Session recaps: Raspy Raven Ars Magica game

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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The Anno Magica thread had a suggestion that people post summaries of their sessions. So here I am!

The Raspy Raven is an online RPG community, mostly UK based. For the past few months, we've been playing a campaign of Ars Magica. It's a large community and many people are interested in playing, so we've leaned in to the "troupe" style of game, and doing a "West Marches" campaign. Sessions are organised ad-hoc, and anyone can GM a session. People have mage, companion, and grog characters, and can play any of their characters in any session they can make. All PCs are members of the same covenant. Sessions are self-contained, but affect the covenant and setting as a whole.

If anyone here wants to join the game, join the Raspy Raven community and find the Ars Magica section!

Rules-wise, we decided to go with the Ars Magica 5ed core rulebook as they only fixed sourcebook. People can mine the other books in the line for inspiration, but nothing in those books is canon (in our game). In particular, as we're all new to GMing Ars Magica, we're resisting including rules from other books.

The game is based in South-West England, somewhere between Gloucester and the Welsh border. (That's vaguely near the canon location of the Blackthorn covenant, but that's not in the core book so we're ignoring it.) We've shifted the date to be late-1140s-ish, to have the game in the later stages of The Anarchy (an English civil war). We also move the date of the Schism War to later, and asserted that The Anarchy is the mundane face of the Schism War.

We're deliberately leaving many of the details of the setting undefined. Real-world history and geography are there to be mined for inspiration, not slavishly adhered to. The precise date of the saga, the precise location of the covenant, the precise membership of the covenant, all are deliberately unspecified to allow us to tell fun stories.

The backstory to the game is that Llosgi Coed was a Diedne covenent and one of the first to be destroyed in the Schism War. It was in a magical regio and, for many years, no-one could get into it. That's just changed: the rest of the Order of Hermes has just found a way into the regio and has set up the Phoenix covenant on the site. The PCs are new magi, rediscovering the secrets of the old covenant, and establishing themselves in the Order. A couple of the magi have much closer ties to House Diedene that they're letting on, and one magus is the disgraced child of a local baron.

Session summaries below!

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The Missing Maga, Spring 114-

The covenant's maga Ffion Yn Unlle and grogs Wen verch Reis and Wilim ap Reis were expected to return a week ago from a research trip to a set of standing stones that might be a potential vis source.

The Redcap Gervais of Blackthorn arrived last night with news that Wilim's body had been brought to an Abbey for burial 7 days ago and there is no news of Ffion and Wen. It's common knowledge in the covenant that Ffion is hated by the surviving members of a cabal of diabolists. The covenant's magi have tasked a group of companions and grogs to investigate and hopefully return with the missing members.

Characters Involved

  • Cenric, grog
  • Iwuld, grog
  • Lexington, grog (an awakened gargoyle)

Characters as NPCs

  • Ffion Yn Unlle, maga
  • Wen verch Reis, grog
  • Sergeant Cole and the Red Surcoats, grogs (A group of five soldier grogs who fight as a trained group.)

Major NPCs

  • Mḗlnir, a vitki wizard who lives in the Forest of Dean
  • Eva, Mḗlnir's apprentice
  • Abbess Agatha, Abbess of Tŵr y Tri Bryn Abbey, the daughter of two magi belonging to a covenant in Constantinople
  • Prioress (Dame) Inga, second in rank of the Tŵr y Tri Bryn Abbey.
  • Prior Fr. Raff, third in rank at Tŵr y Tri Bryn Abbey. Fr. Raff is not keen on magi or the Order.
  • Dame Rosemond, chancellor (librarian) of the abbey
  • Brother Edgar, hostlier of the abbey (He oversees tending to the needs of guests)
  • Fr. Reis, the other ordained member of the abbey, he serves as the village's priest
  • Lewelin Mwar (Big Lewelin), middle-aged man, resident of the village of Fro Haearn
  • Lewelin Bach (Little Lewelin), son of Lewelin Mwar

