Stultus Maximus of Tytalus, aka il Supremo Nasone

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: In the Ruins of Bibracte
1

(Stats are interim: 20 or so Seasons reserved for familiar/magic items/longevity ritual/etc. Warping score isn't right either... and the background isn't written yet... This is more or less a "first try".)

Stultus Maximus of Tytalus, aka il Supremo Nasone

Characteristics: Int +3, Per +1, Pre -1, Com +2, Str 0, Sta 0, Dex +1, Qik +1
Size: -2
Age: 58 (58), Height: 3'5'', Weight: 85 lbs, Gender: Male

Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence: 2 (5)

Virtues: Gentle Gift, Puissant Intrigue, Improved Characteristics (×2), Clear Thinker, Quiet Magic, Cautious Sorcerer, Self-Confident (Confidence: +1)*, Troupe Upbringing (+2 on Athletics; Jongleur; Legerdemain).

Flaws: Dwarf, Carefree, Beloved Rival, Disfigured (Long flexible nose), Rigid Magic, Weird Magic.

Soak: 0
Fatigue levels: OK, 0, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: -1 (1-3), -3 (4-6), -5 (7-9), Incapacitated (10-12), Dead (13+)

Abilities: Norman French 5, Latin 5, Philosophiae 2, Artes Liberales 2, Code of Hermes 2, Finesse 3, Magic Theory 5, Magic Lore 2, Parma Magica 3, Penetration 2, Awareness 2, Carouse 1, Concentration 2, Disguise 2, Etiquette 3, Folk Ken 4, Guile 2, Intrigue 4+2, Charm 4, Stealth 3, Climb 2, Athletics 2+2, Jongleur 3+2, Legerdemain 3+2, Scribe 2, Area Lore: Normandy 2.

Arts: Cr 10, In 9, Mu 10, Pe 8, Re 10, An 6, Aq 3, Au 0, Co 8, He 5, Ig 0, Im 12, Me 12, Te 4, Vi 5

Spells Known:

Aura of Childlike Innocence (MuIm 10) +22
Notes of a Delightful Sound (MuIm 10) +22
Veil of Invisibility (PeIm 20) +20
Wizard's Sidestep (ReIm 10) +22
Perception of the Conflicting Motives (InMe 15) +21
Sight of the Transparent Motive (InMe 10) +21
Thoughts Within Babble (InMe 25) +21
Trust of Childlike Faith (PeMe 10) +20
Wizard's Communion (MuVi 15) +15
Gift of the Frog's Legs (ReCo 15) +18
Wizard's Leap (ReCo 15) +18
Strings of the Unwilling Marionette (ReCo 25) +18
Disguise of the New Visage (MuCo 15) +18
Aura of Beguiling Appearance (MuIm 10) +22
Betraying Whispers of the Jealous Mind (InMe 30) +21
Creation of an Undeserved Reputation (CrMe 20) +22
Burning Issue of the Day (ReMe 30) +22
Shriek of the Impending Rotten Apples (InHe 15) +14
Piercing Shaft of Wood (Mu(Re)He 10) +15
Silence of the Smothered Sound (PeIm 20) +20
Silent Shout (CrIm 10) +22

2

Marko, qcipher, I got a question.

I am not done with the background yet, but one thing I do know is that Stultus spent a good bit of time opposing the Cabal of the Crushed Viper. (They're in L&L.) Alexei and Rodrigo both would be prime targets for the Cabal's plots. I am wondering if we could build in an in-character link. Perhaps the cabal tried to use one of them as a patsy -- get them to do something innocent on the surface that would have bad consequences -- and Stultus delivered a timely warning that Things Are Not As They Appear, or something like that? Doesn't have to be anything major.

3

I'm willing to help, but I know nothing about that cabal. For the most part Alexei was in the Rhine until about 8 years ago or something. If we can make that work and JL is ok with it, let's come up with something.

4

The book has them operating in England and France. It'd be the SG's call as to whether they poke their nose into Germany as well.
Essentially, they want to destroy the chivalric ideal, destroy the very concept of knighthood. They go about it in different ways. There are three members of the cabal described in the book: one kills troubadours, one tries to get the Church to outlaw tournaments... and one specifically targets the Milites. (Hi, Alexei!)

