November Realia - A Realia collection a day for November

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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Joining in with the spirit of producing something for November, I have decided I will write up a Realia collection a day for November.

Realia collections seem like something that could be really interesting and provide a lot of flavour. They can also provide the excuse for all sorts of adventures. Despite this I've noticed players in my game don't seem particularly interested in them, nor in creating them, and from some searching on the forum I get the impression that many people would say that large collections are needed before it is worth using Realia over just getting a vain tractus.

From the Exp point I can see this argument, but as Realia can give bonuses to researching things related to the collection, or provide people with knowledge of something they can then Creo into existence or otherwise use in their magic, I see there being a real role for Realia collections that might be put on display, or that others might opt to go out of their way to visit.

So I want to play this theme up in the collections I am going to create - therefore I'm going to suggest some things not in RAW for the Realia I'm thinking of creating. Some of the Realia may, for example, allow the person studying it to chose to learn one of a couple of arts/abilities from the collection. (For example a collection of live animals may allow the individual to learn either Magic Lore or Animal. They would be able to pick each time they studied the collection, but the maximum number of times they can study the collection remains the same, no matter what combination of subjects they learn from it)

I may also propose that these Realia might give additional in game bonuses where it seems fitting. This is just me trying to give Realia collections a bit more of a unique feel and to tempt someone to think about making a collection rather than just buying a vain tractus that season.

I don't know if anyone has proposed something similar, but if you don't like the idea of additional bonuses then feel free to just take the descriptions of the collections and use them instead.

So, without further to do, here is the first Realia Collection - criticism and comments are welcomed!

1. Portraits of Twilight

Lvl 5 Vim OR Lvl 5 Enigmatic Wisdom

This collection consists of 20 portraits of Magi and was assembled by Didactus, a Criamon magus of the Rein Tribunal.
This former Jerbiton Magus became interested in twilight at an early age, having experienced his Parens fall into twilight towards the end of his apprenticeship. Didactus gauntleted as a Jerbiton but, after spending several years corresponding and talking with the Criamon magi in the Rein, he joined house Criamon.
As part of his work in attempting to understand twilight he contacted several Magi to ask them to describe their experiences, but the simple descriptions lacked the impact of the experiences many tried to convey to him and left him with the impression he was failing to grasp important nuances in their experiences.
Specialising in Imaginem magic and having been trained as an artist he eventually reasoned that he would learn more if he were able to experience and visualise the twilight experiences of those Magi willing to share them with him.
To this end he entered into correspondence with many other Magi, asking if they would be willing to allow him to paint their portrait and enchant into it with a spell that would allow the user to see, hear, touch, taste and smell what the Magus had experience in Twilight. Whilst most were sceptical and others outright dismissive, Didactus found many willing to pose for his portraits, allowing him to create this impressive collection.

This Realia allows those studying it greater insight into twilight and the magical realm it is connected to, allowing them to increase their ability in Vim. Many Criamon many would willingly spend years going through the twilight experiences of other magi, looking for patterns and deeper meanings in each twilight experience, and so those with the enigmatic wisdom Ability may instead use the Realia to study enigmatic wisdom.

Additional Bonus - Any Magi who have studied this collection will gain a bonus to their next roll to comprehend twilight as if this collection was being used to assist in research (giving +1 to the roll)

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I love the idea of this.

If, when you are done, you need help putting it in a pdf, I'm around, OK? I use a free tool called Canva.

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Thanks for the offer :slight_smile: - I love the podcast and the work you do for it, so that means a lot - I'll definitely take you up on that if I do get enough good ideas put out.

2.The Feathers of Legends

Lvl 4 Animal OR Lvl 4 Magical Lore -

This is a collection of 13 sets of specimens and notes relating to rare birds. Its creator, Ferrorum of house Merinita, is continuing to expand the collection.

This collection is being assembled by Ferrorum of Merinita, a maga who has a reputation as an eccentric with a fascination for birds. Ferrorum is a keen Falconer in her spare time and has been known to spend years at a time away from her covenant tracking rare or mythical birds, hunting down reported sightings of her quarry and then sitting in a conjured up bivouac for days, watching and waiting for whatever rare bird she is researching to cross her line of sight, which begins the long process of following and observing the creature.

