Viscaria Verditii

Who said short can't be sexy? :smiley:

Added the 2 points of warping, and an beginning equipment list. Just writing out thoughts in my head.

I was going to make a smart-alecky comment, along the lines of "raises brow 'his' lab texts? Is there something you'd like to share?" But then I realized that "his" referred to Viscaria's parens and not to Viscaria herself, so...um...nevermind :stuck_out_tongue: (curse those misplaced modifiers! shakes fist)

Nope, that was a typo. Go make your comments, smart-aleck.

On the other hand, if Viscaria COULD have walked away with a stash of my pater's lab notes, unbeknowst to him, she would absolutely do it.

I think that Viscaria is stealing arcane connections each time she hugs someone. :stuck_out_tongue:
Perhaps a fast cast defense spont of Cool the Ardour of the Lustful Maiden , may be in order.

Viscaria’s Enchanted Items
83=24 (3)Magical Furnaces Creo Ignem 20 = 42 = 8
122=24 (2)The Prodigious Plant Pots CrHe 30 = 62= 12
16 IceMetal Tongs MuTe 38 = 8*2 = 16
GL 3 +2 mag (metal or gem) +1 size (10 cubic inches), +1 touch, +1 concentration
+5lvl item maintains, +10 unlimited uses, +3 Restricted to those of the bloodline of Viscaria Lynchis, or her dwarf clan
Any metal or gemstone becomes icemetal while held in these tongs, and may thus be worked with Craft:Glass.

Viscaria’s Specialists
0 Furnace Operator (potash maker),
6 Glass worker
6 Mirror Maker
6 Silversmith
13 Faerie Lore Teacher8 + 2 Com + 3 Teacher

Viscaria’s Summa
17, 5 Diary of a Magi Who Might Be Her Mother, Merinta Lore Lvl 3 Q 8 (17), Tractus OoHLore Q 5 (5), Castillian

Viscaria’s Lab Texts
1 Scales of Magical Weight InVi 5
1 Sense the Nature of Vis InVi 5
3 Reorder the Contents of the Amarius, ReAn 15 (InMe reqs)
2 Ward Against Curious Scuillion, ReCo 10
7 Eternal Repetition in a Bottomless Pool, CrIm 35, (Cov, 101)
5 Gleam of the Freshly Polished Glass, PeTe25
7 Rarefy The Crude Stone CrTe 35 (RoP:M 133, Base 25, +1 Touch, +1 Stone, Creates a sand, dirt, mud, clay, stone or glass elemental, max Might 15, Size 0)
4 The Bookstand of Hespera ReHe 20 (Cov 121)
8 The Tireless Servant ReCo 40 (Cov 121)

Check my math on this. For these 16 points, I get 40 lvls of spell effect. Instead of a magic item that keeps me in the lab more,

InVim
Base 2 - Detect magnitude of a magical aura

  • 1 Touch
    +1 Diameter
    +6 50 uses/day

InVi 10, for a ring that, on command, glows with the strength of the magical aura
And then instill 4 versions of this into one ring, for Magic, Fae, Dominion and Infernal auras, which each glow a different color.

?

Or, alternately, I could make a ring with a multifaceted gem which locates vis? Trying to min-max for Ravenscroft's enchanted item has me thinking about making some kind of Intellego item which would make Viscaria more useful in the field.

Or, I could stay in-theme for Viscaria and give her ring which lets her Stone Tell of the Mind that Sits or Sense the Feet that Tread the Earth. Both are InTe 30 concentration spells. +5 Item maintains concentration, +5 for 24 uses/day.

I'm not sure Infernal Auras can be detected.
Anyway, all this isn't nescessary.
Take the Magic and Faerie version. These are of the most interest to magi.
If your magic is penalised (and harshly), it's divine.
If your magic feels boosted but you're not in a magical or faerie aura, it's infernal.

With the leftover points, see if you can take your ring-vis.

And, well, if we can still change somethings, I recall there was an item I wanted but forgot, so if I could change some? It'd be great...

I guess the real question I'm asking is, how do you handle making devices that detect for you? Looking at the guidelines, I guess the conversion between range and sense is pretty 1-to-1...

If figure that as an enchanter, Viscaria would prefer specificity.

