The Poisoned Earth

The Romans mined the Mendip Hills, removing lead, but left poisoned ground where nothing could live. Since that time a necromancer and her Diedne foes have dueled here, leaving undead guardians. The site has been visited by infernalists and colonized by faeries. All of these things, however, just obscure the secret hidden deep in the poisoned earth.

This site is famous in the Order of Hermes as the site of a magical duel during the Schism War. The battle is famous not so much for its historical significance as for the techniques used by its combatants. Averna of Tytalus, the necromancer, used spells so unconscionable that in peace the Order would likely have had her Marched. Her spells, mixed with accounts of the Diedne magic, which some historians claim are so horrible that they must be propaganda, have made this site the focus of the sorts of stories Tytalus magi tell their apprentices to keep them awake for a week.

Averna chose this site because it had been a lead mine during the Roman domination of Britain. Lead is useful in defixione cursing, a form of necromancy practiced by some descendants of Guorna the Fetid (as described in Houses of Hermes: True Lineages, page 143). Lead also causes madness, and its extraction was so dangerous that it was performed by replaceable slaves. These factors combined to saturate the area with the graves of the insane dead. Averna's greatest joy, excepting the malicious assassination of her enemies, was to call up the distorted ghosts of the area, and set them to pathetic tasks.

Lead mining also fills the ground with arsenic salts. Arsenic is particularly useful for necromancers, because it is used in embalming, and it discourages insects, which keeps laboratories tidy. In 1220, this layer of toxic soil begins about a foot underground, so grasses grow in the area and it appears superficially pleasant. Any activity that pierces the soil, however, brings forth the poisonous dust beneath.

Miners in Mythic Europe still use the same methods the Romans did, although they mine more slowly and safely. Miners whom the player characters consult could explain the hazards of lead contamination and arsenical soil. Characters who are forewarned can use Terram spells to protect themselves from the poisoned earth. Alternatively, they can use cloths to prevent breathing the dust, or wait until there is heavy rain before visiting the site.

Roman Mining of Arsenic, Silver, and Lead

Romans often mined lead ore to extract silver from it. The method is superficially simple. The miners extract the ore from shallow trenches, using iron wedges to break it up. This ore is piled either side of the trench while the miner digs. The ore is then collected and washed. Care must be taken that livestock does not drink from the vats, and that the washing water is discarded away from the drinking supply. Animals, or people, who drink ore washing water develop a particular sickness, which some say is lead poisoning, but others say is caused by faeries.

The washed ore is then heated, which liberates the lead from the dross. This waste often contains arsenic. The lead is then heated further, to a high temperature only achievable through the use of bellows or magic. This causes the silver to separate from the lead and float to the surface of the crucible. It is then poured off.

Lead is poured out of crucibles onto sand, into which the shape of ingots has been dug. The cooling ingots are connected by a channel of lead, which allows many ingots to be created with a single pour. This shape looks, to some, like a sow with many piglets attached, so the lead produced this way is often called "pig lead." The ingots were then often inscribed with an owner's name. Some of the local faeries take the porcine symbolism literally.

The Mendip Hills are low limestone hills in Somerset, England. They are a wild area, filled with deciduous forest, bogland, and all manner of supernatural creatures. The Hills are traversed by peasant foragers from surrounding communities. Desperate people with woodland survival skills sometimes find refuge here.

The Mendip Hills were the richest source of lead in the Roman province of Britain. Britain in turn was the richest lead-producing province in the Empire. So much lead was exported by Britannia that miners in Iberia eventually petitioned the Emperor to intervene and reduce the amount sent from the Mendips to Rome. The lead used to waterproof the baths of Somerset, described elsewhere in this book, was mined in the Mendip Hills.

Rumors

This site is widely known to exist, but virtually no-one visits it, so detail is scarce in local folklore or Hermetic records. Organization Lore: Order of Hermes and Area Lore: Somerset are both appropriate Abilities.

What is Known by All

• The site is haunted by ghosts, the home of faeries, and a cavorting spot for demons. The stories about the area are rarely historically accurate. In the case of the faeries, the stories rapidly become correct.
• The soil here makes people sick, if they dig down into it.
• It's a huge graveyard: if you dig you find bones or even ancient corpses which have refused to rot.

Widely Known

• This site is widely known to exist in the Order, and the story of the battle between Averna and the Diedne is a sort of guilty pleasure among some magi. No-one particularly wants to travel here, however, as >Seekers have assessed it and removed anything not looted by the Diedne magi.
• Averna was a corporeal necromancer.
• Some locals say the faeries of the area can be more safely confronted by a person wearing a handkerchief dipped in something strongly scented over the face. The scent really doesn't matter: the handkerchief acts as a filter for the arsenic dust in the incidental matter of the bodies the faeries use.

Uncommon Knowledge

• The rising of the Blue Apples and their use as a Warping agent.
• Some of the women of a nearby village think a stern but friendly spirit resides here, who aids women who have bad husbands, or too many children. Some of the men think there's a female spirit in that place which lures men into fatal intercourse.
• If you dig at a certain point, skeletal warriors emerge from the ground.
• Some locals claim the lead mine started as a silver mine, but was noncommercial. Magi, who can heat ore without fuel or labor, might be able to make a mine here profitable, if this rumor is true.
• There are no winter faeries in Somerset.

Lost Secrets

• The method of processing the Blue Apples to create vis is lost, but remembered by some of the spirits of the area.
• There is a non-Hermetic spell that will trap the Summer Fae of Somerset, hidden in the Cave of the Inscription.

