Liking what you've got so far mate! Thinking about a possible companion for ya, and I was thinking about an un-Gifted hedgie of some sort. Was playing around with some stuff at present, but I'm unsure. Potentially thought of bringing over an Irish version of the Storm Wizards from Against the Dark? Fits the whole giant blooded bit.
Thanks Nithyn. I like the idea of an Irish Storm Wizard. As written in AtD, aren't they Gifted though? I'm fine with hand waving that away, but defer to others.
Also, it'd probably be better to amend the kill-a-giant-and-eat-its-heart to some other kind of initiation!
Considering he'll be living with the Muintir Folaithe giants for a year or two before Apprenticeship, it could be someone he met in that period and kept in touch with. And who maybe goes on his macgnimartha to Faerie with him.
Glad you're a fan!
And yeah, they are. But it doesn't make sense why they'd have to be? Especially since it says that the virtues can be acquired by other characters. But let's have @Vortigern weigh in here. He's running this show after all!
Hah! Agreed.
I like this! Provided @Vortigern is fine with things, I'll get cracking. There are a ton of really interesting Auram-related supernatural abilities, so I'm rather spoiled for choices (looking at you Whistle up the Wind). I may not even try to take the full suite of powers as it were, but still!
Edit: Or I could just flat out make him a magic human, and give him a might score. Both options work.
I like everything here so far. You are both very green to proceed. I'll deep dive when I have more time and let you know if I have any quibbles.
Alrighty, awesome!
Came up with this as a rough set of virtues:
Way of the Land (Sky)
Nature Lore (Sky)
Puissant Nature Lore
Whistle up the Winds
Independent Study
Lesser Craft Magic
Ended up making him a bit more focused than I originally intended. But it feels rather thematic, and he'll have a solid little niche.
Problems fleshing things out?
Sorry, I've been sitting on this for a while, obsessing over background details. I'll add them later this coming week. For now, here is what I have so far for the rest of the character design.
Apprenticeship (125/240 xp)
Order of Hermes Lore (history): 1
Parma Magica (Terram): 1
Artes Liberales (geometry): 1
Magic Theory (Terram): 3
Latin (Hermetic usage): 4
Code of Hermes (Hibernia): 1
Finesse (Terram): 2+2
Concentration (spell concentration): 1
Penetration (Terram): 1
Arts (115 xp)
| Techniques | Forms | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cr: 6 (21) | An: 0 | Ig: 0 | |
| In: 1 (1) | Aq: 0 | Im: 5 (15) | |
| Mu: 4 (10) | Au: 0 | Me: 0 | |
| Pe: 6 (21) | Co: 0 | Te: 10 (37) | |
| Re: 4 (10) | He: 0 | Vi: 0 |
Spells known at Gauntlet (120 lvls)
-
Wall of Protecting Stone (CrTe 25): +17
-
Conjuring the Stone Dwelling (CrTe 25): +17
R: Touch, D: Mom., T: Ind., Ritual
Creates a stone structure with typical architectural features (doorways, windows, walls, and roof), with multiple internal rooms, 10 ft-high ceilings, and covering an area of 2700 sq. ft (~250 sq. m = 300 sq. paces).
(Base 3, +1 Touch, +3 size, +2 moderately complex design) -
Trackless Step (ReTe 10): +19*
-
Weilding the Invisible Sling (ReTe 10): +15
-
The Earth's Carbunkle (Re(Mu)Te 15): +15
-
Prying Eyes (InIm 5): +7
-
Veil of Invisibility (PeIm 20): +17*
-
Wizard's Sidestep (ReIm 10): +14*
*mMF in concealment applies
While adjusting parameters of Conjuring the Mystic Tower to make the Dwelling version above, I started wondering about the +3 for elaborate design. If, according to Societates (pg. 60 Creo Magic section), adding details and making an object particularly beautiful or suited to a task (which I'm assuming elaborate design covers too) are supposed to be the result of an Int+Finesse roll, then are CtMT and similar spells the exception? If Dubhthach invents other spells to make things out of stone, will I be adding levels or relying on Int+Finesse rolls?
Another thing I realized is that adding a martial ability through his Macgnimartha and the faerie weapons master feels like one XP sink too many. So although it maybe makes him somewhat less interesting, I'm thinking about switching the goal of his expedition to winning knowledge from the fae, instead of martial prowess. The three virtues gained from the faerie mentor could be the following:
- Familiarity with the Fae
- Puissant Second Sight
- Subterranean Regio Network (RoP:M, 45) - any thoughts on the usefulness of this one?
