Planning Grog Stories

In some cases, a grog story can afford to be simpler in structure than a story involving magi. The sheer versatility of a Hermetic magus, and the inventive uses to which magic can be put can occasionally leave a storyguide stumped as to how to pitch a challenge correctly. However, things are much more straightforward with a group of grogs, who have a much more predictable skill set. This need not make the stories any less exciting, though. This section offers some general advice for planning grog stories once the theme has been chosen. Picking a genre is often a good start. Where is the focus of the story? Are the grogs solving mysteries, or fighting their way out of trouble? This section goes on to discuss the simple structure of a story, and the elements that should be considered at each stage. Realms of Power: Faerie has a whole chapter devoted to the telling of faerie stories, and it is full of good advice for constructing folkloric tales in general, in addition to stories that specifically feature faeries.

A FALLEN COMRADE

The turb of grogs is determined to retrieve the body of a comrade slain on a distant task; because of the constraints of the mission, they were forced to bury him far from home. They have sought and received permission from the magi, and set out. After overcoming various obstacles to get to the burial site, they discover that the makeshift grave is empty, so they must seek out the graverobbers. On the way home, they could easily slip on to a faerie trod (Realms of Power: Faerie, page 17), since these are commonly roads of the dead.

CLAIM JUMPERS

A grog's father arrives at the covenant and asks for help. His father is a freeman who has a farm some villages over, but has been driven from his holding by an aggressive family that seems to have a legitimate deed over the land. The reeve refuses to get involved; as far as he's concerned, as long as the rent is paid, he has little interest in who pays it. The grog character must restore ownership and occupation of his family farm, but first has to prove that the interlopers have no right — and expose the reeve as being in their pocket.

There are seven genres that lend themselves well to grog stories: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Creature Feature, Drama, Exploration, Horror, and Mystery. However, one should note that these broad genres are not mutually exclusive, and a story can always switch genres midway through to help keep the players on their toes.

This is the type of story with which most grogs feel at home. Action/Adventures usually feature combat quite heavily, but this should not be all they contain. Chases, physical challenges, and a well-chosen "bad guy" who employs unusual tactics all add to the fun. Stories based around disasters can also make good grog stories. Action stories are usually heavy on the doing and light on the thinking; don't get too bound up in complex plots.

Examples include:

• A bandit moves into an area near the family of one of the grogs. He is holding the children hostage to ensure the villagers' compliance, and to make them steal from their neighbors to line his pockets.
• Grogs track down a villainous lord who tortured and killed their captain in a previous story. The magi were unable to punish him because of the Code, but they might provide surreptitious help to the vengeful grogs.
• A fire in a town spreads quickly. The grogs must do their best to preserve their favorite establishments, and help those trapped in burning houses. But who started the fire, and how?

Comedy has an incidental role in many stories, but it can also be an intentional element. Humor can be very individual and idiosyncratic, and a storyguide has a duty toward his players to pitch a comedic story appropriately so that it is enjoyed equally by the players and the storyguide. Not everyone appreciates the sophomoric character of slapstick or toilet humor, whereas others have difficulty with subtly crafted irony.

Not all stories of the Comedy genre need to be Light Relief. Comedy can highlight odd medieval customs, deal with plot development, or cover personal developments in the lives of grogs, just as straight stories can. Furthermore, comedy can be dark as well as light, and stories of this genre can have serious or even fatal consequences.

Don't be tempted to use faeries simply because you are planning a comedy story. This has been an overused trope in previous editions of Ars Magica, but the current edition has redefined the nature of faerie, and whimsy is less of a feature of these creatures now. Nevertheless, there are faeries who derive vitality from human laughter, although the faerie itself is never laughing with the characters — it is laughing at them, or it is being laughed at by them.

Examples include:

• The grogs are asked by a friend to help him woo his lady love. He has an over-elaborate plan to elevate himself above his rivals for her affections. The lady herself is selfish with an overbearing and disapproving mother, and her sister — a better match for the besotted grog — is deeply and hopelessly in love with him. Add the jealous suitors into the mix, and you have all the elements of a classic farce.

