True enough. I had exactly the same feeling the Baron probably had, but I figured it made sense for the scene - though I did want the players staged revivification of Karlotte and hard work to pay off. He definitely will have second thoughts. Dealing with people under emotional hardship may turn out to work counter to the covenant's goals.
Hm, I think anything can be turned into a story, but I'm curious as to the possibilities you see here.
Oh, as for the Redcaps/Durenmar knowing where they might be, Renaldo did send word from Basel asking for assistance. They did mention to Murion that they favored the Pfalz Island location so it may be recalled. I cannot recall if they sent word to Caecilius. Then again, it would be by the crow, Redbeak... not the most reliable messenger.
Also, the infernally tainted weapons sounds like a lovely idea.
I also figure the negotiation with the Baron AS choosing of Hooks and Boons feels quite good as they decide how quickly they want their castle restored. Nice.
Looking more to the future you could begin to set it up so that the baron dies heirless and lord robert (wasn't he from the wrong side of the sheets?) takes over. Perhaps this comes about from the increased violence caused by cursed weapons...
Depends on the local inheritance laws, but it can be handwaved away if it makes for a good story. There would be politicking, and Robert can probably be ... convincing. Plus it could put into question their tenure of Pfalz Island. Even just having the Baron disappear would be story worthy.
And it is a good time to discuss what they liked so far in the game and where they want to take it. They can choose boons and hooks that emphasize that while preserving continuity, such as taking Robert as a rival.
Bah, I'm just a bastard who wants to keep them living in a ruined castle for a while, then deal with the disruption of the construction crew. Story-wise, securing a construction crew could be a major affair: you don't find a skilled architect/engineer & crew in every village.
Now, on to my reaction to the write up.
And the easier it is for the characters to cast Intellego magics, the harder it is to involve magi in an investigation story without having to resort to magic resistance and infernal deception trumps.
Faerie Stories?
Have they run into magic resistance yet?
It could be interesting if they regularly visit the Baron. Now that he no longer controls the island, Robert has to live somewhere doesn't he?
I'm curious as to how she pulled that off. PeCo is nasty. ReIm or PeIm might work.
I think the Faerie Cave is from either Faerie Stories, or Triamore, the two books I was thumbing through the week before. I had a sudden flash of an idea to use it then, and did. I'll probably have it appear elsewhere as a bit of local color, perhaps with different bait. A mobile cave.
They have run into Magic Resistance a bit. The Lord of Winter had a ton, and Magnus could not touch him (hence the pit solution). The Devils at the Covenant's Fall also had it, though not a ton and if Magnus strained he could hit them with enough DEOblivion to make them easy to attack with magic. The Wolf of the Snows had some but Magnus rolled well and used Tytalus Confidence Power. However, with Magnus' Major Overconfidence and the player's crazy luck thus far, nothing seems too tough for him to take on, even if it is.
Good ideas for the Baron and the future of the covenant. Evil!
As for the PeCo effect, she gave it a diameter's duration. PeIm might have been better, but it was the end of the night, climactic scene, and the PeIm call didn't occur to me. She probably could have worked it out either way...
Good thoughts on the Baron and Caliana.. he he he. You're an evil genius.
Regarding the infernalness of Renaldo bargaining with the head, he asks two questions and only answers one, so he still owes an answer. He is in debt to a demon lord.
As for the how to have infernally tainted books, I dislike the idea of books being enchanted to affect the reader, because players should act with free will or they resent it. A better way is to have the effect of learning it make their use of skill flawed (so more botch dice).
A much more fun way is to put specific extra peices of knowledge in books. The best type of books are say a combined creo/vim book which also contains infernal lore - a demon summoners text book, but in hermetic terms contains those different knowledges. You can also make a book on an art contain specific spells in the text, for example they could find an intelligo book that also contains a spell that forces demons to tell the truth. They would know that such a spell is beyond the limits of hermetic magic, but would be useful - do they learn it?