Never liked them arbitrarily adding complexity to the spell but still requiring a roll. I'm of the mindset that Societates overrides this, and would only require the finesse roll, but I'll let @Vortigern make the final call. Though I suspect we're of a like mind here.
Totally fair! I'm a big fan of familiarity and regio. When I was thinking of a fae focused character, I had both. Though the network I went with was faerie roads and trods. But I digress!
The only one I'm not in love with is Puissant, but I get why you took it, and it's thematic.
Alrighty, first a review of V&Fs, along with some changes that I'd like to make to the original list (bolded)
Tradition Virtues and Flaw
(0) Strong Magic Blood: descendent of the Muintir Folaithe giants
- -3 to aging rolls, which start at age 50
- Second Sight
- Strength +1 from the giant aspect
(0) Affinity with Terram
(0) Necessary condition: touching stone
Virtues
(0) The Gift
(0) Hermetic Magus
(1) Minor magical focus: concealment of information only, not destruction
(1) Cautious Sorcerer
(1) Puissant Second Sight
(1) Subterranean Regio Network
(1) Familiarity with the Fae
(The above three are from his Macgnimartha, during which he struck a deal with a Faerie - see below for details)
(1) Puissant Finesse
(1) Well travelled (instead of Subtle Magic, which is no longer as useful without the martial bent)
(3) Gentle Gift
Flaws
(-3) Driven: (a) figure out who killed his mater, and avenge her - can turn into (b) protect the Hibernian Tribunal, particularly from the English, if he completes (a)
(-3) Plagued by supernatural entity: Faerie instructor (see below)
(-1) Temperate
(-1) Disjointed magic
(-1) Stockade Parma Magica
(-1) Warped magic: opaque mist adheres to and obscures / blinds target; time to dissipate is proportional to spell magnitude
Now for some more details on his background.
Apprenticeship & Macgnimartha
While among the Muintir Folaithe, Fáelán began tapping into his magical abilities. The giants taught him exercises by which to practice his growing skills in the Form of Terram, and while doing so, he was often surrounded by the magical druid fog that some among the giants could create. His own magic became suffused by these mists, such that it became both his sigil, and an inconvenient side effect of his spells - after his Gift was opened and he began practicing his casting, Fáelán found that an opaque mist would form around the target of his spells, obscuring their sight and preventing them from being seen. The adhesive mist could not be displaced from around the target by fanning or other motions, no matter how vigorous. It had to be allowed to dissipate according to its own schedule, imposed by the strength of the spell, before the target could see their surroundings clearly again, or become the target of the next spell.
The giants also opened his eyes to the exploitation of the Irish by English colonizers. While the giants attempted to protect the mundane Irish, they couldn't be everywhere, all at once, to stop everything bad from happening. Villages were burned, people murdered or dispossessed, and this they showed to Fáelán, so that he understood why he must work hard to become strong - that there would be people who needed his help.
For his apprenticeship, Fáelán was taken under the wing by maga Niamh, a fellow descendent of the Muintir Folaithe (the most recent inductee into the tradition, besides himself). Niamh was ostensibly a member of Circulus Ruber, but spent very little time there, preferring to travel the Irish Provinces and lend her help to those in need. Fáelán took well to her itinerant lifestyle, absorbing her instruction as they travelled, regardless of their surroundings. As his magical abilities grew, she would take him further afield, to threatened sites of historical and magical significance to the Tribunal, so that he could help safeguard them. With his apprenticeship nearing completion, Fáelán elected to pursue great knowledge during his Macgnimartha. Exactly what knowledge he was not sure, but after consultations with a Merinita magus, his devised the goal of finding a Faerie who possessed the equivalent wisdom of the Salmon of Knowledge from Irish legend, and stealing that wisdom.
