My players have just completed a huge, long-running (years of game-time and playing-time), save-the-world plot. They have now taken time to clear up a few domestic matters, one of which was a troublesome troll living under the only bridge from the Covenant to the local village. The troll was only tiny when they last checked upon it, but the foolish villagers had started to tell stories about it and to pay its toll for crossing the bridge - they had even given it a name (Snatchtoe). As a consequence of this the troll had grown large and powerful enough to start being a real nuisance. The player-characters got rid of it cleverly, inventively, and without breaching the Code in any way.
I want to give the players some rewards for their enormous (in-character) efforts and sacrifices, and for their (out-of-character) ingenuity and role-playing brilliance in dealing with the big plot. The Magi have been told that there is something 'special' about the bridge, but, as yet, they don't know any more than that. What I want to do is to make the bridge into a minor benefit for the Covenant. It should be basically benign and should mostly be a matter of role-play colour, although it could sometimes be a plot device. I envisage that it will be tied to the Faerie realm or Magic realm, and it could occasionally be a problem, although it should usually be helpful in small ways.
My first thought is that it will be a 'story bridge' - but I haven't got any further than that. Any and all ideas will be most welcome.
The Magi are legitimately gain the legal right to charge a toll for crossing the bridge - mundane income.
As above, but with fishing from the bridge.
A school of friendly, intelligent fish strike up good relations with the Magi. They can be Magical or Faerie.
A group of pixies that the troll had enslaved ask to become the covenant's allies.
The bridge is an entryway to a magical or faerie ragio. The Magi become aware of how to cross into it properly.
The bridge becomes or contains a vis source. Possible ideas:
-In one spot on the bridge, the rushing waters can't be heard at all. Harvesting the silence (magically, presumably) grants Perdo or Imaginem vis.
-The moss, if harvested, grants Herbam vis.
-The bridge components itself produce vis. Terram if cobblestone; Herbam if wood.
-Blowing bubbles from the exact center of the bridge on the summer solstice results in an unbreakable bubble. This bubble, if captured and protected, becomes Aquam vis.
-If fishing nets are used, they might capture a strangely colored fish--Muto, Animal, or Aquam vis.
The town comes to know of, and accept, the covenant. They now have a village that support the Magi and are allies, which is a rarity for most covenants.
These are just a start. Hopefully others can come up with more.
The most obvious choice is raw vis - a raw vis source fits right into your criteria. In addition to avenger314's excellent suggestions, a Corpus source might be appropriate, perhaps from the remains of the troll (regeneration) or the spot that originally gave birth to it.
Another idea might be to make the bridge into a Minor Road, leading from Faerie. Occasionally, some fairies come down the bridge. Normally, they would pay the troll a fee; by killing him, the covenant has taken its place, and so Faerie Etiquette requires that they provide a small gift to the covenant. Rarely, a malign faerie will leave a "gift" that the covenant would not like (although it is always truly a valuable gift from the dark fay's perspective), or a faerie will visit the covenant and will pay for his passage with a story - telling one, or having the covenfolk live through it...
The faerie road one sounds better to me. You can make the faeries leave vis sometimes, leave a story sometimes as Yair suggested (story hook for you ), leave a kidnaped child (changeling) that might even have the gift (or pretend to have the gift), or you can cross the bridge yourself when going somewhere and end up in the North Pole just because the faerie trod was active at the moment and leading there: an uncontrolled portal that is a boon but that can have all kinds of side effects sounds about right here MOst of the time it is a boon, but sometimes it switches to be a hook.
Thanks folks. There are some great ideas there that I can definitely use.
I should say that the PCs did not kill the troll, they sent him away. Using various virtues and abilities (Enchanting Storytelling, Information Network, Enchanting Music, Contacts etc.), they invented and disseminated their own legend about how the troll could be banished, and then caused the unusual conditions to be fulfilled.
The Covenant has good relations with the village, mostly because they turned a blind eye to - and occasionally aided - the Catharist 'underground railroad' to Monsegur. They don't really need a new vis source, having recently acquired one (at the Autumn equinox they have to take rubbings of six runes on a standing stone in the Pyrenees, using charcoal gained from a gernika tree that is inscribed with Basque arborglyphs (they don't yet know how much this will upset the local shapeshiters, the Laminak)).
I really like the idea of the bridge being one end of a trod, with the consequent paying of a toll with stories and such like, and the possibilty of ending up somewhere unexpected. I also like the idea of the intelligent fish; perhaps, when passing under the bridge, fish gain the ability to talk. I could couple that with the spot from which the water is silent; perhaps that is the only spot where the fish can be heard. I could then allow the fish to pass on stories that they have heard while passing under other bridges along the river. This would be rare enough to happen only occasionally (although, of course, magic loves coincidences), and would fit what I need very nicely.
If someone crosses the bridge and says a magical word it will lead him to another world/regio. In that world there is another bridge.
The starting point does matter because they lead to different places. Maybe these places are in the same region.
), leave a kidnaped child (changeling) that might even have the gift (or pretend to have the gift), or you can cross the bridge yourself when going somewhere and end up in the North Pole just because the faerie trod was active at the moment and leading there: an uncontrolled portal that is a boon but that can have all kinds of side effects sounds about right here