As promised, here's the thread!
This is the general direction I'm going:
Atheus (born Henry) lived in Limerick with mundane (and English) parents until being found by a Redcap and sold to Nobutes of Tytalus, a Leper Magus from Circulus Ruber. The initial training on Corpus eventually cristalized into the ability to shange his own shape with ease (Minor Virtue: Persona). Being no leper he couldn't become a leper magus, but still learned how to exert himself (Minor Virtue: Life Boost) to achieve higher magic. At the same time, his magic was tainted (Minor Flaw: Warped Magic (a pungent rotting smell at the moment of casting, which Atheus can usually pretend has nothing to do with himself)).
Aroud 2 years ago, after about 12 years of apprenticeship, Atheus got tired from the standard Tytalus abuse, fled Circulus Ruber, donned a three-colored cloak and entered his macgnĂmartha (resulting in the Minor Flaw: Weak Parens).
During the past two years he travelled around and established himself as a merchant (Minor Virtue: Social Contacts) using on of his personae. It was during that time that he met his True Love (Major Flaw: True Love), the daughter of one of his contacts. At the same time, he found new power on him due to that connection (Major Virtue: Sanguine Humor's Blessing, HoH:S p.121), which further motivated him to improve his network as a merchant.
While he is sure that the lady also likes him, they are not formally in a relationship yet. But one thing troubles Atheus: when he established his network he used one of his personas, and that was the person the girl fell in love with. What if her love fades if (when?) she discovers his real self?
Currently Atheus is starting to see that he will need support to further progress on his hermetic life, so he decided to join Inchmore after all. His intention is to use his contacts to strangle the mundane resources of the English magi (technically this only counts as interference if he is caught doing it, right?) through subtle suggestions to his friends (don't sell to those people, you will likely earn more if you deal with these ones instead) and, at the same time, secure a proper marriage with his True Love (her father might have other intentions for her, though).
A few more thoughts:
As I first envisioned it, Atheus is not yet Atheus, but still Henry, in the midst of his macgnĂmartha (he would start without Parma). He would need to have his parens agree that he is already a magus (in my mind Nobutes has given his tacit approval on the subject from the day Henry left Circulus Ruber, but that does need to be formalized before the Order, and Atheus needs to swear the Code). But I can also say that he has just gained the needed recognition and learned Parma either from his master or Quaesitor Visioturpis, just to avoid troubling the waters of the saga. Either way, I don't think Nobutes is too interested in further testing his disciple (no Tormenting Master).
Nobutes being a Leper Magus leaves open an avenue for character development. The way Atheus' Warped Magic manifests and his Life Boost indicate he could develop towards that direction if he ever contracts leprosy (the latent potential is there, if you will). This would surely be a huge setback for everything he has built, and another test to his True Love, but fate is know to no one but God, right? This way, if it ever comes to be, Nobutes would initiate him into the Leper Magus virtue
On Intrigue:
Atheus intends to direct people to courses of action that are favorable to him, but not necessarily unfavorable for them, mostly through diplomacy. Operating under a persona (I'm thinking of at least a rank 2 on Persona to begin with, so his first persona will have a Reputation of 2 as a Merchant) his Gift penalty to influence his social contacts (who already know him) will be at least partialy offset. With a Pre and Com 3 and a score of 3/4 to Intrigue/Charm/Guile he should be generally capable of beating EF +6 or +9, which are what I understand he would be facing with his slow game. Due to Sanguine Humor's Blessing he gets a +3 on "rolls to impress or persuade", which will help establish first contact by positively impressing his targets, and later on honestly persuading them. All together, as I see, as long as he is indeed trying to be a reasonable business partner and his proposals are not detrimental to his contacts he should manage things well.