The hunt took him up and down the River Boyne, in which the Salmon of legend ate 9 hazelnuts from the Tree of Knowledge that had fallen into the water. Eventually, in a Faerie regio accessed via the river, he found an underground lake, and within this lake lived a person-sized salmon who spoke with him, and who claimed to be the Salmon of Knowledge. For weeks, Fáelán tried to catch it, so he could eat it and steal its knowledge, but he failed repeatedly. Desperate from his lack of success, he resorted to negotiating a trade - sharing his own current and future knowledge with that of the fish. And the fish agreed, after imposing one condition, of course. To ensure a regular exchange of information in perpetuity, both the fish and Fáelán would be unable to learn new things after the end of the 9th month since the most recent exchange (note that we can introduce randomness in the elapsed time between transfers by variable dilation/contraction of time in the Faerie regio). Thinking more of the short-term gain directly in front of him, instead of the long-term consequences his brain was too tired to think about, Fáelán agreed to this condition, and the knowledge transfer took place. Being a Faerie, and in hindsight Fáelán realized this should have been expected, the extent of the Salmon's knowledge did not span the entire world. Fáelán did not become another Fionn. But the knowledge he received in return for his own was still valuable: familiarity with the ways and nature of the Fae + greater ability to detect the ordinarily invisible with his Second Sight + knowledge of a subterranean regio network. With the first transfer complete, and using his new ability to rapidly traverse Ireland through subterranean regios, Fáelán returned to Circulus Ruber to report his somewhat disappointing "success" to his mater.
Instead of a happy reunion, he found that she had died. Or been killed, more precisely. Probably. He also found that time in the mundane world had passed more quickly than the time he spent with the salmon - over a year had passed, instead of the several weeks he experienced. During its besieging by continental magi, Niamh had gone to aid in the defense of Praesis, but had fallen along with the covenant. No one he spoke with knew who killed her or how she died, or where her body was. After a period of mourning during which he returned to the giants, and then going through the formality of obtaining his Gauntlet from magi at Circulus Ruber, he became obsessed with finding answers to these questions, and taking revenge on her presumably non-Hibernian murderer(s). Thus he applied to join the new covenant of Inchmore, both to be close to where she fell and where clues to those answers may still lie, and to be useful to a covenant that may need protection from continental forces.
Nice. What craft would he practice?
To make sure, this is the companion that you will likely build (unless there's a change of mind), and I should still come up with one too?
I've been thinking about an ex-Hospitaller (there was a priory and likely a hospital in/near Dublin granted to the Order by Strongbow in 1174) who is also a craftsman - maybe a carpenter/fletcher, maybe an armorer - and who has all the craftsman Supernatural Virtues listed in City & Guild (Eye of St. Dunstan, Touched by Divine, Crafter's Healing). But I need to come up with a reasonable, non-cliché justification for why he would leave the Order and join a covenant. He'd be a bit older too, maybe in his 30s.
I'm leaning towards woodcarving at present. But we'll see.
Yup, still very much liking the concept and excited to finish fleshing it out! Thinking I'll probably make him a member of the Coill too, but we'll see.
And yes, absolutely! Who do you think you'd want to 'attach' said companion to?
Let me review - this is what I've seen posted recently:
Storm Wizard Woodcarver (Nithyn) --> Dubhthach (Emelric)
Surviving Librarian Brendan (Rafael) --> Domnall (Nithyn)
Mercenary Animal Tamer (Rafael... 2 companions? Or is this concept not going forward?) --> Vorsutus (Vortigern)
Heroic Hero (callen) --> Atheus (Rafael) if we don't allow attachment of our companions to our own magi
So Ex-Hospitaller Wondrous Craftsman (Emelric) --> Aine... he could be the male warrior to be buffed? I don't know. It seems easier to link an ex-Hospitallar to Lambaird, since the culture of the covenant is kind of like that of a Military Order. But I'm open to trying to make anything work.
We do not, no. The intent is that if your mage is studying for a year or something, we want you to have the opportunity to interact and go on adventures and the like. Not saying that just because a mage is going that all "their" companions will go, but it's far more likely.
The glutton for punishment that I am, I am also working on a heroic Redcap for @RafaelB but given @callen 's close ties to the Cult of Heroes, he'll likely be double dipping between the magi as it were. That said, depending on who you ultimately attach your character to, I may switch over to Callen as the primary as it were. Might actually make a hair more sense that way anyhow.
And speaking of Callen, I think his character was going to be with our resident stab happy Flambeau (Vortigern). Unless I'm mistaken? Speaking of, I've been pondering a mystical tattoo artist for @Vortigern utilizing partially opened Gruagach. Sans the Gift of course.
While we're on the topic of the boss man, I don't remember you ever throwing any ideas for companions out there. Any. thoughts as to what you might wanna do?
How we looking over there @Emelric ? Looks like we had the core of the magus done if I remember correctly, so now it's time for the crunchy bits with xp and what have you?
Here's most of it!