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Much to the delight of the river traders. There may be some serious grumbling when they finally reinstate the toll, claims that it is unjust, etc. They might even go complain to the baron, even if the magi are in their right.
"YAY!" for Happy Reylar.
Have you decided yet why their magic was damped? Is is a law of the regio? The might of the monster?
Of course, that too is a good explanation. If they find out why their magic doesn't work, and solve the problem, they might actually want to move into the regio.
I think it fair to assume that there's going to be an increase in xenophobia and religious intolerance in the region: "Those cursed Moors and their infernal women, always plotting some evil scheme, betwitching our men away from us. She has the beauty of the Devil, I tell you."
Indeed. I agree. I'm a chapter behind in my updates. No game this Friday due to Gen Con and Renaldo's player being the president of Khepera Publishing, so I'll try and catch up.
Last game saw the first Mage + Companions story. We see Renaldo on the road with Arnwulf Ymirson, "Francois", and the introduction of the Waldmadchen. I need to post stats for them soon!
You know, I was thinking, if the characters ever want to find out what really happened to Reylar, that's a job for an InVi specialist. How convenient that they would have such a great Summa on Intellego coming their way. Such things cannot be coincidences. Even if it isn't possible to predict the future, an Intellego master probably has ... insight.
Considering how Caecilius was "sick of the backbiting and divisive politics within the Rhine Tribunal", it is fitting that his summa would go where it would help resolve a symbolically similar situation, and the division that is at Reylar (and his player's) core. Who knows, maybe the characters will help improve things in the Tribunal. Predestination, Law of Sympathy and all that kind of things.
Unfortunately, trying to ascertain Reylar's nature qualifies as scrying. Especially if early tests indicate that Happy Reylar is also the real deal (under Mentem and Corpus, that's probably the case). Unless he were tested first, Grim Reylar would probably start sweating.
Of course, if your players are content with accepting Happy Reylar at face value, there sure is no hurry to bring that to an early resolution. They might actually enjoy having an extra "magus" in their covenant, weird as it may be.
It's really nice that they took it in stride like that.
Even more fun when the intellego magics might come back, "not able to detect", is it a too powerful effect or is it demonic. Considering the former tenant, was it in infernal regio that Reylar entered before having the double appear? Especially because of the battleground seen outside the covenant in the regio. Can't be a magic regio or the wouldn't have had such problems casting.
Renaldo finds refuge in a barn during a storm, only to find two of the Fengheld Kids there, with wagons full of glassware and other luxuries. He may overhear them planning to raid some of the other old covenant sites in the Rhine Gorge.
Meanwhile, Jurgen returns to the covenant and relays what Renaldo spoke of regarding no back pay and a man being willing to risk his life for a mage meaning nothing for the covenant. How will the other mages deal with possible insurrection?
What Renaldo finds in Basel I am unsure of. Rampaging mobs led by infernally empowered demagogues? The man in the silk rag cloak who sold him Two-Pennies?
Or should I just let him find one or two bits of the old covenant, infernally tainted, to recover?
Well, I think they're already had tastes of Infernally-fueled violence recently, so maybe you should keep it low-key. No need for rampaging mob, but having people look up to Two-Pennies' seller would be a good hint that there's something wrong with Basel. The grogs might succomb to temptation, especially considering the recent events... as was pointed out in another thread, Infernal auras aren't necessarily unpleasant.
Since they sold things in Basel, base mercantilism might be the word of the day. Basel might be thriving with all sorts of things for sale, so long as you don't look too closely, or ask where some things come from. There could be opportunities for a cash-strapped covenant in dire need of supplies. Opportunities to sin, of course. If you actually want to involve a demon behind the scenes, I'm thinking of Bartholomew, from the core book.
Go back over what they did in town when they sold the Infernal junk, and make it take a turn for the worst. A bit like that Tainted Treasure virtue.
Story-wise, securing a construction crew could be a major affair: you don't find a skilled architect/engineer & crew in every village.
