Amurgsval House Rules

• magically created media impinging on your aura (such as Ball of Abysmal Flame, Mighty Torrent of Water, and Lungs of Watery Death), unless vis was spent to make the create medium Inst. before it impinges on you.
• real media magically transformed into something unnatural (water turned to vitriol or aqua regia [since these fluids are magically created by alchemists], Infernal Smoke of Death), since active magic is required to maintain the unnatural state of the medium-- such things do not exist in the natural world because they cannot be created without magic.
• spells that attempt to directly affect you (such as Clenched Grasp of the Crushed Heart, Blessing of Childlike Bliss, Veil of Invisibility, Curse of Circe, and Lift the Dangling Puppet).
• Intéllego spells that need to go within your Self range (such as Posing the Silent Question, Vision of Heat's Light [infrared light does not exist in paradigm!]).

• impede you from walking across a magically created bridge or riding a magically created horse (Conjuration of the Swift Retreat)
• protect you from natural substances being rego'd to attack you from outside your Parma (such as a real sword being wielded by rego magics, a real spear thrown by rego magics, or a real boulder being dropped on you by Rego magics, Piercing Shaft of Wood, The Earth Split Asunder). (A sword is gripped by the hilt and the gripping magic is outside your parma; the grip on a dagger would have to go inside your parma to attack.)
• protect you from natural substances transformed by Muto magics into other natural substances (such as a dagger Muto'd into a sword and wielded by Rego magics, fruit juice turned into hemlock juice, wood smoke transformed into sulfurous vapors, Rain of Stones, Crystal Dart or Teeth of the Earth Mother), since the magic of natural transformation is more subtle and relies on the symbolic power of the natural world.
• dispel illusions cast upon objects that happen to enter your parma.

• Intéllego spells that use external senses upon someone (Enchantment of the Scrying Pool) will give you a feeling of being watched, but you cannot prevent them from gaining such information. This does not work if you are being scried upon by people using ritual magic to scry into the past (Eyes of the Past).

1. Before any stress roll representing a relatively short period of effort on the part of the character (less than a quarter hour, say, though possibly up to a day with good Meditation rolls), the player may declare that they are using confidence. (If the roll was not previously a stress one, it becomes one.) This explicitly includes soak rolls, and indeed all rolls that are not a matter of sheer chance (soak is not: you might get your arm in the way, or roll with the blow, or dodge enough to take it in a non-vital location, or whatever).
   Given the mediaeval paradigm, I would even allow it on rolls to see how well the character does at gambling (at one confidenced roll per roll of the character's dice, or per hand of cards)-- while we might now think of this as a matter of pure chance, if you have watched anyone gambling you will readily observe that they are staking, and often losing, confidence. However, if the character is completely unconscious, (arguable: making a knowledge roll), is unaware that they are making a roll (a Parma roll against an unperceived spell for example), or are taken utterly by surprise, they may not use confidence. (In the case of surprise, even a split second's warning-- not enough to even begin to reach for a weapon-- is enough to allow a confidenced roll. However, if the assassin makes his stealth roll well enough, and backstabs them, then they can't confidence the soak roll.)
   Confidence represents a character focussing their will upon a particular outcome. If they don't know to focus their will, it can't be used. On the other hand, someone who was expecting to be hit by an arrow from ambush any minute could declare in advance that he was going to confidence the soak roll, and could then do so even if he never saw the arrow. Only one such "predeclared" confidence is allowed, and in order to confidence any other roll the character must first drop the predeclared confidence.
2. The character may stake any number of points from one to their current confidence. They should decide upon and declare the amount.
3. The storyguide then determines the "success level". If there is an obvious breakpoint in the outcome of the roll (obvious success or failure, say) that is near requiring a roll of 6+ on the die, then that is used as the success level. (This cannot result in a success level below 4+ or above 8+ on the die.) If not, the success level is set as a roll of 6+ on the die.
4. The player then rolls the one die that they would have rolled anyway, followed by a number of dice equal to the number of confidence points staked. Make sure that the "original" die is distinguished from the "confidence" die or dice. Should the player fail to distinguish them, the storyguide can decide which was the original by any fair and consistent method they like: e.g. random selection, or that the first one rolled was the original, or that the one furthest from the player is the original, or requiring the player to roll again.
5. If the original die rolls the required success level or more, no confidence is lost. The character has performed above average, and thus does not lose confidence in themselves. The value of the die roll will be the highest rolled die.
6. If the original die fails to roll the required success level, then for each of the confidence dice that also fails to roll the required success level, the character loses one point of temporary confidence. Thus if only one confidence was used, if the final result was above average, no confidence is lost. If, on the other hand, more confidence was staked, while the character may have got a good result, they may have only just scraped past problems, and may thus lose some of the extra confidence points staked.
7. There are two rules for botching:
   1. When the character declares that they are minimising botch results: If the original die is zero, divide the number of botch dice rolled by the number of confidence points invested, plus one, rounding off, rounding halves up. (In the case of less than one botch die, use 7.2.) Familiars and similar modifiers subtract from the original number of botch dice, before the division.
   2. When the character declares that they avoiding a botch: If the original die is zero, there is a 1 in (confidence points staked + 1) chance that you roll all botch dice.
8. For each botch die that comes up zero, lose one permanent confidence xp, up to the number of invested confidence. The Storyguide may modify this as he sees fit.

