Pentacle of magic
So this is my Ars magica campaign, which my group and I have been playing for about 10 months.
It is set in Flanders, about 3 days journey north of Luxembourg in 960 currently…and yes I do disregard certain historical facts like Luxembourg was not really a city at this time.
The players are
Rosalinda: A Quasitor maga, who specializes heavily in Herbam magic. She is very fond of baking pastries and is an overweight woman, who holds staunchly to the rules and traditions of the Order. Her husband, who has just died, was the local miller, and she is now about to retreat back to her tree sanctum in her high Vis garden, together with Liam, a Merinita with Quasitor responsibility, who joined their covenant.
Siegfried: A Tytalus, very Christian and espousing militaristic views. He is very interested in crafting weapons and is the resident Terram expert. He is married to Desiree, a weaver, who has unnatural perceptive abilities, despite being blind. He has a nemesis in another of his master’s former apprentices, Claudia, a girl with a body trapped at age 14 yet with a personality that would make Machiavelli proud.
Vincent: A Jerbiton from Venice specializing in Aquam, who has had some harrowing experiences at the small castle site, where he is trying to build his quarters. Some local water faeries were evidently interred in the lake bedrock by a Merinita mage who lived there, and he has a twilight encounter where he experienced this. His wife Monica has tried to obtain a longevity potion, without him knowing it, and this has lead to massive discussions between them.
William: A Flambeau from England. He is brash and forthright, likes to drink and burn down trees. This attitude is tempered by his desire to be a good leader for his grogs and servants. Alonzo, a Spanish sword master sent to him by his master, is currently training him. Having been subject to a Mentem spell by Claudia, William now has a special fondness for carved wooden horses. He has spent the last 5 years in Denmark, getting married, and helped stop a civil war.
William: Another Jerbiton from England. Gentle and soft-spoken, he inhabits a tower, known as “The Black Clawâ€, quite probably inhabited by a demon. He brews ale for export, and has just married the Duke of Vienna’s daughter. He took his twin brother’s place, learning magic, instead of becoming lord of the manor. He has recently given shelter to an artist who only comes out of his chambers during nighttime…
Gwendolyn: A secretive Diedné hailing from Land’s End in England. She controls a tree that gives of Vim crystals, and enjoys transforming herself into beasts of savage appearance. She evidently comes from a Diedné tradition of blood sacrifices. Faerie touched and pagan, she has been forced to live a rather lonely existence with her servants in the nearby woods.
The story so far has centered on the troupe being exposed to the local water faeries and the ancient Merinita who lived with them. Their covenant, which is really six small covenants, seen as one large, for administrative purposes, was the site of a very early covenant that was wizard marched due to charges of diablerie.
They uncovered Europa, a Bonisagus Maga, who petrified herself, just before the moment of her death, and brought her back to life.
At the same time they investigated who had cursed their covenants, so they sucked the magic aura away from other covenants, among these Durenmar itself! In the end they were able to cast a great Vim spell, that ended the curse, and where one of the perpetrators were shown to be a magus at Siegfried and Rosalinda’s original covenant, Dunkelburg, south of their new covenant of pentacle.
Bolstered by this discovery and Europa’s ancient alliances, they broke away from the Rhine Tribunal and formed their own North Sea Tribunal.