Giovanni and What Followed

From: wsb1@dolphin.upenn.edu (Bill Brickman)
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 1995 15:42:19 -0500 (EST)

Mike and I have been carrying on a discussion about my idea for my companion, to be introduced via retcon on Wednesday. I'm posting Mike's reply to me, since he said I could ;) and I'm adding my new ideas for how I'd like to work Giovanni into the life of the covenant. But I want feedback OOC from the troupe before I thrust this upon you. I don't want to step on people's toes as I come barging into the game like a blind caribou afflicted with cerebal palsy, so feel free to tell me to tone it down if I'm pushing too far.

> > I can definitely have an Italian Hospitaller ready to go-- but how do we 
> > cram him into the saga?
>
> That's up to you and the Troupe, as always.
> 
> > I always figured that this Hospitaller could be 
> > running a small hospice for travelers somewhere in the wilderness, as 
> > penance, since the Knights of St. John had little hospices all over 
> > Europe.  
> 
> The easy way out is to put his hospice in the mainland village nearest to 
> the Covenant.  More-or-less wilderness, plenty of Slav peasants to 
> convert to Christianity, and easy introduction into play:  both Elijiah 
> and Alanus are the types to 'travel among the people' quite often, as 
> well as Maggie May, perhaps Amanda, others.  If you want to manufacture a 
> crisis to drive him closer to the covenant at this point in time, that's 
> perfectly fine by me.
> 
> > Does he run the leper colony the magi frequent for Corporem vis? ;)  
> 
> That, Sirrah, is Truly Gruesome. >;)
> 
> > Is he a friend of Lidija's?  An ally of the covenant?  
> 
> Also good possibilities with which I have no quarrel.
> 
> Just had a 'poppin' thought' hop into my cortex, on a possible crisis:  
> massacre of his village by either Montenegrin tribesman, or perhaps even 
> overzealous Ferali of the Count -- a quick and dirty way to make him 
> tight with the Covenanters.  'My enemy's enemy' and all that.
> 
> > I picked the Hospitallers due to 
> > their study of medicine which got them into trouble with the Church 
> > whenever it got around that they were practicing it.  They had Arabic 
> > teachers, and access to interesting tracts, so they'd be the most 
> > understanding about magi of the Fighting Orders.  So it's possible 
> > they've met up before.  
> 
> Agreed.
> 
> > So, not to drop a whammy on you, but...how do you feel about True Faith? 
> 
> Actually ... since Doug's ex-priest-pursued-by-the-Church-authorities-
> for-heresy-and-currently-masquerading-as-a-kindly-old-man-at-the-Concilium 
> character already has the True Faith virtue, I can't exactly say no.
> 
> We've only used it once (sort of) and it was in a bit of a rush, and I 
> couldn't find the damn rules in the AM3rd rulebook, so I wouldn't mind a 
> bit of enlightenment as to how exactly it works, hint hint. ;)
> 
> > I'd be very quiet and subtle about it.  Maybe I wouldn't even have it,
> > just a relic (the +4 virtue, or something like that.) If it's too much a
> > pain, or you think this is a group that doesn't want Xtianity in their
> > face, just let me know.  
> 
> > Please, help the newbie from pushing too many boundaries, 
> 
> Unlikely.  We're a fairly libertine bunch. 
> 
> > and push too rules on you at once.
> 
> Also unlikely.  The only way I learn 'em is to play 'em, and once I've 'a 
> played 'em, they tend to stick in my brain.
> 
> > I know already that a lot 
> > of people have trouble with the Church/Knights-- heck, who's going to 
> > trust an order of knights if some of their brethren massacred the Order?  
> 
> Hey, I *love* inter-party tension.  Although just as easy to keep his 
> Hospitaller background a secret (*nobody's* got secrets at the Concilium 
> ;)) and just have him in his hospice as a monastic.  Perhaps alienated 
> from the Hospitallers for some unjust reason.
> 
> > I'm worried that I'd end up with a very persecuted character, no matter 
> > how good, useful, or critical he is.  
> 
> This is true.  It is possible, and I would ask the whole Troupe's 
> permission on this first, to just say via Storyguide Fiat that: 'this man 
> is a well-known and long-trusted ally of the Covenant, since the days 
> when it was just Tariq and Elijiah and a few scruffy Italo-Slav grogs.  
> Whatever your individual characters viewpoints of him, he will be 
> listened to and treated as a friend by the grogs and the covenfolk in 
> general.'  Something like that.
> 
> > And that can make it very hard to 
> > play, especially for someone who's "outside" the group already.  
> 
> I wuz gonna say something about that.  If it gets bad for you as a new
> player, if you feel too much on the 'outside', let us know and we'll all 
> figure something out together.  I have this thing about trying to hang 
> onto every player I find in this gaming wasteland of a city. >;)
> 
> [n.b. I'm spoiled.  In Chapel Hill, back in the 70s-80s when I was 
> growing up, the whole damn town was *filthy* with great roleplayers, 
> gaming stores that let you use floor space to run games, clubs, 
> mini-cons, SCA'ers, etc., etc.  Not bad for a pop. of 25,000 or so.]
> 
> > Vasha's a mage, and Cain's already suspicious of him-- 
> 
> Cain's suspicious of everybody.  Don't worry -- hint hint -- The Great 
> Cain Comeuppance will be arriving shortly, especially if we start playing 
> parallel storylines, one in Italy, one in Dalmatia.  I always try to make 
> opportunities for the characters to exercise their Virtues ... and I 
> *always* make those Flaws sting.  
> 
> [Lydia, if you wind up reading this -- here's a big 'ol >;) winking 
> smiley for the above line -- you know I'm not *really* that nasty.  I 
> promise not to bulldoze Cain into a situation from whence he has no 
> possibility of escape, nor chance of redemption, nor any options except 
> to flee or shoot his way out.  That wouldn't be any fun for you or me or 
> anyone else.  As a matter of fact, if you feel like Damocles at this 
> point in time, I'll shelve that adventure indefinitely.  Hey, if I bend 
> over backwards any further, I'll hurt something.  See above note about 
> holding onto players. -mgs]
> 
> > imagine how he'll react to a Crusader knight on a mission to Italy?
> 
> Oh, smoke him on the spot, I imagine.  >;)
> 
> > I'd have problems playing a non-Christian Hospitaller-- it's kinda dumb.  
> > I'd probably be pretty devout, and serious about my vows in character.  
> 
> I agree.
> 
> > Gimme ideas on what I can do to remedy this.
> 
> Ask the Troupe.  Feel free to copy this to the mailing list.
> 
> Whew.
> 
> -mgs
> 
> 

