Session recaps: The Sundered Eagle - Ars Magica game

Games Discussion Ars Magica
41

Journey to Urania
March 1229 - Adventure 30

Charis and Thubayta Al-Shafiyya travel to the lost covenant of Urania, accompanied by Kostas Allectoros and Ivan Volkov, with the intention of invinting them to the upcoming Tribunal of 1235. They contact Urania's envoys in Taurica, and accompany them to Urania in the Kingdom of Georgia. There they find a very large and scattered Covenant, closely tied to the mundane Crown of Georgia, in what seems more like a small Tribunal than a single Covenant. The offer is received lukewarmly, and during the visit Charis makes contact with Andros. He is a slave of one of the magi, with ties to the covenant of Provençe where Eric d'Ancelin is from, and secretly offers to help him escape his situation. Meanwhile, Evantia visits Ouroboros in Constantinople, but is killed by the spirit of Ypogeios while trying to illicitly access the regio where the Sibyl is. Meanwhile, Thubayta visits Khan Köten of the Cumans, who is trying to learn more about the Christians.

Participants:

  • Charis
  • Thubayta Al-Shafiyya
  • Kostas Allectoros
  • Ivan Volkov

Notes: I always loved "The Sorcerer's Slave", and wanted to expand on the Covenant of Urania. So I had the idea that it would be a really big "covenant", with chapter houses all over Georgia, much like the oppidae of Transsylvania. This adventure was the seed for playing "The Sorcerer's Slave" later on. Except that, instead of them coming to Constantinople searching for the disapeared child, like in the published adventure, they will start knowing Andros and the plot will develop from there.

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42

Polydektes' Island
Spring of 1230 - Adventure 31

As agreed with Polydegmon from Hedyosmos, Hermetic descendant of the famous necromancer Polydoro, Hyperides Hylas and Eric d'Ancelin head to the island where his deceased pater Polydektes lived to try to recover as much of the necromancer's sanctum as they can. During the expedition they find various texts, notes and magical objects. They also discover that Polydektes was killed by a mysterious murderer whom they believe could be his supposedly deceased pater, Polyphontes, with the help of Gervais of Gramvousa.

Participants:

  • Hyperides Hylas
  • Eric d'Ancelin
  • Simon Ristopoulos
  • Theoclymenus

Notes: Some time ago they had read, in a Corpus Summa they purchased, about this necromancer, Polydoro, who had died during the the Schism Wars. I write small descriptions of the contents of books they purchase or barter for, and often use those descriptions to inject story seeds, like this one. They knew that when he died he left behind an unfinished project to get eternal live by briging oneself back from the dead. They were really interested in this project, as they are trying to find a way to bring back people from the dead, so during the last Tribunal they located his Hermetic descendant, Polydegmos, and talked with him. He wasn't interested in necromancy, but his pater Polydektes had been, and he knew he had studied the works of Polydoro. They struck a deal with him: he'd provide them with the location of the lost sanctum of his pater, and they would split whatever they found there. The project that Polydoro left unfinished is The Living Corpse, from Chapter 6 of the Hermetic Projects book.

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43

The Abduction of Hannelora
Spring of 1230 - Adventure 32

When Eric d'Ancelin discovers that Hannelora is to be transferred from the nunnery of Anna of France, on the orders of Father Gurgos, he and Hyperides Hylas, Father Simon, and Theoclymenus set up an ambush against the convoy, suspecting that she is being taken to a corrupt monastery in southern Bulgaria. They confront a holy knight, an innocent pawn of Father Gurgos, and manage to free her without the knight or his men discovering who it was. After discovering that Hannelora has been driven mad by her imprisonment in the nunnery, they hand her over to Hedyosmos to have her mind wiped in an attempt to cure her madness.

Participants:

  • Hyperides Hylas
  • Eric d'Ancelin
  • Simon Ristopoulos
  • Theoclymenus

Notes: When they realized the imprisonment of Hannelora had driven her mad, they felt deeply responsible for that. They spent a lot of time and energy into finding ways to cure her through Mentem magic, and ended up deciding that the best way to make her better would be to remove her memory of the event that traumatized her. Unfortunately, this didn't help her improve, as the magic only removed the memory, not the emotional scars. On top of that, she was now unable to properly heal by facing her fear and trauma, since she couldn't remember it anymore. She was left emotionally numb, in an emotional state similar to sedation, that would take her years to slowly recover from.