• Many parts of Mythic Europe have a tradition similar to the French poisson d'avril (literally, "April fish,"). An individual is chosen by lot — the methods vary by locale and class — and that person becomes the de facto ruler for a time. All men must obey the poisson's dictates, no matter how silly. The poisson may rule for a single day, or for longer (such as the 12 nights between Christmas and Epiphany). A child — or worse, a faerie — elected poisson can wreak havoc, and the characters might be in charge of damage limitation, or else caught up in the
• A group of grogs are transformed into animals through an unknown agency, and they must make their way back to the covenant to have the enchantment undone. On the way, they experience the communities and social structures of other animals, and come to realize that they are a parody of human society as a whole.

caprices of the "king for a day."

Usually a subgenre of Action/Adventure, this type of story focuses on a specific opponent. The set-up of the story is usually specifically geared to give the antagonist the most advantages possible.

Examples include:

• A basilisk has taken up residence right on top of one of the covenant's vis sources. This horrible creature can only be defeated by an Eagle of Virtue — but the grogs must convince the noble bird to nullify the basilisk's deadly power so that they can defeat it on more equal terms.
• A werewolf is terrorizing a village. Everyone suspects the reclu-

revealing himself before he kills

them all.

• A hedge witch has taken a particular dislike to one of the grogs — for real or imagined reasons. Whenever he leaves the covenant he risks being harried by her, so he decides to drum up a few friends and sort her out. However, she is well-protected. She uses the local animals as her eyes and ears, and has trapped the land around her home with mundane and magical traps. She may have ensorcelled one or more warriors to act as a bodyguard, or have more overtly supernatural assistance.

Situations fraught with tension rather than action are the hallmark of a good dramatic story, and the cutand-thrust of politics can be every bit as exciting as battle for the right grog. Drama-based stories usually need a good plot to hold them together, since the players don't have so many combats to distract them.

Examples include:

• A wedding attended by the grogs is crashed by a band of courtly faeries. The grogs must negotiate their way through the obscure rules of etiquette to find out why these faeries believe they have a claim on the bridegroom.
• A war has destroyed many families in the local area, and the grogs are approached to help bring some of the refugees to safety. What the grogs may not know when they agree is that the refugees are Jews (or another

denigrated minority), leaving the grogs to struggle with their own prejudices, as well as those of the world around them.

• A grog meets and falls in love with an unattainable individual. Perhaps she is the daughter of a noblemen, and he just a stable boy. Or maybe he is a magus, and she is a soldier. The grog must contend with the possibility that his beloved has ulterior motives for returning his affections. This drama could span several months or years until the two finally resolve their starcrossed love.

These stories feature new experiences or take place in exotic locales, and may be combined with action or with drama.

Examples include:

• A grog was forced to leave his father's sword in the body of a faerie on a recent adventure; he wants it back. However, the faerie has become something else now and the sword has become integral to that change. The grog and his comrades must succeed in the challenges posed by the faerie to regain the sword.
• The grogs are shipwrecked on a mysterious island, and the magi are nowhere to be found. The secret to escaping from this regio must be somewhere on the island, but can they find it alone?
• The grogs are required to deliver a magical item to the king of the monkeys. When they step across the borders of his land, they find themselves transformed into monkeys themselves. To complete their mission, they must foil a plot of the monkeys' enemies, the serpent people.

Ars Magica Fifth Edition is a good setting for horror stories. Mythic Europe is rich in suitable opponents — ghosts, demons, werewolves, vampires — and abounds with suitably creepy locations, such as haunted forests, abandoned castles, and fog-shrouded moors. In addition to maintaining the atmosphere, the storyguide should build tension through inconclusive encounters until the final confrontation. Horror stories make extensive use of Personality Traits (particularly the Brave Trait), and madness can be represented by the temporary imposition of Personality Traits at high values that govern the character's reactions to certain stimuli. Stories that are all about fighting a monster rather than running from it are creature features, rather than horror.

