TEXT: Semita Errabunda
  42
  Characteristics: Int +5, Per +1, Str -2, Sta +1, Prs
  +1, Com +2, Dex -2, Qik +1
  Size: -1
  Age: 35 (Apparent Age 35)
  Decrepitude: 0
  Warping Score: 0 (0 points)
  Confidence Score: 0 (0 points)
  Virtues and Flaws: The Gift; Hermetic Magus;
  Secondary Insight; Affinity with Latin, Free Study,
  Great Intelligence (twice), Premonitions, Puissant
  Ability (Magic Theory) (free Virtue), Special
  Circumstances (casting while tipsy); Low Self-
  Esteem, Driven; Clumsy Magic, Lesser Malediction
  (unlucky), Small Frame
  Personality Traits: Hesitant +2, Modest +2, Self-
  centered +1
  Reputations: None
  Combat: Fist: Init +1, Attack 0, Defense +3, Damage -2
  Soak: -2
  Fatigue levels: OK, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious
  Wound Penalties: -1 (1-4), -3 (5-8), -5(9-12),
  Incapacitated (13-16)
  Abilities: Awareness 1 (dark corners), Brawl 2 (dodg-
  ing), Breton 5 (city dweller’s slang), Brittany Area
  Lore 2 (urban centers), Carouse 2 (begging drinks),
  Chirurgy 2 (self-treatment), Code of Hermes 1
  (Normandy Tribunal magi), Concentration 3 (under
  duress), Finesse 1 (Auram), Folk Ken 2 (lower class-
  es), French 3 (barroom cant), Guile 2 (disavowing
  responsibility), Latin 5 (Hermetic usage), Magic
  Theory 3+2 (extracting Vis), Order of Hermes Lore
  1 (Normandy Tribunal magi), Paris Lore 2 (students’
  quarters), Parma Magica 2 (Ignem), Penetration 1
  (Auram), Premonitions 2 (personal rejection), Stealth
  2 (hiding), Survival 2 (city streets)
  Arts: Cr 5, In 5, Mu 4, Pe 4, Re 5; An 3, Aq 2, Au 3,
  Co 2, He 2, Ig 0, Im 2, Me 3, Te 0, Vi 5
  Twilight Scars: None
  Equipment: Wizardly robes.
  Encumbrance: 0
  Spells Known:
  Panic of the Elephant’s Mouse (ReAn 15/+9)
  Broom of the Winds (CrAu 15/+9)
  The Chirurgeon’s Healing Touch (CrCo 20/+8)
  The Gift of Vigor (ReCo 20/+8)
  Trap of the Entwining Vines (CrHe 15/+8)
  Discern the Images of Truth and Falsehood (InIm 15/+8)
  Panic of the Trembling Heart (CrMe 15/+9)
  Sense the Nature of Vis (InVi 5/+11)
  Tillitus 
  of House Bonisagus
  by Matt Ryan
  
  43
  Semita Errabunda
  Appearance: Tillitus is a short, gangly sort of fellow,
  with sad, droopy eyes and a slightly stooped posture.
  His bright blue eyes nearly sparkle, which would sig-
  nify his sharp intellect if his gaze ever rose from star-
  ing at his shoes. He wears a graying goatee and a
  sloping mustache, and his dark brown hair is long
  and tangled from a lack of grooming. He wears a tra-
  ditional star-patterned purple robe and a dark black
  leather skull cap.
  While Tillitus might be the typical sort of magus from
  House Bonisagus, he is not the typical magus just
  leaving apprenticeship. He is much older than his
  peers, younger men and women also starting on the
  long road of a magi’s life. This difference is readily
  apparent and Tillitus is acutely aware of it, so much so
  that it has become a liability more than a strength.
  In public with his peers he is clumsy and awkward,
  tongue-tied when he speaks and fumbling when he
  casts spells. In private he is much more confident, at
  ease with magical research and innovative when
  inventing spells or undertaking other arcane ven-
  tures. He is strongly driven to overcome his public
  failings, and constantly pushes himself to reattempt
  and succeed at his past mistakes. Unfortunately, his
  second effort usually fares as poorly as his first.
  Tillitus is the hermetic embodiment of the idea that
  if you fail, you should try, try again.
  In Tillitus’s case, you should try, try, try, try . . . you
  get the picture.
