small chest filled with precious metals and semi-precious stones. Splitting the loot up among each other and the crew left Perion with enough treasure to acquire all his missing lab equipment.

Gains: Adventure/story experience and vis reward: +4 XP Intrigue, +6 XP Mentem, 2 pawns of Mentem Vis.

Fall and Winter 1202
After the hot and eventful summer, Perion was happy to spend his autumn reading in quiet contemplation. With a gift of a pawn of the vis he collected from his summer escapades, an apprentice at Exspectatio finished setting up his delicate lab equipment for him in the meantime. As the winter solstice approached, Person made plans to start working on his first original spell.

Gains: Perion will give up a pawn of vis to have a local apprentice finish setting up his basic lab while he reads in the fall. In the winter, he will start working on a new spell. He will read a Mentem summa (I was thinking of a Level 8, Quality 10 book). He will start working on a new spell in Winter: Hide from the Sun PeIm 15, see the notes below. Perion will put 2 xp from Exposure into Magic Theory.

Notes: I decided to in general follow Arthur's points below and treat Perion's initial wrecked lab as a basic one, and he inherited a basic one from Kore. The spell, Hide from the Sun, is below:

Hide from the Sun PeIm 10
R: Per D: Conc T: Ind
As long as the caster focuses on the effect, the caster is undetectable to normal sight. They can otherwise move and act freely, but they still cast a shadow. Perion's sigil makes him shiver as he casts the spell.

(Base 4, +1 Conc, +1 shifting image)

Assuming an aura of 3 and a normal lab, Perion should have PeIm lab total of 25 when inventing a new spell in winter, so he should be able to push that out in a season.

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Actually, you can't just read a lab text to learn the spell. The lab text only helps you invent the spell in the lab. So Perion would need to clean up the glass and restore the lab first. :wink:

Note that if Perion has a high enough lab total, he may still be able to learn the spell using the damaged lab. A penalty of -3 would sound reasonable, though if the lab had improvements built in the damage may just cancel those.

Just a question of narrative description. :smiley:

No vis?

It all depends of the state in which Kore left her former lab. She may only have grabbed her more valuable equipment and left the basics, since she expected Rhea's lab to be already equipped. Saves both magi the bother of starting from scratch.

So I would think it reasonable that the lab is in its Basic state (giving -3 to Lab Totals, as per ArM5 p.94). Perion could then either decide to use it as is, or invest a season to bring it up to a standard lab. It would all depend on what you expect the reasons to be for Perion not remaining at Expsectatio. If he knew ahead of time that he would leave, he may not have bothered.

Or he may have hired a covenant helper (an apprentice?) to finish set up of the lab while he was studying from a book. A pawn or two to the master can go a long way (some of the loot from the previous story might also do), or it can be a challenge that Perion won when he arrived.

Just throwing ideas. Nice beginning! :smiley:

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Ok, it took me a little longer than I was hoping, but I did a couple edits with some of your points from above. I decided to treat Perion as having access to a a basic lab with a -3 until he gets an apprentice to finish setting it up for him in the autumn. With his major focus, his lab total should be above 20 even with his penalty in spring (I think Fudarus is listed as having an aura of 7, so I used that for his first season). I am thinking about my next year of post-gauntlet time, but I might take a couple days to draft it out first. I'll try to get it out sooner though.

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I've been planning something similar: Aedes Mercurii has an Aura of 5 and many run-down labs, so I figured an organized lab that had been gutted: Basic gives -3 General Quality and Highly Organized gives +1 General Quality, for a net of +3.

Are we allowed to work on our labs? I thought we were stuck with +3 the whole time.

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I decided it would be easiest to not deal with a high level aura at the start for exactly that reason. I also set up Perion's start here on how I thought someone in House Tytalus might find themselves given his unexpected gauntlet.

I only had work done on Perion's lab to remove the -3 basic modifier tp bring him up to average in Expectatio. I figured we shouldn't introduce anymore than that.

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Yep, the post-Gauntlet advancement guidelines are to use standard labs with a +3 aura, no matter where you really are located and what the state of the lab is. The rest is fluff.*

I wanted to avoid any adjutication regarding how magus A got access to covenant D, with X aura or great labs.