• Due to lack of existence of a Reason aura, no flaws to do with the Aura of Reason exist.
• You can purchase two points of characteristics for one point of Virtue.
• Weak Magic is only worth -1; reduced penetration in one Art just isn't enough of a problem for -2.
• Aptitudes work like it reads: they add to all rolls. This means that Aptitude with Elements adds to Finesse and Concentration as well as casting totals. (When you consider that you can have an Aptitude with "combat", you could have one with "magic" as well, things become easier to stomach.)
• Knack with Parma adds to your magic resistance after the multiply-by-five.
• Speak skills are in a language; Scribe skills are in an alphabet.
• A "tactics" skill exists, and is popular with Flambeaux and Tytali.
• You get three XP from spending a season studying a book, until your skill reaches the level of the book. It does not operate like Arts; this is the only interpretation that keeps Student from becoming a monster virtue.

Exempli Gratia: Visitor Somni of Criamon has a Mentem of 30 and 5 levels of Increased Understanding: Mentem. He can write a Mentem 30 text that would be the wonder of the Order, but it will take him (30 * 31 / 2 / 24 <= 20) 20 seasons, or 5 years of solid writing. Will he be able to elude Final Twilight for that long, or will he leave a part-writen masterpiece behind him as he slips into the Enigma?

A non-Magus copying magical texts needs Scribe Latin 3 and Magic Theory 3 with supervision from a magus who has that Art.

You can write out a knowledge text one level lower than your current understanding, unless you have Strong Writer, in which case you can write your full score.

Exempli Gratia: E.g. Corylus has an Enigmatic Wisdom of 8 and is a Strong Writer. She can write out an Enigmatic Wisdom 6 text (21XP) in 4 seasons (5 1/3 * 4 = 21 1/3). The best text she could write would be an 8 text (36 XP), which would take her 7 seasons (5 1/3 * 7 = 36 2/3).

You can learn from a knowledge text at 3 xp per season.

Learning Spells from an Accessible Magus' or Own Master's Books

Training Apprentices

Languages are acquired for free past the first point.

Over 15 seasons of training, you pick up 15 xp in Magic Theory. Apprentices gain about 3 xp per year over 15 years of apprenticeship, including the Magic Theory xp and not including the Speak Latin.

After 15 years: Magic Theory 5, Parma Magica 2, Hermes History 2, Hermes Lore 2, Speak Own 4, Speak Latin 5, Scribe Latin 3 + Annual). 15 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 0 + 1 + 6 + 15 = 46.

Skills learned by devoting annual XP (aiming for 3). Roll off apprentice's traits and certain of master's.

