The Faerie Toy Market on Devil's Lane

Devil's Lane that trades in magical toys. Devil's Lane is a small faerie regio which has multiple urban entrances throughout Mythic Europe. A pair of Merinita magi have made their covenant within the market and the player characters may visit the market to buy or commission toys, or to take advantage of the regio's many entrances to travel to a distant Tribunal. The player characters might also join, or usurp, the Merinita covenant.

These story seeds introduce the toy market to the player characters.

The player characters stumble upon the threshold of the narrow, refuse choked alleyway that leads to the Devil's Lane regio when visiting a city for other reasons. The regio entrance is warded (see The Alley Wards), so player character grogs may be able to see the regio entrance, but be unable to enter.

The player characters (or their agents) are present at a birthday feast held in the baron's court. A young faerie-blooded knight, Sir Callum, presents an extravagant magical toy (The Rain Parasol, see Toys, later) as a gift. The court gossip is that Sir Callum purchased the gift at a toy market in the nearby city. Curious player characters can investigate the source of the gift.

A Quaesitorial investigation comes to the covenant. Many magical items are apparently circulating in a city near the covenant, and the Quaesitors are concerned that magi are responsible and that the items will draw undue attention to the Order of Hermes.

The Quaesitors initially treat the player characters as suspects due to the covenant's proximity to the city, but once the Quaesitors have recovered some of the items (perhaps with the player characters' assistance), it is obvious that the items are faerie in origin. In fact, a faerie-blooded merchant is buying the toys from Devil's Lane, and then selling them on in the main street. However, the player characters may still be suspected of involvement.

The player characters could try to locate the source of the faerie items to prove their innocence, or might merely be interested, like the Quaesitors, in where the faerie items are coming from. Alternatively, the player characters could be the Quaesitors investigating another covenant.

A Redcap stays at the covenant whilst couriering a toy between the faerie toy market and another covenant. He does not reveal the details (price or function) of the toy, but he is perfectly happy to discuss the toy market itself. The Redcap can guide the player characters to Devil's Lane.

Player characters searching for an entrance to hell learn a story of a princess whose sorcerer-father was imprisoned in hell by the devil. The princess mingled her blood with that of a faerie queen and used a portal in Devil's Lane to travel to hell and negotiate with the devil for the return of her father. The story is light on details, but the player characters may suspect that this story refers to the location of the Devil's Lane Merinita covenant (see What is Known insert) and decide to investigate further.

Player characters searching for a hell entrance might include infernalists, demonhunters, and characters seeking to recover souls (or artifacts) from hell. Magi might also seek an entrance to hell in order to close it.

Player characters seeking an entrance to the Faerie Realm might uncover similar stories about accessing the Faerie Realm from Devil's Lane.

The faerie toy market follows a central twisting lane (Devil's Lane) from which, like spokes, lead a number of narrow alleys. Each alley is an entrance to the regio. Faerie merchants ply their wares in stalls and stores along Devil's Lane. The streets are usually bustling with hundreds of roughly humanoid faeries.

The entire market is a Faerie regio (aura level 6).

Flying Down Devil's Lane

Characters with the capability may fly within Devil's Lane. However, there is a thick dome of turbulent gray-black cloud hovering about 100 paces above Devil's Lane, which extends down to touch the buildings at the edge of the lane. The swirling dome of cloud-cover is impenetrable, thus it is impossible to fly in or out of the regio, except through the normal alleyways.

Sometimes the clouds loose a barrage of rain or hail, but usually the lane is dry illuminated by a flat diffuse light emanating from somewhere overhead. The cloud cover persists into the night, so that it is impossible to see stars above Devil's Lane.

Characters with powerful Perdo Auram effects may be able to, at least briefly, clear the sky above Devil's Lane. If so, the storyguide needs to consider whether there is an aerial regio entrance, and where it leads to.

The heart of the faerie market is Devil's Lane. This street, cobbled with oily black stones, snakes back and forth upon itself, and is lined with rickety timber and redbrick twostory buildings. Many of the buildings have balconies, brightly-dyed canvas awnings, or protruding upper floors that extend out over the street to almost touch their opposite neighbors. Thus, in places, Devil's Lane is more of a dark tunnel than an open street.

The length of Devil's Lane is about 150 paces, but due to its zigzag geometry little more than 10 paces can be seen at once, and it is about three paces wide. However, many parts are constricted due to spilling street stalls. In these occluded segments only a narrow path, less than one pace wide, is navigable.

Devil's Lane has two ends. One is called Upside and the other Downside, and, due to the zigzag geometry, the two ends meet. Devil's Lane is thus a loop and a character who walks to the furthest extent of Upside finds himself at the beginning of Downside (and vice versa).

Story Seed: At The End of Upside

Those who know the correct way of walking can enter the Faerie Realm by walking along Devil's Lane to the end of Upside. Player characters (Perception + Awareness roll against an Ease Factor of 15) may notice that some faeries appear at Upside; in addition, characters with Second Sight (or Piercing the Faerie Veil) can see that Upside is an entrance to the faerie realm. However, even characters who can see the regio boundary must be guided through it by a native inhabitant of the Faerie Realm.

Story Seed: From Downside

Walking down Devil's Lane to the end of Downside is a method of traveling to and from Hell. This is the origin of the lane's name and a legend claims Devil's Lane is Satan's personal bridge to the Faerie Realm. Why Satan would need a bridge to the Faerie Realm is unexplained, in legend.

The truth is that, normally, there is no hell-gate at the end of Downside, but on Walpurgis Night (30 April) an entrance to Hell, the Infernal Realm, briefly appears. This entrance is only open for a single round but is accessible to anybody. Player characters who have a reason to travel to Hell may try this method. A character obviously needs a different strategy to leave Hell (if he intends to), or be prepared to wait in Hell until the entrance opens again.

Although it is only open for a moment, hundreds of minor demons (usually in immaterial form) also take the opportunity to sally forth from Hell when the hell-gate opens. The Devil's Lane faeries greatly fear the screeching demons and thus spend Walpurgis night huddled behind shuttered windows and bolted doors. In fact, the demons usually ignore the faeries (who have no souls) and rapidly make their way down the alleyways out into city-side.

Extending out of Devil's Lane are a dozen narrow, brick alleyways, each named after a city (apart from one nameless alley). The alleyways are one pace wide and 20 paces long. On the wall of each alleyway is a slate board that lists the guild rules in Latin (see Market Guild).

The alleyways are the regio entrances (and exits) and each leads to its eponymous city. The market faeries refer to the mundane areas linked to the regio as "city-side," or in the specific case "London-side," "Paris-side," and so forth. The terms "lane-side," "Devil'sside," "the market" and "Devil's Lane" are all used to refer to the market regio.

The Alley Wards

The city-side alleyway entrances are warded against humans who do not have faerie blood. These wards manifest in different ways city-side (and also change from time to time): sometimes the alleyway is impossibly narrow, or barred with gates, or invisible, or high above street level. Nothing prevents travel from Devil's Lane to city-side.

The alley wards have no Penetration, and thus do not keep out most magi (or others with Magic Resistance). The wards also do not keep out mundane or magical animals (including familiars). To Hermetic Intellego Vim investigation the wards are constant, faerie effects of magnitude four, analogous to Corpus, and can be dispelled. However, if dispelled the wards reappear at the next dawn or dusk (whichever is next). It is not clear whether specific faeries cast the wards or they are a "natural" feature of the regio.