She has just returned from a long trip to the forests of deepest Russia where she has been tracking and detailing the life and habits of the Alkonost, a mythical bird with the head of a beautiful woman whose eggs are rolled into the sea to hatch, and which cause storms when they do.

This collection consists of feathers from various rare magical and mundane birds, along with other collected items relating to the birds such as samples of droppings, sketches of foot markings etc. Ferrorum has also made detailed notes on the different habits of each creature as she observed them, has researched their mythic histories and stories relating to the creatures and has attempted to sketch herself, or has commissioned from someone else, a picture of each bird. She displays these alongside the feathers

Studying this Realia for a season allows a character to increase their animal art, or their magical lore. it will also grant the character enough insight to ‘know’, for the purposes of Creo magic, any of the following mundane birds or birds from Myth and Folklore

                   Mythic : Alkonost, Caladrius, Cinnamon bird, Cockatrice, Hercynia, Phoenix, Roc, Turul
                   Mundane : Cuckoo, Goshawk, Lammergeyer, Merlin, Ortolan

Bonus Story Hooks -

Ferrorum is a member of the Irencillia covenant, and as such has a faerie caricature in the covenant. During the times Ferrorum is away from the covenant this caricature will take on ownership and custody of the collection.
Several Magi, who focus on the art of animal, have sent their apprentices to view this collection and to learn from Ferrorum, who has often forgotten she agreed to this and so these apprentices have instead been instructed by her Faerie counterpart without anyone actually realising this is happening. None of these apprentices have realised that this is not the actual Maga. Several stories can be made from this fact, for example;

a) There are now several recently gauntleted magi who have heard from the great explorer herself how she tracked down and bested these terrible creatures (perhaps including one or all of the player characters). What happens when this reclusive Maga comes back to hermetic society, only for several newly gauntlet magi to accuse her of being an imposter at the next tribunal meeting! Can the characters work out what has happened, or will the young Magi who know the 'real' Ferrorum begin thinking of different conspiracies as to why everyone else in the tribunal seems to recognise and accept this imposter!

b)The adulation and belief of these young apprentices has bolstered the strength of the Faerie caricature. Does the strength of her Faerie counterpart actually equate to the standing of Ferrorum in the covenant - on her return does she find she now has several duties and responsibilities she did not before, which have gone untended for years in her absence, and she asks the PCs to either help get her out of these responsibilities, or to help her put her house back in order?

c) The ascendancy of her Faerie counterpart in the power hierarchy of the caricatures may be viewed by the current primus as demonstrating she has gained a lot of power without his noticing it, indicating, so he thinks, that she is planning to try and take the primacy herself! Worried by this he asks the player characters to find out if she is making some kind of plan to usurp him, or perhaps he asks them to simply clip her wings!

e) The Faerie counterpart has told increasingly tall tales about the different birds in the collection and how it obtained the feathers and other items- what happens when a particularly gullible Magus who 'knows' from talking to the Caricature Ferrorum that a Hercynia actually has a wingspan of 20 feet and can breath blue fire that burns water, attempts to conjure one up?

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I have to say this is super awesome. =)

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3. The Library of the Venatores
Lvl 10 - Infernal Lore

The Venatores are a group within the order dedicated to actively hunting down and destroying demons. In RoP:I they are described as being a loose group with no formal contact beyond a member training someone to fight demons using the cult’s knowledge - for this Realia to exist as described here will require this to be a front, and for them to have an actual formal organization that would allow the assembly of this collection. In my Saga they are a mystery cult and for this realia have gathered collection of nearly a thousand different items and store them in a secret place far from the eyes of the order, the Library of the Venatores. Alternatively this may be found by player characters as the personal library of a particularly old and dedicated member of the cult, OR as the source of the big bad infernalist’s power in your Saga

This ‘Library’ contains more than just books. The library is actually a collection of the various items taken from the bodies of diabolists the mystery cult has killed, or things that were taken from or being manipulated by Demons and most likely represents the largest collection of infernal items and knowledge in Mythic Europe.

There are several scores of books captured from Diabolists, but many of these are restricted to the inner circle of the cult as they provide instruction on the summoning of Demons and other infernal arts.

