The Covenant of Caepernum: Aeric exMiscellanea

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Aeric ex Miscellanea, from the Lineage of Pralix (Gaunlet +0 years)
Concept: Plagued by the failures of his master, this young exMicellanea of the Lineage of Prallix is eager to prove himself in the Levant Tribunal by investigating the magic of the Order of Suleiman and devising a way of integrating it with hermetic theory. He has an almost obsessive fear of arachnids because a death prophecy stated that he will die by spiders. Unknown by him, a more sinister and supernatural type of spider lurks in the shadows of his life and ensures that a series of disasters and negative coincidences plague him.

Why has he come to Capernaum: As soon as he gained independence, Aeric searched different projects that could produce positive reputation for him in order to cancel the negative reputation he gained by association with his master in the Rhine Tribunal. Although he did not part in negative terms with his parens, he probably still wonders why his fillius jumped so fast to the opportunity to establish in the Levant.

Characteristics: Int +3, Per +2, Pre -1, Com +1, Str -3, Sta +1, Dex 0, Qik +2
Size: 0
Age: 25, Height: 167 cm, Weight: 58 kg, Gender: Male
Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence Score: 1 (3)
Virtues and Flaws: The Gift (0); Hermetic Magus: House Miscellanea (0); Comprehend Magic (Major, free), Minor Magical Focus: Exotic Magic (Minor, free), Affinity with Vim (1), Affinity with Perdo (1), Death Prophecy: he will be killed by arachnids (3), Flawless Magic (3), Good Teacher (1), Puissant Finesse (1).
Weak Magic Resistance (Major, free), Driven: Make a name for himself (1), Infamous Master: Ineffective (1), Fear: Arachnids (1), Plagued by Supernatural Entity: Damhan-Allaidh (3), Twilight Prone (3), Unimaginative learner (1).
Personality Traits: Keen to Impress +2, Confident -1, Quiet +2, Fearful of Arachnids +3*, Driven to prove himself +3* (*House rule in my troupe, minor flaw is +3 and major +6).
Reputations: Ineffective Magus (hermetic) 3

Combat:
Dodge: Init: +3, Attack --, Defense +3, Damage --
Fist: Init: +3, Attack 0, Defense +3, Damage -3
Kick: Init: +2, Attack 0, Defense +2, Damage -1

Soak: +1; Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious; Wound Penalties: –1 (1–5), –3 (6–10), –5 (11– 15), Incapacitated (16–20), Dead (21+)

Abilities: Artes Liberales 2 (Ritual Magic), Awareness 2 (spotting arachnids), Comprehend Magic 1 (hermetic magic), Concentration 2 (spells), Dead Language: Latin 4 (hermetic use), Folk Ken 2 (warriors), Hunt (tracking) 2, Living Language: West Norse 5 (Danish), Living Language: Low German 3 (Saxon), Living Language: Arabic 1 (Levantine), Parma Magica 1 (Mentem), Finesse 1+2 (speed), Penetration 1 (Vim), Magic Lore 1 (magical traditions), Magic Theory 3 (Vim), Order of Hermes Lore 1(history), Survival 2 (snowy areas), Teaching 2 (Magi)

Arts: Cr 5, In 0, Mu 0, Pe 9, Re 1; An 0, Aq 0, Au 0, Co 2, He 0, Ig0, Im0, Me 0, Te 4, Vi 13(1)

Twilight Scars: none Equipment: light robes, walking stick. Encumbrance: 0

Spells Known:
Demon’s Eternal Oblivion PeVi10/+24 - Mastery 1 (multicasting)
Dreadful Bane of the Fae PeVi10/+24 - Mastery 1 (multicasting)
Sap the Griffin's Strength PeVi10/+24 - Mastery 1 (multicasting)
The Lesser Enigma’s Gift CrVi 20 (it gives 2 points of warping instead of 4) CrVi20/+20 - Mastery 1 (multicasting)
Pit of the Gaping Earth PeTe15/+15 Mastery 1 (fast casting)
Veil of Invisibility PeIm20/+13 Mastery (still casting)
Brief Cover of Protecting Stone CrTe10/+11 - Mastery 1 (fast-casting)
Aegis of the Hearth ReVi20/+19 - Mastery 1 (penetration)
Circle of Beast Warding ReAn 5/+3 - Mastery 1 (penetration)

Appearance: a bearded fair-haired young lad dressed in humble robes. His skin has been darkened by the Levantine sun and his face covered by freckles. His complexion is extremely thin and his presence unimposing. (I was thinking in this image from Pablo Moreno in devianart: https://www.deviantart.com/pablomoreno/art/Practica-2-622241700. If you dont know him, he illustrates the spanish edition of Ars Magica. Check his drawings of Murion https://www.deviantart.com/pablomoreno/art/Ars-Magica-La-Prima-571735609, Birna https://www.deviantart.com/pablomoreno/art/Ars-Magica-Birna-She-Bear-491461449, Diedne https://www.deviantart.com/pablomoreno/art/Ars-Magica-Diedne-in-the-Forest-488857117, Prallix https://www.deviantart.com/pablomoreno/art/Ars-Magica-Pralix-Battle-of-the-Great-Ligth-488312091, Flambeau/Tytalus/Jerbiton https://www.deviantart.com/pablomoreno/art/Fan-Art-The-Founders-1-640595234 and several others)

Casting Sigil: Whiteness, that normally manifest as white light but that can manifest as the color of an object or as a brief perception of light.