What is Known About The Faerie Toy Market?

Characters with Area Lore: City Abilities (for the cities that contain entrances to Devil's Lane), or Faerie Lore may know of Devil's Lane and the Faerie Toy Market.

Characters with Organization Lore: Order of Hermes, or Area Lore: Tribunal Abilities may know of the Merinita covenant at the market.

Known by All

Nothing is universally known about the toy market.

Widely Known

The existence of the Devil's Lane faerie toy market is obscure but mundane knowledge in the cities that contain entrances to it. Many characters with Area Lore: City Abilities know of the faerie toy market and also know that Devil's Lane is very difficult to find. Most who know this tale actually dismiss it as a mere (untrue) faerie tale.

Within the Order of Hermes it is widely known that there is a Merinita covenant called Devil's Lane built within a Faerie regio that also contains a faerie toy market. Merinita and Redcap magi have a +1 bonus to this roll.

Uncommon Knowledge

A few with the Area Lore: City Ability have knowledge of the location of the local entrance to Devil's Lane and also the knowledge that it is only accessible to those of faerie blood.

Many within the Order of Hermes know that there are multiple urban entrances to the toyshop regio. The Redcaps have documents that describe the entrances to the toy market regio. Quaesitors have a +3 bonus to this roll and Redcaps have a +6 bonus.

Lost Secrets

A few magi know that Devil's Lane is a bridge between hell and the faerie realm. Merinita and infernalist magi both have a +3 bonus to this roll.

Story Seed: Civic Reconstruction

Cologne and Constantinople alleyways are inaccessible because reconstruction in the respective cities has destroyed the regio entrances city-side. The members of the market guild council are aware that this is the cause and might commission the player characters to solve the problem (with payment in vis). However, the guild councilors are canny and do not immediately offer a commission to curious characters. The councilors surmise that magi sufficiently curious to ask about the bricked up alleyways may well try to fix the entrances on their own initiative (at no cost to the guild).

Mundane construction (or disasters like fires and earthquakes) may render other regio entrances unusable. If this occurs to the entrance that the player characters use, the characters could be stranded either city-side or lane-side.

The streets of Devil's Lane teem with a large tribe of vicious faerie blooded rats. There are thousands of rats in the rat pack; some originate from city-side, but many rat generations have been born within Devil's Lane too. The rat pack is led by Mengalaz, the familiar of the Merinita magus Bartholomew, who lives in Devil's Lane.

The rat pack collectively acts as a garbage and sewage system that consumes anything organic left lying in the street within a few hours. This includes corpses, and Unconscious or Incapacitated characters. The rats may also swarm to attack (and eat) any creature of Size –3 or smaller (a cat, baby, or smaller), particularly if that creature is either alone or part of a small group of like-size creatures. The rat pack may thus be a real danger to the familiars of visiting magi. Inorganic refuse (or characters) may be nibbled upon, but are not consumed.

When swarming to attack, the rats form into groups. One is a trained group of 6 rats led by Mengalaz; the group bonus is +18. The remaining rats form up into untrained groups each numbering 6 rats. There are at least 4 untrained groups, and there could be dozens, depending on the number of rats immediately available. If the target of an attack is a group too, then all the rat pack groups attack the group trying to split it into smaller groups (see Splitting Groups, ArM5 page 175). Once the opposing group has been split Mengalaz's trained rat group tries to overwhelm the most vulnerable member of the split group, leaving the large groups to hold of the other opponents.

If a rat is killed or incapacitated, the surviving members of his group attempt, in the group's next turn, to disengage (see Disengaging, ArM5 page 173). If successful, the rats flee, scurrying into the drains and refuse of Devil's Lane. If the disengage attempt fails the group continues fighting.

If engaged in combat by foes larger than Size –3 the rat pack immediately breaks and flees down filthy drains, and scuttles into narrow nooks. Apart from spells (or other supernatural powers), there is little that can stop the rats from fleeing.

Devil's Lane Goblin Rats

Characteristics: Cun +1, Per +1, Pre –2, Com –5, Str –11, Sta +1, Dex +2, Qik +5

Size: –7

Virtues and Flaws: Faerie Blood (goblin), Lightning Reflexes; Nocturnal

Qualities: Crafty, Pack Animal, Sharp Ears.

Personality Traits: Sneaky +3, Cowardly +3

Reputations: Diabolical rats (local) +1

Combat:

Claw: Init +4, Attack +8, Defense +12, Damage –9

Teeth: Init +5, Attack +8, Defense +9, Damage –10

Soak: +1

Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious

Wound Penalties: –1 (1), –3 (2), –5 (3), Incapacitated (4), Dead (5+)

Abilities: Athletics 3 (running), Area Lore: Devil's Lane 5 (drains), Awareness 3 (food), Brawl 3 (claw), Stealth 4 (urban), Survival 3 (urban)

Appearance: Black matted fur, vile yellow eyes, and a thick prehensile tail.

A Street Directory

The following alleyways lead from Devil's Lane:

• Acre Avenue
• Barcelona Street
• Bologna Way
• Bordeaux Street
• Cairo Way
• Cologne Avenue
• Constantinople Street
• Florence Avenue
• London Street
• Paris Way
• Prague Street
• No-Name Street

Cologne and Constantinople are unusual because the ends of these alleyways are bricked up (see Story Seed: Civic Reconstruction).

No-Name Street is also bricked up and seemingly inaccessible. If asked, the faeries do not know where No-Name Street used to lead (or even whether it ever led anywhere at all).

In your saga, the troupe should feel free to replace alleyways (or add new ones) to ensure that the toy market is as accessible (or inaccessible) as you want it to be.

Story Seed: Taking On a Rat

Mengalaz suspects that Julia will be the only available Merinitia magus to bind him when Bartholomew dies. He tries to prevent her from binding another creature as familiar (because he knows that a magus can only have a single familiar at a time). If he cannot prevent Julia binding a familiar Mengalaz tries to kill this other familiar.

If a Merinita (especially one without a familiar) visits Devil's Lane, Mengalaz encourages the Merinita to stay (as a back-up for Julia).

Dozens of faerie merchants sell toys from cramped and crowded stores at the market. Most merchants are nearly human faeries, some are mortals with faerie blood, and a few are exotic creatures like centaurs. The wares are a combination of mere glamour and enchanted items like the magic toys (which are also glamour, detailed in The Toys); some even sell mundane wares.

The main currency of exchange is vis (discussed later).

If you have access to it, any faerie creature from Realms of Power: Faerie may be used as a merchant; if the character lacks it give him a Bargain Pretense of 3 to 7, depending on how competent a merchant he is (not all the merchants are competent!). Game statistics are also given for a typical merchant, Walter the Book Merchant ― vary his statistics as required to represent other merchants.

