Return of the Raiders

This scenario uses faerie antagonists who are pretending to be ghosts. This aids the inclusion of anachronisms, like Viking warriors, in stories set in the thirteenth century. It also allows the use of historically inaccurate folklore in single stories, in this example the equipment and behavior of Viking raiders. Finally, it allows players to explore the destructive potential of Hermetic magic without the usual moral constraints implicit in the setting.

Précis

Every century, a mass of faeries re-enact a Viking raid on a village that is significant to the magi. The faeries follow the river, then wade ashore in the role of ghostly Norsemen, to attack the town. They torture some of the inhabitants to death and then steal anything valuable. The raid is due soon, but the player characters have enough time to prepare defenses for the town.

The player characters have this time because a rival group of faeries wants the resistance the raiders face to be greater than on previous raids. This story is played out only once a century, and last time it was senseless butchery, lacking any heroism on the part of the defenders. The rival group of faeries wants to hijack the story, to feed on the gratitude of the locals. A faerie infiltrator has been sent to make sure that powerful humans, preferably from the Order of Hermes, repel the raid.

The new group sends a shill among the characters to make sure they find records of the last time the "Vikings" came ashore — records planted by sympathetic bards that mention treasure, and magic items, and that the ghosts can be hurt by mortal weapons.

The village is made up of a series of spaces in which characters can plan ambushes against the raiders. There are a sufficient number of raiders to terrify the locals, and for each magus to feel concern that thaws to triumph. Both groups of faeries feed on these emotions. When each magus has used his or her unique skills to defeat a cluster of opponents, at the emotional apex of the story, both sides of faeries contrive a violent climax. That is, both groups of faeries seek to raise the magi to the highest pitch of emotion, then conclude the story in a rapid and bloody way.

If the Players Wreck the Re-enactment it Doesn't Matter

The stories that the two groups of faeries are trying to tell are likely to be ruined by the player characters. This favors the group of faeries that seek the defense of the town. Storyguides should be unconcerned if the players entirely derail the plans of one or both factions of faeries. This scenario is designed as a change of pace from the other stories in this book. It's not about simulating a realistic, mystical European society. It's about having an in-game excuse to hit people and blow things up.

Characters might become involved in this story for several reasons:

• They could just be in the area, on the way to or from another story.
• The ghosts that are going to raid the town presumably contain vis.
• The town might be the home of a player character, or might be the home of a Dependant. This is particularly suited for stories that contain no magi: the characters aren't, insofar as they are aware, on an expedition.
• The covenant might control a vis source near the town, and be unwilling to risk it being damaged.

• The covenant may have one of the many hooks based on the past coming back to haunt its members.

Storyguides should not be concerned about the verisimilitude of a Viking raid in most Tribunals. The Vikings are known to have raided in the Novgorod, Rhine, Normandy, Iberian, Stonehenge, Hiberian, and Loch Leglean Tribunals. Their descendants conquered Sicily, and folklore there supports Viking raids. Vikings traveled down the rivers of Eastern Europe and raided the coasts of the Black Sea, including attacking Constantinople itself. Some Vikings even reached Jerusalem. Although they were pilgrims and didn't raid it, their presence in an area, and need for money to continue their travels, might be parlayed into plausibility for this story.

Characters who realize they are facing faeries rather than ghosts — and can communicate this to their colleagues — have a distinct advantage during this scenario

Pellew appears to be a human tinker, a poor sort of traveling merchant who also does odd jobs, like harvesting and craftwork, to earn extra money. His mission is to spread stories of the ghostly attack that occurs every hundred years at the village, giving the precise date. He understands that it is important he never contact powerful people — priests, nobles, magi — by himself. He wants to pass the story to their servants and retainers, then send a message to similar faeries in other communities, so that no more than a single band of rescuers appears.

