JOACH OF VERDITIUS ================== Int +3 6 Clever Per +2 3 Sharp Str - - Sta - - Pre -2 -3 Malformed Com - - Dex +1 1 Deft Qik - - Virtues ------- Alchemy +1 Free Study +1 Inventive Genius +1 Magical Affinity: Puppet Magic +2 Quiet Magic +2 Troupe Upbringing: Experienced Puppeteer +1 Flaws ----- Follower of Verditius -1 Hunchback -1 Incompatible Arts: Intellego Auram -1 Incomprehensible -1 Major Magical Deficiency: Ignem -2 Minor Magical Deficiency: Aquam -1 Poor Reader -1 Age 34 (41 eps.) Abilities --------- Affinity with Puppet Magic-2 (Rego Corpus Spells) Free + 2 Alchemy-1 (Refining) Free Area Lore: N. France-1 (Geography) 1 Area Lore: Rouen-1 (Geography) 1 Awareness-1 (Alertness) 1 Brawling-2 (Dodge) 3 Certamen-1 (Muto) 1 Concentration-2 (Lab Work) 3 Craft: Clock-Making-1 (Small Clocks) 1 Craft: Locksmith-1 (Puzzle Locks) 1 Craft: Stone-Carving-1 (Gargoyles) 1 Craft: Wood-Carving-3 (Puppets) 6 Finesse-2 (Corpus) 3 Guile-1 (Lying to Authority) 1 Organization Lore: Order of Hermes-1 (Politics) Free Jongleur-2 (Puppeteer) 3 Magic Theory-5 (Enchanting Items) Free Parma Magica-3 (vs. Intellego) Free + 3 Penetration-3 (Muto) 6 Scribe Latin-2 (Copying) Free Speak French-4 (Norman) Free Speak Latin-5 (Hermetic Usage) Free Stealth-1 (Urban Areas) 1 Storytelling-1 (Improvisation) 1 Verditius Magic-2 (Mechanisms) Free + 2 Arts ---- Rego 8 Animal 7 Corpus 7 Herbam 7 Muto 4 Mentam 4 Terram 4 Spells ------ Agony of the Beast (5) Soothe the Ferocious Bear (5) Mastering the Unruly Beast (25) Spasms of the Uncontrolled Hand (5) Despair of the Quivering Manacles (15) Lifting the Dangling Puppet (15) Strings of the Unwilling Marionette (25) Twist the Living Tree (20) Strike of the Angered Branch (15) Notes of a Delightful Sound (5) Baffling Blend with the Blatant Barrier (5) The Unseen Porter (10) Life Story in Brief ------------------- The deformed son of a pair of strolling players, Jonat (as was) started out by learning his father's skill of puppetry. However, the boy's deformity and difficulty dealing with people was a problem, so he spent a lot of time hidden away, carving new puppets. Fortunately, his father was shrewd enough to show this work to a master wood-carver in Rouen while the troupe was passing through, and the lad was taken on as an apprentice. He proved quite adept, learning something of that skill, and also picking up the basics of stone-carving from other craftsmen in the churches in which his master worked. He also saw, and became fascinated by, various mechanical contrivances. Then, at the age of 18 or 19, he was talent-spotted again - by a mage, Dergorus of Verditius, an alchemist with a particular interest in the forms of solid matter. However, Jonat was already set in many of his ways and obsessions. He proved good at a kind of "sympathetic magic", manipulating sculpted models and such to produce effects, and he doesn't even have to make much noise while doing this - but he is slightly limited when dealing with fire or water, which he finds impossible to sculpt or model "realistically", and he is totally incapable of obtaining information through or about the air, which is just too insubstantial for his mind to work with - although he can move, destroy, or shape it by main force if he so chooses. After his Gauntlet, he paid enough attention to matters around him to realise that his master's covenant was suffering from far too much politics, which he just couldn't grasp or relate to, and in any case, he was fascinated by the idea of combining Verditius magic with mundane mechanical contrivances. So he took once more to the roads. Having been brought up a strolling player, he has found the life possible for a wandering wizard the epitome of comfort by comparison, and while he likes to be respected (and can take small but sneaky revenge on peasants who are impolite to him), he doesn't mind being overlooked. He has even amused himself by putting on magically-enhanced puppet- shows on occasion. Now, however, he wants to put some ideas that he has formulated into practice. That requires a laboratory, and a laboratory requires a covenant...