In The Hallowed Light [MTAW2e - OOC]

[KaiserAfini]

I agree, I think you don't need to pay the mana cost. A combined spell is about having two unrelated effects using the same combined Imago, which requires a minimum of Gnosis 3 (core book page 86). This one is a custom spell using two Arcana, so no need for the penalty. But otherwise it looks good to go.

Body Control seems to be over Reaching by two, since its a Ruling, which means only one free Reach at Life 2. Philly would need one Reach to go over her spell control (since she cast the Bibbidi-Bobbidy-Boo first), one for instant use and one for advanced duration. However, I think a Potency primary Life and Matter spell could be used to remove all dirt, sweat, bacteria and similar, which can be used both to clean and sanitize (diminishing the severity of pathogens in the area by Potency). Using that will allow her to instantly clean up without having to sustain an effect.

[Cauthon]

I’m using the stats provided by Cauthon when asking what to roll for this aka Presence + Investigation. Which added up to 5. Making my max rolls 7 on the investigation bit. You are correct, Intelligence + Academics is much better for Elpis, especially because of their specialty in research making it 10 rolls. However I’d rather go with what Cauthon said about the rolls previously until updated on it. I mean, I’m reasonably sure it only took one or two tries, and going past 7 is waaaaay overkill, but I will update it with the rest if you wish.

Shoot, Academics. Eeeeh, realistically Academics won't help with this specifically. The Book does jot respond well to academia.

Gosh. Formal Dining. Can Philly use shaping with a reach 1 to change clothes, or would a matter veiling spell be better? Or does she not have time to do that before going through the portal? Otherwise she is still in hiking clothes and hasn't showered recently. Might want to cast Body Control to eliminate BO and Mutable Mask to fix hair. If she doesn't change before going through portal, maybe she would use the restroom?

Do you want me to roll anything to see if I am recognized by Maurice or other staff and patrons? I also have Striking Looks **, Fame * (Small Town), and Order Status *. Might want to roll Presence + Composure for Good Impression, and Wits + Socialize for fitting in.

Intelligence + Occult I guess for recalling details about Hyleen Cottage and the Corenne?

Here's a general cleaning spell. Only real downside is that the detritus sloughs off you rather than vanishes.

Most people in the Rose right now are not affiliated in any way with the Consilium, and Chevalier's table is out of the way. Since they're talking Order buisness, it's mostly secure from scrutiny (This won't always be the case, just simplifying things for your intro)

Rolling is fine, or you can opt to not know much. General anyone-in-the-order-knows-this is that the Corenne were Left-Handed, their name means "The Return(ing)" in High Speech, and that their bloody purging is what moved the Consilium to being more Guardian run. By mutual agreement, that last one, as opposed to Guardians pressuring for control. The Cottage was put in common trust because no-one wanted to deal with the legacy of it at the time, and theres plenty of stronger Hallows for claiming.

Funny story. I also used to live in DC. And one evening I had just gotten off work, and I'm like in cargo shorts, work boots, and a t shirt, covered in sweat. And my buddy calls me up and says "Hey its my birthday, and my mom sent me a blank check to go out to dinner. Want to come" So I'm like sure, but... and he's like don't worry about it. So we show up at this restaurant in Georgetown (Where rich people eat dinner). My buddy's also in shorts and a t-shirt with flip-flops. And we walk in. And I swear, everyone including the maitre'd and all the wait staff are in like tuxedos or formal wear. I'm surprised they didn't just tell us to get lost. But he seated us anyhow.

Georgetown is used to rowdy college kids coming through. I say this as someone who went to college in DC (American University, but our ROTC program was a satellite to Georgetown's so we had a lot of interaction with them)

Pretty sure if it's a dual arcana spell where only one is ruling, it doesn't have a mana cost. I don't think it's a combined spell? Just a duel requirement one, so no penalty is needed for the first spell. (Also, we can't do combined spells yet, since we all are Gnosis 1, and I think it's gnosis 3 before we can. Multi arcana spells are fine though.

I think it still costs the requisite Mana if you incorporate a non-Ruling. Makes Praxis and Rotes much more valuable. I'm open to negotiating that point though, I don't think the rules were explicit on the delineation.

[TempleBuilder]

No, looks like they were not specific on mana costs on multi-arcana spells at all. Which leads me to wonder where I got the idea from. Oh well.

