Rafael di Milan (Companion)

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Ad Astera per Aspera
1

Rafael di Milan - Campaign start

Characteristics: Int +1, Per 0, Str +2, Sta +2, Pre -1, Com +1, Dex +2, Qk +3
Size: 0
Age: 23 (23), Height: 1.86m, Weight: 70k, Gender: Male
Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 0
Confidence: 1 (3)

Virtues: Free social status (Wanderer then covenfolk), Affinity with brawl, Improved characteristics x3, Puissant brawl, Lightning reflexes, Warrior

Flaws: Infamous (The dagger butcher), Ability Block, Dutybound, Temperate, Black sheep

Personality Traits: Controlled +3, Brave +1, Wrathful +1

Combat:
Dodge: Init: +3, Attack ‑‑, Defense +10, Damage ‑‑
Fist: Init: +3, Attack +9, Defense +10, Damage +2
Kick: Init: +2, Attack +9, Defense +9, Damage +5
Dagger: Init: +3, Attack +11, Defense +10, Damage +5
Long Sword: Init: +5 (+1 with armor and buckler), Attack +10, Defense +7 (9 with armor and buckler), Damage +8

Soak: 2 (4 in a, 7 in b)
Fatigue levels: OK, 0, ‑1, ‑3, ‑5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: ‑1 (1‑5), ‑3 (6‑10), ‑5 (11‑15), Incapacitated (16‑20), Dead (21+)
Encumbrance: 0 (0 in outfit a, 2 in outfit b)

Reputation: The dagger butcher (Bad) 4

Abilities:

Ability[tab][/tab] Rank[tab][/tab] Specialization[tab][/tab]

Athletics 2 [tab]/tab
Awareness 2 [tab][/tab] (Combat)
Brawl* 5+2 [tab][/tab] (Daggers)
Etiquette 1 [tab][/tab] (Patrons)
Folk ken 2 [tab][/tab] (Soldiers)
Guile 2 [tab][/tab] (Commanding officers)
Hunt 1 [tab][/tab] (Skinning, gutting, de-feathering)
Intrigue 2 [tab][/tab] (City-state rivalries)
Leadership 3 [tab][/tab] (Soldiers)
Italian 5 [tab][/tab] (Martial commands)
Occitain 4 [tab][/tab] (Provencal)
Organization Lore (Mercenary companies) 1 [tab][/tab]
Ride 2 [tab][/tab] (Charging)
Stealth 2 [tab][/tab] (Wearing armor)
Survival 1 [tab][/tab] (Times of war)
Swim 1 [tab][/tab] (In armor)
Greater Weapon 1 [tab][/tab] (Great Swords)
Single Weapon 4 [tab][/tab] (Shield)
Thrown Weapon 4 [tab][/tab] (Daggers)

  • Affinity

Detailled Accounting

Early Childhood (0-5) (45 xp)
Athletics (5), Brawl (15), Folk ken (5), Guile (5), Italian (Free), Stealth (5), Survival (5), Swim (5)

Later Life (5-23) (270xp)
Athletics (10), Awareness (15), Brawl (35), Etiquette (5), Folk ken (10), Guile (10), Hunting (5), Intrigue (15), Leadership (30), Occitaine (50), Organization lore (5), Ride (15), Stealth (10), Greater weapon (5), Thrown weapon (50)

Virtues (50xp, Martial only)
Single weapon (50)

[tab][/tab] Equipment

Heavy Leather (pro 2, L 3) , Full leather scale (pro 5, L 5), Lots of daggers everywhere (at least 6 on person at all times, 10 more on a cross belt at times of strife. When thrown use knife stats), Shield Buckler (De 1, L1), Long sword (De 1, L1)

Outfits: A) Heavy leather and daggers. His “Casual” every day wear.
B) Full leather scale, long sword and buckler, extra daggers. War outfit.

2

[tab][/tab]Rafael was born outside Milan to a family of merchants and scholars of some stature. He had a falling out with his family though, mainly because he was too stubborn (or stupid, see flaws) to follow a craft or academic career. Instead he run away from home at an early age and later became a mercenary, fighting in the many skirmishes between the city states. The skills in knife fighting he learned on the streets served him well. Eventually he ended up in Provencal and Normandy, where he had quite a few close calls. In battle he gained the reputation of "The dagger butcher", due to his habit of killing his wounded foes with his daggers, even if they surrendered. He tries to follow the mercenary code, but that doesn't always work.
[tab][/tab] Recently, he got weary of the heavy mercenary work, figuring it might get him killed too soon. Retirement though is too far off, plus he doesn't have the money. Looking for work, he returned to Italy trying to find a job as a sergeant, captain of the guard, or even a duelist. His reputation and the wrath of his family quickly posed problems and he had to bail out before things got complicated. Soon he was running out of options, as the jobs with the pay he wanted were too high profiled. He changed tactics and started looking for remote manors or castles (even a couple of covenants) where his talents might be needed, roaming ever southwards, and eventually ended up in Sicily. A "misunderstanding" with the city guards of Catania though, ahd him boarding the first ship out of there...and he ended up in Malta. Maybe here its far enough he can find a job.
[tab][/tab] Rafael is a tall, lanky man of Italian descent. His face and body are heavily scarred and he has a constant frown in his face. His demeanor is controlled and gives off an aura of trained killer. Outside combat he says little and keeps his counsel, while at war his orders are barked clear and loud.

