Fall and Rise

This is the story of the fall, then rise, of the fortunes of a Tytalus magus due to the manipulation of a faerie. Severin of Tytalus, lost in Arcadia, has faced down the enemies that imprisoned him and has fled to the mortal realm to seek a weapon that can finally slay his tormentor. That tormentor, a faerie named Cruciator, is merely the agent of a morepowerful faerie. Her name is Peripeteia, and she plans for Severin to lose everything he holds dear, and then gain a semblance of it back.

Like all faeries, Peripeteia feeds on the vitality of humans: in her case, she feeds on the vitality humans release when they experience unexpectedly happy endings. Peripeteia, like many faeries, is effectively sterile. She can only have a child if she steals sufficient energy from mortals. She is making a small duplicate of herself, so the vitality must be the type that she finds particularly exquisite. In ancient times Peripeteia took this perfect flavor of mortal energy while acting as a guide to adventure. She found lost princes and raised them to kingship, in particular. In the modern era, she usually cannot do this, because kings are protected by the Dominion, a power she cannot counter.

"Peripeteia" is a technical term for the turning point in a story. In tragedies, it is the moment of shocking realization when the protagonist comprehends how his own flaws and circumstances beyond his control have conspired to destroy him. In comedies, the peripeteia is the point where the path to a happy resolution, despite looming trouble, becomes clear.

Peripeteia has discovered an alternative way of gaining the energy she requires to create a child. She can take a powerful man, and strip him of everything he holds dear. After his life has been destroyed, he rebuilds it, rising from destitution to good fortune. To this end, Peripeteia has spent much of the time since Severin's capture patiently destroying everything Severin finds valuable.

In this she is aided by two principal minions. One is a faerie torturer called Cruciator, who she pretends is her rival. The other is Benedictus, a Merinita magus who became a faerie using the Becoming Mystery. Benedictus aided in the spiriting away of Severin, in exchange for help completing the Becoming. He has been Peripeteia's slave ever since, but Benedictus discovered that he had been tricked before he lost his humanity. This gave him a final chance at revenge on his new mistress.

Immediately following the construction of her child, Peripeteia is drained of mystical energy and vulnerable to attack. To restore herself, Peripeteia needs a second story of rags to riches, and she has prepared one to coincide with Severin's return. Peripeteia has already manipulated a series of events that have led to Eleanor, the Fair Maid of Brittany, arguably the true queen of England, losing her kingdom, her family, and her liberty. Peripeteia plans to use Eleanor's return to power to replenish herself after her child is made. Her minion, Benedictus, instead plans to betray the whole scheme to Severin and his player-character allies. This will allow Peripeteia's child to absorb the vitality her mother needs, and in the process steal her mother's role.

The most important non-player characters in the scenario are all described in this section.

The Tytalus magus Severin was trapped in Arcadia during a war. (Select a conflict that suits the plot and theme of your saga.) Severin has recently escaped to the real world. Subjectively, he has been in Arcadia for eight months (though much longer has passed in the mortal realm), playing fiendish games of skill against a dark faerie lord called Cruciator. Severin has several goals, which form the waypoints in this scenario. They are described in detail in the Expected Sequence of Play section, later.

Severin does not have the advantage of whatever the Order has discovered about the use of magic since he fell into Faerie. Storyguides whose sagas contain player characters who perform research may use Severin to reinforce the importance of their work. For example, if longevity rituals that reduce apparent aging are only a recent invention, then Severin does not have one, and so is visibly different from other characters. His links to his familiar or talisman may be more primitive than those of modern magi, as well. Or, his Arts may be patchy, and the base levels of many of his spells may be higher than those of an equivalent character from the thirteenth century. The statistics below do not penalize Severin for being from a past century, however, because the modification should be tailored to suit individual sagas.

Similarly, Severin's Warping Score and Twilight scars have not been developed. These depend on how long he has been in Arcadia, and what conflict led him there, and should be tailored to each troupe's saga, or simply ignored.

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

Dex 0, Qik 0

Size: 0 Age: 62 (35) Decrepitude: 0

Confidence Score: 2 (5)

Virtues and Flaws: The Gift; Death Prophecy*; Enduring Constitution, Self-Confident; Plagued By Supernatural Entity (Peripeteia); Overconfident

* Severin will be the final veteran of the Schism War/ Corruption of House Tytalus/Local War that led him to be spirited away.

Personality Traits: Brave +3, Hates Faeries +2, Tired +2 (temporary)

Reputations: None anymore

Combat:

Single Weapon (staff): Init +2, Attack +7, Defense +7, Damage +2

Storyguides need to find reasons that suit their individual troupes for the characters to assist Severin. Some suggestions are:

Severin might predate the Schism War ...

If this is the case, he knows the location of fallen Diedne covenants, and is politically useful to those houses that destroyed the Diedne. The druids were notoriously secretive, so he does not know much about House Diedne's mysteries.

Severin is the oldest magus in the Tribunal ...

He has the right to act as Praeco. A new and friendly Praeco is valuable in sagas with political stories.

Severin is a Hippian ...

This is a type of Tytalus that is rare in the modern House. The Hippians were the stable, useful, sociallyminded Tytalus magi who dominated the House briefly during the Schism War. Tytalus player characters may see some value in returning the Hippian faction to prominence, as a challenge for the House's current orthodoxy.

Benedictus and Peripeteia know how venal and greedy magi are ...

They can prompt the magi along with the usual bribes. Severin, similarly, has resources he can use to buy allies.

Soak: +1

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: Artes Liberales 1 (geometry), Athletics 2 (walking long distances), Awareness 2 (ambush), Brawl 1 (bludgeon), Chirurgy 2 (self), Code of Hermes 1 (battle law), Dominion Lore 1 (avoiding trouble), Etiquette 2 (magi), (Fallen Covenant) Lore 3 (defenses), Faerie Lore 1 (efficient killing), Finesse 3 (Herbam), Folk Ken 1 (stealing from), Guile 2 (other Tytalus magi), Intrigue 4 (about magi), Infernal Lore 2 (fighting), Latin 5 (writing), Leadership 2 (grogs), Magic Lore 1 (combat),

Severin's talisman is a wooden staff. It is only partially filled with magical effects. Currently, it has the following powers:

Leap of Homecoming (ReCo 35, 1 use per day), triggered if the holder collapses while touching the staff. This is meant to trigger if Severin is overcome by his enemies, but he can also trigger it consciously, by going limp and falling over.

Endurance of the Berserkers (ReCo15, 1 use per day), triggered by the holder biting his tongue. This is meant to give Severin the energy to flee if seriously harmed.

Severin's talisman has the following attunements, but these have not been included in his casting rolls, above, because he begins the scenario without his talisman: +4 control things at a distance, +4 affect dead wood.

Magic Theory 5 (human transformations into animals), French 5 (grogs – has weird accent due to ancientness), Order of Hermes Lore 3 (Tytalus)*, Parma Magica 5 (Terram), Penetration 5 (Herbam), Single Weapon (staff) 3, Stealth 3 (woodland), Survival 3 (desert), Swim 2 (rivers).

* This score cannot be used to answer questions about current members of the House.

Arts: Cr 8**, In** 0, Mu 6, Pe 6, Re 20; An 0, Aq 0, Au 0**, Co** 6, He 15**, Ig** 0, Im 0, Me 0, Te 8, Vi 0

Equipment: Damaged clothes, pouch of ancient yet new coins. Rapidly makes a staff once he returns to the mortal world.

Encumbrance: 0 (0)

Spells Known:

Ward Against the Beasts of Legend (ReAn 30/+21) ArM5, page 120

Ward Against Rain (ReAu 10/+21), ArM5, page 128 Bridge of Wood (CrHe 20 /+24) ArM5, page 135

Wall of Thorns (CrHe 20/+24) ArM5, page 135.

