Mull (Development)

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Loch Ness: A New Dawn
1

[size=150]Mull[/size]

Background
Born on the shores of Llyn Tegid in Wales, Mull never knew his father and his mother was tight-lipped on this topic. After becoming a young man, and after much deliberate thought, he concluded that his father must have been a giant who came down from Eryri, embraced his mother, and then went back up it. For while the other children of the village eventually stopped growing, Mull kept stretching, well past the normal size. The other gift that he had inherited from his father also began to show itself: a curious ability to temporarily bestow helpful traits on people by carving figurine replicates. Despite no acts of malice on Mull'S part, his manifested gifts earned him the fear of his fellow villagers, who then chased him out. As a wanderer, Mull followed the water wherever it went, hopping to the nearest river, stream, lake or pond. He took up with a hunter for several years, who taught him the way of the bow. It was at this time that Mull's sculpting craft ingrained itself into his way of life, and he would spend many hours deep in thought while creating bow staves, arrows, and small whittlings of great beauty. In due course, he found Loch Ness. Two of its inhabitants intrigued him: the mysterious Niseag, of course, and a Man of the Lake. The latter reciprocated Mull's interest, and decided to make him the target of his surface-world scholarship. He continually poses challenges for Mull to overcome, and studies his responses. Several challenges that Mull completed successfully have won him the ire of the local fae, who are disturbed by his giant heritage to begin with. Three years ago, Mull also found the covenant, and has now earned himself a position tending the library. Despite living at the covenant for this time, he knows very little about the magi and what they are all about, having engrossed himself in the study of Latin at the expense of awareness of his surroundings. Despite the above-average difficulty of Mull's life so far, his positive perspective persists.

Characteristics: Int +1, Per +1, Str +2, Sta +1, Pre 0, Com 0, Dex +2, Qui +1
Size: +2
Age: 33
Decrepitude: 0 (0)
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence Score: 1 (3)
Virtues: Custos (academic), Giant Blood, Warrior, Puissant Bows, Puissant Figurine Magic, Affinity with Figurine Magic, Figurine Magic (HoH:TL pg. 33f), Linguist
Flaws: Temperate, Plagued by Supernatural Entity (Man of the Lake), Optimistic (major), Faerie Antipathy (major)
Personality Traits: Temperate +1, Deep Thinker +2, Positive +3
Reputations:

Abilities:
[table][tr][th]Ability[/th][th]Score[/th] [th]Specialty[/th][th]XP[/th][th]Notes[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Welsh[/td][td]5[/td][td]poetry[/td][td]-[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Latin[/td][td]4[/td][td]classical[/td][td]40[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Gaelic[/td][td]4[/td][td]Scots[/td][td]40[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]English[/td][td]3[/td][td]mercantile[/td][td]24[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Norse[/td][td]3[/td][td]mercantile[/td][td]24[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Artes Liberales[/td][td]1[/td][td]astronomy[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Athletics[/td][td]2[/td][td]running[/td][td]15[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Awareness[/td][td]2[/td][td]when in forest[/td][td]15[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Bows[/td][td]5+2[/td][td]long bow[/td][td]75[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Brawl[/td][td]3[/td][td]dagger[/td][td]30[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Craft: Sculpting[/td][td]4[/td][td]wooden figurines[/td][td]50[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Figurine Magic[/td][td]6+2[/td][td]Puissant (Ability)[/td][td]87[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Folk Ken[/td][td]2[/td][td]ill-wishers[/td][td]15[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guile[/td][td]1[/td][td]elaborate lies[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Hunt[/td][td]2[/td][td]tracking[/td][td]15[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Stealth[/td][td]2[/td][td]stalking[/td][td]15[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Survival[/td][td]3[/td][td]near water[/td][td]30[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swim[/td][td]2[/td][td]lakes[/td][td]15[/td][/tr][/table]

Combat:
Dodging +1 -- +4 --
Dagger +1 +8 +5 +5
Long Bow -1 +14 +9 +10
Soak: +1
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: -1 (1-7), -3 (8-14), -5 (15-21), Incapacitated (21-28), Dead (29+)

2

For the most part, it looks good. I like the backstory, and how it ties into the existing covenant.

But Realms of Power: Magic is not usable for characters; only for familiars and designing magical creatures (per the Character Generation guidelines).

His being the librarian, I like.

3

Ah, my mistake. I'll reconsider the disallowed virtues.