The site described in this chapter lacks any superficially unusual features. It is a flat hill, mostly limestone, overlooking the surrounding forest. Its top is covered by grasses, and magi who examine it closely can find the stones that acted as the foundations for Averna's tower. Depressions trace their way about the hill and surrounding forest: these are the remnants of the ditches used by Roman miners to extract ore. Low mounds mark the graves from which arsenical skeletons emerge.

There are no trees on this hill. If a tree's roots go down more than a foot, they pierce into the poisoned earth and that tree dies. On the nights when the Apples of Twilight can be harvested, this makes the trees on which they grow, which rise to mature height and crumble away in the course of a single night, particularly noticeable.

The Romans used lead for so many things that they mined it wherever they could find it, provided they had sufficient slaves. The Romans knew that being raised in a town where lead was mined caused retardation in children, and that many lead miners were driven insane by their tasks. Free men refused to mine it, so the limiting factor in lead mining was a lack of miners, rather than a shortage of sites.

Several other sites are suitable for the stories presented here. Rio Tinto, in the Iberian Tribunal, was the most productive source of lead in the Empire, outside of Britain. Later in the Empire's history, its manufactures depended on lead from Argentiera in Sardinia, part of the Roman Tribunal. In 1220, the largest lead mines in Europe are in the Harz mountains, and the great lead market is in Cologne, both in the Rhine Tribunal.

Rio Tinto, like the Mendip Hills, ceased to be mined for lead after the Romans withdraw, for no clear historical reason. If using this location, the Silver Lady might similarly have slaughtered the miners. Her motivation may differ. Some portions of the area are named for King Solomon's mines, and were colonized by the Phoenicians. Either empire may have buried a magician king here, and had his grave disturbed by miners.

The battlefield has a Magic aura of 5. Although it lacks a Faerie aura, local stories call the place haunted, and many of the darker faeries of the region claim to dwell in a court here. Similarly, although there is not yet an Infernal aura on this site, many local demons are aware of the value of its soil in the commission of sin. It can be used for murder, but its also an abortifacient. It's not safe, but that hardly matters to the forces of darkness.

The Cave of the Inscription

This site is in Somerset, which, in at least three languages, means "Land of Summer." For as long as people remember or writings record, there have never been any faeries with strong thematic ties to winter in Somerset. This, according to the faeries, occurs because a very early wizard banished the creatures of cold and darkness from the land, or imprisoned them in a cave. Summer faeries are only slightly less fearsome, but the spirits who understand their natures chafe under this restriction, unable to take the roles of the storm riders of the winter sea, or snow maidens.

The faeries say that deep beneath the hills there is a cave they cannot enter. On the wall of the cave, in blood and orpiment, is written a story; it is that story which binds the Winter. If the writing were erased, Winter would return. Some faeries offer various gifts for this service, but the words are guarded by other faeries. Player characters might also prefer to examine, rather than destroy, this unique magical working. Some faeries claim, and in this case they are telling the truth, that the mines here fell into disuse when the miners penetrated the cavern, and were executed by a guardian called the Silver Lady.

What the faeries do not say is that there is a second great working. It was written in the dark by a blind man, and so has never been read by anyone. If it were copied onto the wall beside the Inscription, using the right ink, it would trap the Summer Fae (or at least force them to avoid forms strongly tied to Summer). A copy of the second working, and a sample of the ink, is in the cave. Averna's laboratory, and thus tower, were placed here because of the high aura in the cave, but it predated her arrival in Stonehenge by centuries. The cave has a Magic aura of 6, which rises to 8 if the second working is written on the wall.

Averna placed a sadistic ward about the inscription and ink. Averna's Watching Ward contains a spell (PeCo 40) that causes a human body to explode into a pile of maggots over the course of a minute. A second spell, in a linked Ward on the roof, speeds up the thoughts of the victim, so that time seems to stop around them. They are unable to move while, over a period of several subjective days, they are consumed by larvae. Each spell has a Penetration of +20. These Watching Wards only work once, so unscrupulous player characters can disarm them by just throwing a victim into the cave.

The Nature and Effects of The Second Working

The Inscription is so ancient that its source is lost to history, but there is an account of its origin which Averna believed. Averna's beliefs can be recovered by closely interrogating her spirits and Somerset faeries, then incorporating the slivers of information she let fall over the course of her life. The Inscription, according to the necromancer, was one of the weapons of the Titans, left over from the ancient war between the Faerie and Magic eealms. She believed it had been rediscovered by King Bladud, who was a cthonic wizard. He is described in more detail in the Bath chapter. The wizard-king used it to cage the gods of his rivals, perhaps as part of his attempt to woo the god Apollo to his cause.

If the second working is inscribed, the nature of Somerset is changed so that faeries cannot take Summer- or Winter-themed forms within the boundaries of the ancient county. Many faeries remain, or change roles, but others, playing at refugees and nobility in exile, flood into surrounding lands. Most Faerie auras in Somerset, if lower than 10, fall by 4 points. If (aura strength -4) is negative, then a Magic aura equal to the absolute value appears. For example, a level 3 Faerie aura is replaced by a level 1 Magic aura.

Faeries, in some sense, provide a cushion between humans and the Magical spirits of nature. Many faeries are amenable to human survival, particularly if the humans know the complex rules and codes which form that fae's role. After the Second Inscription, much of this folklore is wrong. The buffer between humans and the uncaring, chaotic spirits of nature is thinner.

