November Realia - A Realia collection a day for November

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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Missed posting yesterdays - here it is

11. Those Things that Might Sing

Lvl 6 Imaginem OR Artes Liberales

Yolanda of Jerbiton has assembled a strange and particularly unusual collection of seemingly unrelated and random items. These include several crystals, coins, shields, an anvil, glass jars, pieces of pottery and a bird cage (which holds no bird)
Yolana’s collection consists of items that can, through various non magical means, produce a pitch perfect musical note - so for example, when struck with a hammer the anvil produces a clear note, some of the glass containers, when a wetted finger is run around them, create a note, and so on.
Study of these items allows a Magus deeper insight into how sounds can be created, and so can be used to improve Imaginem. One can also consider how these items might be turned into the most unusual of musical instruments and so can increase their understanding of Music - giving an increase to Artes liberales

Bonus Story Hooks

a) Someone has destroyed Yolanda’s collection - items have been warped or damaged so now they produce strange and unnatural sounds - Yolanda is inconsolate and demands that the player characters hunt down whoever did this to find out why. This can be a way of introducing the demonic to the players as you can use some of the myths about tritones and if you need a demon to blame for it all, then an agent working for Amdusias would fit well en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_d ... etia#Dukes

b) Yolanda could be an Archmaga in the Rein Tribunal. Her challenge to any seeking the title of Archmage would be for them to find natural items they must use to create music that will bring their audience to tears - items she would quie likely want to pick through afterwards to add some to her collection.

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Today's is all Daniel Jensen's work - which I have to thank him for again

12. Other people's shoes

Folk Ken

They say in order to really know someone you need to walk a mile in their shoes. This is something a few magi have taken quite literally as they have started to collect town peoples, farmers or merchants worn out shoes.

It is thought to have started as a dare from a member of House Jerbiton to a very reclusive covenant brother belonging to House Merinita. The Jerbiton magi thought this was an excellent way to get their reclusive coven brother to interact more with the outside world and in particular other humans. He did not really foresee the full repercussion of the dare. Little did they know that it would lead to his coven brother spending even more time looked away in his lab studying other people's shoes.

Studying the shoes will give the magi a better understanding of the day to day life of the mundains that inhabit the lands.

Plot hooks:

What will the coven folk think when they see a magi walking around asking if they can procure people's old shoes. And what will the local villagers think? This is a good opportunity for misunderstandings to occur. Maybe they will lead the the covenant being more alienated or maybe something good can come out of it.

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Again, massive thanks to Daniel Jensen for all the help and coming up with the idea for this one

13. Mundane Trees of Magical Proportions

Muto OR Herbam

This collection of miniature trees was brought back into Mythic Europe by Dendron, a Magus of House Ex Miscellanea, who traveled from Greece, through Anatolia and into unknown lands along the old Silk Road. He traveled a great distance and has returned with many curiosities and stories of these far away lands - how much of these are true and how much are entertaining stories is something often left to the listener to decide.

As evidence of the truth of his tales, Dendron has handed out examples of tiny trees that he says are often kept as decorations by the citizens of the cities of Silver and silk to the far east. These, he claims, are clear indications of the veracity of his recountings because these perfectly formed examples of ancient trees in miniature show no signs of any magic. They are, he says, evidence of a different type of art native to these foreign lands that is not detectable by any Hermetic magic - he also claims to have learned some of this magic himself and he is working to integrate it into Hermetic Theory… would you perhaps like to contribute some Vis to help in this noble endeavour and he will be sure to send you one of the first copies of his work when he cracks it. And of course, if you want, he can leave an example of these strange trees so that you can examine it and confirm what he has told you.

It was shortly after this whirlwind tour around the order asking for subscriptions to his research that Dendron disappeared.

There is currently no collection, but there is a large number of bonsai trees scattered around the order, in the laboratories of magi who have been visited by Dendron, several of whom would be quite interested in hearing how his work is progressing, or finding out where he is.