Extended story
Albiorix exMiscellanea, the parens of Aeric, was one of the three magi originally tasked by the Rhine Tribunal to form Occulus Septentrionalis. Unlike the other two, Albiorix made frequent visits to the Northern Lands. In one of those visits, he found Aeric in one of the northern communities and managed to get the tutelage of the promising young boy. He taught him the hermetic magic of his Pralixian Arts and he even brought the boy to some of his northern expeditions.

In these travels, the boy witnessed some fights, some magical creatures, some inexplicable disasters and coincidences working against his parens and, in one occasion was told about his future by a local hedge wizard: he will die by spiders!. That night, Aeric had several nightmares about his death. In all of them one type of arachnid or another was the cause of his death (monstrous spiders, swarms of normal ones, scorpions, the dagger of an assassin marked with the symbol of a spider). Those nightmares repeated for some time, and even nowadays he still have the occasional one.

At the end of his tribulations, Albiorix didn’t manage to get any significant information about the gifted individuals of the north, about their Order of Odin or their magic. At least, none that he would wanted to share with the Tribunal. He was punished in public and earned a powerful reputation as an ineffective Wizard. Two years later, Aeric passed his gauntlet and was eager to find a way to prove that he was more effective than his parens. He took the opportunity to form part of a newly founded covenant in Caepernum. His ambition was to find significant information about the magic of the Order of Suleiman and find ways to integrate it in Hermetic Magic.

Notes about characteristics:
Edit: I have somewhat rediced the extremes (only one +3 and one -3)
Int +3 - the typical recruit of the order is bright
Per +2 - acute senses and alertness (enhanced by paranoia)
Pre -1 - unimposing physical presence that is enhanced by shyness and the idea that everyone expects few things from you.
Com +1 - Aeric is an educated man able to precisely communicate concepts by letter or, in the rare cases he speaks, by word.
Str -3 - he is a thin lad that has not exerted himself physically in the last 15 years. No physical training, no martial abilities.
Sta +1 - despite his thinness, he has a will to endure.
Dex 0 - average coordination.
Qik +2 - exceptionally fast reflexes. He is like a spring, which has a comical effect when he spots an arachnid.

Personality and Story Virtues and Flaws:
Fear: Arachnids - I have expanded the logical choice (spiders) to arachnids (which include scorpions) to make more common the appearance of these creatures. Clearly, the death prophecy has taken its toll.

Driven: prove himself - He wants to prove he is not like his master.

Plagued by Supernatural Entity: - Following the idea exposed in Thrice-Told Tales pp. 107-143, Damhan-Allaidh is not dead but trapped in his spiritual form, plotting against the order and especially against the linage of Pralix, who caused his downfall. He still has limited ways of interfering with his victims, including the use of proxies to spy them or thwart their plans. When/if Damhan-Allaidh completes the events related in Thrice-Told Tales, his revenge will fall first against the Lineage of Pralix. Aeric will be probably one of his first victims (he will die by a spider, just not by the ones he expected). The problems of Albiorix to complete his objective could be explained partly from the same flaw, partly from the lack of support by his covenant members in the task.

New Spell

2

I'm not sure about bringing Damhan-Allaidh into the mix - he doesn't feel like a good fit for a Levant based saga (and presumably by the time he got to you, there would have been major upheavels across the Order,which doesn't mesh with making characters that can be slotted in to other people's sagas).

Maybe consider using Zahhak (pg 143 of the Cradle and the Crescent) as a vaguely similar alternative? He's Persian, so not local local, but he's in lands inhabited by the Suhhar.

3

But... that is the point. What is not near, cannot be killed or easily identified. Damhan-Allaidh would work through minions or proxies, watching everyone that was involved with his demise (presumably several exMiscellanea) and especially the lineage of Pralix. Trying to understand what went wrong. By the time that he realizes that he should have been watching the descendants of Giaro, the redcap, and the events of Thrice-told tales happen, we would have finished our progression.

But in the meantime, it seems that things go wrong often for Aeric. Spiders seem to appear from when he has to perform in public, mysterious assassins try to kill the boy/girl he has chosen as an apprentice, the positive relationship that he has managed to create with a Suhhar suddenly become soured without explanation... That is how I envision a supernatural enmity like that. It has to be a problem for the character but not a Covenant-wide threat. It has to be something that can be dealt with (even if it is a nuisance) but it has to be difficult to stop altogether.