*Edit: Fluff as in "to guide advancement activities and bring the character to life."

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Spring 1203
Tempers at Exspectatio started to flare among its other members in the spring of the new year. Some sort of ongoing leadership dispute that everyone else seemed to suddenly be very invested in. Perion decided it would be best to learn, at least a little bit, about the Hermetic Code and the Order at large. In the midst of his sodales variously preparing for an oncoming conflict, Perion sought out a written copy of the Hermetic Oath to study in more detail.

Gains: Perion will read a Code of Hermes Q10 Tractatus.

Summer 1203
Having a sense that disaster might strike, Perion decided to lock himself up in his lab and do what he could to avoid more trouble. It was during this season that Perion unfortunately made an unfortunate mistake while experimenting with a summoning spell, sending him into a brief Twilight. Perion cannot recall the specifics of his time in Twilight, but he does remember meeting the aspect of Zelos that killed his Parens. The entity didn't seem to threaten Person himself, but rather it threatened to reveal his secret to anyone who might summon it. The entity seemed to show Perion images of the other Magi that Rhea had trained over the years. Although his hard work in the lab was totally wasted, having resulted in disaster, Perion managed to scrape together a few notes about what he could recall of his Twilight. The grim dread that he hadn't felt since his time as an apprentice once again returned to him.

Gains: 3 Warping Points, and I figured 7 XP in Mentem counting as a "short adventure".

Autumn and Winter 1203
After Perion's mishap in the lab, he decided to spend sometime away from experimenting with ancient spirits and magic and looked to improve his understanding of Rego. He managed to secure a rather old yet relevant Summa from the covenant library for a couple seasons.

In his studies, Perion also found an additional appendix of certain ancient sites that Tytalus might have visited to learn the true names of the Titans. Perion decided to cut the appendix out of the book, not knowing who else might have seen it. With this, he finally had a real clue to dealing with the ancient entity that killed his parens.

Gains: I was planning on having Perion read a Rego summa (L13Q12) for a couple seasons here.

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Spring 1204
The first site was a tidal cave on the Northeastern-most tip of Brittany's coast. Perion managed to secure the service of a young shield grog named Vincent from Exspectatio, mostly to make sure that Vincent didn't get himself hurt or into any serious trouble. It was quite fortunate that Vincent was around, as Perion nearly drowned during his exploration of the cave, surviving thanks only to a rescue by Vincent. For his trouble, Perion did discover a minor Magic aura at the caves. He and Vincent spent a month mapping out the caverns, being careful to avoid the high tides. The entirety of the caverns had yet to be explored, as they still remained some passages entirely submerged.

Gains: I am considering this a short adventure here, and putting 8 xp into Second Sight.

Summer 1204
Perion is going to spend the season learning the spell Eyes of the Cat from a lab text, planning a final expedition to the caves for later this year. While he spends his time working carefully in the lab, Perion hears about a number of his fellow Tytali getting into sudden fights and feuds.

Gains: Perion will learn the spell Eyes of the Cat as per spell in the core rulebook on page 131. He will put his 2 exposure xp into Muto.

Autumn 1204
With the onset of the Fall Equinox and the slowly darker and darker days, Perion's could feel his ability to focus on and comprehend magic increase, as he had become accustomed to ever since Rhea opened his Arts. He turned his attention again to the lab, working to invent a new spell to further aid him in his planned expedition for the Winter. Naming his creation Lungs of the Otter, it functioned similarly to Eyes of the Cat except that it bestowed the ability to hold one's breath for much longer. Between these two spells, Perion hoped to be able to finish his explorations.

Gains: Perion will invent Lungs of the Otter, I will finish writing this out in notes below. Perion should have a high enough lab total between his Cyclic Magic and Inventive Genius with the usual stuff to finish it off in a single season. Perion will put one exposure xp into Muto and one into Corpus.

Winter 1204
Perion finally prepared to leave Exspectatio. Vincent seemed relieved when Perion approached him and told him that they would be travelling again to the coast to explore those caves. The further exploration proved fruitful, as Perion discovered a regio in to a deeper part of the cave. The regio contained a cache from the Mercurian Order with a rather peculiar item and a few pawns of vis.