Additional Bonus : The collection is particularly helpful to those looking to research information about individual demons, particularly for members of the Cult’s inner circle who have access to the texts that others are forbidden from examining - The collection provides the normal +1 bonus for any research involving the infernal, but a member of the Venatores cult can instead gain a +3 bonus to any research regarding a demon where they already have some information about the demon and access to the library.

Members of the ‘Inner Circle’ of the Venatores mystery cult can add +5 to research rolls investigating individual demons and if their total roll is double the target number set by the SG then they find the true name of the demon they are researching (This can only ever apply to the first role they make researching this demon - if the cult member fails to find the name for the demon then not even this, likely the largest collection of infernal knowledge in medieval europe, holds the true name of the Demon he is hunting.)

Bonus Story Hooks;

a) If your player Magi are trying to reassemble the book of Solomon (tCatC) they keep finding evidence that a magus by the name of Rudolphus of Bonisagus has obtained several pages of the book. Several times the players follow up rumours of pages they will find that Rudolphus got to it decades before them. Rudolphus (RoP:I) was a member of the cult and was marched for drawing infernal attention to the order, he had previously been hunting down the pages of the book of Solomon and placing them into the Library. By trying to track down this Magus they may they discover the true extent of this secretive mystery cult - will they look to join the cult or will they view its existence as a threat to the code and the order

b) If one of your players has obtained an infernal object or book it is quite possible that a Venatores will attempt to obtain it for the library, particularly if it might contain a hint to the true name of a demon - what happens when the player’s covenant is infiltrated by agents of the cult to try and steal the object, will the cult attempt to forcibly steal the object if a more subtle approach fails? Perhaps, instead of this, the cult will place the character under observation to ensure that they are not involved in diablery themselves - will the covenant detect the spies placed into the covenant, and would the cult respect the code’s prohibition on scrying if they believe a magus is working with the Adversary?

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A big thanks to Daniel Jensen here for encouragement and some wonderful ideas for collections that I'll be adding to the list later on, once I've got through some of the ones I already have thought out.

4.The Natural Forms of Vis

Magic Theory 7 OR can be subdivided into Lvl 4 Realias for each technique and form

Wilding Ex Miscellanea is a reclusive fellow, living apart from the general hermetic society in the Hibernia tribunal. He has a reputation as a weak hedge wizard, and a slightly crazy one at that - because to the rest of the Hibernian tribunal Wilding seems to be fascinated with the most random items. Sometimes he will just stop to pick up a stick, stare at it and then put it in his bag and walk on.

Ah, If only they knew! Because Wilding sees all the shiny bits of raw magic just lying around everywhere he goes, just begging to be picked up. And Wilding picks these things up. Things no one else thinks to look at. And he takes them home and uses these shiny things that are so dull to others to decorate his home, to enchant the few items he needs and to fuel his magic.

To Wilding his home is decorated in a mass of glittering, beautiful, things. To the casual observer it would appear that the inside of his home is decorated with random, mundane items. At least until they use some method of detecting vis. If they have the second site virtue, then they may see some of what WIlding sees.

Wilding’s collection holds slightly more than two Queens worth of vis! All of this collected over several decades and all of it still in the naturally occurring forms it was found. Wilding is adept at finding vis that others would miss because it’s form appears fairly mundane - and so each individual item would likely hold only one or two pawns - meaning that total number of individual items in the collection will be approximately 162 unique items.

Anyone who discerns the true nature of Wildings collection can study the collection as a whole, gaining an insight into the processes that might cause vis to form in nature, gaining a deeper understanding of how Bonisagus’ magic theory might predict how this would happen.

In addition, since the items in the collection contain vis for all 15 techniques and forms, they can split the collection up so that there are 15 separate Realias which showcase how vis can form for each of the forms and techniques, giving the student a greater understanding of that art in isolation. Each of these would contain at least 8 individual items each, and so could be studied individually as lvl4 realia for each of the arts - the normal rules for studying divided collections would still apply here.

