I am looking to join a ArM5 campaign. I am willing to SG occassionally as part of troupe play (I'm new to ArM5 but I've SG'd versions 2-4). I'd like to play a newly gauntleted Tremere mage which I have created below (has some references to HoHTL and Ancient Magics but is strictly created using the core rulebook except for certamen style and material aid request which are optional).
Note: I have no problem playing a new mage amongst much more powerful magi (in fact I enjoy it). I am willing to attempt bargaining my way into a covenant. The character is optimized to be able to train an apprentice right out of the Gauntlet through the judicious use of XP virtues. His apprentice training plans are the core to the character concept and will likely provide for many story hooks.
Chronus filius Dragos Ex Tremere
Covenant of Origin: Coeris
Sigil: Time seems to slow down (similar to the effect of an adrenaline boost in a dangerous situation).
Warping: 0
Characteristics: Int:3 Per:2 Pre:2 Com:3 Str: 0 Sta:1 Dex:-3 Qik:-3
Size: 0
Age: 22
Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence: 1 (3)
Virtues:
Free: The Gift, Hermetic Magus, Minor Magical Focus (certamen)
Minor, Hermetic: Skilled Parens (300 xp, 150 spell levels), Cautious Sorcerer, Mastered Spells (50XP), Affinity with Creo, Affinity with Corpus, Puissant Creo
Minor, General: Arcane Lore (+50 xp Arcane Abilities), Book Learner, Educated (+50 XP Latin or Artes Liberales), Good Teacher
Flaws:
Major, Hermetic: Weak Spontaneous Magic
Major, Personality: Ambitious
Major, Story: Dependent (Mistress)
Minor, Hermetic: Infamous Master
Personality traits: Organized +3 Serious +3 Dedicated +3
Reputation: Vile Necromancer (3, Order of Hermes)
Abilities (specialization) xp / score
Native Language (reading) (free)/5
Early Childhood (45 xp)
Area Lore (Saga area) 5/1
Awareness (searching) 5/1
Charm (wenches) 5/1
Folk Ken (magi) 5/1
Guile (disguise) 5/1
Athletics (hiking) 5/1
Stealth (sneak) 5/1
Survival (fires) 5/1
Swim (underwater maneuvering) 5/1
Six-Seven years + Educated (30 xp +50 xp in Latin or Artes Liberales)
Artes Liberales (Ritual Magi) 5/1
Latin (Hermetic usage) 75/5
Arcane Lore (+50 xp Arcane Abilities)
Magic Theory (Creo) 50/4
Apprenticeship (300 xp)
Teaching (teaching) 15/2
Leadership (apprentices) 15/2
Code of Hermes (apprentices) 5/1
Parma Magica (Mentem) 5/1
Finesse (Certamen) 30/3
Penetration (Certamen) 15/2
Mastery (50xp)
Mastery Veil of Invisibility 5/1 (Quiet Casting)
Mastery The Wound that Weeps 15/2 (Multiple Casting, Fast Casting)
Mastery Opening the Intangible Tunnel 5/1 (Magic Resistance)
Mastery The Chirurgeon's Healing Touch 5/1 (Quiet casting)
Mastery Gentle Touch of the Purified Body 5/1 (Quiet Casting)
Mastery Purification of the Festering Wounds 5/1 (Quiet casting)
Mastery Touch of Midas 5/1 (Quiet Casting)
Mastery Sense The Gift 5/1 (Multiple Casting)
Magical Arts Cr 5, In 5, Mu 5, Pe 5, Re 5, An 5, Aq 5, Au 5, Co 5, He 5, Ig 5, Me 5, Te 5, Vi 5
Certamen Style: Hoplomachus (always lose initiative, reduce attack roll by up to Finesse score, 2x attack penalty added to defense total or 3x Finesse score if no attack)
Spells (150 levels)
Veil of Invisibility PeIm 20
The Wound that Weeps PeCo 15
Opening the Intangible Tunnel ReVi 20
The Chirurgeon's Healing Touch CrCo 20 Ritual
Gentle Touch of the Purified Body CrCo 20 Ritual
Purification of the Festering Wounds CrCo 20
Touch of Midas CrTe 20 Ritual
New Spells
Sense The Gift InVi 15
R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Ind
You can tell whether the target of the spell has the Gift. This spell is used to aid in identifying potential apprentices.
(Base 10, +1 Touch)
Appearance: Chronus is tall, dark skinned and handsome. He is clean shaven and always neatly dressed. Chronus moves very deliberately and slowly however he is very efficient with his movement and plans ahead so he always seems to be in the right spot just in time. Chronus dislikes rushing anything as that leads to mistakes.
Story: Chronus was born in the saga tribunal however he was found at the age of 5 by a Tremere magus who brought him to Coeris in the Transylvanian Tribunal to be trained by a more senior magus. Mundane tutors trained Chronus in Latin for two years so that when he was of age to become an apprentice the magus would beable to communicate with him effectively. Due to Chronus's affinity with Creo and Corpus he was assigned to the Physician branch of House Tremere and became an apprentice to Dragos, a necromancer.
