Sad story of an unsolvable fairy pact

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Currently my group and I are playing in the Normandy Tribunal . Our Covenant is located in the region known as Champagne near Dijon and to the west at a day of travel lies the dark fairy forest knows as "The Morvan" inhabited by the baddest fairies in the Tribunal. Due to a series of unfortunate events our greedy Magi decided to make a pact with a fairy to improve the quality of our fields and produce the best wine in the entire region...
So in my last adventure we did it and my sado-master compels my PG to make this pact with this fairy before I am able to know exactly the specific terms (in fact, the fairy has done everything possible to keep the terms of the agreement vague or understandable...). Now due my oath and after pouring a drop of my blood I have to provide to the fairies my firstborn but unfortunately I am not able to do this because actually I am sterile having already performed the Longevity Ritual on myself...

Do you have any suggestions for me to solve this issue? Thanks a lot in advance.

2

Stone soup......

3

I don't see the problem. Caveat venditor!

4

Do nothing and the (probably) damned thing will eat your apprentice or your familiar.

  1. Spend a season going through all the proper motions of "opening the gift" of a common goat.
  2. Tearfully give your new filius "Scape" to the fairy.
  3. Wave goodbye. (with more than one finger if you're feeling charitable)

(0. Make very sure you have no reason to suspect the creature you are dealing with is actually infernal.)

5

Why is it unsolvable? Not your fault the fae failed to assess the situation correctly. You'd hardly see them being able to claim the inverse. If they take issue with this, the fae courts ape human courts, take it to their liege lord.

6

As long as the pact was not "Give me your firstborn before XXX years or you will be cursed", then you should not feel threatened. It is not like you are not giving your first born, you are unable to conceive a child. Now, if you have somewhere an illegitimate child, possibly several years old or even a young adult, then the fay may counter argue: "I know there is one, find him/her or the deal is broken".

Alternatively find a succubus, which might be able to conceive a child despite your magical sterility (this is purely an hypothesis and not written in the rule, don't bother looking for it) and give the half demon to the fay, then...

:smiley:

Legends abunds on example how an apparently awful pact was turn upside down by creative thinking. I am thinking of the Devil building an indestructible bridge in exchange for dragging to hell the first one to cross the bridge. And the priest send a goat cross it... the Devil took it and try to destroy the bridge for beeing cheated, but since it was indestructible, tough luck.

Now, you have to be careful that the fae does not gave you some fertility potion to drink which will counter temporarily the effect of the longevity ritual. Because then you will have to explain to the mom where did go her dear newborn.

7

Or perhaps, due to the nature of the pact, you will unexpectedly be able to conceive a child...

Faeries are all about the story, so if it makes for a good story then things happen. The child, of course, would have faerie blood because of the pact. Whether is is actually your blood child or not remains to be discovered.

Another thing that might happen is that your character, during a different story, may become female and be forced to bear a faerie child. You would give him/her birth, so he/she would be your firstborn, by definition. Even if you are not related by blood. In this case, the child may be a full-fledged faerie.

8

Arthur: I like the way you think. I might have to steal that someday! :slight_smile:

9

It is not my job to supply you with your claimed item. I make no counter claim of possession of the object, you can go find it yourself. This does not violate our agreement, wherein was merely stipulated that you would gain possession of my first-born. Not that I would expend effort in providing it to you.

10

I cannot say that it cannot be argued, but it really depends on the pact wording. If it includes "giving the firstborn", it may imply that it is up to the pact-bound magus to literaly "give the firstborn", to fulfill the action of giving.
We are treading on the fine prints and technicality, and it can be a dangerous business to put all your hope on such thin line - if you have no other choice, then go for it. Depending on the fae mood, she might say fairplay, well spotted or call for foul game, begrundgedly conceed and then have you and your sodales Plague with Faerie, or the opposite, have no other faerie to ever talk to the covenant (which can be both a boon and a curse, especially in Normandy).

Personaly, if it comes to such fine details, I believe the inability to sire a child is a better defense than the refusal of fetching the "agreed payment". And even if you don't know where is the child, do you really want to give the authorisation to a Dark Faerie to go get it by herself ? She might present herself as coming on your behalf to collect the baby, or simply wreck havoc until she found him. Maybe this is the only thing she really wants: permission to do as she please so the bargain is fulfilled.

It becomes of endless game of argument and counter argument which might be a story in itself, which might need to be cleared by some High Court of Law - that would be a very nice plot to have to bring the case in front a human merchant guild, with a mixture of both faerie merchants and human tradesmen in the jury. It could become precedence, or on contrary, both party might be digging into old forgotten archives and legends to argue their case. Then no matter what, the Faerie win because there was long story of struggle, maybe some cloack and dagger actions, to finally save or doom a child (with of course the parent's agony all along). Something that will be told and retold, the Vineyard might get a strange reputation afterwards and the wine might be nicknamed "Baby's tears". It might be the best wine in the world, but only the most debauched and amoral men will ever try to drink it. The Faerie is yet fulfilling her end of the bargain, but the sales will be slow.

And once everything seems to settle, "knock, knock, I am a Quaesitor and it seems that your past actions have brought the Order a bit too much on the front scene, would you care to explain ?" or "The Church heard that a mage agreed to trade a baby for wine ? they have sent a exorcist to investigate and House Guernicus would like to make sure that a good damage-control strategy is in place, would you be so kind as to surrender right now?"

In fact, I start to like very much this story seed and I will definetly add it in my campaign (they have to deal with Baba Yaga, so it will happen, very soon indeed - and the Orthodox Church is starting to take a keen interest in their business).