As I see the effect of this would be to cause minor trouble to the covenants. For example, if my Google Fu is serving me well, Ashenrise is located on the Ballymoon Castle (for this example I'll assume it is there indeed) and they should get most of their supplies from Muine Bheag, Carlow, Tullow... By convincing merchant A to delay his shipment of glassware destined to Carlow and convincing merchant B from Tullow to sell his glassware to Lambaird instead (even if it is less profitable due to the distance) this would be just enough to inconvenience Ashenrise in a minor way, say, mildly impacting their lab work for a season. They won't even know he was the culprit. Over time, all of these inconveniences should accumulate to drive them out.
(He would also engage to gain the best deals for Inchmore, of course, and his network could provide a small income for the covenant!)
I reckon he could, if he wanted to, to try and completely colapse a rival covenant's economy... but this is too risky, the other covenant is bound to notice and take precautions, and this would surely be prosecuted on Tribunal, so this kind of thing would be his last option.
He expects to occasionally need to help his contacts (for example, if he wants merchant B from Tullow to sell to Lambaird he might need to provide help with securing the cargo from raiders). For that he would employ magic means in non-ostensive ways.
He also intends to use magic to collect information at distance and communicate with the selected few people who actually know he is a magus.
It's possible that what I'm proposing is too ambitious for a simple merchant with a few scattered contacts. As I see, either his network would grow in size and influence with the saga until he is actually capable of achieving what I proposed above, or I could just buy Social Contacts again (to merit more, or more powerful merchants), or pick Social Contacts with, say, nobles (encouraging them to levy taxes to the right people, at the right time) so that he can already start strong. Idk.
Finally, as I said before, I'd be interested in exploring the rules for agencies, but this does add a degree of complexity that is not entirely necessary. What is the troupe's and SG's judgment on that?
I like what I see here.
I think using this activity as a premise for engaging with the Agency rules would be interesting and worthwhile. You could expand on that by having a Companion Factor to augment this, especially since your ability to do so yourself is impacted by the Gift.
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If someone wants to make a companion to work with Atheus, that would be welcome! If not, I might think of making a grog and delegating a few tasks to him, if the agency grows too much?
But with Atheus' Intrigue and Presence he should still be able to manage a handful of people even taking his Gift in consideration (I'll post his preliminary stats soon), enough to start with.
Pg. 141 suggests that a virtue such as Social Contacts provides 12 points to spend on agents. Would you like to use that, or rely on the partial adoption sidebar (also on pg. 141), to the effect that the Social Contacts Virtue is dealt with outside of the agency rules, and the agency itself is developed in actual play? Either way I will detail a couple of people already know to him, just to give us a few hooks.
@Vortigern I'm imagining Eadric will be more than mildly strong at Corpus?
His master being a Leper Magus I was thinking Atheus should have at least passable Corpus himself, but I don't want to step on Eadric's toes if I can avoid it. My original thought was to put him at Corpus 6 and have him be his master's middle man, with very basic InCo and CrCo health spells (eg., a grog was hurt by the hag, Atheus, go there to see how serious it is, if it's simple I won't go, I'm a leper. Just cast bind wounds so that the person can be safely transported back to the covenant)...
And then I remembered you intended for a major focus on human health. =P
With Eadric's Blatant Gift and Hatred of mundanes I don't think there's going to be much of an overlap in function, and for any serious healing (or damage) we will want Eadric, but I wanted to hear from you first. I can always change Atheus' background a bit (there's much else he can do to better serve his master during apprenticeship), inlcuding giving up on his master being a leper magus.
Currently working on my build now, and aiming for Corpus ~10. But to start with he will be far more proficient at harming than healing, though the human health would make him (in time) good at both. It will be a little time before he is ready for that regardless, I think.
Maybe seeing someone else who knows such spells could inspire him to pursue the more positive side of his magic? I say go for it.
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Then let's trade spells later. Them both being from Circulus Ruber will surely help with that, despite their approaches to life and magic being different.
I'll post in a bit.