Storyguides should place Pellew as background color in earlier stories, or include him as the source of useful folklore. Pellew's group of faeries has been planning to steal this story for many years, but must act covertly. Faeries treasure human vitality, which is harvested when humans express passionate emotions. Pellew's group cannot merely fight the other band of faeries with a human audience: they need humans to feel a passionate connection to the outcome of the battle.

Pellew's faeries want the Viking raiders to be driven off, after a battle filled with terror and heroism and blood. They feed on the thrill of victory felt by the humans on the winning side. Pellew, personally, favors the relish humans feel when they kill their enemies in creative ways. There's little he can do to encourage this directly, but a character spending any amount of time near him will find that he is fervently concerned with safety. He is continually warning about the dangers inherent in medieval industry, in the hope that this will lead people to kill their rivals in unnecessarily complicated ways.

Faerie Might: 10 (Corpus)

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

Size: 0

Virtues and Flaws: Greater Faerie Powers (Guide and Send Message), Cognizant Within Role, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Humanoid Faerie, Increased Might (minor), Infiltrator (minor – prosperous tinker); Traditional Ward (fire from a hearth).

Personality Traits: Deceptive +3, Jovial +3

Combat:

Brawl (fist): Init +0, Attack +1, Defense +1, Damage +1 Single Weapon (staff): Init +2, Attack +6, Defense +6, Damage +3.

Soak: 0

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

Pretenses: Athletics 4 (walking), Awareness 2 (opportunities to "steal"), Brawl 1 (fist), Carouse 3 (feasts), Faerie Speech 5, Folk Ken 3 (trading), Profession: Tinker 6 (bargaining), Great Weapon 2 (staff), Swim 1 (fords), Trading Route Lore (food and shelter) 3

Powers:

Guide, 5 points, Init -3, Mentem, 1 intricacy point spent on cost: Subtly influences a group of beings towards a specific course of action. Some creatures can use this power to direct the movement of a group, taking it to a desired location. Other creatures can guide humans towards rash or brave or wise actions. Each time this power is used, it can subtly influence the actions of a single person for a day. The storyguide provides advice to the player in a similar way to the Common Sense Virtue, except that the advice serves the creature's agenda, not that of the character. There is no compulsion to follow this advice.

Send Message, 3 points, Init –2, Imaginem: This power allows the faerie to send short verbal messages to beings for which it has Arcane Connections.

Equipment: Poor tinkers, Pellew's role models, carry their tools and wares in a backpack. His clothes are sturdy and well made, but of undyed wool. He wears cheap shoes. Highly perceptive humans (Awareness + Faerie Lore of against an Ease Factor of 15+, after seeing Pellew over a period of months) may detect his faerie nature because

Vis: 1 pawn Terram, a tarnished spoon; and 1 pawn Corpus, a tooth.

Appearance: He appears to be of middle age, with a full beard for warmth on the road. He is stooped, but wiry.

The raiders look like the ghosts of drowned people, but are incarnate and may be fought with conventional weapons. The number of raiders should be tailored to the combat effectiveness of the player characters. If the covenant sends a single magus and a handful of grogs to deal with this problem, then a couple of small boats of raiders suffice. If the covenant sends several combat-capable magi, then they require more warriors as targets for their spells, and more berserkers and bodyguards, to provide sufficient danger.

Faeries base their roles on the popular stories rather than actual history, so characters, or players, who are familiar with Vikings may note that their behavior and equipment are not historically accurate. These Vikings have horns on their helmets, large axes, and a tendency to sacrifice people to Odin by torturing them to death. They pile the carefully groomed heads of their victims into pyramids. Their ships have dragon prows even when facing the beach. This insults the local faeries, which is why real Vikings may not have done it, and why Pellew's faction has decided to steal this story.

The Vikings have "church bells" as their ward, because during the real raid, the villagers made a successful stand in the church. This Flaw prevents the faeries entering the church grounds or regenerating Might while in sight of the church, if the bell is being rung. Vikings that are taken into the church while the bell rings flake away, turning into sea foam. The faeries are aware of this taboo and its restrictions. They are, however, able to entice humans to leave the grounds, for example by throwing burning javelins in through the church windows. They cannot directly damage the bell.