There are several odd sources of vis on, or near, the battlefield. Further sites in Somerset are listed in the chapter on Bath.

The Blue Apples of Twilight

At the dark of the moon, 13 times a year, from a mass grave of Roman mining slaves, a pale tree rises. In a single night it grows to maturity, and bears small, blue apples. These are fatal to the touch. If the apples are gathered together, mashed, and left to ferment in an oak barrel in the dark for a season, they provide Perdo vis. The apples are prized as a delicacy by some of the local faeries, and there are rumors that the apples are so delicious as to force magi who eat them into Temporary Twilight.

The apples are poisonous, and the slightest exposure can be absorbed through the skin. See the poison rules in ArM5, page 180. The apples have an Ease Factor of 12 and inflict heavy wounds.

The Witch of Wookey Hole

Elsewhere in the Mendip Hills is a complicated series of caverns called Wookey Hole. Within the hole is a trapped faerie. Centuries ago, the "blear eyed hag" would use the evil eye to destroy crops, lame livestock and destroy the relationships of young lovers. The abbot of Glastonbury sent a monk, who had taken his vows after the witch destroyed his chance at love, to destroy her. The monk used the power granted by his faith to force her to retreat to her lair, and then entered the cave and splashed the shadowy areas with holy water. This turned the witch into a stalagmite.

A complicated ritual can be used to harvest vis at this site. If a goat is tied in the cave on the anniversary of the witch's transformation, then has its throat cut in the morning, and is left to rot until only bones remain, then the bones become 5 pawns of Perdo vis. Vis can be more simply gained by chipping out a ball of stalagmite which is in the witch's left hand. It contains 7 pawns of Perdo vis, but is the spirit anchor for the faerie. Unless the vis is used quickly, it evaporates from the ball as the witch is freed from imprisonment.

Other weaker faeries who do not want the witch to damage their games try to bargain with or trick the magi, to gain the ball for themselves. They might, for example, teach the goat sacrifice method of vis harvesting in exchange for the ball.

THE TEASELS OF SOMERSET LEVELS

In the Somerset Levels, the marshy ground toward the coast, magical teasel flowers grow. These are prized by local women. Teasels, when dried, have a spiky structure that can be used as a comb to raise the nap of fabric, and has various other uses in fabric craft. A person using one of these teasels while creating something with or from thread has a +2 on all totals concerning the quality of their handiwork.

A local pixie claims to be the grower of these flowers. She will sell one for a good story, and often gives them to needy women who seek her in the swamps. She will not give them to children, or to pregnant women, and many locals believe that while a magical teasel is in the house no children can be born. The faerie is happy to give her flowers to men, but in the last two decades none have asked, as the existence of the faerie has become a feminine secret.

Each teasel contains a point of Herbam vis. Some women claim the teasel has another use: that if held by a liar it will prick her finger and then turn to dust. The teasels are, however, so valuable that few wish to use them to detect deception. This is an InMe effect, Level 25, with a Penetration of 1.

Pixies: The Minor Paeries of Somerset

Pixies are the little faeries of this region. They are physically similar to pixies found in the rest of the world, but are less cunning and are rarely malicious to good people. They spend most of their time — according to humans — in sport; they prefer to be near flowers so they may sleep during the colder parts of the year or perhaps hide in the healing wells. People from Cornwall and Devon say the pixies (whom they call pisgies) have their markets in Somerset, and travel there to trade strange things for stranger things. Pixies are said to be intensely jovial, so much so that "to laugh like a pixie" is idiomatic for happiness in this region

Some people carry a tiny statuette of Joan the Wad (Joan the Torch) to avoid trouble with the pixies. She's a will-o-the-wisp who is Queen of the Pisgies in the neighboring areas of Devon and Cornwall. In those areas, pisgies are more vicious, so simple precautions like carrying this trinket makes sense to travelers. Somerset's pixies aren't bound by this ward at all, and seem drawn to people carrying it. Some play tricks on people who don't know which kingdom they are in, but these are rarely the sort of fatal spite shown by some of their Cornish cousins.

Inhabitants

Many strange creatures may be found at this site, depending on the stories that the troupe desires to tell. The following beings are not intended for simultaneous use, although some combinations may work for some stories. The magical creatures, for example, may work as a set, and might be useful in stories with either demonic or faerie principals

Arsenical Pseudoelemental

A pseudoelemental is a creature superficially similar to an elemental, as described in Realms of Power: Magic (pages 133–129), but not created from pure elemental matter. As with an elemental, it loses Might points equal to the penalty it suffers from Wounds, and blasting away large parts of the elemental may reduce the amount of vis it contains (1 pawn per 5 might lost) unless this matter can be recovered. Spells that reduce its Might destroy this vis.

Magic Might: 20 (Terram)

Characteristics: Cun –6, Per -5, Pre +1, Com 0, Str +11, Sta +6, Dex +2, Qik –1

Size: +3

Season: Summer

Virtues and Flaws: Magic Thing; Way of the Poisoned Land; Poor Memory, Short Attention Span, Simple Minded

Personality Traits: Arsenical pseudolemental +4, Thirsty +2.

