HOOKS: Questions about the new book

It was the same for me.
They first checked my "alien" credit card before sending. :unamused:
Now it is on the hands of DHL. In theory the precious will arrive at 21th april.

I think it's to do with a problem of sharing. Not all people - let alone magi - are completely honest and sympathetic. Greed and arrogance easily results in less polite ways of claiming what one considers to be one's right. And further down the line, if someone does meddle with your project why not take advantage of this. As long as we're not talking self-destructive, suicidal behavior. Such character make less sense.
From a story point of view iitek makes for more drama and challenge this way, IMHO.

I'm glad you like this. Sagas handwaving simple, practical things like supplies most likely don't see the point of this Hook and find it useless. But IMHO ties to the 'Europe' part of Myhtic Europe is a pet peeve of mine, and here is the opportunity for the banality of supplies to have wide ranging consequences. Hermetic Magic is powerful, and it is easy to do alot with it. The difficulty lies in doing it safe and discreet, and in dealing with the fallout.

We handwave supplies a lot. We do not like them. However, this story is not about the boring details of supplies, but about supply chains and the disruption that they bring to a covenant. That is a cool story and one that my group (handwavy supply dudes) enjoys. In fact we have played through it and we liked it :slight_smile: It ties to ME, as you say, and urban adventures where our magi are at a disadvantage and our companions shine are always a favourite of ours. :slight_smile:

Xavi

Does someone know, if the book reached european shops or mail order services by now?

My local role playing shop seems not to be able to sell it to date and the german amazon doesn´t offer it, too.

Chiarina.

Yup. Should have been available since late March or so

Infinity Games UK have had it, but it is currently out of stock.

http://www.iguk.co.uk/products/hooks-ars-magica-rpg-15372.aspx

That's the shop I usually deal with, don't even know if any Danish stores stock ArM anymore. Mind you it's been a while since I bought anything from IGUK. For a while I've mhad the privilege to get new books directly from Atlas Games due to some kind of involvement from my end.

Fantask appears to stock Ars Magica

Allright, got the book, now.

My roleplaying shop stored it in my Ars-Magica-Subscription-Box, but forgot to inform me, that it arrived. Nonetheless - I wonder why I can´t order it by amazon-germany...

Chiarina

Hello all.

I find "Hooks" (specialy the first) very exciting to play with my troupe.

But I have a question regarding the scenario of the first "hook": "Birth Right".
This need to expose some key elements of the story and risking to ruin the intrigue. :confused:
Is it here the right place to ask this kind of question or should I write to the autor?

Let's see... Birth Right, that's Richard Love. I know he posts on the forum (I saw a new post of his this morning I think).
Unless you're worried about your players peeking, here's probably the best place to ask - or at least as good a place as any :slight_smile:

I agree with Tellus. Maybe use the spoiler function if you're worried...

[spoiler]Like this! :slight_smile:[/spoiler]

Put a SPOILER ALERT at the start of your post and that should be enough. If you plan to play a escenario you should not be looking at the adventure book threads :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Xavi

Thank you.
So I will do as instructed.

!!!SPOIL ALERT!!! :mrgreen:

[spoiler]The plot in the first Hook, for the Faerie Queen Belgen, is to kidnap and marry the baby son of a noble earl.
After killing the mother and the father, the Faerie Queen Belgen is free to own the fief since she is the new spouse of the earl.
Am I right ?
The son is, for now, a one year baby and is still confined in a place where he cannot getting old so the faerie Queen will rule the fief infinitely as his major wife.

But, in Mytic Europe, before getting recognized married with anybody (and claiming his possessions as wife), people need to act a legal mariage by the church. No ?
So, who did the fearie Queen to mary with a one year baby vis-à-vis the church and the earl's suzerains.
How do the faerie to recognise is claim to the neightbor nobles ?

Maybe didn't I understand something in the story or in the RoP:Faerie supplement.
Does the fearie "Pretenses" (RoP:Faeries p.11) to be legally maried to the earl's heir enought to convince the other nobles the Faerie Queen is the legal countess ?[/spoiler]

Thank you for paying attention.

I got my copy, a bit late, but I felt that I did not need it until now.

This book is, in my eyes, a stunning example of good writing that I have come to see as a synonym to Atlas Games and Ars Magica 5th Edition. The Authors have all done a good job to make exciting adventures, I liked much of the art and it is all in all a good addition on my bookshelf.

As a suggestion: I would not object to more of books like this in the future, where you are introduced to other supporting books and now that we have had 2 adventure books (Tales of Mythic Europe and Hooks) , maybe a future adventure book would be able to introduce the various tribunal books where each adventure takes up something that is significally special to each tribunal.

Thanks to all involved and to Atlas Games for giving us this marvelous game.

An excellent question. I'm glad that you like the story.

[spoiler]The marriage was performed by a faerie priest from the Queen's court. Which is good enough for the faeries. However, you are right that this could be legally challenged in the mundane world.

This is the point of one of the options in the "Further Tales" section at the end. The player characters (or others) could think to challenge the legality of the marriage. How that plays out is up to you and your troupe. "The faerie priest is not a real priest" certainly sounds like a good reason to annul the marriage. However, the faerie queen is perfectly capable of sending faerie lawyers to the bishop's court to argue her case, and it isn't quite as straight-forward as you might think.