Bonus Story hooks -

a) Verditius magi all over Europe are suddenly receiving large commissions to enchant items by the same customer in the Hibernian tribunal- Why might Wilding suddenly be willing to part with his collection and what is he having built?

b) Wilding's collection is discovered and many greedy magi look to declare wizards war on him to take it for themselves, if he is friendly with the covenant then he may appeal to the Player Characters for help

c) Could it be that Wilding has no particular special power or skill in finding vis? What if a fairy or demon is leaving all of this vis around for him to find, making it obvious to him and only him - but to what end?

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I'll be honest - if someone tried to pull this one in the game I'm running, I'm not sure if I'd be annoyed or amused.

5. Your own body

Lvl 10 Realia Corpus or Medicine
(NB - Requires Medicine score of 3 and a suitable spell to examine your own body)

[i]‘As often happened Tremere and Tytalus were arguing,

Tremere boasted, “I have consulted with the most powerful Necromancers in all the lands and learned their secrets - I am the greatest in the art of Corpus”

Tytalus countered “I traveled to the depths of the underworld and prised greater secrets from the old gods themselves - I am by far the greatest in the art of Corpus”

Criamon was listening and he said “I did not travel, and only know my own secrets, yet from this fact alone I know more of Corpus than either of you”

“How can that be?” they both asked’[/i]
-A Riddle for Criamon apprentices

A magus with an understanding of the works of Galen will know that the human body is a collection of many different individual physical parts - Organs, bones, veins and arteries, the nervous system, all detailed in exacting detail by the great man himself. How many, then, have realised they might study themselves and their own inner workings, which offer an insight into that most useful of arts, Corpus, or will allow him greater understanding of Galen’s anatomy improving his medicine ability. The human body may be examined through the use of a Intelego Corpus spells, which allow the user to examine in turn each individual organ, bone, muscle, nerve and vein. This could also be done with other living individuals, but since they would need to be around for the whole season it makes more sense to examine yourself.

Since the human body contains 206 bones, 640(ish) muscles, the 5 vital organs etc, then we can safely say the body could act as a level 10 Realia, for those who have the ability to both view it and understand how the sum of the body’s parts work together to make the whole function

Bonus story hooks

a) Your magus is teaching his apprentice more about the human body - he has finished instructing him in the basic works of Galen and wants to give him a more ‘hands on’ education. He therefore shrinks himself and the apprentice down and using magic takes the apprentice on a tour of the insides of one of the covenants Grogs!

b) A Magus is planning on trying to surpass the limit of warping and plans on exposing an entire town to a powerful Inteligo Corpus spell, one that is powerful enough to cause warping over time. This will allow him to see how the body changes throughout the warping - what do player characters feel about this when they learn about it (this one can be very dark - think Mengele and Shiro Ishii of unit 731)

c) Check out the first games from folk tales podcast by Timothy Ferguson, which talks about the appendix and has a ton of cool ideas about finding an organ that shouldn't be there

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Here's my take on a spell to access the realia of your own body

InCo base 10 has the guideline "Sense all useful information about a body" there is a level 5 guideline to collect a specific piece of information but I think our study needs to be able to see the relation of different parts to one another to be of any use.

Thoughts?

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Perfect - I particularly love the name and the flavour.

Using Part as the target too makes perfect sense to me, as you're looking at each individual piece of the collection.

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Massive amounts of Credit to Daniel Jensen who has been kind enough to offer a hand and came up with the idea and background for this one, and for many others yet to come

6. Mirrors of Callista

Imaginem
NB- The level of the realia will depend on how many pieces of the original collection has been recovered

This collection will need to be reassembled as it is now scattered throughout Mythic Europe - when complete it will number 37 individual items (36 smaller mirrors and the final, tall glass mirror)

Callista of Verditius is still remembered today as one of the vainest magi ever to live. A resident of the Roman Tribunal she disappeared some time around 1189, having gone into her lab and never reappearing. Upon deciding she must have fallen into final twilight, and declaring her dead, her covenant mates entered her sanctum and found it filled with the most beautiful mirrors made from all kinds of materials and of all shapes and sizes - with no one mirror being the same as another. A shrine to her her vanity, they though.