4

I've updated the Virtues and a bit of the background to make it fit better.

5

How do you hope to use Figurine Magic? The description seems to be for enchanted items that need other spells or in minor supernatural or general virtues ( in Mull's case) to be put in the figurine. I would assume that Mull needs the virtue to put into the figurine.

6

I've looked through the figurine magic section thrice now, and can't find a statement that limits imbued minor Virtues to only those that the figurine maker possesses. But it does state that the maker must be able to cast the spells they enchant into the figurines, if they are Gifted, so perhaps by extension Virtues must also be possessed. Being able to pass on any genersl and supernatural minor virtue does seem excessively liberal. However, there is a considerable time investment of 2 seasons to make a figurine with an effect that lasts but a year. So I don't know.

7

That is 2 months, not seasons, for a virtue that can last a year. 1 month to make figurines that last 6 months.

I am not trying to crush the idea but more as to think through how it would work in the game. While it does not say specifically that the maker must have the virtue, I would be interested in learning how a virtue not possessed by the maker could be put into a figurine. If you could put in any general or supernatural virtue it becomes extremely powerful. Especially for a minor virtue.

8

The part about non-Gifted Figurine Magic users is in the last paragraph of the description, on p. 34. And it does appear that the crafter can put any (reasonable) Minor General or Supernatural Virtue in the figurine. And it looks to me like it would last (from crafting to effect's expiry) six or twelve months, depending on whether it's wax or wood.

But you probably want to put points into Artes Liberales and at least one Craft to make the figurines.

9

How about we deem that reasonable minor Virtues are limited to those that Mull possesses, but allow Puissant (Ability) to be general? So he could grant the covenant woodcutter Puissant Profession (woodcutting), or the creepy servant girl with second sight Puissant Second Sight, if they don't already have Puissance in those abilities. And there could be a further stipulation that the benefactee would have to already have a score in the ability that is > 0. That way, no one gets a new ability for free. They just get better at an ability that they already have.

I might substitute a virtue or two, ditching Affinity with Figurine Magic, perhaps. But I need to give it more thought.

Also, if he takes two months to sculpt a wooden figurine, is he precluded from doing anything else during that time? Can he still do his librarian job, or gain experience from reading a book, for example?

10

Technically, he's not imbuing the figurine with a Virtue; he's giving it "effects that mirror Minor Virtues." (HoH: TL, p. 33). So, no, he doesn't have to use only Virtues that he, himself, has.

And it's not as though he's giving the Virtues permanently. The effects have an expiry date.

As far as what General Virtues wouldn't be enchantable, there's already a partial list:

11

It doesn't specifically say, but I'm thinking it would be basically like a lab activity, in that anything else you do for that 2/3 of a season would give you a penalty; or, alternatively, it would take much longer to create if he continued working full-time (or reduced-full-time) as librarian. Which would involve maths.

12

Ok. I suppose we can figure that out if we ever need to. I'll try not to let it be an issue.

I've added Mull's abilities above, and please let me know if I'm miss-applying Linguist to his native language (I've allowed it to free up 15 xp for other abilities).

As for how to address jebrick's concerns about what virtues he can enchant into figurines, I'm fine handling it as I've suggested. Peregrine_Bjornaer's interpretation would be preferable, of course, but if the consensus is that it's over-powered this way, then I think a general Puissant (Ability) would be a good second option. What does everyone think?

13

Linguist doesn't apply to your native language, since you don't put points into it. It only applies to study totals and any experience points you put into it at CharGen.

14

There are certainly hints in the rules that points are put into it, but that specifically 75 points are put into it. I think you're right that the intent is not that you can divert points from Welsh to put into other Abilities, though. Would it be OK for Mull to have Welsh (Poetry) 5 [19] (meaning 75 points were put into it and an extra 19 points were gained via Linguist, bringing Mull that much closer to Welsh 6)?

15

Everything I've seen says that you start with a score of 5 in your Native Language (unless you have Feral Upbringing, which gives you 120 points in Early Childhood instead of 45...which is the same as adding 75 points, which is how much a score of 5 in an Ability costs).

So, you start with a score of 5. Any experience points you put toward raising it to a 6 would get the bonus, but you don't get a bonus for the zero points the starting score cost.

I've also got you at 495 points instead of 515...but I also have your points for Figurine Magic as 67 instead of 87 (as you have).

16

Okay, I've reduced Athletics to 2 to fix the issue.