Companion Draft - Stavros of Patras

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: The Prestige of Thebes
1

Now with all the points spent:

Name: Stavros of Patras
Age: 23

int: +1 per: +2
com: +3 pre: +1
dex: -1 qui: -2
end: 0 str: 0

Confidence score: 1 points: 3

Background:
Stavros is the second child of Dimitrios, the current head of a wealthy family
of merchants based in Patras. One uncle was killed in the sack of
Constantinople. The family trades in many areas, with a particular
emphasis on goods for or from the slik road. Stavros himself has traveled
throughout Europe on behalf of the family.
Stavros has a wife (Hellena), a son, Miklos, and another child on the way.

Personality: genial (+1), cowardly (-1)

virtue: Wealthy
puissant bargain
affinity for bargain
puissant living language
educated
well-traveled
luck

Free Social Status: Merchant

Flaws:
Dependent (wife and children)
temperate
Dwarf
optimist
uncertain Faith

Skills:

native language (Romaic Greek) 5 (prose)
Awareness: 3 (30) (searching)
Charm: 3 (30) (first impression)
Guile: 2 (15) (fast talk)
Area Lore, Patrtas: 1 (15) (markets)
Folk ken: 3 (30) (merchants)
Survival: 1 (5) (coastal)
Brawl 2 (15) (dodge)

Artes Liberal 4 (50) (arithmatic)
Philosophae: 1 (5) (moral philosophae)
Bargain: 7 + 2 (95 + 50%) (spices)
Italian: 2 + 2 (15) (bargaining)
French: 2 + 2 (15) (bargaining)
High German: 2 + 2 (15) (bargaining)
Low German: 2 + 2 (15) (bargaining)
Arabic: 2 + 2 (15) (bargaining)

Animal Handling 2 (donkeys) (15)

Etiquette: 4 (50) (Merchants)
Leadership: 2 (15) (cargo crews)
Teaching: 2 (15) (merchants)

Area Lore, silk road west end: 2 (15) (markets)
Area lore, venice: 2 (15) (markets)
Intrigue: 2 (15) (merchants)

2

I think that does it. I added Uncertain Faith.
SilervOak, should I copy him to the companion thread?

3

A couple of minor issues:
German- there is high German and Low German according to the Rhine sourcebook, please pick one.

"Merchant Lore"- this seems to me it should be area lore with a focus on merchants rather than a new category- city & guild covers trade extensively and does not make use of such an ability. You also do not have a social status- the mercantile social statuses from C&G are as follows: Capo (major virtue), Factor(minor virtue), Merchant Adventurer (minor virtue), or Partner (major virtue).

4

Happy to make most of the changes (and will do so when the remaining question is sorted out.
ArM5 pg 46 lists merchant as a free social status.

5

Okay, go ahead and list it then.

6

Thanks. I think it is all adjusted. I realized that there were a lot of unspent skill points, so I spent them.

7

Two questions- how old is the child and what roles, if any, do your dependents fill at the covenant?

8

If the following does not work, I am happy to adjust.
Miklos is 3 years old.
My assumption was that Stavros actually lives in Patras, in the family compound (I would have taken Close Family Ties, but that would be a second story flaw....). He comes to visit the covenant frequently, because he is interested and because it seems to him to be a good source for and consumer of goods. His merchant interests outweigh his discomfort from the gift. And I assume that Stavros travels frequently to other parts of Europe and the near east as a merchant.

My guess was that he would become a representative for various covenant members in buying or selling items of interest. Mostly mundane items, but probably also selling Verdituts magical items to mundanes.

9

He might also have a relationship with Alexander, who prefers not to leave the forest (though he certainly can if necessary)
That certainly works, just trying to keep track of which mouths the covenant has to feed...

10

I am happy to have him know Alexander, and have worked with him.

11

Go ahead and post him in companions.

12

For when you start posting advancement here- free seasons do not result in 7xp automatically. If you look at p 163 to 164 in the core book there are several methods of learning, the most common of which is independent study netting 4 xp/season. Also your free seasons as a non-magus are nominally free, which means that when you use a free season to learn area lore it is with SQ 5, not 7. A merchant's travel routine is far less varied than a messenger's

13

I looked at other folks advancement to try to understand what amount I should be getting. Until I looked at other folks examples, I had not even realized that Grogs had seasons that they could use for more than exposure. So I simply used the numbers I saw.

Which cases should I use 4 and which cases should I use 5?

14

5 is for study of area lore, everything else is 4 unless you have a different source, such as training or a teacher (or a book if you are literate)
The other exception is adventure experience, which is assigned per adventure but you can only put 5 xp per adventure into a given ability.

15

I finally got to chapter two of C&G.
As I read it, I need to adjust the character skills a virtues a bit. I need to replace the affinity and Puissance in Bargain with Affinity and Puissance in Profession: Merchant. Since I still needs bargaining, I can replace the teaching with bargaining.

If I do that, I read it that I end up with 72 labor points per season of work.
I can not tell from the wording whether working two seasons, instead of the one I have to, gives me a full additional season of value, or whether it produces some smaller increment. If I get full value without impiety or miserliness, I will work the second season, reducing the Thesallonic Area Lore learning to 2 xp exposure.

As I read it, I am currently a "Merchant", which means Minor, with 20 pounds per year of free money. I am not trying to be miserly or impious.
I probably do want to go up a social level. However, if I don't work the extra season, that will take 30 years, all other things being equal (which I know they are not). And it would then take 10 years to get to "average" wealth, and 10 more to get to Wealthy in that new bracket, all other things being equal, if I am reading it right.

Thinking about this overnight, it seems to me that a wealthy merchant can't work an extra season for full labor points. It makes advancement too easy.

I did end up wondering about how saved or invested labor points interact with changing social class (spending 1080 accumulated labor points to move up to poor of the next level.) Do you keep the extra? Lose them? Lose the non-invested ones?

16

first of all you don't need profession:merchant, I will treat bargain as a professional skill. As to speeding advancement there are a few ways to do this- stories can have labor points as an award for professional characters if they are the right kind of stories. Additionally you can invest your labor points in a number of potential things to improve your standing more quickly, as outlined in chapter 7. Having more seasons for adventure allows you to advance more quickly, and the wealth advantage allows the 1 extra season every 5 years to add more (or of course if you decide to be a miser you can advance rather rapidly as well)

17

Thanks. Particularly thanks for not needing to readjust the character.
I will not be going the miserly route. I will try to come up with more opportunities for you to throw stories his way. (And I well understand that those have to get spread around across the Magi first, etc...)

PS: Interesting first story start.

18

Planning:

Stavros needs to discuss with his wife what level of reinvestment in the merchant activities and what level of donation to charity, she would like to see us doing.
What Stavros would like to plan on is, of the 20 pounds per year, if nothing else comes up, giving 2 pounds to charity (equivalent to about 14 labor points), and investing 5 pounds in the business.

He also will talk to her about whether it makes sense for him, next year (and most years thereafter) to spend time and resources on introducing people. With his luck, he should be able to reliably find good business introductions.

Assuming his wife agrees, it also expects to be spending 2 pounds per year (over and above living expenses) on nice items for his wife and child.

19

What sort of charity did you want him to contribute to? We need to keep track of both cash and labor, and remember that cash can be converted into labor far more easily than the other way around.

20

Yes, I realize that converting labor points back to cash is hard.
I had assumed that converting a large amount of cash into labor points would also be hard. If not, then I can reserve that money, but not actually convert it.

As for charity, something that helps people but is also good for trade? Is church supporting some road improvement in the area? Is there a chapel being built in near the port? Is there a need for new bridges?

Thanks.