Most of the raiders look like waterlogged corpses. To attack a raider, any human character needs to make a Brave check against an Ease Factor of 3 if facing a single raider, and of 6 if facing the raiders as a group. After a successful check at each level, the character is free to act for the rest of the scenario. If a check is failed, the character attempts to find safety. For the peasants of the village, this usually means fleeing to the church.

In their role as Viking ghosts, the faeries do not fear death: indeed they seek it out. This means that they will not retreat, even in the face of terrible casualties.

Untested Boy

Faerie Might: 5 (Corpus)

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

Dex 0, Qik +1

Size: –1

Virtues and Flaws: Cognizant Within Role, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Humanoid Faerie, Lesser Faerie Power (Damaging Effect), Oath of Fealty (chieftain); Small Frame, Traditional Ward (church bells)

Personality Traits: Violent +3, Brave +2, Undisciplined +1 Combat:

Brawl (dagger): Init +1, Attack +3, Defense +2, Damage +5 Single Weapon (axe and shield): Init +2, Attack +6, Defense +5, Damage +13*

(short spear and shield): Init +3, Attack +4, Defense +5, Damage +12*

(longsword and shield): Init +3, Attack +4, Defense +4, Damage +15*

Great Weapon (pole axe): Init +2, Attack +6, Defense +2, Damage +18*

Thrown Weapon (javelin): Init +1, Attack +4, Defense +3, Damage +12*

* Includes +5 for Damaging Effect power. Each faerie only has this power with a single weapon. All statistics include +1 for Pretence specialization.

Soak: +6 (chain mail shirts, or fuller leather armor)

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

Pretenses: Athletics (rowing) 3, Awareness 2 (treasure), Brawl 3 (dagger), Carouse 5 (in the Viking way), Faerie Speech 5, Hunt (humans) 2, Profession (Sailing) 3, Ride (horse) 2, Swim 2 (underwater), Single Weapon (chose one from combat table) or Great Weapon (Pole Axe) 1, Thrown Weapon (javelin) 1

Powers:

Damaging Effect, 0 points, -2 Init (2 intricacy points on cost): Adds +5 to the damage of the Viking's primary weapon, in a clearly unnatural way. These Vikings have weapons made of sea ice and human bones.

Equipment: Weapon, round shield, shirt of mail or leather armor. Pointed helm, with horns if the players will tolerate it.

Vis: 1 pawn Corpus, bones of a dead child.

Appearance: Untested boys look like the ghosts of drowned male children. Individual untested boys cannot stand against even inexperienced grogs, but undead children with huge axes and homicidal intentions are useful markers of mood.

Young Warrior

Young warriors are the shock troops of a Viking assault. If the players characters choose not to lay traps through the streets and buildings of the village, and instead form up the defenders on the shore, they face the young warriors first.

These faeries have little Magic Resistance, and serve as a threat only through their numbers. Magi who demonstrate the ability to kill at a distance with their spells trigger the instinct these faeries have to form a wedge and charge the threat. These lesser fairies fatigue magi and spring traps, softening the defenses for the powerful faeries that follow.

Faerie Might: 5 (Corpus)

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

Dex 0, Qik +1

Size: 0

Virtues and Flaws: Cognizant Within Role, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Humanoid Faerie, Lesser Faerie Power (Damaging Effect); Oath of Fealty (chieftain), Traditional Ward (church bells)

Personality Traits: Violent +3, Brave +2, Undisciplined +1 Combat:

Brawl (dagger): Init +1, Attack +6, Defense +5, Damage +5 Single Weapon (axe and shield): Init +2, Attack +9, Defense +8, Damage +13*

(short spear and shield): Init +3, Attack +7, Defense +8, Damage +12*

(longsword and shield): Init +3, Attack +7 Defense +7, Damage +15*

Great Weapon (pole axe): Init +2, Attack +8, Defense +4, Damage +18*

Thrown Weapon (javelin): Init +1, Attack +6, Defense +5, Damage +12*

* Includes +5 for Damaging Effect power. Each faerie only has this power with a single weapon. All statistics include +1 for Pretence specialization.

