Devil Child!

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

First things first, just in case: if you are playing (or planning to play) in the 5th edition Ars Magica game that is taking place at the Ludothèque of Boulogne, avert your eyes, for what I reveal here is not for you to see. Begone, now. I mean it. Shoo!

Magi:

  • A giant-blooded Flambeau whose favored Art is the two-handed sword. Oh, that and making walls explode. Having the choice for his Gauntlet between defeating his master in single combat and go forth and slay a "dragon", he chose the dragon. I'll never understand Flambeaus. :wink:
  • A mercantile gentle-gifted Jerbiton who's yet to cast a single spell in the game. Her Gauntlet was to go and found the player's Covenant (more on that later).
  • A naive-but-well-meaning fairy-tale princess Merinita, complete with Supernatural Beauty.
  • A Gifted Mercere maga who decided that a +7 Magical aura was so much better than what you found in the Rome Tribunal that relocating was well worth it.
  • A Criamon maga of very little virtue (three daughters and no husband in sight) who could have been a Bonisagus if her mater (the very same Susanna that taught Peter Virilis) hadn't been cast out of the House before she completed her apprenticeship (Murion getting rid of the competition after being chosen as Prima).
  • A pair of Bjornaer magi (an ermine and some kind of wild cat), about which I don't have much to say yet. Maybe in time...

Companions:

  • A reckless circus acrobat/cook/knife thrower/Tytalus agent who got elected representative of the non-magi on the covenant council mostly because he was louder than everybody else.
  • A (Mythic Companion) skilled apothecary, and the focus of the current troubles.
  • More to come (two knights and a jewish doctor)

Grogs and covenfolk:

  • A failed monk, acting as intendant.
  • The cook's wife.
  • The Criamon maga's daughters
  • Grim & Half-Grim, from the Semita Errabunda sample characters.
  • A crossbowman/hunter.
  • Three fishermen from a local village that got put to the sword because someone dared burn the church that had been built there.
2

OK, there we go:

The characters, having just settled on a blatantly Norse site, had decided to send one of their own to go pay their respects and bear an appropriate gift to the local bishop (Oberoten's idea of a Livonian saga was too good to go to waste), whose land it is they are on. After reviewing their roster (and some prodding on my part, because if everything went their way, it wouldn't be any fun), they decided to send the most respectable mundane they had - the covenant's apothecary (whose player was then growing desperate for Art & Academe), with the two gentle-gifted magae tagging along.

Unfortunately for them, this character happens to be a Devil Child. :smiling_imp: (cue in thunder and horses neighing) To be fair, I did warn the player that, given the circumstances, such a character would likely be short-lived, and seems fine with that.

The bishop received them during a public audience held on Holy Saturday (dramatically speaking, it guaranteed lots of people would be there, so sue me for breach of historicity). To say that the character was uneasy in the cathedral would be an understatement. The bishop wasn't too pleased either to learn that "a community of philosophers" had settled there without his leave. :imp:

But things really went down when the character refused to kiss the episcopal ring, probably due to the close proximity of the reliquary that was barring his approach. Faced with such an affront, he suggested that "some of his men" would come visit shortly, bringing a present in return commensurate with the one the characters had brought. :unamused:

Once back, the rightfully panicked magi held a crisis council and Posed The Silent Question to figure out why he behaved like that, but as the maga decided to cast the spell silently, it didn't penetrate the apothecary's meager magic resistance (in spite of the massive casting bonus and resistance penalty provided by the +7 Magic aura :open_mouth:). I adjudicated on the spot that, because of the Devil Children's demonic blood, Hermetic Intellego magic would return false information rather than fail outright if it did not penetrate. (What do you think? Should it return false information in any case, or should we reserve that for "true" demons?) So they learned that he refused to kiss the ring because it was made of silver (false) and the character is vulnerable to silver (true). This leaves them wondering why he might be vulnerable to silver and I'm already starting to hear cries of "werewolf!" among the players. :laughing:

The covenant is in the short term facing the arrival of one of the bishop's henchmen, Jürgen von Steinburg, a yet-to-be introduced Companion: an intolerant pagan-smiting, [color=red]relic-bearing Teutonic Knight. As I said before, unless the player outdoes himself, the infernal character's days are counted. He'll probably come with an official representative from the bishop and a pair of sergeants.

Right now, I'm thinking of having a Quaesitor drop by to investigate the validity of the Jerbiton maga's Gauntlet -- they have already been warned one such would come, but having him arrive dressed austerely as a cleric along with a knight (another Companion that needs introduction, this one has a far more supernatural bent) and some grogs should keep the situation confused for a while (especially if they have stopped by Riga on their way to the covenant).

Given how Livonia is still controlled by the Brothers of the Sword and how good Jürgen is a Teutonic Knight, I think I could cause him problems -- could be that he's a forerunner of the Teutonic Order in the area. His connection ("Protection" Virtue) with the bishop might be taken very badly. The covenant is at the foot of a cliff that has a nice ruined manor at the top, maybe that will be incentive enough for him if I can make things hostile enough in Riga (e.g. killing his merchant family).

I have quite a few options open, but if you have ideas opinions or suggestions, I'm willing to hear some more.

I'm also looking for an excuse for the apothecary to undergo trial by fire: I can't find a way to connect that to the insult he did to the bishop. Although given how many pagans there are around waiting to be converted, any damage to the authority of the Church has to be the work of the Devil...