Gregorius is going to leave the faerie regio to the specialists, now it's been found.
[To be honest, faerie stories don't massively excite me, especially if they're tending more towards the "fairies as weird things doing weird stuff" end of the spectrum, which the initial trip seemed to tend towards.]
If you don't want to play in that story, feel free to sit it out, though we might need someone on occasion to play the grogs.
Scott
Magus concepts:
Companion concepts:
New magi character concept
Flambau inducted in to the cult of Mercury straight after the end of apprenticeship. Flawless Magic from apprenticeship with Mercurian Magic/Pagan from joining the cult of Mercury. Wields fire and also has a number of healing rituals. He is a Dwarf, but make fun of the fact at your peril (Tyron Lannister is the image in my head). He would be two years out of apprenticeship.
Companion
Middle aged weapon master who cowardly fled the siege of Constantinople while most of his students died in defence of the walls. The remainder, many noble, are now enemies of him and any who harbour him.
Magus concepts:
Companion concepts: none yet
I think most of these could work to a greater or lesser extent. As far as buildings go, the covenant is in the ruins of a greek (/roman client) settlement (although so far nothing about the remaining buildings has struck us - we haven't really been looking, though), and there is a local necropolis which did have some tombs with odd features linked to architecture.
Note that there's a three year wait in the charter before a visitor can become a magus, and the saga has so far been fairly slow paced (so depending on your definition, it wouldn't become "his" covenant for a while).
The locals are Kipchaks, yes. There's a bit on them in this post: Covenant
I think the main trade goods down the Don are furs and slaves.
Be aware that Gregorius tends to be quite anti-paganism (he tends in general to very much believe the Tremere party line). That's not necessarily an OOC reason not to play a pagan, but you should be aware going in there's likely to be IC friction.
Well, we're remote enough for it to seem a good hiding place! We might want to focus of the animosity primarily on him, though - otherwise it becomes more of a covenant flaw than a character one.
Trogdor was playing a Seeker, but he hasn't posted since April (and there's no fundamental reason we can't have multiple Seekers). The covenant aura is variable and seems linked to water for some reason we haven't fully figured out yet (although strong links to Neptune/Poseidon probably figure in there somewhere), and as mentioned earlier there's a local necropolis with some interesting stuff in it.
For the Verditius, I think you need to figure out a hook for why he's out here - it doesn't not work, but it's not an obvious choice either.
Could be a great reason for the cult of Mercury wanting him to join the covenant in making sure their "world view" gets an airing. OOC I have no issue with the character conflict.
However, another option would be to take another year past apprenticeship and join the Neo Mecurians described in The Mysteries as they also initiate Mercurian Magic but it takes a year rather than a season and does not necessarily require the Pagan flaw.
Rereading the relevant sections of the books, the Cult of Mercury is a society rather than a Mystery Cult, and doesn't do initiations. If you want both Flawless and Mercurian Magic it would therefore need to be through the Neo-Mercurians.
The cult of Mercury ritual to obtain the Mercurian virtue is in the Provençal tribunal book Faith and Flame. It is the only mystery mentioned in what I agree is actually a society.
If you can let me know what you would consider a reasonable normal Pre plus Mystery Cult lore for a "normal" mystagogue would be for the campaign and I will design a set of initiation scripts for your initial review and comment.
Thanks
John
How do you treat Wizards Communion in the campaign. Mercurian Magic gives a free Wizards Communion at the highest ritual spell the magus has but it is a MuVi effect. Does that mean you have to actually cast the wizards communion using Mu Vi or is it just an arbitrary designation to express the Non-Hermetic mechanics of the total wizards communion level from all participants to double the desired spell being cast? If you need to actually cast with MuVi it will be a long while before my would ever be involved in a Wizards Communion, which seems to rather negate the point of free Wizards Communion unless every Mercurian is supposed to be a MuVi specialist.
Hmmm. I'd forgotten about that (and it does seem a bit odd given I don't think they have any cult lore and it explicitly says on page 114 of Mystery Cults that the Cult of Mercury doesn't practice initation).
I'm not sure we have a "standard" Pre + Mys Cult lore, but for the Neo-Mercurians, I'd suggest a total of +7 or +8? The Cult of Mercury is going to be a lot lower, given you're essentially just relying on Presence.
You have to actually cast it. You do have a bit of leeway due to only needing to be within 10 of the level of the Communion to get it to successfully cast. I think we're assuming that you get a sun duration rather than a momentary duration spell with Mercurian Magic, so that it actually works with rituals.
Thanks for the response. Happy with the 7 for the total rather than the 8 as that fits in with your teacher levels on the character creation page (Teacher 5 +2 Com) so I will work the initiation scripts up with that in mind. Definitely Neo Mercurian rather than Cult of Mercury for me.
The Wizard Communion call is OK if it is itself classed as a Ritual, especially if you get the Sun version free at Base +2, allowing the Artes Liberales and Philosophiae bonus to be added to the casting total. Think it should make that clear in the book as the description of the effect and the whole Mercurian vibe is around slow, multi participant spell casting of big ritual things. Is that interpretation OK with you? If not I will need to rework the character to add more Mu and Vi.
I'd definitely say it's a formulaic spell. Do you really want to have to spend vis on it?
Bear in mind that whilst the version you get free is the same level as the original spell, you can use a lower level when casting the communion as long as all of the communions everyone's casting add up to the necessary minimum (so if you have a level 20 ritual and a level 40 ritual, you could use the level 20 communion with the level 40 ritual if you wanted).
You need to cast it. Bear in mind, this covenant has a Mu summa level 14, a Vi summa level 15 and an aura of +5 - given enough seasons with a book, any magus in this covenant can get MuVi casting total of 34 + Sta. Not every Mercurian has to be a MuVi specialist, but it helps to either have a lot of Mercurians around in a large cult or society (so you can all do a little Wizard's Communion each and build up to the big total), or a few of you with decent MuVi totals.
Given the slow pace of play in this saga, just how many rituals are you likely to learn and cast? Is the bonus of cheap rituals and a free wizard's communion worth losing quick spontaneous spells and taking a major flaw?
I am currently working on this concept. I would prefer the Puissant MT over Puissant Intrigue. He will be exploring old magic, so although he will not be the classical lab rat, he will do magical research and not get involved in hermetic politics.
On the other hand I was thinking about Mythic Blood and the best matching important ancestor would be the first seeker (who happens to be Triamona's first apprentice).
Any objections against a Magus Triamonae with Puissant Magic Theory instead of Intrigue? In the end Lucian once wanted to found a third lineage inside house Bonisagus.
I have wanted to play a Mercurian for some time and this seems a good opportunity. I will have a number of CrCo ritual healing spells so I guess I will get benefit in Vis usage everytime someone needs me to heal them. I agree it may be more efficient to have a different concept but I don't really mind and I get much more out of the story than the mechanics anyway.
No problem. I will start the campaign 3 years post apprenticeship rather than 2 years and use the extra time to get my Mu and Vi scores up a little.
One other thing that occurred to me - as a Mercurian, you have access to the Ceremonial Casting mastery, which lets you cast formulaic spells ceremonially (and therefore add your Artes Liberales and Philosophaie to your casting total). Further, as you have Flawless Casting as well, you automatically get one level of mastery free with your Communions.
So in practice you can solve the problem by taking the right mastery.