Intuition of the Forest (InHe 10/+16) ArM5, page 136

Interrogate Object (InHe 25/+16) This is Converse With Plant and Tree (ArM5, page 136), but renamed during the war and generally used to talk with human-made objects. Functionally the spells are identical.

Thaumaturgical Transformation of Plants to Iron (MuHe(Te) 20/+15)

Plant's Withering Bane (PeHe 20/+22) ArM5, page 137

The Great Rot (PeHe 25/+21) ArM5, page 138

Acorns For Amusement **(**ReHe 5/+40), Mastery 4 (Multiple Casting, Penetration, Quiet Casting, Still Casting)

*Rickety Stack (*ReHe 5/+36)

Enemies All Aquiver **(**ReHe 10/+36)

Repel the Wooden Shafts (ReHe10/+36)

Rough**-**Hewn Servant **(**ReHe 10/+36)

Tangle of Wood and Thorns (ReHe 15/+36)

Carved Assassin (ReHe 20/+36)

Tomb of Kaineus **(**ReHe 20/+40) Mastery 4 (Multiple Casting, Penetration, Silent Casting, Still Casting)

Ward Against the Faeries of the Wood (ReHe 20/+36) ArM5, page 138

The Treacherous Spear (ReHe 25/+36)

Carnivorous House (ReHe 35/+36)

Free The Striding Tree (ReHe 35/+36) Level is raised for Sun duration.

Chirurgeon's Healing Touch (CrCo20/+18), Mastery 3 (Fast Casting, Still Casting, Quiet Casting, ArM5, page 129

Purification of the Festering Wounds (CrCo20/+15) ArM5, page 129

The Earth Split Asunder (ReTe 30/+29) ArM5, page 156.

Circular Ward Against Demons (ReVi 25/+21) ArM5, page 162

Watching Ward (ReVi25/+21) ArM5, page 162

Appearance: Severin looks like a man who was once healthy, but has been harried and tortured for months. He is thin, pale, and has fresh scars on his limbs. His hair is blonde, but initially very short, since it has been shaved off by his tormentor. His cloak is still marked with the spiral of his House, but it is unusual. The spiral he wears is yellow, and he will replace it with gold when he can. It turns the opposite way of that usually seen by player characters. Characters who make an Intelligence + House Tytalus Lore roll against an Ease Factor of 6, or an Intelligence + Order of Hermes Lore roll against an Ease Factor of 9, know that his spiral shows he is a Hippian, a member of the small group of Tytalus magi who think that their basic impulses should be limited by sensible rules. If the player succeeds in the roll above by 6 points, then the character knows that the gold spiral was used only very briefly, during the appropriate historical period for the conflict in which Severin was taken. Severin's familiar is a woodpecker. They were bound when Severin was far younger, and so it has few powers. The cords have a Strength of +1 each. They have the Shared Senses (sight) and Mental Communication powers.

Acorns For Amusement

ReHe 5

R: Voice, D: Mom, T: Ind

This spell, taught to apprentices initially as an amusing game that allows them to vandalize their immediate environment with acorns, becomes a surprisingly effective spell in adult combat. It allows the magus to fling at a target any single piece of wood that is within Voice range and that is smaller than a pace long, wide, and deep. The damage a piece wood does when it strikes a target ranges from +1, for small, blunt piece, right up to +10 for logs a yard across. Severin usually carries a special hip quiver of sharpened, unfletched arrow shafts, although he has lost this in faerie. An individual shaft does +4 Damage.

(Base 3, +2 Voice)

Carnivorous House

ReHe 35

R: Touch, D: Sun T: Structure

This spell, designed to torment Severin's beloved rival and then discovered to be effective in combat, allows him to animate wooden buildings. The building can accept simple commands, and follow them with some intelligence, without the oversight of the magus. Animate houses can appear to be haunted, because they creak and shift, while doors slam and furniture moves around of its own volition. In battle, a building moves at half the walking pace of a human, but can absorb a great deal of damage if constructed properly. Severin often prepares the house by packing it with statues, using the Rough-Hewn Servant spell, also given here.

This spell also allows Severin

to animate other large wooden objects, like carriages, huge statues, and ships.

(Base 10, +2 Sun, +3 Structure)

Carved Assassin

ReHe 20

R: Touch, D: Sun T: Ind

This highly useful spell animates a wooden object so that it follows simple commands, and solves simple problems, without the direct oversight of the magus. The object must be wooden, and no larger than a pace square. Severin often makes statues that suit his needs with the Rough-Hewn Servant spell, also given here.

(Base 10, +2 Sun)

Enemies All Aquiver

ReHe 10

R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Group

This spell flings the wooden contents of a container into a group of enemies. So that this spell does not require requisites, Severin usually carries a special hip quiver of sharpened, unfletched arrow shafts, although he has lost this in Faerie. A quiver-full of arrows does +8 Damage.

(Base 3, +1 Touch, +2 Group)

Rickety Stack

ReHe 5

R: Voice, D: Mom, T: Ind

This is a very simple spell, designed to teach apprentices Finesse. It allows magi to toss about small pieces of wood, and when played as a game, the idea is to make the pieces land on their ends (to practice Finesse) or form rickety piles, with the loser being the apprentice whose added stick makes the pile collapse. After apprenticeship is over, magi can use it to move wooden objects up to a pace across, at walking speed. (Base 3, +2 Voice)

Rough-Hewn Servant

ReHe 10

R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Ind

This is a spell for carving a statue from a single block of wood. The piece of wood can be no larger than one cubic pace. This spell requires a Perception + Finesse roll. If this is botched the statue is ruined. If the roll exceeds the Ease Factor of 6, then the statue is serviceable, if not particularly pretty, and can be animated with the Carved Assassin spell. If the roll is not successful, then a statue is created, but it is too fragile or too blockish to use effectively with the Carved Assassin spell.

(Base 5 (see Covenants, page 50), +1 Touch)

Tomb of Kaineus

ReHe 20

R: Voice, D: Mom, T: Group

This spell collects a tremendous weight of wood, grass, straw, and other plant material and dumps it on the target, burying that target completely. This spell needs to be aimed, but has a +12 bonus on the Aiming roll because of the sheer quantity of material involved, at slightly over one hundred cubic paces. It is designed to immobilize enemies who cannot be hurt directly because of their Magic Resistance. The name of the spell refers to the death of an ancient Greek hero with unbreakable skin. His enemies defeated him by piling tree trunks upon him until he could not move, and he suffocated.

(Base 3, +2 Voice, +2 Group, +1 size of group)

Peripeteia has wanted a child for decades, and has worked toward that goal with the patience of a creature both immortal and fascinated by intricate games. She appears charming, but humans are an amusing form of prey to her, and she causes them harm without remorse.

Peripeteia is designed using the rules in Realms of Power: Faerie. For an overview of terms defined in that book, please see the introduction of this one.

Faerie Might: 45 (Vim)

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

+3, Dex 0, Qik 0

Size: 0

Virtues and Flaws: External Vis Source (major – allows the

characters to keep a tame entanglement), (3 x Greater Faerie Power), Increased Faerie Might (2 major, 2 minor), Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Humanoid Faerie, Passes For Human, Highly Cognizant; Traditional Ward (Humans with royal blood)

Personality Traits: Calculating +3, Brave +2 Combat:

Peripeteia uses entanglements for physical combat, and draws them effortlessly from her spindle. Has the ability to allow her body to dissipate, fade into Arcadia, and then return after 5 months with a new body, which may look dissimilar to her previous one. This ability cannot be used in combat, but requires only a round of concentration.