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Ended up taking more time than I expected:
Characteristics: Int +1, Per +1, Pre +3, Com +3, Str -2, Sta +0, Dex -1, Qik -2
Virtues: The Gift; Hermetic Magus; Self-Confident*; Sanguine Humor’s Blessing (+3); Persona (+1); Life Boost (+1); Social Contacts (Merchants) (+1); Well Travelled (+1); Puissant Intrigue (+1); Quiet Casting (+1); Inventive Genius (+1)
Flaws: True Love (-3); Proud (-1); Avaricious (-3); Warped Magic (-1); Weak Parens (-1); Unimaginative Learner (-1)
- Proud: he is a Tytalus, after all. He is fundamentally better than other magi, isn't he?
- Avaricious: He tends to hoard vis (TBH I'm still thinking about this one)
- Unimaginative Learner: Normaly I barely consider this one a flaw, because studying from vis goes unnused so often, so I'd like other people's opinion on this.
Early childhood +1 year
Henry was born in Limerick, on the English side. His Gift manifested early, with his visage occasionally changing. He would return home with a different eye color, hair length, skin tone, all in an uncontrolled manner. It didn’t took much for his parents to abandon him, but thanks to his unreliable ability he managed to survive until rumors about the weird child reached the ears of a Redcap, who found him and sold him to a magus from Circulus Ruber.
Charm 2 (15xp)
Folk Ken 2 (15xp)
Guile 2 (15xp)
English (Anglian) 5 (75xp)
Awareness 2 (15xp)
Apprenticeship (12 years) (180xp)
Henry had the Arts opened by Nobutes of Tytalus, a Leper Magus from Circulus Ruber. The magus managed to channel the boy’s ability to change himself into a subtle way of self-transformation known by House Tytalus. This allowed Henry the necessary control to change to and from his original face.
Nobutes then proceeded to the standard training of house Tytalus. Much of his proficiency with bargaining was learned by trial and error, trying to convince his master to change the ways of instruction (every time his master agreed and he thought he had succeeded the next day the training became even more unbearable).
The boy’s talent for laboratory work and experimentation came as an opportune surprise, and lab time was the only moment when his master forgot about the unhinged training.
Nobutes eventually started to introduce spells on the boy’s life, but not to make it easier: to give him chores. Henry became responsible for assessing the health of the grogs (and occasionally of cattle, using spontaneous spells), and from time to time of accompanying them on short travels in case anyone needed magical assistance. Around 1215 Nobutes began to tell Henry of his future-to-be, his participation on expelling the English from Ireland and taking back the covenant of Praesis. That was when Henry decided he had enough of his pater and began to dedicate himself in Mentem and help himself to a few lab texts, planning an early end to his abuse/apprenticeship. Three years later, he fled.
Abilities: 115xp
Persona 2 (+10xp)
Gaelic 1 (5xp)
Artes Liberales 1 (5xp)
Latin 4 (50xp)
Magic Theory 3 (30xp)
Parma Magica 0* (5xp) (still does not know how to actually cast it)
Code of Hermes 1 (5xp)
Order of Hermes Lore 1 (5xp)
Arts: 65xp
Cr 4, In 4, Mu 0, Pe 0, Re 2,
An 0, Aq 0, Au 0, Co 6, He 0, Ig 0, Im 0, Me 6, Te 0, Vi 0
Spells (90 levels):
Bind Wound (CrCo 10/+10)
Purify the Open Cut (CrCo 10/+10)
Revealed Flaws of Mortal Flesh (InCo 10/+10)
The Noble Visage (MuCo 10/+11)(S)
The Raiders Drop Their Weapons (ReCo 15/+8)
Perception of Conflicting Motives (InMe 15/+10)
Convincing the Raiders to Give up for Today (MuMe 10/+11)(S)
A Good Suggestion (ReMe 10/+13)(S)
*Things marked with an (S) are where I believe Sanguine's Humor Blessing might kick in (+5 to casting totals for spells to impress or persuade), but I'd appreciate other people's input. I'll detail the spells below.