[KaiserAfini]

I imagine every théarch had to face a variation of this situation at some point, which is probably why Dr Who style psychic paper would be a highly requested item of Order crafters.

[CalvinSiler]

Another Dumb Question: Did you all share character sheets and I just missed it somewhere, or are we keeping those secret?

Still thinking through Philly's background and Proximi family stuff. I sent some things to Cauthon to make sure nothing was chronicle breaking, but I want to get you all's imput too.

Philly is the only awakened member of her immediate family, but she has a few mage relatives. She is the descendent of two proximi bloodlines (I'm going very Bene Gesserit here).
Her mother's proximi dynasty is Thyrsus path. They emigrated from Greece after World War II and eventually ended up going west. Some Ladder mages claim, without much evidence, that the bloodline goes all the way back to the fall of Atlantis. The sleepers and sleepwalkers in the family tend to be very open to non-western spiritual traditions, esoterica, and magic. Basically Hippies with money. Probably ties to the agriculture community. Not sure what their curse should be.

Her dad's family is a Moros path dynasty that moved west with the Transcontinental railroad (DE 2 inspired here). They are mostly interested in making money, and whatever their curse is they rarely discuss it. Something to do with iron and machines.

I've also been thinking about cabal dynamics. Elpis is from Seattle. How long have they lived in Little Atlantis? And Qaf grew up there. Would he know Philly already? It's a small town, but they are also sort of from opposite sides of the tracks so to speak.

I'm not fully committed to any of this by the way, if you all have a really cool idea. Mechanics wise I'm working with Order status 1, Fame 1 (Small Town), Resources 3, Infamous Mentor 1, Inheritance 2.

[KaiserAfini]

We originally started brainstorming the chronicle's ideas and character concepts over private messages. I use MrGone's dynamic character sheets, but both Temple and I were having trouble uploading them to the chat. If I remember correctly, I think Cauthon has a link for a folder with all of them.

I am not sure what the Curse could be. Proximi are very cool, but its difficult to find a nice balance between notable and crippling when designing the aspects of the Curse, so even homebrews are rare. Thyrsus wise, the Sisters of the Mountain are one, but are linked to the Appalachian mountains, the Essers from Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes are the only other ones I know. Regarding homebrew ideas, her mother's Dynasty could be from Rhodes, Greece. She could have Forces as her third Arcanum, with a Curse involving sunlight or spirits linked to Helios. Make them descendants of the mythological sea nymph that became Rhodes island.

Looking at the document you shared, I think Philly has a pretty high chance of having met Qaf's mundane persona. Here are some opportunities that come to mind:

• Qaf works at the Raven & Rose as a bouncer during the high season.
• She could have seen him in a sports competition (marathon, triathlon, etc), since Philly has the skill of a professional athlete.
• He is a self defense teacher in Little Atlantis, so she may have attended a class.
• He runs with his dog every morning, so they may have met when he was jogging, biking or hiking.
• He enjoys swimming and scuba diving, they may have met at the beach.

[CalvinSiler]

I think the Rhodes idea is kind of cool. My main experience with legacies is as a ST, not as a player. I ST a chronicle in Seattle where one of the PC was a metropolitan (which lead to interesting results, as one may imagine). I think a Spirit based curse is the way to go. I've been thinking a lot about how Philly perceives the the Shadow, similar to Qaf and clocks, or Elpis and the night sky/stars. That's kind of why I wanted to get a better handle on the Proximi thing, because I think it would have a big influence on her use of symbolism. One of my goals, half way between character concept and out-of-character aspiration is to explore more how family influences a mages use of magic and interaction with mage society. My old game group I think tended to treat order as more of an abstract concept rather than a lived social experience.

I think all of those, or at least one of those, is a very plausible way for Philly and Qaf's mundane personas to know each other, so I will try to incorporate that into her conversation with Chevalier and their first meeting. Especially since Qaf is three or four years older than Philly it is very possible that he knew her before she awakened, so it might be interesting to role play that out. I kind of envisioned Philly's awakening being sort of a radical change in her persona. Did Qaf attend LAU? I changed things around from what I had before. Philly awakened before the beginning of college, not high school. If Elpis also attended LAU that would be a connection between them and Philly also.