Highly decorated Etruscan style mirrors mirrors, concave mirrors of silver, bronze and obsidian, and at the end of the room a huge mirror the likes of which none of them had seen before - a huge oval mirror as tall as a man hung on one wall. This strange mirror had been made of glass with some kind of silver like material behind it. This final mirror, however, had cracked and its surface was a web of small fractures, distorting any image in it, making it a useless curiosity to the other magi.

The cracked mirror was disposed of and the other mirrors were sold as a way to recoup the money Callista owed to the covenant. It was only a happy accident that revealed their true potential. One of the apprentice of the covenant, tasked with packing the last of the mirrors, accidentally put two mirrors facing each other. In doing so he noticed that his reflection when he moved between the facing mirrors seemed more lifelike, more real, than before.

It appears that when placed so they reflect the images in each other the mirrors the reflections seem to become more… real. When there are 8 or more of these mirrors in one place, if correctly aligned, they are able to project images of an item placed in the centre of them, creating an illusionary copy of the item next to it in the room which is almost impossible to tell apart from the real item - this effect allows someone with second sight to practice their ability to tell real and illusion apart..

These mirrors have become much sought after by magi specialising in Imaginem , allowing them to study the reflections in the different mirrors to better understand their art.

Potential Bonus -
Once the collection hits lvl4 (8 or more items) and is able to create the projected images then this realia may instead be used to practice second sight, giving 5 experience points for practice rather than the usual 4. When the collection has enough of the recovered mirrors to be lvl 6 the quality of the illusion increases again meaning it grants 6 experience points for practising second sight.

Bonus Story Hooks

a) If one of the player magi is attempting to reassemble the collection he learns that one of the local nobles has recently purchased a mirror that fits the descriptions they have of one of the original collection - they will need to investigate and attempt to recover this. Unfortunately it is now the prized posession of the Lord's wife, and is kept in her rooms. How will they obtain this mirror and is it even one of the collection?

b) A player character is left the large mirror in the will of a Magus or is sold it by an itinerant merchant - however the mirror comes into their possession should they will discover it is an enchanted item and will need a Verditius with the appropriate virtue to repair the Mirror - once this is done they will be able to investigate the mirror - on its first use they will be horrified to see that on the other side of the mirror is the most beautiful woman any of them have ever seen - she mouths just two words “help me” before her image fades from the mirror

c) Your Magus has managed to complete the full collection, and has had the large mirror repaired. As they finish setting up the mirrors in what they have deduced to be the correct positions they move so they are reflected in the mirrors and, as one would expect, an image of them forms in the centre. But this time their illusion grabs them with a wicked smile, pushes them through the glass surface of the large mirror and the mirror’s surface cracking as before - where has the illusion taken them, has their illusion followed with them, or has it remained in the covenant, now free to roam about?

d) If your Magi can track down the lab notes of Callista they may find the secret to the creation of silvered glass mirrors - the manufacture of these does not really kick off in Europe until we see the formation of a mirror makers guild in Nuremberg in 1373 and then one in Venice a few years later - Such mirrors could be a huge source of income for the covenant - so long as they can keep the method of manufacture a secret they should have a virtual monopoly until someone else works out how to do it. Magic can certainly help them in producing clear glass but doing this will require a large industrial base and many skilled craftsmen - so this income source can bring about many adventures.

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Coughs Daniel not David... coughs Oh and Jensen not "son" (implies Swedish origin rather then Danish)

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Oops... Fixed.

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Today's has no additional bonuses or alterations from RAW to how it works, but is still a fairly nice flavour thing

7. The Exemplary Armoury of the Contrafraternity of Roland

Craft (Blacksmith) lvl 6

The Contrafraternity of Roland is a group of Magi within house Verditius that follow a set path of mysteries laid down by Roscius, fillus Verditius, which focuses on mysteries that help with the creation of weapons, and swords in particular. This collection contains some of the best examples of sword smithing in Mythic Europe and contains several famous or legendary swords.