Macgnimartha (2 years/ +30 xp) + Well Travelled virtue (+50 xp)
- Note: Instead of putting two extra XP years before the apprenticeship begins I shifted them to the macgnimartha. Atheus is gaining 15xp each year, as he is without the support from the covenant. It looked better than saying his two years merit nothing, and overal the math is not changing (it's just a matter of where those 2 years enter, before or after) but if that looks unsuitable I will happily edit it.
In the last two years Henry has travelled Ireland under the guise of one of his personas, Mathias. By luck or fate he ended up saving Simon, a merchant, while traveling with his group, by managing to convince a group of raiders to give up the attack. That, summed with his knack to know when someone is sick and his ability binding wounds managed to build up Simon’s trust, opening the doors to make contact with several of his friends. As “Mathias the Peacemaker”, Henry works as a counselor, advising his contacts on actions and deals that are beneficial to them (those which he discovers through careful usage of Perception of Conflicting Motives).
It was Simon who introduced him to Guillouic, a wealty merchant, and that would end up being the most recent turning point in his life, comparable with the beginning of his apprenticeship. Through his connection with Guillouic he came to know his daughter, Marie Jeane, and fell in love. Decided to work hard to increase his standing in the eyes of her father he extended his network, mediating several deals... But realizing he was starting to stretch himself thin, he decided to go back to Inchmore, were Nobutes intended him to join, and count with the covenant’s support to further manage his network and marry Marie.
Etiquette 1 (5xp)
Chirurgy 1 (5xp)
Area Lore: Hibernia 1 (5xp)
Intrigue 2 (15xp)
Well Traveled (+50 xp)
Intrigue 3 (+15xp)
Bargain 2 (15xp)
Area Lore: Hibernia (+10xp)
Gaelic 2 (+10xp)
Spells:
Bind Wound (CrCo 10/+10) - As corebook.
Purify the Open Cut (CrCo 10/+10) - Purification of the Festering Wounds at base 2, for a +3 bonus to recovery rolls.
Revealed Flaws of Mortal Flesh (InCo 10/+10) - As corebook
The Noble Visage (MuCo 10/+11)(S)
(Base 2, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +1 Part)
The idea is to make a small changes to someones appearance (smaller than base 3 utterly change the appearance) to achieve the effect of a "natural makeup" look, slightly enhancing appearance (healthier look, reduce wrinkles and eye bags, things like that) and meriting the same bonus as Aura of Enobled Presence. As the effect is aimed at enhancing the ability to convince and influence, Sanguine's Humor Blessing +5 to casting total would apply.
The Raiders Drop Their Weapons (ReCo 15/+8) - Spasms of Uncontrolled Hand @ D:Diameter, T:Group
Perception of Conflicting Motives (InMe 15/+10) - As corebook
Convincing the Raiders to Give up for Today (MuMe 10/+11)(S)
(Base 3, +1 Eye, +2 Sun)
Base 3 major change to emotion to convince a single target to repent hostile intentions and letting their target go. Assumes the target begins with intimidation (so there is room to try to talk his way out of it). Against a group of attackers Atheus uses this against the one who seems to be the leader. Once he changes the leader's disposition it's usually possible to drive the raiders away with a well placed argument and a bit of pleading (assuming the leader has good control over his men).
A Good Suggestion (ReMe 10/+13)(S)
(Base 3, +1 Eye, +2 Sun)
The target gets more receptive to a verbal suggestion made right after the spell is cast. The suggestion doesn’t need to be made by the magus. This isn't magical coercion. The spell makes the target more likely to consider the good sides of the suggestion, but it won't make him agree to what seems like a bad idea.
Since they likely spent a great deal of their apprenticeships together it seems likely that Vorsutus and Atheus have at least a developed relationship (whether positive or negative). It seems like Atheus has developed towards desiring to act indirectly and/or through agencies? And to be subtle as often as possible.