You get 2 seasons worth of study per year of arts or spells, with your master or the library as source or assistant (adding Magic Theory). One season corresponds to the one during which the apprentice is being taught magic, while the second corresponds to the Night Reader virtue. The second season cannot be used for study of spells, at Roger's guess; Max suggests that it might be better for the first season not being available for that, since they're supposed to be learning an Art. Such virtues as Student and Night Reader are not yet active as the apprentices are already assumed to be devoting all their time to learning.

There are three sorts of training:

• Actual seasons of training. These subtract from annual XP.
• Extra training due to having a master pushing you, which allows learning arts, spells, or skills, which corresponds to a Night Reader season; alternatively, one may take this season as Student points (for knowledge). This season does not affect annual XP.
• Annual XP.

1. Magi may invent and learn a spell together by taking the lower of their Arts totals. The lab text ends up with the lower of their two magic theories, and the spell takes its sigil from both magi.
2. Magi may make use of more than one assistant by the following rules: Leadership + Communication roll 0+ to get creative specialties, Inventive Genius, things like Herbalism when you're not an herbalist:
   • -3 or better to get noncreative aptitudes
   • -6 Int + Magic theory only
   • -9 Int + Magic theory + penalty level for this assistant
   • -12 Int or Magic Theory only.
   (If multiple magi are cooperating in leadership-- requisiting their Arts totals in order for all to end up having learned the spell at the end of the research-- requisite Leadership skill with Debate or Diplomacy.) Penalties:
   • -1 per assistant who is as familiar as an apprentice or has worked with before for nine seasons
   • -2 if have worked with them at least 3 times before and you get along well
   • -3 a typical person willing to cooperate, isn't incomprehensible Increase penalties for distrust between people, incomprehensibility, excessively nonHermetic magic, etc.
   If you can make an Int + Folk Ken (or similar social skill) roll of 6+ you can decrease that person's penalty on the chart by 1 level, or 12+ for 2 levels (so you can get their useful specialties even if the group isn't working together well).

• When enchanting a non-simple item, it is necessary to bring together all the pieces of the item before instilling any vis. Adding any vis defines the item as a metaphysical whole; after a single pawn has been added, there may be no more changes to the item. Self-affecting powers apply to this entire item.
• Individual units of the item must be enchanted to their capacity; it is not necessary to pump any vis into a unit in order to get all its bonuses. (If you want to enchant that diamond the size of your fist, you better have a lot of Vim vis on hand!)
• You may get multiple form and effect bonuses by stacking multiple things. (This allows extremely powerful Aquam devices, for instance.) This is to encourage spending lots of money on building magic items and going out to seek exotic materials.
• Form and effect bonuses apply to the entire item. An alder staff with a ruby has the bonuses of the ruby and the alder for fire and the staff for "destroy things at a distance", whether the vis is pumped in the ruby or the staff.

If you Master a ritual and you cast it with non-vis-boosted duration or range, you may roll a simple die.

In both spellcasting and lab activity, affinities add after requisiting of Arts. This is to encourage weird spells with funky requisites, such as Mighty Torrent of Blood instead of Mighty Torrent of Water: it gives the inventor a good reason (rather than merely an aesthetic one) to make use of their Corpus affinity.

Vis Boosting

When using vis to boost the range or duration of a formulaic spell, all the vis may be burned in one round, since the spell is designed to have vis fed into it. If you are using vis to boost your casting total (to improve penetration of a formulaic or to make a bigger spontaneous spell), you may only burn your Penetration score in one round. However, you may extend casting through multiple rounds in order to feed more vis into the spell, up to the usual limit of your Arts.

Certámen

Using Magic Theory requisited with Faerie Magic in the lab total, and using a faerie aura that is currently dominant (not equal to magic) will yield faerie-aligned Vim vis that can be used to study Faerie Magic from, much as Magic Theory is studied from normal Vim vis. This particular stunt is something Zahar learned from Orator of Merinita, but is not general knowledge.

Laboratory Design

Unusual specialising

Help

Creating Laboratory Equipment

Interpreting the results on the table

Side Effects

Side effects persist until the wizard takes the time to study the Art as if they had not had this season of learning. (e.g.: Take Creo 15 to 16 and acquire a side effect. Said side effect will persist as you learn up your Creo, but if you ever choose to study Creo as if it were 1-3 pts lower [as appropriate], you can lose the side effect.)

