Case 6: The Strange Affair of the Spanish Play

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

This year the Tribunal has a special treat: after a hard day's deliberations, what better than a performance, somewhat akin to a Mummer's play? The Spanish Play is put on by a trio of House Jerbiton magi from Paris, guests this year at the Tribunal of Hibernia! So assembled Irish magi, prepare to be entertained. A troubadour sings, actors speak their lines, and the Jerbitons create wonderful magical special effects. Wonder what it's about, with a title like "The Spanish Play"?

ACT ONE

It opens at the covenant of Duresca in the Iberian Tribunal. An apprentice has gone in to the cellars to look for some vis, but accidentally goes the wrong way, and stumbles upon some ancient jars. He opens the jars, and within finds some ancient scrolls, containing the correspondence between the Founder Guernicus and Fenicil his apprentice. What's this? It involves some kind of conspiracy, an attempt by House Guernicus to take over the Order? The apprentice takes the scrolls to his mistress, but one of the covenant's Quaesitors overhears their discussion. The boy manages to escape with the scrolls through a Hermes Portal, even as a dozen quaesitors burst in and capture his parens, and torture her horribly till she expires. The apprentice finds himself at Durenmar; there he finds the Primus of Bonisagus, and starts to read to her from the scrolls.

ACT TWO

We flashback in time for this act; the opening scenes if of Guernicus gloating over a map of Europe. "Soon, young Fenicil, soon! Tremere thinks he shall control the Order, but I promise we shall rule it, and then the world!" cackles Guernicus. "First we must destroy Diedne, then we must weaken Tytalus..."

Just at this moment the Presiding Quaesitor calls a halt to the play, and for the Three Jerbiton of Paris to explain themselves. They have vanished - well at least they re nowhere to be seen now, though they were here a moment ago. As to the mortal actors, they seem utterly confused, as if they have no idea why they are faciung a large mob of somehwta put out wizards.

Someone has made The Duresca Scrolls , long since suppressed, in to a rather bad piece of melodrama, known as "The Spanish Play". And the Praeco said it was fine to put it on as an entertainment, and personally endorsed it with a little speech about how grateful he was to be able to offer this entertainment. Should charges be brought? And if so what charges , and against whom? One thing is certain - the Presiding Quaesitor is not impressed!

Over to you
cj x

2

Nitpick: first they weakened Tytalus, then they destroyed Diedne. :slight_smile:

3

1 Rescind casting permission.
2. Methodical search for arcane connections to the "Jerbitons". Anything they might have dropped, part eaten food, shed hair whatever.
3. InMe the actors
4. The Praeco can InMe himself

First guess - Tytalus pranksers

4

That's what they ended up doing. Had they stuck to the original plan, who knows, they may have succeeded...

5

So a few rubes put on a conspiracy theory play. So what? I see no laws or code broken. The Praeco likes it. Maybe the point is to point out how ridiculous the consspiracy is.
But I am a free speech Yankee :smiley:

6

Yes, but where did the Rubes disappear to? And who disappeared 'em? :wink:

7

Ah! That's the real case. I almost missed it.
Hmmm...
Need to percolate on it.

8

The Praeco finds by investigating himself he has not been under the effect of any Mentem magics. The actors though do seem utterly confused about the content and meaning of the play, but assure you for a shilling a day they will perform any vanity project, no matter how atrocious. They all curiously seem unafraid of magi, and the InMe spells cast on them show no minds at all -- which rather makes you wonder how they function. Surely this is unusual, even for actors???

cj x

9

Hmmm . . . what happens if we Intellego Animal them?

-Albert

10

Yes, good idea. Still no minds.
cj x

11

If they have no 'minds', is it possible that they are merely an illusion and this is in fact, the real 'entertainment'?

Likewise what do we know of these Parisan Magi? They may have been imposters and I would not rule out they are still here, either in disguise or invisible though the former is more likely. Furthermore, we do not know that this is their fault. The Praeco endoresed it, but it seems he/she has changedhis/her mind now. Perhapse he/she was expecting a different play?
This could merely be a fairy prank with the poorest sense of taste.

Naturally is safest course of action is to examine the whole production (esspeacially the actors) and the last known position of the disappeared 'offenders', preferably with an Intellgo Vim effect. Never know what kind of magic we are dealling with.