  Background
  Tillitus doesn’t remember his mother or father, nor
  does he know the circumstances of his birth. He
  grew up with the village wise woman, the only
  woman in the village interested in aiding the aban-
  doned child. During his birth he was cursed with ill
  luck by an unknown assailant, which so deeply
  affected him that it became part of his essential
  nature.
  As a child growing up in Brittany, Tillitus had talent,
  a wizardly knack for finding things. Many of his
  neighbors thought the annually visiting maga would
  select the boy for apprenticeship, but it was not to
  be; a clever young girl was chosen instead. Better
  luck next time, they said. 
  Tillitus had a flair that bordered on the fantastic for
  combining tinctures and herbal remedies, but as a
  teenager wandering behind the village wise woman,
  he felt his life lacking. He waited again, holding his
  breath, as the Russian magus eyed him over, judging
  him against a precocious albino boy. Tillitus failed to
  pass the magus’s muster and was again passed over
  for another.
  The magisters of the University of Paris were sur-
  prised when Tillitus stood before them, requesting
  admission to their academy. Although the young
  man impressed them with his erudition and self-
  taught Latin skills, there was something unsettling
  about the rustic. At twenty, he was a tad too old to
  begin academic studies, so he was refused, passed
  over again.
  Tillitus went to an inn and, pestering the inn-keeper
  until he was sold a tankard of ale, drowned his sor-
  rows with the bitter tasting brew. He then bought
  another, and another, until he had become quite
  drunk and was thrown out into the street. Naturally,
  thought Tillitus, it was raining.
  And that is precisely where his soon-to-be mater
  found him, laying stinking drunk in the gutter, the
  rats and cut-purses avoiding the bedraggled young
  man. Some whisper Maga Countenance adopted
  Tillitus on a dare, others mused it was to win a bet,
  but for whatever reason she, one of the Order's most
  prestigious and inventive magi, accepted Tillitus as
  her apprentice.
  Tillitus's ill-luck continued throughout his appren-
  ticeship. While he quickly learned his arcane studies,
  and effortlessly mastered many minor cantrips, he
  always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong
  time. Bad luck followed him like a black rain cloud,
  making for many adventures. Finally, fifteen years
  later - although Countenance swears it felt like thirty
  - Tillitus was gauntleted and awarded the title of
  Magus of House Bonisagus.
  
  Semita Errabunda
  44
  With a final parting gift and many more words of
  advice, Countenance hustled her protégé out the
  door. As a final act of kindness, she had procured a
  place for him among a distant Covenant. Tillitus left,
  with a smile on his face and a newly worn hole in his
  coin purse, spilling pennies in his wake.
  Countenance smiled, waved good-bye, and moved
  house once he had traveled out of sight.
  Role-playing Tillitus
  Tillitus’s curse is such an integral part of his nature that
  he doesn’t realize he is cursed. Instead he assumes that
  his failings are his fault and not a magical malady of
  any sort. While this has crushed his self-esteem, it has
  also driven him to surmount his own perceived short-
  comings. He is not depressed, possessing a thriving
  spirit, but he is shy and a tat embarrassed. He has
  learned that alcohol will bolster his confidence, espe-
  cially when spell casting, and will knock back a few
  drinks before especially important situations. He is
  intelligent enough to realize the consequences of his
  behavior if he were to abuse it.
  Tillitus is shy and outwardly nervous. He often
  stands in the back of a group, wringing his hands,
  looking for the opportunity to leap to the fore to
  impress his fellows. This ploy rarely works, and
  Tillitus resumes his place at the back of the pack.
  Tillitus isn’t very interested in his personal back-
  ground and would most likely disbelieve anyone who
  told him about his birth. Information about his past
  might draw him into a story, but he is more interest-
  ed in proving who is, rather than discovering who he
  was. Removing Tillitus’s curse would have serious
  ramifications, and might even quench his Gift.
  In play, the curse manifests itself as the opposite of
  the Minor General Virtue: Luck. Rather than giving
  Tillitus a penalty on die rolls that involve luck more
  than skill, the storyguide should play up the failings
  of the magus, making him roll more botch dice dur-
  ing spell casting is a good example. Tooling up the
  negative social aspects of Tillitus’s Gift is another. 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Ars Magica [multi]/5th edition/Semita Errabunda/Wizard - Tillitus.pdf