But when Giovanni returned from Cyprus a full Knight Hospitaller, he found that his demesne had been reduced to a small grange & hospice, the original acres having been shifted by the central Church administration away from the Knights and to a holding of a cleric more easily controlled by the Count. Taking it up with his uncle in all humility, then with the nepotism argument, then with anger, and finally with a weak show of arms and a challenge, Giovanni was beaten each time. Taking his vows seriously, Giovanni returned to the humble hospice in the wilderness, maintaining and defending it from robbers and Montenegrans.

Then one night, a little time after Lidija returned to the Lighthouse, and the Count was repulsed in his attempt to gain those lands, Giovanni and his Brothers were attacked by "Montenegrans", their hospice burned, the grange-village destroyed, and all the families in the area killed. As his comrades were being hacked to pieces around him, Giovanni shouted that he would die defending the sanctity of the refuge on his family's name. His opponent "Montenegran," recognizing and sympathizing with Giovanni, told him not "to swear by same name that bargained for his destruction," and revealed his identity as one of Giovanni's uncle's men, who had once trained Giovanni as a small boy. Giovanni, begging this man not to kill one to whom he once owed loyalty, and swearing on his Vow as a Hospitaller never to reveal that he knew who had attacked the hospice, was able to convince the man-at-arms to spare his life. Giovanni fled to the supposed protection of his Church, but was turned over to the Knights by the Bishop as a coward and deserter of his post. He could not prove he had fought there, because he had no witnesses, and would be breaking his oath if he fingered his savior. The Bishop turned the "deserted" hospice over to the same clerk, since the Hospitallers had lost their right to defend it through this disgrace, bringing all the lands back under the Count's control. The Hospitallers placed the penance on Giovanni that he patrol the land without the help of his Brothers of the Order, defending any Christian in need, until he could in feat of arms remove the brand of coward from his soul.

Giovanni quickly found a friend in the covenant as another of the dispossessed of the region. He remains doubly true to the Hospitaller Vows, hoping to regain his position as a full, unblemished Knight. He defends the covenant and many of the smaller villages of the area as part of his Vow, and although his prowess in battle is nothing but exemplary, the Bishop's reports to the Knights always seem to diminish his role in the actions he has lead. Giovanni is *not* bitter, however this may have happened, and seeks no blood revenge against the Count, his family. However, this does not stop him from seeking smaller revenges against the corrupt politics that have destroyed his life.

There you have it. He'll have good combat abilities, vows, faith, all that good knight junk. Loyal, mostly honest, but not stupidly honest. Nor with his blood can he be a goody-two-shoes. He's got pride and arrogance due to his birth and situation, so he's not quite your boring "cop who's partner's been killed" character. Nor will he be a lone-wolf loose-cannon-- far from it, he's been trained to work with units. If he starts to even look like Robin Hood, please, shoot him. He's a Knight Errant in an Italian style, rather than Celto-Arthurian.