I guess 3 dots is technically "professional athlete" level. I guess I was envisioning like competitive college sports. If she was doing cross country or 800 M, there would definitely be a connection to Qaf, as well as swimming. I have three friends who do sea swimming IRL. There's only one MA studio in town probably so definitely a connection there, though she only has one dot in brawl, so vastly different belt/skill levels. Honestly I was thinking it was probably like a beginners level self defense class. But maybe if she and Qaf are in the same cabal, she will develop that skill more. I was thinking freediving rather than scuba, which is a heck of a lot easier with life magic. Gotta get that manna at the bottom of the quarry somehow.

Philly is definitely going to be excited that Qaf has a dog!

I guess I was just confirming that we had a nice balance of intellectual, physical, and social attributes and skills. I think Philly will probably see Elpis as kind of intimidating since she sees herself as being primarily a preppy jock. Elpis has actually been studying something for the past four years instead of making gentleman C's and going to parties. I don't' think Philly went to the library once while she was there.

[KaiserAfini]

I think Qaf would have studied in LAU for something like a self defense certification or fitness instruction, since he dreams of having his own martial arts school, but he is still is building capital and developing his own style. The Chronicles of Darkness core book has a baseline for skills, along with detailed rules and equipment information, plus lots of interesting GM plots, its a very easy recommendation. But anyway, when looking at skills the baseline is:

● - Basic Competency: You took a shooting class (Firearms), take better care of yourself than most people (Athletics), understand a few forensic techniques (Investigation)
●● - Professional Skill: You could earn a living with your degree of knowledge, you have a solid, reliable level of ability.
●●● - National Level Expert: You are considered an expert at what you do and a reference in your skill.
●●●● - Global Tier Master: You have enough mastery to be a mover and shaker in your field, being considered on par with the world's leading experts.
●●●●● - Peak Human Ability: You can deduce like Sherlock Holmes (Investigation), cook on par with Gordon Ramsay (Crafts) or snipe like Simo Hahya (firearms).

However, keep in mind that style merits can still account for a massive gap in efficiency, such as having a fighting style making you spend far less Willpower, professional training giving more consistent results or even having done all the work to have an air tight Alternative Identity when spying. There are also highly skilled experts in the shadows, so who knows who you may run into.

When thinking about the Shadow, there is one description that I found very evocative, maybe it can prove helpful.

[CalvinSiler]

I've also been thinking about the cottage. Elpis and Qaf have already started exploring the mystery of the cottage ("every hallow has a story"), and Philly will have to catch up when she gets there. One of her character asperations, very much in keeping with Silver Ladder, is to improve a sanctum in both its mundane and supernatural aspects. To wit:
1. Repairing, furnishing, remodeling the cottage, adding a garden and animal friendly features (Crafts and Resources)
2. Increasing its mundane and supernatural security
3. Creating environmental yantras that aide the cabal
4. Maybe creating a cabal library?
5. Cool Artifacts?

More long term goals might be acquiring Pandora's soul stone, or some other soul stone, and creating a demesne, linking the cottage to a node, somehow increasing its hallow potency, and establishing some sort of agreement or status with the spirit court in the immediate area, creating a verge to the Shadow.

Any thoughts or suggestions on these. What were you all thinking?

Obviously some of this is contingent on how the mystery of the cottage's connection to the Corenne and the Ruins in the Deep plays out, and how long Elpis, Qaf, and Philly end up staying there.

[KaiserAfini]

I think those sound pretty cool, I had some rough outlines of ideas that may compliment them:

• Regarding looks, I was thinking of leveraging the stonework to focus on a rustic, comfortable and well lit design, more cut stone than cobblestone. But I have no idea if that is a look the cabal would go for.
• Dog friendly would be cool.
• Regarding rooms, we have no full idea on dimensions and we have to account on the attention avoidance spell. But some broad strokes ideas would be:
  • Summoning and imbuing room, made from the heavily warded one on the second floor.
  • Material storage for magic components and summoning room paraphernalia (summoning the cherubim of lost minds needs different components than the summoning of the totem of strategy).
  • A small studio to store books, Grimmoires, maps and generally do research.
  • Heavily warded area for Artifact study/storage and experiments. It would allow us to test and record our research and new spells for later use.
  • Training facilities, who knows what we will go up against or if we will need to be ready for a Duel Arcane.
  • Supplies, like preserved food for emergencies, first aid kit (anti burn cream in the kitchen) and a fire extinguisher.
  • Security, as you mentioned, mundane would be great, but if Philly could negotiate to haver some guardian spirits as well, it would be even better.
• Obtaining Pandora's soul stone would be a major win for Elpis, but also quite the political feat. We need to convince the Guardians that we both need it and can adequately keep it contained, especially since Rapt souls stones are dangerous. But it may lead to a major breakthrough on what happened to Pandora and, since she was an Elan, may also allow us to have access to a Mind Anullitiy.
• We should probably setup a discrete, yet well defended cloud server on our research materials, in case they are stolen. I think the Orders in general would have good practices for that, but I imagine Elpis might have learned as part of their mystagogue training.