Major Locations

  • Tŵr y Tri Bryn Abbey. A roughly 400-year-old dual-household Benedictine abbey ruled by Abbess Agatha. The abbey is on the western rim of the Wey Valley near the Forest of Dean. It's built on the grounds of an old motte and bailey hill fort, with two mottes. They abbey has a good library, and provides a grammar school for the children of the Fro Haeren village. While the abbey was founded with a good library, it received many mundane books salvaged from the old Diedne covenant. The tribunal is aware of this and many covenants grow their libraries by trading copies of books with the abbey.
  • Fro Haeren Village. A tenant village of the Tŵr y Tri Bryn Abbey. The village is on the valley floor along the river Wey. In addition to agriculture, the village has a working iron mining and smelting operation.
  • Standing Stones. A glade with three standing stones, each roughly 3 meters in height, forming an equilateral triangle, about 5 meters apart from each other. Next to each stone are the bodies of gutted black goats, each held up by a wooden stave. A small circle of stones seems to be ringing a depression between the standing stones. The glade as a minor magical aura. The standing stones are connected to a legend of a dragon who ordered giants to raise the stones.
  • Infernal Region of the Forest of Dean. Mḗlnir says he discovered it while looking for the diabolists who escaped the attack on Ffion and the grogs. It's a region he hasn't visited in a few years, which he suspects was caused by infernal magic.
  • Mḗlnir's Homestead. A wooden building (home and adjoining barn), a pen for livestock, bee hives, and a few out buildings.

Summary

  • Objective: Discover what happened to Ffion, Wes, and Wilim; and try to find Ffion and Wes and bring them home.
  • Resolution: Ffion and Wes were found alive and were returned to the covenant.

Receiving news of Wilim's death and Ffion's and Wen's disappearance, the covenant's council tasked Cenric, Iwuld, and Lexington to travel to the Tŵr y Tri Bryn Abbey to learn what they could, and, if possible, find Ffion and Wen and bring them home. They were accompanied by Sergeant Cole and his Red Surcoats (a group of covenant soldiers who fight as a trained group).

At the abbey, the grogs learned from Prioress Inga that Ffion had used the abbey as her base of operations and had spent a few days doing research in the abbey's library, before the group made two day trips to the standing stones, and had planned to spend the night when they disappeared.

The next day, Wilim's body was brought to the abbey by Lewelin Mwar of the village Fro Haearn. Wilim was clearly killed by violence — multiple weapon wounds, mauled by a dog or wolf, and partially burned. Lewelin Mwar had requested a Christian burial for Wilim, and the abbess had Wilim buried in the abbey's cemetery rather than the village cemetery.

Prioress Inga assumed that Wilim's body was brought to the village by Mḗlnir, who she described as "sort of a hermit. A woodsman, hermit, and one of the cunning folk. He lives in the Forest of Dean, less than a half-day’s walk. Villagers sometimes seek him out for healing, and he blesses the fields. Well, not bless...He’s Christian of a sort, but he doesn’t bless the fields like Fr. Reis might…"

The next day the grogs were taken to the village and Lewelin Bach (Lewelin Mwar's son) took them to Mḗlnir's homestead, where they found Ffion and Wes. Ffion and the twins had been attacked by a demon and humans. Wilim died, and Wes and Ffion were wounded. They survived because Mḗlnir and his apprentice Eva joined the fight. The demon was destroyed. Some of the humans escaped. Ffion was still a few days from being able to travel when the grogs found them.

Mḗlnir is a full-fledged Vitki wizard — a Norse magical tradition focused on rune carving, that is a rival to the Order of Hermes (based on the galdr tradition of magic); in fact, the Order has fought wars against the vitkir Brotherhood of Odin, including here in Britain.

Ffion explains that Mḗlnir chose to save her and Wen knowing that doing risked death at the Hands of the Order. He had belonged to a small group of vitkir who lived in the Forest of Dean and had helped fight the Diedne covenant. Mḗlnir was tasked with staying with the apprentices. No one returned and two apprentices left, leaving him and Eva.

Ffion proposes that the covenant offer Mḗlnir their protection, effectively inducting him into the Order of Hermes and making him a member of the covenant. Also of note is the standing stones, which do have a weak magical aura, and an infernal region inside the Forest of Dean Mḗlnir discovered while looking for the surviving diabolists.

Finally, Ffion produced a letter from Abbess Agatha in which the Abbess explains she had been waiting for the covenant to get better established before reaching out, but that she welcomed friendly relations with the covenant. Covenant members are welcome to stay at the abbey when traveling in that region, and they are welcome to use of the abbey's library and to engage in book trade, a mutually agreeable arrangement the abbey has with a number of tribunals in this region of Britain.