Mechanically, I hope to explore some Vim specialties (protection from hedge magic, integration of them, metamagics)
Storywise, the NPC could be used to illustrate a strange prosecution towards Pralixian Magi, as a prologue to the events of Thrice-Told Tales, or as a simple quirk.

4

Bit of a side-track, if you are using Thrice Told Tales, would it not be thematically appropriate to have the Death Prophecy associated with a Three-fold death?
Perhaps death by spider, death by hanging, and death by poison. Though since the character has a Fear of Spiders, perhaps he only focuses on the first part.

5

The published materials use at least two different names for Faerie's Eternal Oblivion, the most common name is Dreadful Bane of the Fae (but also Faerie Bane)

The names used for "Magical Creature's Eternal Oblivion" are :Sap the Griffin's Strength, Dragon's Eternal Oblivion, and End of the Titans. I believe the first name, Sap the Griffin's Strength, is used twice.

6

I have edited them accordingly. I don't like the Magical ones because seem to refer specific creature types.

7

I don't want to post the +15 years version of Aeric without checking first the development of our Tremere friend.

But I have been thinking and I will post in advance several spells that I want to develop. Especially the conflictive ones, for the community scrutiny. In this post, I will post several spells dealing with Jinn. My primary concern is that I am not sure if a minor breakthrough is necessary for this.

The Jinni is a varied group of creatures with Magic, Faerie, Infernal and Divine. I have taken into account one of the characteristics of Jinni that is given in The Cradle and The Crescent:

Jinni inhabit locales as their particular Genus Loci. So, first of all, I need some spell for searching for Jinni. I found this guideline here:

Normally, you could sense any creature with Magic Might, or with Faerie Might or Divine Might with the guideline of level 5. In this case, I want to create a spell to specifically detect Jinni, without taking into account the Realm.

On the other hand, the guideline to control them should be:

But in this case, Jinni could be of any realm and there is not a specific provision like in the previous guideline ("any supernatural creature of a specific type"). So.. would be acceptable the following spell? It mimics similar ones, like Coerce the Spirits of the Night, but takes into account the nature of Jinni:

There could be other Re(Form) spells that would work with any Jinni associated to that form, without taking into account the realm of the creature.

What do you think? It is streching too much rules? I understand that the first spell is by the rules. Do we need a Minor Hermetic Breakthrough to get this second spell?

8

I would say current Hermetic magic requires you to specify the realm of the spirit, so one that affects Jinn of any realm would require a breakthrough.

Bear in mind, even Sahir don't get a completely free pass - when trying to estimate the Might of a Jinn, they have to decide whether the Jinni is Faerie, Magic or Infernal and make an Intelligence roll modified by the appropriate realm lore. Tc&Tc p46 says "The decision as to which (Realm) Lore to use is vital; if the player guesses wrongly, then this is a straight intelligence roll". Making it a little tricky to get the Realm right would fit with the trickiness of dealing with Jinni.

9

Hi,

Or +1 magnitude for each additional Realm, using standard rules.

Anyway,

Ken

10

Can you provide a reference for that?

Not that it matters too much because for this purpose you need the lowest level posible because you need to penetrate magic resistance, so I think that it is best just to create the 4 versions at level 20 (or at least the 2 that really matter, because divine jinn are rare and ordering around infernal jinn probably won’t gain friends between quaesitors).

11

Fair enough. And what do you think about the Intellego one? Could they fit under the "spirits of one specific type" guideline? Or do you think that is the same thing?

12

Hi countryman, I have two objections and one personal note for this magus.

First is the stats. I frowned on them when reading them the first time, but then the explanation just worsened it.

The most logical model to figure how stats distribute is the Normal model. As they usually range from -3 to +3, with some outliers (from people having relevant virtues and flaws), that would be pretty close to a normal of mean 0 and standard deviation 1. So for any given characteristic around 60% people will have it between -1 and +1, 90% people will be between -2 and +2 and almost everyone will be between -3 and +3. So it should be uncommon to have a +3 or a -3, but your character have 4 of these extreme values!

You argue that the tipical apprentice is bright. I disagree: the tipical apprentice is Gifted. I fail to see why the Gift and intelligence should be correlated; the only evidence for that is that pretty much every magi I'd seen (mine included) have positive Int. But that probably shouldn't even be that way, and reflects just that everyone wants to grab some extra point to fuel these lab totals. Or maybe it is actually correlated (the best reason for that would be to assume that as 0 is the average mean magi, grogs and companions are by default over-the-average people. So maybe gifted people can have that increased average Int). But then I'd guess than the average Int value for magi would be some value between 1 and 2.