One could see the judicious employment of Hex or like magic as being useful to such aims, if there are targets/individuals that aren't acting as desired and/or the desire is for them to fail. So some collaboration there seems like a potentially fruitful enterprise.
Also the Duidsan and Tytalus seem like types that just might get along in their mindsets about things. It is possible anyway. The two apprentices could have even been encouraged to cooperate and/or be friendly, though that certainly wouldn't be a given.
In their current versions Vorsutus (ironically enough) seems the most capable of direct violence/confrontation, so that could be something he assisted with perhaps as well?
I think it makes complete sense for they to have at least a friendly competition on what is better, to curse from distance or to direct from the shadows in a less forceful way.
As I see Atheus started to develop towards agencies because he himself was basically his master's factor while he was an apprentice, interacting with people when it wasn't convenient for him. He should also have learned early on that as long as he is not asking something unreasonable from the covnfolk he doesn't really need to threathen or sweet talk them too much.
Still, he is not against the occasional hex, and it's likely that he will go to Eadric if/when the necessity arises. I think its quite likely that they have already cooperated on something like that during apprenticeship, or even during Atheus' macgnimartha?
But since Atheus tends to subtly guide instead of coerce his network, he should lean to hex only when he gets an AC to an adversary, to hinder them.
I got caught up in a few things, but I will try to get another pass at Atheus tomorrow and bring a definitive set of V&F for evaluation. I think his spells are pretty much the ones listed (if approved), I'll just adjust the descriptive text (as of now I've only presented the rationale behind the spells, not the actual description).
He lacks direct damage, but I hope to compensate that with a handfull of grogs (+ the Group Spasms of Uncontrolled Hand when he actually needs protection).
So, I was somewhat unsatisfied with his flaws, specially personality flaws. Major Avaricious should be a defining factor and drive the character to stories, but in my mind it was driving the character towards something unpleasant. Changing Proud to major and avaricious to minor wasn't solving the issue, so I'm puting them both at minor and changing Warped Magic to Deficient Technique (Perdo). So after a second pass I thik I'll settle for the following:
Virtues: The Gift; Hermetic Magus; Self-Confident*; Sanguine Humor’s Blessing (+3); Persona (+1); Life Boost (+1); Social Contacts (Merchants) (+1); Well Travelled (+1); Puissant Intrigue (+1); Quiet Casting (+1); Inventive Genius (+1)
Flaws: True Love (-3); Deficient Technique: Perdo (-3); Proud (-1); Avaricious (-1); Weak Parens (-1); Unimaginative Learner (-1)
Warped Magic (pungent odor) would be a strong inclination of mine in case of, say, a bad twilight experience.
Personality: Love (Marie Jeane) +4, Avaricious +2, Proud +2
- Proud: he is a Tytalus, and therefore, fundamentally better than other magi. He usually does not make a big deal of that, but he knows it to be true.
- Avaricious: He avoids using vis unless it's really necessary.
Description:
Henry/Atheus is a young man around his 20's. He has high cheek bones, blonde hair and an aquiline nose. His eyes are pale blue, almost grey.
Sigil: when casting a spell, Henry's body slightly shifts depending on the spell parameters. If eye, vision or sight, his eyes temporarily change color to a different shade of whatever the current color is. If touch or AC the skin on his hand ondulates (think mystique on the x-men movies, but really subtle, and not blue). In other cases, both his eyes and his face slightly shift. This is subtle enough that it can be confused with lighting or a natural movement of the muscles if one doesn't know what he is looking at. Under InVi spells the sigil manifests as an ever shifting undulation in the magic waves (again, think Mystique).
Personae:
Mathias the Counselor
- Reputation: Trustworthy counselor 2
- Personality: Cheerful, Careful
- Description: a strong jawline, dark and wavy hair, green eyes.
