If you were a centuries old, secret Merinita cult, and you wanted a respected Bonisagus Marched under false pretexts, how would you do it? This took place about 1120 or so.
Secretly kill him and replace him with a faerie impostor?
I'd say use some Mentem with high Penetration to make him admit to stuff that may or may not have happened, and that he may or may not have actually done.
Manipulate events around something that he actually did so that you can get a semi-legit charge of interfering with Mundanes or molesting the fey. Unforseen consequences are punishable offenses.
CrMe a reclusive personality trait onto him and then run your smear campaign. That way he won't defend against your false claims.
Accuse him of having made a great discovery, something every magus would want and that a magus would want to hide, Visless mundane creations or something. Make huge secret deposits in his treasury and gift him things he cannot possibly refuse before you make the accusations to create evidence of his supposed great discovery.
Hi,
Imitate his sigil. Change your appearance using Imaginem. Then blow stuff up using his favorite TeFo, leaving witnesses. Even better if you can leave some Infernal traces around, but a Merinita might have problems with that. But just interfering with mundanes could work too. Slip some infernal vis into his supply and see what happens. Publish an inappropriate book that he seems to have authored.
Does he have a personality or story flaw? Arrange circumstances to push him over the edge, or that make him look bad. Lots of movies offering frames to choose from.
Anyway,
Ken
In the deep background of my saga is a merinita cult (descended from another ancient tradition) that is guarding the location of some ancient artifacts that are better left untouched. Every few hundred years, some nosey priest or magus starts fiddling with them... and the cult takes the guy out.
In this case, 100 years ago, it was a Bonisagus who used Hermetic Architecture (Mysteries: Revised Ed.) rituals to build a portal to connect to the regio housing the artifact.
The cult framed him, he was marched, and many of his writings were posthumously purged.
The PCs have established their covenant in an old ruin with a high magical aura. Unbeknownst to them the portal is on their property, but the pillars that were used for the ritual have been destroyed (by the cult). The PCs will discover some engravings that will lead them to the story of this disgraced Bonisagus.
So the adventure plan involves the characters tracking down his writings in order to re-create the ritual, then re-open the portal.
So I'm looking for a good backstory for how the Bonisagus was framed, marched, etc.
I'm also thinking about people / locations where his writings may have survived the purging. A "forbidden" section of Durenmar? Other Libraries? Friends? (stealing from Calebais:) Maybe some letters in a nunnery?
Some further details:
The artifacts were "powered" by human sacrifice, which could lead to charges of infernalism or Diedne links? However, I feel that the cult wouldn't do anything to draw attention to the artifacts in their false charges. So they wouldn't use direct references to the human sacrifice in the charges.
One of the PC's is a necromancer who can speak to the dead, so one part of the adventure could be to travel to the location of the final showdown, and try to speak to the dead Bonisagus.
I lay all this out in order to help fuel any further ideas regarding my original question. Thanks all!
I saw them open for Mastadon and Opeth several years ago. Great stuff.1085 saw a major raid on Durenmar by the King of the Black Mountain (timeline section of GotF). 35 years to prepare for a rescue or revenge?
Interesting. I just looked it up in GoTF. Are there any other references to this King or the raid in any of the published materials?
Page 50 of GotF has an insert (errata tones his Might down to 60) on the King and a page 48 insert has a bit on his origins, The Black Forest Chapter(6) of GotF has those inserts, a vis source at Durenmar and probably a couple of other things.
Maybe the cult exploits some faerie who draws vitality from the "forgotten secret that eventually corrupts anyone who rediscovers it". So the faerie periodically draws some poor sod into a trap and uses its powers to actually corrupt him. This is the sort of stuff that actually attracts the attention of the Infernal too; some demons may have been drawn into a symbiotic relationship whereby they a) help with the corruption and b) leave traces of infernal involvement, which has the Order march the poor sod without asking too many questions!
There is an entire subcult of Merinita dedicated to manipulating reality with stories.
Easiest way, I think, is to subvert a quaesitor. Kill one, or find one conveniently indisposed, and impersonate him/forge his sigil to announce that the magus is in violation and should be marched. Make sure the announcement gets sent to enough powerful, aggressive and/or trophy-seeking magi that a march is a foregone conclusion. Plant incriminating evidence after all the dust has settled so the march gets ratified at tribunal.
The easiest method, it would seem to me, would be to have a "pet" faerie that looks like a demon and can be spotted by several people around and apparently coming and going from the magus sanctum. planted infernal vis or items for the final nail, if they are lying about to plant.