Magical Qualities: 2 Greater Powers (Crush, Slake Thirst);4 x Improved Attack, 4 x Improved Damage, 4 x Improved Defense, 4 x Improved Initiative, 6 x Improved Soak, No Fatigue

Magical Inferiorities: Temporary Might

Combat:

Pseudopod: Init +11, Attack +13*, Defense +10*, Damage +23**

* Includes +3 bonus for Ways of the Poisoned Land Virtue

** A character who suffers a wound that draws blood (which, given the crushing nature of this attack, requires a Medium Wound) suffers arsenic poisoning, as detailed in ArM5, p.180)

Soak: +18

Wound Penalties: –1* (1–8), –3* (9–16), –5* (17–24), Incapacitated* (25–32), Dead (33+)

* Pseudoelementals lose temporary Might equal to wound penalties suffered. Incapacitating wounds reduce the pool by 5 points.

Abilities*: Area Lore: Poisoned Land 4 (poisoned places), Athletics 4 (run), Awareness 4 (humans), Brawl 6 (pseudopod), Penetration 4 (Terram).

* Many Ability rolls gain +3 due to the Ways of the Poisoned Earth Virtue.

Powers:

Crush, 0 points, Init –3, Terram: The pseudoelemental clubs its victim with a pseudopod, requiring a normal melee attack. If the victim is Size +3 or less, the attack pins it to the ground and the elemental adds (Might/5) to its Grapple Strength (ArM, p. 174) to prevent escape. If the pseudoelemental grapples successfully, then all of the victim's equipment less durable than metal is destroyed or broken, and metal objects are damaged such that a second use of this power breaks them.

Re(Pe)Te 30 (Base 3, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +2 affect stone, +1 requisite, +1 constant effect) Greater power (30 levels, -3 Might cost, +1 Init).

Slake Elemental Thirst, 1 point, Init +3, Aquam: Direct contact with the pseudoelemental drains fluid from the target, inflicting a Fatigue level of damage. After all Fatigue levels are taken, wounds may be dealt in the following sequence: a Light Wound, then a Medium Wound, then a Heavy Wound, then an Incapacitating Wound, then a fatal wound. Fatigue levels can be restored by drinking two pints of fluid, but wounds must be healed as normal.

PeAq 15 (base 5, +1 Touch, +1 Part) Greater Power (15 levels, +1 Might cost, +6 Init)

Vis: 4 pawns Terram, bodily matter.

Appearance: A large blob of earth, perhaps 3 paces across if made into a sphere. It is filled with veins of whitish-grey powder, and tiny, fragile, metallic crystals. On close examination, the earth is made up of soft, fragile cubes.

This is a spirit similar to an Earth Elemental, but made more dangerous and more cruel by the arsenic salts which it has incorporated into its body. It may once have been a spirit of place, driven mad as mining tore out its minerals.

Arsenical Skeletons

These animated skeletons are not truly magical creatures; they are a Ritual spell effect. They lack Might and, beyond their movement and senses, magical powers. They contain no vis.

Characteristics: Int –2, Per –2, Pre 0, Com –2, Str 0, Sta +3, Dex +2, Qik +1

Size: –2

Personality Traits: Skeletal Warrior +3

Combat:

Shortsword*: Init +2, Attack +9, Defense +6, Damage +5**

* Change to other weapons for cosmetic effect

** A character who suffers a wound that draws blood (which, given the slashing nature of this attack, requires a Light Wound) suffers arsenic poisoning, as detailed in ArM5, p.180)

Soak: +8, leather armor which crumbles off after absorbing the first crushing or slashing strike; thereafter +3. Add a +10 Soak bonus if struck with piercing weapons.

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–3), –3 (4–6), –5 (7–9), Incapacitated (10–12), Dead (13+)

Abilities: Single weapon 4 (shortsword)

Equipment: Desiccated leather armor, old, but surprisingly unrusted, weapon.

Vis: None, animated corpses do not contain vis.

Appearance: Soldier skeletons, clad in leather armor so aged that it crumbles under blows. The skeletons have glowing eyes, if their skulls are intact, but this is a purely cosmetic effect caused by Averna's sigil.

These are reanimated corpses, created by the necromancer as a guards and soldiers. They have been buried for centuries in soil filled with arsenic salt, which makes them far more dangerous than they initially appear. Skeletons have a low Size score compared to living humans because they lack the mass provided by organs and fluids.

Distorted Ghosts

These creatures are the ghosts of miners whom the necromancer bound to the area, and abused with Muto Rituals.

Magic Might: 6 (Mentem)

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

* Tireless

Size: 0, but immaterial

Season: Summer

Virtues and Flaws: Magic Spirit, Berserk, Cautious with Profession: Miner, Magical Monster

Qualities and Inferiorities: Lesser Power (Donning the Corporeal Veil), Tough, up to 4 other Qualities due to Averna's distortions. Choose from: ambidextrous (allows a second one-handed attack per round), clawed (adds +2 Brawl attack, poison on Light Wound), bite attack (use Brawl statistics, poison on Light Wound), animal scales (+3 Soak), bucker heads for fists (counts as 3 choices, 2 brawl attacks, damage is +7), two extra arms (allows flinging of two added hammers in a round, or the use of a second bucker), hands distorted into great pincers (+3 Init, poison on Light wound), made of lead (counts as 3 choices, +9 soak), winged (counts as three choices, allows flight, particularly useful for ghosts who fling meer hammers.)