[CalvinSiler]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1amFrn14M7LXlLitxNxEpc0rm1e8jCtD5/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117362549266880055196&rtpof=true&sd=true

I made a doc of everything already described about the house. Feel free to edit if I missed something.

The initial description mentioned a basement, but Elpis and Qaf did not explore that part of the house IC, and we dont' know how it is accessed (external cellar door?). No mention of a bathroom. If the house was built in the 1930s and hasn't been used since the 50s, it might not have one (Outhouse?). But I took the liberty of a suggested location for one in the draft floor plan. I also took the liberty of supposing that maybe the house has a wood burning stove. (Dimensions are based on the assumption that front door in picture is a modern standard sized door)

It should be noted that in the picture the house exterior is wooden shingles. Maybe Kaiser was thinking the foundation is stone? That would make sense. Also the gable of the attic floor slopes inward, so the front bedroom and the summoning room would have slanted ceilings (important especially for Qaf and Philly to note).

There are neighboring houses visibly near by, but there wasn't a description of the yard. I suppose if the cabal really decides to make a go of it and stay for awhile, extensive renovations to enlarge the house and add rooms are possible (mundanely, or with the help of a Mastigos friend). At the very least probably add a shed and maybe a detached garage. Also wondering about zoning. Like could Philly have chickens, a goat, etc? Also I was thinking Philly would want a good tree (Apple?), maybe with a guardian spirit attached - that could be a mystery/chapter in of itself.

I like all the strategic defense thinking. Very Arrow. Of course a lot of this could be RP IC. I just wanted to get the ball rolling/couldn't stop thinking about it.

Temple, what were your thoughts?

[CalvinSiler]

If Philly planted an Apple tree she would need life patterning to accelerate its growth.

I was reading Terrence Mckenna a few months ago, so I have all kinds of weird plant ideas right now.

[KaiserAfini]

Having an apple tree could be used by Philly to make a statement, because the name Avalon means island of apples. It is associated with the Walker in Mists called Emrys, The Merlin of Arthurian legend and a confirmed archmage of the Silver Ladder.

Oak is another candidate, it is associated with medicine, strength and protection. Rowan guards against malicious spells. The olive tree might be another option, since its symbolically tied with wisdom, endurance (it can grow in the most barren soil), versatility (since every part can be used), peace (giving an olive branch) and long term support of civilization (the foundation myth of Athens).

[TempleBuilder]

Oh shoot-I was summoned! Sorry!

Uh. Well Kaiser and Calvin mostly covered my initial thoughts on the house. Rapt soul stones are dangerous, needs warding, dogs need places they are comfortable, etc. As for my own thoughts.

• I don’t remember if we already checked, but it’s possible the Hallow is not at its peak. We should check in on that at a later date.
• We could also try and make a node, I bet Philly would appreciate the effects of a Life Node…maybe as part of finding a Guardian Spirit.
• I’d like to set up a spell that blocks light pollution, and stuff. It makes a nice yantra, and is pretty.
• We might need a…stasis point for extended astral journeys. Nothing quite like ruining one’s health because your body technically just sat in one place for a few days.

I need to bush up on my tree symbolism before I really weigh in, but I’m partial to the olive as of the moment. I also really need to look up common trees in that part of the world.

[KaiserAfini]

After we learn more about the Hallow's history and have a better idea of what forces we are poking, how about using Occult rolls to apply feng shui to try to facilitate the ley energy's flow or modify its Resonance ? Its slower than the dedicated Prime spells, but it might be an interesting experiment to test. Since we have two Prime mages and one Spirit mage, we can keep detailed track of progress very easily.