Thanks for the quick reply. I figured it out.
It was quite simple once I knew where to find the needed scripts.
I had to change the font size and positioning of the captions and buttons in the template's css not the module's.
I also had to make sure my images and the caption background matched the height I designated when I set the ARI image slider parameters in the module manager.
I removed the buttons in the .ini file
The template with the ARI image slider I used can be found here - I reduced the height to 200 pixels.