The Refugee Librarian

Listen to me, we're here now and there's no going back. Just be thankful we have a home again and serve these new masters as they deserve, for they have taken us in when no one else would.

When a magus or a covenant falls, the loss is not only one to the Order but is most keenly felt by the covenfolk. Suddenly, they find themselves without their masters, without protection, and without income. Those serving a fallen covenant face finding new mundane lords, or trekking out to join another covenant.

The following notes will assist in the creation of a Parent of a Gifted Child character.

The parents of a child with The Gift can come from a wide variety of backgrounds. They are just as likely to be an annoyance to the covenant as a boon, but will most likely have skills and attributes that can be set up or packed up easily for a life of travel. As such, the Craft and Profession abilities have been left open for customization.

ABILITIES AT AGE 20: Animal Handling 2 (farm animals), Area Lore: Area A 1, Area Lore: Area B 1, Athletics 2 (chasing children), Awareness 2 (location of child), Bargain 2 (food), Carouse 2 (staying sober), Charm 2 (peasants), Concentration 2 (background noise), Craft A 2, Craft B 2, Craft C 2, Chirurgy 2 (childhood illnesses), Etiquette 2 (peasants), Folk Ken 2 (peasants),

ReCo 25

Pen +0, 24/day

R: Touch, D: Concentration, T: Individual

This enchanted buckle allows the wearer to move with freedom in any direction, even unsupported into the air. It was designed for and awarded to the librarian of a nowdissolved covenant and became a symbol of the office, passed down through generations of librarians. That covenant had a library built in a tall narrow tower, with the most valuable books and scrolls stored in a chamber near the roof that was inaccessible without using the buckle.

(Base 5, +1 Touch, +1 Concentration; +5 for 24 uses per day; +5 levels to allow the device to maintain concentration)

Magi, covenants, and practitioners of hedge magic all have secrets, and their servants are likely to acquire some of the more peripheral knowledge over time. In particular, grogs who accompanied their magi to the secret sites of initiation, or to collect vis, or consult powerful supernatural spirits are immediately useful. And those tasked with less adventurous duties, such as librarians, scribes, stewards, and forge companions, may also have valuable information, such as cyphers to the personal codes used by their magi, records of meetings and agreements made by the covenant, and details of mundane entanglements that a new covenant could exploit. The fleeing covenfolk may also bring enchanted items with them; indeed, for some kinds of the dissolution, this is quite likely.

Accepting refugees from another covenant may cause friction with the existing covenfolk, and this may impact their loyalty. The first year after accepting refugees, the covenant suffers a Loyalty penalty of –3, as though suffering a Severe Hardship (see Covenants, Chapter 3, for more on governance in general and loyalty in particular). After that, each story that is told in which the two communities are brought closer together reduces this penalty by one. This means that tension within the covenfolk may impact loyalty for far longer than the initial year.

But the situation could worsen, which could see the covenant riven with jealousy and resentment. The Divided Loyalty Major Residents Hook (Covenants, page 19) is appropriate for troupes wanting to highlight these problems.

As a group of grogs now stripped of their covenant, any of the other archetypes can be applied, and all the reasons for wanting to live within the protection of a covenant still apply. The additional motivation is clear: to carry on living life in perhaps the only way they know.

Many understand the routines and needs of magi, others may have supernatural Virtues or Flaws that make them useful to magical scholars, and some may have mundane connections within other covenants, and be able to bring information with them.

Refugees can clearly be of any age and have a range of characteristics. The example used here is for a Librarian already well-practiced in his profession.

Virtues and Flaws might include: Custos (granting Academic Abilities), Magic Items*, Puissant Profession: Librarian; Stuck in his Ways*, Ability Block (Martial), Covenant Upbringing

* See Chapter 6: New Virtues and Flaws

The example refugee whom we're following is a Librarian, a valued and trusted role, so the position of Custos is appropriate, as is Puissant Profession: Librarian. His service may also have awarded him an enchanted item, covered by the Magic Items Virtue. As for Flaws, coming to a new covenant may take some adjustment, so he has the new Stuck in his Ways Flaw. He is completed by a Martial Ability Block, due to years of doing little beyond his academia during his Covenant Upbringing.

Grogs coming from another covenant are well trained and practiced in their given trades. The following abilities are typical of a specialist Librarian coming from a covenant background.

As his career progresses, he develops other skills related to the texts he manages and maintains, including Profession: Calligraphy to help draft documents at the covenant's behest, and Academic Abilities through years of studying the books that he cares for.

Importantly, as he spends longer at his new covenant, he learns more about the people, ways, and traditions of his new home.

Training packages include: Covenfolk, Craftsman*, Leader, Trainer

* The experience points against the various Craft Abilities should be assigned to the Bookbinder, Librarian, and Scribe Professions.