Personality Traits: Vary, but include Ghost +3 and Angry of at least +2

Combat:

One of:

Brawl: Init 0, Attack +6*, Defense +7*, Damage +4** or

Bucker: Init +1, Attack +9*, Defense +7*, Damage +7** or

Meer hammer (melee): Init +1, Attack +7*, Defense +6*, Damage +5**

Meer hammer (thrown)***: Init 0, Attack +5*, Defense +3*, Damage +8**

* When berserk, the ghosts have a +2 Attack bonus and a -2 Defense penalty.

** The matter out of which the ghosts form their bodies is contaminated with arsenical salts. A character who suffers a wound that draws blood (which, given the crushing nature of these attacks, requires a Medium Wound) suffers arsenic poisoning, as detailed in ArM5, p.180.

*** The ghost's hammer reappears in its hand whenever needed.

Soak: +4, when material, +2 bonus if Berserk.

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

Abilities: Brawl 6 (miner's gloves) or Great Weapon 6 (bucker) or Single Weapon 5 (hammer) and Thrown weapon 3 (hammer), Area Lore: Poisoned Land 4 (mines), Athletics 4 (carrying), Awareness 4 (threats in the mine), Profession: miner 6 (silver/lead),

Powers:

Donning the Corporeal Veil, 5 points, Init –3, Mentem: Allows the ghost to take material form.

Base 5, +1 touch, +2 Sun, +1 requisite, Lesser Power. As per Realms of Power: Magic, page 102.

Equipment: Clothes, mining tools Bucker: a heavy, two handed tool, used to crush and grind stones. The bucker has a curved head on a long wooden pole. A rocking motion is used to mash orebearing stones against a single, larger, firmer stone, called a knocker, which lies along the floor.

Meer hammer: a miner in this area could claim land equal to how far he could toss his mining hammer. Mining hammers are heavier than carpentry hammers, but some miners have lighter ones, used particularly for laying claims.

Vis: 2 pawns Mentem, mining tools

Appearance: Ghosts who have been driven mad, and whose physical forms are distorted by their sickness.

The ghosts of this site look unusual for three reasons. Like many ghosts from Roman times, they are black, rather than white. House Criamon claims that their Founder was responsible for this change. Ghosts are minds made apparent, and many of the miners here had been driven mad by lead poisoning, so their physical forms are distorted. The necromancer had powerful Muto Mentem spells she used to change the shapes of ghosts, giving them features she considered aesthetically interesting. This has made the affected ghosts even less sane then they previously were.

The Silver Lady: The Queen of the Lifeless Hills.

The poisoned land around the battlefield was, for a long time, unlivable: people who went there died by ingesting arsenic dust, absorbing fatal amounts of lead, or being ripped to shreds by the undead warriors. Folktales formed around this site, and they have been incorporated into the role of the Silver Lady. The Silver Lady stands on the border between the contaminated and fertile land, and terrifies humans who seek to cross. Many of the faeries in the area claim to be her vassals, and she pretends she controls the undead, although she merely triggers their attacks as convenient.

The Silver Lady appears to want to be left alone, but persistent rumors say that a few girls in each village are hers. A child lost for a few days in the woods may come back to her village deranged from her sojourn. After she recovers, such a girl may experience Visions, and gain a reputation as a wise one if she does not hide her gifts. The Silver Lady seems particularly likely to take female swineherds as her servants. On rare occasions, one of these girls is whisked away into Faerie, and returned as a trained warrior or diplomat, seeking obscure advantages and treaties for the Silver Lady.

The Silver Lady's name comes from her appearance. Many of her accoutrements seem to be made from metallic lead. This has a dull silver color. Many of her other accessories, and her skin, are the brilliant white of lead paint.

The Silver Lady is not designed as a player character.

Faerie Might: 35 (Corpus)

Characteristics: Int +3, Per +1, Pre +1, Com +1, Str +2, Sta +1, Dex 0, Qik 0

Size: +1

Virtues and Flaws: Cognizant Within Role; 2 x Focus Powers, 4 x Greater Power, Immune to Weapons Made of Base Metals; Improved Characteristics, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Humanoid Faerie; Traditional Ward (gold)

Personality Traits: Cruel +3, Patriotic (Somerset) +2

Combat:

Boar spear (as great weapon) : Init +3, Attack +10, Defense +8, Damage +9*

Boar spear + shield (mounted, as lance): Init +2, Attack +14, Defense +10, Damage +7* Longbow: Init –2, Attack +11**, Defense +7, Damage +8*

* Does not include +5 due to Damaging Effect power. A character who suffers a wound that draws blood (which, given the piercing nature of these attacks, requires a Light Wound) suffers arsenic poisoning, as detailed in ArM5, page 180.

** Does not suffer penalty for shooting while mounted.

Soak: +1 if surprised, +9 in combat (thick flakes of lead as mail, topped with a crowned, leaded skull helm.)

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–6), –3 (7–12), –5 (13–18), Incapacitated (19–24), Dead (25+)

Penalties for wounds suffered by the Lady are also suffered by her mount.

Pretenses:

Area Lore: Somerset 6 (lead mining), Awareness 6 (things in the poisoned land), Bargain 5 (nobles), Bow 6 (longbow), Brawl 6 (hog mount)**, Carouse 5* (nobles), Charm 5* (men), Dominion Lore 3 (Somerset), Etiquette 3* (ancient Roman), Faerie Lore 6 (Somerset), Folk Ken 6 (Somerset), Great Weapon 6 (boar spear), Guile 6* (greedy people), Hunt 6 (fleeing humans), Infernal Lore 3 (Somerset), Intrigue 6* (land), Leadership 6* (hogs), Magic Lore 3 (Somerset), Penetration 5 (poisons from the land), Ride 5 (hog)**.