1 Like
44

Attack of the Hydra
May 1230 - Adventure 33

When the children of the Hydra, mother of the serpents that had been plaguing the Covenant, besiege Ouroboros, Cháris, Hyperides Hylas, Eric d'Ancelin and Thubayta Al-Shafiyya explore the tunnels that provide access to the Sibyl's regio level. The expedition finds the lair through which the Hydra accesses the mundane world from the Magical Realm, in the tunnels beneath the Marmara Sea. After alerting the other archai, they manage to get the Tribunal to take action and seal the lair, flooding it and blocking it with a powerful warding spell. Meanwhile, Theoclymenus extends his influence among the criminal gangs of the city with the help of Bartolomaios.

Participants:

  • Eric d'Ancelin
  • Charis
  • Hyperides Hylas
  • Thubayta Al-Shafiyya

Note: As mentioned before, the Hydra and her children are taken from the Waimie chapter of Antagonists. I honestly thought they'd be entering into the Hydra's lair, a lacuna in the Magic Realm, and was ready for that. But they came up with this idea of flooding the cave, and then casting a powerful Rego Ward so that the Hydra can't cross it to enter the mundane world. They didn't realie this at the time, but I ruled that a significant number of offspring were trapped in the mundane world when the connection to the lair was cut off. These will make an appearance in later adventures.

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45

The Death of Tecmessa
March 1231 - Adventure 34

Passara Verditistes asks Hyperides Hylas to help her, because her apprentice Tecmessa has been murdered. He accepts, and enrols Charis, Eric d'Ancelin and Thubayta Al-Shafiyya. The investigation reveals the young Emperor Badouin II's undercover escapades and his relationship with a boy from the underworld. They also learn of Wilrich Flambonistes' interest in the Three Symbols of Divine Authority of Constantinople, that has led him to travel to Bulgaria to look for and restore those wards. They eventually discover that Formossos Guernicuistes is the culprit, and suspect Celaenea Bonisagistes from Hedyosmos was also involved. Unable to prove anything, Theoclymenus murders Formossos while he was escaping by boat, on Eric's orders. They later discover that Formossos had murdered Tecmessa because she had in turn killed his apprentice.

Participants:

  • Charis
  • Hyperides Hylas
  • Eric d'Ancelin
  • Thubayta Al-Shafiyya
  • Theoclymenus

Note: My intention was for Formosos to flee, and reappear some years down the line, but alas this could not happen as they were too effective in tracking him down. So I'll have to think of other, different consequences. Also, this short adventure was very useful in foreshadowing Wilrich's quest for the Three Symbols of Divine Authority (see The Sundered Eagle page 135), and bringing young Emperor Badouin II to the spotlight a little.

1 Like
46

The Sorcerer's Slave
Spring of 1231 - Adventure 35

After receiving a letter from Andros, Charis sets off for Taurica accompanied by Hyperides Hylas, Eric d'Ancelin, and Theoclymenus. Once there, they meet up with Basil and the exarch Boustaphan Tremeristes, and discover some surprising details about the workings of Urania that make them decide that the time to act is not yet ripe. However, the situation escalates, eventually causing Andros to confront his master and hand him over to the King of the Genji, making him the new ruler of Urania. In the process, they discover that this was the slave's plan all along.

Participants:

  • Charis
  • Hyperides Hylas
  • Eric d'Ancelin
  • Theoclymenus

Note: This was finally the payoff to the whole Sorcerer's Slave set up of many games before. Early on I had decided that in our saga Urania was more of a small Tribunal than a Covenant, with "chapter houses" similar to Transylvania's oppidae. So one of the running plots revolves around briging Urania back into the fold, and having Andros in a position of power means his tale doesn't end with this adventure, but rather that it's his starting point. Of course, the whole adventure ended up being quite different from the published one, but I've found that's often the case for us when running published material. I feel that's a feature, not a bug.

