|
This week's second character is a mage, ideal as a
supporting character, hireling or Contact for a PC
wizard.
Celban; solitary research mage
(c) copyright 2000 Brandon Cope
Total Points: 55 Points
Age mid 20s; 5'6"; 135 pounds; a slight, young man with
black hair in a "bowl cut", no facial hair, brown eyes, and
wearing a dark robe with a cowl - usually left unused - and
sandals.
ST 10 [-] - thrust 1d-2, swing 1d
DX 10 [-] - basic speed 5, move 5, dodge 5
IQ 14 [45]
HT 10 [-] - hit points 9
WL 14 [-]
ADVANTAGES: Literacy [10]; Magery 2 (Solitary)
[16].
DISADVANTAGES: Easy to Read [-10]; Loner
[-5]; Reduced Hit Points -1 [-5]; Shy (Mild)
[-5]; Unfit [-5]; Wealth (Struggling)
[-10].
QUIRKS: Dislikes people who talk loudly; Always carries a
book with him; Pipe smoker; Wants to learn more
information-gathering spells; Unhesitatingly defends his
father's name. [-5]
SKILLS: Alchemy-11 [1]; Area Knowledge (City)-13
[.5]; History-12 [1]; Knife-9 [.5];
Literature-12 [1]; Naturalist-11 [.5];
Occultism-12 [.5]; Professional Skill: Librarian-14
[2]; Psychology-13 [2]; Research-15
[4]; Sociology-13 [2]; Thaumatology-13
[1].
LANGUAGES: Common Tongue (native)-14 [0].
GRIMOIRE: Apportation-14 [1]; Alarm-14 [1];
Analyze Magic-14 [1]; Aura-14 [1]; Detect
Magic-14 [1]; Identify Plant-14 [1];
Identify Spell-14 [1]; Light-14 [1];
Measurement-14 [1]; Seek Plant-14 [1];
Simple Illusion-14 [1]; Tell Time-14 [1];
Wallwalker-14 [1].
EQUIPMENT
Celban is not wealthy, and has few items of significant
worth. He usually carries a small knife (1d-3 imp, 1d-3 sw),
a book (on any of a variety of topics) and writing
instruments. In his home, there won't be much besides more
books, some simple furniture and utensils and a couple sets
of well-worn clothes.
BIOGRAPHY
Celban's father was a wizard of some small reputation, and
was also a fringe Guild member; it came as some surprise
when he deposited his eight-year old son on the guild steps
for training (although technically, he had the right to do
so). For nearly a decade, Celban was ribbed by other
students for his father's refusal to train him, which
obviously - to their thinking, at least - meant something
was wrong with him. Eventually the teasing (which
occasionally went further) ended, but it only reinforced
Celban's introverted tendencies.
Ironically, it was not until three years ago - after his
father's death - that he learned the truth from his mother:
his father had always wanted to train him, but knew he was
not a good enough wizard to work around Celban's particular
limitation to his magical ability, so had taken him to the
Guild. His father had always considered this his greatest
failure and had felt deeply ashamed for being unable to
train his own son. After years of hating his father, Celban
felt great sympathy for him, and now rushes to defend his
name in overheard conversations, since it is now all he can
do.
Celban's years as a student were fairly unremarkable. He was
an average student whom no one seemed to notice, unless they
were picking on him about his father. He ended up spending
more and more time in the library, eventually becoming an
assistant to the ageing (and slightly eccentric) librarian.
In the past few years, he has come to realise how limited
his grimoire is, and is trying to acquire any new
Information spells that he can.
ENCOUNTERED
Celban is a research mage who works as an assistant
librarian in the Mage's Guild. He is technically no longer
an apprentice, but still receives occasional instruction in
the magical arts in exchange for his continued work in the
library. He has sometimes been "loaned out" to other
departments, which has resulted in some unusual skills and
spells learned. (He selected only the minimum number of
spells to learn - for the most part, they aren't especially
useful for his job - preferring to spend his extra time in
the library, so he is not really a very good mage.) Celban
is normally found in some secluded corner of the Guild's
library, either researching information for another mage or
looking through old books for himself.
He normally keeps to himself, for various reasons, the most
important being that having other people nearby interferes
with his magical ability. Curiously - even before he learned
of his magical ability - Celban has never really felt that
comfortable being around others. Despite this, he has gone
out of his way to study the way society operates, perhaps to
compensate for his difficulty in interacting with it. Over
the years, he has shown a slight improvement in dealing with
others. Various guild mages have offered theories, the most
common of which is that the "solitary" nature of Celban's
magical aptitude began influencing his personality even
before birth. It has also been suggested that if he can
overcome his introverted tendencies, he may also overcome
the restriction on his magical ability - or lose his ability
altogether; they aren't quite sure.
CANONICALITY
Celban uses standard GURPS rules. Note, however, that his
Area Knowledge and Language skills have been left
intentionally generic, so that he can be inserted into an
existing setting.
WHAT IF?
Celban was designed for a generic fantasy campaign, though
his background assumes that a reasonably well-organised
Mages Guild exists. If the Guild is weak, or doesn't exist,
only minor changes would be needed to his background, and
his advantages, skills and spells could remain more or less
unchanged.
Discworld: Celban could fit into a "GURPS Discworld"
campaign with a few minor changes. He might want to invest a
point or two in L-Space Theory and Language (Orangutan).
Also, the bit about his father being a wizard would have to
be changed -- an uncle may be sufficient.
Technomancer: With a bit of revision, Celban could be added
to a modern magic setting. He might have attended one of the
universities in Trinity's Shadow, getting a degree in
thaumaturgy and/or library sciences. Rather than working
with a Guild, he could be a graduate or doctoral student,
doing research on behalf of the university.
ADVENTURE SEEDS
Information, Please: A Senior Mage in the guild needs some
information from a library in another city. After selecting
Celban to dig out the information, he hires the party (or
assigns them, if they are also guild wizards) to escort
Celban there and back. The problem, of course, it that since
Celban doesn't get out very often, he will start getting
into trouble with people along the way. Hopefully some
members of the party have good Intimidation, Fast-Talk or
Diplomacy skills...
Field Trip: Celban is loaned to a more martial school of the
guild which needs someone with skills and spells actually
useful in the real world to aid some students on a minor
quest, to test what they have learned so far (of course,
these other students are the PCs, who should be of roughly
the same point total as Celban). The truth is, that while
Celban does have some skills and spells that the students
sorely lack, he was sent in order to "solve his problems" by
forcing him to act as part of a social group; the results
will probably not be what the sponsoring mage was expecting.
The exact nature and difficulty of the quest is up to the
GM, based on the PCs' abilities and the nature of the
campaign (it should involve at least a week's travel and the
retrieval of some minor but unique object).
- written by Brandon Cope (copeab@hotmail.com)
- editted and formatted by andi jones
(andi@angelwerks.com)
|
