Sure. You have 120 base xp, plus 100 xp from Improved Abilities (x2), plus 50 xp in Finesse from Improved Powers.
Oh! then its fine. I had not claimed the 50xp for the finesse. I will redirect that xp into a language and then lose it.
Year 8:
I have learned that I will be joined by my entire hermetic family in Autumn, but before then, I have work I should be attending to. I have told Remi that I will be absent for a small while, and he seemed to be sad at my absence, he started to ask me about when the covenant would be able to make use of my talents again. I have noticed that he has started to become slightly more distant from me of late, and I suspect it is due to some internal dissent in the covenant that I am not entirely comfortable with. A greater politician than I would be able to find a decent topic for a tractatus on what is happening in the covenant of late, I think. However, my own talents are not as a politician, but as a theorist and as a weaver, so I shall concentrate on that!
Spring
Spindra has asked me about what I am doing when I was teaching last year, and I started to discuss about magic theory with her. I am certain that she would be able to learn some of it and help me in my lab. She has agreed to learn the ways of hermetic magic so that she can better understand what I can do for her. Her ambition is endearing, somehow. The months teaching one to one have been interesting, and I feel like I have grown even closer to Spindra in the time.
Teach familiar 2 teaching
3(basic) + Com 2 + teaching 2+ specality 1 + good teacher 5 + single student bonus 6 + apt student 5 – magic might 12 =12 xp
Spindras Magic Theory goes 0->1(7xp) with an enchantment speciality
2xp for teaching
Summer
My pater is coming, and as such I must make sure I have attended to his will. He has written to me to tell me to learn mentem magic, and I am nothing if not obedient to the will of the Heirarch of my cult. I do wonder how different life would be for those magi who are genuinely free to attend to their own wills once they have gone through their gauntlet, but I am sure that once I have obeyed long enough the benefits of the cult with be made available to me.
In service of this demand, I have sought out the primer in the library for mentem, and I am lucky indeed, since the primer is an excellent one, “the mind, the spirit, the soul” is well known for its quality as an introductory text. This is why I came to the covenant which was famous for it’s library!
Read Mentem primer L6Q21
Mentem 0-> 6
Autumn
Well, diary. I seem to have been absent from my pater for entirely too long. In the half a decade since I last saw him, he has found some great source of strength. When he arrived to Triamore, it was with a great deal of pageantry, giving them a half rook of vis as a greeting gift. Something has changed, and changed a great deal.
Well, first, he is pleased that I introduced him to Heinrich, all that time ago. It seems it was the breakthrough he needed on the path of alchemy. I am not entirely sure how, but it is immediately obvious that he has used this to gain great hermetic wealth. I wonder how he has achieved this, but he tells me I have not learned enough of the lore of the cult to be entrusted this secret.
Imagine my surprise when, in fact, he tells me we are going on an adventure for the better part of a a year, and when I argued I would not be able to study mentem as he instructed me if I came with him he simply laughed. He tells me that he has made some sort of enormous, mobile laboratory for all our family to work in, while we travel. He also appears to have paid to have a book on mentem copied at some time. This must have cost him multiple rooks of vis, and he is casually spending it! What is happening?
When we eventually left, imagine my astonishment to find that he has made an iron tower which, in contrary to god’s law or any sense, flies. The thing is, I am told, indistinguishable from a cloud when viewed while flying and is almost a covenant unto itself. How has he done this, and why? I am humbled and annoyed at the show of power and wealth I cannot equal.
Still, I do reap some benefit of this, since the book seems to be for me. I think I understand now, as my Pater knows I am approaching a place where I can learn to perfect humans. Its an incredibly expensive and difficult procedure, and one I could not find the vis for. I also have a sneaking suspicion that the vis he has for it might pay for his enhancements, but unlikely mine.
Still, as we begin to fly all over the rhine tribunal to collect my hermetic brothers and sisters, and I shall rest in an iron tower, made comfortable and warm by magic as it floats over the Holy Roman Empire below. I shall rest and read, and wonder what life is like after a near century of hermetic life.
