The Covenant of Caepernum: Eleutherius of Tremere

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Character concept: A Tremere Assessor, trying to infiltrate the Order of Suleiman.

Why has he come to Capernum: It's a useful base for his work. In practice, he'll probably spend considerable periods of time away from it when "undercover".

I'm not going to post a full character sheet yet (due to a combination of time constraints and wanting to get the basics settled to minimise rework). His proposed virtues and flaws are as follows:

Virtues: The Gift (Sp), Hermetic Magus (FSS), Minor Magical Focus: Certamen (FH), Gentle Gift (MH), Second Sight (mSu), Persona (mSu), Quiet Magic x 2 (mH), Subtle Magic (mH), Cautious Sorceror (mH), Life Boost (mH).

Flaws: Dark Secret: Spy for the Order of Hermes (MSt), Higher Purpose: Prevent the fall of the middle east* to infernal corruption (mP), Weak Magic Resistance (when shapechanged) (MH), Vulnerable Magic: ? (MH).

*Or more period appropriate name.

I think the potentially controversial things there are the Dark Secret, Weak Magic Resistance and Vulnerable Magic. The Dark Secret isn't really going to be a secret to his allies, but will mean that every now and again a situation appears which risks blowing his cover. Weak Magic Resistance applies when he's using a Persona (as well as any other type of shapechanging magic), which gives him a reason to change back into his true form (and possibly cackle and monologue) when his cover is sufficiently blown. Vulnerable Magic I haven't quite decided upon, but I'm thinking of something linked to his true identity - maybe someone calling him by his true name three times, or something. That might be a bit hard, though? It does return him to his natural form in addition to its other standard effects.

Background:
Tariq was born to a bedouin tribe in Arabia. As a young boy, he could see the evil spirit whispering in the ears of the tribe's Sahir, driving him to ever greater cruelties against them. Things came to a head when the infernal jinn demanded that he start sacrificing victims to it - including the boy. He was rescued in the nick of time by one of the Redcaps the then Primus of Tremere had encouraged to find Gifted African and Arabian children. The Redcap took the boy back to Translyvania, teaching him his own ability to change form in the process, and "Tariq" spent the next 15 years as Janos, a Hungarian herdsman's son, training as a spy to go back and infiltrate his native lands.

Note: technically he's scrying whenever he's in his Hungarian form (which is going to be most of the time around Franks). He's not keeping that it isn't his native form a complete secret (although anyone below the level of a magus is unlikely to be aware of it), but given it's the form everyone knows as "him" it seems at the level where he's unlikely to get seriously prosecuted. Shout if you disagree.

Links to Character Sheets

Links to New Jinn

2

I like this a lot...

3

Not sure if it's my place to argue, but the Dark Secret seems a bit off; A dark secret that is openly known among relevant Order of Hermes members seems a bit not-secret? I would expect the dark secret to pertain to the society you're part of - unless people don't KNOW you're infiltrating (outside of your Tremere superiors and covenant members), or if there are enough loose-lipped members who do know around to blow your cover. It sounds like the covenant is far away enough that its unlikely to come up.
But I'm always a bit harsh about these things, so you can feel free to decide it's enough to come up often enough as a story flaw :slight_smile:

4

I'm a bit on the edge about story flaws for these characters as a whole, (disclosure, I used one for my Merinita and I also used one for Andreva back in Annulus Connectens). They're NPC's what's the point of a story flaw if you're not telling a story?

My answer is that you can still weave the flaw into the character's progression and make a better NPC for having it. You also probably need them for balance sake, otherwise you'll overload the NPC's with missing eyes and incompatible arts until they become caricatures. I don't love those answers but they're the ones I have.

I'd rewrite the flaw description of the situation away from Dark Secret though. It seems a major story flaw but it doesn't seem to be a dark secret.

5

Hi,

Though in a sense they are telling a story, and the flaw will probably define and constrain the character even more than in a real game, where the story is so often the thing that the GM wants to run, and which could be run for any PCs.