Magi might encounter these trees when visiting other covenants, they are interesting conversation pieces and, as Dendron said, show no signs of having any magic used to create them - they are curiosities and anyone who collects them will be able to form them into a Realia that will allow them to study either Muto or Herbam

Potential Bonuses

Anyone willing to collect enough of these trees may be able to gain insights for original research into overcoming the limit of warping

Potential Story Hooks

a) An old journal is found, detailing what appears to be some of Dendrons final journeys. This might be a very good opportunity to find new undiscovered miniature plants. The journal might also contain other clues to Dendron’s fate - has he run away with as much Vis as he can carry or is there another reason for his absence?

b) Players may want to travel eastwards to the lands Dendron claims to have brought these trees back from to investigate the magic that might have created them - this could lead to a trip following the silk road

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For today's collection I have been thinking about how some of the previous ones could also be used to study lots of different subject, and the context of how the items were displayed and the intent of the curator are important in what people learn from the Realia collection. To that end I've made what essentially the same collection but viewed through two different lenses - which can create some interesting tension in the game if you need something that is not an earthshaking (or even serious) conflict, but can still generate stories about conflicts between magi

14. Legacies of Antiquity

Depending on how the collection is displayed Either
Craft : Sculpting OR Artes Liberales
OR
Fairy Lore OR Magic Lore

There are currently two great collectors of ancient statuary and carving recognised within the order. The first is Eudoxia of house Jerbiton, a maga who lives in the Theban Tribunal. The second is Laoidheach of house Merinita, a Magus living in the Rome tribunal.

Both despise one another with a passion and collectors of antiquities often become members of factions centred around which of these two collectors they agree with.

Eudoxia’s collection is centred around the craftwork and history displayed in each piece, her focus is on the history of the roman empire (both Western and Eastern) and the Greek city states. The way her collection is displayed highlights the small part of history each piece represents in the wider collection, and the collection charts the rise and fall of each civilisation. Her collection is ordered with pieces in date order and her school of thought stresses historical learning. Collectors who subscribe to Eudoxian methodology will learn either Craft: Sculpting OR Artes Liberales.

Laoidheach’s collection focuses on the stories told in the carvings and statues of Greece and Rome, and so his collection is displayed so that each story is examined in as much detail though the pieces, with Roman and Greek pieces from different eras mixed together, so long as the story they display is the same or a related one. His followers have taken a phrase Eudoxia used to mock Laoidheach “Mythic Pedagogues”, and modified it, calling themselves as Mythagogues. They use their collections to study Fairy Lore OR Magic Lore.

There is no real reason for this disharmony between the two camps. It seems that the two Magi just object to one another on a personal level which has carried over to their shared passion, and other magi have been swept along in this disagreement.

This has only gotten worse in recent years as this continuing feud appears to have sparked an interest in antiquities amongst many members of House Tytalus. Who knew chunks of marble could be so interesting!

Potential Story Hooks

a) If these two collections could be combined in some way then the level of the resultant realia would be stunning, and would be something that could attract visitors from all over the order who would be more than willing to pay to study it - the only problem is the owners of the two realias despise one another immensely - can you bring an end to the feud and get them to agree on a way to display the combined collection, or is there another way to bring the collections together?

b) The player characters have obtained something that would fit wonderfully into either of the two collections - as news of their acquisition spreads in the order they begin receiving offers from followers of both the major collectors, then the luminaires themselves, each attempting to outdo the others - how do they handle this attention and the resulting bidding war - and what happens when the losing side takes more covert action to obtain the piece?

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that is just beautiful...

Bob

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Running late again for the 15th, but here it is

15. The Forgotten

Perdo OR Intelego

Cleon of Tremer is a strange one. He spends his time devouring old tomes, searching through ancient records and archives all around the world, trying to find any mention of an item in his collection. Not particularly unusual for an obsessive collector, but at each discovery he sighs, and discards the item he has found a record of. This is because Cleon is an avid collector of the forgotten - legacies that no one remembers, famous names and deed now recorded, if partly, only in one place - his collection.

Each insight into a piece of his collection is a blow to Cleon, yet a boon to another collector, because Cleon will not simply throw this thing away. Instead he will find someone else in the order with a collection related to his discovered piece and offer it to them. Cleon has many friends across the order because of this, and has a very positive reputation amongst other collectors in the order.

For this reason Cleon will often receive items from all over the order from adventurers and collectors who have found something they believe is interesting, but do not know what it is, what its provenance might be, or when it was produced.