Action Issues

Ffion calls for a covenant council (normally just the magi, but we haven't decided who is on the council). The council needs to consider

  • What to do about the vitkir Mḗlnir and Eva. Ffion suggests offering them protection by having them join the Order of Hermes and the covenant. Other options include pretending the covenant doesn't know they exist (a violation of the Code of the Order), declare war on the viktir, or report the viktir to the Stonehenge Tribunal.
  • What relationship they want to have with Tŵr y Tri Bryn Abbey, including the book trade.
  • What they want to do about the infernal source inside the Forest of Dean (e.g., investigate it, report it to the tribunal, or ignore it).

Future Story Hooks

  • The standing stones near Tŵr y Tri Bryn Abbey, which have a minor magical aura
  • The infernal region of the Forest of Dean
  • The viktir
  • The Tŵr y Tri Bryn Abbey
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Mayday (spring 114-)

Damian, the reeve of the nearby village of Mitcheldean, invited some people from the covenant to look at their cows. The "previous lot" in the covenant did something to stop the cows being sick, and the village has asked you to do the same again. Old covenant records show the village as a source of vis.

Players and characters

  • Josse the juggler, grog
  • Lexington the gargoyle, grog
  • Prena, maga

Major NPCs

  • Lord William Shield of Westbury: local baron, owns the land that the covenant is in.
  • Harry, his son; ceremonial Summer Champion
  • Ryder, Lord William's steward in Mitcheldean
  • Damian, reeve of Mitcheldean (head serf)
  • Alison, ex-housekeeper for the Diedne covenant
  • Oswald, creep; ceremonial Winter Champion
  • Denis le Gras, Bishop of Hereford, who hates Iwuld and Josse
  • Fr David Dechamps, parish priest of Mitcheldean
  • Æđelflæd, May Queen
  • Henwr Gaear (Old Man Winter), annoyed faerie

Major locations

Mitcheldean, large village in Lord William's lands. About 40 households with associated buildings, farms, fields, etc.

William has built an adulterine (unlicensed) motte-and-bailey castle in the village, guarding the ford. The small garrison there spend most of their time patrolling the area.

Summary

The PCs cleared the cow herd of the faerie "horseflies" that were attacking it. The faeries left behind some magical blood. That's worth four pawns of Animal, Muto, or Rego vis.

This annoyed Old Man Winter, who appeared, shouted about humans renaging on deals, then announced a big fight on Mayday. That ended quickly when Prena yeeted a birch sapling through his chest. Oswald reappeared, injured.

Beer and medals all round.

Other events

Denis le Gras was in town to demonstrate the power of the church to cure the cows. He may take some credit for that, but he couldn't do anything about defeating Old Man Winter. That setback, combined with accidentally arresting Harry (Lord William's son), means he had to leave Josse alone. For the moment.

That accidental arrest was triggered when some of the bishop's soldiers tried to capture Josse, but got confused when Josse put his jester's hat on Harry's head.

Lord William was there to both keep an eye on, and be seen by, the bishop.

Lord William wants to work in partnership with the covenant.

Æđelflæd and Fr David seem to have a romantic relationship.

Alison recognised Lexington and knows a bit about Lucianus, the Diedne mage who's now haunting the covenant.

Rewards and advancement

4 pawns of vis from the "horseflies".

Old Man Winter's shield of Storm. Literally made from a contained storm. Size of a heater (kite) shield, but Def +4, Str -1, Load 0. Or could be dissembled for 4 pawns of Auram vis.

Dangling plot hooks

Lord William is allied with Matilda/Henry. A neighbouring baron, Gosse of Ewyas Harold, is allied with Stephen. (These are the two rival leaders in the Anarchy / civil war.) Ewyas Harold is Numerius's old family (PC magus).

Lord William is happy for the covenant to harvest vis across his lands, so long as they improve life there (e.g. remove magical parasites from cows). He offered more support, including physical/military protection, if the covenant work with him to kick out Gosse and William to take over his lands.

Bishop Denis now has a better idea where Iwuld's troupe has gone to ground.

Alison is now working for the covenant as a housekeeper. She may know more about Silvanus the ghost.

Eve, apprentice to Mḗlnir (the vitki wizard), turned up at the covenant a few days later, demanding an explanation of why the magi had interfered with Mḗlnir's sources of magic.