Read mentem book Q17L11
Mentem 6->8(2xp)
Winter
We have moved and picked up my equally confused and wondering elder siblings in the cult. No one had any idea that our pater was so wealthy, though all knew that this would have been within his prodigious capabilities as an enchanter. Even so, we headed to a site of some ancient calamity, when the magi of a covenant were all exterminated at once. Somehow, in the chaos the site of this covenant was lost. I confess this seems extremely strange to me, but all I get are obscure hints as to the dangers for hermetic magi in the rhine valley.
When we arrived, I learned that Placidius has been learning to become an extremely competent healer, and has several items enchanted that I think many covenants would give almost anything for.
Travem, to my surprise, has somehow become a hoplite! She arrived with half a turb of armed grogs, almost all of whom bore multiple charged items. She is laden with enchantments to enhance her ability as a magus of war, and more surprisingly, she moves like a soldier. I know it has been a score of years and more since I last saw her, but the transformation upon her has been dramatic! Placidus and her now could not be less alike if one had fire for flesh and the other ice!
Yet things have seemed relatively calm so far. My brother and sister greeted each other as lost amacii, and both showed respect to Sigmiundus. Though I note that he is less commanding with his elder apprentices than with me, treating them more equally. I wonder if it is some part of the cult’s secrets, or if he is slighting me. They also seem to be wealthier than I, by a larger stretch than can be easily explained by our differences in age. Somehow vis is flowing to my elders like a wide river and I want to know how!
We have arrived. I had never expected to see such things as long as I lived! There was a great battle to begin our arrival, whereupon I found that the turbs javelins contained withing them charges of the pilium of fire! The vile flying creatures who flew up to meet our arrival were not expecting this, and indeed suffered greatly at the hands of it, and the terrible wand of abyssal flame that my elder sister bore. Glad I am that she is my family!
The battle finished, we landed the castle (I still consider the phrase ridiculous). Then we were at the edge of a covenant, and found that the flying harpies which greeted us were but part of the degenerated remains of the covenantfolk’s descendants, living and warped from the prodigious magic aura. All seem confused by the amount of magic present, as such a site should not have had so strong an aura. Still, we steel ourselves to push in and try to recover the secrets within.
One day I shall become used to fighting, but it is not today. I shudder at the memory of the creatures dispatched, but we also came across several ghosts of the magi who died in this fateful site. They tell us of something more powerful in the centre or the aura. Of a magical experiment gone terribly, awfully wrong, and the result dooming all within the covenant to death or binding to the site. We have tried to probe the minds of some of the creatures, but it seems my pater insited I learn mentem magic as my whole line lacks it! So, to the fore I went to improvise spells. To say I was unhappy at what I learned and the pain it caused would be an understatement, but at least we did learn something of value. It seems that one of the magi here were attempting to gain immortality, and their final work went horrendously and massively awry.
During the worst of the fighting, I found the custos assigned to me by my sister to be a constant companion and invaluable protector. Marius is a cheerful and easy-going man, who seems to turn as swiftly to darkness and violence as the light of a candle is snuffed. He was initially sceptical of me, but knew enough to know it was simply my gift acting upon him, and make conscious adjustments for his distrust and ill feeling.After a moments thought I realised I could cover him with my parma magica, and while it would reduce my protection usually, I could then rely on the magical might of Spindra to protect me. This being done may have saved my life when he was swift to save me from a warped hound which attacked suddenly. Without his shield and strong arm, I feel I may have met an ignominious end.
We came to the central chamber, and there seemed to be an enormous ward which we were quite unable to pass through. We know the creature we are seeking is in the centre of all of this, but we also know that we cannot pass by the ward without investigating it. We fell back to the rest of the covenant to loot the library and any other precious things we might find. With a sight spell for magic bestowed upon me, this became the simple matter of reading avery unruined book’s title and looking at everything for enchantments. The library at least has some notes on what the path to immortality which failed so badly for these magi contained, and I feel even seeing their handiwork and path of failure has given me ideas for my own progress.
Quest
5 xp parma magica
5 xp cult lore: Immortal weavers
Gained 3 pawns of mentem vis from creatures killed
Gained a shield grog who I will write up
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Year 9
It is time to retreat from the cursed place for a while in order to find a way past that monstrously potent ward. The being we wish to see is residing in the very heart of it, and thus it must yield to us. Apparently Sigmundus has a plan for what we we do, which requires my brother and sister’s attention for a while. I believe they are making some combined grand enchantment. This, however leaves me without a lab proper and I feared I was going to be relegated to the place of lab assistant for the season, but to my surprise it seems Sigmundus has something else planned for me.
