Where is that explained?

I think it would be atmospheric to have some kind of retainer on site. A (sleepwalker? ghost? animated constrct?) butler would be great, not for the mechanical benefits, but imagine you can order a dry martini anytime or have someone prepare a bubble bath or send someone to the library to retrieve the second volume of Pesigistimos Laws of the Arcane.

Okay that is admittedly wasteful, but at least it is extravagantly so.

It would be more fun than a +1 bonus to rolls on werewolves because we'd happen to have some dusty tomes on them.

Arwen has exactly 1xp left unspent but would be thrilled to toss it at something frivolous if we're allowed to combine points that way, as opposed to combining dots.

@Arwen, you cannot combine XP with another player in that way, so just hold onto that 1XP! You aren't the only one that has 1-2XP leftover.

@Link -- what you are describing sounds more like a Retainer, which isn't a shared merit either way. There is a Guardian Retainer variation of the merit, which is basically just like a sleepwalker Retainer, but this one is primarily trained for combat and more limited in scope since they won't do other things for you other than defend/guard your sanctum.

As far as the other merits described by Mamanu, they are all found on pages 85-86 of the Sanctum & Sigil book, with the exception of the Summoning Circle, which comes from the Summoners book...and I'm not gonna allow that for reasons...at least not right now :)

I've found a solution to the sanctum dot: I've made a clerical error calculating my merit dots. If I had calculated them correctly I would have noticed that there are no xp left for shared merit dots.

Sorry. :-(
This message was last edited by the player at 17:41, Wed 02 Feb 2022.

It happens! Don't worry about it. It means that the problem is resolved, and we can get into play sooner!

@Arwen

I think it's most likely that the local arrow introduced Mamanu to Edmond, probably to perform some sort of service for him while he was ill (though I'm not sure what yet). Mamanu was present often towards the end, but like now, kept to himself and part of the reason he was invited around was so that he wouldn't be on his own in this world of darkness.

How did we all meet?

As for how we all met, I think Arwen's suggestion of all being mutual connections of her late uncle might be an expedient way to get us moving, and we can work out specific details on the fly.

If you're looking for ties with Mamanu in particular, he's gone through a bachelors program at UDC before he awakened (and left the city shortly afterwards), but he's been mostly living in a monastery with his mentor since then. Even so, Service is a large part of the identity of the Adamantine Arrow, so Mamanu has been actively seeking out members of the Awakened community to help with whatever projects he can, be they mundane or supernal. This could be from moving boxes to helping study something in the library, so it's really open.

If everyone's cool with that idea, I think what Arwen and Mamanu are suggesting is sensible. Although, the Cabal still doesn't have a proper name! Then again, I'm happy for you all to either decide that before we start, or after y'all get a better feel for your own characters and each other. It could be a nameless cabal for now I guess :)

Sorry been a bit quiet today...had a really LONG work retreat that just finished and I've got so much computer fatigue right now :\

I'll be working on getting an IC thread for y'all to start RPing soon (either later tonight or tomorrow) -- probably just a chill scene in the Sanctum to get us started.

Faster, plot monkey, faster!  <whipcrack noise>

In reply to Arwen (msg # 75):

Only question at this point is did my 4 xp end up in something, or should I just tuck it away .  . .

Unless you want to add to any of the Sanctum merits mentioned in the discussion above, you can probably just save it or spend it elsewhere!

Omg, now I'm grinning at imagining Acciaio's assessment of Arwen.  To a certain segment of his generation she's probably -exactly- the sort of person who'd seem on the surface like a soft self-obsessed over-entitled millennial.  :D

Since we've got our first IC thread going, just wanted to remind folks about Oblations. You don't HAVE to do these, but they are a neat way of having more starting Mana in your scenes each month, plus also writing up some short story that gives me a glimpse of your character and their routine, etc.



My plan is to keep a running thread of these short stories as I receive them, so everyone can read them for fun and what not :)

Another thing I should've probably addressed earlier...post rates/pacing!

I'm sure we are all busy people IRL and don't always have the flexibility to be posting multiple times a day, every day. With that in mind, I want to make sure that whenever folks are in a scene together, we try both to keep some posting momentum, but also not get too far ahead and leave people behind.

So what I'd propose is the following:

-Please do not get more than 2 posts 'ahead' of the slowest poster in a Scene.

-The exception to this should be making a post that is used to facilitate things like breaking off into a new and/or side scene, or to keep things moving if, say, a character whose turn it isn't has been asked a direct question that everyone else is waiting for the answer on. This should never be done 'just because' or out of impatience or to gain some advantage. Be polite. Be considerate. Wait your turn when appropriate.

-If a player whose turn it is to post has taken more than 48 hours to respond, the other players/characters are free to move on, without IC consequences/repercussions.