Although he didn't find what he was looking, Perion was happy with his discoveries nonetheless. The aura was not terribly impressive. The regio was very small, with not much more space than a normal lab would take up. Perion figured the cache was some kind of safehouse for an ancient and long dead hedge wizard, but Perion thought he might as well use it as an emergency hideout of his own. Perion made Vincent swear to never talk about this place again, and the two of them traveled back to Exspectatio.

Upon their arrival, they discovered that the violence plaguing the house between the claims of Buliste and Harpax hit Exspectatio. In a furious Wizard's War, some sort of unclear magical accident occurred between the two warring Magi immediately above Perion's lab. The two Magi perished in the accident, along with a signifcant amount of Perion's lab. Had he taken another season to stick around and prepare, it is rather likely that he might have joined the two Magi in death. A Quaesitor from Confluensis investigating the incident, Augustus Nero, suggested to Perion that it might be best to not tempt fate, and find a different place to put a lab. Knowing a young covenant far on the other end of the Normandy Tribunal, Augustus suggested that Perion might relocate to a place called Tugurium. Augustus spoke well of the covenant's leader, and any place far from other members of the House Tytalus seemed like a good plan to Perion. Perion and Vincent departed for Tugurium in the late winter.

Gains: A human skull containing 4 pawns of Vim vis and 10 xp in Magic Lore from reading and learning from the cached notes and tablets.

Notes: This is a quick go through of Perion's last post-gauntlet year. I will finish adding a little more detail or clearing somethings up here or there. If it looks like there are any big issues, just let me know and I will rework it.

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Looks good overall. :smiley:

I'm not sure breathing underwater is a "minor ability" as understood for MuCo Base 2. All the examples of spells using the Base 2 guideline seem less powerful, either providing a very small bonus in a broad range of activities (+1 Perception to hearing) or a higher bonus on very specific activities (+6 Defense against grappling attacks).

This might work if the spell has a severe drawback, such as leaving you unable to breathe air (just like a fish), suffering from air Deprivation (ArM5 p.180) if you are outside of water.

A more useful variant for short underwater exploration would be something as Lungs of the Otter (or some other animal that dives underwater), which could make you able to hold your breath much longer than usual (giving you a multiplier to the Time on the Deprivation Table). That would seem much more in line with Base 2.

This might be interesting. Perhaps related to a Hedge magic tradition? Like an Elementalist or a Folk Witch item (from Hedge Magic)?

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Yeah, that's one thing I felt should be talked about. I don't mind adjusting the spell to be Lungs of the Otter, that still I think should generally be more than sufficient for at least explaining the narrative.

I want to mention that my approach to things is always going to be just going with what's in my gut and then being open to revision for this sort of stuff. Just so you know that I am never meaning to sneak something by, I would just rather have something out there rather than wait longer tinkering.

Exactly, although I'm not sure what kinda of things they might leave behind. I'm even open to it just being a weird unique thing too. I figured it shouldn't be able to do more than like a base level 5 effect, but it might have some weird non-Hermetic duration or something like that.

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No worry, I didn't hink you were trying to sneak something in. It seemed clear that you were simply looking for a way to support your narrative for further exploration of the caves.

Another option, which would be even more in line with Perion's specialties, would be a Rego spell that forms a bubble of air around his head so that he can breathe for a few minutes. I'm thinking ReAq base 4 (Control a liquid in a forceful but calm way) would do the trick, with perhaps a free Auram requisite to keep the air from floating up. R:Touch and D:Conc (since Diameter is a bit short for exploration) would make this level 10, which Perion can achieve in a single season.

Elementalists aren't strong on items, aside from the containers for elementals. Folk Witches have potions and fetishes, but their usefulness are limited. They can, however, enrich Things of Virtue (from RoP:M), so that may be a possible source of inspiration.

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For example, RoP:tI lists flight as a "major ability."

I personally think adding 2 magnitudes for a MuCo base 4 for a "major ability," just as RoP:tI does, should be fine.