Soak: +3

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

Pretenses:, Awareness 5 (human weaknesses), Carouse 3 (theatre), Charm 6 (ambitious mortals), Etiquette 5 (her victims), Faerie Speech 6 (to her victims), Intrigue 9 (to cause the fall and rise), Order of Hermes Lore 6 (causing the fall, then rise), Penetration 5 (current victim)

Powers:

Guide, 6 points, Init -3, Mentem:. Subtly influences a group of beings towards a specific course of action. Each time this power is used, it can subtly influence the actions of a group for a day. The storyguide should provide advice to the characters in a similar way to the Common Sense Virtue, except that the advice serves the faerie's agenda, not that of the character. There is no compulsion to follow this advice.

Costs 30 spell levels (ReMe Base 5, +2 Voice, +1 Conc, +2 Group)

Hound, 0 points, Init -2, Corpus (4 intricacy points spent on cost): Allows Peripeteia to know the direction and distance to Severin. She can overcome his Magic Resistance because her minion has Severin's talisman, which provides a Penetration multiplier of 4.

Costs 20 spell levels (InCo Base 3, +4 Arc, +1 Conc)

Spirit Away, Variable points, n/a, Vim: Allows the faerie to act as a threshold guardian. This role is too complicated to explain in this scenario (and is treated in depth in Realms of Power: Faerie), but it allowed Peripeteia to trap Severin in Arcadia. She will not use it during this scenario.

Costs 50 spell levels (Special)

Steal Judgment, 0 points, Init –2, (3 intricacy points on cost) Mentem: The target believes almost any lie that Peripeteia tells, although an Intelligence roll against an Ease Factor of 6 is permitted to resist, with easier rolls for truly incredible lies.

Costs 15 spell levels (Base 4 +1 Eye +2 Sun)

Equipment: Dresses as noblewoman, carries a spindle that she works when not engaged in other things,

from which she can spin a seemingly endless stream of entanglements. This costs her no Might.

Vis: 9 pawns Rego, spindle. Any character who holds the spindle can produce a small, tame entanglement each new moon. If the vis is extracted from the spindle it loses this property. If the spindle is not destroyed, Peripeteia reassembles her body. This takes (45 / Faerie Aura) weeks, after which time she returns with a convoluted plan and faerie allies to seek her spindle.

Appearance: A regal woman, apparently of Norman extraction, clad in an expensive white dress of the finest linen.

Dénouement is the child of Peripeteia. She is born in the moment when the tragic constraints of Severin's life reach their tightest point. After his nadir, Severin's fortunes rise. As Severin rebuilds his life, Dénouement feeds on the energy this creates, becomes more powerful, and appears to age.

Cruciator's function is to allow Peripeteia to torture Severin until he has nothing left, without allowing him to identify her as the cause of his suffering. His form has been stolen from the nightmares of an insane artist. Benedictus made Cruciator for Peripeteia while he was still human, specifically for this task, which allows Cruciator to have specializations that suit Severin personally.

A horrific figure, designed to distract Severin while another, more powerful, faerie steals his life.

Faerie Might: 30 (Corpus)

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

Size: +1

Virtues and Flaws: Greater Faerie Power, Increased Faerie Might (major and 2 minor), Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Narrowly Cognizant, Improved Damage, Improved Initiative, Large, Lesser Faerie Powers; Monstrous Appearance, Traditional Ward (flowing water).

Personality Traits: Violent+3, Brave +3. Calculating +2 Combat:

Single Weapon (flaying whip):* Init +7, Attack +13, Defense +13, Damage +20

* Includes +1 Atk and Dfn for Single Weapon specialization, +3 Init for Increased Initiative Virtue, +5 Damage for Increased Damage Virtue, +5 for Damaging Effect power.

Soak: +9 (cloak of faeries)

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

Pretenses: Awareness 4 (Severin), Faerie Speech 5 (threats), Hunt 4 (Severin), Leadership 6 (entanglements) 5, Penetration 4 (Severin), Profession: Torturer (Severin) 6, Single Weapon (flaying whip) 8

Powers:

Appear Human, 1 points, constant, Imaginem: Allows a humanoid faerie of size –2 to +2 to appear and feel human. This power is not required by humanoid faeries, only shapeshifters that spend the majority of their time in a non-human form.

Costs 5 spell levels (Base 2, +2 Sun, +1 constant)

Damaging Effect, 2 points, Init –2, Corpus: Flays skin from those struck by his whip, adding +5 Damage. Cruciator knows that using this power makes his whip slide off the Parma Magica, so he does not employ it against magicians.

Costs 15 spell levels (Base 5 +1 Part +1 Diameter)

Flight, 0 points, constant, Corpus: The character is capable of flight. The character may use the Athletics skill to simulate difficult maneuvers, but may not engage in combat while flying incredibly swiftly. The faerie may not fly when heavily encumbered, or with a passenger of its Size or more, unless assisted by another faerie that shares the load.

Costs 15 spell levels: (ReFo Base 4, +2 Sun, +1 constant) Hound, 4 points, Init –2, Corpus: Allows Cruciator to know the direction and distance to Severin.

Costs 20 spell levels (InCo Base 3, +4 Arc, +1 Conc)

Shift Human Shapes, 1 point, Init –1, Corpus: Allows the character to change its appearance to any other human configuration, although this cannot be used to replicate the features of a specific person.

Costs 5 spell levels (Base 3 +2 Sun)

Equipment: Horde of faeries, dark cloak, leathery face, whip, flaying knife.

Vis: 6 pawns Imaginem in the whip.

Appearance: Cruciator appears to be a human male, but his features are so deformed that he cannot be mistaken for a mortal. His most shocking feature is his face: clearly it has been peeled from a dead person and attached to the front of his head with gory staples. His skin is wan and hairless, as if he has been carved from pale, sickly wood. He wears a cloak of living entanglements, described below, similarly stapled. He carries a whip in one hand, and a squat, gory knife in the other. The knife vanishes in combat, when Cruciator uses both hands for his whip, but reappears whenever he wants it.

Entanglements are the servants of Cruciator, and through him Peripeteia. They make Severin's life increasingly abject, constrained, and painful.

Faerie Might: 5 (Varies by discarded mortal object at core.) Characteristics: Int –2, Per +2, Pre 0, Com 0, Str 0, Sta +2, Dex +2, Qik +2

Size: Varies from –5 to –1. These statistics assume Size –1. Virtues and Flaws: Faerie Beast, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Lesser Faerie Power (Damaging Effect); Monstrous Appearance, Incognizant, Traditional Ward (running water)

Combat:*

Brawl (Teeth): Init +2, Attack +10, Defense +8, Damage +6 Brawl (Claws): Init +3, Attack +9, Defense +10, Damage +7 * All Attack and Defense scores include +1 for Brawl specialization and +5 Damage for Damaging Effect power. These fairies will not use the Damaging Effect power against wizards, since they know it makes their

attacks slide off their magical defenses.

Soak: +4, pelt

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

Pretenses: Athletics 6 (while in pursuit), Awareness 6 (Severin), Brawl 5 (humans), Faerie Speech 5 (threats), Hunt (Severin) 5.

Powers:

Damaging Effect, 0 points, –2 Init (2 intricacy points on cost): Adds +5 Damage to Brawl attacks by shredding the skin that the entanglement touches. This also destroys mundane possessions like clothing.

Costs 15 spell levels (Base 5 +1 Part +1 Diameter)

Invisibility, 2 points, Init –2, Imaginem: A personal version of Veil of Invisibility, as per ArM5, p.146.

Costs 15 spell levels. (Base 4 +2 Sun +1 for moving image)

Supernatural Agility, 3 points, constant: This power allows the character to perform minor supernatural feats when using its Athletics Pretense. These include swiftly scaling walls, leaping from the ground onto the back of a galloping horse, and dropping great distances to the ground without harm.

Costs 25 spell levels (Base 10 +2 Sun +1 constant).

