Player @dc444 .
Please keep the first few posts for current character sheet, familiar, talisman, etc. and keep advancement logs etc further down the thread.
Name: Betula ex Criamon
Birth Name: Elsbet Cutter
Faerie Name: Elsebetyyanna
Gender: woman
Parens: Vineus
Primus: Bucephalus, militant Criamon on the Path of Strife before becoming Primus
Covenant of Apprenticeship: Castellum Veridian (first ~5 years) and The Cave of Twisting Shadows
Age: 30 (gauntlet at 29, apprenticeship starts 14, 1 year post-gauntlet in CharGen)
Apparent Age: 27
Warping: 0 (2)
Twilight Scars: None... yet.
Size: 0
Confidence: 1 (4)
Personality: Compassionate +6*, Pious (Criamon Philosophy) +1, Love of Nature +3
Height: 5'9" (175 cm)
Weight: 140 lbs. (63.5 kg)
Soak: +1 (+1 Animal, +1 Corpus, +3 Herbam, +1 Mentem, +2 Terram, +1 Vim)
MR: 5, Animal 6, Corpus 10, Herbam 18, Ignem 10 (No form resistance applies), Mentem 10, Terram 10, Vim 10
Combat: Dodge, Ini +1, Attack -, Defense +1, Damage -
| Characteristic | Score | Descriptor |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | +3 | Curious |
| Perception | +2 | Probing |
| Presence | +1 | Glow of Life |
| Communication | +3 | Socratic |
| Strength | -1 | Spindly |
| Stamina | +1 | Patient |
| Dexterity | +0 | |
| Quickness | -3 | Wooden |
| Virtues | Level | Type | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Gift | Free | Hermetic | 0 | |
| Hermetic Magus | Free | hermetic | 0 | |
| Enigmatic Wisdom | Minor | Hermetic | 0 | House Virtue |
| Affinity with Herbam | Minor | Hermetic | 1 | |
| Independent Study | Minor | General | 1 | |
| Major Magical Focus (Trees & Wood) | Major | Hermetic | 3 | |
| Puissant Herbam | Minor | Hermetic | 1 | |
| Skilled Parens | Minor | Hermetic | 1 | |
| Strong Faerie Blood (Nymph) | Major | Supernatural | 3 | +1 Com, to no greater than 3 |
| Second Sight | Minor | Supernatural | 0 | Free from SFB |
| Total | 10 | |||
| Flaws | Level | Type | Points | Notes |
| Compassionate | Major | Personality | 3 | |
| Limited Magic Resistance (Ignem) | Minor | Hermetic | 1 | |
| Predictive Stigmata | Minor | Story | 1 | |
| Susceptibility to Divine Power | Minor | Hermetic | 1 | |
| Twilight Prone | Major | Hermetic | 3 | |
| Unpredictable Magic | Minor | Hermetic | 1 | |
| Total | 10 |
| Ability | Specialty | Score | XP | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | East Midland | 5 | 0 | Native language |
| Latin | Hermetic Usage | 4 | 50 | |
| Area Lore: Alps | forests | 1 | 5 | |
| Area Lore: Mercia | wilderness paths | 1 | 5 | |
| Area Lore: Sherwood Forest | geography | 2 | 15 | |
| Artes Liberales | ritual magic | 1 | 5 | |
| Athletics | hiking | 3 | 30 | |
| Awareness | alertness | 2 | 15 | |
| Concentration | spell concentration | 2 | 15 | |
| Cov Lore: Cave of Twisting Shadows | personalities | 1 | 5 | |
| Craft: Wood Carving | toys | 3 | 30 | |
| Enigmatic Wisdom | twilight | 2 | 19 | |
| Faerie Lore | plant faeries | 2 | 15 | |
| Hunt | traps | 2 | 15 | |
| Magic Lore | plants & herbam beings | 2 | 25 | |
| Magic Theory | herbam | 3 | 30 | |
| Mys Cult Lore: House Criamon | final transmission sites | 2 | 17 | |
| Parma Magica | Ignem | 1 | 5 | |
| Philosophiae | ritual magic | 1 | 5 | |
| Prof: Woodsman | identifying trees and wood | 2 | 15 | |
| Second Sight | spirits | 3 | 40 | Faerie-aligned |
| Stealth | hiding | 1 | 5 | |
| Survival | forests | 2 | 15 |
| Art | Score | XP | Form Bns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creo | 8 | 36 | |
| Intellego | 5 | 15 | |
| Muto | 5 | 15 | |
| Perdo | 0 | 0 | |
| Rego | 0 | 0 | |
| Animal | 1 | 1 | +1 |
| Aquam | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Auram | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Corpus | 5 | 15 | +1 |
