D'AMBERVILLES
25 Points
DX +2 (20 pts)
IQ +2 (20 pts)
Magery 3 (35 pts)
Unaging, Limited (10 pts)
Wild Mana Generator (50 pts) *
Code of Honor, D'Amberville Customs (-10)
Curious (-10 pts)
Enemy (-10 pts)
Overconfidence (-10 pts)
Reputation -4 as a family of dangerous super-powerful Archmages (-20)
Secret (-20 pts)
Social Stigma, Outsider (-15 pts)
Weirdness Magnet (-15 pts)
Determine height and weight normally. All D'Ambervilles have red hair and the vast majority have green eyes. Hawkish noses and thin frames are fairly common. Appearance can range from Hideous to Very Handsome/Beautiful, but an average appearance is the most common. They usually appear to be about 25 years of age.
The D'Ambervilles are a large family of very graceful, very intelligent wandering and unaging wizards who are (it is rumored) Fated (some would say Cursed) to fight alongside the Gods during the Final Battle between the Gods and the Lords of Chaos. The belief is that only one member of the D'Amberville family will survive and that one will start a whole new race of humankind. It is assumed that this survivor will be the greatest and strongest Wizard the world has ever known.
The D'Ambervilles have both been Blessed and Cursed by their Fate. Each member of the family is born with Magery 3 and a Secret that could allow his magery to be taken away. Any wizard that learns of a D'Amberville's Secret could gain a great deal of power. The wizard may attempt to "steal" and gain that D'Amberville's Magical Knowledge.
When a wizard learns of a D'Amberville's Secret, he may confront the D'Amberville and issue a challenge. He must reveal to the D'Amberville his knowledge of that particular D'Amberville's secret. If the challenging wizard is correct, the D'Amberville must face the wizard in a duel. If the wizard is wrong, the D'Ambervilles must give the wizard a twenty-four hour head start before he is allowed to pursue him. D'Ambervilles are widely known in magery circles for taking a dim view of wizards attempting to research their secrets.
If the wizard's research is correct and he did learn the D'Amberville's secret and issued the challenge, a duel is fought between the two, normally until last man is standing. The rules for the duel is simple, the duelists square off at ten paces, each asks if the other is ready, when both reply they are the duel begins, no holds barred and anything is fair until one yields or is knocked-out and/or is unable to continue.
If for some reason the D'Amberville refuses to accept the wizard's challenge, the duel is forfeited and the D'Amberville is treated as if he lost.
If the D'Amberville is defeated, he loses his Margery and begins to age normally from that day forward, becoming effectively a normal 25 tear old human with a normal human lifespan.
When a wizard defeats the D'Amberville, the stealing wizard gains all the spell skills and points that the D'Amberville has (adding to his own spell points if the wizard already has the spell skill or gaining the new Spell and spell points if he does not have it). If the stealing wizard does not have character points to pay for the gained spell points, he must spend all of his future earned character points for the points he stole, first paying for the points in the spells he already knew and just improved his skill. The Spells the stealing wizard did not know before (and he has not spent earned character points on) will effectively have the Unreliable limitation with a roll of 11 or less needed to activate even before casting the spell. Please note that for a D'Amberville the failure of this activation roll is considered a failed casting attempt with all the results of a critical failure for a D'Amberville.
Whoever wins the duel, the victor must leave the loser alive and in a survivable state. If the D'Amberville dies, the Magical Knowledge is lost. If these post duel rules are not followed, that person breaking these customs will suffer a terrible fate.
It should be noted that if a D'Amberville challenges another D'Amberville, both risk losing their magical abilities.
Once the duel is over neither may challenge the other for one year and a day, and by challenge that means either directly or indirectly After one year and a day from the date of the duel, either individual may attempt to hunt down and kill the other if they so choose.
The Unaging ability of the D'Ambervilles is limited in that it keeps a D'Amberville physically at 25 years of age until either the Magical Duel is lost or until a D'Amberville has an offspring that survives birth, at which point the D'Amberville that parented the child begins to age normally from age 25 forward. Perhaps it should be noted that regardless of a D'Amberville's magery status, the first born child will always have all the advantages and disadvantages of being a D'Amberville. Additional children born may or may not take after (that is be) D'Ambervilles, although the 3rd and 7th children are usually D'Ambervilles.
All of the D'Ambervilles are very sure of themselves and they all seem to be unable to leave any stone unturned. Even if they know that something might be very dangerous, they will explore it fully, trusting in their intelligence, wit, ability and luck to overcome whatever lies before them.
Another important thing to remember about the D'Ambervilles is that there is nearly always something very strange or weird happening around them. Many people who have had dealings with them say that trouble just seems to follow them around. Some believe that the Lords of Chaos have Cursed them. Whatever the reason, most people dislike having the D'Ambervilles around, considering them to be very dangerous, too powerful mages with their own plots and plans.
The current family leader is Stephen D'Amberville. Stephen and the family manor travel from world to world and time to time. Most members of the family travel independently from the home place. The manor house may stay in one place for anywhere from one day to one year and a day. It seems to travel randomly but Lord Stephen is not saying. If the manor should appear on the world where a particular D'Amberville is, that D'Amberville will know the distance and the direction to it and it will not normally disappear if he starts towards it, although it can and may.
* Wild Mana Generator 50 pts
The Character is the center of a wild-mana area with a radius of three hexes. The character (and anyone else standing within the area) can cast any spell in only one second and using only 1 energy point, whatever the normal cost for that spell. All spell success are critical successes, and all failures are critical failures. This advantage is not switchable and is on all the time.
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