Walter the Book Merchant

Faerie Might: 5 (Mentem)

Characteristics: Int +1, Per +1, Pre 0, Com +1, Str 0, Sta 0, Dex +2, Qik +1

Size: 0

Virtues and Flaws: Faerie Speech, Faerie Sight, Humanoid Faerie, Lesser Power (Read it); Arrogant, Incognizant, Poor Eyesight, Traditional Ward (sunlight)

Personality Traits: Arrogant +3, Unhelpful +1

Reputations: Book Merchant 1 (local)

Combat:

Dodge: Init +1, Attack na, Defense +1, Damage na

Soak: 0 (Sta)

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–5), –3 (5–8), –5 (9–12), Incapacitated (13–16), Dead (17+)

Pretenses: Artes Liberales 5 (literature), Awareness 6 (books), Bargain 6 (scribes), Faerie Speech 5 (books), Legerdemain 3 (writing tools), Profession: Scribe 3 (copying)

Powers:

Read it, 0 points, Init 0, Mentem: Walter can talk knowledgeably about any book that his mortal audience has read. He knows who it was written by, what language it is written in, when it was written, and the rough content (such as a character might gain from quickly flicking through the book). Like Faerie Speech this power affects the faerie Walter (rather than his audience) so it does not need to Penetrate to have its effect.

Faerie Sight. This power allows Walter to automatically distinguish mundane things from glamour, to automatically identify another faerie's glamour, and to automatically see an Arcane Connection (and know to whom it is an Arcane Connection, if that person is present). Walter can also use faerie sight to determine the motives and goals of other faeries (Awareness + Perception roll against an Ease Factor equal to Might of other faerie / 5). See Realms of Power: Faerie, page 50 for more details.

Faerie Speech. This power allows Walter to duplicate the language spoken by his human audience. See Realms of Power: Faerie, page 50 for more details.

Equipment: Scribe's robes, writing tools, and books.

Vis: 1 pawn of vis in brain.

Appearance: City-side, tales are told of a merchant-scribe, on Devil's Lane, who sells completed exercise tablets to young student scribes. This merchantscribe is Walter. He is a middle-aged, tonsured scribe, dressed in clerical robes, with small eyes and a large nose. Walter spends all of his time in his candle-lit shop, which is filled with books and stacks of parchment, and he is weary of his customers, who are mostly frightened student scribes wandering Devil's Lane.

Walter does indeed sell completed exercise slates. These are glamour that last for a year and a day (cost is 1 pawn of vis), but are otherwise completed exercise slates as advertised. Walter also sells mundane books (actually glamour facsimiles that last for seven years) (1 pawn of vis for tractatus and 1 pawn of vis per level for summae) and he sells copies of The Book of Beasts, see The Toys.

The glamour facsimiles of mundane books that Walter sells cannot really be read, but the reader thinks they can. Treat any Season spent studying a glamour book as a Season of practice (with a Source Quality of 5). Note that although the player knows this, the character believes the book is real (unless he has evidence otherwise, of course). Walter does not sell books about Arts.

Market Rules

• Anyone may purchase from the market.
• All merchants must be members of the guild in good standing, as determined by the guild council.
• All merchants must be resident on Devil's Lane.
• Only guild members and worker elves may reside on Devil's Lane.
• The magus Bartholomew and the maga Julia may reside on Devil's Lane.
• Trading hours are from dawn until midnight.
• The satyrs of the Black Forest are forever denied entry to Devil's Lane.
• The rats must not be fed.
• All debts must be paid within a year and a day.
• The workshops (and the worker elves) must not be interfered with.
• Felix the wolf is the legitimate enforcer of guild rules.

The faerie merchants belong to a guild, which sets and enforces the market rules (see insert). The market rules are written in Latin on slate boards mounted on the (lane-side) walls of each of the alleyways that lead into Devil's lane. If the slate boards are stolen or defaced they are replaced within a day. Removal of the written rules does not have any impact on their validity.

Punishments that the council can set include: warding Devil's Lane against individual persons, seven years labor in the faerie queen's salt mine, vis fines, and the first born child of mortals.

The guild council can vote to change or add to these rules, of course.

Councilors

The guild council has five members. Votes are carried by a simple majority and quorum is three councilors. Any councilor may call the council to order. The magus Bartholomew is an additional, sixth, non-voting member of the council. The current guild councilors are:

The Three Sisters are beautiful, deceptively young, and seemingly naive merchant sisters who hold the office of councilor between them (that is, the sisters share a single vote). The sisters, whose names are Lo'relyn, Fi'noa, and De'dee, mostly sell Rain Parasols (see The Toys).

Count Thorstein is a flamboyant centaur merchant whose main interests are beards and manes. He sports a variety of dashing styles himself, and is very interested in the beards (or manes) that other characters wear. The count sells hats but spends most of his day trotting up and down Devil's Lane inspecting facial grooming.

Guild-Master Wendell is the self-appointed leader of the merchant guild. He is a grey bearded man in his fifties, always dressed in official guild regalia modeled on the guilds of Cologne. Wendell is very serious and pedantic about meetings and procedures. He sells wands such as those listed in The Toys.

Guild-Mistress Greta is a pleasant and kindly middle-aged woman. She is not actually a faerie, but a faerie-blooded folk witch who lives on Devil's Lane and sells her own potions at the market (see Hedge Magic: Revised Edition, Folk Witch Chapter). The rest of Greta's coven lives city-side (in Bologna and Florence) and uses the Devil's Lane regio to travel to visit each other.

Felix the Wolf is not a merchant (although he is a guild member). He is a large, sleek black wolf who silently slinks up and down Devil's Lane policing the guild rules. If you need game statistics for Felix use Tarlan the Wolf (ArM5, page 195).

The faerie merchants sell toys for the number of pawns of vis required to create it plus one pawn. Items that are sixth magnitude or higher effects cost an addition pawn of vis again. Charged items cost a minimum of one pawn of vis per charge. Mundane items cost 1 pawn of vis.

These prices are the merchants' bottom line, but usually the faerie merchants claim that the price is twice this, and are willing to negotiate down to the bottom line. Of course, if the player characters pay without attempting to negotiate the merchants are happy.

The merchants do not flatly name a price in vis, but rather request an unusual payment such as children born under particular auspices, the longest piece of rope in the kingdom, or the first sheaf of wheat. The merchants specify these payments because they contain vis (usually faerie tainted) equal to the price of the item. However, the merchants are prepared to negotiate for other similar payments as long as the vis total is correct. The merchants notice, and do not accept a payment, if the player characters transfer the vis from the specified payment before passing it over. See Covenants Chapter 6 and Realms of Power: Faerie pages 18–19, for more ideas of vis sources that the faeries might suggest.

The merchants do not care what Form the vis is, and accept vis tainted by any realm.

Story Seed: Negotiating with the Workshop

The player characters may try to negotiate directly with the workshop foremen elves. Negotiations need to be kept secret from the merchant faeries, who consider this an infringement of the market guild rules. The foremen elves don't want vis, but instead try to negotiate some of the following conditions for themselves and the workers. Each of these demands requires a story (an advantage for both the faeries and your troupe):

• a holiday of one season per year,
• amenities constructed within the workshop (such as baths, a theater, or catering),
• freedom to regularly leave the workshop and explore city-side,
• pay in gold nuggets,
• more hats,
• mortal wives for the worker elves,
• recovery and return of items that "should not have been sold," and are now held by other magi, mortal kings, or powerful supernatural creatures,
• replacement of older worker elves with mortal children (who change and become worker elves),
• rescuing friends of the worker elves from slavery in a faerie mine.