Vis: 1 pawn, discarded mortal object at core, in the Form of the object.

Appearance: Entanglements are made predominantly of lint, dust, and discarded objects. Entanglements vary in size from a hand span to waist height. They are vaguely human in shape, but are reminiscent of porcupines. Their eyes shine like bright pennies. They have teeth like lost needles and claws like broken pottery. They are able to converse, but prefer to taunt. Entanglements are made from the mortal things humans discard accidentally when they are frightened by other entanglements, so most entanglements contain a discarded mortal object at their core, like a bucket, a tooth, or sack of clothes.

Severin's release from Arcadia is delayed until the last thing that ties him firmly to Hermetic society — his covenant — falls. In an earlier story, Severin's home covenant should appear as a weak Winter covenant with a glorious but faded history. Hints should be given that the covenant has trouble with faeries that goes back generations. If the storyguide wants to craft a story around the investigation of the fallen covenant's site, then the final crisis the covenant faced should be a pack of entanglements. If the covenant will dissolve without player character inspection, then it may just be mentioned as the result of an unrelated crisis. Peripeteia is patient, and knows that mortal institutions fail if you just wait long enough and cause them a series of tiny injuries.

Severin first comes to the Order's attention by attacking a covenant. If this is not the player covenant, then it should be foreshadowed, and an elderly Merinita magus placed within its membership.

Severin's escape from Arcadia is unlikely to be witnessed by a player character, but he may relate the parts of it he knows to the player characters, if they develop an alliance. During a conflict, Severin strayed into a faerie kingdom. For the next eight months, his time, or hundreds of years, mortal time, he fought a series of battles with a cunning and ruthless opponent, the Cruciator.

During these battles he lost much that is of value to him. His talisman was claimed by the Cruciator. His familiar, left in the outside world, was turned to stone by a Merinita magus who was a pawn of Peripeteia's. This petrifaction spell has an Until duration. His Beloved Rival, Vivatus, is dead. His allies fell into Twilight, then, finally, his covenant fell. After all of this, Severin, subtly assisted by the faeries that imprisoned him, discovered Cruciator's

After his escape, Severin continues with his wartime mission, not realizing how much time has passed. He immediately assaults a site once held by his enemies. He is unable to do serious damage to the central fortification — the Aegis of the Hearth is too strong and the defenders too skilled — but he does manage to cause havoc with the castle's supplies and surrounding community. Then he retreats to eat and rest, to restore his drained fatigue. An entanglement finds him then and taunts him, telling him that he has been in Arcadia so long that this site has fallen to his allies, and that he was attacking them. He has been declared a traitor to the cause.

If this is not the covenant of the player characters, then a Merinita magus of this covenant reports the attack to the authorities. He is in league with Peripeteia, and has chosen to send word by Redcap, without stressing the urgency of the situation. This is to allow Peripeteia's plan to mature, before the hoplites and Quaesitores arrive.

The player characters need a way to connect with Severin's story. Storyguides should choose one of those below, before the story begins, and use the additional hooks only if the player characters refuse the bait on the first cast. The adventure, as written, assumes that the player characters meet Severin just before, or while, he rests at the resupply cache.

Assault on the Covenant

• The player-character covenant could be the one that is assaulted.
• The player characters could be at the covenant due to the conclusion of another story.
• The player characters may belong to a House that wants the assault investigated. For this hook, Severin's march north needs to be delayed. In this version of the story, he was badly injured in the attack, and spent several weeks camping in a desolate spot to recuperate. During this time he was taunted and tormented by a skein of entanglements, but once he had regained some of his strength, he was able to kill them and harvest their vis, allowing him to use permanent healing magic just before the player characters arrive.

Severin's Course

• On Severin's march to the resupply point he is conspicuous, since he stays close to human settlements, is Gifted, and has ancient money that he spends freely. Player characters may be alerted to his strange behavior by their spies in nearby communities. The coins he spends are odd: they are stamped with designs from centuries ago, and yet are unworn.

• Severin knows the location of several vis sources claimed by his opponents during the war. He makes some effort to harvest these. If the player characters own the source, or have arranged a trade of vis that will fall through because of the raid, they may be prompted to investigate.

The Supply Cache

• The supply cache was sited in its current location because of the vis source that is found in the cave. Severin feels no compunction against taking this vis and using it for the war effort. Following the war, it was given into the ownership of a covenant, which might belong to the player characters, or might be an ally.
• During the war, a ghostly sentinel was tied to this site by House Tremere. When the cache is opened, this spirit flies to the local Tremere exarch and, after telling him what the cache is and that it is a sentinel, informs him that a magus opened the empty cache. The exarch sends the player characters to investigate.
• If the player characters contact Severin and make him aware that he has fallen through time, he asks them to accompany him to his home covenant. He can sense the active cords between himself and his familiar, and he wants to recover his familiar. He offers them a portion of anything he can claim from the resources that the covenant's site still contains. Severin is familiar with the covenant's oldest defenses and its hidden places, so there is some chance he will be able to uncover resources not pillaged by earlier prospectors.

Severin's rise has three components. He must:

• Reclaim his familiar, by travelling to his former home covenant.
• Reclaim his talisman, by raiding Cruciator's lair in the mortal world.
• Reclaim his reputation as the final stage, by participating in a grand adventure.

A problem for Peripeteia is that she could not choose which magus to victimize: Severin was merely the best available. But he never had an exceptional reputation. This means that Peripeteia does not understand how to assist the final stage in Severin's rise.

Severin kills the entanglement, but does not know if what it has said is true or not. He decides to fall back to a resupply point several days away, and then head to his sanctum to claim his familiar and restore his talisman. He prefers to follow roads through populated areas, despite his Gift, because the wild and waste belong to his enemies. If Severin did attack the PC covenant, then one of the vis sources he harvests while marching north, or one of the humans he steals from, belongs to the Merinita magus in league with Peripeteia. Severin's point of release was carefully calculated to make it easy for him to become a Hermetic outlaw.

The entanglements continue to hound Severin, but they avoid the Dominion in his presence. The entanglements, and their master, are injured by running water, so Severin camps by rivers when unable to rest in inhabited places. He is particularly keen to travel when the weather is bad, as the running water on the roads keeps his foes away.

Severin's travels within the Dominion soon make it clear to him that he has journeyed through time. He decides to continue to the cache, because it is between him and his home covenant, and might contain useful supplies. He knows that it is able to hold back the entanglements, which he hopes will allow him to recover from the longterm fatigue caused by his imprisonment. Characters tracking him may discover that they are close to his destination, because he buys a month's worth of food with his odd coins in the final village before the cache.

Characters pursuing Severin are impeded by the entanglements, who do not fear the Dominion nearly so much as when facing Severin. The entanglements don't want the player characters helping him until he has lost everything, so they are allowing him to use the roads, and forcing the characters to avoid such direct routes. Entanglements can even be tricked into admitting that they are trying to prevent the characters from finding their victim, which makes it easy to find him by following the path of maximum resistance. If the characters lack the skill to find Severin in the wilderness, then the entanglements will make sure they are seen to mass a force near the cache. It is important to emphasize to players that the claws of the entanglements destroy non-magical possessions, like clothing.

The supply cache is in a cavern behind a waterfall. It contains a vis source, which is annually harvested by a distant covenant. A tunnel has been carved into the floor of the cavern, and its entrance boarded over and covered with soil. The valuable supplies stored here were removed when the theatre of conflict moved past this area. Less-valuable supplies were left to time and rust and rot. Severin finds no useful equipment here, although the site itself, protected by flowing water from the entanglements, allows him his first true respite in months.