- Note: Many from Circulus Ruber actually think this is the real appearance of Atheus, and Henry is a fake one (and except for Nobutes, no one knows about his virtue. They think he changes his face through regular hermetic MuCo). It's also under this persona that Henry manages his contacts.
Fedelm the Silent
- Reputation: Hedge-Witch 1
- Personality: Silent, Brave.
- Description: frail looking, with long auburn hair, diamond-shaped face and large, green eyes.
- Note: An Irish hedge witch with "dowsing" (which Atheus reproduces with sponted Intellego spells) and the ability to concoct small healing potions (actually harmless drinks and a disguised casting of Purify the Open Cut. Atheus speaks as little as possible while under this persona (due to the almost non-existent Gaelic) but intends to learn the language to be fully able to use the persona (or learn Toughts Within Babble).
Note: as stated under the Persona Virtue, a new persona starts with a reputation of 1 and any XP applied to the ability also increases the reputation of all the existing personas by the same amount. Due to that, Mathias already has a reputation of 2 and Fedelm starts with a Reputation of 1.
I'll work a bit more on his contacts, True Love, and possible hooks. If there is anything here that doesn't sound good, please let me know! =]
Social Contacs
Atheus' contacts are a few merchants scattered through Leinster and Meath. He connected with these people under the face of Mathias, and his advice has several times been pivotal to help them close good deals or avoid bad ones.
(In game terms, Atheus uses Perception of Conflicting Motives and A Good Suggestion to subtly probe and direct the merchants.)
Simon
Simon is a traveling merchant, bringing goods to and from Dublin. His main product is fur and leather (a huge export of Ireland at the time). Atheus/Mathias has travelled with Simon a few times, and Simon was the one who first called him "the Counselor". A couple of months ago Atheus was forced to use overt magic against a group of raiders, making them drop their weapons and creating an opening for the grogs to deal with the raiders. Since then Simon has known that "Mathias can do magic". He has no idea on the extent of Mathias powers, however. Mathias claimed to have learned "a bit of magic from an old wizard", which is technically true.
Gael Guillouic
Gael is a wealthy breton merchant, currently living in Dublin, who exports goods to England and Britanny. Simon introduced Mathias to him about one year ago, and since them they have cooperated a few times, resulting in very good deals, and leaving Gael very pleased.
His wife is Denise, a woman of french heritage.
He has four male sons and two daughters (I used the random way of designing heirs from LoM p.9, but feel free to adjust if better for the story). Atheus has completely fallen for the youngest daughter, Marie-Joane.
Marie-Joane
True Love of Atheus, Marie-Joane is a young and naive girl with very dark hair and blue eyes, just like her mother. Since meeting Mathias, a young and dashing business partner of her father, she has become infatuated with him.
Possible Hooks
1. Marie-Joane: Anything related to her. Atheus will go to great lenghts to please the lady, and to protect her. His social contacts provide him with enough information about her when he is far away so that he knows if she is safe or not. If he comes to know of anything that might threaten her well-being (a weird string of deaths in Dublin, rumors about a hedge-wizard) he would jump to action. The same if he hears of something that migh entice her (eg., if he discovers she loves Connemara marble he might set for Connacht and secure a piece of enough size and quality to make a fine statue to gift her).
Indirectly he might try to woe her father to stand out as a suitable groom.
He wants to marry Marie-Joane soon, and will try to focus on that in the short-term. Anything that threatens this goal needs to be dealt with. For example, if one of her brothers strongly opposes her marrying a no-name gentleman he will need to build rapport with him (through a story)... or grasp a secret he can blackmail her brother with, if needed be.
2. Simon and other merchants
- Atheus takes care of his contacts, and would go to their aid in order to keep his network safe and functional. In particular, Simon knows he has magical powers, and is likely to rely on Atheus/Mathias if he has magical or supernatural trouble on the road.
- On the same token, if Simon, Gael or anyone else of his contacts requests his support for a troublesome deal he would help them.
3. Intrigue Against Ashenrise
Atheus keeps an attentive eye on the mundane dealings of Ashenrise. If he sees an opportunity to strike at them he will try to grasp it. His goal is to be enough of a nuisance such that the magi can't focus on their studies or magical experiments, but at the same time he recognizes that at the moment he is not strong enough to seriously hamper the magi themselves. Instead he'd focus on troubling the mundanes of the castle (which works pretty much as an English castle, according to TCI). For example, causing a shortage of traditional English goods and luxury items to lower the morale of the covenant and local English lords.
If he can grasp an income source of the covenant and hamper it enough he can make it dwindle.
(Eg, an impact equivalent to a Contraction on the Income Modification table on Cov. p.57 would cut an income source by half in 4 years. We need not to use those rules, I mention them just to exemplify the kind of thing he will be trying to accomplish.)
Atheus will go on stories to inconvenience Ashenrise, or to increase his agency and grasp intel that he can later use in his schemes. For example, turning the nobles who are nominally the lords of Ashenrise's castle into his agents.
He is entertaining ideas of developing a persona and infiltrating the covenant as a mundane, but this is better left for the future.
@Vortigern @Nithyn I think this should be the gist of it. If it seems all ok I will parse the posts above in a more readable manner and post it into the final thread. If you need/want more details, just tell me.
I avoided to develop his contacts too much, in case you want to use the rules on ArM p.49, but I can go deeper if you prefer and draft all of his current agents.
Nope, looks good to me mate!
Nope, I'm all in favor of developing the contacts, so feel free!
So, on developing contacts. Atheus can manage up to 10 people currently.
[Pre 3 + Intrigue 5, - Gift 3 (I assume his reputation can't offset this)] x2 = 10.
The Social Contacts virtue provides 12 points to spend on contacts, who are bought at the cost of their Bond + Resistance.
I'm thinking about 6 contacts. I designed them using the rules of HoH:S:
- a social status (all are merchants)
- a bond strenght that details their relation with Atheus (most are grateful due to his support on previous dealings)
- a handful of resources that Atheus can exploit (besides each one I've listed it's modifier to the resistance)
- and a few hooks (found on p.143 as Modifiers) that can involve Atheus in his agents' troubles, or that he will eventually/occasionally need to deal with if he wants to keep that agent (besides each one I've listed it's modifier to the resistance).
- the total cost in points for buying these as starting contacts (Bond + Resistance)
While hooks are not strictly necessary I’ve given them to most agents. In one hand this increases the amount of resources available to them. On the other it works as flaws for them, making so that each one is a bit more “human”. Most of them can be fleshed out as grogs to be played in the stories they will drag Atheus into, and I suggest that they are fleshed out as such if the time comes. =]
Just to remember, the rules for agencies assume he can occasionally order the agent to accomplish a task within his abilities, and this is the primary use Atheus has for them (request things, sit back and wait, profit).
In my view the bond strength represents, to a degree, the depth of investment that Atheus has in that relationship. Because of that, I’ve opted for +1 bonds in most of the cases (he hadn’t much time to develop his agency, so it doesn’t make sense for most of those to have high bonds).
Atheus takes a few days every season to visit one or two of his contacts, just to keep in touch.
Simon Murtagh
Social Status: Merchant
Bond: Gratitude +2
Resources: Temporal Influence [+1], Extraordinary Skill (Bargain 6+)[+1]
Hooks: Black Sheep [-1]
Cost: 3
Simon is a traveling merchant, bringing goods to and from Dublin. His main product is fur and leather (a huge export of Ireland at the time). Atheus/Mathias has travelled with Simon a few times, and Simon was the one who first called him "the Counselor". A couple of months ago Atheus was forced to use overt magic against a group of raiders, making them drop their weapons and creating an opening for the grogs to deal with the raiders. Since then Simon has known that "Mathias can do magic". He has no idea on the extent of Mathias powers, however. Mathias claimed to have learned "a bit of magic from an old wizard", which is technically true.
