JL, I was looking at something in HoH:MC (incidentally, a big thank you to jebrick for pointing me at the section), and I think I know what Stultus' Legacy is.
Pendule.
The Flaw says 'you are descended from', and since it's primarily intended for Redcaps it's got to be physical descent, not Hermetic descent. Since Stultus knows nothing about his family -- he was a foundling -- he wouldn't be aware of his Legacy. So I'm not sure how he is going to find out about it. Perhaps some Mercere figures it out?
Serf's Parma, but IIRC Pendule never joined the Order. His Followers are Merinitae because out of the four students he took, only the two Merinitae figured out what he was trying to teach them.
I meant Mercere because they (again, serf's parma, IIRC) try to keep track of folks with Blood of Heroes, including the diluted versions.
Blood of heroes are generally ones of Mythical proportion. Like Mercere to Hermes. But I will not get in the way of a good story or the myths of what the Redcaps and House Mercere can do/does :mrgreen:
I was describing Stultus to a friend, and the resultant description came out so well I thought I'd share.
"Take the Native American concept of the Sacred Fool. Add Rostand's Cyrano and Eddings' Beldin the Sorcerer, plus just a dash of Miles Vorkosigan. Season liberally with Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey, four or five hefty pinches. Drop the entire mess in a blender and hit 'frappe'. Brown until hard and crispy. Serves 8."
Summoning the Distant Image is a pretty good spell for someone who plans to have a lot of mundane agents running around. Just be careful none of them ever deal with magi!
Also, Tranquillina has the same spell ... evidence of common lineage?
Been trying to figure out what would still be in Viscaria's lab after she moved out, and what wouldn't be, and doing the math to make the Virtues/Flaws add up. As far as I can figure out, the non-Free Virtues and Flaws remaining would be Natural Environment (+3), Outdoors (-3), Chaotic (-1), and Diminutive (-1). That's one more Flaw than the Size/Refinement of the lab requires: I think Viscaria took it to balance a Magic Item virtue, but she took the magic items with her, I'd assume.
I'm not sure why Chaotic is there -- I think someone got the Vim vis cave and the sanctum confused. It's an easy mistake to make. Also I'm not sure how the Outdoors flaw works -- half the equipment is out on the ledge in plain sight, but Viscaria/Iosephus also had the Disguised flaw. Equipment out on the ledge also means that you'd have to go through the cave to get to the living space... and she's got the free Spacious virtue as well, which means there's plenty of space inside the cave... and Stultus just plain doesn't like it. Like I said IC, lots of wear and tear on the dwarf.
So with the Troupe's permission, I'd like to rearrange the non-Free Virtues and Flaws as follows:
Mountaintop (+3)
Dimimutive (-1)
Predecessor (-1) -- I think this makes sense with two previous owners
Undecorated (-1) -- Stultus has just moved in
Empty (-1) -- Same reasoning. Exposed (-1) would work too.
So are you proposing to move the entire lab indoors, making it Size -1?
Do you mean Natural Environment +3 (and Mountaintop a free virtue)?
Personally, I think Diminutive should still yield a -1 to Aesthetics even if its owner is small enough to avoid the other penalties. But that's opinion, not RAW.
Empty and Exposed are free flaws, not -1, if I'm not mistaken.
Anyway, I think this is a very reasonable lineup; the only question is whether that will be the lab that Stultus walks into on day 1, or whether it takes him a season of reorganization to make it that way. I can't opine about that before seeing the final parameters. But acceptable, modulo that season or not? - totally so, IMO.
The Size of the lab is listed as +1, Occupied Size is listed as -1. So if I move the entire lab indoors, it'd be either 0/-1 or -1/-1.
Yep, that's what I meant.
peers at the PDF facepalms
Yeah, you're right, they're free. Back to the drawing board...
VIRTUES:
Natural Environment (+3)
FLAWS:
Diminutive (-1) (And yes, I'm OK with it costing a point of Aesthetics)
Predecessor (-1)
Defective Heating (-1)
Undecorated (-1)
FREE VIRTUES/FLAWS: (These are what Viscaria had)
Superior Construction (??? Not sure how this applies to a cave)
Mountaintop
Idyllic Surroundings
Disguised
Spacious
Magical Lighting
Deformed
She also had Superior Equipment and Superior Tools, but I'm not sure whether that's what the covenant provides, or what she brought with her (and subsequently removed).