This is where Severin's life hits bottom. This can be difficult to arrange with the player characters involved in the scene, but excessive force may prove telling. A great pack of entanglements patrols the ground outside the waterfall. Severin knows that he can rest for a time, regaining his

Dénouement is born when Severin falls into the river. If he climbs back to power, she will grow into a creature with the vast power of her mother. If his rise is impeded, she will be some lesser thing. From this moment, Severin has a supernatural sponsor, Peripeteia, who has prepared his rise for decades. The entanglements serve Cruciator, but he serves Peripeteia, so from this point on Cruciator and the entanglements want Severin to become increasingly powerful: they want his fortunes to rise.

As Severin completes each task, Dénouement ages to a toddler, a child, an adolescent, and a woman, respectively. Each time she ages, Dénouement gains 10 Might and many other powers. Peripeteia will send Dénouement into Arcadia if the characters attack them, so statistics at each age have not been provided.

If Severin has attacked the covenant of the player characters, or of their allies, then the players need a reason not to simply slay him. Peripeteia has prepared for this. She offers a reward, and, through her minion, Cruciator, she promises punishment to people who ruin her plan.

While the characters are pursuing Severin, they meet Peripeteia. She seems to be a regal woman, who is heavily pregnant. Peripeteia needs the characters to see her, and have some sort of emotional reaction to her presence, so that she can feed on their vitality if they, too, have a happy ending in this story.

She explains half of the story to the player characters: that Cruciator is a faerie that feeds on tragedy, and that he has stripped away everything that Severin has. Tricking him into attacking a covenant, so he loses his place in the Order, is the third to last part of his plan. Next he will take Severin's pathetic mundane possessions. Finally, he will take Severin's life. Then, Cruciator will choose someone else, and do the same thing again.

Peripeteia says, truthfully, that she is a faerie who embraces happy endings. She lies and says that she and Cruciator are rivals. She suggests that if the characters truly want vengeance on Cruciator, they should save Severin. Cruciator saves trophies from his victims. He has had so many victims that he has built a great tower to hold his trophies in. His tower, then, is a symbol for his life. If the characters destroy the tower, Cruciator will die. Severin, Cruciator's newest and only surviving victim, has an Arcane Connection to his talisman — a staff that is at the top of Cruciator's tower. With Severin and some simple magic, the player characters can find the entrance to Curciator's regio by following the Arcane Connection.

Peripeteia offers two further bits of useful, if self-serving, advice. She says that Cruciator knows that she has become involved, and so he is likely to strike at Severin soon, before Peripeteia can find ways to aid him. She also says that Severin should return to his fallen covenant, and carefully examine it, because an ally of his discovered Cruciator's scheme, and made certain preparations to assist Severin, many centuries ago. She is vague beyond this point, claiming that the more help she gives, the sooner Cruciator will act.

As a final bribe, Peripeteia notes that if Cruciator's plan fails, she will be able to claim much that is his for her own. This includes wealth, vis, and his other prisoners, some of whom would be interesting servants for their liberating magi. She is unable to provide them with additional resources at this time. She says that it is because she is about to bear a child, and all of her energies are concentrated upon its successful birth. This isn't entirely true: she simply can't start giving Severin resources until his fall is complete.

strength while his supplies dwindle, but that eventually he needs to run the blockade. If the characters attack the entanglements, Severin seizes the opportunity to attempt a breakout. He fails. Beaten and naked, he falls into the river and is rescued by the player characters.

Severin's link to his familiar provides an Arcane Connection that he can use minor InVi magics to see. Severin uses this as a navigation aid: he always knows precisely the direction in which his familiar lies. He guesses, correctly, that his familiar is at the site of his home covenant.

Severin's covenant has fallen, and the player characters may pick over it for spoils. Severin knows where its vis sources were, and can harvest them, providing vis to his allies to ensure their continuing assistance. His familiar is buried in the cenotaph of Benedictus of Merinita, whom Severin considered an ally. Characters digging up the cenotaph may notice that, despite its tomblike appearance, it isn't a grave: there is no body in it. When Severin's woodpecker is dug up, the spell on it ends and it returns to animal form. It can then explain the nature of Benedictus's enchantment.

Thaddeus, the woodpecker, can communicate mentally with his magus and tells the characters to search the covenant's well, if they have not already done so. At the bottom of the well is a layer of trash and sediment, under which is a stone floor. One of the stones is marked with a woodpecker. Underneath the stone is a leather water skin.

The water skin is never empty, continuously creating a steady flow of fresh, clean water at the rate of about a cupful a minute. Characters who make an Intelligence + Magic Theory roll of 3 know that this is one of the most useless magic items in the history of the Order, because drinking water made by magic does not prevent a character dying of thirst. The water skin is a gift from Severin's old "ally," who was the agent who selected him for Peripeteia as a suitable victim.

Severin's Faerie Lore is poor, so when he destroys Cruciator, he doesn't see something that is glaringly obvious to characters who are more familiar with the structure of stories: this one hasn't ended properly. If the story that Severin was following was basically "defeat the monster," then at the end, when Cruciator is defeated, there should be a reward.

A character who makes an Intelligence + Faerie Lore roll against an Ease Factor of 6 knows that something is fundamentally wrong, and a roll against an Ease Factor of 9 makes it obvious that Severin's story isn't simply the hero defeating the monster: it must be something else. Only a roll of 21 or higher makes it clear that this is a rags to riches story that has started early, so that Severin has lost everything, even his enemy.

An Intelligence + Faerie Lore roll against an Ease Factor of 6 indicates to characters that the destruction of Cruciator's body may not kill him. Many faeries are able, with sufficient time, to generate fresh bodies. The trick is to kill the faerie in a symbolically correct way.

Even if the characters do not notice that the story has not finished properly, it rolls on regardless, with Peripeteia's next gambit being at the Tower of Downcast Faces.

Regardless of the characters' investigation of this site, on the first nightfall Cruciator appears with a force of entanglements and tells the player characters they are free to go if they only give him back his "toy." If the players offer to do so, Cruciator mocks Severin, saying that now he has lost his allies as well, so he has lost everything, and then attacks. The faerie playing the role of Cruciator expects to die in this battle: the destruction of his humiliator is important to Severin's reversal of fortune. It also allows Peripeteia to craft a scenario in which the return of his talisman seems possible.

Peripeteia appears to the player characters soon after their victory over Cruciator's forces. She brings Dénouement with her, now a toddler. Peripeteia tells the player characters that she senses that her rival, Cruciator, has been destroyed, and reminds them that his fortress remains. She cautions the player characters that his lair is the hatching place for his entanglements.

The Tower of Downcast Faces is in a Faerie regio with an aura of 2. It is three stories high and windowless. Its walls seem to be made of ash, or packed black sand, and its single entrance is a door that looks like a screaming human mouth. This is guarded by entanglements that have been poured around the bones of dead knights, complete with rusty armor and weapons.

The tower takes it name from its internal space. It is a single sloping walkway that corkscrews up through the center of the tower, creating a single, long room. The walls of the room are bedecked with leathery human faces. Before each face sits a mundane item on a mirror, and around each item, an entanglement is growing.

The entanglements closest to the entrance are too small and weak to leave their mirrors, although they stir as the characters pass. As the characters ascend the central slope, the entanglements become increasingly mature. Storyguides should make as many of them combat-worthy as suits the player character group. Each can be killed conventionally, but may also be destroyed by smashing its mirror. At the top of the slope, they find the mirror on which Severin's talisman rests. The entanglement on his mirror is small, but it carries a whip and knife identical to those of Cruciator.

If the characters climb to the roof of the tower and open the water skin, it begins to dissolve the tower as if it were a sand castle. If left for two days, the water skin destroys the castle utterly, leaving only a pile of shattered mirrors. If the player characters avoid fighting the entanglements and simply place the waterskin on the roof, perhaps by flying, then it does substantial damage to the tower, but eventually entanglements in suits of armor remove it. Well before this, the hole that has been pierced in the roof allows the characters to steal Severin's staff without facing more than a single entanglement.