I'll need some help with picking his age (how old's Lidija, that's a good way to guess?) and some other details. But tell me if this is OK to retcon into the covenant history.

Bill

Y'know, at some point in time, it might be useful to work out the order and years that everyone arrived at the Covenant, especially since seniority is starting to work its way into the politics of the magi, at least. ;)

For my own characters:
1. Andras has probably been around for quite a while.
2. Tor is a relative newcomer.
3. Cain is a relative newcomer (more than two years, but less than five).

I like the Giovanni background. More knights. Someone for Tor to interact with. :)

(Mike -- I trust that you won't arbitrarily ruin characters, though I *do* expect you to mercilessly play on every weakness of a character. I provided you a massively detailed background of Cain for a reason, after all. :) (So, uh, where does the Concilium keep its vis? ;) ) )

Not a bad idea. All of my characters came at roughly the same time, as Tariq, accompanied by Asatar rescued Lidija to start the thing.

Giovanni sounds good to me. As far as reconning things in, we've only been really playing for around a month or so. Hell, we don't even have all of the original people's characters established (Hi, Pete!)

As far as RL, I hadn't met half of y'all until very recently. I think we're weird enough as individuals to imagine how what kind of inside-joke-gaming-talk we'd speak if we'd been gaming together for three or four years. :)

This reminds me of another thing I'd like either retconned or just done in the gaming present that Doug & I were talking about. I didn't know about magical links (Is that right? Locks of each other's hair et al). So I didn't figure we'd have any. But thinking about it, it only makes sense for the good of the Covenant to have a cache somewhere of a magical link to all the Magi, Companions, & Covenfolk. Doug & I came up with the idea of a locked room (or box, but I figure we have rooms to spare) that took four of six magi to open, but would only take two to destroy all of the magical links (for some kind of attack or whatnot). I also thought maybe we could put the vis there, so that we used vis as a covenant instead of individually. I dunno about two magi being able to destroy all the vis, so maybe that should be worked out separately.

The other thing this led to was that the thing new mages would have to do is research the new lock/unlock spell as their first thing so they'd be able to operate it as well. This seems like a good test/task, since it must be passed but there is incentive for a new member to spend a season on it.

What do y'all think, either as players or as characters?

Alanus sez: "Ah, I don' hae no problems with a guid Christian man, especially one what carries a blade the size o' Sterling around. Some of me best friends be Christians; 'zounds, me lady here be a regular wafer-takin' Catholic herself--ooofff!"

Maggie May, after elbowing Alanus: "Ignore my pagan husband, dear Giovanni. He's not quite the fool he makes himself out to be--at least some of the time he's not. Your mercy and humility in the service of our Savior will always endear you to me."

Bisclavret, looking at Giovanni's sword: "Nice . . . gladius . . . me swing?"

I have no problems with a good Christian joining the bunch, just means I have to start playing a better muslim :)

As to arrival times for my characters to the covenant: I would say that Asid and Co. would prolly have come fairly recently, en masse. All of my folks are fairly tightly knit, they all have a more or less common history, and I would suppose general purpose.

And this does bring me to a point that was brought up earlier. We should at some point figure out, how much of our characters' backgrounds are common knowledge to the rest of the group. Is everyone agreed that we could do this via email?

As to the spell focuses um....sure. Sounds like a plausible idea to me.

Oh another thing in the interest of getting covenant politics done via E-mail instead of game time.

OOC: John and I had no Idea that there such things as sanctum sanctoriams and arcane links until they were brought up in the game on Wednesday. We then came up with this idea.

The Covenant has a place where everyone already has donated an arcane link. We keep them where we keep the vis for the covenant.

It is currently guarded by 2 spells.

The first is a spell of warding. The box is unable to be opened unless the sum total of (covenant - 2) covenant magi (assuming that there will be 6) are present to open the box. (For one rogue and one absent/killed member)

The second is a spell of destruction. Where any two magi in the covenant can activate the spell to destroy both the box and the arcane connections.

The test of a new magi to enter is that they have to come up with the two new spells that take the old ones and include themselves.

Comments?

Well, it appears I opened up another can of worms last session without giving everybody the solution to the dilemma. The way Arcane Connections work in the 3rd edition of Ars Magica is that only truly personal items will do, a piece of the body, a favorite piece of clothing, or anything that is immediately recognized as part of the target's "Self" (another can of worms to open later.) It is usual practice to have arcane connections kept in a secure spot in the covenant, as you have arranged, but these are *no* arcane connections to magi for one good reason-- arcane connections to magi are toast. Please note the spell "Confound the Connection", lvl 15 PeCo. It's level, use, and range have been argued about on the mailing list since 3rd edition came out, but the necessity of its existance has not. For those who don't have a book handy, I'll reproduce it here, with the general changed agreed on the list enclosed in []'s: "Range: 100 miles/400 miles, Duration: Instant. Allows you to destroy an item, used [recently] by another Magus, that allows an Arcane Connection. This item may be of your body or possession, or may belong to another person you touch. Use of this spell assumes you know an Arcane Connection has been made to you, though you don't have to know what item is being used to form the Arcane Connection. Once this spell is cast, any [single] Arcane Connection to you or the person you touch is permanently severed [and falls to ash]. Another Connection can only be formed by a Magus if he has another of your personal objects."