~checks books~ Alright, it seems to be ASG fiat as to whether Infernal stuff can be detected. Again, ruling without a firm sense of the game setting, I'm going to rule that Infernal/Dominion is one category, and don't be surprised if the Infernals masquerade as Faeries or something else.

Viscaria just escaped faerie imprisonment, so I don't see her having a pocketful of cash.....Aura/Magic detection would be useful, but feels less thematically cool than some other options...~contemplates~

You might be interested by this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6844&start=0

IIRC, to be more precise, it can be detected, but it can masquerade as mundane, magical or faerie (but not divine) without you being able to tell. So it can be detected it it wants to.

What do you mean by Infernal/Dominion being one category?

I was thinking that spells which affect Demons would also affect Angels, and that a spell to detect Dominion Aura would also detect Infernal Aura.

From your link, it looks like the answer is "SG's discretion." Which gives me a problem as I'm the SG for my character.

I thought angels could be detected. I stand corrected.

That, no, please.
Reasons:

  • "One spell to kill them all". Why treat magic and faerie (which are close already by canon) differently, but these 2 very opposed forces as one? And, well, I like specialists to be specialists. Such a thing broaden the demon hunters, while leaving the faerie killer unchanged.
  • Theology: I love the very alien feel of the medieval divine and theology, although I'd hate it IRL. And this, this feels too close to some atheist "God is as bad as Satan", which, whatever one may think about it, kills that feeling IMO.
  • Having a holy, peaceful character be detected as no different than a sadistic and murderous diabolist feels just wrong.

As of detection, I'd say Diabolist powers can be detected as infernal unless masked by a demon. If not using their powers, they are as undetectable as a magus, save to sense holy/unholy, although a sigil may linger. That way, eventual holy characters still get an edge, and it keeps us on our toes while easying up a SG task should he want to slip us a diabolist.
Undead animated by demons can appear as anything.
Undead animated by a diabolist appear as infernal.
The reason I'm for some infernal powers to be detectable is because of tainted powers.

What do you think of it?

Okay. I'd say appropriate solutions are:

  • As Kid gloves says, grant magical senses at touch range. Problem solved.
  • Go with a linked spell CrMe that conveys the information telepathically, or through CrIm
  • Callen's mythical idea (and adding Te/Form free requisites), with approval by the troupe.

IMO, they can all be valid and applied.

So, for exemple, a helmet might:

  • by touch range, give you the ability to see vis (T: Sight)
  • by a CrMe linked spell, tell you telepathically what someone is thinking
  • by a free CrIm requisite, tell you vocally what someone is thinking.

Is that ok with you?

I would say that the math looks right to me. My knee-jerk reaction on the ring, though, was that you'd need a linked CrIm effect to make the ring glow at x lumens or whatever. But reading the linked thread from a few posts ago, I'm of the opposite mind, and that it's pretty much sg option as to whether allow any given "display method" leaning toward yes as long as it fits the creator's concept or is wicked cool.

As I read the rules, they can be. I really need to get off my butt and read RoP:Divine, RoP:Infernal and Cradle & Crescent, though.

It is extremely difficult for me to avoid turning this into a RL theological debate, so I'll first acknowledge that the setting is deeply based on a Western paradigm, which is foreign to me. I wasn't trying to suggest the atheistic view you suggest. I was thinking of God and Satan as existing on the ends of the same spectrum. A holy, peaceful character would feel "ripe and spiritually delicious" when the sadistic diabolist would feel "spiritually rancid." To me, the idea that "a wizard could endanger his soul by learning to by learning to fight demons without calling upon the divine" feels thematically appropriate, and therefore it seems to me that in learning to fight demons he should also gain the power to make spiritually disastrous assaults upon divine beings, should his hubris be unwilling to accept that God Works In Mysterious Ways. I also feel like the game already starts to suggest this precedent with the Sense Holiness/Unholiness skill, but again, I have to concede that this is not the paradigm of the setting.

This all feels reasonable to me, as logical extensions of the (campaign paradigm) notion that demons are the very essence of deception. I'd go one step further and suggest that a general rule is that an infernal creatures capacity to avoid detection is in proportion to its ability to think (eg, infernal Cunning -3 critters are obvious, while Int +3 demons are impossible to detect)

Of these options, Callen's mythical idea lines up best with my feelings about the rules.