Spring
Following the orders of my pater, it is time to begin reading again. It seems strange to be here in the site of ancient glories, floating over what remains of dangerous creatures and placidly reading a book, but my pater assures me it is important that I do so and work as hard as I can on properly learning the art of mentem. I now understand why as he has shown me a lab text of a hideouslty powerful mentem spell that he seems to think I should be quite capable of learning. Even a brief skimming of it revelated it to be somewhere near the tenth magnitude of spell, to bestow a glib tongue upon the recipient. A year ago I would have said he would never be able to afford it, but then I see the wealth eh has and simply wonder how he can afford it. Still, it is currently beyond my understanding, so I had best work upon expanding my understanding so that I can cast it. I did notice, however, that it seemed to be cast at a touch range, which implies as I had guessed that the spell is not for my benefit, but his own. Still, I settle down to read whilst I hear the workings of magic forges around me.
Read q17, L11 mentem summa
Level 8-> 10 no xp left over
Summer
It is time to breach the wards. We do not know who set them, or why, but they seemed to only be worried about magical creatures, animals and humans. Given that the whole covenant was flooded by monstrous warped beings that fell under that category, it does make a kind of sense. However, this lead to a key weakness that we can exploit.
Unexpectedly, the way through belonged to spinnerbienne. As a fae, he is unwarded against. Normally, since the ward is carved in steel and stone he would not be able to do anything about it, but while I studied yet more mentem, Placidus was making a charged item that smooths stone and rock and can be carried by a spider.
As such, we are standing before the barrier, a small harness on my faerie friend which he can activate with a word. As he scuttles by, my heart is in my throat and panic seizes me for a moment. What if he is hurt on my behalf? I should not be able to forgive myself, losing my constant companion since my youth.
But all was well. He scampered through the ward and triggered the device, destroying the inscribed magic circle. The ward crashed down and we went in to explore.
Inside was the laboratory of a ghost magus. Now, we had found many ghosts of magi going through this nightmare, but this one was different. Where most ghosts are but a feeble reflection of the person they once were, this one was complete. She spoke fluently and greeted us as sodales, asserting her right to not be bothered in her sanctum. Placidus pointed out, quite reasonably I thought, that the order does not respect the markers of dead magi. She initially seemed poised for violence, but decided to argue the point. So a possible confrontation with a dead magus devolved into legal wrangling.
At length the discussion concluded that while the order would probably not recognise the sanctum of the dead magus, we would as a courtesy. This seemed to placate the creature, and so she entered earnest conversation with Sigmundus. It seems she took this path willingly, seeking to become a fully conscious and powerful ghost who retained some of her magic even after death. The wards were hers, and so was the mistake that destroyed her covenant. An experimental failure with a twentieth magnitude effect related to empower her immortality went badly, dangerously awry. With such power consumed in the spell, the effects were as terrifying as we had seen.
It seems she is now in a discussion with us and Sigmundus about relating what she knows of being an immortal magus, in exchange for gifts of vis. This is not a path of immortality that I wish or any of my line, but we have seen here a mortal soul converted entirely into a magical spirit. It is an interesting phenomenon to study and she is an interesting person, insofar as she is a person. I suspect that argument will rage the entire journey back to our host covenants. I know Sigmundus considers this location an important one for the cult, as he has sworn us to secrecy, and placed powerful enchanted defences around the area to stop any one who is not one of us from entering.
Gained xp
5xp cult lore: immortal weavers
5xp: Code of hermes
Autumn
It is time for the long journey back to our host covenants. The tower moves, but it does not move quickly, barely exceeding a comfortable walking pace. As my teacher of arithmetic patiently showed me in my apprenticeship, even a slow pace taken all day will take one many leagues. The advantage of the slow travel is that we can read quite comfortably in the tower as we move, and so I have been set to work.
Sigmundus has presented me with a lab text for a eleventh magnitude spell which increases how well the recipient can explain themselves. While this is a potent effect, I would have preferred an enhancement in almost any other mental faculty. It seems, however, that learning the power is just a means to an end for my line to be able to improve. The perfected alchemical being is the apex of humanity, thus to approach it we must perfect ourselves. The practical effect of this is that Sigmundus has raised me to be the sort of magus who will excel in this difficult task.
