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WaldensteinYou are on the archive wiki. The new wiki is here. WaldensteinAn Ars Magica 3rd/4th Ed campaign chronicling the antics of a young covenant in the forests of Bavaria circa 1200.
Main Cast:
Temporary replacement for petrified magus (see below):
Supporting Cast:
Extras:Miscellaneous men-at-arms, villagers, babies and dodgy hangers-on. Currently not playing:
Our covenant has developed a bizarre but efficient form of long-distance travel. Vladimir turns the party into cats. The cats are stuffed into a rabbitskin backpack. Sabina (or Agrippa) puts on the backpack and flies off using Wings of the Soaring Wind. The backpack is large and sturdy, and has on at least one occasion fitted three cats and two babies. They may not have been very comfortable, but they fitted. We recently managed to convince a faerie known as the Black Knight to return a baby he had acquired from our village, offering in exchange to supply him with a baby to which we were somewhat less attached. He agreed to the swap on the condition that the new baby would be "special" in some way. We embarked on a baby-acquisition crusade. Our first cunning plan (an inspection of the orphans abandoned at various monasteries in the area) was rapidly abandoned as we realised the terrible odds of finding magical children in cities under the influence of the Church. We did score two perfectly normal babies, though. Our second approach was to travel into the pagan lands to the south-east. After only a short period of searching we found what we were looking for, simultaneously fulfilling a strange little village's rather depressing doomsday prophecy. We made the delivery ahead of schedule and went home. Maybe now we can finally get some studying done. Get studying done? What were the chances... Our villagers decided they needed to have a church. After much muttering and mumbling we let them go ahead with the construction. Shortly after the first church service, an explosion set fire to one of the houses in the village. During the battle to extinguish the blaze, Sabina made use of some rather blatant Aquam spells like, for instance, MightyTorrentOfWater?. Despite glaring at us suspiciously (and later setting the priest on us) the villagers don't seem to have run screaming. Yet. Mundane investigation of the wreckage didn't reveal much, but some good Intellego work by Vladimir and a powerful (hurrah for open-ended systems) Intellego Animal by Mateus showed the cause of the incident to be a small dormouse. Much head-scratching and careful extermination of hordes of exploding mice followed. In order to keep the damn mice out of the village, we decided to extend the Aegis to encompass it. A while later, we caught some unseelie near the village holding sacks of mice. Sabina's quick thinking and a handy Ignem spell made short (but flashy) work of the latest shipment. Unfortunately, the pesky unseelie were unharmed (magic might, grrr). Frustrated by the Aegis and the defeat at the hands of Sabina, the unseelie decided to up the ante. By summoning a basilisk. We were somewhat unprepared for this turn of events. As Mateus (the Rego Animal specialist) was away quarrying stone, the basilisk proved impervious to our magical efforts. Fortunately, sterling fighting by Thomas and the new arrival Wolfgang saw the basilisk defeated - but not before its foggy green breath had turned Wolfgang and Sabina to stone. Vladimir and Orion (a mage visiting the covenant on a semi-permanent basis) spent the next two seasons reversing the petrification effects while Johann languished in Durenmar, futilely waiting for Sabina to fly him home. Mateus, back from gathering stone and at a loss as to how to tackle the escalating mouse problem, set to reading an old text on the origins of Hermetic Magic. In a moment of insight, while reading a section on ley lines, Mateus hit upon the likely cause of the faeries' displeasure - it was possible that the villagers had built their church directly over a ley line, thus preventing the fey from travelling along it in Arcadia. The obvious solution was to move the church, which the magi, covenfolk and villagers promptly set about doing (with much grumbling from the villagers). With the ley line problem hopefully behind the covenant, Vladimir, Clara, Wolfgang, Mateus and Thomas set off to pay what is fast becoming an annual visit to a nearby seelie court. As usual we were expected to provide entertainment for the gathered faerie hordes, in return for which we received Vis. The presence of both Vladimir and Mateus suggested that performing some Herbam or Animal magic might be in order. Vladimir's botched Creo Herbam, which created a giant venus flytrap, was entertaining for fey but somewhat less so for those of us close by. Thankfully a good dodge and a spontaneous Rego Herbam allowed Mateus to bring the beast under control. Much merriment ensued. Vladimir reprised his Giant Dead Bear Trick, and ended up unconscious as a result of his exertions. It took a while to remove the bear from the stage. Mysterious arrival Lillian has been hanging around the covenant since mid-Autumn, asking a lot of questions. She has received a cryptic invitation from the Trimere covenant of Fenestra which extends to the other Waldenstein magi. Lillian, Vladimir, Wolfgang, Thomas and Clara flew to the castle of the local regent to try to establish why it had recently been on fire. We expected to find a new Italian noble in residence, and were surprised to find the area completely deserted. During a careful search of the premises, Wolfgang discovered a chest containing a hundred and twenty-eight gold pieces - more money than any one of us has ever seen in one place before. The money, together with a large pile of scrap iron, was flown back to Waldenstein with the aid of Johann and Sabina. In the meantime, Lillian searched for corpses. She was delighted to discover that the mysterious Italian clean-up crew had missed the pageboy squashed by the falling drawbridge. Unfortunately his account of the siege was rather confused. What exactly happened remains unclear, but it seems that the Italians pulled a fast one on the Germans. A group of covenfolk is in town purchasing supplies and hopefully a house for one of our agents. Perhaps they will find out more. Sophie, a washerwoman that Thomas was acquainted with, seems to have disappeared from Regentsburg. Despite the aid of one of the other washerwomen, Marie, the afternoon of searching proved fruitless. Meanwhile, Ute, Boris and Gunter got drunk at the Crossroads Inn. Ute challenged all comers to an arm-wrestling contest - and broke the arm of the first challenger. A localised barfight ensued, and the guardsmen were defeated. Gunter dealt a particularly vicious blow to one of them