Alas, a grog meat shield is necessary - as part 2 of De Falt ex Tytalus' story shows.
Next part – we now have 4 Vim, 6 corpus, 2 mentem vis in stocks.
Year 4 – 7,9,9,6,10,4,1,1 – So 1 adventure with +1 botch dice, 1 regular adventure
1st adventure difficulty 2 – easy, origin 3 – peasant, local farmer, timing 5 – autumn, complexity 10 roll twice 7 – very complex, 6 – complex. Types 2-social, 2-social, 2 social, 6-magic, 1-social. So an easy, 5 sets of challenges task involving a peasant which is mostly social. This task involves tracking down all of a dieing farmer’s relatives and talking to them, all to find out who should inherit. There are some magical shenanigans involving a magical birthright as well to account for the magic tasks.
2nd adventure – difficulty 6, average, origin 6 – criminal outlaws, timing 2 spring, complexity 10, roll twice – 5 complex, 10 – do I roll again? I assume so, so 5 and 3 – complex and simple. Total 5 challenge series. Types – 3 combat, 6 magic , 10 - choice, 10 choice, 3 combat- for the two choices, let’s take one social and one legal/diplomatic so it covers everything. This adventure involves fighting criminals, figuring out their magic edge, using diplomacy to discover what’s happenings, negotiating with the authorities and then a final violent showdown.
Springtime adventure
Combat – Per + awareness (Ambush speciality counts), Str + Brawl, Pre + leadership,
Magic – Spell (posing the silent question), Com + Magic Theory, Sta + Parma magica
Social – Int + folk ken, Dex + Intrigue, Qik + Guile
Legal/diplomatic – Int + Artes Liberales, Com + Guile, Spell – aura of rightful authority
Combat – Dex + Brawl, Pre + Leadership, Qik + awareness
Results – combat 4+2 – spends a point of confidence to succeed, 0 – botch dice 5,1 – no botch, fails rather than spend 2 confidence, and 1,1,2 so 8+2 success. 2 successes, gain 1 reward.
Magic – 8 so spell goes off, 8 +3=11 success, 9+4=13 success. 3 successes, 1 reward +5xp.
Social – 7+4=11 success, 3+3=6 spends 1 confidence to succeed, 9+3=12 success. 3 successes, 1 reward +5xp
Legal/diplomatic – 1 then 4 so 8+5=13 success, 7+2=9 success, 7 so spell goes off. 3 successes, 1 reward +5xp
Combat – 7+4=11 success, 4+2=6 spends 1 confidence to succeed, 7+3=10 success. 3 successes, 1 reward +5xp.
Also gains for 5 challenges 5xp+5 confidence, for net gain 2 confidence. He could have had the clean sweep if he’d dared to spend the confidence, as it is his confidence pool goes up to 10. 25xp = 5 into awareness 2(11), brawl 3(5), leadership 2(5), guile 2(5), Mentem 10. Build points 9/2*5=22.5. He recovers the book the outlaw chief was reading “On wizards and their magical treasures” Magic lore summa level 4, quality 10 (22bp). The book describes differing magical traditions, the vis they gather, the items they enchant and magical properties of common familiars.
Time spent 9+5 skill challenges +1 failure = 15 days, half a month so study unaffected.
Spring study – read corpus book raising Co to 6(3). Summer study – read book he looted to gain Magic Lore 1(5)
Autumn adventure – social 1 Com+Intrigue, Qik+Guile, Sta + Folk Ken
Social 2 Spell “posing the silent question”, Per + Etiquette, Pre + Charm
Social 3 Int+organization lore:church, Str + guile, Dex+Intrigue NB when you get three challenges of the same type, after 7 choices you’ve used 6 characteristics + all the ability choices and the spell choice. Needing to use up the other 2 characteristics, I’m reusing the 2 best abilities.