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The Mad Ghost, Summer 114-

PCs Involved

  • Favian, magus, Criamon, pacifist, visions and otherworldly percpetion
  • Walding, grog, plays enchanted music

Major NPCs

  • Lucullus, the mad ghost haunting the covenant
  • Alison, covenant-folk
  • Gwenda, ex-covenant-folk, early fifties,, now living in Huntley, married to Pæga
  • Pæga, farmer, mid-fifties, in Huntley, hates magi
  • Luke, 11 year old boy, magical, living in Huntley, son of Gwenda
  • Hamilton, Pæga's son by Everild, early twenties
  • Ryder, farmer's wife, late forties, pragmatic
  • Vanquel & Roul, two men-at-arms for William Lord Westbury

Major Locations

  • The covenant
  • Huntley, a hamlet a couple of days travel away, near Forest of Dean

Summary

The PCs chose to do something about the mad ghost haunting the covenent, especially after it has started possessing people and walking them up stairs that no longer exist. Alison told them that the ghost was probably that of the magus Lucullus, who specialised in Herbam magic. They managed to stop the ghost posessing Alison and managed to get some information from the ghost about what was driving it.

Long story short, the ruined tower at the top of hill in the covenant led to a faery road portal. Both the portal and tower were destroyed when you rediscovered the covenant. Lucullus was in pain because his talisman (a staff of living wood) was trapped the other side of the portal. Ifor connected this story to the faerie road portal in Huntley, and Walding remembered tales of a strange tree growing there.

The PCs found Lucullus's body in the ruins of the tower, including wooden growths in his body.

Side note: Lucullus had frequent sex with many of the covenant-folk. He distributed abortificant potions to them and some women near the covenant.

Favian, Walding, and the Red Surcoats went to Huntley. On the way, the met Vanquel, Roul, and a couple of other Norman soldiers who were extracting tolls from travellers on the road (without permission of Lord Westbury). Walding managed to persuade them to return their takings and at least do the toll-taking on another lord's lands. The PCs retrieved a bundle of woollen thread they took from Hamilton of Huntley.

Huntley comprises about a dozen houses/barns. The long-burnt-out ruins of one remain, with a couple of wooden crosses standing in it. In the centre of the hamlet is a pair of standing stones with a tree growning between them. A boy was sat under the tree. When the party approached the village, Gwenda ushered Luke indoors and told Pæga to keep the magus out of the hamlet.

Favian had a vision of Lucullus standing between the stones (without the tree), planting his staff there, then being attacked by two other magi. Favian recognised the sigils of those magi: one was his parens, the other was a magus who died in the Schism War. When the flash of energy cleared, Lucullus was gone, a house was burning, and Everild and Leofgyþ were dead (Pæga's first wife and daughter).

Walding managed to calm the situation and led a discussion with Ryder. Favian investigated the tree and discovered it was Lucullus's talisman, now gown into a twenty-foot-tall tree of many species. Luke is a magical boy, attuned to Herbam, but not Gifted.

Using Lucullus's bones to bypass the talisman/tree's magical resistance, they were able to cut down the tree, remove the branches, transport the trunk back to the covenant, and re-plant it.

Action Issues

Favian feels compelled to pay weregild for the deaths of Everild and Leofgyþ at the hands of the Order. It's about two hundred shillings, roughly the price of one trained horse or five years income for a farmer. He wants to check with the rest of the covenant before committing to pay it.

Future Story Hooks

  • The portal in the covenant is now fully open. Ifor the Curly can take people through the faerie roads to place like Huntley. There will be a price to pay for such travel. Faeries can also come into the covenant.
  • The covenant have partial access to Lucullus's laboratory, so some more books and a few enchanted items.
  • Luke talked about Ælswiþ, a wolf Beast of Virtue in the Forest that sometimes visits him.
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The Anarchy arrives, Summer 114-

PCs Involved

  • Favian, maga
  • Walding, grog
  • Lexington, companion

Major NPCs

  • Guiscard, son of Gosse Lord Ewyas Harold (and brother of Numerius, PC magus)
  • Piers, man-at-arms
  • Red Surcoats

Major Locations

Pauntley, hamlet on lands of William Lord Westbury, notable for being tiny but having a watermill for grinding corn[*].

[*] Note for Americans: "corn" is dried seeds of a cereal, not just maize. In Enland, it typically refers to wheat. Maize doesn't turn up until long after Columbus.