Anyway, Int +3 is not bright: its best promotion student's Int. Think that 3 points is the difference between the stats of a 8 year old child to an adult. Add just one more point, and 4 points would be what takes the difference between the strengh of an average human with size +0 and the strengh of an average creature of size +2, say horse. Being bright is for me Int +1. The same reasoning pretty much applies to Pre -3, Str -3 and Qik +3.

Well, sorry for the rant, and obviousl feel free to just ignore all of the above. It's not your saga (as this is not a game) but your character and all the effort you are putting on it, at one side, and my house-ruled mind, at the other. Also at this point I'm so used of magi having characteristic values around +2, +2 and +1 that I can totally buy that your Aeric is just the extreme outlier to my mental, statistical Mythic Europe characteristic's model.

Second, Damhan-Allaidh. There are only two names that, once spoken aloud, will eat any saga, and that's one of them (now that I think of it both names start with 'D', how odd is that?). You argue that Damhan-Allaidh is not a covenant-wide problem, but a personal one. I'd say that, if using it, then it will become actually a order-wide problem. Also I'm not sure about your troupe, but if I say 'spider' at my game, they all start immediately screaming 'Dav'nalleous! Dav'nalleus!'

And finally a totally personal, house-ruled curiosity: in my saga there can't be any Aegis spell of level less than 30. The way we understand it, being R: Touch, D: Year, T: Boundary, level 30 would be the minimum required to have a positive base level (Base 1, +1 Touch, +4 Year, +4 Boundary), because we think base 0 or negative just doesn't make sense to us. To be honest, in this specific spell, this causes more trouble than anything else, as just every covenant is so well guarded.

13

Hi,

It's not specific to PeVi but a general rule that you can shove two guidelines into a spell, use the higher one, usually add a magnitude and add requisites to cover the lesser guideline.

So I can have Cr(Re)An that creates an animal under my control: Two effects, create animal and control animal. I can create a pit in the ground (PeTe) filled with fire (CrIg) with a single spell. I can cast a version of Aura of Rightful Authority that also works on animals (ReMe(An)). I can cast a spell to strip demons of might, a spell to strip faeries of might, both using the existing guidelines, but I can also toss both guidelines into a spell, cast it on a Group of faeries and demons, call the spell And God Shall Know His Own and zap them all (but exclude any angels) if I penetrate, which is harder than for a spell that only affects one Realm. And here too.

Of course, you have to detect that the Jinn is Infernal, which is infernally difficult. :slight_smile:

Anyway,

Ken

But yes, if you know

14

Hi,

I was about to say that any stats generated according to the rules are fine and need only the most diaphanous justification. This is true, so I'll say it! But then I took a second look, and these stats do not look legal. IIRC, there's a limit to dumping stats for more points. If illegal, they probably don't belong here even with the most awesome story justification.

For a character who is all about spiders, it seems fine.

Besides, there won't be a problem with saga consumption here since there is no saga; instead we'll get all kinds of spider spells and stuff.

Anyway,

Ken

15

Intellego Vim specifically prohibits adding mags to a Vim spell to affect additional realms (InVi guideline p.158). Given how separated the Rego and Perdo spells are in the canon spells it’s probably better to say no to this.
I could be convinced by an example spell from cannon, my quick search didn’t see any.

16

There sort of is one - Ward Against Woodland Spirits on page 27 of Legends of Hermes is a ReHe(Vi) ward against all creatures with a Herbam aligned might score, regardless of the realm. However, it's specifically described as an experimental spell which gives integration points towards knowledge that hasn't yet been properly distributed into Hermetic theory, so it seems a pretty good indicator that it's not possible usually.

17

Hi,

The proposed spell isn't InVi, though, so why shouldn't the general rule apply? (Indeed, if not for the specific ruling you cite for InVi, the general rule would apply there too!)

Anyway,

Ken

18

what's the 'signature' of this spell? If there is +1 magnitude for each additional Realm, I'll totally concede. Otherwise, the experiment is about unifying the realms, represented by a new guideline or similar, rather than about the rather ordinary casting a spell that has multiple effect.

19

The general theme across all the example cannon spells is to separate the realms. InVi also has a specific guideline. In absence of a rule, go with the examples.
I didn’t know till it was said, however the Jinn summoners also are realm locked (?) which adds a valid argument specific to jinn.
Play it conservative and use realm aligned.
The only exception I can think of quickly is interacting with ghosts using Mentem, which I assume work across realms.

20

Hi,

But there is a rule, and that rule allows for combining effects.

Which puts paid to 'all'.

Your suggestion works as a house rule, but it seems to be exactly that.

I'm not sure what problem is being solved by a house rule that bars expensive spells that cover multiple Realms; something that works on all 4 Realms is +15 levels!

Anyway,

Ken

Anyway,

Ken