If the player characters wish to commission a toy (rather than buy something premade), then the bottom-line price is twice the vis cost and this must be of an appropriate Art type to create the item. The initial price is four times the vis cost. The price for commissioned items must be paid upfront.

See What Can Be Made? for further information.

The toys are faerie glamour that the faeries "pretend" operate like Hermetic effects. As the toys are glamour, eventually the faerie magic fades and the toy ceases to work. All the toys, therefore, only last for seven years after purchase. Even those toys which are presented as charged items must be used within this time-frame. If questioned about this the merchants' mutter something about a "limited warrant of effect."

The following toys are indicative of the what is available from the merchants. The troupe should feel free to devise more toys. The base price is given for each toy. The default offer price is twice this.

Generally a single merchant sells only one type of toy and usually has multiple versions of his toys for sale. Most types of toys are sold by several merchants.

Angel Eyes Potion

MuAq(Im) 15
Pen 0, charged item, 10 doses
R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Individual

The liquid in this vial is mixed into water, which becomes sparkling and glitters. Anyone who drinks the water becomes effectively incapacitated by wild hallucinations.

Each dose can affect up to a large barrel worth of water.

(Effect: Base 4, +1 Touch, +2 Sun) (10 pawns, for 10 doses)

Bird Bane

MuAn 44
Pen 0, constant effect
R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Individual

This item is a tiny leather harness with bird feathers glued to it. When the harness is strapped onto a cat, the cat grows large, functional, feathered wings. After a diameter or so of total confusion, most cats quickly adapt and become adept flying hunters (use Athletics Ability for flying maneuvers).

Convincing the cat to remain still while the harness is attached may be traumatic.

(Effect: Base 25, +1 Touch, +2 Sun; +1 uses, +3 sunset/sunrise trigger) (7 pawns)

The Book of Beasts

InAn 10
Pen 0, 1 use per day
R: Arcane, D: Concentration, T: Individual

This elaborate book has a picture on every page of a different beast. Each page is a fixed Arcane Connection to an example of that beast, and by holding the page and concentrating hard, the user of the item sees a mental image of the beast.

Note that each page is actually a separate InAn 10 magic item. Various editions of the book with different numbers of pages are available.

Depending on how long ago the particular edition was made, some of the beasts may be dead. Different editions usually refer to different individual beasts.

(Effect: Base 1, +4 Arcane, +1 Concentration) (2 pawns per page)

The Dove Hat

CrAn 30
Pen 0, Unlimited uses
R: Touch, D: Diameter, T: Individual

While reaching into this large hat, the user of this item says the command word "volo" and plucks out a pure white dove. At the end of one Diameter, the dove disappears.

(Effect: Base 10, +1 Touch, +1 Diameter; +10 Unlimited Uses) (5 pawns)

The Forest Giant

CrHe 40
Pen 0, charged item
R: Personal, D: Sun, T: Individual

This charged item is an acorn that when thrown to the ground grows overnight into a towering oak tree. Once the magic is complete, the tree is entirely natural. The effect is Personal range, because the acorn (that grows into the oak) is the charged item.

(Effect: Base 15, +2 Sun, +3 Size) (2 pawns)

The Girdle of Chang

MuCo 14
Pen 0, constant effect
R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Individual

When worn, this girdle changes the apparent sex of the character (male to female, or vice versa). The character appears like his sister (or her brother) would.

(Effect: Base 3, +1 Touch, +2 Sun; +1 uses, +3 sunset/sunrise trigger) (3 pawns)

Green Flame Powder

MuIg 10
Pen 0, charged item
R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Individual

This charged item is a gritty powder that when thrown into a fire causes it burn with a bright lime green flame.

(Effect: Base 3, +1 Touch, +2 Sun) (1 pawn)

Hat That Grants the Over-Anxious Father Peace of Mind

InCo 24
Pen 0, constant effect
R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Individual

This delicate lady's hat can only be worn by a virgin. The hat detects whether the wearer is a virgin, and if she is not, the hat falls off.

(Effect: Base 5, +1 Touch, +2 Sun; +1 uses, +3 sunset/sunrise trigger) (4 pawns)

Hen Dust

CrAn 40
Pen 0, Charged item, 1 use
R: Touch, D: Diameter, T: Individual

This dust, which seems to consist of ground up feathers and egg shell, is sprinkled over an egg. The chick immediately breaks out of the shell and over a period of one diameter grows into an adult.

The dust works on any egg (bird, reptile, fish) as long as the adult creature is of Animal Form and no larger than Size +1.

(Effect: Base 30, +1 Touch, +1 Diameter) (2 pawns)

Inverted Water Wheel

ReAq 29
Pen 0, constant effect
R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Part

This item seems to be an ordinary water wheel, but when it is placed in flowing water, it forces the water back upstream against the flow.

The wheel can affect either an entire

stream or a part of a larger body of water.

(Effect: Base 4, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +1 Part, +1 unnatural; +1 uses, +3 sunset/sunrise trigger) (4 pawns)

Love Potion

ReMe 30
Pen 0, charged item
R: Touch, D: Moon, T: Individual

This potion, which contains one dose, causes the drinker to fall madly in love with the first person he or she sees after consuming the potion.

(Effect: Base 10, +1 Touch, +3 Moon) (2 pawns)

The Magic Money Box

MuTe 45
Pen 0, unlimited uses
R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Group

Into this money box (about one foot square and six inches deep) the user places a group of stones, and then shuts the lid. When the box is opened again, the stones have turned into gold coins!

(Effect: Base 4, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +2 Group, +2 metal; +10 unlimited uses) (7 pawns)

Miraculous Beer Mug

CrAq 25 Pen 0, Unlimited uses
R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Individual

This mug miraculously refills with delicious, frothy beer. The effect is activated by emptying the mug.

Note that this magic beer has no real nutritional value (the drinker is thirsty the next day), and although a character can get drunk on the beer, he does not get a hang-over.

(Effect: Base 2, +2 Processed Liquid, +1 Touch, +2 Sun; +10 unlimited) (4 pawns)

One Romantic Evening

CrHe 10
Pen 0, charged item
R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Group

When this enchanted rose petal (a charged item) is kissed and thrown to the ground, the ground becomes carpeted in thousands of deep red rose petals.

(Effect: Base 1, +1 Touch +2 Sun, +2 Group) (1 pawn)

Rain Parasol

CrAu 40
Pen 0, 24 uses per day
R: Touch, D: Diameter, T: Group

When this parasol is opened with a particular flourish, a miniature storm (about a pace across) forms beneath the parasol. The storm features dark clouds, rain, thunder, and lightning.

(Effect: Base 3, +1 Touch, +1 Diameter, +2 Group +4 wholly unnatural; +5 (24) uses) (6 pawns)

The Rat Pipe

ReAn 55
Pen 0, unlimited uses
R: Voice, D: Concentration, T: Structure

While this pipe is played all vermin (rats, mice, and so forth) in a building are attracted to the piper and follow him as he plays. Once affected, the vermin continue to follow the piper while he plays, even if he leaves the building.

As vermin are small, this effect affects many hundreds of individual creatures.