Soak: +6 (chain mail shirts, or fuller leather armor)

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

Pretenses: Athletics (rowing) 3, Awareness 2 (treasure), Brawl 3 (dagger), Carouse 5 (in the Viking way), Faerie Speech 5, Hunt (humans) 2, Profession (Sailing) 3, Ride (horse) 2, Swim 2 (underwater), Single Weapon (chose one from combat table) or Great Weapon (Pole Axe) 4, Thrown Weapon (javelin) 3.

Powers:

Damaging Effect, 0 points, -2 Init (2 intricacy points on cost): Adds +5 to the damage of the Viking's primary weapon, in a clearly unnatural way. These Vikings have weapons made of sea ice and human bones.

Equipment: Weapon, round shield, shirt of mail or leather armor. Pointed helm, with horns if the players will tolerate it.

Vis: 1 pawn Corpus, briny human bone.

Appearance: Corpses of fit young men, with ghoulish weapons.

Seasoned Warriors

Faerie Might: 10 (Corpus)

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

Dex 0, Qik +1

Size: 0

Virtues and Flaws: Cognizant Within Role, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Humanoid Faerie, Increased Faerie Might (minor), Lesser Faerie Power (Damaging Effect), Oath of Fealty (chieftain), Puissant Pretense (one weapon); Traditional Ward (church bells)

Brawl (dagger): Init +1, Attack +10, Defense +9, Damage +5 Single Weapon (axe and shield): Init +2, Attack +13, Defense +12, Damage +13*

(short spear and shield): Init +3, Attack +11, Defense +12, Damage +12*

(longsword and shield): Init +3, Attack +11, Defense +11, Damage +15*

Great Weapon (pole axe): Init +2, Attack +12, Defense +8, Damage +18*

Thrown Weapon (javelin): Init +1, Attack +6, Defense +5, Damage +12*

* Includes +5 for Damaging Effect power. Each faerie only has this power with a single weapon. All statistics include +1 for Pretence specialization.

Soak: +6 (chain mail shirts, or fuller leather armor)

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

Pretenses: Athletics (rowing) 3, Awareness 2 (treasure), Brawl 3 (dagger), Carouse 5 (in the Viking way), Faerie Speech 5, Hunt (humans) 2, Profession (Sailing) 3, Ride (horse) 2, Swim 2 (underwater), Single Weapon (chose one from combat table) or Great Weapon (Pole Axe) 6+2, Thrown Weapon (javelin) 3

Powers:

Damaging Effect, 0 points, –2 Init (2 intricacy points on cost): Adds +5 to the damage of the Viking's primary weapon, in a clearly unnatural way. These Vikings have weapons made of sea ice and human bones.

Equipment: Weapon, round shield, shirt of mail or leather armor. Pointed helm, with horns if the players will tolerate it.

Vis: 2 pawn Corpus, bone in the heart of the weapon

Appearance: Seasoned warriors are similar to young warriors, but have forms that appear older. These faeries have what seem to be terrible death wounds about the head or chest. These apparent injuries, while disfiguring and frightening, are superficial and do not affect combat performance.