3 Likes
47

Journey to Damietta
Summer of 1231 - Adventure 36

The magi decide that they must finally travel to Damietta in search of the tablets that were in the Covenant of the Vera Cruce (True Cross) when it was lost due to the muslim recover of the city. While preparing for the trip, they discover that their rival merchant house, House Metaxas, has problems with the Teutonic Knights and against the Shoelim'o'v. Once in Damietta, they find the buried and sealed laboratory of David of Tremere, and follow the trail of his sodales Xydas. They rescue him from the prison in which Salima keeps him, and make contact with one wizard called Umar, an important figure from the Suhar Suleyman. They end up establishing themselves as intermediaries with the Covenant of Para Belli, in the Levant. Before they leave, they learn from a local book seller that there's one mysterious man called Tamat ibn Qurah, who may have access to the tablets. They tell the book seller to tell Tamat ibn Qurah that he's invited to visit them at Constantinople to talk about these tablets.

Participants:

  • Charis
  • Hyperides Hylas
  • Eric d'Ancelin
  • Thubayta Al-Shafiyya
1 Like
48

The Plague Ship
Summer of 1231 - Adventure 37

While the magi are traveling to Damietta, Theoclymenus and Europa, the daughter of Charis, wait behind in the levantine city of Ascalon. They are confronted there by a mysterious faerie who is the captain of a mysterious ship from whence a supernatural plague spreads into the city. This faerie turns out to be an old acquaintance from Thessaloniki and the White Island, the one who impersonated Eric d'Ancelin back then. They manage to escape from his trap, not without noticing that his behaviour has changed strangely.

Participants:

  • Europa
  • Theoclymenus

Note: This was a one-shot we played because only two players could make it to this session. The player who plays Charis played her daughter Europa in this session. The other player played his usual companion, Theoclymenus, whom we retroactively decided was accompanying them in the journey and was left behind to care for Europa when they crossed into Egypt. The faerie was the one who took the role of Eric d'Ancelin back in adventure #15 (Return to White Island), who is slowly becoming cognizant after its brief stunt in adventure #16 (The Fall of Thessaloniki).

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49

The Wrath of the Franks
November 1231 - Adventure 38

During the coronation of the new Emperor Jean de Brienne, the Frankish knights who came to Constantinople with him become enraged by his refusal to attack Nicaea, and sack the city. In the midst of the battle at Hagia Sophia, the magi discover that the lady Elise de Montmartie appears to be the new incarnation of the demon who was possessing the Lady of Neuville. They witness her, driven by her natural lust for blood, murder her current lover, Pierre de Bracheaux. Auleames de Clari, thinking the lady is in danger, ""rescues"" her, creating a bond between them. The Covenant manages to survive, strengthening ties with Enrico Mauroceni, but not without Thubayta inadvertently causing friction between Branaina and her husband Narjot.

Participants:

  • Hyperides Hylas
  • Eric d'Ancelin
  • Thubayta Al-Shafiyya

Notes: The demon who is the Lady de Montmartie is actually the Akgah from The Sundered Eagle, page 139. It was completely against the demon's best interest to kill Pierre de Bracheaux, who was tainted, well positioned in court and under its influence. Auleames, even if in a good position as well, is strictly celibate and chaste, and is a much poorer option. But the bloodshed around was too much for the demon to resist, as we know their lack of Virtue doesn't really allow them to have patience and temperance to plan and bide their time. The players are still wondering to this day why the demon killed de Bracheaux, but I feel these are the kind of things that make demons interesting in Ars Magica. Also, the players reached the conclussion that the Akgah posseses people, who are still there under the possession, and so have been hesitant to try and attack the demon as they think that would kill Lady de Montmartie, who is an innocent victim.

3 Likes
50

The False Hydra
December 1232 - Adventure 39

Theoclymenus discovers that he has forgotten someone important to him, a woman named Aeginas, and asks the Magi for help. Cháris, Hyperides Hylas, and Eric d'Ancelin go to investigate the underworld with him. Once there they discover that people are disappearing and their memories are being erased. They eventually find the culprit in the tunnels beneath the city, an infernal creature they call the False HydraThey come to believe it has grown in size after the Hydra and its offspring were banished, as they were eating the heads of the infernal creature, preventing it from growing powerful. They defeat the False Hydra and the infernalist who controlled it, one Andreas, who controled the criminal gang around the Harbor of Theodosius. Alkides, an envoy of Oge, arrives at the Covenant to protect Thubayta Al-Shafiyya.

Participants:

  • Charis
  • Hyperides Hylas
  • Eric d'Ancelin
  • Theoclymenus

Note: This adventure had a lot that I want to comment about. For one, the main plot was taken from an idea about a D&D monster I read about on the internet, the False Hydra. There's a lot I'd like to comment about this, so I'll do that in a separate post. I'd also like to comment about the new character showing up at the end, Alkides, which will also be lengthy and so I'll comment in the following post.