Personal Details
Age: 23 (23)
Decrepitude: 0
Confidence: 1 (3)
Warping: 0 (0)
Casting Sigil: Opaque mist covers spell target (see Warped Magic)
Voting Sigil: TBD
Personality Traits:
Temperate: +2
Brave: +2
Honorable: +3
Reputations:
Fae Expert (Hermetic): lvl 1 (5xp)
Characteristics
Int: 2
Per: 1
Com: 0
Pre: 0
Str: 1+1 (from Muintir Folaithe Blood)
Sta: 1
Dex: 1
Qik: 0
Virtues & Flaws
(0) The Gift
(0) Hermetic Magus
(0) Strong Magic Blood: descendent of the Muintir Folaithe
- -3 to aging rolls, which start at age 50
- Second Sight
- Strength +1
(0) Affinity with Terram
(3) Gentle Gift
(1) Minor magical focus: concealment
(1) Puissant Second Sight
(1) Subterranean Regio Network
(1) Familiarity with the Fae
(1) Puissant Finesse
(1) Well Traveled
(1) Cautious Sorceror
(-0) Necessary condition: touching stone
(-3) Driven: determine how mater died and avenge her --> protect Hibernian Tribunal, particularly from the English
(-3) Plagued by supernatural entity: Faerie salmon of "wisdom", with whom he must exchange what he's learned about the world before the end of every 9th month, or he can no longer learn new things
(-1) Temperate
(-1) Disjointed magic
(-1) Stockade Parma Magica
(-1) Warped magic: opaque mist adheres to and obscures / blinds targets of spells; time to dissipate is proportional to spell magnitude
Abilities and Arts
| Phase of Life | XP Grant |
|---|---|
| Early Childhood (0-5) | 45 |
| Later Life (6-12) | 105 |
| Apprenticeship (13-23) | 240 |
| Well Traveled | 50 |
| Total | 440 |
| Ability | Score | Specialty | XP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gaelic | 5 | Munster | 0 |
| Norse | 1 | Dublin dialect | 5 |
| English | 3 | Military | 30 |
| Athletics | 2 | Climbing | 15 |
| Awareness | 2 | Searching | 15 |
| Area Lore: Hibernia | 3 | Geography | 15 |
| Survival | 2 | Forest | 15 |
| Swim | 1 | Lakes | 5 |
| Animal Handling | 1 | Sheep | 5 |
| Second Sight | 3+2 | Faeries | 25 |
| Stealth | 2 | Natural Areas | 15 |
| Brawl | 1 | Dodging | 5 |
| Folk Ken | 1 | Peasants | 5 |
| Magic Lore | 2 | Creatures | 15 |
| Faerie Lore | 2 | Faeriie Forests | 15 |
| Order of Hermes Lore | 1 | Places | 5 |
| Parma Magica | 1 | Terram | 5 |
| Artes Liberales | 1 | Geometry | 5 |
| Magic Theory | 3 | Terram | 30 |
| Latin | 4 | Hermetic Usage | 50 |
| Code of Hermes | 1 | Hibernia | 5 |
| Finesse | 2+2 | Terram | 15 |
| Concentration | 1 | Spell Concentration | 5 |
| Penetration | 1 | Terram | 5 |
| Techniques | Score | XP | Forms | Score | XP | Forms | Score | XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cr: | 6 | 21 | An: | 0 | 0 | Ig: | 0 | 0 |
| In: | 1 | 1 | Aq: | 0 | 0 | Im: | 5 | 15 |
| Mu: | 4 | 10 | Au: | 0 | 0 | Me: | 0 | 0 |
| Pe: | 6 | 21 | Co: | 0 | 0 | Te: | 10 | 37 |
| Re: | 4 | 10 | He: | 0 | 0 | Vi: | 0 | 0 |
Spells
- Wall of Protecting Stone (CrTe 25): +17
- Trackless Step (ReTe 10): +19*
- Weilding the Invisible Sling (ReTe 10): +15
- The Earth's Carbunkle (Re(Mu)Te 15): +15
- Prying Eyes (InIm 5): +7
- Veil of Invisibility (PeIm 20): +17*
- Wizard's Sidestep (ReIm 10): +14*
Conjuring the Stone Dwelling (CrTe 25): +17
R: Touch, D: Mom., T: Ind., Ritual
Creates a stone structure with typical architectural features (doorways, windows, walls, and roof), with multiple internal rooms, 10 ft-high ceilings, and covering an area of 2700 sq. ft (~250 sq. m = 300 sq. paces).
(Base 3, +1 Touch, +3 size, +2 moderately complex design)[/details]
*mmF in concealment applies
Combat Details
TBD
Hooks and Known Characters
TBW
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