Summary

The PCs were enjoying a summer afternoon in Pauntley while they waited for a batch of corn to be ground into flour. The peace was interrupted by a group of armed men, led by Guiscard, storming the hamlet. Favian disrupted the attack by casting Call to Slumber on Guiscard. That led to a stand-off between the PCs and the attackers. Walding convinced the attackers that he was a steward Lord Westbury, so the attackers tried to capture him as a hostage!

That led to one of only two combat rolls of the "combat-heavy" session. A group of soldiers attacked the Red Surcoats; Favian sent the leader to sleep, disrupting the group; the Red Surcoats took advantage and used their "trained group" bonus of +18 to near-kill the attackers.

The stand-off continued. Piers was lulled into revealing the plan. Guiscard attacked the hamlet so the alarm would be raised and the garrison at Mitcheldean castle would come to put it right. Guiscard would leave the hamlet alone and move to ambush the rescuers on the road.

The PCs found a foolish teenage peasant boy, Dex, to run to Mitchledean and alert the soldiers of their impending ambush.

Guiscard agreed to let the PCs go, as he had bigger plans. Guiscard and the men left Pauntley to set up the ambush. The PCs followed, arguing whether they should prevent the ambush or pick up the pieces afterwards. Favian argued for not interfering, but Lexington attacked Guiscard, botched, and allowed some other power to guide him and kill Guiscard.

Action Issues

The Anarchy

  • The covenant has clearly taken sides in the conflict between Westbury and Ewyas Harold.
  • Lord Westbury has sent his steward to give his thanks, and has gifted a book (Tractus on Local Area Lore, quality 15). He's asked for a meeting to discuss what happens next.
  • Lord Ewyas Harold will want restitution, and perhaps retribution, for the death of his eldest son and heir. It's unclear what form this will take.
  • The Quaestores will hear about this, and could well take a dim view on the interference.

The mace

The PCs took Guiscard's mace. It's made from a human femur with lead encasing the head. It's enchanted with some kind of Perdo Corpus magic.
Numerius says it belonged to his grandfather, and has been passed down. He doesn't know where it came from. (He was only ten when he left, and wasn't interested in war anyway.)

Covenant-folk

  • The characters don't know, but Lexington now has the Demonic/Infernal personality trait of Proud +1.
  • Numerius (PC magus, child of Baron Ewyas Harold) is very upset about the death of his brother, and isn't talking to Lexington.

Future Story Hooks

  • Resonding to Westbury's offer
  • Dealing with Ewyas Harold
  • Dealing with Quaestores
  • Lexington's Infernal taint
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Opening the Way, Summer 114-

PCs Involved

  • Prena, maga, Ex Miscellena
  • Mellissa, maga, Bjornaer
  • Lexington, companion gargoyle
  • Josse, grog juggler acrobat

Major NPCs

  • Queen of Summer, faerie
  • Various faerie hunting dogs
  • Gwenda, ex-staff of Llosgi Coed
  • Luke, magical boy

Major Locations

  • Faerie forest
  • Summer Queen's court
  • Huntley, hamlet

Summary

Now the faerie road portal in the covenant grounds is open, it's time to start using it. Our intrepid heroes volunteered (or were volunteered) to explore the portal and what lay beyond.

On Midsummer Eve, they entered the portal and were dumped straight into a tangle of brambles, bracken, and brush, under a hot, bright and overcast sky. Prena's control of plants quickly opened routes for the PCs to travel through (somewhat easier for Mellissa as she was in badger form).

The dense undergrowth continued as the PCs walked out into a very sick forest. Despite it being summer, the trees were bare and leafless; that had allowed the undergrowth to overtake the forest floor. Movement was still difficult. Prena turned into a tree to better understand the problem and found her vitality being sucked away by something. Just then, the others noticed the approach of a pack of hunting dogs who started intimidating the party. But, as Barking Dogs don't Bite, they were really after people to recruit to their tower of dog-babel.

The party climed the hill and surveyed the area. They spotted the Summer Queen's Court, full of fauns and nymphs in full party mode; the area where the forest blight was centred and strongest; and a place of power of unknown cause.