Cleon’s collection might as well be an ongoing research project. Items are catalogued, with notes about possible references in texts or his reasoning as to its provenance noted alongside each piece someone studying this collection gains an insight into the depths of his investigations and the art of Intelego. If, however, they instead focus on the items themselves then they gain a deeper understanding of just how easy to forget a life can be and how great and important events or things can be forgotten in the mists of time, gaining a deeper insight into the art of Perdo

Bonus Story Hooks

a) If a player’s Magus begins forming a collection centred around something no one else in the order currently collects then they may very well hear from Cleon once they have established a modest collection offering items that he has identified as fitting their collection.
If they accept then a several items, none of which the player will recognise or be able to figure out why they might belong in his collection arrive by redcap with a letter from Cleon saying it will be a challenge for them to work out why he has sent these items
b) A Bonisagus mage looking into pre-order magical traditions has reason to believe that Cleon’s collection contains several ancient magical devices and texts that would help his research immensely, but the old collector will not allow anyone else access to the collection (after all, if someone else knows about the things in his collection they’re no longer forgotten!) and begs the players to help him convince Cleon to give him access to the things he wants - can Cleon be convinced, or will he ask that every item he releases be replaced by another forgotten thing?

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16. The Patients of the Schola Medica Salernitana

Lvl 6 Corpus OR Medicine OR Chirgury

The fame of Salerno’s healthy climate and its excellent doctors has spread far and wide by 1220, and the Medical School at Salerno has become a destination for the sick seeking a cure. The Schola Medica Salernitana may even be a covenant, or a mundane institution supported by Magi. In my saga the school benefits from the support of a Jerbiton League interested in preventing and curing plagues and other medical threats to civilisation’s growth.

The School holds several interesting texts, and many expert teachers, but for those who have learnt all they can from these, there is always the option of practicing the medical arts on individuals, or studying the patients in the hospital (of which there are usually around 20 unique examples of illnesses or injuries). In performing the rounds, and studying the patients, an individual can fulfil a season of work whilst also learning from observing the patients.

Potential Bonuses
Studying this Realia collection involves treating, observing and caring for the patients in your care - which means that any season studying this collection should also be equated to a season of work
Due to the turnover of patients, with the cured leaving and new patients arriving, the collection essentially refreshes itself with new and interesting specemines, so although the level does not increase it can be studied any number of times

Potential Story Hooks

a) Sickness is a constant companion in the hospital, and death will often stalk the halls of Salerno. One of the player Magi is caring for a patient of great importance, if they live or die will determine the fate of many people, perhaps even nations. What happens when the grim reaper arrives at the bedside of this patient as the Mage tends to him. Will he play a game for the life of this man, can the mage fight off death, or do they have another way of keeping their patient in the realm of the living - should they?

b) Over the course of a year the patients arriving at the school almost all seem to display the same symptoms, alarmed by this the doctors of the School appeal to their mage friends and ask them to investigate what looks to them like a potential europe wide outbreak of some unknown disease - what could have caused this and are the cases all related, or is this a series of more and more unlikely coincidences?

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Finally caught back up, so 2 items today to bring us back on schedul.

17. The Aquarium

Lvl 6 Animal

Pacifica of house Bjorner has established her collection in a series of underground lakes she has expanded with her magic. She collects fish from all over the world and she uses her magic to keep her different underground lakes similar to the natural habitats these creatures originally come from. She has also set up a small laboratory here to benefit from the inspiration she seems to find from the cave and its occupants. forms part of her lab.

Pacifica breeds and raises many different fish, and is currently working to develop new means of Aquaculture. She will often pull out full grown fish and give them as gifts to the local monastery when meat is not eaten, during lent. This means she keeps friendly relations with the local abbott and often corresponds with him sharing her discoveries on the breeding of locally occurring fish, and slowly introducing her new ideas on aquaculture into mundane society without actively spreading it herself.

Over the many different ponds she has at least 30 different species of fish or shellfish

Bonus Story hooks

a) Pacifica could make an interesting contact or patron for a player mage. She may contact them after having been away from her caves for some time. Upon her return she found that the entrance to the cave she sealed with her magic had been breached and one, and only one, of the pool has been poisoned - who would do such a thing and why did they target this specific pool?

b) Some of the fish in Pacifica’s collection may be magical in nature - the player characters may come across this series of underground ponds and assume that they are a vis source, as several fish contain animal Vis - do they attempt to claim this ‘vis source’ and what happens when Pacifica returns to her caves to find that several of her prized specimens have been harvested for Vis

18. A Collection of Fives

Lvl 5 Magic Theory OR Any Realm Lore

Quincunx of Bonisagus is a newly gauntleted mage with grand plans. Quincunx wants to find a way to understand the relationships between the different realms and how each warps items, maybe even control it or mitigate it. His eventual goal is to understand and predict how warping from a particular source will affect someone.

The first step he has decided to take is to collect examples of warping from each of the realms to try and determine any recurring patterns that might emerge from a particular type of Aura.

He has been doing this for a couple of years now and his fledgling collection consists of 12 sets of 5 originally identical items. In each set of items, one is mundane, one has been exposed to a powerful Magical Aura, one to a powerful Divine Aura, one to a Powerful Fairy Aura and one to a powerful Infernal Aura.

Potential Bonuses

Each set of 5 items can be broken up into 5 separate collections - one, consisting of the mundane items would be useless as it would have no context or meaning, but the other items can be split up into realia collections that can be used to study each of the different realm lore abilities - studying the individual realms from the split collection should not reduce the number of times you can study the combined collection for magic theory - as it is the set of 5 items that counts as a unique ‘item’ in that collection

Potential Story Hooks

a) Quincunx is always interested in finding new high level auras to warp his items in - if he knows an expedition is going somewhere with a high aura he may ask them to take something with them to leave in the Aura, or may commission people go to these high aura places to recover an item after it has been there long enough to warp

b) I’m sure there’s no downside to storing several infernally warped items in one place - what’s the worst that could happen

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I just want to drop a note of encouragement. I'm really enjoying these.

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Much appreciated =)

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Today's collection owes its existence to Daniel Jensen and the amount of work he's done collaborating with me on this - as does the fact I've managed to keep up the frequency of posting (if imperfectly). Daniel has helped me take many of the original ideas I had and helped me expand on them, and has brought about so many more.

Although I'm the one posting these I really do need to stress the time Daniel has also put into this work, and how grateful I am to him for working on this with me

19. The Faces of Death

Lvl 7 Perdo OR can be split into collections of different levels for different Area Lores

I remember well when last I saw him, in his rooms. Funus is… was a man I can only recall as being so friendly and yet so distant. I remember his words when I asked how he came to have such strange things adorn the walls of his room;

“All my life, the lives of those so different to me was of the most interest to me. Perhaps, having been born and having lived in Iberia such an outlook was to be expected. Where European and Islamic ideas merged it gave rise to different men, some like me and some diametrically opposed to men like me.
"Regardless, upon completing my apprenticeship the only course I could see was to expand my horizons, to see what else was out there. So I traveled far and wide, throughout the lands of the Order and then beyond.
The first item of my collection was this mask” he said as he pointed to a particularly fine example hung above his fireplace. “The tale of its acquisition is about both a beginning and and end. It starts, as so many things do, with an end.
I was walking in Cairo when a child playing in the streets slipped as he ran out of the way of a speeding cart. He was hit, killed instantly”

The look in his eyes I did not expect - it was all warmth and fond memory. None of the horror you would expect to see as a man recalls such a gruesome event.

“I was stunned for a moment, of course, but then a woman rushed out to the body, weeping. I came to, offered to help, obviously, what else could I do. I had no idea it would lead me to see such wonders at the time, I think back and am eternally thankful I was in that place at that time.
“My offer was accepted, and the woman instructed me to carry the body back, and prepare it for their burial ritual, which I did whilst she left on some errand. When she returned it was late at night, and she came with a strange looking man. He proceeded to, using implements of cunning design, extract the fluids and organs of the body, which were all stored in separate jars, each of which was sealed with a wax like substance. The body was then wrapped in cloth, and loaded into a carriage that came to the house. The man and the woman got into it, and she beckoned me to follow, which I did.
“Where we went, I would rather not say, what we did there.., I was invited to take part in a ritual. We were given masks to wear, I was told to stand at the head of the child and repeat the words chanted by the unmasked man overseeing the ritual.”

His mask slipped for a moment, I am sure. Never since or before had I heard him talk quite so openly, quite so passionately.

“Deep in that Chthonic temple chanting those words, the things I saw and heard…. Those people surrounding us, their masks, the faces of Death…”

His words seemed to jolt him back, the spell was broken. He was wearing the mask again, the mask that is.. Sorry, was, him.

“Ah but look, the hour is late and the sun is going down, and you have better things to do that sit here listening to the ramblings of an old man”
With these words he guided me to his door and bid me good night. I did not see him again.

[center]-Testimony given by Palestrato of House Verditius to Quaestor Tritus[/center]

The collection assembled by Funus Ex-Miscellanea consists of many different burial goods from many cultures, particularly masks used in the burial ceremony or death masks. These items give anyone studying them an insight into death, its perception and also its power - meaning they can be studied to improve one’s ability in Perdo.

They also represent insights into many different cultures, and the collection could be split into many smaller ones giving differing levels of collections for different area lores (I will not set which at what level here as this may be more useful for an SG to do based on the saga they are running).

Potential bonuses:
This collection would be highly aligned with necromancy or other death related magics. It may be used as a source of inspiration or examination of the collection may give a player a clue into where to look to begin investigating Canaanite Necromancy from Ancient Magic.

Potential Story hooks:

a) Someone has dared to break in and steal one of Funus masks. His most recent acquisition. He tasks you with finding out who has done it, punishing them accordingly and of course bringing back the mask to him where it rightfully belongs. Who has stolen the mask and why?

b) The characters discover that one of the items in Funus’s collection was stolen from its rightful owners, a village in a distant and isolated location, and is sacred to them. This sacred mask is very closely tied to the life and security of the village and a lot of people have started to become sick soon after it was stolen, what do they do?

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Thank you, Daniel and Imreai. I'm really enjoying these.

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Thank you all for the support

20. Acids and Bases

Perdo OR Aquam

“Look, look at it. Look how it as if by magic makes it disappear. It it not the most marvelous thing you have ever seen. Is it not..”
-A overheard lesson

The effect of acids and bases have long been known to man. But it takes a magi with a fascination for Perdo to truly appreciate their beauty. This also makes them excellent subjects to study for a magi that wants to learn more about destruction.

A collection of different natural Acids and bases would makes for excellent study subjects if it where not for the fact that they tend to destroy everything, even the container in which they are placed!

If a mage can find a proper way to store acids and bases much can be learned from their destructive ways.

Potential story hooks:

a) Oh no! After coming back from a short trip. The magi finds a large part of their precious lab ruined. It appears that several vials and/or containers of acids and bases have broken and their content have spilled out all over the magis work space in the lab. Destroying several seasons worth of research, not to mention all the equipment that is lost. How could this be? They were sure that everything had been properly and safely stored before they went away on the trip. Is this just a freak accident that necessitated the rebuilding/repair of their lab or is there something more nefarious going on here, maybe a fellow covenant member has sabotaged their research, or have they stolen something and tried to use the destructive liquids to cover their tracks?

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This collection came about from a conversation about if books could (or should) be part of a realia collection since there are already rules for books that work very well. There was then a moment of realisation!

21. The Librarian’s Secret

[i]Profession Scribe OR Craft Bookbinding OR Craft Calligraphy

“I’ve spent my life studying all of these book… Read them? Bless you no, I’ve not done that”
[/i]
Every covenant, if it’s worth its salt, will gather a collection of beautiful individual examples of the book maker's art. The products of the best scriptoriums in all of Europe, the most exotic and fanciful techniques for the recording of knowledge onto paper, papyrus or some other arcane material will so often find their resting place in the collection of a covenant of Magi.

To believe that, even for one second, the people tasked with protecting and caring for them, or those creating new copies, would not study them would seem strange if you stopped to think about it, yet many Magi in the order most likely are blissfully unaware of this fact. Who pays attention to what the librarian does as they wander the stacks of Durenmar, or some lesser cousin of that great repository, when their own nose is so deeply buried in a book?

Potential Bonus

To be surrounded by inspiration is often a key to any artistic endeavour - and the creation of a book is truly an art. Anyone who is creating or copying a book in the presence of a suitable realia will gain a bonus up to ½ of the realia’s level to their relevant craft, or Profession: Scribe, abilities. The actual number should be decided on by the SG, based on the quality of items in the collection.

Bonus Story Hooks

a) The covenant has decided to sell a particularly well decorated tractus that is otherwise fairly useless to them, but which the library staff would consider the crown jewel of their collection due to the almost perfect penmanship, the sublime illumination and illustrations, and the subtle genius of its bindings. And so the library staff delay - “the book cannot be found, has one of the magi withdrawn it recently?” is the opening gambit from the librarian “Ah yes, I remember you asking now, unfortunately it was found but is damaged and is being repaired, we cannot sell damaged goods, I shall of course advise the council when the book is again ready” is the second “Oh, I had forgotten, so terribly sorry but master so and so who so recently went into twilight asked me to lend it to the abbot of the local monastery as he thought it might be of use to him” and so on, and so on. Do the Magi keep remembering, can they push hard enough to eventually win and if they do how do the library staff react, or do the staff of the library score a small, but important to them, victory over the magi?

b) A small accident in the mind of the mage perhaps, a slight slip of the hand which spilled some potion or the ink on their desk. However it has happened they have damaged or destroyed one of the library's books - a shame too, it had such wonderful illumination. Ah well, plenty more in the library - it could be worse. Except maybe for the Librarian, who worked so hard to secure that work for the library, who cares so much about his collection and the joy it brings him. Now, how might a librarian with a grudge get back at one of his masters ... as a means of teaching him to be more careful with books, obviously.

c) The greatest work of the librarian’s life is to commence - he will be producing the finest copy of Aristophanes’ Wasps the world has ever seen, with illustrations to boot! Now, he must have suitable inspiration and reference materials! The best illustrated books in the library will have to be kept in arms reach! What happens when Magi keep asking for certain books, only to be told “No, that’s been reserved for the next four years or so, maybe more”

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22. Mineral compositions

Teram OR Craft: Lapidary

During the, hopefully, long life of most magi they will naturally acquire a sizeable collection of rare minerals and precious stones. These are often overlooked by many magi as simple trinkets or decoration in the lab or sanctum. Useful only as ingredients or for creating magical devices.

But these minerals and crystals breed deep in the earth, growing right out from the very rock, as if by magic. They can be studied by a mage interested in learning more about the ins and outs of mother earth.

Young magi may not yet have accrued as big of a collection as a more seasoned mage, but they can often find a lot of good samples to study with relative ease, just by collecting interesting rocks from the local area.

Magi should be able to find and put together at least a level 3 realia with relative ease. 20 years after gauntlet Magi should have no problem in putting together a level 5 realia just by simply going through and studying the samples in their own lab, unless their covenant is poor or their lab suffering from shortages.

Of Course different magi have different interests, their might well be several magi that are close to a hundred that have no such minerals or stones in their labs. Just as there might be a young magi fascinated by the bounty that mother earth have provided and can easily muster up a level 7- or 8 realia.

Bonus Plot hooks:

a)There are a lot of rare minerals and gems that can be quite valuable. Maybe the magi’s collection has caught the eye of a fellow mage or simply the collection has grown so large that the servants have started to talk about it amongst them self spreading the word in the local towns and villages.

b) An outsider from the covenant hears about the riches stored in the covenant, rubies, diamonds! Just left scattered around some crazy old person’s room! A heist is planned to infiltrate this strange place and obtain some of these riches! (Bonus points for playing a group of grogs doing this to an NPC mage as way of introducing the criminals that end up working in the covenant)

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23. Heaven and hell

Lvl 4 Mentem

In the year 705 the doors opened to the world's first psychiatric hospital, located in Baghdad. In 800 the doors opened in Cairo and soon thereafter several others as well. It was not long after this that word reached the order of hermes of these institution. Most magi laughed it off as a crazy notion: “Nothing good can come of a house full of crazy people.”

However one maga was not so fast in dismissing this. She was looking for a way way to gain an edge on her peers in the field of Mentem and so she travelled to all the psychiatric hospitals in the Middle East and Africa.

There she spend time talking to these patients and transcribed her discussions with them. Many claimed to be possessed by either angels or demons.

The resultant interviews and many sketches she made were collected into journals, along with her personal notes and observations

Sadly all that is known of this scholar of insanity is that she was a maga that lived around the year 900 in the Theben tribunal and travelled to the Islamic world to investigate these new hospitals. We only know as much because of some of the notes in the volumes are of a personal nature. A few have tried to pinpoint exactly when the volumes were written but they have only been able to come up with a estimate, so to this day the identity of the author remains a mystery.

The books are actually useless as texts in themselves, they mainly contain sketches of the patients and sketched impressions of their delusions.


Plot Hooks:
a)After studying the volumes a few seasons the magi makes a discovery. It appears that the author have made some small notes in several of their conversations with these patients. At a first, and second, glance they appear to be nothing more than small observations. But several are actually written in code and once you understand how to read them you discover that they are part of research into a minor breakthrough to create spells that affect those who share a particular delusion. Why would someone want to create such a target though?

b) They also talk about another book, a 11th book that ties it all together. There are also several clues of the book’s possible whereabouts. If the Magi follow up on this they have to delve into the history of mental illness and its various treatments, how do they deal with this and the insights and chances to slip into the world inhabited by those they would study?

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24. The Magician’s Tricks

Lvl 5 Legerdemain

Iactator of Ex Miscellanea knows he can walk into a village, scare the wits out of all the peasants, extort the local lord with threats and demonstrations of supreme magical power and walk away again, all safe in the knowledge that he’s unlikely to get caught by the Quaestors unless they catch him in the act itself.

That's because Iactor doesn't use hermetic magic to do this, or really any magic that might be detected by an intellego vim spell. He might even be able to argue he’s not breaking the code, though that one will probably depend on how he gets caught… if he gets caught, which of course he won’t! Of that he is sure.

Iactator just loves taking all the work that mundane con-men have refined over the years and as a result he has built up a huge collection of different examples of mundane illusion. Props used for simple slight of hand, and other more elaborate devices and setups of his own invention which make the mundane seem amazing. His collection displays the craft of the illusionist and con man in great detail, and is a learning experience for anyone with the interest in learning sleight of hand, distraction, illusion and all the other flim flam.

Bonus Plot Hooks

a) The players end up being drafted by one of the Quaestors to help them investigate reports of interference with mundanes. The descriptions of the acts witnessed by these mundanes sound like magic, but spells to detect the use of magic bring up nothing. Can the group find clues that will allow them to determine that Iactator is behind this and bring him to justice, or does he has a good reason for the strange things he has been doing

b) Iactator comes to the players for help. He has discovered a trail of ruined lives and reputations. It would appear that the worlds greatest confidence trickster and con artist is abroad in the world. How can the Magi find and trap this man, and how do they react when they deliver him back to Iactator only for him to beg the con artist to teach him

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25. A Study in Death

Perdo

Throughout history there have been several massacres that have taken place. St. Brice's Day massacre and the Granada massacre just to name two of the more recent (took place November 13, 1002 respectively December 30, 1066). Magi interested in the destructive arts of battle and its associated art are often keen to pick over these battlefields for excellent examples of the warrior’s art.

There have always been dark rumours about magi who collect these items pushing things along, or providing information or assistance, that lead to such events. Some mutter darkly of a cult or brotherhood that dedicates itself to pushing the mundane world to such battles and acts of destruction, though no one has been able to prove anything or produce evidence of such a conspiracy, the rumours still persist.

They are, undoubtedly, magi with a fascination for items that have been “exposed” to massacres. Anyone finding themselves present at such an event may be able to make some money by collecting interesting items from the field after the event , and such items may be worth studying in themselves.