Chieftain's Bodyguards

Faerie Might: 15 (Corpus)

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

Dex 0, Qik +1

Size: +1

Virtues and Flaws: Cognizant Within Role, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Humanoid Faerie, Improved Damage, Lesser Faerie Power (Damaging Effect), Puissant Pretense; Oath of Fealty (chieftain), Traditional Ward (church bells)

Personality Traits: Brave +4, Violent +3 Combat:

Brawl (dagger): Init +1, Attack +10, Defense +9, Damage +10. Single Weapon (axe and shield): Init +2, Attack +13, Defense +12, Damage +18*

(short spear and shield): Init +3, Attack +11, Defense +12, Damage +17*

(longsword and shield): Init +3, Attack +11, Defense +11, Damage +20*

Great Weapon (pole axe): Init +2, Attack +12, Defense +8, Damage +22*

* Includes +5 for Damaging Effect power and +5 for Improved Damage. Each faerie only has this bonus with a single weapon. All statistics include +1 for Pretense specialization .

Soak: +6 (chain mail shirts or fuller leather armor)

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

Pretenses: Athletics (rowing) 3,Awareness 2 (treasure), Brawl 3 (dagger), Carouse 5 (in the Viking way), Faerie Speech 5, Hunt (humans) 2, Profession (Sailing) 3, Ride (horse) 2, Swim 2 (underwater), Single Weapon (chose one from combat table) or Great Weapon (Pole Axe) 6+2.

Powers:

Damaging Effect, 0 points, –2 Init (2 intricacy points on cost): Adds +5 to the damage of the Viking's primary weapon, in a clearly unnatural way. These Vikings have weapons made of sea ice and human bones.

Equipment: Weapon, round shield, shirt of mail or leather armor. Pointed helm, with horns if the players will tolerate it.

Vis: 3 pawn Corpus, tarnished jewelry.

Appearance: The drowned bodies of large, well-groomed Vikings with excellent equipment and jewelry, most of which turns into sea foam when they die. Bodyguards have apparent injuries that are even more hideous than those of the remaining faeries.

Berserkers

Berserkers are warriors dedicated to the Odin cult who enter battle so crazed that they do not recognize friend, foe, pain, or orders. Some berserkers lose track of which shape they should be in, and fight as bears, wolves, or human-animal hybrids. Berserkers do not attack each other, so they can fight in groups, but only with other berserkers. The faeries playing berserkers are exaggerating them to the hilt: they roll their eyes, chant nonsense, and some run into battle nude. If met with an army in the field, the Viking chieftain keeps his berserkers for a separate attack, or uses them in a preliminary charge, so they do not compromise his main formation.

Faerie Might: 25 (Corpus)

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

Size: 0

Virtues and Flaws: Berserk, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Humanoid Faerie, 2 x Improved Characteristics, Lesser Faerie Powers (Damaging Effect and Shift Shape), Increased Faerie Might (major and minor), Puissant Pretense (Brawl); Sovereign Ward (silver, for storyguides wanting these creatures to be less formidable only), Incognizant, Traditional Ward (church bells)

Personality Traits: Violent+5, Brave +5, Angry +3 Combat:*

Brawl (bludgeon): Init +1, Attack +13, Defense +12, Damage +10* (large teeth): Init +1, Attack +15, Defense +13, Damage +6 (large claws): Init +1, Attack +16, Defense +15, Damage +14* * All Attack and Defense scores include +1 for Brawl specialization, and +2 for Puissant Pretense. Damages with asterisks include +5 for Damaging Effect power. When berserk adjust by +2 Attack and –2 Defense.

Soak: +3 if naked, +5 for pelts, +8 for chain mail shirts, or fuller leather armor. Add +2 if berserk.

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

Pretenses: Athletics (rowing) 5, Awareness 2 (treasure), Brawl 8 (with humans), Carouse 5 (in the Viking way), Faerie Speech 5, Hunt (humans) 2, Theology (weird version of Odin worship) 5, Ride (horse) 2, Swim 2 (underwater)

Powers:

Damaging Effect, 0 points, –2 Init (2 intricacy points on cost): Adds +5 to the damage of the Viking's bludgeon or claws, and leaves salted rime ice on everything struck.

