Need help on Wars between Faerie Courts

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

BRANDON M. STAY OUT!

With that said:

Next session my PCs are going to try and mediate a dispute between the Courts of Dark Summer and Dark Winter on Malta. I should note that the PC's have already met with the Court of Dark Winter.

Yes, Malta. The island has had some kind of ancient magical power activated that created/stole from somewhere else a huge faerie aura (lvl 5) on most of the island and dragging two magical regios (6 and 8) above it. The faerie aura is split in half, one side being Dark Winter, and the other side Dark Summer.

This said, I've gotten some ideas so far, which are:

The Court of Dark Winter is ruled by the Ogre Queen, Bethany. The theme of the land is infertility and death, so in the heart of the side of the forest of Dark Winter is a lvl 6 Faerie Regio, which is a small court. The court has very specific and weird rules around talking and acting (no questions can be asked, only statements made). The PCs are actually fairly safe, so long as they follow the arcane rules of the court.

When the PC's previously met with the Queen, she told them the benefits of aide against the King of Dark Winter, and the PC's declined to have an opinion at the time.

The Court of Dark Summer is ruled by King Sir George. The theme of the land is fertility, and growth, but emphasizing the danger of unbounded growth. I'm not sure how to actually portray this to my PCs. The court itself is actually quite dangerous, and the PCs will be in a considerably larger amount of danger than expected compared to the other court. I'm thinking this court likes to play games, but really only prefers once that have lethal consequences for losing.

Any suggestions/ideas for this?

thanks!

2

THe point of battles between seasonal faeries is to be observed and to draw strong reactions from observers, so just go all the way out there.

So, say that as part of the transition to dominance, the two faerie monarchs must meet and have sex. Niether likes this because the ogress is hideous and George is, from her perspective, a tiny weedy guy. The player characters to make the transition more regular by crafting a narrative of the transition of a symbolic object which replaces the "seduces their queen/seduces their king" storyline.

3

Timothy,

I'm not sure I'll do the sex, but I see where you are going with the idea of the PC's changing the "story" of the stalemate into some kind of resolution.