Finding an apprentice with the Gentle Gift

Salve y'all,

For some reason it never occurred to me before, but we've always relied on rumors of "strange children who don't seem quite right," "are plagued by faeries," "spook animals" etc. etc. to identify potential apprentices. Some of these could extend to those with the Gentle Gift, but not necessarily. How do you detect them?

Cheers,
Patrick

Yeha I guess by its very nature it is more difficult to spot.

One presumes there is a correlation between parents with this and their offspring - but like the normal gift it is far from 'likely'.

A Bonisagus could presumably pay redcaps for intel on an apprentice somewhere that meets his desired specifications.

There is an indication / suggestion that you 'learn' some virtues rather than are born with them. House virtues being the classic example. Apart from the obvious innitiation into a new mystery cult to grab this desireable virtue, you can I assume 'foster it' in apprenticeship. Again, its outcome is far from certain.

There may be a mystery cult, hedge tradition, non order magicaians group in which this virtue is commonplace. Find that out and go steal/buy/barter/persuade for one.

You could probably buy one in the order if you offered enough stuff. Its a bit unscrupulous, but not forbidden. The apprentice is after all, a chattel of his master.

I want this and to hell with the consequences... pretty sure the infernal can provide you with everything you desire - or at least appear that way.

Finally there is always blind luck... just keep roling dice until you win. With a suitable penalty to your 'find an apprentice roll'.

Some of my mage concepts, esp Bonisagus, are InVi specialists of one form or another. When going about in a crowd, leave it running, see if anything pings. (And since there's not much penetration, accidentally stepping on the toes of the Code is not much of a concern.)

Ear for The Gift
InVi 35
(Base 10, +2 Sun, +3 Hearing)

While that is a fine strategy, it has a couple of problems.

To have any hope of randomly, accidentally discovering a potential apprentice like this, you must be going out in crowds of strangers with the spell active quite a bit. This means a) you are not in your lab, and b) you are probably using the spell often enough to run a risk of gaining Warping Points from being under a constant effect.

A better idea, IMO, is to make an item with this effect. You can then give it to a friendly Redcap or just some of your grogs who often travel.

A fair assumption for any mage actively seeking an apprentice, unless by scrying or thru secondary agents. This effect allows for effective scanning of the immediate environment any time the mage puts his nose out of doors, whether seeking one or not.

Nah, not really - it'd be significantly less than half the time. Few magi would run it while sleeping on the off chance someone Gifted will tiptoe by during the night. So, as long as they don't cast it at sunrise but wait until they start rubbing elbows with the population, and don't run the effect every single day of the season, they're (most likely) fine.

More, it answers the question asked by the OP - how does one ever find a Gentle Gifted apprentice.

Iirc, there are some serious problems with giving "magical senses" to others, MuMe requisites or something. Under the "Senses as Targets" section.