Dragos has a reputation for some of the most vile experiments, frequently animating dead servants and binding ancient spirits, which many of his superiors felt would eventually lead him to diabolism. If Dragos is a diabolist he has thus far managed to avoid detection despite careful scrutiny by his superiors and the Quaesitores.
Dragos was much more comfortable with his undead servants than tending to a living child nevertheless he fulfilled his House and Code obligations by providing the minimum 1 season per year of training and then ignored Chronus since Dragos preferred to work alone in secret. Fortunately Coeris has an extensive library and Dragos was willing to provide Chronus with access to suitable books to advance his training (as long as Chronus did not pester him with questions). This arrangement worked out very well for the bookish Chronus and the reclusive Dragos.
Even as a child, Chronus was very disciplined and focussed on achieving his goals. He desparately wanted to fit in with his fellow Tremere however his parens reputation made that quite difficult therefore Chronus had to try harder to impress everyone.
Chronus's desires to belong to a family eventually led his self-directed research down the path of apprentices. If no one else cared for him then he would create his own extensive family of apprentices. The more apprentices the better as Chronus's ambitious nature tended to drive him to extremes.
Chronus focussed his research on the minimum requirements that would allow him to train an apprentice as he sought to become the youngest mage to train an apprentice as well as the magus with the most fili. Chronus set his hyper-organizational nature to the task of how best to obtain gifted children to become apprentices and came up with three distinct strategies.
The short term solution was to optimize the search for apprentices using magic and organizing a mundane network to locate potentially gifted individuals however this tactic would inevitably lead to conflict with other Houses and Covenants as recruiting large number of apprentices from the general population would lead to shortages for other magi seeking apprentices. To aid in this solution Chronus has invented a spell to detect the Gift which he intends to improve upon.
The mid-term solution was to spawn many children of his own. The Gift tends to be hereditary therefore Chronus's children would likely have the gift. To facilitate this objective Chronus successfully charmed a promising young peasant girl whose name he eventually changed to Ananke to complement his own name change upon passing his gauntlet. (Chronus got his name from his parens based upon his sigil and his desire to procreate a race of magi since this reminded his parens of the Greek God of Time who fathered the first generation of gods.) Chronus doesn't love his mistress however he does value her as the potential mother of his children. He tries to keep her moderately happy which is easier to do when he extends his parma magica to cover her (which is most of the time) so that she is not adversely affected by the gift.
The long term solution is for Chronus to discover some sort of fertility magic that would allow Chronus to breed gifted children on a regular basis. Chronus has been scouring the Coeris library looking for references to hedge wizards or ancient magic that might allow him to do this.
The second stage of Chronus's plan involves optimizing the training of apprentices so that large numbers of them can be effectively trained by a single magus without breaking the Peripheral Code or requiring a magus to spend all of his time training instead of advancing his own skill. Chronus believes that he can train many apprentices if he can improve his Teaching, Leadership and Parma Magica abilities enough. The Parma Magica requirement is based upon the Peripheral code requirement that magi extend their Parma Magica to their apprentices during training, presumably required so that apprentices are not so disturbed by their parens gift that they cannot effectively learn.
The third stage of his plan is to defend against the inevitable attempts by other magi to thwart him once they discover his plan. Chronus has practiced his certamen and has a decent array of combat spells for a magus of his age however he will still need to make many alliances with other magi to be safe. Fortunately he should have the aid of his own House since his plan fits in with the House strategy.
Upon passing his Gauntlet, Chronus was dispatched back to the Tribunal where he was born. Chronus has been assigned the task of finding apprentices for House Tremere (the House needs to expand its search beyond the Transylvanian Tribunal to meet the demand for apprentices). Given that Chronus still speaks the local language and he has already shown a keen interest in finding apprentices this seems like an ideal role for Chronus to play for House Tremere.
Chronus is also expected to be able to muster at a moments notice at the Tribunal's Tremere rallying point for Wizard Marches and the like. Chronus's primary role is to act as a House Physician in such situations however he is reasonably effective at multi-casting several The Wound That Weeps spells which can severely injure human targets with low to no magic resistance.
Chronus has submitted a request to his House to borrow a Tractatus on Parma Magica so that he can better prepare for eventual combat duty.
Other Objectives for Chronus:
- He will seek to change the bad reputation that he has inherited from his parens.
- As a Tremere Physician he will need to expand his repertoire of healing and combat spells plus increase his Creo Corpus lab totals as he is expected to make longevity rituals for fellow Tremere. Given that Chronus's sigil is not as vile as most of the Tremere Physicians he might become a fairly popular healer if he can overcome his bad reputation.
- Gain his sigil. Chronus is in no hurry for this since it gives his parens a reason to protect him but once he has gained sufficient power, Chronus will challenge for his sigil.
- Chronus will eventually seek out the ancient magic fertility rituals and try to achieve a hermetic breakthrough to create gifted apprentices.
- Chronus might make a good candidate for some of the mystery cults to approach. Mercurian ritual based cults may want him for his extensive number of apprentices, immortality cults may want him for his Creo Corpus skills and seeker-types may want any knowledge he unearths about ancient magics.
- Given his ambitious nature, Chronus will seek to advance his status in House Tremere including eventually the Primus role.