* Remember to add +3 for Allure power, if applicable.

** The hog the Lady usually rides is actually part of her material body, like her other pieces of equipment, and so she does not need to make Ride rolls unless doing particularly athletic things.

Powers:

Alchemical Sublimation, 0 points, Init –1, Terram: One of lead's main properties in alchemy is that it dissolves other base metals. Any item made of a base metal that touches the Queen, or her equipment, melts, without heating, into a misshapen lump, should she will it.

(Base 2, +1 touch, +2 base metals. 2 intricacy points spent on cost, 1 spent on Init.) Allure, 0 points, Init –1, Mentem: Grants a +3 bonus on all rolls to impress or convince others. (Base 3, +1 Touch +2 Sun, 1 Intricacy point spent on cost)

Breath of The Poisoned Land: 0 points, Init –3, Auram: A breeze rises up from the poisoned land, carrying the fatal scent. All characters who do not take precautions within five hundred paces of the target, suffer arsenic poisoning, as detailed in ArM5, page 180.

Base 5 (new, create a very debilitating air), +2 Voice, +1 Diam, +1 increased Target. Designed as a variant of Stench of Twenty Corpses ArM5, page 125. 3 intricacy points spent to reduce cost)

Cause Poisoning: 0 points, Init –3, Corpus: Anything the faerie touches can, at her whim, become coated in either lead or arsenic. Unless precautions have been taken in advance, poisoning quickly follows.

(Base 20, +1 Touch, 3 intricacy points spent on cost)

Damaging Effect: 2 points, Init –2, Terram: Adds +5 damage to the faerie's weapons.

Base 5, +1 Part +1 Diameter. This is non-Hermetic, as noted in Realms of Power: Faerie page 58.

Focus Power (The poisoned earth), (1 point per magnitude) –1, Init –5, Terram: allows the Silver Lady to create non-Ritual Hermetic effects involving Terram of level 35 or less.

Grant Puissance in Poisoning: 2 points, Init –2,

Corpus: The Lady can either grant a +1 bonus on Ability checks to a group of people, or +3 to one person, who attempts poisoning. The Lady can only regain the Might spent on this power when she withdraws the bonus.

(As Realms of Power: Faerie, page 58. Base 2: +2 Voice, +2 Sun, +2 Group)

Lead Mania: 1 point, Init –3, Mentem: An effect similar to Blessing of Childlike Bliss. (ArM5, p.151) Suddenly becoming unable to reason, in a place this dangerous, is generally fatal, but sometimes the Lady's whim is such that intruders survive.

Base 10, +2 Voice, +2 Sun, 2 intricacy points spent on cost.

Spirit Away: Variable points, n/a, Vim: A complicated power, described in full in Realms of Power: Faerie, Chapter 2. It allows the Silver Lady to whisk humans away into the Faerie lands.

Equipment: Royal robe of a dull, metallic gray. Jewelry that contains arsenic crystals. Crown of lead and arsenic. Boar spear, bow, silver scale armor. Her clothing and most of her equipment is an extension of her physical form, and switches as required by the story's progress, without concentration or actions on her part.

Vis: 7 pawns Perdo, the skull of the dead necromancer.

Appearance: A study in metallic lead and unnatural white, the Queen of the Hills looks a little like a goddess, or a mad sorceress, or like a succubus. Opinions differ, possibly because her form is mutable.

The Silver Lady's Mount

The Silver Lady's Mount is not an independent faerie: it is an extension of her body, like her weapons and clothes. As such it lacks Might, and uses her Characteristics, Pretenses, and Virtues.

Size: +3

Combat:

Tusks: Init 0, Attack +11, Defense +9, Damage +8*

* Does not include +5 due to Damaging Effect power. A character who suffers a wound that draws blood (which, given the piercing nature of these attacks, requires a Light Wound) suffers arsenic poisoning, as detailed in ArM5, p.180.

Soak: +2 if surprised, +10 in combat (thick flakes of lead as mail)

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–8), –3 (9–16), –5 (17–24), Incapacitated (25–32), Dead (33+)

Penalties for wounds suffered by the pig are also suffered by its mistress.

Equipment: Saddle, bridle, panniers, tusk sheathes of lead.

Appearance: The mount of the Silver Lady appears to be a massive hog, dull gray in color.

Averna's Hogs

The hogs of Averna are small, savage fighters. They prefer to charge their foes and gore, even when other tactics would be more sensible. Their flesh is filled with lead, and carrion animals that eat of it often go mad and attack their surroundings.

Averna's hogs could be adapted as player characters. The current Pretense list is too specialized outside a strictly combat role. The Monstrous Appearance or Negative Reaction Flaws, or the Positive Folktales Virtue, may suit the character.

Faerie Might: 10 (Animal or Corpus depending on effect)

Characteristics: Int 0, Per 0, Pre –1, Com –1, Str –2, Sta +1, Dex +1, Qik +5

Size: -2

Virtues and Flaws: Hybrid Form, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Increased Faerie Might, Improved Characteristics, Personal Power (supernatural agility); Little; Incognizant, Traditional Ward (gold), Vulnerable to Gold (Minor – Soak against gold is 0).