Examples include:

• An abandoned farmhouse has been occupied by a particularly unpleasant faerie. It has become a test of manhood to spend a night in the farmhouse and return with an item from inside to prove it.
• The grogs are at the covenant, but virtually everyone else is absent, including the magi. Strange things start to happen, including disappearances or even deaths. It soon becomes apparent that a demon is loose in the covenant. But how did it get through the Aegis of the Hearth?
• The grogs are hunting (perhaps illegally), but they slowly realize that instead they are the ones being hunted. They never see their pursuer clearly, but are herded toward the creature's lair where it is best able to dispatch them — or so it hopes.

Mystery adventures rely less on combat and more on quick-wittedness and sharp eyes. These stories can be more fun without magi, who can often easily solve mysteries with magic. Be careful not to allow a mystery adventure to devolve into a set of Perception

• • Awareness rolls to spot clues. Examples include:
• A disease is afflicting the grogs, but it has no apparent cause and the physicians are baffled. Clues point toward a grog who died recently, but why would he have had a grudge against the covenant?
• The oblates at a local monastery are going missing. They've been trying to cover it up, but eventually a boy connected to one of the covenfolk becomes a victim. Where are they going, and is the monastery involved?
• The agent of the covenant's merchant contact is found hanged in a warehouse. He is discovered to have been involved in the sale of stolen relics. But who murdered him — the thieves, a rival, or a disgruntled buyer?

The beginning of any grog story lacks a key ingredient that many stories for Ars Magica Fifth Edition have: a Story Flaw. The storyguide can usually be sure that a certain set of companion or magi characters will take part in any given adventure because it plays on one of their Story Flaws. Since grogs cannot have Story Flaws, the storyguide must use other methods for getting the characters involved in the stories.

The most common method is simply handing down orders to the grogs. They are, after all, the employees of a covenant, which they rely on for wages, homes, and food. However, it soon becomes a clichéd way to start an adventure. Here are a few alternate ideas. Furthermore, some of the story themes mentioned earlier lend themselves to particular story seeds, as the characters react to events imposed upon them.

Example include:

• A mysterious lady dressed all in green asks the grogs for help.
• A character known to one of the grogs calls in a favor he is owed.
• The grog characters are ambushed on their way to a nearby town.
• The grog characters are tricked into getting involved by a cunning priest.

An important question to ask when planning a grog adventure is why the magi or companions aren't getting involved. Some types of story are of more intrinsic interest to magi, or involve the Story Flaws of the "main cast," but conventional stories in Ars Magica Fifth Edition are not intended to feature grogs exclusively. The storyguide sometimes needs to provide some pretext as to why the magi and companions are unavailable for these stories.

Example include:

• The magi are absent from the covenant: perhaps they are at tribunal, or visiting an ally, or fighting a dragon with the rest of the turb.
• The magi are at the covenant, but unable or unwilling to be distracted. The grog story might be related to the circumstance that prevents the magi from taking part. For example, the casting of the Aegis of the Hearth leaves a window every year in which all the magi are occupied for an hour or two.
• The grogs are accompanying one or more of the covenant's apprentices on their first adventure beyond the covenant gates.
• The story initially presents itself as business normally assigned to grogs, such as vis collection.
• The story is the personal business of one or more grogs.
• The grogs specifically want to exclude the magi, knowing that they won't approve or consent to the story. This could be a minor act of rebellion (visiting a bordello) or a major one (disobeying orders not to return for the dragon's treasure).
• The grogs are given the assignment by the magi. Perhaps the journey is too long for them to bother with, or too boring (apparently) to pique their interest.
• Sometimes the magi choose not to come along when they really should have. On occasion, a storyguide presents a story seed too subtly for his players, and they assign a group of grogs to check

A storyguide should not be frightened of borrowing from modern films and TV series to construct stories. Such sources are usually pretty good for grog stories, since their protagonists do not rely on magic to get them out of a hole either (although sufficiently-advanced technology can substitute indistinguishably for magic). Inspiration can derive from all sorts of shows and films. Just make sure that your players are not too familiar with your sources, or they might spot the plot even after you have reframed it in a Mythic European setting!

out the issue. This might end in tragedy for the grogs if they are outmatched against a supernatural opponent.