(Effect: Base 15, +2 Voice, +1 Concentration, +3 Structure; +10 Unlimited uses) (8 pawns)

The Siege of Constantinople

CrIm 15
Pen 0, unlimited uses
R: Personal, D: Sun, T: Individual

This tapestry illustrates the 1204 siege of Constantinople. When activated, the tapestry animates, and acts out the critical battles and events in the siege. Similar tapestries depict other battles and legends.

(Effect: Base 1, +2 Sun, +1 moving image, +1 intricacy; +10 unlimited uses) (3 pawns)

The Silvery Miraculous Daffodil Wand

CrHe 15
Pen 0, 1 use per day
R: Touch, D: Moon, T: Group

When touched to the earth, this silver wand, delicately wrought as a simulacrum of a daffodil, causes a bed of almost nearly one thousand yellow daffodils to burst from the earth. The daffodils last for a month.

(Effect: Base 1, +1 Touch +3 Moon, +2 Group) (3 pawns)

The Scrying Bowls

InAq 30
Pen 0, unlimited uses
R: Arcane, D: Concentration, T: Individual

This item is two bowls that are each Arcane Connections to the other. Both bowls should be filled with water and while looking into one bowl the user recites a short poem. While the user recites the poem he sees reflected in his bowl the reflection that appears in the other bowl (and his reflection appears in the other bowl).

The bowls can be used to scry or communicate (visually, only) across large distances.

(Effect: Base 3, +4 Arcane, +1 Concentration; +10 unlimited uses) (4 pawns each bowl)

Wand of Dancing Flowers

MuHe 40
Pen 0, 24 uses per day
R: Sight, D: Concentration, T: Group

This wooden wand is used like a conductor's baton to cause a bed of flowers to dance.

(Effect: Base 5, +3 Sight, +1 Concentration, +2 Group; +5 (24) uses) (6 pawns)

Wand of Horses

MuAn 26
Pen 0, 2 uses per day
R: Voice, D: Sun, T: Individual

This silver wand changes vermin (mice, rats, and so forth) into horses for a day. This item can target non-mammalian vermin (for example, frogs and insects) too.

(Effect: Base 5, +2 Voice, +2 Sun; +1 uses) (4 pawns)

The Wooden Knights

This pair of wooden knight puppets (each about two feet high) are invested items. The knights are each invested with two effects, one to read the thoughts of a puppeteer, and the other to move the wooden puppet about. The idea is that two characters can mentally command the knights to fight each other. (18 pawns)

Read the Master's Thoughts

InMe 50
Pen 0, unlimited uses
R: Sight, D: Concentration, T: Individual

This effect reads the thoughts of the puppeteer.

(Effect: Base 15, +3 Sight, +1 Concentration; +5 item maintains Concentration, +10 unlimited uses)

Move the Limbs

ReHe 23
Pen 0, unlimited uses
R: Personal, D: Concentration, T: Individual

This effect moves the puppet at the puppeteer's direction. If the skill of this direction needs to be determined use the puppeteer's Finesse Score in any relevant rolls.

(Effect: Base 4, +1 Concentration; +5 item maintains Concentration, +10 unlimited uses, +3 Linked trigger)

Spread beneath Devil's Lane is a dark labyrinth of candle-lit basements. In the cluttered and noisy underground rooms teams of worker elves toil night and day to create the magic toys. Some of the basements are also infested with the rat pack (see earlier).

The workshops are not a secret and any merchants questioned say that this is where the toys come from. The player characters may independently notice the sound of hammers and the flicker of candles seeping through trapdoors and under sunken, secluded doorways. The entrance ways to the workshops are not guarded, but are locked. However, the locks can be picked, broken, or opened with magic. Negotiating the maze of tiny passages, stairways, and elevators that connect the workshops is highly confusing and characters who are larger than Size +1 are too big to enter the basements at all.

The merchants deal with four foremen elves, who between them command hundreds of worker elves. Why the foremen obey the merchants, and why the workers obey the foremen is unclear. If asked, the faeries explain "it is just the way things are."

Worker Elves

Faerie Might: 5 (Vim)

Characteristics: Int +2, Per +1, Pre 0, Com –2, Str 0, Sta 0, Dex +2, Qik +2

Size: –1

Virtues and Flaws: Faerie Sight, Humanoid Faerie, Lesser Power (Workshop Helper); Incognizant, Small Frame, Traditional Ward (true name)

Personality Traits: Cheerful +2, Helpful +1

Reputations: Worker 1 (Local)

Combat:

Dodge: Init +2, Attack na, Defense +2, Damage na

Soak: 0 (Sta)

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–4), –3 (5–8), –5 (9–12), Incapacitated (13–16), Dead (17+)

Pretenses: Awareness 5 (hats), Legerdemain 4 (tools), Magic Theory 8 (items), Music 3 (whistling), Stealth 3 (workshop)

Powers:

Workshop Helper, 0 points, Init –4, Vim: The worker elf can work in a team with other worker elves to create magic items. He can also assist in Hermetic Laboratory activities as if he was Gifted (adds Int + Magic Theory as a bonus to the Lab Total); in this case the magus must have sufficient leadership.

Faerie Sight. See description with Walter the Book Merchant.

Equipment: Elaborate hat, apron stuffed with tools.

Vis: 1 pawn of vis in heart.

Appearance: There are hundreds of worker elves, and each is a short cheerful, rosy cheeked fellow, wearing a many pocketed leather apron filled with tools (hammers, files, nails). Each worker elf is identical. To tell each other apart, the elves wear elaborate brightly colored hats as a kind of heraldry. Each hat has a unique color combination, some are also hung with bells, and others have dragons, leaves, or hammers embroidered on them.

Unfortunately, while the elaborate hats allow the elves to tell each other apart, it is very difficult for other characters to rely on the hats to distinguish the worker elves. This is because the elves swap hats with each other every hour according to an obscure timetable. The elves can keep track of these changes, because each elf knows which hat he is wearing, and thus can infer which hat every other elf is wearing.

Note that the elves cannot speak but can understand human languages.

Foremen Elves

Faerie Might: 10 (Vim)

Characteristics: Int +2, Per +1, Pre 0, Com 0, Str 0, Sta 0, Dex +2, Qik +2

Size: –1

Virtues and Flaws: Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Improved Characteristics, Increased Faerie Might, Humanoid Faerie, Lesser Power (Workshop Foreman); Dependents (workers); Incognizant, Small Frame, Traditional Ward (true name)

Personality Traits: Various (see Appearance)

Reputations: Foreman 3 (Local)

Combat:

Dodge: Init +2, Attack na, Defense +2, Damage na

Soak: 0 (Sta)

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–4), –3 (5–8), –5 (9–12), Incapacitated (13–16), Dead (17+)

Pretenses: Awareness 5 (workshop), Leadership 9 (worker elves), Legerdemain 4 (tools), Magic Theory 8 (items), Music 3 (whistling), Stealth 3 (workshop)

Powers:

Workshop Foreman, 0 points, Init –4, Vim: A foreman elf can command teams of worker elves.

Faerie Sight. See description with Walter the Book Merchant.

Faerie Speech. See description with Walter the Book Merchant.

Equipment: Elaborate hat, apron stuffed with tools.

Vis: 2 pawns of vis in heart.

Appearance: There are four foremen elves, who each wear aprons and even more elaborate hats than the worker elves. Unlike the worker elves the foremen elves can speak any human language. The four foremen elves are:

Mother: A small, busty elf who is very protective and encouraging of her workers. Personality Trait: +3 Caring.