Shift Shapes, 0 points, Init –2 (2 intricacy spent on cost): This power transforms the character from human into a hybrid human-bear or human-wolf form. This change is essentially cosmetic, altering only the weapons available to the berserker. These faeries do not consciously control their changes of form, and seem unaware that they are able to change shape.

Equipment: Animal pelts or armor, Alcohol.

Vis: 5 pawns Animal, sodden pelt.

Appearance: Berserkers look like drowned wild men, draped in sodden animal skins until they become angry. Then they change into strange creatures that are half man and half bear, or into werewolves.

The Chieftain

The chieftain is the leader of the raiding faeries, but chieftain is also a role. If this particular faerie is destroyed, and the storyguide needs a commanding figure for a little longer, his role may pass to any of his bodyguards. If they grasp his sword, they take his role, transforming into far larger versions of themselves, and then begin to use his statistics.

The chieftain is tremendously dangerous, and groups lacking skilled warriors or powerful magi should use the statistics for a bodyguard instead. Note that the ship of the chieftain, as one of his personal possessions, has his Magic Resistance due to Might. This will usually ensure that at least one group of raiders land, even if the raiders are ambushed by Hermetic magi.

Faerie Might: 30 (Corpus)

Characteristics: Int +2, Per +2, Pre +2, Com 0, Str +7, Sta +3, Dex 0, Qik –1

Size: +2

Virtues and Flaws: Gigantic, Cognizant Within Role, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, External Vis (grants Puissant Pretense in Leadership), Humanoid Faerie, 5 x Improved Characteristics, Lesser Faerie Power (Damaging Effect), Increased Faerie Might (major and 2 minor); Traditional Ward (church bells)

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

Single Weapon (Long Sword and Round Shield): Init +1, Attack +13, Defense +9, Damage +18*

* All Attack and Defense scores include +1 for Single Weapon specialization. Damage includes +5 for Damaging Effect power.

Soak: +9 (metal scale armor, covered in furs).

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–7), –3 (8–14), –5 (15–21), Incapacitated (22–29), Dead (30+)

Pretenses:, Awareness 2 (treasure), Carouse 5 (in the Viking way), Faerie Speech 5, Hunt (humans) 2, Leadership 8 (Vikings) 5, Profession: Captain (navigation) 5, Ride (horse) 2, Single Weapon (long sword) 8, Swim 2 (underwater)

Powers:

Damaging Effect, 0 points, -2 Init (2 intricacy points on cost): Adds +5 Damage to long sword attacks. Freezes the blood of those struck with the sword, so that it falls like colored glass on the earth. Adds +5 damage.

Equipment: Horde of faeries who think they are Vikings, armor, signaling horn, huge banner held by a bodyguard.

Vis: 6 pawns Mentem, sword. Any character who holds the sword knows immediately that he is able to command troops. He gain the Puissant Pretense in Leadership, which adds +2 to all Leadership rolls, while he retains ownership of the sword. If the vis is extracted from the sword, it loses this property. If the sword is not destroyed, the chieftain can begin to reassemble his body. This takes 30 months, and then he spends six

Appearance: A man about eight feet tall, who seems to have been slit from the throat to the groin. The chieftain is not inconvenienced by his injury, which, because of his faerie nature, is cosmetic.

Advisor

The advisor takes the form of a black-robed priest of Odin, disfigured by the loss of his left eye. He takes no part in combat, and flees if it seems likely he will be harmed. He acts as an adviser to the chieftain, and is usually within the chieftain's ring of bodyguards. The advisor is, mystically, the most powerful faerie present, but he is unwilling to use that power to harm the player characters, so he seems feeble.

The advisor is the leader of this group of faeries, because it has the Highly Cognizant Virtue. That is, the advisor knows that it is a faerie and understands that it is addicted to human pain. It understands that its own group has been ambushed by another faction, and it continually adjusts the script that the other raiding faeries are following, to maximize the harm they cause.