The party decided to visit the Summer Queen's Court. Josse drew on the power of his love (or lust) to take him to the party, and brought the rest of party with him. As soon as they arrived, the Queen accused them of stealing the forest's vitality; it wasn't actually these people, but all humans look the same to her. The Queen's tirade was interrupted by Josse's declaration that she should Give a Man a Second Chance and listen to his confession of affection. This, supported by the power of the bargain he made with the realm to guide him there, was enough. The Queen replied that she'd lost her spear, so she would need use of Josse's for a while.

The PCs then got some background about what happened and the Queen gave Prena a dowsing rod (a split willow twig) to guide her to the source of the missing vitality. Following the rod took them on an exhausting walk through the still-sunny and still-hot undergrowth took. They arrived at the source of the corruption, a sealed portal. Prena stepped through, leaving a bit of her soul behind, and arrived in the village of Huntley. The dowsing rod pointed at Luke, the 11-year-old son of Gwenda and suspected son of Lucullus (the mad mage ghost in the covenant). Prena was accosted by Gwenda, rapidly supported by other peasants closing ranks around her and Luke.

Mellissa and Lexington then came through the gate, again at a cost. The two magi combined efforts to lift Luke into the air then pull him through the gate.

On the other side, Josse saw a young Green Man enter the faerie realm and the forest instantly started recovering around him. Josse took the scared Luke to the Summer Queen's Court, and there they both stayed.

Action issues

Nothing significant.

Future story hooks

  • The residents of Huntley are now actively hostile towards the covenant and magi in general. Not only were Pæga's wife and daughter killed in the assault on Llosgi Coed, but two magi from Phoenix have stolen a child.
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these are very evocative, thank you for sharing!

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Thank you for sharing, these have made my morning (reading Ars Magica while procrastinating work is high praxis, yada yada). Trouple play seems quite fititng to your community, and it looks like it's worked wonders! Looking forward to more recaps :smiley:

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Play report, as written by the player of Walding the grog (a minstrel with Enchanting Music)

Flavian the (pacifist) Mage, Lexington the (gargoyle) Companion, and Walding the Grog minstrel are sent by the Burning Tree Covenant to investigate infernal events in the Forest of Dean--not just rumors, but multiple sightings of demonic appearances and an attack on one of the Covenant's own. Living in the Forest is also a Hedge Wizard who had aided the Covenant by fending off the attack and healing the wounded Maga.

Flavian the Mage first goes with his companion to a nearby Abbey, visiting the Abbess, her nuns, and its library, bringing a donation of books as a gift. His unsettling nature (possessing The Gift in an open manner) results in the grog Walding--more normal in appearance than the short, stone-skinned gargoyle Lexington--into the role of diplomat and spokesman. Sincere in his faith, Walding finds common ground with the Abbess by playing and singing accompaniment to the nuns' psalms, and they depart with the temporary gift of the Abbess's rosary.

Next they visit the Hedge Mage, a foreigner from the north with unfamiliar manners and accents, not to mention unorthodox magical practices. A gift to him in thanks for his service to the wounded Maga was made, but tense words were exchanged, regardless, out of fear by the Hedge Mage that he be forced to submit to the authority of the Hermetic Mages at the Covenant. That topic was sidestepped and the visitors gratefully accepted advice on where in the Forest of Dean to search for the infernal.

That night, Flavian has a dream of a red knight riding through the forest, with red hair upon a red steed, trailing gold behind him. This, along with previous rumors of a son of Harold II, defeated at Hastings, still alive and at large and laying claim to authority if not the throne itself, leaves him confused.

In the morning, the Mage travels deeper into the Forest, and make a discovery...

...an infernal church. There is noise and activity--several people are inside chanting, then a group leaves, walking away on a path through the forest, unclear whether they are locals or visitors or otherwise. The Mage's True Sight reveals they are following the Red Knight from his dream, although neither of his companions can see him. The Mage decides to let them depart and turns his attentions to the infernal church itself.

The group enters. Inside they find an old man, ancient and decrepit. He is drinking animal blood from recently-slaughtered goats. He welcomes the group and claims to be Harold's son, and this his seat of authority in England. Unclear about the origin and consequences of all of this, the Mage and his Companions nevertheless confirm that they are standing in an infernal domain and see evidence of people corrupted, a hazard to their immortal souls. Lexington the Gargoyle repeatedly asks permission to destroy the place, and at last his master consents, leading the old man safely out of the infernal church. Lexington burns down the structure.