If Severin rebuilding his reputation is tied to a climactic event in the saga, and the Storyguide does not wish to run that story for some time, then this is the appropriate point to wrap up this story. See the Rewards section, later. Otherwise, Peripeteia approaches the characters asking for the tale of the death of her rival, and asks for the waterskin as a memento of his destruction. In exchange she gives them a prop which, with sufficient ingenuity, will serve them well when restoring Severin's reputation. Dénouement, whom the characters see again, now looks like an adolescent.

Severin cannot complete the final stage in the script that Peripeteia has designed for him, restoring his Reputation, because he had not developed one of sufficient strength before being spirited away. Characters who wish to help either the faerie to complete her story, or Severin to finally be rid of his new allies, may puzzle out what is required for the final stage of his rise. This can be done with an Intelligence + Faerie Lore roll against an Ease Factor of 9, or by consulting with a powerful Merinita magus. The Merinita magus' assistance can be gained with a side quest, or by allowing him to study Severin for a year.

The heroes of rags to riches stories usually seem unpleasant and childish at the beginning. The process by which they rise turns their attention to the outside world and to their role in groups greater than themselves. Tytalus magi are especially suited to rags to riches stories because,

A character who makes an Intelligence + Faerie Lore roll against an Ease Factor of 6 knows that a weapon is no kind of reward for a completed story. In most faerie stories, people earn magical weapons near the beginning, not the end. On a roll of 12 or more, it is clear that Peripeteia knows where Severin's story leads. If asked, she is happy to tell the characters that she predicts Severin will rise to great prominence among magi, and that he needs a great victory to enhance his Reputation.

from the perspective of Mythic Europeans, they fight so very hard to never grow up. They use their great magical power to prevent anyone from ever forcing them to care about anything other than their own impulses. To be rid of Peripeteia, Severin needs to find a cause in which he devotedly believes, and win a great victory for it.

This cause should be tied to other stories in the saga, but suggestions include:

• Founding a covenant to revive the fortunes of the Hippian faction in House Tytalus, reinvigorating it.
• Rising to the leadership of one of the Order's Mystery Cults, using his travail as a powerful initiation.
• Returning to Faerie and destroying Peripeteia, so that she cannot harm another magus.
• Leading an expedition to a distant land, and recovering an item of deep spiritual significance for the Order.
• Finding Tytalus, and bringing a new message from him to his followers.

This section describes an alternative ending to the story. The first ending allows the story to be tightly tied to continuing themes in the saga, but it may take years for the characters to complete. This second ending can follow directly on from the Tribunal story, or can be delayed indefinitely.

How Sharper Than ^a Serpent's Tooth It Is to Have ^a Thankless Child

Benedictus of Merinita, the ancient betrayer of Severin, completed the Merinita Mystery of Becoming, and is now a

faerie. Peripeteia does not know what Severin needs to do, specifically, to complete his story because Benedictus chose Severin to cause this exact problem. While Peripeteia waits for Severin to finish rising, it gives her old pawn a chance to take revenge.

Dénouement appears to the characters, accompanied by Benedictus, whom she calls her "uncle." She explains her mother's plan to Severin and his allies, and points out that she looks like Severin's daughter as proof of what she says. Benedictus apologizes to Severin, and claims that there was no way he could prevent Peripeteia's plan from proceeding, but he did his best to ameliorate it, and now has a plan for revenge.

Dénouement isn't willing to wait for Severin to work out what is going to make him famous. She is concerned that he might fail to rise to prominence, which would impair her growth. Even if Severin completes Peripeteia's story, the story is still Peripeteia's. Dénouement doesn't want to be a supporting character anymore. Her uncle, who has been planning this since he was human, has convinced her that she deserves better.

Dénouement wants to stage a coup. She wants the characters to agree to destroy Peripeteia, and accept payment for the deed from Severin, so that he is mystically responsible for it. This forms the final part of Severin's rise, and allows Dénouement to steal all of her mother's glamour. Peripeteia will be unmade, and unable to return for revenge. If the characters have not previously figured out that the hazards they have faced are due to a scheme of Peripeteia's, then this moment, when they are shown the way to be free of their manipulator, is a turning point, a peripeteia, which Dénouement can feed upon.

The Nature of Her Betrayal

Creating Dénouement has cost Peripeteia a great deal: she has had to carve great chunks out of her glamour and pour her spiritual energy away. If she cannot restore this energy, then Dénouement can use the connection that still exists between them to drink the rest of her in. Dénouement wants the player characters to interfere in the story that Peripeteia is using to revitalize herself. It is, as always, a story in which a great person falls, and then rises.

Henry III, the king of England, has his cousin Eleanor imprisoned in Corfe Castle. She is called the Fair Maid of Brittany, although less often recently, as she is in her midthirties. Eleanor is imprisoned because she arguably has a better claim to the throne than Henry III does. Peripeteia is planning to spirit Eleanor away, hold her in Arcadia, and allow her to have a son. Peripeteia will then use the son as a savior for either England or Brittany, at an hour of crisis. This will cause a civil war in England, but Peripeteia doesn't care, provided her prince wins.

Eleanor's son will be called Arthur. Eleanor's older brother, captured and probably put to death by King John, was also called Arthur. Eleanor's grandmother — Eleanor of Aquitaine — popularized Arthurian legends in the parts of Britain and France ruled by her, or her husband, as a form of imperial propaganda. The return of Arthur, even symbolically, is a powerful rise in fortune, and will make Peripeteia more powerful than ever.

Whichever method the players select, they should be mindful of the limitations that the Code of Hermes place on interference with the mundanes. The characters can destroy Peripeteia's plan in several ways.

• Kill Eleanor. It's heartless, but effective, and unlikely to arouse the ire of the Quaestiores. Political reality has passed Eleanor by, though. Characters are far more likely to face investigation if one of her ladies-in-waiting dies.
• Kidnap Eleanor by raiding Corfe Castle. If there is any hint of magical involvement in her removal, then the Quaesitores will investigate. This is what Peripeteia plans to do. If her warriors loot the king's treasury when they take Eleanor away, Eleanor's son can return leading a large force of mercenaries without anyone wondering how a hidden rebel could pay for them.
• Kidnap Eleanor when she is traveling to another royal residence or castle. Again, if it is clear to mundane people that wizards have been involved, the characters will need to answer for their actions.

Poisoning a Lady

Eleanor of Brittany is not closely guarded, only closely warded. That is, she is guarded to prevent her escaping, but is not guarded to prevent her from being assassinated. She has faded into political irrelevance. She cannot be permitted to marry a fractious nobleman, but there's no-one who wants to kill her. The outcry after the murder of her brother by the current king's father is enough to dissuade those of Henry III's followers who would like to kill her. She isn't worth the bother.

Any suitably cunning scheme will kill Eleanor. The characters need to gain the assistance of someone who has contact with her, give them a little poison, and the work is done with a Communication + Intrigue roll against an Ease

Factor of 9. A complicating factor is that Eleanor has highborn maids, or fellow prisoners, who keep her company. The deaths of any of these men or women will cause difficulty for Henry III, and might lead to Quaesitorial investigation. At worst, for a time Eleanor's two companions are daughters of the King of Scotland. Their deaths by poison will lead to war, not simply because their father wishes it, but because they have been promised as wives to the sons of two of England's great noble houses.

If the characters seek to kill Eleanor personally, then the material given here for rescuing her from the castle assists in running the story.