All ok by me!

In reply to Arwen (msg # 81):


Yep.  I can post pretty much daily.  Sometimes more, and if I miss a day, it'll be a weekend, because rugrats.

In reply to Chiron (msg # 82):

No worries, weekends tend to be slow for a lot of folks :)

They last for one Scene normally, but they last 24 hours if you spend the mana.

Before we can write oblations at the Hallow, we'll need to dream up our Hallow.

They are, after all, magical places, so our Hallow should have a special feel to it, and tass should take a certain form. It should also be more than just another room. The book says that most Hallows are in elevated locations, but I hope we can ignore that bit of wisdom because it curbs creativity without giving anything back.
I'd like the Hallow to have minor magical effects (I' trying to choose effects that are interesting without giving us extra power)


Ideas for the Hallow:
- The old greenhouse (https://www.deviantart.com/gar...Greenhouse-202506311): Older than the mansion itself, it's not clear who built it, but  there is a sense of growth and renewal about it. Plants seem to grow faster and more beautifully, and vegetables and fruit grown there taste excellent. Occasionally, a certain kind of orchid can be found there that can be harvested as tass. There are no electric sockets there, and the mages don't dare install one to keep the aura of the Hallow intact, but the house comes with flashlights and portable power banks

- the slave barracks (https://malikwatkins.files.wor...dungeon-iv.jpg?w=460): A cellar room beneath the house, made out of stone with a sturdy door and iron rings set in the walls, more likely used to punish slaves than to house them. The room carries an aura of despair, so strong that you actually have to make a willpower roll every time you decide to do an oblation there. Failing that roll costs you a willpower point. If you manage to overcome your instinctive repulsion and manage to stay for as lang as it takes to complete the oblation, you'll first get the impression of hearing whispers, than snatches of spirituals and feel a sense of hope and resistance. Tass takes the form of spirituals that can be recorded as MP3 and released by playing them, which corrupts the file. At that point, you regain the willpower point you lost earlier. If you leave the room before that point, you do not regain your willpower point (you can regain it some other way).


- The astronomy tower (https://www2.hu-berlin.de/arch...apter-3/image-2a.jpg): Built in the 18th century, it has a lighning rod installed by Benjamin Franklin himself (who was a friend of the original owner of the building). It houses a modern Newton Telescope, a desk and chair, and is empty otherwise. The room is strangely unaffected by light pollution, allowing to observe the stars as if you were in the Atacama desert. The urge to know and belief in a better future still oozes from all the pores of the observatory. Tass takes the form of silver dollars that can be seen observing the night sky and that can simply be plucked out of thin air.

Love the greenhouse idea.  Also like the "secret history of the house" angle.



Yep, that part I get, but if you cast for free, why bother with the extension - protection while you sleep?

I'm down with the Greenhouse too!

As for the mage armor thing, I think it's more of a medium so that you can cast it and not think about it again for the rest of the day. Also, if you're gnosis 3 you can combine it with another spell which will reduce your dice pool, so you can use the mana to avoid having to worry about casting with an extended duration. I'm sure it's not always useful, but there's some nuance to mage about when and how to cast spells. I think we need to have an IC and/or OOC conversation about how we're doing spells as a Cabal, and how our Arcana compliment each other. I'd rather spend a few hours in the morning casting Organic Resilience on the entire Cabal than have us all at a lower armor rating, for example.

In reply to Mamanu (msg # 87):

My take on Chiron is that while it wouldn't occur to him to do that (he's not much for coherent planning), he'd be quite enthusiastic about helping out with it.  Although, after a week or so, once the shine wore off, he'd likely need to be reminded ;)  Can probably add both a version of OR, and the Spirit equivalent.

I like the greenhouse too, that seems fun.  Arwen would have commandeered a small piece of it to grow basil plants.  :)  I definitely veto the slave barracks.

Re: routine spells - Arwen definitely doesn't have "a few hours" every morning to spend on magical wards, she's got a job she goes to!  :)  Observant roommates may have noticed that she's not in the house during weekday office hours (sometimes rather long office hours), that she leaves every morning looking very professional, and somewhere in the house is displayed a diploma from Georgetown law school class of 2020 in the name of "Jillian Catherine Stone."  At this point in her life, Arwen (Jill) doesn't think of herself as a mage who happens to have passed the bar, she thinks of herself as a lawyer who happens to be able to do some magic on the side.

Thanks for the suggestions Link! It seems like there's a general consensus around the greenhouse idea.

By the way, doing an Oblation doesn't ALWAYS require a Hallow. I believe at least 4 of you have Legacies, and doing Legacy Oblations does NOT require one.

Still good to figure out the Hallow fluff and all that jazz, but just wanted to remind folks of that as well :)