| Herbam | 10+3 | 57 (38 b4 Aff) | +3 |
| Ignem | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Imaginem | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mentem | 5 | 15 | +1 |
| Terram | 7 | 33 | +2 |
| Vim | 5 | 15 | +1 |
| Spell | Casting Total | Level | Notes/Pg Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bind Wounds | +14 | CrCo10 | Core |
| Fast Grow | +22 | CrHe30 | MoH |
| Intuition of the Forest | +19 | InHe10 | Core |
| Converse with Plant and Tree | +20 | InHe25 | Mastery 1 (10): Imperturbable; Core |
| Stir the Slumbering Tree | +16 | MuHe(Me)25 | Only Works on Trees, focus applies. Core |
| Month of the Controlled Growth | +14 | ReHe20 | As Controlled Growth but Moon Duration. MoH |
| The Call to Slumber | +6 | ReMe10 | Core |
| The Unseen Porter | +6 | ReTe10 | Core |
| Wizard's Communion | +11 | MuVi10 | Core |
Description:
Betula is a tall, thin woman. An angular, long face few would consider beautiful. Hair of brown with almost greenish highlights when it lightens with sun exposure. Her skin is mostly pale like a birch tree but, also like a birch tree, are darker patches shaped something like eyes. Something about her pale skin makes it seem that there is a glow beneath it, like is sometimes said of joyfully healthy people. Her eyes are an almost unnatural pale green. She wears long wool peasant skirts and dresses most left undyed or brown and often with stains of dirt and grass at her knees and below. In most weather she also wears high socks under her skirts to hide her stigmata from those who may misunderstand them in case her skirts lift enough and a deep-hooded long cloak over it al when she must enter a town to somewhat hide her fae features.
Background:
- Her father was a woodcutter in a small village at the edge of Sherwood Forest. He was seduced by a nymph of a birch grove and, when he returned, impregnated his wife with the fae child.
- Elsbet's mother died in childbirth and rumors began with the midwife of her father's infidelity due to Elsbet's strange fae look. Without a mother, another village woman took pity on them and since she was still producing milk kept this long, pale baby alive despite how unnerved Elsbet sometimes made her feel.
- Elsbet had a fairly normal, if isolated childhood. Often being brought into the forest when her father went to fell trees. On the paths he would teach her the names of the trees and the benefits of their wood and anything else he knew of them and the forest but while he was felling the trees she would often sit quietly whittling branches with a small knife or wandering, but never very far.
- When she was about 8 winters old, on one of these trips she was approached by a spry, strange middle-aged man who introduced himself as Vineus. He had markings that seemed to grow (not that they moved, merely elicited that illusion) from under his sleeves, onto his hands and then fingers. The discussion was weird, his Saxon was strangely accented but more odd because he used many strange words she did not know. He seemed to approve that she challenged him to explain. The last thing Vineus asked before the tree fell and her Father noticed and he came running was, "When the seed grows, where does it go?" And then her Father was separating them and yelling at the man though he quickly calmed down and they went a bit away to discuss... what, she could not hear but the looks at her made Elsbet think they were discussing her though there was also pointing, not at her, to the Northwest. As he left smiling, he waved and yelled, "See you soon, little seed."
- Sometimes she could get the village midwife to tell her stories of the forest folk.