So a secret agent will 'waste' seasons creating spells that are oriented toward secret agenting, and more seasons toward useless :slight_smile: Abilities for dealing with (ugh) people, and so on, even if there is no plot about his identity being at risk.

It worked for various Magi of Hermes....

And, since everyone is doing it, there's no real problem.

It could be! If the player wants stories about "I might be discovered" it's exactly right.

(A more indy take on Story Flaws would simply have Major/Minor Story Flaw: X, and a player could fill in the X with whatever he wanted. The very same X could be major for one character, minor for another, and a big "yeah, and so what" for a third. Or X might be major in one saga...)

Anyway,

Ken

Anyway,

Ken

6

Thanks! Was Juturnus of Tremere one of your contributions to Against the Dark?

It's definitely your place to argue - part of the point of having it on this forum is to give everyone a chance to read and feedback.

As far as the Dark Secret goes - I'd had it in mind as being in operation whilst he's undercover, which is likely to be for extended periods of time; my broad plan is for each 15 year period to be divided into one period he spends preparing to go under cover, a period he spends as a sahir learning one of the Solomonic Arts (+ probably Sihr for the first period), and then another period he spends passing on what he's learned / working out what to do with it Hermetically / working with Aeric to come up with counter magics. Basically, every now and again, something will happen to threaten to blow his cover.

That does mean he also has extended periods of time when the flaw isn't in effect, although some of that time is likely to be spent trying to avoid getting his cover blown next time.

If people still think it's a problem, I can think of something else to switch it to?

7

My opinion on Dark Secret and other Story flaws is we should support them in the design and advancement so the final character reflects them. If we ruled the opposite and Story flaws were vetoed then we are not presenting characters typical to Ars, or the desirable focus on Story which Ars has when it’s done best.
Also - specifically characters dark secret is wonderfully exploitable to create scenarios across the saga. Far better than a selection of minor mechanical adjustments (which I’m sometimes guilty of).

8

Juturnus is one of mine, yes. When he was in my game in the late 1990s, he was basically a young Samuel L Jackson.

9

I have to say, I really enjoy the espionage theme you have going on here. I think it's a promising way for us to go, especially in the early years. Lots of material for designing spells, without needing full on penetrating offensive magics.

10

Plus The Cradle and The Crescent suggests that the Order of Suleiman welcomes the Order of Hermes in their lands with the objective of studying them, with a future conflict in mind. Full conflict themes should be located perhaps in the middle of the advancements (perhaps third o four blocks).

11

Proposed new spells:

Fairly self-explanatory (although the reliability of it might need calibrating a bit). The ability to form memories is noted on page 66 of HoH:S as being one of the mental capabilities that can be targeted by the Base 4 guideline.

This is just a variation of Wizard's Reach with a different range and targeted parameter. Obviously he'll learn it at a specific level rather than a "General" version - probably 15 or 20.

12

The "you can't form memories" spell seems like it would be fun in play. Intelligence stress role of 6 cuts out any abilities so ease factor six seems like an ok choice.

The text for wizard's expansion in Magi of Hermes has an (IMO) improved text:

This means that you can target a spell with more than one muto vim effect but they have to be progressively higher in levels

13

Character concept
A Tremere Assessor, trying to infiltrate the Order of Suleiman.

Why has he come to Caepernum
It's a useful base for his work. In practice, he'll probably spend considerable periods of time away from it when "undercover".

Appearance
In his natural form, he is a thin young man with olive skin, black hair and a determined expression.

Sigil
The effects of spells cast by Eleutherius appear to coalesce from grains into a coherent whole - so a memory would first appear as fragments that swiftly interlock of make a coherent whole, or a destroyed object become over a moment ever finer dust.