"Lancelot" (you wouldn't know him by that name, cabal members keep their identity secret and/or assume other identities at the plop of a cat) works against the Milites by becoming their closest friend and most ardent supporter, trying to outdo them in honor... and then betraying them in the worst manner and at the worst time possible, causing them to question their commitment to chivalry.

The other incident in Alexei's background that the cabal may have been involved in is the incident with him refusing to influence a mundane. Is there more to that story?

5

I would be cautious about doing something to antagonize other players simply because the Covenant is paranoid and twitchy enough with House Guernicus as our enemies.

6

looks confused
I'm trying to build in an incident where my character helped another, not antagonized them. The bit about Lancelot is a paraphrase from L&L... he'd be someone that Stultus would be working against.

7

Sorry. Missed the "opposed" part. Carry on.

8

Came up with an idea this morning about how we could adjust the incident if there isn't more to the story. See what you think of this:

Alexei arrives at this unnamed covenant, looking to join. The covenant magi lament that this mundane is causing them problems, and how he needs to be subtly taken care of... and they'd be very grateful if someone took care of him. (Perhaps a young and pretty maga says that she personally would be Very Very Grateful if the mundane were taken care of. From what I've seen of Alexei, he's somewhat susceptible to that sort of thing.) Then the conversation shifts to all the great things the covenant has to offer to its members.
Alexei is torn. On one hand, it is somewhat beneath him. On the other hand, the covenant is offering a great many things. So, he says he needs a bit of time to think.
He decides to do some reconnaissance. See for himself whether this mundane (let's make him a count or something) is as evil as he is painted. So he comes up with a pretext and pays a visit to the count's court.
During his visit, the count's jester starts telling a story. A bit of a cautionary tale (punctuated by pratfalls and fart jokes) about a knight who sold his honor for a passel of empty promises. There are obvious parallels between the story and Alexei's situation... and as Alexei is listening to it, it suddenly dawns on him that while the covenant IMPLIED a great many things, they never actually came out and PROMISED anything.
So he heads back to the covenant and tries to make them commit to letting him join if he does as they ask. They refuse, he rides off.

The jester was, of course, Stultus. The nice thing about this idea, IMO, is that Alexei wouldn't have even known Stultus was a magus at that point. So there's the possibility of some fun RP when Stultus shows up at Bibracte and introduces himself... and there isn't really an obvious favor owed between them.

Would that work, do you think?

9

Something like that could work, it has a lot of elements that meld with Alexei.

  1. He is a bit too trusting.
  2. He has the Gentle Gift and has no qualms of meeting with mundanes and often pretends to be them (so would be an ideal foil for the covenant).
  3. He has been (and likely will continue to be) taken advantage of for his knightly virtues.

I can go with this.

10

Excellent. :slight_smile:

11

As I said in the other thread, welcome cunningrat!

In terms of character interactions, I think Tranquillina and Stultus would be a very interesting pair to put in the same room and see what happens. First of all, Tranquillina more or less hates House Tytalus (to a degree that probably nobody really understands yet - perhaps including herself - and for reasons from her background that are probably not common knowledge to the other magi). So right there, friction :mrgreen: Second, Tranquillina is pretty good with Intrigue (though not as good as a fully trained Trianomae, which makes her feel bad about herself), so she would simultaneously be impressed by Stultus's focus there yet assume the worst motives from him when he employs it. I (the player) am curious as to how Rigid Magic fits in with the character; Tranquillina has a real love-hate (well, love-hate-hate) relationship with vis, but she can cast Ritual spells (reluctantly) - so this would also cause a strange mix of sympathy and uncharitable superiority from her.

As a side note, the Forms of your chosen spells are almost identical with Tranquillina's! But she's a Corpus specialist, the Imaginem and Mentem taken mostly for social interactions (again, something where Stultus seems to excel). You might consider putting more xp into Mentem to specialize a bit more.

12

Eeeenteresting. Very interesting.

First of all, yes, I do believe their interaction would be fascinating to watch. Friction? Bring it on. The player thinks it's all grist for the RP mill, and the character is, well, a Tytalus. :smiley:

Secondly, I took a peek at Tranquillina's background. Cumhachd (I hope I got the spelling right) interests me exceedingly, since I have not yet defined who Stultus' Beloved Rival is. I don't know how much time (if any) Stultus spent in Stonehenge yet, or if Cumhachd ever pokes her nose into Normandy for reasons other than making Tranquillina's life miserable, but I think there are some possibilities there.