by kneeing him in the lower back. He had the unlucky man in a headlock at the time. The troublemakers fled the inn to avoid the city watch, leaving some coins behind as restitution. They then proceeded to the Happy Whistler. Unfortunately, the city watch, always eager for an excuse to search the Whistler, quickly located them and marched them back to the Crossroads Inn where the merchant employing the injured guardsmen demanded a further ten silver pieces. After paying up, the three spent the night at a cheap hostel. Thomas, hoping to gather some party-goers for a wild night on the town, walked Marie to the Crossroads Inn only to find the place in a uproar. Entering through the kitchen, Thomas and Marie met a very angry Elsa who explained the situation and then ordered Thomas to leave. Marie, somewhat unsettled by being caught in the middle of a row, decided to call it a night. A somewhat dispirited Thomas packed the group's things and went to spent the night at the Silver Scales. The next morning, after patching things up with Phillipe and Elsa somewhat, the four headed back to Waldenstein Manor. Meanwhile, back at the covenant, a richly dressed messenger brought a missive from the new ruler of the region. The letter got straight to the financial point, demanding a tribute of 400 silver pieces a year. This seems somewhat excessive, considering the size of the manor. A few weeks into spring, the last of Wolfgang's injuries (sustained while fighting the basilisk) healed and Wolfgang, Thomas, Lillian and Vladimir set off to visit the covenant of Finestra. After a day or two of uneventful flight, they alighted outside a small village near Finestra, planning to travel the rest of the way on foot. The villagers seem hospitable, but fearful of Finestra. I suspect Agrippa would approve. The many wolves in the surrounding forest aren't helping. The four travellers spent a pleasant evening on the floor of a villager's house. The travellers arrived at Finestra to find all the mages too busy to see them. Curious, since they sent out an invitation. Party shamelessly explored covenant and surrounds. Finestra seems not to have an aegis, also extensive structure built into mountain. The magi came out to dinner, exchanged cryptic smalltalk and returned to their secret underground laboratory. Everyone acting very dodgy. Tobias looks ill, or at least extremely wasted. Other young covenant mage apparently left few months ago under unpleasant circumstances, nicking most of library in the process. Problems with the local wildlife. Lillian deliberately woke before dawn. hoping to corner one of the magi into a conversation as they returned from the lab in a semi-conscious stupour. Instead, was fortunately able to give slight warning of an invasion by (apparently) some even more dodgy non-hermetic magic users plus a large number of wolves. Chaos and death ensued. Wow. Long time, no update. We left Finestra in a hurry after a cryptic warning from Tobias and went to Valnastium to rat on them. No evidence to speak of, unfortunately. We came home. Then one day we woke up to find that the covenant appeared to have been mysteriously moved to Arcadia. The magi discovered a ruined temple of Hermes in the water underneath the standing stone. Then they went to investigate a nearby thundercloud while sending out Wolfgang, Clara, Boris and Ulf to investigate the nearby area. The thundercloud turned out to be above a castle apparently haunted by the unpleasant ghost of a mad old magus whose charred corpse was hooked up to a lightning-collecting contraption which had probably been intended to prolong his life but which had obviously malfunctioned in some spectacular way. The focal point of this device appeared to be a giant ruby. Sabina remotely lifted it from its setting and was transporting it out of the door when she lost control and it fell, shattering into several pieces and breaking the magical effect which kept the castle (and, as it turned out, the covenant) in Arcadia. So off we all went to the real world, except for the four unfortunates we had sent to scout. Johann, who had been caught in the breaking ruby's magical blast, was in twilight. The magi found themselves in France, where they came across a village which had recently been raided and exhibited traces of Hermetic magic. They stowed an unconscious Johann in some bushes, and followed a path to the nearby coastline in search of the missing villagers. They found an apparent Hermetic mage aiding Moorish slave traders in their industry. After politely attempting to determine his identity and being attacked, they proceeded to beat the crap out of the slavers, set their sail on fire and rescue the prisoners. Sabina was badly wounded, having taken more damage than she could actually withstand owing to repeated temporary magical healing. Fortunately, the magi managed to get to Harco in time. Then they flew home. Meanwhile, the four stranded covenfolk were discovered by a very annoyed fey acquaintance. He took them to the neares exit gate - only to discover that it was currently in use by an unfriendly fugitive mage. They went to the next one, where they made a deal with some fairies in order to be allowed through. Now they are emerging from some kind of mine, carrying a strangely frozen winged woman concealed under a cloak of invisibility. The companions met an old man in a curious pocket of Arcadia accessible through a tree, and found out that the frozen woman had been part of an interrupted ritual which was supposed to turn her and her lover into swans. To complete the ritual, someone had to chuck her into a magical lake in the mountains. So they did, and were rewarded with some magical fluff. Then they saw a giant steal sheep and goats from a monastery they had passed earlier. They followed him home (having earlier unsuccessfully attempted first to climb him and then to trip him up) and cut off a lock of his hair while he and Mrs Giant slept. Unfortunately the hair isn't magical, but hopefully it will be useful as a spell focus. Then they slept in a haunted ruin, were woken up in the middle of the night by ghosts raucously re-enacting a past battle, followed them for a bit and found a cairn of strange light rocks. They took some home, where it was discovered that each of them was a pawn of Mentem vis. The magi hastily sent an expedition to retrieve the rest of the cairn. Meanwhile, the magi had gone to the faerie court to entertain the queen, where they were told that the unfriendly mage who had harrassed the companions had been killed by the faeries. They went to examine her grave, but found it empty. Upon their return, the magi informed the Merinita of the dodgy mage's passing, and surreptitiously began to trade away the Mentem vis. 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