3

you have listed affinity and puissance with single weapon, then asterisked and have the +2 on brawl...
I do not see how you can take the poor student flaw when you are not a student...
also I'm a bit confused how intrigue fits with city state wars...
or guile with chain of command...

4

-[tab][/tab]Changed the affinity and puissant to brawl. (was left over from character sheet, sorry)
-[tab][/tab] Changed poor student to ability block (for crafts and academics). I thought it covered training too, is it better now?
-[tab][/tab] Intrigue about city states and their relations with each other helps in finding work. Follow the wars!
-[tab][/tab] Lying to the chain of command without getting caught. A valuable skill for mercenaries, especially if they want to stop and loot...stuff.

5

okay, for clarity lets change the specialty in intrigue to city-state rivalries, and the concentration in guile to commanding officers. Ability block is fine, asis the change to affinity and puissant ability.

6

using a finer toothed comb- provencal is a concentration of the language Occitain

also based on skills he is 24 1/3 years old... this will need to be set to a whole number of years and reflected accurately on the character sheet

other than that, the question is how is he likely to make contact with the covenant... (note: this will probably be within a story)

7

-[tab][/tab]Intrigue specialty changed to city states wars
-[tab][/tab]guile specialty changed to commanding officers
-[tab][/tab] Extra language changed to Occitain (Provencal)
-[tab][/tab] You mean 22+ years? I was missing 5 points on later life (165 instead of 170), which I now put on Organization lore: Mercenary companies

-[tab][/tab]Maffeo, Rafael and the three grogs are coming as a group to Malta, the four following the magus. After Maffeo makes the initial contact (and pledge hopefully) they will probably be inserted as his servants, shield grogs etc. Is that what you are asking?

8

One thing to consider, is that if you cluster your characters a a group, they won't have any reason to interact with anyone but themselves. Your companion will often be in different stories than your mage, and the grogs could end up anywhere. Keep that in mind when pitching a backstory. At the very least, if you wish to pitch the group to Silveroak, include a mechanism in which they will storytell independent of each other.

9

Well this is how I see it:

-[tab][/tab] All come as a group, as a "literary" device of why they come to the covenant and join. Fastest and laziest method :stuck_out_tongue:
-[tab][/tab] The shield grogs come after being payed to provide protection. They will join the pool of grogs and get payed by the covenant. Same with the personal servant, she isnt there to wait hand and foot on my main magus, she is there to wait on all magi (among other things). These arent my grogs, these are grogs for the covenant that come with the character :slight_smile:
-[tab][/tab] As for the companion, besides that he is a distant cousin, he is a mercenary and more combat oriented than Maffeo. He probably aims for turb captain or some such...

Magus and companion are almost certainly not going to be involved in the same adventures or quests, different styles of play (intentionally). The grogs are everyone's grogs (...thats what Paola says)
Hope this clears everything up :smiley:

10

hehe, Garcin likes Paola.

11

You do realize that the distant cousin of a mercer magus is likely a redcap...
aside from this I have specifically asked that these not be bundled. It was one thing when a player wanted to have the core seed of a religious cult which would be joining the covenant, and crafted them all with that in mind, but "hey lets do this the lazy way" and creating connections really doesn't work for me. The covenant has a shortage of grogs and most of these will require a story to bring in individually at this point, and these will be handled the same way, including the possibility they may not wind up joining the covenant (the grogs that is, the companion and magus I will go a bit more out of my way for) if the story happens to go that direction.
From that perspective, for a lot of grogs from this point forward making them from Malta will make the most sense, unless you plan to add them when there is an international excursion, like the possible upcoming excursion to Normandy to purchase books and other goods bought with stores of Vis.

12

-[tab][/tab] "distant cousin" probably would be a redcap or a support character. However Rafael blew everything away and left, hence the black sheep flaw. Augustus gave him a chance to mend fences a bit, but his family is having none of it. They feel he betrayed the family tradition.
-[tab][/tab] Sorry didnt know that :S . How about this a) I redo Pepe's and Paola's stories, one will stay in the mainland the other in Sicily, and they both get added on a later date? b) Change Odirisi's story a bit and make him a transit left in Malta looking for a job c) Any suggestions on changing Rafael? Or is he good as is?

13

An itinerant potential redcap of this sort would have much greater problems than simply black sheep. The apprenticeship is not always voluntary and until completed they are essentially property the same as any other apprentice. Either the character or the background needs to change.

14

Roger, changing the story slightly and giving more concrete reason of why he will join covenant.