Hmm, that's weird: Reading the description of the Outdoors flaw, it says "This Flaw should be taken with the Natural Environment Virtue". (but nothing about same written at Natural Environment itself) It's true that I wondered how Natural Environment would fit with a no-longer outdoors lab. I don't think it's munchkiny or unbalanced or anything - just the extent to which it's appropriate. Should you take Subterranean? Maybe I have the wrong picture of the lab ... could it be more exposed than a cave, but (partially at least) less than just on a big plateau?
I thought I had read somewhere that the old lab was half-inside, half-outside. For a Size +1 lab (650 square feet), that would have meant 325 square feet inside, or about a Size -1 lab (350 square feet). But now I can't find where I might have read that.
(Spacious was a Minor Virtue, not Free.)
You definitely do get Superior Equipment and Superior Tools (without the Upkeep cost), thanks to covenant specialists. I agree that it's a bit weird to make Superior Construction (also due to covenant craftspeople) fit with a cave lab. Unless there are some partial walls built...?
shrugs
What I was trying to do was avoid the two Seasons of work setting up a new lab. Given how many questions I have about how this lab is actually set up, and given that we've found a bunch of things that are "not by the rules" (that will also take Seasons to fix) I'll just go ahead and spend the time, and redesign the lab from the ground up.
Yes, I know. Thing is, I don't really want to relocate the lab elsewhere. A mountaintop is not a particularly good fit, but I think Stultus being stuck there provides roleplaying opportunities -- or at least character development ones.
I think she took Onesiphorus' lab which was undefined. I would say that you could design it yourself. Move it into the cave rather than have it exposed.
+0 Superior Construction +1 Aesth +1 Safety
-0 Disguised: the entrance to the lab is usually blocked by the raw stone of the wall. It has to be transformed into something else magically in order for Iosephus to enter (-1 Aesthetics)
+0 Spacious: The ledge is wide, and the cave is deep (+2 Safety, +1 Aesthetics) (Free due to size +1 not filled)
+0 Magical Lighting: The cave walls are streaked with seams of silvery rock that shimmer in the darkness when a magus approaches, providing good light whenever necessary. (+1 Aesthetics, +1 Texts, +1 Im) (no space cost)
-1 Missing Equipment: as yet, the lab has no equipment for teaching or for binding a familiar. (-1 Upkeep)
+0 Servant (Patience) +(Int/2 round up) Safety, +1 Aesthetics, +1 Me (Int unknown) (or possibly just Person)
Flaws:
Diminutive (0) -- obvious reasons, but I'm actually going to take it as a Free flaw rather than a Minor, since it doesn't hamper my character any.
Predecessor (-1) -- two previous owners.
Undecorated (-1) -- Stultus has just moved in, and his last lab was a "guest lab", he doesn't have a lot of possessions.
Free Virtues/Flaws
Idyllic Surroundings
Mountaintop
Superior Equipment/Tools
Magical Lighting (glowing veins in the walls)
So, I have 3 points of Virtues to spend... and I'm having trouble figuring out what to spend them on. thinks snorts snorts again
JL, I'd like to take the "Greater Horde" feature, and have the lab be infested with Aeslin Mice. (They're from Seanan McGuire's "InCryptid" series, which I -- incidentally -- highly recommend.) I think that would be absolutely hilarious.
Have a hard time seeing how they would suddenly appear. Maybe we can do a story to acquire the Horde?
Are you thinking of one of these as your eventual familiar?
No, he's got a familiar. Rahere. I was thinking it would be funny, that's all.
As for them suddenly appearing... a splinter population from somewhere deep within the mountain, coming up through cracks only mice could fit through, and finding a warm cave to settle in? Sometime after Viscaria left but before Stultus moved in? There could be all sorts of weird things under that mountain. For that matter, isn't there a portal to the magic realm hanging around someplace?
We could do a story to acquire them, but I dunno if someone who hasn't read InCryptid could run it... or what that story would look like. The mice are tremendously silly, after all... fine for a bit of comic relief, or for local color, but centering a story around them might mess with the tone of the game.
It was just an idea, I'm not married to it. I just saw "Greater Horde", discounted it initially because it didn't seem to fit, and then asked myself "well, what could I do to make them fit?"
Y'know what, I thought better of it.
I still really, REALLY like the concept of Aeslin Mice, but they wouldn't be terribly good lab helpers. So I'd like to take them as the "Inhabitants" minor Flaw instead, take a Lesser Feature to balance the Flaw, and take a Greater Feature to balance the other Flaws.
"Wall" or "Tablet" would be good features. Something like the Moon Door from "Game of Thrones" would fit thematically, represented as "Void" or "Window". (I loved the way HBO filmed that in the TV series, even though it's not strictly by the book.) The ledge might count as "Balcony"...
Back to the drawing board...