2 Likes
51

About Alkides:

The player who played Hyperides Hylas and Kostas Allectoros felt unsatisfied with the characters. He thought he had designed the magus, Hyperides, in a way where he would never actually want to go on adventures. And on the other hand, he had designed the merchant, Kostas, so that most of his trading was lab material for other covenants in the Tribunal.

So we talked about it, and agreed to "fuse" those two characters into one. So we ret-conned it so that they had always been just one character, Hyperides Hylas, who was a magus and also the head of the merchant House Allectoros. And he created a new character, Alkides, who was more action-focused.

Since the other characters had been playing for a very long time, and had a lot of history, we felt the new character should have something to tie him into the story. So we talked with the player of Thubayta, and we all agreed to have the new character be tied to her story. We came up with this idea that Oge (back from adventure 18) would send Alkides to help Thubayta.

Since Oge was a former apprentice to Tuhabayta's evil master, Salima, we decided she would feel sorry for Thubayta, and send a friend of hers to help her and protect her. Enter Alkides, a fairy-blooded warrior whose lineage Oge had helped in the past (all new, made up backstory).

1 Like
52

Nice to see a False Hydra in Ars Magica! It is a very interesting monster concept (rare for D&D's standards) and it has always interested me. Looking forward to seeing how you statted it out! :smiley:

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53

This I feel is very indicative of a healthy table. It's refreshing to see such an interest in being pragmatic and playing "for the fun" and not so much "for the story" that the latest wave of TTRPG philosophy seems to preach as dogma. Hope the player has a lot more fun with his faerie warrior!

54

About the False Hydra:

I thought this D&D monster would be a very interesting demon for Ars Magica, so I stole the idea. The basic idea of the monster, which I don't take credit for, is that it's a monster that devours people, and also devours the memory of them. It continously chants a mind-control incantation that makes people ignore it even if they see it, and when it devours someone this incantation makes everyone who knew that person forget about them. If you're interested in reading more about the False Hydra, you can google a ton of info on it, or read here.

The thing is, I fell in love with this monster, and wanted to use it as an Infernal creature. I had been planting seeds for this adventure for a very long time, doing things that implied Theoclymenus had a partner in crime, but not explaining them.

For example, Theoclymenus did a lot of underworld stuff with NPC Bartolomeius, a criminal gang leader who first appeared in adventure 11. But everybody kept calling the two of them "the Unholy Trinity". I turned this into a running gag about criminals not knowing how to count, so the player would not be suspicious.

There were other hints like these spread over the adventures, like in adventure 37 when they managed to get some documents from the harbor authorities without me explaining how they got them.

So when the time came for this adventure, I talked with the other players in secret, before the first session. I told them that Theoclymenus would be the target of a spell that made him forget he had had a relationship with a criminal woman for quite some time. They would all remember her, as she had actually been there all this time, only Theoclymenus could not remember her. I explained to them that I hadn't played this relationship out so that Theo's player would feel like his character would: with everybody around him talking about someone very close to him, that he had no idea who she was.

And that's how it played out. Theoclymenus started getting asked about Aeginas by other covenfolk, who said it was weird she wasn't around anymore. The player at first though the grogs were either mind-controlled, or playing a prank on him, so he went to the magi. They all confirmed they knew this woman, and asked him why she had been missing for a few days now. This all triggered an investigation, that ended up uncovering what had happened.

This was a very big turning point for Theoclymenus as a character, who up until that point had been a callous criminal. Upon realizing he had been loved and had loved back, he suddenly felt he might not be as irredeemable as he thought himself to be, and this all kickstarted a very personal character arc that is still playing out today.

Also, this was the ignition spark for a deep hatred of this infernal creatures, who had taken so much from him that he couldn't even remember what he lost. Tons of drama, tons of angst, tons of fun to play.

3 Likes
55

Yeah, it was really fun to play, and fitted the Infernal Realm extremely well! A truly insidious little beast, really really evil and hard-hitting even if not particularly powerful.

The stats were not particularly difficult, and as a monster wasn't particularly challenging for magi, as its penetration was low. Their real concern here was the fact mundanes were utterly helpless against it, as they didn't even perceive the beast or its chant. And they had a lot of mundane friends in danger.