11

Another possibility, if the magus in question is male, is that he unknowingly sired a child before taking his longevity ritual. He just doesn't know it (but the faerie does), so he would be forced to track down the child -- just to give him/her up.

Again, story potential.

12

In Faerie, there's more than one way to father a child. A faerie can mingle with your stirring speech or outburst of temper, for example, and who knows what can be born of that?

Maybe not in a +2 aura, but +6 or +8...

I like the thread.

13

I am sorry but there are some things that I omitted...

  1. the agreement provides that our fields give us superior wine and now is already active. In return I have to give to the fairies my first-born before the boy has 20 years...
  2. In the history of our Covenant, an old covenfolk and her young daughter were burnt alive in their home for failing to honor the pact. I just continued the story renewing the pact (but before I was able to know all the terms).

Anyway I suspect that the fairy has strong demonic behavior but it is very unlikely she is a demon, btw she promised me that my soul will be devoured forever if I am not able to honor the deal...
Saddly another Magus proposed herself to accept the deal but we had had a long discussion with a lot of divergent ideas (each of us with their own convictions) so we decided challenged in a Certamen to elect the Magus who would take the honor of signing the pact, and I won... :frowning:

PS: sorry for my English. I have to practice it more :stuck_out_tongue:

14

I was thinking along the lines of Arthur's you already have a child idea. Someone comes to you claiming their child is gone and the faerie who took it claims that you were responsible.

In the long run, a story about gaining power over the Faerie (say a permanent AC and sympathetic connections plus a large enough selection of unpleasant spells known to the different members of the covenant that the faerie is most strongly inclined to no longer even think about getting on your bad side) and then "negotiating" a second deal with the faerie when it is the party that doesn't understand the terms seems like a juicy story to tell. Especially so if you can get your characters to break up along the lines of principled versus pragmatic and have a heartfelt debate.

15

Is it a written contract? Because if it's verbal (and assuming the GM allows the translation pun), give the farie your first bourne, instead: ie, the first thing you picked up in your life.

Or your First Bjorn - which is obviously just a shortening of "Bjorner" - so, the first time you have sex with a Bjorner (or whatever counts as being someone's "first"), they belong to the fae - or at least, you need to give them to the fae. I'm sure that one will be completely easy to avoid, and will certainly not cause any complications in your life. Just avoid all shapeshifters for the next 200 years, and you'll be fine.

16

Or just find a bear and give them it.

Not your fault they didn't want a bear. What kind of sick and twisted person DOESN'T want a bear?

17

Or maybe you hear it as "first porn..."

18

Considering the past violent reaction for not fulfilling the bargain, I would not advise to play on the pact's wording to get away from it. It looks like faeries capable of very cruel vengeance.

To come back to your initial problem, if you want to have a child to fulfill your part of the bargain, you will need to find a magus with Fertility magic (Ancient Magic p54) but considering it is a Breakthrough, it can very well not be available yet and you will have to find it yourself. Depending on your GM, it could be possible that shifting to special Longevity Ritual including the breakthrough of Aurulentus is enough (Magi of Hermes p20).

Obviously, Divine might can restore fertility, however, knowing your motivation I have some doubt that this favour will be granted to you, considering that the purpose it to give an infant to a dark faerie.

I am sure some edge magic can assist you as well- practionner of the old fertility tradition. You "only" need to find the last practitioneer and strike a deal - another one...

19

Exactly!

I'd say that if you wanted to go this route, you'd have to set it up beforehand. That is, the magi in question, when the deal was being struck, would have to say "Right, you want my first porn. Got it." And then get the farie to say yes to that statement. Ie,

 "Fraud protection."
 "Right, Frog protection."
 Frog."
 Fraud."
 Frog."
 "...I think we're on the same page."

Hm - Troupe's interpretation of farie bargains, in that case. In my previous troupe, faries are very much about the exact wording. If this occurred, the likely result would be a golf-clap, and a congratulatory "well played, sir." from the surrounding farie court. Of course, the farie would then attempt to do the exact same thing right back to you.

Or alternately...that's actually what they really wanted, and the magi just THOUGHT they got away with it. But for that kind of treachery, I'd recommend a pretty high-level fae (maybe not Mab, but one level down.) Or at least a farie specifically known for being clever in that sort of thing.

For example - Magi X was trying to get your magi's first-born child (for revenge, or an arcane connection, or whatnot), and bargained with the farie to get it. The farie didn't particularly want to do that, so they bargained with your magi for their first Bjorn, knowing that you would likely use the pronunciation loophole. Then, when you bring in your first Bjorner, the farie took the Bjorner to the Magi X.

Of course, the reason it does this is because the BJORNER had bargained with the farie to "allow me safe passage into Magi X's sanctum, so that I can wreak my vengeance on him for killing my paren." And the farie's requirement was "OK, but you'll have to do some odd stuff with this random magi first." Insert (possible) romantic relationship with your magi (or not, depending on how that plays out), but at the end it's all about playing three magi off each other using technicalities, in order to set up a triple-betrayal vengeance thing.

EDIT - the trick would be to get the Bjorner and your magi to NOT talk about what was going on - and having your magi try and seduce the Bjorner (in order to get out of the bargain), while at the same time having the Bjorner pretend to be seduced (in order to gain their vengeance) - where if they simply had been open and communicative about it, there would be significantly less drama. But because they DON'T, there's angst to go around.

And of course, a story for the Fae.