Even so, I am not there yet. I feel like I am close, so it behoves me to work again at learning more of the arts, so that I may learn the spell. So, with some resignation I settle down to read.
Read Mentem L11q17
Mentem 10->11 (+6xp)
Winter
I have been dropped off back to my host covenant, and the welcome was less than warm. Upon returning, I find that the covenant are trying to find out about the wealth of my Pater and about what I found while seeking. It is, of course a secret of the cult, and I am evasive as possible.
This does not go down well. The covenant seems to think that all of my discoveries and leads are in some way theirs while I was staying with them. I return that this is entirely unreasonable, that they would not have any backing in the code in asserting this. The argument became long and deeply unprofitable. They are suspicious that I am going to “steal their secrets” while I am here and return nothing. My pointing out of the work I have done on their behalf, the teaching and the contributions are simply rebuffed. I think they expected something from me which I am not in a place to offer. Faced with the daunting seniority of the members of the covenant, and their suspicion that I am hiding a vis source from them on their own territory, I am going to have to return to the house of my pater. I do not want to live forever in his shadow, however, as I suspect it would end with me being a mere laboratory assistant.
I want a covenant. I am becoming increasingly aware that settling down has benefits far beyond the costs of my time, and effort expended on a covenant is not wasted when it is my covenant. I will then reap part of the benefits of mine and my future sodlases work. With this in mind, I remember a fellow who was staying in the covenant before I left. I had spoken to him before I left on my seeking with my family, and he said he was forging a new covenant. Something to do with an inheritance, I believe. I must correspond with him and see if has place for me in his new home, where at least as a founding member I could expect to build the seniority and quiet power of a place that the magi here enjoy, rather than being a perpetual newcomer begging for crumbs from my superior’s tables.
Irritated, I return and seek out my pater before he travels too far. He is willing to accept me of course as long as I continue to toil towards my “great work” as he puts it. So, he will house me as long as my labour and learning is bent to his profit. Still, there are some advantages, while he wants me to enhance his lineage and most importantly himself, I can at least lean on his resources.
I am frustratingly close. I think the best plan would be to start with something weaker but similar, to clarify the thought process in my mind while I am learning these magics. Once I have invented something like this for myself, I will better understand the intricacies of the whole theory and will be in a much better place to ensure that I can learn the greater spell.
With this in mind, I set to designing a spell to make the user more clear in their communication. While it may not be of the greatest use to me, it would mean when I am to be taught by my family they would be clearer.
Inspiring the gab’s gift
CrMe 35, Base 40+5 touch
R:touch, T:individual, D: Momentary, Ritual
This spell increases someone’s communication by one, to a maximum of 1. When the ritual is completed they put a stone on their tongue, which dissolves into them, and they are briefly covered by spiderweb lines of power, which coalesce into a small marking on the underside of their tongue, looking like a birthmark of a web.
Creo: 11
Mentem:11
Major magical focus:11
Int: 3
Magic theory : 8+2
Inventive genius:6
Experimental risk:2
Experimental advantage (1d10)
Familiar’s int: 2
Familiar’s magic theory:1
Aura:3
Total = 58+ dice roll
Target = 40
Accumulate 18+dice roll
(note: I know there is little point in learning the level 60 monstrosity that his pater has picked up as he has no chance of casting it. He needs a much, much better casting total. He is going to work this out when he finds how difficult the level 40 spell is, and how it exhausts him. It was just his ambitious flaw making him run before he could walk that made him try it, thinking he could get close to the lab total needed to learn it)
You are exceeding the xp guidelines of 45 xp per year, minus 10 xp for each season spent in the lab.
I think this is not the first year you've done so. I just noticed. There is some give to the guidelines, when for example your magus is studying a primer and reaising an Art score from 0, but right now this is going beyond what is considered reasonable.
right, I missed that italicised part! I will do some rejigging, appologies.
I will lose the second season reading, and teach my fmailiar instead? Is that okay? Then I've gained 29 xp and done one season in the lab and one teaching?
