Gabriel (Development)

Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Light of Andorra
1

I wrote up Gabriel to give Solomon more options for an apprentice. Like Clotilde, he has a major and minor supernatural virtue, so he could really only be an apprentice to Solomon. That having been said, since I made him up to give Solomon a broader playing field of potential apprentices, I won’t feel bad if Solomon doesn’t find Gabriel the right sort of apprentice to take.

The basic idea is that Gabriel was abandoned in the woods as a child both because of his shapechanging and his Gift. He was raised by a lynx of virtue that took pity on him, living mostly in his animal forms. But when he was eleven or twelve, the lynx decided that he needed the company of his own. So he sent the boy to a monastery where the monks took in the poor orphan boy. Since then, he’s lived in their stable taking care of their donkeys and horse. This is where he would be found by a magus searching for an apprentice.

Age: 12
Size: -2

Int 0
Per -1
Str -2
Sta 0
Pre -1
Com -1
Dex -3
Qik -3

VIRTUES
Inherited: Flawless Magic (Hermetic, major)
Shapeshifter (Supernatural, major)
Inoffensive to Animals (General/Hermetic, minor)
Animal Ken (Supernatural, minor)
Puissant in Shapechanging (General, minor)
Apt Student (General, minor)

FLAWS
Mistaken Identity (Story, major)
Optimistic (Personality, major)
Late Bloomer (Child, minor)
Sheltered Upbringing (Personality, minor)
Magical Animal Companion (Story, minor)
Uncertain Faith (General, minor)
The Gift (Hermetic, free)
Apprentice (Social Status, free)
(Note: I didn’t give him Feral Upbringing because he was raised by the lynx of virtue, who partially civilized him)

ABILITIES
Animal Handling (horses) 2
Animal Ken (charm) 3
Area Lore: Catalonia (places) 2
Athletics (running) 2
Awareness (alertness) 2
Brawl (dodge) 2
Hunt (small game) 2
Occitan (conversation) 5
Shapeshifting (lynx) 4+2
Stealth (sneaking) 2
Survival (woodlands) 2
Swim (underwater maneuvering) 1

Shapeshifting Forms:

  • Lynx
  • Red squirrel
  • Merlin
  • Asp
  • Horse
  • Dolphin

PERSONALITY TRAITS
Innocent +1
Optimistic +3
Curious +2

2

Mowgly? Is that you? :wink:

3

Trogdor, what's the minor supernatural virtue? I only see shapeshifter, nothing else.

4

I forgot to write down Animal Ken as a Virtue. I have it as an Ability, so that probably checked the box off in my brain.

5

Okay, but that would give you 11 points of virtues.

6

Dropped Boundless Energy to get Animal Ken.

7

Would you be will to lower his Animel Ken to a 2? As it stand right now, he would actually need a magus with an InVi total of 90 to open his arts and not lose his supernatural abilities. If you lower the Animal Ken to 2, the magus would need an InVi total of 80, which Solomon will have by the end of 1240 along with all of his other arts at at least 5.

8

Sure, no problem.

I'll drop it down to 2 and raise Athletics to 3.

9

Okay, I've finally done the math. Solomon can safely open Gabriel's arts (with no deficient arts) in Spring of 1241. His "Cerebro" spell will be complete Winter of 1239 and he plans to cast it and the end of that season. So, Solomon could have located Gabriel at the end of the Winter season in 1239.

Gabriel would then basically begin play Spring of 1239. He could start learning Latin, Artes Liberales, Profession: Scribe and Philosophy until Solomon is able to open his arts in Spring of 1241. Otherwise, you could wait to bring him in until 1241.

10

I'll be happy to give him a leg up on learning Latin and Artes Liberales. and such. So how about we have him come to the covenant in Winter 1239 and begin play in Spring 1239?

11

The real question is who could teach him Latin? I'd suggest Sophia, but I'll bet she's helping Solomon in the lab.

Bashir is teaching Elena Artes Liberales in Winter 1240, so Gabriel could piggyback there. It'd give a -6 total to the SQ, but it might be worth it.

CORRECTION: Solomon is just reading in Spring-Autumn of 1239. Would Sophia be able to teach Latin? She has Teaching 0 and Com 0, but that would still be SQ 9 (14 with Gabriel's Apt Student).

12

Sophia can't talk, so she wouldn't be a very good teacher :stuck_out_tongue: . Solomon has a personal assistant grog who is a "Failed Apprentice" that I never wrote up. I need to write her up, and she'd be able to teach Latin, and wouldn't be affected by his Gift either.

13

Okay, one sqawk if it's in the nominative, two if it's in the genative, three for the dative, ...