• The grogs could be traitors to the covenant, and actually working against it. This works best with grogs who have not yet been played — they were always traitors, but only now has the opportunity for treachery presented itself. However, known grogs could be enchanted by hostile powers to betray their masters.
• The magi accompany the grogs, but are separated from them in the early phase of the story. The grogs might be sent away by the magi — to get help, to explore, and so forth — or the separation might be due to misadventure.
• The magi cannot get involved because of the dictates of the Code of Hermes. By sending grogs with no magical aid, they hope to bypass the tribunal's wrath.

The middle of any story should have a gradual increase in tension or action, or both, as the characters build toward the climax that happens in the finale. The three basic ways of building tension in the middle phase of a story are antagonists, clues, and obstacles.

Most stories have an antagonist, which may be an event, a person or creature, or a place. It is the source of most of the significant obstacles that the grogs will face, and many stories revolve around overcoming or defeating the antagonist. This need not be the case for all stories: the antagonist might be so vast that it must simply be weathered rather than defeated, or so

powerful that it is not possible for the grogs to defeat it.

Events as antagonists usually fall into the "undefeatable" category. A plague or an outbreak of war could be an antagonist, as could a natural disaster such as an avalanche or forest fire. In such cases, merely surviving might be enough to satisfy the goals of the story, but minimizing the loss of life or rescuing valuable artifacts could be the source of drama instead.

Antagonists that are personified in an individual are more familiar to most troupes. Stories designed for servants and specialists rather than soldiers often have antagonists who attempt to outwit, outmaneuver, or escape the characters while simultaneously pursuing their nefarious schemes.

Physical threats are not generally an issue in a grog adventure; fighting is what most grogs have been trained for, and even if the magi had been present, they would not be involved in this part of the story anyhow. On the other hand, even weak supernatural creatures can pose a major threat. Grogs have no Magic Resistance at all, and are almost certain to fall under the influence of any powers or spells that are thrown against them. For instance, take the Terrifying Howl power of the Magical Wolf (ArM5, page 193). This power has a Penetration Total of zero, meaning that magi are only affected in very unusual circumstances. However, few grogs are going to be able to achieve the Brave roll of Ease Factor 12 to throw off its effects, and only

a quarter of even the bravest grogs in the band are likely to stay and fight if the power is brought to bear. This makes creatures like the magical wolf a very different challenge to an all-grog group. When grogs enter into fights, a trained group can be devastatingly effective against even a tough foe, and they should not be given the opportunity to kill the antagonist before the finale. Instead, a clever antagonist sends minions against a well-armed group, to wear them down and make them less of an opponent when the showdown inevitably occurs.

Locations can also be antagonists, if they are the source of the character's obstacles. A challenging environment such as a desert or an ice floe can be as deadly as a dragon even for hardy adventurer-types. Alternatively finding a long-lost Roman fort, or the location of a mythical island, can provide challenges for all sorts of grog characters.

With all-grog groups, there is no need to worry about magi plucking answers from another's mind, or bringing other varieties of "plot-solving" magics to bear. Instead, a grog group is going to be far more reliant on their Characteristics and Abilities to pick up on clues, and this stresses the importance of a varied group of characters for grog-only adventures (see "Picking Your Team," Chapter 4).