Mmm. That's actually the only Flaw Stultus has which isn't directly related to his concept.
I start character creation with Flaws, and try to keep roughly half of both Virtues and Flaws Hermetic for a Magus character. So I needed a Major Hermetic flaw. There weren't any that really flowed well with the concept, so I more or less picked one that would limit him but not make his chosen modus operandi impossible.

(I've got two other magi in PbPs here... one has Short Ranged Magic, and one has a fairly nasty Necessary Condition. Stultus is more or less my "I don't want casting-related headaches" character, since he's got plenty of other types of headaches to keep him busy.)

13

Deficient Creo... :smiling_imp:
I think only one spell might be affected, and rejiggering experience points could resolve that. Also requires that the character work with a specialist for a decent LR...

14

Not sure how Deficient Creo relates to the concept. Only thing I can think of is his focus on changing/altering existing social concepts/mores/attitudes rather than putting brand new ones in play... that may have crossed over into his Arts somehow. But you are right, only a couple of his spells would be affected.

Difficult Longevity Ritual might fit too -- he's a dwarf, his face is misshapen, obviously something in his physical body is severely messed up.

And yes, both would require he work with a specialist for a decent LR. Oh no! Oh no! Whatever shall I do? Where on earth am I ever going to find a Corpus specialist?? There are only what, five of those at Bibracte? :smiley:

15

hehe
Yeah, a lot of Corpus specialists around for a "Flambeau covenant" :wink:

I would certainly be happy with you incorporating Cumhachd (I hope I spelled it right!) into your story, even bending things about her to make it work. My take on her is not that she's some Big Bad Villain. Rather, she honestly believes the Tytalus philosophy that only by overcoming obstacles does one mature and succeed. So all of her machinations, her passive-aggressive stalking and goading of Tranquillina, is really done out of "love", or duty or anyway a sense that her actions are benefitting Tranquillina.... Tranquillina's Tormenting Master is a Major Story Flaw, after all, so I'm sure Jonathan would be happy to have more excuses to put it to work.

And yeah, friction = good! Although with newly met players, and especially in pbp, I like to communciate early and often to make sure that IC friction is still taken as OOC fun by the players. I like the foot we've started off on :slight_smile:

16

Of course she's not a Big Bad Villain. The best villains are never Snidely Whiplash types... They have perfectly valid (to them) reasons for doing what they do. That's what makes them fascinating.

I think I'm going to go ahead and take Cumhachd as a Beloved Rival. Saves me having to figure out an NPC Tytalus with JL -- the poor guy is drowning in my PMs as it is. :smiley:
I am also going to swap out Rigid Magic for Difficult Longevity Ritual, and say that the ritual he had wasn't too good to begin with and failed recently, which would give Stultus another reason to head for Bibracte post-haste.

Me too. :slight_smile: And yes, good communication is crucial whenever there's IC conflict between players. I am very good at keeping IC and OOC separate. Thing is, I've been roleplaying for so long, and the people I used to RP with were so good, that I tend to assume everyone knows how to keep IC and OOC separate. Which is, well, sometimes not the case. :stuck_out_tongue:

(Bit me once already on the Atlas forums, too. You'd think I'd learn....)

17

Possible story point: I don't know what Stultus's connection to Loch Leglean/Stonehenge will end up being (Cumhachd being in Loch Leglean). But Maximianus Bonisagi, Tranquillina's pater, founded the covenant of Nigrasaxa in Stonehenge in 1201; in this saga, Maximianus has a background with the Longevity Project (see Sanctuary of Ice, Sinews of Knowledge covenant) and would be a natural source of information about Longevity Rituals. But that's for someone up in the Isles, dunno if it helps you.

18

Noted, and thank you.

Can you please send me a PM with a summary of what you've established about Cumhachd? Covenant, personality, loves, hates, favored Arts... anything, really.

Thanks!

19

Feel free to CC me on it, too...

20

I wish I had much to say about her, but nothing's really been fleshed out other than what's mentioned in Tranquillina's back story. I made up the Lamh nam Monadh covenant - it's not in source books. Looking at Tranquillina's Arts, it would make sense if Cumhachd were good at Perdo, Animal, and/or Imaginem, possibly even Mentem. (Animal in particular strikes me as suitable for a Loch Leglean maga, for some reason.) As far as I can tell, Cumhachd is perhaps above-average comfortable with lab activities. Anything else is up to you.... :smiley: