Plotline, need more ideas (my players should not read this)

So, I have this idea for a big adventure in the Saga, but I need some help, especially with the hook.
I wish to use Harut and Marut, the two fallen angels punished by God for teaching magic (among other things) to man. They are trapped in a huge cave under Babel, and this cave is buried under tons of rock. Now, my goal for the story is to have a long journey, and it should include only a few, possibly just one Magi, and the rest should be companions. The companions for this story will be Templars, and not the regular ones.
So, we have two fallen angels with infinite knowledge of magic, one Magi, a group of Templars and a journey to the Middle East. I'm thinking that lust for power could be a motive, and the Templars should have their own goal, which might come into conflict with that of the Magi. In my campaign, the Templars are not all nice, and many of the inner circles do dabble in infernalism.
So, all I need is a hook. How should this start? And would it be possible to free the two angels from their prison? What would be the consequence for that? Any ideas?

E.

In the event of finding old trapped magical powers, you can't go wrong with seekers telling a story of an old one - creatures teaching magic definately come under the category of old ones. If you want throw some decoy old one storylines first building up to finding the demons cave.

If you need a hook for the templars being available, remember that part of the templars mandate is protecting travelers, get the magi to pose as pilgrims on the search for a holy site, please protect us.

Excellent ideas! And the Templars should have their own agenda, of course.
I'm thinking that a seeker stumbled upon the cave of the two fallen angels and tried to release them to learn their magic, but he was cursed by God for trying to do so. He arrives at the covenant seeking shelter, but commits suicide, since he'd rather face the legions of Hell than meet God again in Heaven or something like that. Hmm.. anyway, it should be a dire warning. Maybe he tries to throw himself into Final Twilight on purpose to escape God's wrath? Can a Magi do this on purpose? So the Magi find clues to the cave with the fallen angels on the dead Magi. What clues should these be? And right at that moment, a Templar visits the covenant, posing as another tired traveller. He's really searching for the Magi, and they've been persuing him since he left the cave.. hmm..
How does this sound? :slight_smile:

E.

If you are not having the players themselves find the demons, and you are having a battle of good versus evil campaign, then encourage one of your players to get the visions flaw. Make it out like a minor thing, hardly ever used, never endangers the player. Or check out the redcap links for the prospectus locus game sessions in iberia. One of the characters there had a guardian angel virtue that the angel tried sending him on all sorts of missions for god.

As for throwing yourself into final twilight, look at the mechanics of twilight, it is completely uncontrolled but an old magus with a high warping score has a better chance of final twilight, just cast a spell with plenty of vis.

Sure they can, but they need the intervening lesser twilights in between, I believe. Here's one way to do it:

Twilight Meditation
CrVi, Level 10
R: Personal, D: Special, T: Ind

The mage enters a meditative state, focusing on the magical enerergies around him, and starts drawing them in with each breath. Once the meditiation has begun, the mage starts gaining two Warping Points for each indrawn breath, and must consequently check whether he enters Twilight for each inhalation. The mage can interrupt the meditation at any time, but any warping gained is permanent.

(Base 10, no modifiers as each breath is technically a separate casting of the base effect.)

Cheers,

--d

I'd be inclined to lose the suicide idea unless it happens elsewhere after the characters and the old magus concerned have already built up a relationship. Why? If it's on their doorstep then they know very quickly what happened. If it happens elsewhere, they need to get through the rumour and reported events to fid out what really happened.

As to the ultimate goal, do they know from the outset what they are after? Perhaps you could look at the "true" goal being different from what they think they are after?

If you are looking for minor events to add flavour, then look at the region you'll be playing in (did someone say Iberia?). Perhaps they need to find a certain historian who happens to live in Alarcos (Al Arak). While there they interact with the Almohad rulers of the city before leaving to find the next clue. Alway think about what stories can come from the locations, not just in terms of a series of events.

Do you want it quite so clear cut that this is Infernal from the outset?
The Magi could be fooled into thinking , that once you get through the various Infernal Regio ,
that the ultimate level is in fact a Magical Regio.

You could be evil and allow some kind of uber magical secret ,
but it cannot be learnt by a Hermetic Mage.
The players have to go through a series of "Tests"
to shed the constraints of Hermetic Thought
(losing Magic Theory Score and/or Parma would be the game mechanic).

Unless you want this permanent , make it a kind of ritual based magical amnesia.

