Dividing the Manipulated Mind

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

This is off-topic from the new books, but I've got a villain to design. (Ars Baltica players, begone.)

In our new saga, the PC magi will arrive at an isolated winter covenant that has invited them to help revive its lagging fortunes. This winter covenant has only two magi left, an extraordinarily famous Verditius archmagus (about whom more questions another time), and someone else, probably an Ex Misc. The extraordinarily famous Verditius has, through some sort of diabolic behavior, repaired his Gift, and has the spell-casting abilities of an ordinary Hermetic magus. The diabolic behavior hasn't stopped, and the Ex Misc has gotten wind of the black rites in the forge.

Here's what I want. I want the Verditius to magic the Ex Misc to keep her from hindering his plans. But I want the Ex Misc to retain enough autonomy that she, under false pretenses, invited the PC magi to join the covenant, hoping that they'll find out what the Verdi is up to in time to stop his diabolical scheming.

So, my question is, what would the Verdi have tried to do to control her? And how might it have gone wrong so that the Ex Misc retains some secret autonomy, and can subtly get around the mental blocks the Verdi has produced?

I was thinking that he might have put some item (e.g., necklace) with a powerful ReMe effect on her, the effect being to make her powerless to act against him. It's powerful and has high penetration because of the Vis Sordida the Verdi used to make the item, but, for the same reason, it's prone to sneakily betray its creator and let the Ex Misc do things she wasn't supposed to be able to do.

An alternative would be that the Verdi is continually scrying on the Ex Misc, and so she just has to make plausible excuses lest he boil her for her vis. (Code? What Code? They're in a swamp in now-Latvia. They haven't had a Redcap in twenty years, or an Inquisitor in fifty.)

2

I don't have my books with me, but the (laboratory) Warping rules from Covenants might be what you need. Perhaps something in the Verditius' lab has granted a positive Warping score with the personality trait "Treacherous." The necklace-of-control is warped, and while it usually works, it is prone to malfunction at precisely the right (and dramatically appropriate) time to impair the Verditius' interests.

3

A very small enchanted device, perhaps a tiny sliver of a gemstone that has been inserted into the neck of the Ex miscelania. Every full and new moon environmentally triggered perdo mentem magics go off to eliminate any suspisions or recollections of damming evidence regarding the verditious (perhaps even with a rego spell to make the victim inform the verditious of any incriminating information). The item would also have a constant duration vim spell to make it exceptionally difficult to detect as a magical item.

This item is clever in that it is tailored to the verditious and not of constant duration so it causes no warping. The item also does not hinder the Ex misc's magical power or scry on him so it is technically not a violation of the code.

It allows the verditious to continue his studies in peace and not have to harm his dear sodalies with whom he has shared the past several decades. It also allows the gm free reign to allow the ex misc to occsionally start to get a clue.

4

So, because of the device inserted into the Verdi, the Ex Misc comes across as unbelievable to the PC magi. Maybe they don't even hear her clearly when she says, "Havar is a diabolist and a threat to the order."

I think that's a great idea. Thanks!

5

I think he meant to put it in the Ex Misc maga.

6

That's what I thought at first, but I don't know that it was a typo. The device prevents people from suspecting the person it's embedded in. I like the ramifications of that. Is there some problem with that version that I'm missing?

7

Typo corrected.

8

I would think that if you put it in the person to be ignored you'd need to have something like a Bjornaer sensory target in order to get it to work for you. I was plotting at range touch target individual.

If the Ex Misc. has some sort of flawed parma that the Verditious can take advantage of it makes things easier.

I suspect that the villain would need to have the verditious "almost a talisman" mystery virtue in order to make a sufficiently small item. Alternately he could have just enchanted a ring that the ex misc wears "Take this ring as a gift, it is a (not at all) lesser enchanted device that casts unseen porter once per day (among other things)."

9

powerfull watching ward that triggers if they tell on the diablist?

mentem spell to make the diabist VERY charismatic...they know he's doing wrong but he's such a nice guy how could you turn him in?

perdo-mentem cast on Ex Misc to remove what they saw...didn't quite get it all, found out that they had a spell cast on them modifying their memory. A little digging shows the verdi cast the spell. Know you cant handle him alone, ask fer some one to come join so you can share your "theory" and figure out why he did it.

10

Or why not a device that the Verditius has quite openly traded to the Ex Misc - a protective amulet, perhaps? The villain will no doubt seek to grant similar devices to the PCs when they arrive. I think the device should trigger more often, though, perhaps daily.

11

Why not something simpler...

Blackmail...

The Ex-misc could have a bunch of Problems...

The Verdi knows...

IE:
The ExMisc killed a Magus..someone Well know-Magus.
The ExMisc is controlling a local Noble or serving him.
The ExMisc is a Diedne. The Verdi knows this and it is what caused him to become jealous of 'other' magi's casting ability enough to risk the 'Deal" in the first place....Perhaps the Diedne has 'Flexible Formulaic". This combined with his Spont ability makes him a great "Spell Caster"...but the Verdi has a High Parma and a lot of Defenses..

12

What if the Ex Misc. is in fact a construct?
The real maga is in a holding circle in the Verdi magus lab.
With an arcane connection (and some breakthroughs or plot devicium vis) ,
the construct is like a flesh golem and has an independent mind.
It can draw on some of the memories of the maga.
Like an enchanted device , it has invested magical powers.

13

...and this was only created AFTER the Ex-Misc sent the letter, you now have a construct trying to explain why he sent the letter he can hardly remember and the Verdi backing him up becasue sending the PCs away now would make them even more suspicious. Plenty of scope in there for all kinds of fun.