New House Verd Mystery - Vulcans Touch

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Outer mystery of House Verditius

Vulcans Touch
When opening an item for enchantment, you may open up an identical item for each point of your relevant Craft score (limited by Magic Theory). Subject to the maximum amount of vis you can handle in a season.
This also applies to Items of Quality.

Every verditius knows that the tedious part of any enchantment is the preparation. This mystery was devised by Mathius of Verditius to overcome this waste of his time - he developed this new virtue so that he could spend one season opening several swords, then enchanting each in turn.

This mystery soon spread throughout the Confraternity of Roland, and Mathius name became a part of their lore.

2

I'm not sure how I feel about this one... it could be ripe for exploitation.

Part of me likes the idea that each item must be lovingly, painstakingly prepared and crafted, invested with power and time.

Part of me can see the wisdom in perhaps preparing the very base source metal, so that anything drawn from it could be used appropriately...

I'd have to see it in play or do some numbers, I'm on the fence.

-Ben.

3

I think the real limiter here is Magic Theory; You can use 2 x MT (normally) as the limit of how much vis you can use in the lab. Let's see... Our example magus shall be Acme, ex Verditius (MT of 10, Craft : Jewelry of 5.) He's comissioned to make 5 rings, and has a time limit on delivery, say 6 seasons.

At most, he'd be able to open 3 silver rings (18 pawns of vis required) in a season, barring the use of any other mysteries to raise that limit, wherein he hits the Craft Limit. Note that the enchantment of said items, once opened, still takes a season (or more, depending on the level of effect).

I wouldn't allow this mystery to work in conjuction with the Alchemic Mysteries that open an enchantment while you do other things, for instance. I really have to read through HoH : Mystery Cults Verditius' section to see what combinations I would allow.

This Mystery would be really, really open to abuse as MT soared, and if the player knew other mysteries that raised the limit of vis you could use in a season. Once a Verditius got to that point, he's not busying himself with mass production, but Works of Art to spread his name far and wide, to bring greater fame to his house and himself...

Steve

4

I don't really see the problem here. He can prepare a lot of items for investment in a single season, which will indeed save off many seasons but... won't really do much else.

I would consider, however, any lowering of raw-vis needed for opening as applying to ALL the projects together, and each one requiring at least one pawn. Any increase in the maximum power that can be invested in the items likewise applies to all items together, not to each one. In this way one cannot open 6 rings for 1 pawn, and if one can somehow invest a small wooden peg with 100 levels of spaces for the cost of 1 pawn it doesn't mean he can make 6 of these in a season.

5

I have always read the Verditius Magic rule to state that putting an enchantment in an item has a smaller cost, assuming he uses one of his Craft skills in the process, while opening an item for enchantment had to be done for the full cost of vis.

Am I wrong in this? If a Verditius has a Craft: Rings 3, can he open a silver Ring for mere 3 pawns?

6

The RAW states that a craft ability can be subtracted from the amount needed to open an item e.g.

Gold ring holds 10 pawns. Verd has an MT of 6, knows no mysteries and has a craft of goldsmith 4.
He can handle 6 * 2 pawns of vis, so he can open it.
To open it he needs 10 - craft pawns = 6.

I agree that if someone knows Elder Runes and has a high Philosophae they can handle an enormous amount of vis in a season.
As for the mystery - As far as I'm concerned the Craft score has been used for all of the items, so any vis saved is shared between them all.
As the vis is placed into them all at the same time, at the end of the season, there is no worry about half pawns.

e.g.
Magus has MT of 10, Phil of 4, Craft Goldsmith of 4
Can handle 40 pawns of vis in a season.
Opens up 4 gold rings for enchantment - each can hold 10 pawns.
To open them all he needs (4 * 10) - Craft = 36 pawns of vim.

If this causes a problem for a saga the SG could rule that all of the items are tied to the magus and cannot be invested by anyone else. But I don't find it that saga breaking myself.

7

Does "open the enchantment" mean open the item for enchantment or instill effects? Or both?

I'm confused now.

8

The first - opening the item for enchantment.
I do believe.

9

The first, when opening it with Vim vis. It is mentioned in the main rulebook where it discusses the various abilities of each house - just before the lab sections.
Sorry for my sloppy wording, I was in a hurry.

10

Maybe a dummy question from me, but it is written in the main core rules book that a magus can do multiple activities in the same season in his lab.
Like inventing several spells (as soon as all arts are included in the lab total).
So why a magus with enough MT ( or a verditius why Elder Runes and a high Philosophy) could not open two or three items in the same seasons ?
Maybe I missed sth in the rules.

Thks in advance for your answers

11

In the rules it says that it takes a season to open an item, and it does not require a lab-total to do it. I (and most other people) interperet this as meaning that it takes an entire season devoted solely to it.

