There's one thing I feel I need to make the troupe aware of. Stultus is technically not a by-the-rules character. He has the Gift of Tongues virtue without the Mythic Blood prerequisite.
The reason for that is that he is already extremely skills-heavy, and the concept pretty much required that he be able to speak at least 2-3 languages fluently besides Latin and Greek. I couldn't make the concept work otherwise without shorting his Arts/spells.
Does anyone have a problem with that?
(I've always hated the way Ars Magica does languages. It's very realistic, yes -- it took me-the-player almost exactly the amount of time to learn a foreign language by immersion that the rules say -- but it makes it difficult with character creation.)
So, have you thought about his entry into the saga?
There is the huge mingling of Tribunal magi currently ongoing. Also there is the Grand Tribunal. Stultus could show up there to cause trouble, or something...
I've pretty much run through the Tournament. Alexei is finishing up the Joust. Marcus won the Dimicatio. It's possible that Stultus saw Tranquillina and Bilera in a deep discussion, but wasn't eavesdropping, or was he?
This is all really good. In particular, Cumhachd's feeling of personal failure over Eskil is obviously how she would actually feel (meaning, like all good ideas, obvious after someone points it out to me).
I should think about the extent to which Tranquillina understands the House Tytalus philosophy. At best she has a limited understanding, and/or one that is countered by her unconscious insecurity.
Uh oh ... being liked by a Tytalus isn't necessarily a good-feeling thing
I can see Tranquillina being very resistant to this all, even if she reluctantly agrees he could be a tactical advantage. Still, it makes for good story!
And not to mention that all of this gives JL an excuse to sic one of Tranquillina's story flaws on her
Well, her limited understanding of Tytalus philosophy was more than obvious in her conversation with Bilera. (The interesting thing Stultus noticed is that Bilera's understanding of Tytalus seemed a bit incomplete as well, but that's beside the point.)
But you don't necessarily need to change her. Give Stultus a chance to possibly change her mind in-character. That is one of his specialties, after all.
How about Stultus did make a bit of a fool of him/Alexei, and when Alexei confronted him privately was when he revealed the ruse. Along with something like "Gad you're dense! Have ye never seen a play before?"
Because this is relevant to Fiona's interests (so to speak), what does Stultus's "long flexible nose" look like? Is it a large yet normal nose like Jamie Farr or Jimmy Durante? Or is it more like a small trunk, like a tapir's, kindasorta?
Especially with the "flexible" bit. Even if he does only come up to her lower thigh. Although it is only a level 3 CrIg to make her hooha glow at moonlight intensity for Concentration duration. Easily spontable without fatigue.