Edwardo the shield grog
| Characteristics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | +1 | |||||
| Perception | -2 | |||||
| Strength | +2 | |||||
| Stamina | +2 | |||||
| Presence | +1 | |||||
| Communication | +0 | |||||
| Dexterity | +1 | |||||
| Quickness | +1 |
| Virtues | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custos | minor | |||||||||
| Cautious with single weapon | minor | |||||||||
| tough | minor |
| Flaws | Minor | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carefree | minor | |||||||||
| Warped by magic | minor | |||||||||
| Uncontrollable strength | minor | |||||||||
| Warping: Magic stigmata |
| Abilities | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exp. | Ability (Speciality) | Score | |||||||||||
| Animal handling (hounds) | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Athletics (climbing) | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Awareness (ambushes) | 3 | ||||||||||||
| Bargain (petty) | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Brawl (clinch) | 3 | ||||||||||||
| Carouse (drinking songs) | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Charm (townsfolk) | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Folk Ken (soldiers) | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Hunt (deer) | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Leadership (soldiers) | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Language: Spanish (poetry) | 5 | ||||||||||||
| Music (lute) | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Ride (battle) | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Stealth (rural) | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Survival (forest) | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Swim (rivers) | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Bows (shortbow) | 3 | ||||||||||||
| Single weapon (sword and heater shield) | 5 | ||||||||||||
| Dead language: Latin (orders) | 3 | ||||||||||||
| Area lore: Barcelona (bars) | 2 |
That can work. Will you change year 8 also? Same problem there.
Absolutely. Would lab work for no personal benefit count as a season in the lab? I could move. The teaching from year 8 to year 9, and replace the season teaching with a season as a lab minion to my pater?
Yes, that is acceptable. He'd still get exposure xp.
Great. Appologies for the oversight.
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Also is it possible to assume he makes the application for the covenant in the last year by messages and mail, or should I schedule some time to travel to the site of the new covenant to negotiate a place there?
Yes, it can be done by letters. Note that since Clusius was living in Triamore in the three years prior, Marcus may have met him before.
I did mention in passing they had had a talk about it, which he will then follow up.
Didn't want to presume too much of your character in my backstory
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Even if I didn't mention Marcus in my journals doesn't mean they didn't speak occasionally. It would be enough for them to be at least familiar with each other, which is the basis on which Marcus would be interested in joining this new covenant.
Edit: In fact, Clusius is at Triamore during the last year, as he gather resources for the covenant. They may have in fact spoken face-to-face about Marcus joining Tugurium.
Perfect. I will write it in!
Also Re: experimenting on my spell:
Simple roll added:
Roll on extraordinary results:
8+2 = discovery!
proof of 2 eights:
rollon the table = 1+2 = 3
gain 15 xp in magic theory
proof of rolls again
Year 10
I am not comfortable here in this covenant, and it has become apparent that they would prefer my absence as well. It is nothing I could easily point to individually, but the cold glances, snide remarks and general distrust was sufficient that it reminded me of living among the mundanes. So just as then, I have retreated into my workshop to work away from the rest of the world. It is, I suspect, for the best. I will not achieve greatness by making friends, but by honing my craft.
Spring
It is time to finish the ritual, and learn the spell for my line. I know I am creating an 8th magnitude effect, and that should be a source of pride. It is a source of pride. But I also know it could have been better. That twelfth magnitude power my pater has readied for me is calling to me, and I know this one I am inventing is simply a lesser brother. Even worse, the fact that someone else invented it from scratch shows how much stronger in my own specialisation they were. I try to council myself that it is power I will achieve in time, but it seems a hollow reassurance.
I return to the lab, and settle down to my experiments.
Creo: 11
Mentem:11
Major magical focus:11
Int: 3
Magic theory : 8+2
Inventive genius:6
Experimental risk:2
Experimental advantage (1d10)
Familiar’s int: 2
Familiar’s magic theory:1
Aura:3
Total = 58+ dice roll
Target = 40
Accumulate 18+dice roll
Rolls:
add 5 to the total
Extraordinary results
roll of 10+2, roll twice on the chart
Rolled an 8+2 = 10 discorvery (again)
rolled a 7+2 =9 Special or story event
I will level with you. I have the results here for you
but 2 discoveries on 2 rolls seems a lot, and the other one is a story event. So I am goinng to stop here and wait for your feedback.
I am 100% okay with you saying you dont want a storyevent to come from pre play, and just say neither the discovery or the story event happen, or I am happy to roll the discovery.