It comes down to this: if it's in range, and a mage gets paranoid that it's being used, he can destroy it, instantly. Since it's a instant spell, it can be done spontaneously. Since it's a Corporem spell, and Corporem is an art that almost all magi learn for longevity, it's fairly common that Magi have scores high enough to learn this/spont it. Thus covenants don't tend to ask their magi to give up Arcane Connections, since when they go to the room to find it and use it, it will invariably be gone, despite locked rooms, wards, etc. And the other major reason they do not keep arcane connections is due to the Code of Hermes. Quite simply, pretty much any use of magic by one Hermetic mage against another is right out. The clause about "I shall not spy on on my solades by magical means" (we'd better all read the Code next time, I think.) means that the use of an Arcane Connection, pretty much spying by magic no matter what purpose you were doing it for, is a violation of the Code. So no covenant charter could have a line about keeping instruments which only reason for existing breaks the Code.

Now, this is not to say this isn't a good idea in general, since it is necessary to have a good connection for some reasons. And since the Code *never* really talks about the use of magic on mortals, it's almost always OK to have Arcane connections to non-magi. So instead, covenants keep Arcane Connections to grogs, servants, people who might be with the magi. A running mage could still sever all the connections to covenfolk with him, but it works pretty well for expeditions.

So it'd be OK to have a box with those kind of connections. Another alternative is to have Arcane Connections to *places*. For instance, the spell, Opening the Intangible Tunnel, which allows a magi to cast spells over great distances at someone, requires either an Arcane Connection to the target, or the *place* the target is at. Of course, arcane connections to sanctum sanctorums is again, forbidden, except for its owner. Connections to places are not so easily broken, and thus last much better. Of course, they don't move. I'm sure that, although Versipellus doesn't have the spells of far-seeing, he'll give the covenant a piece of tile off his store so they can keep watch on it (except when he's there, of course, since that's breaking the code.)

Anyway, I hope this was enlightening. I can talk Heremtic Law all night, if necessary. It will all have to be OOC, however, I'm not about to change Versipellus into some sleazy lawyer.

Bill

I think if we can work out a means of producing a magical key and lock that requires two or more magi belonging specifically to the Concillium to operate. It would be convenient if the key-lock mechanism did not require a specific space (two mages at one point) but did require coincident times of unlocking. Any one mage of the Concillium can lock the "box" at any time, any where, if not opposed by two or more magi from the Concillium.

The key is complete upon any combination of two or more Concillium magi "magical fingerprint". Note that I do not think an arcane connection is necessary in this spell. The complete lock and key spell needs to be cast by all of the current magi members of the concillium. The "box", whatever form it may take, has the "scent" of the different magi involved, id est, traces of blue, fading visibility, et cetera.

On a tangent to this, is the need to be able to contact each mage, wherever they may be, whether the message is a semiphore or a full spoken/visual conversation. Perhaps a terrestrial or object method of arcane connection can be used.

Or maybe we can speak to each other through our grogs/companions :)

I can see the danger in providing an arcane connection to a protected inner sanctum.

xappo
pete

I'm with Bill on this one, folks. Up in the Highlands, where they don't practice Hermetic Magick, giving someone your Arcane Connection (or putting it somewhere where they could get access to it) is disastrous. Many a shaman or chieftain paid the price for letting that witch or warlock get a piece of his hair or some of his blood (no, I don't think clothes count as arcane connections--at least they never did in any legend I've read). As someone not trained in the Order proper (even though his master was clearly Hermetic), Alanus will probably share this gut feeling. Arcane Connections, no matter how well-protected, are still open to abuse, and that creates an atmosphere in which trust withers. For instance, if this system was in place last session, then Tariq, Asid, Paul, and Caine could have easily opened the seal (it only takes four) and nuked Alanus from a distance. So nope, no arcane connections from any of my characters (at least not Alanus, Maggie, and Bisclavret--if anoyone wants Dietrich's blood/hair/nails, then they can probably get them, but then Alanus would be hopping mad if he found out).

I think this is just the sort of non-issue to break the Covenant up--there's no need to prepare for *every* possibility, and I can guarantee that my Magus would leave on the spot if he found someone using his substance to cast spells against him (I wouldn't leave, but I would have to make up new characters).

Rob