Walding assists in safely conveying the old man (and two others who had been knocked out by Lexington) to the Abbey for recuperation of their bodies and their souls. Two turn out to be local serfs, while the old man, after weeks, sees his body and vitality partly recover, as if his age and life was no longer being drained; but his mind remains shattered. He is suspected to be a misguided, confused villager--not a century-old Anglo-Saxon errant prince. The mystery remains.

Upon returning to the Covenant, the travellers learn that the fighting amongst nearby barons has flared up, one side aided by a surge of strength and violence--and the Mage's memory turns to the group that strode away from the infernal church led by the hidden Red Knight. He ponders, wonders... and suspects.

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The Sun & Moon Corrupt’d / autumn 114-

In which members of the Phoenix Covenant used a magical mirror to travel down a ley-line to Transylvania in search of missing maga Prena Coeden

Player-characters

  • Numerius ex Jerbiton, Phoenix Quaesitor
  • Favian ex Criamon, Revealer of the Enigma
    *The gargoyle Lexington, Opener of the Way
  • Talesa of Falaise, Keeper of the Hearth

Major NPCs

  • Ivana Kupala, Autumn Queen
  • Ivan Kupala, Root of All
  • Etrius, Lord of Ceoris
  • Mendacamina, the Iron Maiden

Major Locations

  • Burning Tree Catacombs
  • Ley of Sarn-du
  • Ceoris

Summary

There was a fairly extensive set of clues in the run-up to this story. These revealed subterranean chambers formerly connected to the Burning Tree Covenant, a long-lost magical device in one of its rooms &, very possibly of greater concern to its magi, a number of books missing from its library. It seems Diedne-sympathising maga Prena Coeden kept the existence of some or all of these factors from her fellow magi before going AWOL.

Favian Thorn

The magus correctly identified the Mirror of Ral Neteru, said to have been the cause of many a wizard’s descent into Twilight, & was first to scout the basement of Burning Tree before convening covenant-folk to investigate. He deciphered the meaning of the mirror’s sun-side, which seemed to rely on Pythagorean magical theory to connect aspects of sacred geometry to particular dates, & was disturbed by the implications of its moon side, which seemed to refer to forms of magic that predated the Order of Hermes. He was able to identify a former maga of House Tremere on sight & to communicate with her via a sequence of hand signals handed down to him through circles of mystery. He persuaded the group to beat a hasty retreat back through the mirror when it became clear they had bitten off more than they could chew.

Numerius

The Quaesitor was very quickly lulled by the mirror’s plaintive song about the Summer Queen’s grief over the end of her summer fling with Josse, troubadour of the Phoenix Covenant, & over Autumn Queen Ivana Kupala’s lost connection with her wintry brother, Ivan Kupala: Numerius undercut the fae siblings’ melancholic harmony with his own descant on the theme of loss. When sufficiently recovered, Numerius sent a doppelganger of Lexington to persuade the vampires the group was complying with their act of summoning. Spontaneous magic combined with rego corpus spell Lifting the Dangling Puppet foiled the pursuit of gargoyles made in the image of Lexington’s maker, allowing Numerius to cover the party’s escape back down the Ley of Sarn-du to relative safety.

Lexington

Oh, Lexington: you can’t choose your family, right? The gargoyle was almost immediately magnetised by proximity to the Mirror of Ral Neteru & the circle of eight stones in the grounds of the former Burning Tree Covenant & - not gonna lie, totally expected this - could not resist activating the mirror to see what it did. Lexington seems to be made of the same blue Sarsen stone that makes up part of nearby Stonehenge & to be able to travel down leys otherwise restricted to magi of House Tremere. In mechanical terms, the pull between Lexington’s Demonic Pride & his Loyalty to the Phoenix Covenant are more or less equivalent but the latter drive won out in the end… just.

Talesa of Falaise

Josse’s fortune-telling mother dashed down to the ruined grounds of Burning Tree to warn the group about the premonitions she’d had of Death, The Tower & the King of Swords & arrived just in time to accompany the group down the Ley of Sarn-du to Ceoris. Lesser people might have balked at the possibly of being forever bound to night but we agreed as a group at the end of the session that Talesa could change a longstanding family connection to fighting lycanthropy to a destiny of removing the taint of vampirism from those she held dear. If not for Talesa’s last-minute leadership roll to persuade Lexington to leave in the company of his new compatriots the story might have had a very different ending.

Action Issues

Jeez.