Simon is the middle son of a minor noble, but has distanced himself from the family. He doesn’t enjoy a lot of material benefits due to that relation and a few people may try to cause him trouble for it, but he still has a few friends in the upper ranks of society who lend him an ear.
Gael Guillouic
Social Status: Merchant
Bond: Gratitude +1
Resources: Wealthy [+3], Temporal Influence [+1], Extraordinary Skill (Main ability 6+)[+1]
Hooks: Feud [-3]
Cost: 3
Gael is a wealthy and competent Breton merchant, currently living in Dublin, who exports goods to England and Britanny. Simon introduced Mathias to him about one year ago, and since them they have cooperated a few times, resulting in very good deals, and leaving Gael very pleased. Thanks to his Temporal Influence (a result of his wealth), he has some say in how Dublin operates.
He is married to Denise, a woman of french heritage, and has four male sons and two daughters. Atheus has completely fallen for the youngest daughter, Marie-Jeane.
Gael has a long term feud with another merchant, and often they bring trouble to each other, both in open and hidden ways.
Killian
Social Status: Merchant
Bond: Gratitude +1
Resources: Underlings [+1], Magic Sensitivity [+1]
Hooks: Favors (to Ashenrise) [-1]
Cost: 2
A merchant from Carlow with a network of his own, Killian has a finger on many of the local deals, and has even directly dealt with Ashenrise before. He has a modicum of understanding about the supernatural thanks to his Magic Sensitivity, but he has not discovered about Atheus’ nature. He owns a favor to Ashenrise, and he might call upon Mathias for help to pay it back.
- Note: assuming Persona registers as a lvl 10 effect to MS, the EF to perceive it is 19. Well beyond Killian’s capability (Assumig Per+MS ~4), unless he is on a fairly strong magic aura and rolls very well.
Niall
Social Status: Merchant
Bond: Gratitude +1
Resources: Gossip [+1]
Hooks: ---
Cost: 2
A small peddler from Athlone, Niall can usually be counted upon to obtain the latest information around the city. He is grateful to Mathias due to his help in stopping a rival merchant of causing Niall’s bankrupcy (but Niall still became impoverished due to the trouble).
Katie MacNally
Social Status: Merchant
Bond: Gratitude +1
Resources: Protection [+1]
Hooks: Infamous [-1]
Cost: 1
Mathias came to know Katie in the last fair in Kilkenny. There are rumors about hauntings in the cathedral, and he decided to keep her as a contact due to the suspect that this might be related to an actual supernatural entity. She is protected by a local priest, which means she can meddle in a lot of things with little opposition. Word goes around that she is his mistress, but no one knows for sure.
Arthur
Social Status: Merchant
Bond: Blackmail +4
Resources: Extraordinary Skill (Dex+Legerdeman 8+) [+3]
Hooks: Blackmail [-6]
Cost: 1
A small merchant from Carlow, Arthur was formerly a thief who managed to escape hanging and escape his old life… or that was the idea, but due to a bout of bad luck his former deeds came to be known by Atheus, who uses it to keep Arthur under his thumb. Atheus uses his true face (Henry) to manage Arthur, in order to avoid tarnishing Mathias’ reputation.
Arthur is a difficult underling (due to the blackmail hook), and will do what he can to escape the magus’ grasp. Atheus intends to eventually let Arthur go free if he becomes too troublesome to manage.
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@Vortigern @Nithyn if you have no comments regarding Atheus' agents above I'll post them in his character thread, ok?
Otherwise the character should be finished, so I have time in my hands to help fleshing out other things if you want (our covenant, Athlone, major NPCs, etc).
Looks good to me mate, go ahead!
And let me chat with @Vortigern when he gets his lazy butt out of bed today and we'll be more than happy to put ya to work on something covenant related!
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