Personality Traits: Fierce +3, Happy +3, Interested in self-preservation –2

Combat:

Tusks: Init +5, Attack +10*, Defense +12, Damage +6

2 wicked little knives: Init +11, Attack +9*, Defense +5, Damage +1**

* Does not include bonus for charging (+5 tusks, +6 knives) if using the optional rules presented in Lords of Men page 125.)

** A character who suffers a wound that draws blood (which, given the piercing nature of these attacks, requires a Light Wound) suffers arsenic poisoning, as detailed in ArM5, page 180.

Soak: If surprised +2 (Hide), if prepared for combat +7 (lead scales)

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–3), –3 (4–6), –5 (7–9), Incapacitated (10–12), Dead (13+)

Pretenses: Athletics 5 (dangerous stunts), Area Lore: Mendip Hills 3 (hiding places), Awareness 5 (mortals), Brawl 5 (knives), Hunt 3 (humans), Stealth 3 (the poisoned lands).

Powers:

Supernatural Agility, 3 points, constant, Corpus: Allows the creature, when performing activities that require the Agility Pretense, to perform minor tricks like scaling sheer walls, dropping safely from great heights, and leaping onto galloping horses as they pass.

Equipment: Knives, armor.

Vis: 2 pawns Animal in gnawed pig bones.

Appearance: The hogs are small, muscled humanoids. They have a pigs' snouts and tusks in low-set heads that look slightly too large for their bodies.

Pandius

Pandius is a demon who teaches methods of secretly poisoning rivals. He does this to corrupt fractious groups in society, by making people fearful enough that they, too, resort to homicide by poison, in what they consider self defense. Pandius lacks a beautiful form, in which to entice humans, so it selects acolytes, helps them to kill rivals, and then uses them to draw in further followers.

This demon is served by swarms of maggots, a type of tiny, flying demon that causes madness. Maggots are described in detail in Realms of Power: The Infernal on page 72.

Order: Pandius is a Vessel of Iniquity

Infernal Might: 20 (Animal)

Characteristics: Int +1, Per 0, Pre +1, Com 0, Str +2, Sta +1, Dex +1, Qik +3

Size: 0

Confidence Score: 1 (3)

Personality Traits: Hateful +6**,** Dislikes direct sunlight +1.

Reputations: Poisoner 1 (Infernal).

Hierarchy 1

Combat:

Great claws: Init +3, Attack +13, Defense +13, Damage +6*

Stinger: Init +6, Attack +10, Defense +8, Damage +9**

* The claws are used to either strike or grapple. Pinned enemies are automatically hit by the stinger in the following round.

** Any successful attack is poisonous, as per arsenic, detailed in ArM5, page 180.

Soak: +8 scorpion form

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: Awareness 4 (the Divine), Brawl 6 (claws), Guile 6 (provoke fear), Intrigue 6 (provoke fear), Legerdemain 6 (adulterating food and drink), Stealth 6 (assassinating), Teaching 6 (how to kill people secretly)

Envisioning, 1 or 5 points, Init 0, Mentem: For 1 point, allows the demon to enter and twist dreams. For 5 points, allows the demon to create a waking hallucination. If used to terrify, the victim can ignore it with a Brave Personality trait roll against an Ease Factor of 9. Failure to resist leads to a profound physical reaction, like a seizure. Pandius is unusual in that he uses dreams to help his acolytes plan. Most victims are just shown a single plan, and practice killing an enemy repeatedly in dreams. This doesn't affect the Abilities of the victim, but provides a bonus for the scene in which they attempt the practised plan, of up to +6, depending on the thoroughness of the preparations.

Form of Wickedness, 2 points, Init 0, Mentem: Allows the demon to manufacture a solid form of pure sin. It forces those around the demon to begin suspecting their neighbors of poisoning them if they lack sufficient Magic Resistance. A Stamina stress roll against an Ease Factor of 6 is needed every hour, failure costing a Fatigue level, and a success breaking this Power's hold. The Power also ends when the victim falls unconscious. A botch causes temporary insanity and imposes a Minor Personality Flaw appropriate to the sin. This form may only be maintained for one round, after which the demon must take spiritual or material form.

Form of The Venomous Evil, 0 points, Init 0, Animal: After assuming corporeal form, see Form of Wickedness, earlier, the demon can take solid form. See Appearance for details.

Possession, variable points, Init +2, Mentem: The demon stores some of its Might in a temporary pool in a victim, after overcoming Magic Resistance. When this pool is spent, the possession ends. The two pieces of the demon can only communicate if in sight of each other. The demon controls the actions of the host, but must spend Might to have the victim perform tasks they consider abhorrent. This requires the demon to make a roll of stress die + spent Might points against the victim's Personality Trait roll. It also costs 1 Might to use a Supernatural ability, or the same number of Might points a possessed supernatural creature spends to use one of its powers. Pandius may possess multiple people simultaneously, and sometimes rides along in the bodies of acolytes, using his Abilities to aid in assassinations.

Contagious Obsession, 1 point per victim, Init 0, Mentem: When a person is committing a sinful thought or deed, the demon may impose its Obsession Trait if this Power Penetrates Magic Resistance. This gives the person a temporary Personality Trait of Fears (rival) and at the next opportunity he must make a roll, opposed by any suitable Personality Trait, to avoid attempting to harm the object of his fear. If the Obsession fails, the temporary trait is lost. If it succeeds, the trait is acquired permanently. Any human who becomes a victim of this demon's Obsession power becomes a carrier of that Power and can pass it on to anyone he harms, using the same series of rolls. Every added victim costs the demon 1 Might point, and the Power ceases to be contagious if either he runs out of Might or a day passes without someone being infected. Even after the power ceases being contagious, it continues to harm the afflicted as described earlier.