ABILITIES AT AGE 30: Artes Liberales 4 (grammar), Profession: Bookbinder 2 (academic), Charm 2 (first impressions), Civil and Canon Law 2 (laws and customs of a specific area), Concentration 2 (reading), Etiquette 3 (Hermetic), Folk Ken 3 (magi), Intrigue 2 (rumormongering), Latin 5 (Hermetic usage), Leadership 1 (junior librarians), Living Language 5 (expansive vocabulary), Order of Hermes Lore 3 (personalities), Organization Lore: Former Covenant 3 (resources), Philosophiae 2 (natural philosophy), Profession: Librarian 4 (ensuring order), Profession: Scribe 3 (copying)

ABILITIES AT AGE 45: Artes Liberales 4 (grammar), Charm 2 (first impressions), Civil and Canon Law 3 (laws and customs of a specific area), Concentration 3 (reading), Etiquette 3 (Hermetic), Folk Ken 3 (magi), Greek 3 (academic usage), Intrigue 3 (rumormongering), Latin 5 (Hermetic usage), Leadership 3 (junior librarians), Living Language 5 (expansive vocabulary), Order of Hermes Lore 3 (personalities), Organization Lore: Former Covenant 3 (resources), Organization Lore: Current Covenant 3 (customs), Philosophiae 3 (natural philosophy), Profession: Bookbinder 4 (academic), Profession: Librarian 5 (ensuring order), Profession: Scribe 4 (copying)

ABILITIES AT AGE 60: Arabic 3 (academic usage), Artes Liberales 5 (grammar), Charm 3 (first im-

This particular option has enormous potential for story. Covenfolk provide obvious witnesses to the events that befell a magus or a covenant, and their testimony could be troublesome to the guilty. The knowledge they bring with them also provides seeds into numerous treasure-hunting opportunities, as new vis sources, auras, and regiones are disclosed. And the prescient among the grogs may take such books and devices as they can before finally abandoning their home.

A handful of refugees arrives at the covenant offering service and asking to be taken in. They are the covenfolk of a nearby covenant, almost forgotten by the Order and home to an elderly magus and his loyal filia. The refugees tell how a magus arrived and killed their masters before claiming their tower, their village, and all within it. These covenfolk are the ones who ran. There are others still back at the covenant, forced to do their new master's bidding. Is this violent magus a threat to the covenant? Who is he and under what grounds has he taken this small covenant? More importantly from the refugees' point of view, can they stay or will they be turned out?

Ever since the refugees arrived at the covenant all those years ago, the community has been on the brink of division. Over the years, the covenfolk have split into those who live in the Upper Village and those who live in the Lower Village. And when a girl from the Upper Village is murdered, the magi must find the killer before revenge is taken against the Lower Villagers.

The dissolution of the covenant draws close. The signs are there; the covenant's enemies are circling, no apprentices have been taken in years, and vis sites have fallen to nobles as they build their estates. The magi seem not to have noticed the growing weight of troubles, but there are those who have lived through this before, many years ago. Only they can rouse the magi from their complacency and make them learn the mistakes of a former generation, and only they can save the covenant.

When the last magus of a winter covenant dies, the covenfolk agree to continue operating the covenant as though nothing has changed. The covenant, after all, has mundane sources of income, enough land being farmed to feed the covenfolk, and more. The books in the library describe where the vis sites are and how the vis can be harvested, so a faux trade in vis is started with the visiting Redcaps, and secretaries to the old dead magus maintain his correspondences. And so the great deception begins. But what happens when the Order finds out?

pressions), Civil and Canon Law 3 (laws and customs of a specific area), Concentration 4 (reading), Etiquette 3 (Hermetic), Folk Ken 3 (magi), Greek 3 (academic usage), Hebrew 4 (mystic texts), Intrigue 3 (rumormongering), Latin 5 (Hermetic usage), Leadership 4 (junior librarians), Living Language 5 (expansive vocabulary), Order of Hermes Lore 3 (personalities), Organization Lore: Current Covenant 5 (customs), Organization Lore: Former Covenant 3 (resources), Philosophiae 4 (natural philosophy), Profession: Bookbinder 4 (academic), Profession: Librarian 5 (ensuring order), Profession: Scribe 4 (copying)

Refugees who have been forced to leave a failed or destroyed covenant may retain a Loyal to Former Covenant Personality Trait, which comes into play when dealing with connections to their former covenant, such as other covenfolk, magi, or apprentices. This loyalty may work against the character, as there may be a perception of bias which his new colleagues may resent.

Those who have been forced to leave through the actions of their former masters may instead have an Anger at Former Covenant Personality Trait. Again, this can be brought into play during stories concerning that covenant.

Other Personality Traits should be taken as appropriate for the individual. In the example here, the Librarian is Respectful and Keen to Impress, in addition to his Loyal to Former Covenant trait.

Whatever cataclysm befell the former covenant, the same mindset applies to the former companions of those magi as to their grogs. Indeed, some of those companions may now be looked to for leadership. It may be one of those companions who leads the convoy of displaced grogs to their new covenant.

Companions, by their role in the saga, are those who are more likely to take important roles within the covenant, including leadership roles. Additional Virtues and Flaws may be taken to reflect this, including Difficult Underlings, representing the resentment and distrust of the new interloper, or the trouble he faces trying to keep his old covenfolk under control. Companions may also know more about the fall of a previous covenant, and may even have played a greater role in that fall than they would care to admit, and so may take the Dark Secret Story Flaw.