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.