Freeing the Prisoner of Corfe

Corfe Castle is badly designed for the purpose of keeping prisoners in close constraint. The heart of the castle is the King's Tower, with its adjoining royal residence. Prisoners are kept well away from the sumptuous apartments of the king, in a tower on the far western edge of the castle. During a siege, valuable prisoners are brought into the King's Tower. If the player characters assail the castle unexpectedly, they need only breach the defenses of the Dungeon Tower. The Dungeon Tower is behind a curtain wall, which is two stories high. It is unusual in that it is octagonal, despite all of the other towers being either circular or square.

When the characters remove Eleanor it is useful, both to ruin Peripeteia and to ameliorate the Quaesitores, to

Historically, the Dungeon Tower was where prisoners of lesser worth were kept. To make the rescue more difficult, a storyguide could place Eleanor and the other prisoners of noble birth in more comfortable apartments attached to the Queen's Tower. Remember, the characters need to take or kill Eleanor without making it obvious that they are connected to the Order of Hermes. The additional guards and walls are added opportunities for characters to use magic in an unwise and public way.

leave behind a corpse that could be mistaken for hers. The Hermetic high crime involved derives from the obvious reaction the king will have to someone spiriting away a rival claimant for his throne. If his rival appears dead, he is unconcerned, and so the Code has not been broken. Peripeteia needs Eleanor alive to be able to return and rebuild her life, though. Convincing everyone that she is dead makes this impossible.

Raiding the Castle

The King's Tower at Corfe is four stories high, with a floor of basements. It is accessed by a walkway to the second story, which is reached by climbing a stairway

The life of Eleanor is badly documented, but it is clear from the English pipe rolls, which recorded the expenditure of the monarch, that she was kept prisoner at various English castles including Corfe, Bristol, and Gloucester. Corfe has been chosen for this story.

Corfe is a great castle in 1220. It is used as one of the royal treasuries. The current king's father, John, strengthened the defenses considerably, and had a royal residence built within it. Players familiar with the modern Corfe castle should be aware that the massive gatehouse was added after this story is set. Liberties have also been taken with Corfe's architectural features.

Parts of this site may have unusual auras due to historical events that occurred there. Divine auras may be found near the castle, at the sites of the death of Edward the Martyr — an ancient king — and Peter of Pomfret. Peter was a hermit who prophesied things unfavorable to King John. After his prophecies came true, John had him dragged by horse through a nearby town, then hung.

22 French knights, who supported Arthur of Brittany against John, were slowly starved to death in the dungeons here. If their burials were irregular, their ghosts may still haunt the dungeon, and may aid in the rescue of Eleanor, the sister of their lord.

King John committed many terrible crimes, and lived for some time at Corfe, so Infernal auras might be found where those crimes took place. For example, when Mathilda de Brieuse accused John of killing Arthur of Brittany, John had her, and her four-year-old son, starved to death in one of the dungeons of Corfe. Mathilda, driven insane by the death of her son and by her hunger, gnawed at her son's flesh, starving to death only when it was gone. The bodies were not buried until the remaining flesh had putrefied from the bones.

Benedictus has a final piece of information that may help the player characters, but he is loath to give it. He knows the Sovereign Ward for both Peripeteia and Dénouement. Each is destroyed if she ever stands on the site of the murder of a king. Near Corfe, there is such a site: the location of the murder of Edward the Martyr. Edward was stabbed but escaped. He fainted in the saddle and was dragged by his horse, until it stopped on the bridge that crosses the small creek that flows at the foot

of the hill on which the castle stands. This bridge has a Divine Aura of 2.

Benedictus doesn't want the player characters to know Dénouement's weakness, so he lies. He gives the player characters a piece of paper, sealed with a woodpecker, and tells them that if they break the seal, they will know Peripeteia weakness; but she, in turn, will know what they are doing, and where, and why. The paper is merely a map, with a notation saying that if the characters get Eleanor to the indicated site, the tiny sliver of Peripeteia's glamour that is in Eleanor will die, and Peripeteia will be unable to feed on her rise. This will leave Peripeteia unable to defend herself against Denouement's attack.

Benedictus will later attempt to discern if the player characters realize that they know Dénouement's weakness. If they do, he will offer to buy their memories of the event from them, offering lucrative stories and large amounts of vis in exchange for the secret.

in a short building adjacent to it. Within the tower a spiral stair gives access to all levels. The basement level is where some of the king's treasure is kept, although sumptuous goods are scattered throughout this tower and Queen's Tower.

The Queen's Tower is the home of the constable of the castle, Peter de Maulay, and his family. Peter was a great favorite of King John's. Peter was given the hand of Isabella, the final daughter of the family that previously governed Corfe, to thank him for his role in the murder of Arthur of Brittany. Peter still agreed to pay John's customary fee for marrying, 7000 marks in this case, and seven of the most powerful men in England made guarantees for him.

When John died, Peter managed to get the kingdom's regents to agree not to accept the money until Henry is old enough to accept it himself. In 1220, Peter has a large portion of the amount in the castle. In sagas that follow real-world history, the debt will be canceled in 1221, for diverse services to the throne.

Peter is an elderly knight, but a veteran of John's wars with the barons. He is a major landholder, and part of the "alien" faction in court. Peter was born in between Poitou and Touraine, in land now claimed by the French, and speaks French as his native tongue. If he dies, every major landholder in England will wish to know how, and why, fearing that this is the first action in a baronial rebellion against the king's French ministers, similar to the war that led to Magna Carta. The Quaesitores will examine the situation very thoroughly.

The Corfe garrison is made up of 40 soldiers, 12 of whom are crossbowmen. Crossbowmen only have their missile weapons if given 15 minutes to prepare them; during a surprise attack within the castle, they fight with swords. Most of the soldiers are stationed on the outer wall or are asleep in the great hall, which serves as their barracks. The inner parts of the castle are considered easily defended, and so they only have a few guards.

Piggyback Raid

Dénouement can signal the player characters on the night her mother's agent attacks the castle, allowing them to take Eleanor and the king's treasure by overpowering her rescuers. Dénouement cannot think of this for herself: her mother's design does not permit Dénouement to rebel. She is only able to turn on her mother because Benedictus supplied the idea. Similarly, turning Peripeteia's daughter against her is an idea Benedictus had when he was still Peripeteia's human pawn. Benedictus cannot think of piggybacking Peripeteia's rescue attempt, because it did not occur to him when he was mortal.

If the player characters provide the idea, then Dénouement can supply the mechanism. Peripeteia's plan is to have Eleanor rescued by a faerie knight, and then placed in an unaging Arcadian slumber. When Peripeteia finds the husband that is suitable for Eleanor, she will make him think he was the rescuer. She does this either by staging a story in Faerie, or sending a dream in which he dons faerie armor, breaks into a castle, and rescues Eleanor. He either then escapes Faerie with Eleanor, or if this is a dream he simply wakes up to find her in his bedchamber. If piggybacking Peripeteia's raid, the player characters need only wait for the faeries to defeat the garrison, then kill the faerie knight and his retainers as they return to a regio that leads to Arcadia.

Faerie Knight

Faerie Knights are more bound to the rules of chivalry than real knights, and so they do not use Damaging Effect powers on their weapons against worthy foes. Use the statistics of the Viking warriors in Chapter Eight: The Return of the Raiders for the knight's attendant men at arms, changing the physical descriptions of the faeries. Their Sovereign Ward is that they cannot harm noblewomen. The Damaging Effect for all of these faeries is that threadlike things unravel or snap when struck by the weapons of these faeries. This includes the fibres in muscles, ligaments, tendons. Being struck by one of these faeries also makes all of the victim's hair fall out, although it regrows.