Bonus Plot hooks:

a) After a more noteworthy accomplishment from one of the sagas magi they get approached, maybe at the local tribunal, by a member of this cult / brotherhood (assuming it exists). Not in so many words saying who they represent as that they have taken a interest in the mage and may hint This is a good way give small bonus tasks to a player during the saga. Maybe even tasks that not necessarily go along with the overall interests of the group as a whole.

b) As part of an adventure where the players manage to stop some larger conflict they may have stepped into, and disrupted, a long term plan by members of the cult to cause a significant military clash between a strong lord and his weak neighbour - they will find themselves preventing such a clash again and again until they discover the hand of the cult in the background and put a stop to their intrigues

c) Anyone collecting items like these will find that something they end up acquiring for the collection is haunted by the ghost of one of those killed in the masacre - any number of ghost stories can be spun off from this

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I've been a bit under the weather lately, so I've not posted recently. I mainly needed to clean up some of the items we already have planned out so i shall post what I have finished now, and will finish the last couple of collections over the weekend.

26. The Spirits of Hospitality

Aquam OR Carouse

Faolan of House Merinita rather enjoys hosting parties from time to time, and his collection of liquors and alcohols from all over the world (and realms) are something that has to be seen to be believed - or better yet tasted! This collection of delectable delights can be used to increase one's Aquam abilities, or to increase your knowledge, and tolerance, of the many and varied brews of the world

Potential Bonuses
The collection contains a particular set of fairy liquors that are the distillation of emotions which will temporarily grant personality traits - including a particularly strong liquor of true love - this may be useful if someone is attempting to research a breakthrough for the limit of true feeling

Potential Story Hooks

a) One of the Magi decide to visit Faolan and enjoy sampling his collection. One epic session of revelry and bacchanalian indulgence later and they wake up, without clothing, in a field surrounded by Satyrs. Where have they ended up and what on earth is going on. At least the little goat men have a bit of the hair of the dog to get them over the hangover!

b) A local town drunk have been caught breaking in and consuming a good amount of Faolan’s rare liquors. He was caught red handed, well not maybe red handed as much as sleeping among the empty bottles he previously consumed. But how was a local drunk able to get into the [back] room where all the “good stuff” was kept? And better still, why did someone put him up to it?

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27. The Everchanging Puzzle

Animal OR Magic Lore

According to legend this collection of bones originally belonged to Fröken, a famous Bjornær magus. Famous not so much in of himself as famous for the myths he helped create. His exploits are believed to be the inspiration behind several myths and he was responsible for a number of supposed sightings of an eight legged horse sacred to the northern men of Scandinavia.

House legend states that Fröken sought out the beast in order to study it and its mystical shape shifting abilities that meant it could change form effortlessly, transforming into any other beast. Having found the beast and begging it to let him study it, it is believed the beast laughed at Fröken and refused. This caused Fröken to see red and fly into a berserk state of mind. When he finally calmed, the beast lay dead at his feats. He brought the body home for study and upon concluding his research he ended up giving out to his friends the bones of the creature as gifts and curiosities. This beast is referred to in a particular myth that has survived in the house as an oral tradition, but the creature he slew is never mentioned by name, only as ‘the beast’.

One of his direct hermetic descendents is now in the process of trying to collect all of these bones together to determine what the creature he hunted was, but has run into a strange problem.

The beast is described as having shapeshifting abilities, allowing it to freely change form transforming into any other beast. The bones of the creature seem to still hold some residue of the creature’s abilities

Many magi have studied the bones reassembling them to try and get a picture of what the beast looked like. So far after each bone has been recovered the finder has attempted to assemble the bones into a form that fits, and after each find this has been successful. Unfortunately, though once it has been assembled it looks like this is how they are supposed to be put together, those working on this project will get a good night's sleep only to come back in the morning to examine their work again and realise that something seems off, that there is another configuration that makes even more sense for the bones, if only they could find the missing piece(s).

Over the years a lot of the bones have gone missing, their locations no longer known, yet there are member of house Bjorner still on the hunt for any further remains of the beast

Plot hooks:

a) Rumors have reached the covenant that a traveling salesman is telling stories about a creature able to change it form. Surely this can't be another creature like the beast? But if it was, think of the fame and riches that would go to the captor of such a beast.

b) A traveling Bjornær mage has come to the covenant and stayed a few nights. One night in a stupor he lets slip that he is on a quest to find all the bones, assemble them in order to once and for all find the beasts true form. Will the magi help him, offer him to join in order to themselves benefit from his findings or will they take advantage of the magi’s knowledge of where more bones are to be found, maybe even rob him of his bones aswell?