Dragon: An elf with a red angry face (and a dragon crest on his hat). He often yells and screams at his workers and is constantly cajoling them to work faster. Personality Trait: +3 Angry.

Uncle: A portly elf always eating or cooking another meal on a small brazier. He tends to not be too bothered by what his workers are actually doing. Personality Traits: +3 Hedonist.

Maiden: A frighteningly beautiful elf with long golden hair. Her workers are all in love with her and eagerly leap to her every command. Personality Trait: +3 Flirtatious.

Each faerie merchant can commission in one season work equivalent to that done with a Lab Total of 100. Player characters can also negotiate for up to this amount of workshop access. Unused magnitudes from one season cannot be "saved" and used in a subsequent season. Several characters can individually negotiate for workshop access, but characters cannot combine their negotiated access, for example, to work on a project requiring a Lab Total of 200. The worker elves can normally only work within the regio, and other characters cannot assist the elves. The troupe may need to set a limit to the total number of projects if large numbers of player characters attempt to simultaneously negotiate access.

The faerie workshops can duplicate any standard Hermetic item creation project. This includes enchanted and charged items, investing effects into invested items, and preparing invested items for enchantment (see ArM5, page 96). The workshops can create items that produce any standard Hermetic effect and can use any standard effect modifications (see ArM5, page 99). In addition to the normal Hermetic Ranges, Durations and Targets, the workshop elves can also create items that use the special faerie magic parameters (see ArM5, page 92). The workshop elves cannot create, attune, or enchant a Talisman.

Note: The toys are not actually Hermetic items. The toys are faerie glamour (see The Toys, in this chapter) that imitate Hermetic magic. The Hermetic item rules are used as convenient game mechanics to gauge what can be made.

The Devil's Lane Covenant is a Merinita covenant occupying a two storied building opposite Florence Avenue on Devil's Lane. The covenant was founded by Bartholomew immediately after his Gauntlet, and Hermetic rumor is that his mother was a faerie toy merchant. Whether true or not, his mother does not currently reside at the market. The other inhabitant of the covenant is Julia, a young maga trained by Bartholomew.

There are no coven-folk; the magi rely on the faerie market for all their needs and have come to arrangements for the provisions they require. Bartholomew has a rat familiar, Mengalaz, who leads the rat pack that swarms up and down Devil's Lane.

The Merinita do not involve themselves much in either Tribunal or House politics, and are very unclear about which Tribunal they actually belong to. Jurisdiction over the covenant is complex as the regio has entrances in several Tribunals.

The ground floor of the covenant is the Hermetic laboratory of the Merinita maga Julia. Julia's laboratory is clearly marked as her sanctum, and it is a dark and spooky chamber filled with the bleached bones and skulls of animals, mythic beasts, and even people.

Julia was once Bartholomew's apprentice, and after a brief sojourn city-side returned in 1215. Julia had a twin sister named Leda who was abducted by faeries when the sisters were aged five, and Julia's main goal is to recover her sister. Earlier Julia thought that her sister was killed by the faeries (hence her interest in necromantic magic), but Julia now thinks her sister is alive.

Julia (wrongly) believes that the elderly Bartholomew somehow mediates the relationship between the underground elvish workshops and the faerie merchants. As Bartholomew seems decrepit and near death Julia intends to inherit this control when he dies, and then hold this control to ransom, to force the faeries to return her lost sister Leda. Upon his death, capturing and studying Bartholomew's lab notes is her first priority.

Julia's magic is characterized by death and her sigil is a sound like the ominous tapping of a death-watch beetle.

Julia of House Merinita

Characteristics: Int +2, Per +1, Pre 0, Com 0, Str 0, Sta +1, Dex +1, Qik +1

Size: 0

Age: 31 (31)

Decrepitude: 0 (0)

Warping Score: 1 (3)

Confidence Score: 1 (3)

Virtues and Flaws: The Gift; Hermetic Magus; Major Magical Focus (Necromancy); Faerie Magic, Mastered Spells, Personal Vis Source (see below), Puissant Art (Corpus); Deficient Technique (Creo); Ambitious (to be mistress of the covenant), Lost Love (Twin Leda), Nocturnal

Personality Traits: Obsessed (Leda) +3, Ambitious +2

Reputations: Merinita necromancer 1 (Hermetic)

Combat:

Scythe (farm implement): Init +2, Attack +7, Defense +5, Damage +5

Soak: +1 (+ 1 Sta)

Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–5), –3 (6–10), –5 (11–15), Incapacitated (16–20), Dead (21+)

Abilities: Area Lore: City-side 2 (graveyards), Area Lore: Devil's Lane 3 (basements), Artes Liberales 2 (astronomy), Awareness 3 (ghosts), Civil and Canon Law 1 (graveyards), Code of Hermes 2 (faeries), Concentration 2 (spells), Dead Language: Latin 4 (Hermetic usage), Faerie Lore 3 (changelings), Finesse 2 (magic items), Great Weapon 2 (scythe), Infernal Lore 1 (ghosts), Leadership 3 (undead), Living Language: Greek 5 (speaking to dead), Magic Lore 1 (ghosts), Magic Theory 3 (corpus), Organization Lore: Order of Hermes 2 (Merinita), Parma Magica 3 (corpus), Penetration 2 (Vim), Stealth 3 (Graveyards).

Arts: Cr 2, In 5, Mu 5, Pe 5, Re 8; An 3, Aq 3, Au 3, Co 8+3, He 3, Ig 3, Im 4, Me 7, Te 3, Vi 6

Twilight Scars: Julia's left index finger is naked bone. She has no sensation of pain in this finger, but otherwise she can use and manipulate it like a normal finger. Of course, other people find Julia's bone finger incredibly bizarre and upsetting so she usually wears black leather gloves.

Equipment: Hooded black leather cloak and other clothing, gloves, sharp scythe.

Encumbrance: 0 (0)

Spells Known:

Charm Against Putrefaction (CrCo 10/+8*)

Whispers Through the Black Gate (InCo(Me) 15/+18*)

Eyes of the Cat (MuCo(An) 5/+9)

Awaken the Slumbering Corpse (ReCo 25/+29*) (Mastery 1, multicast)

Wizard's Side Step (ReIm 10/+15) (Mastery 2, fast casting, still casting)

Lay to Rest the Haunting Spirit (PeMe 5/+18*)

Ward Against Faerie Ghosts (ReMe 10/+24*) (Mastery 1, penetration)

Ward Against Infernal Ghosts (ReMe 10/+24*) (Mastery 1, penetration)

Ward Against Magic Ghosts (ReMe 10/+24*) (Mastery 1, penetration)

Coerce the Spirits of the Night (ReMe 20/+23*)

Demon's Eternal Oblivion (PeVi 5/+14) (Mastery 2, multicast, penetration)

* Includes Major Magical Focus: Necromancy

Vis: 5 pawns of Corpus vis in a bone bracelet.

Appearance: Julia is a black-haired, deathly pale woman dressed in a large black cloak adorned with bone toggles and clasps. Julia dearly loves her lost twin sister Leda. Of course, as Julia was only five when Leda was lost, this is more an obsession than true love based on memory. Julia has discovered a number of secret vis sources in the graveyards that lie city-side of Devil's Lane. Together, these locations are worth a total of 12 pawns of Corpus vis per year. She has registered these sources with the Redcaps.