Faerie Might: 10 (Terram in this case: the suit is hollow.) Characteristics: Int 0, Per 0, Pre –2, Com –2, Str +3, Sta +2, Dex +2, Qik +1

Size: +1

Virtues and Flaws: Cognizant Within Role, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Humanoid Faerie, Increased Might (minor), Large, 2 x Lesser Faerie Powers; Oath of Fealty, Overconfident, Sovereign Ward (the blood of women, in this case), Vow (Chivalrous conduct)

Personality Traits: Arrogant +3, Courteous +3 Combat:

Brawl (gauntlet): Init +1, Attack +10, Defense +10, Damage +5 Long sword and heater shield: Init +8, Attack +18, Defense +16, Damage +9

Mace and heater shield: Init +2, Attack +16, Defense +15, Damage +11

Lance and heater Shield:* Init +3, Attack +17, Defense +15, Damage +9

* Does not include the +3 to Attack and Defense for being mounted.

Soak: +9*

* Faerie metal scale, made of glamour using the Shift Human Shapes Power.

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–6), –3 (7–12), –5 (13–18), Incapacitated (19–25), Dead (26+)

Pretenses: Awareness 1 (enemies), Brawl 7 (knights), Carouse 3 (feasts), Charm 1 (ladies), Etiquette 3 (chivalrous combat), Faerie Speech 5 (boasting), Hunt 2 (humans), Leadership 2 (guards), Ride 3 (horses), Single Weapon 8 (long sword).

Powers:

Damaging Effect, 1 point, Init.+1, varies. (1 intricacy point on cost)

Flight, 1 point, Init +1, Terram (2 intricacy points on cost)

Equipment: Arms and armor. Has a faerie horse constructed of the knight's own glamour, so it flies when the knight does, and shares the knight's Magic Resistance.

Vis: 2 pawns Terram, a rusty piece of armor.

Appearance: A knight clad in silver leaves of metal, astride a fine horse. This knight displays a red fret on gold on his arms and saddle blanket.

Attacking a Traveling Group

Characters can wait until Eleanor is to be moved to another establishment, and attack the train of coaches that are to carry her. Any train that carries Eleanor is likely to have some other mission, for example escorting a prisoner to the payment of his parole, or moving some of the king's treasure. It will, therefore, have at least a dozen highly trained guards, sometimes many more. If magic is obviously used in the attack, the Quaesitores will investigate.

Characters may force a move by forging a royal order. A forger must study a royal order before he can forge one. Characters able to suborn an agent within the castellan's staff are able to procure a royal order that he has previously received, to act as a template for the forger. The forger will also need expensive parchment, colored wax, and expensive inks, which can be procured from any large city. The forger must make a roll of Dexterity + Legerdemain against an Ease Factor of 15 (which is 6 + the Intelligence and Awareness of her most observant keeper) to successfully forge the order. If the forger fails, a player character other than the forger can make an Intelligence + Awareness check against an Ease Factor of (6+ forger's Dexterity + forger's Legerdemain) to note that the forgery is too seriously flawed for use.

The Princess and the Treasure

Characters that complete this section of the story now have a princess and some treasure, but need to consider carefully how to dispose of each.

Eleanor of Brittany is in her mid-thirties and memorably beautiful. Her public presence, in any place, will draw an English army. Marrying her, in any public way, is a declaration of war on both the King of England and the Count, or Duke if you accept his preferences, of Brittany. It's best for Eleanor to be taken out of the country, and live either

The phrasing of the order alters the Ease Factor of the Legerdemain roll, as follows.

port of weapons, is usual.. (0)

• An order solely about Eleanor is unusual. (+3)

Orders Involving Guards

• A royal order that has Eleanor guarded as heavily as usual is not suspicious. (0)
• One requiring her to be guarded lightly is more so. (+3)
• One that requires only token guards is considered suspicious. (+6)

Orders Involving the Route

• An order that specifies her route and the places her escort will rest is not suspicious. (0)
• Unless the route selected is an obscure route when a more practical one is available. (+3)

Orders Involving Additional Orders

• An order that includes moving Eleanor, but also includes some other more serious matter, like the movement of money, the rotation of soldiers, or the trans-

Orders Involving Money

• An order that includes moving Eleanor, but is really about disbursing small amounts of money for other causes is not suspicious. To make up suitable disbursements, the characters need either to view similar orders going back several years, to determine their pattern, or make skilled guesses concerning the affairs of the king. These guesses require both an Intelligence + England Lore roll against an Ease Factor of 15, or sufficient time to hear court gossip and an Intelligence + Intrigue roll against an Ease Factor of 6.
• An order that includes only Eleanor and her personal goods is highly unusual. (+6)
• An order that requests more than 10 pounds of money is unusual, unless accompanied by a person that the castellan knows personally. (+6)
• An order that requests more than 20 pounds of money, presented by a stranger lacking royal credentials, is unheard of. Examples of royal credentials are not held by the castellan.

Eleanor is not the queen of England, but she has a great deal of magical potential as the rightful heir to the throne. Her mystical significance could be further enhanced if the characters were to find the royal regalia of England. King John lost much of his army's baggage train in a swamp between Norfolk and Lincoln. The lost supplies included the royal regalia of England, including the crown.

John's heir, the current Henry III,

was (and by some measures, still is in 1220) a child-monarch, crowned hurriedly after the death of his father. His ceremony was performed in Gloucester rather than Winchester, lacked the usual archbishop, and used a crown that had been left at Corfe. Some stories say it was an old, but minor, Saxon crown, others that it was one of Henry's mother's pieces of jewelry. The coronation was so shoddily done that the Pope sent instructions that it was invalid. Henry III was re-crowned two years later with a modern replacement for the ancestral crown of England.

Eleanor, in possession of the crown, may not be able to take the throne of England, but she will certainly attract faeries, and is of interest to magi researching the link between royalty and Rego vis. For example, town charters contain Rego vis, but the process through which it forms is completely obscure.

in obscurity or with her appearance altered by magic. The difficulty is that Eleanor refuses, even after decades of imprisonment, to ever agree that she is not the rightful queen. Characters who ask her to utterly forsake her birthright will never have more than her grudging co-operation.

The treasure of Corfe includes sumptuous goods stolen from the royal or constabular residence, but much of the treasure is in coin. Barrels of pennies, carried with the army and used to pay soldiers, are salted away here. Characters who try to spend the king's pennies in large amounts will be noticed by both the mundane authorities and the Quaesitores. Characters can work around this complication by spending the money far away, by melting it down and reminting it, or by trading it to Redcaps at a favorable rate.

Some of the rewards of for this story are available regardless of which of the faeries is the victor.

• Severin, as its last survivor, is likely to own the site and contents of the fallen covenant. If he re-founds it, his covenant might be an ally, vassal, or chapterhouse of the player character covenant.
• The site of Cruciator's Tower has vis sources aside from the entanglements. The site itself may be on interest to Merinita magi.

• Peripeteia knows how humans value vis. The Tower of Cruciator is designed to give vis, of a variety of Forms, to the player characters as a reward for their participation. If the characters take this vis, but then do not see Severin's story through to the end, Peripeteia will feel she has been cheated and cause trouble until the characters have paid for what they have taken. If Dénouement defeats Peripeteia, she wants the players to consume all of the vis anyway, because it was her mother's and she wants to be free of its influence.

If Peripeteia succeeds, she gives rewards to the player characters who bring Severin's story to a successful conclusion. She does this by crafting stories in which the rewards are disproportionate to the trouble involved. As with Severin's story, by the conclusion of these reward stories, her victims know that she is the motivator of the events they are responding to. Peripeteia may also intervene in stories that she did not cause, in order to aid the player characters, until she feels that their assistance to her balances her usefulness to them.

Benedictus doesn't feel he owes the player characters anything, after offering them revenge, and so he makes no effort to pay them for their services. Both Benedictus and Dénouement will, however, honor any agreement made in advance with the player characters. If the player characters reach this ending, when Dénouement comes to give them their rewards she will be a grown woman. She has lost her similarity to Severin and looks like Benedictus, whom she now calls "Father."