That sounds ideal.

14

If Solomon is interested, Horus is teaching Magic Theory to Elena in Summer and Autumn of 1240. Gabriel is more than welcome to sit in on the lessons.
(FWIW, Horus can take human form. So he'll be teaching as a person.)

15

So, here's a tentative plan for Gabriel, subject to Solomon's approval, of course.

[size=150]1239[/size]
Winter: enter the saga
Spring: Learn Latin from Silvia (13+5=18 xp in Latin)
Summer: Learn Latin from Silvia (13+5=18 xp in Latin)
Autumn: Learn Latin from Silvia (13+5=18 - dropped to 14 xp in Latin)

[size=150]1240[/size]
Winter: Learn Artes Liberales from Bashir [with Elena] (14+5=19 xp in Artes Liberales)
Spring: Learn Philosophiae from Bashir (20+5=25 xp in Artes Liberales)
Summer: Learn Magic Theory from Bashir [with Elena] (12+5=17 xp in Magic Theory)
Autumn: Learn Magic Theory from Bashir [with Elena] (12+5=17 xp in Magic Theory)

[size=150]1241[/size]
Winter: Train in Profession: Scribe with ???? (6-10 xp in Prof: Scribe)*
Spring: Get Arts opened (2 xp in Magic Theory)
Summer: ???
Autumn: ???

That will give Gabriel the following skills:

[tableborder][tr][th]Ability[/th] [th]Specialization[/th] [th]Rank[/th] [th]XP[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Artes Liberales: Latin and Greek alphabets[/td] [td]astronomy[/td] [td][center]2[/center][/td] [td][center]19[/center][/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Dead Language: Latin[/td] [td]hermetic usage[/td] [td][center]4[/center][/td] [td][center]50[/center][/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Magic Theory[/td] [td]assist in lab[/td] [td][center]3[/center][/td] [td][center]36[/center][/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Philosophiae[/td] [td]natural philosophy[/td] [td][center]2[/center][/td] [td][center]25[/center][/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Profession Scribe[/td] [td]copying books[/td] [td][center]1[/center][/td] [td][center]6-10*[/center][/td][/tr][/tableborder]

    • depends on which scribe he trains with.

Gabriel could train with one of the standard scribes and get 6 xp in Prof: Scribe, or with Adan and get 10 xp in Prof: Scribe. Of course, Adan is practically a heretic, so Solomon might not want Gabriel spending a whole season with him. :slight_smile:

I left the last two seasons open for whatever Solomon wants Gabriel to do.

Note: I took into account the loss of SQ due to teaching students with the Gift into the above calculations.

16

Hmm, I would really rather him get as much of his training as possible from Silvia. For the Teaching Source Quality, did you lower her SQ due to the Gift? She has "Unaffected by the Gift", so that shouldn't apply.

Even if you did, her SQ is actually better for Magic Theory than Bashir's and her SQ for Artes Liberales is only one less than his. She can also teach Profession: Scribe.

17

That works perfectly fine for me. I was just working with what I had. (And thinking it fun to see Elena and Gabriel being taught at the same time.)

I'll post to the planner accordingly.

18

In figuring out his Latin studies, I note that it takes 3 months to get to level 4 (the max that Silvia can teach). But that last season only nets him 4 xp. Surely that doesn't take him the whole three months. Is there any way in this saga for Silvia to teach him Latin for the first month (SQ 23/3 = 7-2/3, reduced to 4), and then something else for the other two months (SQ 23*2/3 = 15-1/3 = 15)? Or is this just one of those edge cases where things don't work out well?

19

By RAW (p. 165, center column, under "Distractions") you reduce your study total by a third for every month you miss. In this case, Gabriel could miss two months and still get enough xp to get to level 4. As far as doing anything else for the other two months and getting benefit for it, I don't see anything in the House Rules about it (neither here nor on the wiki), so I think not. :frowning:

20

In the past we've had discussions regarding doing multiple things in a season. You can do multiple things, but you can only ever gain the XP for one of them.

Now, we have in the past said that if you do two things that would warrant XP (say a 5 day adventure and studying a Summa), you could take the XP from the source with the higher SQ (in this case likely studying a summa) but spend that XP on anything eligible for that month (in this case the subject of the Summa and any skills used on the adventure). I'm personally not a huge fan of this, but it's what the troupe decided.

So, I could see an argument made that you could say he spends one month learning Latin and two months learning Magic Theory. You would then generate the SQ for Magic Theory, reduce that by 1/3 (for the other season), but could then use that XP gained for both Latin and Magic Theory.

I wouldn't run with that idea just yet, until others weigh-in with their thoughts.