At the back of Julia's Laboratory is a stone spiral stairway that twists upwards for an unexpectedly long way. In fact, climbing the stairway leads to another tiny faerie regio (with a Faerie aura of 8). The regio contains Bartholomew's laboratory.

Bartholomew's laboratory is cluttered with haphazardly shuffled stacks of books and laboratory texts that are scattered about the perimeter of a little cluster of comfortable chairs. The chairs themselves are huddled around a small table, piled high with stacks of old cups of herbal teas. Many, long since past, futures can be read in the desiccated leaves. One corner contains a workbench covered in a colorful coiling intestine of bubbling glassware, and another workbench overflows with carefully drawn horoscopes. A large fireplace illuminates the room with a warm orange glow.

Bartholomew is old and senile, and also very near Final Twilight. He spends most of the day dozing by the fire, wrapped in a woolen blanket, with a half cup of a fragrant herbal infusion in one hand, and an unread tome in the other. The rat Mengalaz, Bartholomew's familiar, has a nest high up the inaccessible wooden beams above Bartholomew's dotage. The overhead rustling of rats in the nest is Bartholomew's constant companion.

Up in the darkness of the ceiling, near where the rats nest, is a small balcony that leads outside. This is another entrance to the Bartholomew's laboratory regio, but Bartholomew has forgotten about it. The balcony can be reached from the buildings that neighbor the covenant in Devil's Lane. The rats access it by climbing up a drain-pipe.

Bartholomew of House Merinita

Characteristics: Int +1, Per +1(1), Pre –2(1), Com –2, Str –2(2), Sta +2(2), Dex –1(1), Qik –2(1)

Size: 0

Age: 193 (148; +13 Longevity Ritual, +2 Silver Cord, +1 Faerie Blood)

Decrepitude: 3 (3)

Warping Score: 13 (19)

Confidence Score: 1 (3)

Virtues and Flaws: The Gift; Hermetic Magus; Ways of the Town; Faerie Magic, Faerie Blood (Sidhe), Improved Characteristics, Puissant Art (Imaginem), Quiet Magic*2, Second Sight, Subtle Magic; Enfeebled, Tormenting Familiar (Mengalaz); Busybody, Compassionate (minor), Disorientating Magic, Poor Eyesight

Personality Traits: Befuddled +6, Pleasant +3

Reputations: Ancient Merinita magus 3 (Hermetic)

Combat:

Dodge: Init –2, Attack na, Defense +1, Damage na

Soak: +5 (+ 2 Sta, +3 Bronze Cord)

Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–5), –3 (6–10), –5 (11–15), Incapacitated (16–20), Dead (21+)

Abilities: Area Lore: Devil's Lane 7 (merchants), Artes Liberales 4 (astronomy), Awareness 5 (urban), Brawl 2 (dodge), Civil and Canon Law 2 (commerce), Code of Hermes 5 (faeries), Concentration 7 (spells), Dead Language: Latin 5 (Hermetic usage), Faerie Lore 9 (changelings), Finesse 8 (magic items), Leadership 3 (magi), Living Language: German 5 (archaic), Living Language: Greek 4 (Hermetic), Magic Theory 9 (inventing spell), Organization Lore: Order of Hermes 8 (ghosts), Parma Magica 8 (Vim), Penetration 5 (Vim), Profession: Scribe 2 (copying texts), Second Sight 9 (faeries), Stealth 4 (urban), Teaching 5 (magi)

Arts: Cr 18, In 19, Mu 18, Pe 11, Re 19; An 10, Aq 10, Au 10, Co 10, He 16, Ig 10, Im 29+3, Me 18, Te 12, Vi 24

Twilight Scars: Bartholomew's skin is icy cold to the touch, his fingernails glow and crackle with magical sparks, and his pupils are a dark purple color. Whenever he casts a spell, any milk within Voice range curdles.

Equipment: Thick robes, warm blanket, and cup of fragrant herbal infusion.

Encumbrance: 0 (0)

Spells Known:

True Rest of the Injured Brute (CrAn 20/+29)

Opening the Tome of the Animal's Mind (InAn 25/+30)

Growth of the Creeping Things (MuAn 15/+29)

Transformation of the Ravenous Beast to the Torpid Toad (MuAn 25/+29)

Circle of Beast Warding (ReAn 5/+30)

Ward Against Beasts of Legend (ReAn 15/+30)

Creeping Oil (CrAq 15/+28)

Voice of the Lake (InAq 25/+29)

Enchantment of the Scrying Pool (InAq 30/+29)

Cloak of the Duck's Feathers (ReAq 5/+29)

Breath of Winter (ReAq 15/+29)

Parting the Waves (ReAq 30/+29)

Air's Ghostly Form (CrAu 5/+29)

Circling Winds of Protection (CrAu 20/+29)

Clouds of Summer Snow (CrAu 25/+29)

Sailor's Foretaste of the Morrow (InAu 20/+30)

Ward Against Rain (ReAu 10/+30)

The Chirurgeon's Healing Touch (CrCo 20/+31)

The Severed Limb Made Whole (CrCo 25/+31)

Revealed Flaws of Mortal Flesh (InCo 10/+32)

The Eyes of the Sage (InCo(Im) 30/+32)

Shape of the Woodland Prowler (MuCo 25/+31)

The Wound that Weeps (PeCo 15/+24)

Rise of the Feathery Body (ReCo 10/+32)

Gift of the Frog's Legs (ReCo 15/+32)

Bridge of Wood (CrHe 20/+36)

Hunt for the Wild Herb (InHe 5/+37)

Shriek of the Impending Shafts (InHe 15/+37)

Converse with Plant and Tree (InHe 25/+37)

Pass the Unyielding Portal (MuHe 5/+36)

Stir the Slumbering Tree (MuHe(Me) 25/+36)

Wizard's Autumn (PeHe 15/+29)

Freeing the Striding Tree (ReHe 30/+37)

Lamp Without Flame (CrIg 10/+30)

Tales of the Ashes (InIg 5/+31)

Hornet Fire (MuIg 10/+30)

Gloom of Evening (PeIg 10/+23)

Haunt of the Living Ghost (Cr(In)Im 35/+52)

The Shadow of Human Life (CrIm(Me) 40/+39)

Summoning the Distant Image (InIm 25/+53)

Aura of Ennobled Presence (MuIm 10/+52)

Chamber of Invisibility (PeIm 25/+45)

Wizard's Sidestep (ReIm 10/+53)

Illusion of the Misplaced Castle (ReIm 50/+53)

Memory of the Distant Dream (CrMe 20/+39)

Posing the Silent Question (InMe 20/+40)

Thoughts Within Babble (InMe 25/+40)

Past of Another (MuMe 35/+39)

Calm the Motion of the Heart (PeMe 15/+32)

The Call to Slumber (ReMe 10/+40)

Confusion of the Numbed Will (ReMe 15/+40)

Touch of Midas (CrTe 20/+32)

Tracks of the Faerie Glow (InTe 25/+33)

End of the Mighty Castle (PeTe 25/+25)

Unseen Arm (ReTe 5/+33)

Earth Shock (ReTe 30/+33)

The Enigma's Gift (CrVi 30/+44)

Piercing the Faerie Veil (InVi 20/+45)

Sight of the Active Magics (InVi 40/+45)

Wizard's Communion (MuVi 15/+44)

Wizard's Communion (MuVi 30/+44)

Bane of the Elves (PeVi 15/+37) (Faerie Equivalent of Demon's Eternal Oblivion)

Demon's Eternal Oblivion (PeVi 15/+37)

Disenchant (PeVi 30/+37)

Ward Against Faeries (ReVi 20/+45)

Watching Ward (ReVi 20/+45)

Aegis of the Hearth (ReVi 25/+45)

Vis: None.