- Life returned to normal for a while, she grew and changed and the women of the village lowered their voices when she approached. Until her 13th winter, her father took ill, there was nothing any in the village could do and nothing many would do. A week went by and returning to their hut from chopping firewood her father was out of bed, getting dressed, sick as he was. "Take me to Vineus," and she brought around the sledge and attached the mule he used to drag wood, surrounding him with every blanket and article of clothing they had she set off North. Occasionally he was lucid enough to correct their route and after a couple days they came to a statue of a white horse.* Having been told to expect a girl of Elsbet’s description, the protectors of Castrum Veridian quickly took over and moved her and her father to a warm bed near a hearth while another ran to fetch Vineus. The strange, old, spry magus quickly cast a spell on her father and color began to return to his cheeks as he slipped into a deeper slumber. “Come with me, girl, he is safe here and needs his rest. They will send for us when he wakes.” And she took Vineus’ hand and followed him back to what she would later learn was his sanctum. He was kind and interesting to speak to. Treated her as something of an equal, never raised his voice in anger or fear. They would take long walks among the trees while her father was recovering, and he did, with Vineus’ spells, but was never as strong as he had been. As Winter became Spring and her father was mobile again he explained what he and Vineus had discussed those years ago, that Vineus knew she was different, that her life and future was with him, or someone like him and she could do much worse and her father knew it to be true, stories he had heard of cruel wizards and witches breaking the backs of those they lorded over and he had wished for her to have a better life but could not bear being without her then. Seeing them together and seeing some of the others here he told her to find this better life with Vineus, walk whatever path that was, knowing he could never understand. Her father wanted to return home to their village but when he had gathered his meager things and his mule Vineus merely said, “Stay. Watch” and he stayed… and watched. Elsbet moved into Vineus’ sanctum, a private alcove of it that was all hers and had been Vineus’ previous apprentices’, years ago. He opened her arts with the traditional Criamon riddles and was surprised at how quickly and surely she answered the one for Herbam, his own preferred art. Her life seemed normal for an apprentice, long hours spent practicing Latin and letters, talking while walking in the forest with her Pater. Her father was there but she rarely had time for him and he for her, assigned as foreman of a gang of unskilled woodsmen working for the covenant. Two years he lived there, seeing her rarely, working as much as he could but, thankfully, at lighter duties than his work alone, with the mule. The second Winter at Castellum Veridian he took ill again and this time the color did not return to his cheeks with Vineus’ spells. He was buried in a plot where the covenfolk were buried and his fellow woodmen and Elsbet said their peace above the grave as Vineus watched.
- One afternoon, Elsbet performing the Labyrinth meditation among the stones Vineus set up for training for the second time that day. Having lost her concentration shortly before completing the labyrinth she needed to begin again. Eyes open, concentrating on her body’s motion, her breath, the feel of the breeze on her skin, trying not to anticipate or wander in her mind she felt a small pebble strike her arm. Turning she saw that man, Janus, a cruel smirk on his face as she tripped over the next stone. She had noticed him before but mostly avoided him, unsure why he often caught her eyes in the mess or around the clearing. Sometimes watching him practice fighting, turning into a blubbering mess when he called out to her she would run back to her alcove in Vineus’ sanctum, her face in her hands. This time, fallen to the ground among the stones of the labyrinth, he just made her so mad and she ripped two of the hand-sized stones from their places. Raising to her knees she threw one but it was wide and this merely made Janus laugh harder but the second one hit him square in the forehead. Vineus watched but did nothing until he, surprisingly harshly, yelled, "STOP! Come!" And as soon as she turned to look at him, her face flushed with anger, then embarrassment seeing his pitying eyes, he led her back to back to his sanctum. "That boy, he notices in your what you don't," he calmly explained when he had her seated and a bit calmer on the bench. "Your young thoughts stray when he is around and this is part of the pain of life we Criamon seek to tamp down." Elsbet knew what he meant, around Janus she felt clumsy and incoherent, had trouble putting words into sentences, lost her concentration like she had today. "I know," she said, eyes lowered in shame. "It is alright, I was young once too. With desires of my own," he said in his soft, kindly voice and she looked up, seeing his beatific smile and he laid a comforting hand on her head. "Remember your breathing when you feel these emotions again. Concentrate on that and let the feelings pass." The next time she saw this lust and rage surfacing around Janis she tried, and failed. And the next. And the next. But eventually it came, the calm, and after that it became easy to let those feelings slide away when they surfaced.