The weapons of the collection can be studied by someone to look at the different ways these swords have been made. The collection particularly focuses on examples that show off novel forging techniques and enchantments, or items of exceptional quality

Bonus Story Hooks

a) Roscius stole Durandal from the court of Charlemagne and learnt the secrets of the sword’s forging. His progeny have a similar disregard for the ownership of weapons they want to examine. They have found a particularly fine sword in the possession of a lord near to the player’s covenant and absolutely must possess and they ask the player magi to get it for them

b) After a particularly amazing fight (or series of adventures) where one of your grogs or companions uses a sword with exceptional results, a member of the Contrafraternity turns up at the covenant wishing to buy the sword in question - having heard of the fight do the Contrafraternity know (or suspect) something about the sword the players do not know, or are they simply curious about a sword that has developed something of a legend?

c) The Contrafraternity has many more swords than are in this collection, which are not particularly spectacular or impressive - this pile of swords needs to be maintained or perhaps organized to be sold.
As a punishment for some misdemeanour an apprentice or companion is sent to deal with this and as they clear out the old pile of swords they find one that appears perfect to them, and whispers of the great things they could do if they take the blade into battle. How has this sword come to be here and what is it? What does the person who finds the sword do with it?

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Do any of the individual swords have an Aesthetic Quality which can be studied, as per A&A rules pages 123-125?

Also, Covenants lists Specimens* as a Lab virtue. With these collections of realia being exceptional, what sort of stats/bonuses might they have if integrated into a working lab?

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I have no idea - I'll leave that to anyone who wants to use this as I have no idea about this, I've not read A&A yet. If anyone did want to use it in a Saga then you could discuss that with your SG - but I don't see why not. After all, the point of this is to try and find more reasons for people to put Realias together in their own games.

[/quote]
Hmm, if you wanted to build this into a laboratory I'd almost suggest taking it as a feature (lesser or greater would be your choice depending on how you display the collection) rather than specimens - simply because specimens gives a bonus to a form rather than a type of lab work, and I see these as more likely to give you a bonus to your enchanting than a bonus to Terram (which is the only form I can see being relevant)

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I'm away tomorrow, so posting the collection for the 8th now.

Again, a massive amount of thanks to Daniel Jensen, who has pretty much doubled or tripled the number ideas for Realia's I had, and has been working with me to get more of them worked out

8. Liquids, Vile and Villainous
Aquam lvl 5

Lucian the Scholar has assembled a collection of some of the strangest, deadliest and rarest liquids found throughout Europe. His collection displays the wondrous properties of all kinds of liquids - colour, viscosity, acidity etc.

Pride of place in the collection goes to a container of Greek Fire - obtained at a great deal of expense and risk. Studying this collection will give a greater understanding of the different types of liquids and how they act, allowing someone to increase their Aquam score.

Potential Bonuses

Study of the collection will allow a magus to know, for the purposes of Creo magic, how to create Greek fire - which has the benefit of being a liquid that can burn on water ‘naturally’.

The collection can be used as specimens if placed in a laboratory, giving the usual bonuses for specimens - the Art bonus will be for Aquam

Bonus Story Hooks

a) The manufacture of Greek fire is a heavily guarded secret, one that never fell into the hands of the enemies of the Eastern Roman Empire. After the fall of Constantinople only the Byzantine successor states of Nicaea and Epiros still have the knowledge of how to make this weapon of war, though perhapse not the ability..
What happens when the lords of Europe discover there is an intact specimen of this wonder weapon they might be able to obtain and, who knows, learn the secrets of its manufacture. How do the Byzantine successor states react? What happens when princes quarrel and a Magus is caught in the middle?

b) Lucian believes he has found the location where Niobe still sits, weeping for her lost love. His information comes from several old Greek texts he found recently, and he asks the characters to travel to the place he believes she is and obtain a vial of her tears for him

c) A particularly deadly poison from the collection has gone missing, a single drop is enough to kill a man, and co-incidentally several important people have dropped dead. The Quaesitors are on the case and Lucian is a suspect - the players may look to defend Lucian and help him discover the real killer, or they may be drafted by the Quaesitors to help them in their investigations

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The creation of greek fire by magic was explicitly detailed in Art and Academe (p70). In short you need to have a recipe and make a finesse roll. This doesn't really clash with your reilia, it just says that in addition to the liquids, the collection needs to include at least one document; lab notes describing the creation of greek fire.

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This is, from what I see, the creation of it using a formula and craft magic?