Appearance: Bartholomew is a very old man, huddled under warm blankets, drinking cups of herbal tea. He is senile and vacant, but potentially powerful. Bartholomew can cast spells silently and gesture-less without penalty, although these days he finds the actual casting disorientating. Some of his Intellego spells, such as Summoning the Distant Image, use patterns in the dregs of his herbal tea to convey the magically sensed images.

The bond between Bartholomew and his rat familiar Mengalaz has a +1 Gold Cord, a +2 Silver Cord, a +3 Bronze Cord, a +3 Leaden Cord, a +1 Iron Cord, and a +2 Tin Cord. The powers Shared Senses, Shared Powers, Shared Fatigue, and Location are enchanted into the bond.

Leaden, Iron, and Tin Cords

These special familiar cords are created between faerie familiars and their master (in addition to the normal gold, silver, and bronze cords; see Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults, page 90). Briefly, the special faerie cords are required to balance the normal familiar cords and have the following negative effects (on both the magus and the familiar):

Leaden Cord: The magus rolls this number of additional botch dice when casting within a Divine aura or when touching a holy relic. Also subtract the cord value from rolled attempts to resist Divine influence.

Iron Cord: If the magus is touching iron, subtract the cord value from all rolls made, and reduce his Soak by this value if hit by an iron weapon. Also add this number of additional botch dice when casting within an Infernal aura.

Tin Cord: If the magus is not within a supernatural aura (of any sort) subtract the value of the cord from all Personality Trait, healing, deprivation, and aging rolls, and from his Soak total.

Mengalaz the Rat

Faerie Might: 30 (Animal)

Characterstics: Int +1, Per +1, Pre -2, Com -5, Str -11, Sta +1, Dex +2, Qik +5

Size: -7

Virtues and Flaws: Faerie Animal, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Lesser Power (Hands of the Animal), Lightning Reflexes, Nocturnal, Personal Power (Devil's Mind), Tough; Narrowly Cognizant; Disfigured, Dying Master (Bartholomew), Negative Reaction, Obese, Reckless, Tradition Ward (salt)

Qualities: Crafty, Pack Animal, Sharp Ears. Personality Traits: Sneaky +3, Reckless +3 Reputations: Leader of rat pack (local) +3, Familiar of Bartholomew (local) +1

Combat:

Claw: Init +4, Attack +10, Defense +14, Damage –9

Teeth: Init +5, Attack +10, Defense +11, Damage -10

Soak: +4 (+1 Sta, +3 Tough)

Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious

Wound Penalties: -1 (1), -3 (2), -5 (3), Incapacitated (4), Dead (5+)

Pretenses: Athletics 3 (running), Area Lore: Devil's Lane 7 (visitors), Awareness 7 (food), Brawl 5 (claw), Concentration 3 (Hands of the Animal), Faerie Speech 4 (magi), Folk Ken 2 (magi), Leadership 5 (rats), Magic Theory 4 (Faerie Magic), Organization Lore: Order of Hermes 2 (Merinita), Stealth 4 (urban), Survival 3 (urban)

Powers

Devil's Mind, 0 points, constant, Mentem: Mengalaz is aware of everything that happens in Devil's Lane. He is an integral part of the glamour that sustains Devil's Lane, so sensing events within the lane is like sensing the condition of his own body (See Realms of Power: Faerie, page 61; Extended Glamour power).

Hands of the Animal, 0 points, constant, Form depends on object: Mengalaz can carry and manipulate an object using his rat paws, as if he had human hands and a Strength of +5. Mengalaz may only manipulate or carry a single object at a time in this way, and must concentrate to do anything else. (See Realms of Power: Faerie, page 59; 2 Intricacy Points spent to lower cost to 0).

Faerie Sight. See description of Walter the Book Merchant.

Faerie Speech. See description of Walter the Book Merchant.

Familiar Power: Shared Senses. Both Mengalaz and Bartholomew can utilize the senses of the other (this is two powers, one for each direction); see ArM5, page 105.

Familiar Power: Shared Powers. Bartholomew can utilize the powers of Mengalaz as if he had them, using Fatigue instead of Might Points to activate them (see Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults, page 89). In his senile state, Bartholomew has forgotten that he can do this, but Bartholomew often uses the Devil's Mind power without realizing what he is doing.

Familiar Power: Shared Fatigue. Mengalaz can regenerate 4 points of expended Might by resting, as if it was a short term Fatigue Level. Mengalaz can also spend 4 points of Might to save Batholomew from expending a Fatigue Level. See Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults, page 89.

Familiar Power: Location. Mengalaz al ways knows where Bartholomew is (see ArM5, page 105). Given Bartholomew's decrepit condition this is not particularly useful (he is almost always by the fireplace in his laboratory).

Equipment: None.

Vis: 6 pawns of Animal vis in oily black intestines

Appearance: Mengalaz is an extremely fat rat, although still surprisingly quick and agile, and is disfigured by numerous injuries. His tail is a mess of scaly scabs, a tuft of torn-hair near his throat has failed to grow back, and long scars cross back and forth over his snout; Mengalaz is highly distinctive.

Mengalaz is the familiar of Bartholomew and although he once loved his master, Mengalaz treats the doddering old fool that Bartholomew has become with contempt. He knows that when Bartholomew dies he will also begin to fade and die. Mengalaz's plan to survive this event is to become the familiar of whomever replaces Bartholomew as the master of the Merinita covenant.

To bind Mengalaz as a familiar a magus needs to be able to bind faeries (so, normally, must be a Merinita magus) but due to Mengalaz's small size only needs to be able to generate a relevant Lab Total of 20 or more (see ArM5, page 104 and Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults, page 89). Mengalaz has sufficient Magic Theory to be aware of these requirements.

The Devil's Lane toymarket can be involved in an on-going saga in the following ways:

• One or more player characters can take up residence with the Merinita.
• Julia is reluctant to allow other magi to join the covenant (as she wants to be the undisputed heir to Bartholomew). However, Mengalaz is quite happy for new magi to move in, especially other Merinita magi.
• The player characters may return to the market to commission or purchase magic items.
• The player characters may utilize the Devil's Lane regio as a type of portal nexus in order to travel around Mythic Europe. The characters might even be able to discover
• a way (perhaps a Hermetic breakthrough, or a faerie power) to create new alleyways.
• The Devil's Lane covenant technically lies within several Tribunals. The player character's Tribunal rules that the magi living in the market are (by selling magic items to mundanes) dangerously "interfering in the mundane" (or are "molesting faeries"). The player characters are commissioned to enforce this ruling, and need to deal with issues of Hermetic jurisdiction.