The advisor makes sure that the characters see and interact with it, so that it becomes part of their life story. It then retreats to plan future massacres, and construct scenarios that seem like revenge. It doesn't hate the player characters for disrupting its plans, but they have demonstrated that if the advisor threatens them, they will respond with courage and pain, which it can feed upon. The advisor is inconvenienced, but not harmed, by the destruction of this body. When the player characters next see it, it may have a completely different form, but it will make sure the characters suspect that it is the same faerie by repeating a key phrase, or by wearing an obvious motif, like its missing eye.

Combat Group Statistics

Small ships are crewed by 25 men, and large ships are crewed by 50 men. In Ars Magica, fighting groups may have no more than six members: the following abstractions model the groups that characters will encounter in this scenario. The storyguide should select as many groups of attackers as are required to make the story interesting for the players, given their characters' skill at combat. Note that these faeries do not take a round without fighting to join groups together, or to shuffle roles in their groups — this is another example of them not impersonating humans accurately.

A group of six seasoned warriors: This is a trained group. Assume the leader has a Leadership score of 4 (combat). This allows the vanguard, who is a seasoned warrior, a +15 bonus on Attack or Defense each round. This bonus falls to +12 after the first three members of the group are killed, then by 6 for each subsequent death.

A group of six berserkers: This is an untrained group.

A group of six bodyguards, guarding the command group: This is an untrained group that acts as reserves for the group below.

The command group contains the chieftain and his five bodyguards: This is a trained group. It allows the vanguard to claim a +24 bonus to Attack or Defense each round. This bonus falls by 6 when each member of the guard, not including the first, dies.

The village is unprepared for a Viking raid, since one hasn't occurred in generations, but the defending faeries have made preparations that may assist the player characters.

The Village and Villagers

The village is made up of 41 families, some of whom flee at the first sign of trouble. Each family has a cottage, a small garden area, and a long, thin field that they plant in strips of rotated crops. There are around 70 adults capable of hard manual labor, but only a handful of these have any skill at combat. These can be simulated with the generic statistics for grogs given in the core rulebook. The village also has a large number of children. When the raiders appear, the older women of the village make it their priority to get the children to the church, which represents the village's place of final refuge. The village has a Divine aura of 2.

The village lies along a river, on the side with the larger embankment. The far side of the river is not settled, because the ground is marshy and unstable. The villagers take full advantage of their location, by controlling a bridge near the tannery and fishing. There are small sheds used to store fishing equipment along the riverbank, and other minor buildings. The village is about one and a half miles from the sea, following the river northward.

The landward side of the village is protected by a low, unmortared stone wall, which keeps wild animals from

prowling the streets at night, but it lacks other defenses. It is pierced by two roads, which are closed with gates of wicker. The grain grown locally is milled on an artificial island separated from the rest of the village by the mill race. The hides of butchered animals are processed into leather at a tanner slightly out of, and downwind of, the village.

Most of the buildings in the village are constructed of wood, with thatch roofs. The exceptions are the church and mill, which have stone walls, and the homes belonging to the richest handful of families, which have stone reinforcing in their frames. The raiders know that stone walls signal the potential for superior booty, and so they prefer to sack these, more durable, buildings first. These buildings are, generally, clustered closer to the church.

The Children of the Drowned

The faeries aiding the defenders have been planning to take control of this story for a century, and one of their preparations shows the strange patience of faeries. It is a widely held local belief that when a husband dies at sea, particularly if a couple is childless, that his ghost might visit his wife in a dream, so that she wakes pregnant. The half-dozen people in the village who are the children of drowned sailors vary in age from sixty to five, and have Strong Faerie Blood (Children of the Drowned). They have the virtue Faerie Sight, which at its simplest allows them to see faerie and magical things, even if they are invisible or disguised.

The storyguide can use the Children to focus the story. Most have been visited by the ghosts of their fathers in dreams, and given information or items that the player characters will find useful in their defense of the village. These items or pieces of information have not, for the most part, been detailed in this scenario, because their usefulness is dependent on the abilities of the player characters.