That's 3 of us voting for "thematically appropriate coolness always wins." The greater problem with the ring design, then, is that as useful as such a ring would be, it doesn't fit Viscaria's character concept. I'm still thinking about it, but right now I think that a Faerie equivalent to Stone Tell of the Mind that Sits, which allows her to speak to a class of beings which either fear or loathe her Imbued With Spirit of Terram, feels most appropriate.

What all of this boils down to is that, as much fun as I'm having being ASG, I also want to play Viscaria, and not turn her into an NPC-as-SG-prodding tool.

Decided to go with this instead:

-The Impassive Face
Creator: Norbert Gunthar ex Verditus
Effect Name:InTe 40 Stone Tell of the Mind That Sits
Effect Details: This brooch, while placed against a natural stone allows you to talk with it. A stone's answers feel slow and ponderous, but do not actually take any longer than a normal conversation. The scrollwork on the brooch turns into one of the eyes of a face by which the stone answers. The stone always acts extremely frightened, and will often offer bribes to try to end the conversation more quickly. It is not clear if this is due to Viscaria's nature, the presence of the maker's sigil (which always appears malevolent), or some unintended side effect of experimentation.
Design: InTe 30, +5 item maintains concentration +5 for 24 uses/day
Owner: Viscaria
Location: worn by Viscaria

Feels more appropriate to the character, while still offering better utility out of the lab.

Also, I decided that the Furnace Operator (unskilled labourer) she freed from dwarf captivity turns out to be really handy with a mace. Thinking about giving the grog the Envious personality flaw.

I'm not sure I understand you well
Theologically speaking, if he endangers his soul, it'll be because of Pride (like you say, hubris, taking the place of god, blah blah blah), not because he learned some spell. I don't see why, even from this, learning DEO would teach him how to destroy angels, nor why would DEO work against angels too.

Also, I think it more interesting to have the players have the option or not, to learn divine might strippers, as this implies the will to, actively or not, fight with divine creatures, something that, along going that same hubris way (see this as the next step), would please any demon. If any magus with DEO can do that as a default, you lose this.
This also means that a holy crusader magus that learns DEO to fight the ennemy when needed would also learn to destroy angels even though he wouldn't ever want to learn something like that.

IMO, it's more that the dumb ones don't even think of it, nor care, but, in practive, there's little distinction between the 2 for that.
Add that, even if a dumb demon can hide his evil taint, if he ain't smart enough to pose efficiently as a holy man, or succumbs to his urges, well, he's toast :laughing:

Well, I wouldn't barr the other 2 if I were you.

Not only are they clearly RAW (contrary to callen's option), but they also give more possibilities. You also don't always wants to make a "thematically appropriate item", the standard exemple being the ring/wand with any power (btw, I think the shape and material bonuses could be a great help in giving us an idea of what's appropriate or not, although not always).

For exemple, if you want a wand that glows in the direction of someone, neither option 1 not 3 works, you gotta use option 2. If you want the helm that gives you the power to see vis, you gotta use option 1.
Similar items using option 3 for viscaria could be, say, a metal wand that (ReTe req) vibrates when in the good direction, and a stone tablet which, with ReTe free requisites, draws an arrow pointing to vis.
So me? I'm all for using the 3 of them :laughing:

This isn't important since it's a bought item, but, even by callen's rules, this'd probably have a CrIm requisite (for the stone to talk). Otherwise, great item and description :smiley:

...And thus he might more easily be tempted to do evil. It's an extension of the notion of free will. Magi, having a greater capacity, have a greater capacity to perform evil. Were I the one designing Ars, I would want holy men to be protected from direct interference by demons, but they might still be talked into making choices which harness their capacity for evil.

Separating the Divine from the Infernal means that a magi might get pretty blase about casting DEO at anything that might be a demon. "If it floats, it's a witch." If the same spell could be used to attack an angel as a demon, then a magi has to be able to see through the deception in order to make the right move, which sounds like better storytelling to me.

As I said earlier though, I'll concede that this isn't the paradigm of the RAW.

Yes, we're saying the same thing here :slight_smile:

I'm not barring the other two, so much as thinking of ways to incorporate them into a unified whole. Where I get stuck is figuring out the line between when you need CrIm requisites and when it counts as "just flavor."