12

There is active Creo Imaginem and Rego Corpus effects on the actors. The "stage" area has Creo Imaginem effects upon it - very weak though.
There are traces of Perdo Imaginem magic where the three foreign magi were standing :slight_smile:

cj x

13

...I think I would've been happier if I was wrong...I don't sppose there was enough there to make a sigil?

Oh just to check, lets scrub those 'actors' clean of magic.

Still that leaves the bigger problem of who was really pulling this off. Illusionary creatures are one thing, though the Rego Corpus effects are rather confusing. Unless...was the CrIm on the actors, or were they made up of it? Given the circumstances the latter is unlikely but...

Now for the big, bad part. In light of the fact the three offending magi weren't real (or at least not where we thought they were) and the ...complexity of the magics from the actors (depending on whether they are real or not), I think someone should ask (permission solves any "scrying" problems right?), to PeIM the Praeco, just to e sure he/she is who his supposed to be and not an illussion, or even a disguise. Once again, the former is more likely...

After all, the actors think they are real to work for shillings and we only have the Praeco's word that he/she has not been mentally enthralled. Some due diligence to make sure we have the right people...

hmmm...this could have been a distraction too...is there anything valuable that someone might be wanting to take, even if it breaks the oath?

14

The actors are targeted with a PeVi by the Presiding Quaesitor. While he is casting, something very odd happens - they all crumble to dust, and vanish! This occurs before he completes his spell.

A Tytalan named Anna who is a specialist in Imaginem magics PeIm the Praeco who suppresses his Parma. He vanishes! Just as everyone gasps at the idea the Praeco was an illusion his voice booms out "See I'm not an illusion!" Anna looks shamefaced and claims ot have botched the spell.

Ah! Yes, but what? :slight_smile: There are so many things of value here! And with the magi milling around and chaos reigning, it's hard to tell. Clever though!

cj x

15

The actors are targeted with a PeVi by the Presiding Quaesitor. While he is casting, something very odd happens - they all crumble to dust, and vanish! This occurs before he completes his spell.

A Tytalan named Anna who is a specialist in Imaginem magics PeIm the Praeco who suppresses his Parma. He vanishes! Just as everyone gasps at the idea the Praeco was an illusion his voice booms out "See I'm not an illusion!" Anna looks shamefaced and claims ot have botched the spell.

Ah! Yes, but what? :slight_smile: There are so many things of value here! And with the magi milling around and chaos reigning, it's hard to tell. Clever though!

cj x

16

The actors were Glamours. The magi were concealed by illusions. They fled the scene through ReCo magics.

17

Except it is the actors and not the place the Magi were that reeks of ReCo.

The ither way round works better, but doesn't make sense.

18

An invisibility/silence spell is totally unaffected by the observer's Magic Resistance, so the three 'Jerbitons' could have just gone invisible and walked out. There's also enough Creo Imaginem floating around that they could have been illusions to begin with and just been dispelled at the critical moment, but that is less likely: with such a large audience of magi, surely someone has Second Sight or an active InIm effect ?

A question for the Praeco: what play did he think he was praising in his introductory speech ? Did he know he was about to insult a whole House of magi ? Was the play switched for another one that was supposed to take place ?

19

The Praeco looks apologetic, and rather abashed, rare for someone normally so pompous. "I believed the play to be a Tragedy, based upon Hermetic History; I was led to understand that for a mere three pawns of vis I was arranging a superlative entertainment for the assembled magi of this Tribunal" - and then growing purple with anger "I was misled! I was fooled, and made to look foolish... I...I.. I ...corwumph!" Surely no Praeco looked so utterly exasperated before!??

cj x

20

Mateo of Vedtitius politely clears his throat. "A reminder to the amusing Jerbiton pranksters, that many precedents have ruled that being invisible in the company of Magi, counts as magical scrying. If you are still here and enjoying your mirth, you may wish to dispel your illusions so that we can laugh with you. You got us fair and square. Otherwise, some of the... less amused magi here might point out that you are now, in effect, using magic to scry upon about 80 of your sodales."

"As to the play, my friend Quaesitor Thaddeus ex Guernicus once said that his master Robyn's favorite quote was, 'Well THAT was an unmitigated disaster.'"