Magic Int + Magic Lore, Com + Magic Theory, Sta + Parma Magica
Social 4- spell “aura of rightful authority”, Dex+folk ken, Qik+charm
Results – social 1 8+2=10 success, 9+3=12 success, 5+3=8 success – 3 successes, 5xp+reward
Social 2 – 4 so spell goes off, 5-1=4 so spend 1 confidence, 5+0=5 so spend 1 confidence. 3 successes again.
Social 3 – 6+4=10 success, 6+2=8 success, 4+3=7 success. 3 successes.
Magic – 0 then 8 – no botch, total 5. Spend 1 confidence to succeed, 4+3=7 success, 4+5=9 success. 3 successes.
Social 4 – 3 so spell goes off costing fatigue, 0 then 7 so no botch – spend 2 confidence to succeed, 4+1=5 so spend 1 confidence. 3 successes.
Clean sweep using 6 confidence (with self-confident difficulty 6 rolls are no problem), 25 xp and 5 rewards. 5 xp for challenges + 5 confidence. Confidence pool down to 9. 30xp – 5 each into Intellego 5(5), Mentem 10(5), Intrigue 2(5), guile 2(10), folk Ken 1(peasants), Organisation lore:church 1(village priests). Rewards – build points 6/2*5 =15bp.
The peasant’s inheritance required a lot of talking to people, trying to figure out how to speak to priests about inheritance, plotting, mind reading, mind control and working out what the non-hermetic curse on the grove of trees in the middle of the field was. The reward is a 3 point source of Creo vis from the magic grove.
Time spent = 6+5 challenges=11 days.
Autumn study – parma magica book to 4(5).
Winter study – wrap parma around a shield grog, get them to train him in great weapon(staff) – assume a skill of 5, our mage gets 8xp so great weapon(staff) 1(3)
Stocks – 4vim, 7 corpus, 4 mentem, 3 creo. New books “On wizards and their magical treasures” Magic lore summa level 4, quality 10. Vis sources – 4 Vim (used for aegis), 1 Corpus, 2 mentem, 3 Creo.
Updated sheet after year 4:
De Falt ex Tytalus: Int 4, Per -1, Pre 0, Com 0, Str 0, Sta +2, Dex +1, Qik +1
Age 29
Confidence: 2(9)
V & F: LLSM, great intelligence, improved characteristics, life boost, piercing gaze, self-confident; painful magic, tormenting master, weak parens.
Personality: Argumentative +3, Brave +2, trusting -2
Soak: +2
Abilities: Artes Liberales 1(logic), Awareness 2(11) (ambushes), Bargain 2 (luxuries), Brawl 3(5) (grappling), Concentration 2(spellcasting), Guile 2(10) (spur of the moment), Faerie Lore 1 (faerie knights), Folk Ken 1(Peasants), Great Weapon 1(staff), Intrigue 2(5) (conspiracies), Latin 4 (hermetic terms), leadership 2(5) (long-time followers), Magic lore 1(5) (vis sources), Magic theory 3 (mentem), Native Language 4 (arguing), Organisation lore: church 1(village priests), Parma Magica 4(5) (mentem), Penetration 1(4) (mentem)
Arts: Cr 5, In 5(5), Mu 8, Pe 4(1), Re 5, An 0, Aq 0, Au 0, Co 6(3), He 0, Ig 0, Im 6, Me 10(5), Te 0, Vi 0
Spells:
Veil of invisibility PeIm20 +12
Pains of perpetual worry CrMe20 +16
Posing the silent question InMe20 +16
Trust of childlike Faith PeMe10 +11
Aura of rightful authority ReMe20 +16
Scent of the peaceful slumber ReMe20 +16
Year 5- 10, 3, 10, 6, 2, 10, 8, 2 – good job neither of the last two were a 1 or we’d have had an adventure with 3 extra botch dice. A quiet year.
Spring study – corpus book takes Co to 8.