One of the main themes should be temptation. The characters should know that they are doing something bad, but the power they could get from these two angels might outweigh that.

E.

Inspired from the former posts, and by the biblical tower of Babel, my idea would be:

that maybe from outset the possible motivation for the PC's magi might be something less than magical power - maybe an seemingly simple challenge: the magi have somehow acquired an interesting text. Though that text might certainly be believed to harbor great magic...

Maybe its ancient, maybe it's a more recent copy of an old text, but the important part being that it is written in a language that the magi don't know. They might realise, as they try seek out other learned people, magi or not, that it really is an unknown/forgotton language. Yet even the parchement itself or the inks seethes with power. Power and mysteries beckon to every sane (and insane :smiley: ) magi, the unlocked secrets being a constant thorn in the side of the magi.

Now, what if during the PC's research/role play (using many of the brilliant ideas above) the finally stumble on or find a wise man (use any appropriate archetype that suit you) that reminds them of the fable of Babel - that if they seek to unlock mysteries in a forgotten language, then the only way might to seek the ruins of Babel (all languages being one).

Now the board is set and you (and the PC's) can move the pieces... There might be room for an interesting sub-adventure as they travel toward their destination. There might be interesting portrayals of the local culture and related plots, hermetic and mundane. There might be intrigueing amongst the members af the travelling party: magus vs. Templars, Magus/Templars vs. superstitious grogs, Templars vs. Templars (godfearing vs. corrupted). The last one might even inspire an "Orient Express" story (isolated in the deserts/mountains in a small travelling party mysterious deaths starts happening, becomming more and more incredible - maybe the corrupted Templars working to "clean" out their loyal counterparts? Maybe some of the grogs are more than meets the eye? Maybe the magus is under suspicion? Which might lead to the magus feeling stressed that if he do not reveal the real culprit(s) he might suffer...)

Finally they find their destination and one can do what ever one feels like. Searching and "dungeonering" or simply tell the unweiling of the underground cave and then whatever happens there. Maybe a climatic resolution of the "Orient Express" and the intergroup intrigues.

But what if there remains a final coupe de grace..?

That when the magus finally gets to translate the ancient parchment - using magic found in the cave, a mundane translation key or doing a "Rosseta Stone" (finding a tablet or insciption with the same text as on the magus' parchments, except that the same texts is also inscribed in another known language - maybe greek or hebrew - or in the spirit of the fable of Babel, maybe it's an enormous inscription saying the same in every existing written language, covering an entire cave or even a foundation wall remaining from the Tower) - that the texts is actually a strong warning to never disturb the resting place of the twin fiends! The warning might be mundane or divine, whatever suits your saga.

Thus the morbid irony is that the text that where to warn mankind to ever disturb... becomes the very reason "something something" (evil? the punishment of God?) being unleashed once more on the world! Now that's a fiendish plot, indeed...!

Off course being very keen on handouts myself to fuel the imagination of my players, I would create a mysterious enticing parchment to lure the unsuspecting players.... I actually did something alike it - 2 years (real time!) back I introduced something like it. An undecipherable text, that for now rests with the covenant as a foreshadowing of a interesting and strange story yet to unfold...

A digital copy of this handout is of course available to my SG sodales, if you just send me a personal note with your e-mail, I'll mail it (in Word or probably Acrobat Adobe).

That text would be very interesting, as I also like handouts. Can you send it to me on beneibul@online.no? :slight_smile:

E.

Are you considering a Temptation/Redemption theme?
Do any of your players have any Divine Virtues?
Suppose these angels "appear" to be Fallen.
The PCs corrupt themselves ,
only to be confronted with two angels who are doing the Will of the Divine.
They could have gained the Secret (or Major Breakthrough)
but only if they had remained true to their Faith.

You could also play off the differences between Christianity/Islam.
The PCs , if Christian , despite all adversity , seem to gain nothing
while any one who is Islamic is rewarded.

You could also do the switch.

Make the players think they are releasing two Angels trapped by:
Demons (hey thats why there is an Infernal aura!)-perhaps they abandoned Satan after they realized what he was really doing???, Trapped by Diabolic Tytalus, Imprisoned by Mercurian Priests for bringing the Dominion to the area (so the story goes :wink: ), trapped by one of the Elder Gods....

:slight_smile:

I think I'll do more research on these two angels first. I like to keep my campaign as close to actual history and myth as possible. :slight_smile: There's even av book written about these angels.

E.