It was a very tense story, trying to gather tons of people in the neighbourhood into somewhere where they could cast an Aegis of the Hearth, dragging along their families. And all this while being completely unable to explain to them why, as they had already been affected by the False Hydra.

2 Likes
56

Oh, he sure does! We even agreed with Thubayta's player that Alkides wouldn't tell her that Oge asked him to protect her, so we've had quite a few fun interactions where he tries to protect her without her knowing (but both players being in the know).

Thanks, I feel the same. And it actually does nothing wrong "for the story". We just ret-conned it, and since the magus hadn't played that much, nothing felt really out of place. Honestly, "story-wise" it felt more like when an author revisits an early, old story and polishes some rough edges for a new publication.

1 Like
57

Searching for Abu Al-Din
Spring of 1233 - Adventure 40

Charis, Eric d'Ancelin, Thubayta Al-Shafiyya and Alkides set out for the Iberian Tribunal in search of Abu Al-Din, the magus who declared a Wizard's March against Oge. They travel by way of the Provençal Tribunal, and stay at the Covenant of Sylva Quercorum, from where Eric is originally from. While there, they inquire about Lady Cyndiana, the maga who is the mother of Andros, the new ruler of Urania. They also find out that Eric's father died a few years ago, during the Albigensian Crusade, and that his sister now lives in Toulouse and is married to a traitor noble. They travel south through the Pyrenees and into Barcelona, where they make contact with the local Mercere House and learn that the Tribunal is split into two Tribunals, a northern Christian one, and a southern Islamic one. After a complicated boat trip through the Balearic Islands with some smugglers, they make contact with the Hermetic Sahirs and finally find Abu Al-Din near Murcia. The magus tells them that the Wizard's March was based on fake pretenses, a setup constructed together with Oge to help her escape from Salima and make her useless to her as a spy inside the Order of Hermes.

Participants:

  • Charis
  • Eric d'Ancelin
  • Thubayta Al-Shafiyya
  • Alkides

Notes: We postponed the trip to the Iberian Tribunal until the Tribunal book was published by Holocubierta (in Spanish). The trip also featured a session back in Provençe, on their way to Iberia, in part because they wanted background information about Andros (from adventure 30 and adventure 35), but also because that was the site of our previous saga, decades ago. So we took the chance to have a couple of cameos from the players' previous characters, and give a kind of epilogue to how they fared many many years after the other saga.

4 Likes
58

You played a saga near Murcia? I'm very interested to know, I'd also like to run one there some day.

59

Oh, no, we played a saga in the Provençal Tribunal. This was back in 3rd edition, so it was the "default" Val du Bosque setting back then. They stopped in the Provençe on their way to Iberia.

1 Like
60

The Legacy of Trotula
Summer of 1233 - Adventure 41

While at Sylva Quercorum they learned that Lady Cyndiana left when her son Andros disappeared, traveling east pressumably towards Urania, trying to get him back. So while on their way back to Thebes they decide to visit Magvillus, where Lady Cyndiana was first headed. When getting to the Roman Tribunal, Eric d'Ancelin, Cháris, Thubayta Al-Shafiyya and Alkides stop at the neapolitean Covenant of Cumae, where they meet a Quaesitor named Angelus Guernicus Maximus. He's about to travel to Salerno to investigate a case of infernalism, and they decide to go with him him to help, leaving Thubayta behind. Once there, they become involved through Lady Flavia Normana de Ruggiero with a tradition of hedge wizards called the Benandanti. Although they at first think those are infernalists, they eventually realize that they are a magical tradition that fights another hedge tradition, the Malandanti, which is infernal in nature. They then proceed to help them fight a group of these Malandanti. After this adventure, and once in Magvillus, they speak with Prima Bilera, who tells them that Lady Cyndiana died in the Cuman steppes trying to reach Urania, in the company of Quaesitora Aurora Borealis.

Participants:

  • Charis
  • Eric d'Ancelin
  • Angelus Guernicus Maximus
  • Alkides

Note: By this time I was already running another saga, set in the Roman Tribunal. One of the players, who plays Thubayta Al-Shafiyya, also plays in the other saga, so we decided to do a very small cross-over. They visited the other saga's covenant, and while Thubayta stayed behind to check some books, her player played with the character from the other saga, Quaesitor Angelus Guernicus Maximus. It was lots of fun.

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