For example in Covenants, pg 100-101, Determine the Location of the Absent Volume is InAn with an imaginem req in order for the wizard's sigil to appear on a map, and an optional Creo req to use this with a handheld mirror. But Eternal Repetition in a Bottomless Pool is CrIm with no Intellego requisites in order to display the contents of a book in a reflective surface. You're suggesting that The Impassive Face needs a CrIm requisite to work as I described when I thought I was just adding color.

Well, rest assured, that's already the case in RAW, there's a whole text about it in RoP: tD: Holy men can be tempted, even lose their powers temporarily, even lose all protection from demons, all as a test of their faith. I can very well see the God putting a character's faith to test by putting him before tough choices. And devils might put him before (different) tough choices, too, like destroying a mine that make town dwellers greedy, or condemning a whole town to poverty (Unless I'm wrong, the correct choice theologically speaking would be #1, but I'm not even sure)

Maybe I don't understand what you mean, but I doubt very much that gaining the free power to destroy angels would change anything to that, any more than, in RAW, having or not DEO changes anyhting to these.

That's an interesting point, since I agree that DEO can, in fact, be an effective "Demon Detection Spell".
The reverse, however, is that, if our pious magus has to be careful when casting DEO for fear of destroying an angel, it'll also stop him right in his tracks on the Pride path (Substituting himself to god and his angels, feeling almighty, you know the deal).
Both points are (IMO) rather moot, though, since the cases where you cast DEO are already relatively few and far between: You won't cast it on every mundane you encounter (unless you want to alarm them), and I don't think there'll be much cases of demons masquerading as angels.

I'm thinking: Maybe you want to slip us a demon and fear he might be detected too easily? Remember then: There's always possession :wink: And human (or hermetic) agents^^
You can also have faeries posing as angels or demons (And evil faeries, too), and I can perfectly see a magical/faerie creature having being compelled or having entered a bargain with a demon and forced to obey him :smiley:

But to tell you the truth, more than anything, this makes me uncomfortable because of the "free lunch" for the common PC magus (the one that would have no qualms into basting an angel that opposed him) and, more importantly, as something too modern in thinking that destroys my sense of "medieval world". It'd feel like hanging with the top 5% of the black metal crowd (the ones that reject any supernatural dominion over man), and I'm already there 8)

I'll have to check the spells, if I think about it.
As for the Impassive face, well, that was Callen's idea, and I think it's a good one: Going with flavorful items make things easier than the RAW option 2, but not totally, since you add free requisites as needed by the effect.

I really need to sit down and read that book, plus the Infernal one, for plotstuff.

Well, the major NPC antagonists of the setting are diabolists who just did battle with the effective Princeps of your covenant, so yeah, it might be relevant :wink:

As I need players to SG my character, I'd appreciate your (and anyone else's) thoughts on the matter.

After spending a solid chunk of time with the enchanting and Verditus rules, I really need to change Viscaria's craft skills. Glass just doesn't hold as much Vis as she needs, and doesn't fit the character concept nearly well enough. I suppose she can still have Craft:Stone to cover her interests in defensive structures, but Craft:glass has two major drawbacks, from what I can tell:

  1. Not very dwarfy
  2. Doesn't fit her parens' desires for a covenant-defense crafter, due to low vis capacities.

But which? Armor/weapons feels too aggressive. Furniture? Possibly too limiting. Jewelry, maybe? Silver, maybe?

Agreed, they are very good and full of good ideas. Since you've got one divine-oriented PC and infernal ennemies, I guess you'll find them invaluable :smiley:

I thought about you yesterday: Apparently, there's a demonic power called "Cloud (or Hide, I don't remember) the Stench of the Pit" that allows a demon to conceal a diabolist powers so that they don't appear as infernal. This should prove quite useful to you :smiley:
Oh, and just an idea that you may use some day: A demon or diabolist can perfectly create an illusion of an angel (thus utterly immune to any might-strippers, which proves that it's backed up by god, isn't it?) in order to manipulate someone from afar :wink:

Furniture? Nope. As you say, too limiting and... Well, lol.
I like jewelry, it's thematic, dwarf-like and covers a lot if things, but you might want to take silver, since it's broader.