Modified Effect: whimsy-- learning the wrong Art, experience in a skill or possibly a very obscure Affinity-- adjudicated by the Storyguide who introduced the vis.

Discovery: Follow the chart.

Faerie Familiars

The Link of Reality works as stated for the magus (but delete all references to the Imágonem score), but not for the faerie. At +5, the faerie is fully mortal with respect to a single skill at skill 2 (e.g. they had Play Lyre of 8 and now have Compose for Lyre at 2) or can acquire a creative ability from their mortal. At +10, it's two skills at 3 or as many as the magus can teach them (in the usual teaching process). At +15, the faerie may function as a mortal in Arcadia (e.g. killing something is as if a mortal did) and gains Free Expression if the magus has it. Negative links mean the faerie gains less mortality from hanging around the magus than they would normally, because the magus himself is less human.

The Link of Magic works as stated, but there is a +20 version that gets you the best possible aura modifiers, so the human using faerie powers in a magic aura gets the magic aura's bonus to the faerie power.

Cross-Realm Bond is a +15 bond quality that can reach from another level of reality (the Near Lands, Arcadia) to the Fields We Know.

Whoopees for +3 cords

• Gold: You get one category better on Feyness for purposes of spellcasting.
• Silver: Like the normal Silver cord, but applies to faeries.
• Bronze: Same.
• Faerie: You gain Faerie Blood, or, if you already have it, Strong Faerie Blood.

Normal faerie blood is a +2 virtue that gives the usual set of bonuses; it comes with a free point each of Virtue and Flaw that should define strongly what sort of faerie blood you have.

Strong faerie blood is a +3 virtue that gives the listed bonuses for aging; the magus-response to longevity potions requires faerie magic. It comes with 3 points of Virtue and Flaw to define your heritage; Faerie Eyes, Faerie Sight, and Minor Discomfort from Iron are strongly recommended. It grants one more point of Feyness than normal faerie blood of similar characteristics.

Faerie blood does not under any circumstances grant extra virtues and flaws outside the normal range for the character or the ones listed in the two paragraphs above.

Aura Mutations

Mechanics

Children born and raised in a +7 aura have two extra points of Virtues and four extra points of Flaws, similarly.

Exceptional talents are certainly possible. Modified ones may be possible: Dark Animal Ken, which allows hypnotising animals with your gaze to catch them, is one example.

Unusual dietary requirements of commonly available substances are a -1 flaw; being able to eat those things only should be worth -2 to -3 depending on how unusual they are. (-2: eats earth and stones, -3: eats only raw flesh or small live animals). These things are worth more for grogs than magi, remember.

A common flaw that has been turning up since the valley became a regio is worth about -1 and involves peculiar aesthetics: the unusual, bizarre, and even horrifying becomes aesthetically interesting to the grogs. Magi with the Blatant Gift find themselves being treated as if they had the Curse of Venus instead, little girls pester Criamon magi for tattoos, children are unusually unafraid of magic (and will often ask magi to do some magic for them or to them!). Grogs with this Flaw will have trouble in social interaction with mundane ones-- as a disagreement over whether the buxom blonde or the girl with the harelip and evil eye is prettier-- that can lead to brawls.

A provisional weirdness table, feel free to ignore

Weirdness: stress roll
0+	Pretty normal	(+3/-3)
3+	A bit strange (not immediately obvious)	(+4/-5)
6+	Warped (subtle)	(+5/-7)
9+	Definitely warped (visible)	(1 pt visible)
12+	Twisted (blatant)	(2 pts visible)
16+	Bizarre (has serious effect on behaviour)	(3 pts visible)
20+	Really freaky (even magi think he's strange)	(4 pts visible)
Botch	Completely, utterly normal (Withstand Magic? Magic resistance?)