A good piece of advice that applies particularly to mystery stories, but also to stories in general — make sure that there are at least three ways in which the characters can obtain any vital piece of information. It is too easy to stump players if they miss a clue, and with two back-ups, the chances are good that they will not miss it altogether. Make sure there are plenty of different ways of getting the information. It is too easy to allow Awareness to become a "Find Clue" Ability. Perception can be combined with other Abilities equally easily: with Folk Ken to spot lies; with Living Language to pick up the traces of an odd accent; and with Ride to spot which horse has been lathered from a long ride. Information can be gained directly from storyguide characters by using various Social Abilities, from the character's own learning, or from hunches supplied by Supernatural Abilities such as Premonitions.

Clues advance a plot, whereas obstacles hinder it. This catch-all category consists of all the barriers that the characters must overcome. These might be literal obstacles in the form of a mountain to be scaled, a river to be crossed, or a fortress to be breached, or metaphorical barriers such as earning the trust of the village, or finding the right person to bribe. In general, obstacles should become greater challenges to the characters as the story approaches its climax.

Stories can end in one of two ways: a happy ending or a disastrous ending — the original meanings of comedy and tragedy, respectively. Some stories are specifically intended to end well or end poorly, regardless of the actions of the grog characters. This may seem harsh, but if used sparingly, it reinforces the idea that grogs are support characters, rather than the main cast.

The final showdown is what all the preceding parts of the story have been leading to. In many situations, this is where they finally confront their antagonist despite his best efforts to avoid them, and they must now overcome him to win the day. A cunning antagonist chooses the location for the final showdown, and ensures that everything is in his favor; wise characters attempt to do the same. The result is usually a compromise between both sides' favored location, and allows the storyguide to tune the final showdown according to how well that characters have performed until that point. For example, if they have failed to uncover the dragon's weak spot, then they might be given the upper hand in picking the location of the finale, allowing them to prepare the ground with traps and snares that even the score somewhat.

Sometimes, a story will end with the magi sweeping in and saving the day. This might have been the point of the adventure — the grogs do all the hard work setting up the finale to give the magi the best chance of success — or it may be entirely accidental or unexpected. This sort of end is a manner by which a happy ending can be almost guaranteed, regardless of how poorly the grog characters have done, but it also robs them of a sense of achievement, and so should be used rarely, unless the players really enjoy being the ones to ride to the rescue when all seemed lost.

An extreme form of tragedy, in this resolution, all the grogs die at the end of the adventure. Perhaps they have been sent up against a hopelessly powerful opponent, or maybe it was always a suicide mission. When the grogs fail to return, the magi and companions may be sufficiently motivated to investigate themselves.

This end to an adventure generates

a lot of pathos, and can be a shocking and unexpected end to a story. It is certainly not a tactic that should be overused, and it is a brave storyguide who uses it against a group of favored grogs. However, this ending is an excellent way to enforce the idea that the life of a grog can be brutal and short.

Grogs earn experience points at the same rate as any other character, but rarely benefit from other rewards of stories such as vis, hidden knowledge, or magical items. A slap on the back and a "well done" from a magus is little reward for putting one's life on the line, and the storyguide should consider other less traditional forms of reward. For a start, grogs who are successful gradually come to be recognized as dependable, competent, and even heroic, both at the covenant and further afield. When a mission is successfully completed, a grog character should earn experience points in a Reputation (ArM5, page 167) that represents the recognition of a task well done by the magi. This Reputation should serve as a reflection of the status of the character within the covenfolk, and may translate directly into better quarters, higher wages or pension, or a position of responsibility. As the score in this Reputation rises, the character becomes a local celebrity, as grogs gossip about his deeds to non-covenfolk. Related to fame and fortune gained through Reputation are less tangible rewards, such as the grace and favor of important locals or supernatural entities. A grog character might be able to call in favors, receive one-off mentoring, or develop an agency among the wider world (Houses of Hermes: Societates, page 140).

Another form of reward is personalized equipment. A grog can find unique weapons, armor, or other kinds of equipment while adventuring, or else be rewarded with them as a mark of the magi's favor. This equipment might be simply unusual, or it might be exceptionally well-crafted, or even magical. City & Guild, page 69, has some simple rules for the game effects of particularly well-made pieces of equipment.