Background
Tariq was born to a bedouin tribe in the Nefud Desert, part of the larger Banu Kalb tribal group. As a young boy, he could see the evil spirit whispering in the ears of the tribe's Sahir, driving him to ever greater cruelties against them. Things came to a head when the infernal jinn demanded that he start sacrificing victims to it - including the boy. He was rescued in the nick of time by one of the Redcaps the then Primus of Tremere had encouraged to find Gifted African and Arabian children. The Redcap took the boy back to Transylvania, teaching him his own ability to change form in the process, and "Tariq" spent the next 15 years as Janos, a Hungarian herdsman's son, training as a spy to go back and infiltrate his native lands.

14

What's the Obfuscated Casting for, considering that you're using no words or gestures by which a magus could know that any spell was even cast?

15

The quick answer is "allowing him to cast with no botch dice" - I wanted a level of mastery so that along with his Cautious Sorcerer virtue (and Life Boost for the casting total) he could cast it reliably in the Dominion. (Really I wanted Ways of the Town, but that didn't fit either points-wise or background-wise.)The actual mastery ability was a secondary consideration.

Obfuscated Casting doesn't give him much (increases the difficulty of determining what he's casting from EF 15 to EF 15 + Mastery Score, but that's only relevant if people can tell he's doing something in the first place), but neither did most of the other masteries - in particular, Quiet Casting and Still Casting are useless to him. I was assuming that Magic Resistance would only help him against similar Hermetic spells, and it's not a spell it's likely to be particularly useful to Fast Cast. Similarly, Multiple Casting isn't likely to be useful to him unless he's working under time constraints (and I wasn't sure how easily he'd be able to deal with multiple pieces of information simultaneously).

Penetration might be worth it if the spell works on jinn - does it?

16

Probably not.

But at some point you might be interested in silent questioning a templar carrying a relic or something like that. Extra Penetration is never a problem.

17

I might well go with Penetration, certainly over Obfuscated Casting. Yes, Mentem magic works on a lot more than just humans, anything with an intelligent mind.

I would also go with Imperturbable Casting before Obfuscated Casting. While it's not a D: Concentration spell, it will still help you to cast the spell in difficult circumstances, such as in the middle of a conversation with someone without stopping having that conversation. Depending on when you expect to use the spell the most, this might be a better choice than Penetration.

18

I'll change it in the next version - thanks. Probably to Imperturbable Casting, although I haven't fully made up my mind.

I'll leave said new version for a couple more days in case anyone has any more comments on the character. In the meantime, a few more ideas for future spells (not all of them necessarily in this period, as I don't think he'll have the Arts.

Let's not end up being forced to teach the Suhhar the Parma.

I suspect the spell could be a lower base in some situations (e.g. if the target doesn't have the Greater Malediction flaw), but for someone with it I reckoned this counted as a "major" memory.

So - question. What would the impact be? Some of the possibilities I can see are:

  • The Greater Malediction means the spell just won't work.
  • The jinn isn't conscious of the bargain, but feels driven to do things that will fulfil its terms anyway. Unpleasant for the jinn.
  • The jinn isn't conscious of the bargain, and can end up failing to fulfil it. If that happens, something horrible happens to the jinn as a result of the malediction (thoughts on what?)
  • This gets the jinn out of the bargain.

This is just a variant on the Phantom Gift in the corebook. It's designed to sabotage the annual Suhhar council meeting - lots of mostly ungifted magi who don't know each other well coming together to discuss potentially contentious issues (before going back to transmit them to their communities); now with the effect of the Gift on social interactions.

Probably not to be cast until it's time for hostilities.

19

Might you want to use a D: Moon version to only forget Parma Magica for a little while? I'm not saying don't have your version, just another version to be used in case there is a chance of escape? Of course, this version could be dispelled, so maybe not.

20

Given that memories are something that can be lost permanently (and looking at another spell in A&A), I suspect that would make it impossible to relearn for a month, rather than causing it to come back after the month end.

I was wondering whether a Momentary ritual version of The Mendacious Majlis to give all of the Suhhar bigwigs the social effects of theGift permanently would work as a thing, though. Harder to manage to cast it, obviously, as it would take an hour of obvious casting, but you could do it through an Intangible Tunnel (or just use AC range).