Betula's Lab
No Lab currently
Dowry
Wealth: 0
5 Lbs silver
Vis: 0 (1p)
1p of Herbam
Books: 3 (Summae, 1 at 27BP, 1 at 30BP)
On the Distractions of the World by Verderis, Summa on Concentration L6Q9 (27BP)
Discussions of Theory with Cato ex Bonisagus, Primus of House Criamon by Cato as transcribed by Miral ex Criamon, Summa on Magic Theory L7Q9 (30BP)
Lab Texts: 2 (160 levels of Lab Texts)
Stuff
Faerie "bag of holding"
1p of Imaginem vis in thorns of rose branch (Faerie vis)
2p of Terram vis in Mushrooms found on pine root in forest near Midsummer Copse
2 pebbles of Vim vis as blue "marbles" from Mercury Statue in Baths Regio
Betula's Familiar
No Familiar Currently
Please write a backstory next.
1 Like
Betula's Talisman
No Talisman Currently
Notes
- Summer 1013: Learned Name of her Nymph "mother," Nyliya and what the Faeries call her, Elsebetyyanna, from maybe-Edwin (a faerie) at what is left of Castellum Veridian, which is also known as White Horse by the common folk around here. Became pregnant by Ruedi at Castellum Veridian's faerie replica manorhouse. Learned one way to find Nyliya. Ruedi hsas been lost to Nyliya.
Seasonal Advancement
- 1013 Spring: Arrival in Calias, Channel Crossing, and the road to Nottingham - 12xp + 3 for Ind. Study, 3 Confidence earned. 5xp to each of AL: Mercia, Magic Lore, and Second Sight.
- 1013 Summer: Visiting Castellum Veridian, "Mother," Castrum Antiquum, and Ungulus - 11xp + 3 from Ind. Study, 5 Confidence earned. 5xp to Mastery of Converse with Plant and Tree, 5xp to Second Sight, 4xp to Enig Wisdom
- 1013 Autumn: Covenant Site Survey - 14xp + 3 for Ind Study, 3 Confidence pts. 5xp to Magic Lore, 5xp to Second Sight, 5xp to Mastery of Converse with Plant and Tree, 2xp to MC Lore: Criamon
- 1013 Winter: Read Terram Summa at Ungulus L18Q9
- 1014 Spring: Read Terram Summa at Ungulus L18Q9; Give Birth
Betula's Knowledge of Criamon Legends
When Betula starts thinking about possible transmission sites, she comes up with one legendary figure, Cassandra, who went to Stonehenge to work with Pralix during her last days. Cassandra tried to pursue some Path of Hedges, and is known to have befriended a tribe of druids in the Pennines. She is believed to have passed around AD 900 at one of their ritual sites. A grove of pine trees, you think; was it called Midsummer Copse? Or Midwinter?
2 Likes
Research on Covenant Sites
Betula finds reference to a legendary woman, a so-called spirit votary, who tends several copses and groves in the Pennines. You are not absolutely sure if she is a magic person or a witch, but if she is not immortal she has at least the lifespan of a magus with a decent longevity ritual. She knows all the plants in the Pennines and adjacent lands.
Researching area lore, she finds reference to an ancient Roman bath which seems to have been locked into a regio. She recognises the area, and it is not very far from Castellum Veridian. The bath is described as a big building which could be refurbished to house the magi. Expected aura is 4, but unfortunately, it seems entrance requires an ancient Mercurian rite which is not described; a kind of prayer for hospitality and protection.
2 Likes