Perhaps the faerie priest was actually ordained. The faerie queen may have paid the bishop to do this sometime previously. Alternatively, even marriages between mundanes that were conducted (knowingly or otherwise) without an ordained priest can nonetheless be recognised by the church as valid in some circumstances. Finally, if needed the faerie queen is not above attempting to either bribe or threaten the bishop to ensure he comes to the right decision.[/spoiler]

Regarding the spoiler
[spoiler]Perhaps the Faerie lady doesn't need a human marriage. Perhaps the ritual act of being symbolically married to the heir gives her an arcane connection to all the lands he owns, in an Arthurian "the king is the land, the land is the king" way. Under this, she follows faerie rules and faerie sympathy so no church involvement is necessary.[/spoiler]

Thank you for you answers, I'm very glad to speak with you two (and surely others) about this.

Yes!! I really like it. :slight_smile:
It's why I try to understand all its aspects.

By the way... I'm sick of black lines.

----- THE SPOILER ALERT CONTINUES. -----
If you are plannng to play "Birth Right", stop to read right now. :wink:

Yes, and I guess it's why the fief of the baby earl is turning in a faerie place (faerie aura, "bizarre" and funny taxes, et cetera...).

Yes, good idea. And we could in the same way use the three historic sources of the kingship: divine, magic (or fairy) and tribal... Supposing the two last are fulfilled, my purpose, here, is to find a way to fullfill the divine clause of kingship and to defend the position of the Fearie Queen in the mundane world level.

Ok, I understand.
Even with a "faerie priest" it could be easy to convince a bishop or a duke that the marriage is legal. More, even the "faerie priest" is not ordained, fearies could use the "glamour" in order to convince other people like the bishop, the suzerains or the King himself... (if the "glamour" passes, of course, the divine protection of the King).
But, with a one year baby husband, how the Faerie Queen could have any chance to convince anybody ? Even if she convince the bishop by bribery or black mail, I think (but, maybe, it's a belief) it's without hope for a bishop to keep this position in the face of his hierarchy or vis-à-vis the temporal power.

Now, in writting this thread, there comes to me another idea: what if the earl's son was a young adult just in age to marry ?

Tales are full of faeries (bansidh) who are calling spellbound heroes or young knights to leave the real world to the faerie lands (Bran Mac Febail, Conle son of the king Conn Cetchathach, Nechtan son of Collbran,...)
The tale of Viviane and Merlin could serve to keep the earl' son in a glass prison (or, in this case, a dark cave)...

Err... I should lightly modify your good idea of Old Nanny but it seems not impossible to do it... I really love the "Old Nanny" character I don't want to loose it. :mrgreen:

Possibly not everyone else is sick of them though.

That's what she is trying to do. Her success or otherwise (or even her need to really convince anyone) is up to you and your troupe. Her plan either succeeding or failing are both good stories, and if she fails, she can try again with a slightly different plan. Also, note that while her actions are certainly at the extreme end, there are plenty of historic incidences of child marriages (or adult-child marriages) amongst nobles, which are made to ensure alliances, capture inheritances, etc..

Sure, if one doesn't like the outcome of a decision in the bishop's court, you can appeal to the pope. Of course, this introduces expense and maybe politics.

I would just add that be careful, as storyguide, about trying to close everything that you think is a hole in the faerie queen's plans (or the plans of any antagonist). While you don't want an antagonist to look like an idiot, if there are no holes in her plan, the player characters have nothing to do. If the player characters recognise a weakness and use that to foil her, that is a good story. If the faerie queen's plans look a little bit dubious under mundane law, then there is an opportunity for a future story about the player characters challenging the legality (maybe successfully, maybe not). If it is all clearly legal, then there is no opportunity for such a story. Whatever you decide, I hope you have fun.

I have the book myself, and I would like to extend my gratitude to all the authors for writing it. It's an amazing piece of scenario-writing, and I'm loving all the hooks insofar as I've read them. The "Echoes of the Ancient Dead" will come in particularly handy, as I'm just starting a whole saga based (partially) around Canaanite Necromancy.

Warning: minor spoilers ahead.

I'm particularly fond of the C&G one about the merchants and supplies ("New Deal"), personally. [spoiler]I'm just in love with the fact that both parties are legally and (kind of) ethically right, and that there's no easy telling which is the "right" way around it, from an ethics point of view. I just love these kind of stories, and this one felt particularly well written and thought-out. I'd be hard-pressed to be able to say who was actually right there, and couldn't honestly say that anybody played foul, which makes for amazing, story-rich antagonists.[/spoiler]

Congratulations to all the authors on this one!

Edited for minor typos.

Marriage in most regions does not require a priest for it to be legal. It is a rather late addition into the list of sacraments (its first mention as one of the seven sacraments was at the Council of Verona in 1184). The church tried hard to outlaw so-called 'clandestine marriages', obliging the union to be blessed by a priest, but this was routinely ignored and upheld in the ecclesiastic courts. The two parties to the marriage between them acted as the minister (as long as they were both baptised) and the marriage was considered legal if they both agreed that it was -- it didn't even need witnesses*. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) introduced the requirement that banns of marriage were published in church, but their absence did not invalidate a marriage.
*(exception: the Eastern Orthodox Church required a priest right from the get-go).

Mark