Summer study – tap the aura for Vim vis equal to Cr 5 + Vi 0 + Int 4 + MT 3 + aura 5 = 17/10 or 2 point. 2xp into Creo
Autumn study – study vim vis – 0 then 1 for using 1 pawn, 5 for aura – 8,2,4,5,1,8 – no botch so only 5 xp for aura 5.
Winter study – study vim vis - 4 + aura 5 = 9 xp so Vi 4(4)). A mere 26 xp makes this a poor year.
Stocks – 4 Vim , 8 Corpus ,6 mentem , 6 creo
Year 6 – 7, 2, 6, 4, 1, 3, 3, 1 – two adventures with no extra botches.
Difficulty 9 – hard, base difficulty of rolls is 12. Origin is 5, official, agent of noble. Timing is 6, autumn. Complexity is 2 – simple. Type is 1 – social. A straightforward tale of interacting with a noble’s agent to convince them the struggling covenant is too poor to tax.
Adventure 2: Difficulty – 1 then 6 so 12 = very hard, base difficulty 15. Origin 7=Hermetic, own house. Timing 3=summer. Complexity 4=complex, 2 challenges. Type is 4 combat, 5 magical. House Tytalus schemes at the behest of his Tormenting Master, sending shield grogs to harass him and push him into a magical trap near his home covenant’s vis sources.
Spring study – Corpus book take Co to 9(3)
Summer adventure – he has no spells of level 25, and using LLSM would render very fatigued
combat – Qik + Awareness to react, Dex+brawl to fight, Pre + leadership to intimidate grogs.
Magic – Int + Magic Theory to understand, Sta + Parma to resist, and then spont a MuMe 25 – Muto 8 + Mentem 10 + Sta 2 + aura 5 within the covenant, he will use LLSM and fatigue to reach level 25.
Results – combat 2 + 4 = fail, 4 +4 = fail, 5+2 = fail. 2 losses, even self-confident won’t help any of these.
Magic – 6 + 7=13, spend 1 confidence to succeed. 0 + 5 – no botch, total 4 = fail. Magic – roll 0, let’s say 5 botch dice – 8,3,3,3,9 – no botch. Total 25/2 = 12 , add 3 fatigue so spell goes off with LLSM. He is very tired but has 2 successes so 1 reward. He gains 2 xp and 2 confidence for a net gain of 1 confidence.
Rewards/losses –I’ll be cheeky and roll losses first so I can allocate reward against any build point loss – 6 gain 3 warping points, 8 take wound of 20 + stress dice 5 = 25, with a soak of 2 he dies! His tormenting master has accidentally killed him. If I’d taken a shield grog, with good soak and armour they might have only taken an incapacitating wound and left De Falt alive, but would a Tytalus take one with him when facing down a threat from other Tytalus? I’ve assumed not. He might have succeeded at the autumn adventure, as difficulty 12 brings results within range of spending 2 confidence.
Things I have learnt: this exercise requires a wide range of skills, and avoiding any particularly low “dump stats” unless you want to miss out on rewards and xp. You really need self-confident to do well at low level, although a relic or true faith (giving you a free faith point once/day, ie each set of challenges) is almost as good. Spending confidence to try and win every test possible isn’t a bad idea as it gets you more rewards. Low self-esteem(the major flaw that gives you confidence 0) is probably a horrible idea, even worse than in troupe play. Take a shield grog to do the dieing for you, any very hard roll will be damage 20+stress die so even with good Sta or armour you’ll still probably die if you take a wound – and 30% of losses are wounds, and it only takes a “one success,two fails” to get a loss, or a single botch.
As there are minimal rules for opting out, I decided my Tytalus wouldn’t back down (like a Hippian Tytalus would). Perhaps a rule of “one loss per set of challenges” or “one loss per two sets of challenges (round up)”, and losses being 1-8 pay a bribe in build points, 9-10 flaws/hooks as per the bottom of the loss table would make solo play more straightforward.