Non-obvious traits (psychological)

• Carefree
• Weakness for music and dancing
• Uncommon or common fears
• Obsessions
• Stocky build (dwarf blood)
• Strong personality

Subtly weird traits

• High cheekbones, brightly coloured eyes, pointy ears (faerie traits)
• Acts bizarre under some circumstances (sings to the full moon, is able to perceive humor in strange situations)
• Strange diet (prefers raw meat, considers fertile earth flavorful)
• Body odor is like stale beer, baking bread, animal musk
• Random faerie curses they may've picked up (smoke comes from ears whenever lying)

Visibly weird traits (1 point visible)

• Animal eyes (may buy as standard Faerie Eyes)
• Claws on fingertips (extra brawling damage but disfigured)
• Blood is a strange substance (white wine, tears, beer)
• Body odor is like a predator (Offensive to Animals)
• Evil Eye

Blatant, twisted traits (2 points visible)

• Animal tails or feet
• Eyes that always reflect flames
• Must eat only raw meat
• Body odor is like something unnatural (smoke, sulphur)

Bizarre traits (3 points visible)

• Eyes like stones, or windows on the night sky
• Leaves grow instead of hair
• Bizarre dietary limitations (only wood, stones, swallow small animals whole)
• Hermaphrodite
• Permanently drunk

Really freaky (4 points visible)

• Werewolf
• Spitting toads, sneezing fire, crying gemstones

Faerie Friend (+2 Supernatural) should not be common, but occasional; similarly, Magical Animal Companion (+2 Supernatural) is a possibility.

Withstand Magic (+2 Supernatural) is a good one for people who don't seem at all warped...

Social Handicap (-1) gives -1 to -3 on social rolls.

Disfigured (-1) is -3 to Presence rolls. There may be a -2 version for extreme effects.

Sense of Doom (-3) is possible due to the number of oracles wandering around.

Haunted (-2) shouldn't be common, but is possible. (There are too many shamans and magi who can do something about it: the best reason is that someone has earned it and the magi prefer to leave him that way.) Ghostly Warder (+4) may be available easily, though.

Offensive to Animals is -1.

Magic Susceptibility is -1, with -3 to resistance rolls and soaking magickal attacks.

Large is +2 (with +1 to Strength and Presence and an extra Hurt body level), Lithe is +1 with +1 Dex, +1 Qik, -1 Hurt level, Siz -1; Obese is Qik -2, -3 on Fatigue rolls, Siz +1, no extra Fatigue level.

Textbook Example Curses, quoted from Ars Magica 3rd Ed as examples only:

-1	Everything you say, that you really mean, is taken in the worst possible way. Smile, laugh, frown, and cry always in the wrong circumstances. Can only eat living things. A toad appears in your mouth when you speak a direct lie. All food tastes like ashes and all drink like stagnant water. Music causes you pain-- the more beautiful, the more painful.
-2	Stutter uncontrollably when you try to say something important. If you ever tell a secret that was entrusted with you, the secret somehow, in some way, harms you.
-3	Pained by light: the greater the light, the greater the pain. See shapes and phantoms in the night that terrify and immobilize you.
-4	Doomed to be wounded in every battle in which you partake (and many that you try to avoid) Your wounds bleed horribly, so that for each unbandaged wound you have, you lose one Short-Term Fatigue Level per rounds, then Body Levels once you're Unconscious. Normal tools often break when you try to use them.

The touch of sunlight burns painfully (lose one Body Level per minute). Compulsion, Delusion, Evil Eye, Faerie Enmity, Magical Air, Sensitive... Simple Minded goes well with Faerie Friend...

+2 Faerie Blood: includes a weird faerie trait and weird faerie flaw. There's -2 Minor Discomfort from Iron, -3 Vulnerability to Iron, -2 Susceptibility to Divine Power, -1 Strong Faerie Nature, +1 Faerie Eyes, +1 Faerie Sight.

NOT AVAILABLE: True Faith, True Reason, Diabolic Upbringing, Tainted with Evil, Demon Plagued, Guardian Angel.

Some sample grogs:

Simple Minded, Faerie Friend, Luck, Delusion: guardian angel...

Dark Animal Ken, Evil Eye, Diet: eats small animals alive and whole (can survive on raw meat for a while but it's just not as healthy)

Grog generation

Faerie Grogs