I am talking about understanding what Greek fire is in the sense of using Creo magic to create the thing, if only for the duration of that creo spell, subject to a finesse roll?

In essence you can use CrAq to create a flammable liquid that will burn on water, if you do not know what greek fire is, then this is an highly unnatural liquid and so would be two additional magnitudes.

However, as I see it, if you know that such a liquid exists then it is a natural liquid, in the terms of how natural and unnatural are meant in the magic system?

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A Quick one today as I've only just got back from a trip, Many thanks to Fafnir for this one as he gave me the original idea.

9. The Masters and their routine

Order of Hermes lore OR Covenant Lore (Level determined by the number of magi and apprentices in the covenant)

The Grogs and companions of a covenant can learn much about the order of Hermes in general, or the life of the covenant by studying the magi of their covenant.
The Magi are the focus around which the covenant is built. It is their routines, quirks, temperaments and habits that shape the life of the covenant and its inhabitants.
What Magi do and how they act can also give a greater insight into the order as a whole and their individual houses - the general ethos of the houses can be seen in how their magi react to certain things, and how they train their apprentices

Bonus Story hooks;

a) The magi notice that a new member of the covenant’s turb seems to be following around each of the Magi, and they have no idea why - what happens when they decide to look into this themselves

b) The Children of the covenant are told by their parents to learn about the Magi, their routines and their personalities. They want the children to learn about the magi and the order from a distance, but the Children didn’t quite get that last bit. They keep bothering the Magi, asking them lots of questions and interrupting their work - how do the player Magi respond, and if they chase away the children or punish them in some way, what is the response - are they constantly pranked by annoyed children, do all the grogs leave the covenant if the children are harmed in some way, or do the children prove helpful to those magi who humour them?

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10.Statuary of the Annalects

Lvl 7 Tytalus Lore OR lvl 4 Philosophy

A gallery room in a hidden corner of Fudarus, House Tytalus’ domus magna, contains a collection of statues commissioned by each Primus showing their favourite depictions from the Analects of Tytalus. The room contains 9 statues showing scenes of the House’s founder besting his enemies in various ways. The displays of the statuary, particularly the lighting in the room and the positions they are displayed in, seems to change regularly though no member of the covenant knows why or how this happens, but keen observers have commented that the displays seem to reflect the prevailing philosophies and politics of the house.

The statues themselves aptly display the philosophy of the analects and so can be studied to understand the philosophy of Tytalus. But an observant student can determine much more from the statuary gallery. A study of what the primus of a particular time chose for their statues helps in understanding how the dominant general philosophy of the house has changed over time, the positions the statues are displayed in and how prominently can also give a student a deeper understanding of the house’s current philosophical leaning and the balance of power between the Calliclean and Hippian factions of the house

Each time a new Primus has been appointed they have commissioned a statue and added it to the garden - there are, in 1220, 9 statutes currently in the Garden. Harpax’s choice has yet to be finished and installed.

Potential Bonuses;

The scenes depicted in the statues themselves are not the only thing you can study to learn from the collection, the position of the statues, how they are displayed etc give a greater insight into the state and history of house Tytalus. The more statues added to the collection the more nuanced and subtle these signals might be.
When studying this realia for House Tytalus Lore the student can count the number of items in the collection being the actual number of statues squared (to represent the way each statue is displayed in relation to the other) If doing this then the Student must succeed in a House Tytalus Lore roll of 9+ (to represent them actually having the basic knowledge to understand the history and context of the statuary and what the position of the statues might actually mean.)

Bonus Story Hooks

a) Harpax’s choice of statue has been, finally, finished - after years of delays and sabotage by Buliste’s agents and supporters. The artist commissioned to create the statue lives near to the player’s covenant and both Primi ask the covenant to help them - Harpax wants them to help deliver the statue to the covenant and install it in the gallery, whilst Buliste would like the characters to intercept the statue in transit and either destroy it, or maybe make a small alteration…. Which side, if any, will the players pick in this longstanding battle.

b) Whilst studying the statues one of the player characters finds that all of the statues have now changed drastically - each now depicts Tytalus being defeated by his enemies - what on earth could be happening to the house?!?!