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Hyperborean Story


Wits

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Some things I forgot to mention:

 

The wall can be read as a source quality 9 Tractatus for the hymn Oai. If someone were to use in integration, the wall would give +1 to insight and the effect created would have to do with invisibility.

 

The characters get 3 experience per session participated, so a maximum of 12 for the four sessions from the bar brawl to the catacomb massacre. Everyone also gets 1 confidence per participated session, i.e. max 4, and Dirk gets an additional one for reaching a personal goal. Confidence award pleading is also allowed.

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To tell the truth I realy have problems understanding how the complet learning process works for the Hymns as they apearently use the name Hymn for the Powers, the Virtue and the Supernatural Ability.

From my Understanding right now is that such a wall as we have it right now only have one of the Oai powers on it but not Oai it self.

 

(Beside "Only characters with The Gift or with the Virtue Hyperborean Hymnist can ever successfully recite a hymn and gain the supernatural powers it provides." But for a Hermetic mage to ever have a change to learn the Ability he would need a extrem High source as by default all the Art added together [at last 15] is subtracted from the teaching score)

 

 

 

Also the Teleportation dont work as planed as Wits dont allow Dirk to take the dead body or even the Cat with him.

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Schwarzbart: There are, essentially, three ways to learn that stuff. One is you don't have the gift, but have the virtue that gives the supernatural ability. Then you can learn the ability further as normal.

 

The other way, if you have the gift, is to make a mystery cult. You proably know much more about how that works than I do.

 

The third way is to try to integrate some aspect of it to Hermetic theory. For that you'd probably need more sources of insight, i.e. a relic [i.e. enchanted item] or another inscribed wall. You'd also need the source in question to use an effect that isn't normally within the bounds of hermetic theory, such as having a non-standard duration - alas, the invisibility effect detailed on the wall is "normal" in that respect, so would only help if you found another item with a non-standard effect on it.

 

As for the teleportation, so that others don't wonder: I misunderstood the way in which Dirk intended to do the teleportation - the way he had in mind wasn't malleable like that.

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[mutters something about having to drown swim again] At least I got some new clothes. Was there any personal effects with Agenor's clothes (or anything valuable that perhaps doesn't fall under 'personal effects'... ;) )

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@Wits yes the first 2 things are how you get the supernatural Ability but then you still need a seperat source for each power (and what apear they actual call Hymn in the book) and that have to be intense studyed of a complet saison after you fullfill the requirements.

 

So my question is if this wall actual writes in length about the Ability called Óai or is it one of the different Òai Hymn powers?

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I looked through the book, and I think it's internally inconsistent - in the beginning, they seem to talk about just finding sources for hymn abilities and then picking whatever ability you like; in the end, when they talk about Hermetic integration, they seem to talk about finding sources for actual Powers with distinct effects (i.e. with durations etc.) I think the reason is that the authors probably didn't consider the requirements of Hermetic integration (finding sources for non-standard effects) when thinking about the way in which Hyperborean magic works. The problem with the current implementation is this: if a person learning a hymn ability can pick any power they want from within that hymn ability, then why would a Hyperborean mage write down a Power (i.e. a specific effect) at all? They would just write down the generic hymn ability, of course, and then everyone could pick whichever effects they want. But then it wouldn't be possible to integrate with Hermetic theory.

 

I propose we make a house rule that it works like this (this is also how I thought about it before I discovered the book's inconsistency): What is written down is NEVER the generic hymn ability, but always a specific Power effect. BUT the written down Power text can be used like a tractatus to study the generic ability. This means that you don't have to learn the power that's written down when you gain an ability level, but can choose whichever power you want. Yet all the texts are effects for the purposes of integration. So you can think of it like this: the hymn abilities are "pure potential", kind of like your mind sharpens when you read good research IRL. You can't write down the "sharpness of the mind", however, but can only write down particular pieces of insight. The only difference is that with hymns, you ONLY learn the potential, and then have to make a separate decision if you want to retain the particular insight or get a different one.

 

So for the wall, the way it works is this: you can use it to learn the generic hymn ability Oai. Once you learn the ability, you get to choose which power you infuse. The lesson is in the form of a standard invisibility power, however, which means it's not useful for hermetic integration.

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Because how this Invisibilty works (Invisible like a Spirit) I think it could be a minor help for integrating Spirit Travel but the actual Turn to Lofty Hights is a requirement to do this integration at all.

I also agree that each Hymn Power should also work somehow like a Significantos for learning the [Hymn] Ability.

(Even if they finaly work similar to a tractus I see the writen down Hymn more like a mystical significant place for the Ability)

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Yeah, I guess that would be a way to see it, but in this case you actually have a text written by a magus that describes (surely in musical notation, as well) how to do it, so I think a tractatus made of unconventional materials is a better approximation. But this is fairly irrelevant mechanically, I believe.

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  • 3 months later...

Just learned from the errata that the difficult of the Ward Against the Curious Scullion is 30 and not 10 as given in the spell in covenants. That means Dirk couldn't do this. :(

 

Ring and Circle Ward Examples (p. 104): Change the level of Ward Against the Curious Scullion to 30, and replace the calculation with (Base 15, +1 Touch, +2 Ring). Change the level of Ward Against Mundane Intrusions to 50, make it a Ritual, and change the level calculation to read "(As Ward Against the Curious Scullion, +4 requisites)".

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