Weakness: Will not cross fresh running water.

Vis: 4 pawns of Perdo, stinger

Appearance: The natural appearance of this demon is sin made manifest as a formless dark shape. He can, however, take a solid form, appearing as a huge, beastly man, with the armor, pincers, and tail of a scorpion.

Several stories may lead the player characters to the battlefield. The following story seeds are not meant to be used simultaneously.

The Roman method of mining leaves the land poisoned with arsenic salts, which are purified from lead in smelting. As centuries have passed, this layer of toxic soil is now covered in a layer of sterilized dust, and a higher layer of topsoil. That being noted, the protective layer is only a foot deep, a character with a shovel, a facemask, and a poor sense of self-preservation can dig up as much arsenic salt as they feel is wise.

Arsenic makes an excellent poison because in food, it is colorless, has no odor, and its salts have a flavor similar to table salt. Large doses are immediately fatal. Their symptoms are similar to that of food poisoning. Smaller doses accumulate in the body, can can cause cancers and wasting diseases.

Arsenic is also valuable for necromancers. It is used to prevent the decay of cadavers, and acts as a powerful pesticide.

Assasin

The player characters are seeking a poisoner. They are unable to find Arcane Connections to her, but have recovered a sample of her poison from the stomach of one of her victims. It retains a connection to this site. The player characters come to the site to seek Arcane Connections to the poisoner, or to lay in wait for her, when they suspect she needs to resupply.

An area so filled with poison and death is an obvious haven for the Infernal. The characters have stumbled upon a demonic scheme, and their investigations indicate that the diabolists will meet here on an ill omened night. The player characters can either ambush the diabolists as they arrive or, if they are feeling confident, let them summon the demon to whom they answer. The player characters can then attack the source of the problem. A suggested demon, Pandius, is described earlier.

METALLIC ARSENIC

A Verditius magus has a (correct) theory that arsenic salts could be smelted into a metal. He needs to set up a laboratory in a place rich in arsenic to prefect the process. Once the Verditius has this metal, he can determine its magical properties (its Material Bonuses), and create alloys with it, so that arsenic-laced magical items become practical. Some of the faeries already have crystalline arsenic, which aids his research greatly if acquired.

Metallic arsenic is the most fragile, brittle metal known to magicians. If used in items, it requires encasement in other, more durable, materials for its protection. Arsenic has the following material bonuses:

• +8 magic that kills directly, without intermediate media.
• +4 preservation of dead things from decay
• +2 stimulating the ill

Buckland Saint Mary: There The Facries Fear to Go

One town in Somerset, Buckland Saint Mary, is never visited by "faeries" because the faeries and the pixies had a war, and the pixies so utterly annihilated the faeries that they can never return. Aside from making this a place which Faerie Blooded characters, of many types, should avoid, in fear for their lives, it makes the town valuable to magi researching the battlefield. The War of the Faeries and the Pixies was a faerie representation of the Schism War, and pixies of the town know how to find the site. The pixies in this area are allied to, or even become, will-o-the-wisps, and can lead a character through the forest in that role.

The pixies in this little town know the traditional wards for many local faeries, and are happy to give them to humans. The faeries, in turn, have told everyone who will listen that pixies cannot harm a person wearing a coat inside out. Wiser people have pointed out that this is true. but pixies when riled are relentless little things and there are many, many more of them than you might imagine.

RAMPAGING MONSTER

The site has been disturbed, by characters following one of the other hooks, suggested earlier. The churned earth liberates a poisonous elemental. Elementals, being magical, prefer to live in Magic auras, so the creature raids into the mundane world, and if the players returns to the battlefield. game sessions.

Digging For Arsenic Is Dangerous

Player characters digging for arsenic must be careful not to breathe in the dust that their digging liberates. Characters may improve their chances of survival by taking only small amounts, wearing clothes that fully enclose the body, wearing a facemask of finely woven cloth, watering the soil so that it is less dusty, taking soil using a coring tool rather than a shovel, and washing thoroughly afterward.

Characters taking no particular precautions are poisoned. Characters taking some precautions must make a roll, using Dexterity and a suitable Ability, against an Ease Factor of 5, +1 per dose. Characters taking comprehensive precautions may remove industrial quantities of arsenic in safety.

The superficial secrets of this site are easy to discover. Many of the histories of the Schism War mention this battlefield. Locals can be convinced to tell tales of the Silver Lady, her powers and her servants. The deeper secrets of this site can only be discovered during stories.

Many of the original hooks offered for the site can be used to suggest a return. Two other hooks make for stronger stories if the players know the site from earlier game sessions.

This site oozes magic, and is inhabited by Faeries with the power to spirit humans away for centuries on end. It is possible that magi who have fallen out of the world will return on this site. The player characters may become aware of the magus's imminent return, as a reward in some other story. A character away so long may need help to return: either magical assistance to open a way, or shelter and support while he learns the ways of the current century.

Player characters may become aware of the Second Inscription. They may rescue it from another person aware of its existence, particularly if they are allied to local faeries. Having seized the record of the inscription, the player characters may cast it, or, alternatively, they can research the strange language in which it is written, and the odd ingredients in the mystical ink. The First Inscription, the scroll of the Second Inscription, and the mystical ink, each provide guaranteed Insight for Original Research.