12

After giving the matter some thought I have come up with two more mysteries, an inner and an outer one.

Vulcan's knowledge (minor house mystery)
Ease Factor 15
The magus is closely linked with all devices that he manufactures - whether the item is for himself or for another he is able to use his link to make more powerful enchantments. The magus hubris score is added to all lab-totals involving creating the item - however he must have opened the item himself and been the only person to invest powers into it. This virtue only applies when the magus is in charge of the lab activity.

initiation script +11
The magus must locate a blacksmiths anvil that has been used only for mundane work for 15 years in a place without any realm auras. (+3) He must transport the anvil by hand-cart using only his physical strength to Mt Vesuvius (+3) where he uses it for a season to craft a sword. (+1)
The magus must battle a magical creature whilst wielding the sword in their hand. (+3)
The magus then lies down on the ground, with the creatures body on their chest, and the sword is plunged through it into their heart.
If the magus has succeeded the sword and body will vanish becoming one with their gift. (+1)
The magus gains a greater link with their magic items.

Vulcan's Hands (major house mystery)
Ease Factor 21
The magus can handle multiple identical items at the same as if they were a single object. The items must all be identical, and when opened they are marked with the verditius rune for "Eternity" at a cost of a pawn of vim each. This adds 5 levels to all effects the devices contain. The magus can operate on one item per full point of Hubris (limited by his lab-total and the amount of vis he can handle in a season).
When opening the items, the magus spends the season opening them all at the same time, crafting the rune onto them and binding them together. The items become permanent Arcane Connections to each other.
When enchantint the items, the magus calculates the total needed as normal for the effect they wish to imbue (including the extra 5 levels for the rune). They then add 5 levels per additional item they are imbuing.
This becomes the lab-total for the combined work. The enchantment process is the same as normal for lesser and greater devices.
Once the process is finished, and the items are to become unique, the ceremony of seperation must be carried out. Compare the magus Perdo Vim + stress die lab-total to 10 + the combined number of pawns the devices hold. If it is greater than or equal to the number the items become unique. If it is less the items remain permanent Arcane Connections to each other, and cannot be seperated again. If you botch, he receives a number of Warping Points equal to the total number of pawns of vis in the item.
The items do not all have to be given the same enchantments - for example a particular enchantment could be invested into only one of them.

initiation script (+13)
The innitiate creates and opens as many small hammers as they can in a single season. (+1)
They then lie down before a forge of Hephaestus, at midnight on the eve of Hephaistia, remaining naked, defenceless and silent throughout the night. (+3)
The mystagogue will select one of the initiates healthy legs, and all throughout the next day, from sunrise to sunset the mystagogue, starting each hour they will strike the leg with each hammer in-turn, healing it with magic before breaking it again. When the sun sets and the magics wear off, the hammers are then sacrficed the forge as the initiate passes out. (+3)
When the initiate awakens, they will have gained the gift of Vulcan's hands, but their leg will never be whole again. It is permanently lame, if their other leg is also damaged they are now crippled. (+3)
Due to the hammers being linked to them whilst symbolically destroyed the innitiate loses the minor virtue Vulcan's Touch (+3)

Example Vulcan's Hands
Mathius has a Magic Theory of 10, a Philosophae of 5, a Hubris of 6. He knows Verditius Elder Runes, Vulcan's knowledge and Vulcan's Hands
He has been comissioned to produce 2 identical swords, as greater devices, and instil in them the effect "Leap of Homecoming", R:T, D:M, T:I to send the wielder back to a set place. He was provided with two Arcane Connections, 30 pawns of Vim and 8 pawns of Rego vis.
As he desired a sword of his own, he decides to open a 3rd sword at the same time to save himself a season.
He spends a season crafting 3 identical swords with his forge, and carves the rune for eternity onto each of them. As the season draws to a close he uses 45 pawns of vim to open them all, and spends 3 pawns to empower the runes.
He put's his sword aside and begins to enchant the other two swords with the desired effect
The Leap of Homecoming base 35, T:Touch (+1) = 40
+5 levels for the Eternity Rune
+5 level for enchanting a second item
Final level = 50, vis needed is 10 pawns (5 pawns per item)
He has a Rego Corpus lab-total of 76, meaning that he can enchant the effect in two seasons.
He then prepares the ceremony of seperation on the 3 swords, He needs a perdo-vim + stress die lab-total of at least 45 to seperate the items, which he passes easily.
He then returns the two items to his client and charges another 60 pawns of Vim and 16 pawns of Rego.

He has saved 3 seasons of his time time (2 seasons of opening and 1 season of enchanting) for the cost of 3 pawns of vim and 2 pawns of Rego. He quietly laughs to himself as his client expresses his admiration at the speedy delivery.