  • Prena’s whereabouts & the degree of her culpability in the betrayal of the covenant remain uncertain.
  • The group altered the date on the Mirror of Ral Neteru on four occasions and saw visions of what had happened, what was happening & what might happen on three of those four occasions. Lexington used the mirror to transport the group on two occasions. Sure it will be fine.
  • Favian's player likened the attitude of Favian Thorn to the Mirror of Ral Neteru to that of Boromir’s to the One Ring in Lord of the Rings: it’s too useful to destroy & the group hasn’t yet sent the mirror to the local equivalent of Mount Doom.
  • Common practice would be to make a report to the Stonehenge Tribunal or perhaps even to someone on the Grand Tribunal… but this would encourage drastic intervention in the covenant from outside.

Future Story Hooks

  • Locals are delighted to see the back of Prena Coeden & the covenant might easily use this as leverage to improve its standing among denizens of nearby settlements.
  • I’m hoping to offer a sequel to this story called The Way of All Flesh in the near future.
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11

Finding druids

After a long hiaitus, the next session.

PCs Involved

  • Favian, magus
  • Talesa, companion
  • Kayleigh, maga

Major NPCs

  • Alfred & Freida, serfs of Tŵy y Tri Bryn abbey
  • Wil, their Gifted daughter
  • Berian, the dying townsman
  • Rhiannon, his wife
  • Huw, a memeber of House Diedne

Major Locations

  • Unnamed village of Alfred, Freida, and Wil
  • Bwlch, small market down near the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons)

Summary

The PCs chose to follow up rumours of "druids" in Wales, in case they were remnants of House Diedne, following on from what they overheard at the chapel of St Amos on the Forest of Dean. They found Alfred and Freida and their eight-year-old daughter, Wil; Wil clearly had The Gift. Everyone agreed Wil should become an apprentice in the Order of Hermes, but disagreed about how to treat her parents. Favian and Talesa were more compassionate, wanting to take the parents to a covenant, while Kayleigh was more ruthless, just wanting to take the child. Eventually, they agreed to take the child and both parents to Phoenix, then on to elsewhere in the Tribunal.

The parents said they wanted Wil to join the druids in Wales, as they were the successors of the magi in Llogsi Coed covenant; if Wil joined them, she would have a much better life than as a serf. They also recognised the signs of the Gift.

We cut to the PCs arriving in Bwlch. Favian and Talesa had visions of a black sow riding round the town, with white clothing training from it. Talesa went in first and did some fortune telling. She quickly learnt the talk of the town was Berian, a man dying after the Calan Gaeaf celebrations. Berian's stone was missing from the bonfire the next day and he became ill soon after. The townsfolk also mentioned that druids had been recently and blessed their granaries to protect against vermin. Favian entered and was given the cold shoulder; he soon left. Kayleigh became invisible and snooped around.

The PCs perceived an arcane connection leading from Berian into the hills outside the town. They followed it to a ring of trees on a hilltop. Talesa and the Red Surcoats had a feeling of unease and didn't want to enter the ring; the magi were unaffected.

Inside the circle, the PCs saw Huw, a young man who instantly recognised Kayleigh's name and went invisible. He offered to talk to Favian, but not with Kayleigh "the murderer" present. Huw seemed to know about the fighting between Westbury and Ewyas Harold and the possible Infernal influcence there. He said he wanted to join the Order of Hermes. After a bit of a stand-off, Talesa found the missing stone linked to Berian, was attacked by the White Lady spirit in the circle, then defended by Huw.

After some back and forth, the PCs decied that while Huw might want to talk, conditions weren't right for them. Kayleigh couldn't find Huw to target him with spells.

The magi returned to Phoenix. Talesa remained for a while to nurse Berian. One night she recieved a letter for Favian, from Huw. It repeated Huw's offer to leave Wales and join the Order proper.

Action Issues

  • Diedne are active in southern Wales; the PCs have some idea of where they are. Do they report this back to the wider Tribunal?
  • How do they respond to Huw's letter? Contact Huw? Tell the Tribunal?

Future Story Hooks

Huw's letter contains four facts of interest

  • Huw is aware of the covenant, its location, and its actions.
  • Huw seems to think the covenant is using Infernal powers to influence the warring barons.
  • Despite that, Huw still wants to join the wider Order.
  • Reading between the lines, Huw wants the power of the Infernal but is unable to get it in his current situation.
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