Local Lord

Pellew's group of faeries doesn't want the Vikings to be defeated too easily: they want the villagers to win, but to be terrified and heroic first. They only involve the local lord if the player characters respond with feeble forces. If the faeries allow the lord to respond personally, and he has a small retinue, just use the template for a knight companion on page 23 of ArM5, supported by a handful of grogs from pages 21 and 22. A more-powerful lord may send several knights.

The reeve for the village, the local man who acts as the

lord's overseer in his absence, has already tried to reach the lord. He has been diverted into Faerie by Pellew's faction. They release him if they think it useful that he reach his lord. The defending faeries have no interest in opposing magi if they attempt to contact the lord. They can spirit away the lord easily if the magi and the lord separate, even for a moment.

Local Priest

Father Thomas lacks sufficient Faith to save the player characters with a convenient miracle. He can, however, be used by the storyguide as a method of pacing the story. When the Vikings are first sighted, he retreats to the church and begins to ring the bell. This may reveal that the attackers are faeries, but it will certainly draw the remaining potential victims together as the raid progresses. When the priest ceases to ring the bell, after virtually all of the surviving humans have been concentrated in a single area, he provokes the climactic battle of the scenario.

In this scenario, certain locations are included in the village specifically to give magi opportunities to lay ambushes for Viking warriors. The map in this chapter is intended for storyguides short on time: troupes will enjoy this scenario more if the storyguide tailors the geography and industries of the village to maximize the opportunities for player characters to cause spectacular mayhem.

Specific locations, described here, are unique buildings in the village that are likely to serve as points of resistance when the player characters fortify the village.

Church and Churchyard

The church stands at the highest point of the village, a small hillock that overlooks the river. The side of the hill that faces the water is a graveyard. The church is in the Norman style. Its tower, which is blocky and similar to that of a castle, is three stories high. Its roof can be used as a watch post, signaling point, or sniper's nest for up to six

archers. There is a Divine aura of 3 in the churchyard and 5 inside the church.

Early in the battle, the youngest of the Children of the Drowned is carried by his mother to the church. If the battle seems to be going spectacularly badly, the defending faeries intervene. They will cause a faerie glow to emanate through the cracks around the stones that cover the grave of the village's founder. If these are lifted away, a magical weapon is found there. This is a fake, planted by the defending faeries, but the attacking faeries are constrained, by their nature, to play along with the story and act as if the weapon really were what it claims to be.

Riverside

This is a thin strip of land between the river and the road. This area is dotted with shacks that are used to store fishing gear.

Dangers in This Area

The area can also provide material for the construction of traps in other parts of the town. It contains:

Several Anchors: These are heavy stones with holes drilled in them to take a rope. An anchor dropped on a person from at least six feet in height does +10 damage.

Half a Mile of Fishing Nets: A character caught in a net is immobilized until he makes a Strength roll against an Ease Factor of 12, or cuts himself free. This requires an edged weapon and two rounds.

Barrels of Pitch: This material is used to waterproof boats and gear. It is sticky and burns easily. It has an intensity of +6 using the Heat and Corrosion Damage Rules.

Ropes: As many as needed.

Smokehouse Equipment: Those sealed inside an active smokehouse suffer Air Deprivation as per ArM5 page 180**.** Though the Vikings are unlikely to be tricked into entering a fish smoke hut, characters can use the equipment in the huts to create similar environments in other places. As an example, the richest cottage in town has a cellar, where its owner stores wine and beer. A group of Vikings barricaded into the cellar could be killed with smoking equipment ignited with a fuse of tarred rope.

Mill

It is possible for the raiders to simply pass by the mill and continue to the centre of the town, but they will not

The advisor, the faerie that is guiding the raiders, may play a trick that aids the characters at the expense of the defending faeries. When he realizes that a different band of faeries is attempting to claim the story, the advisor attempts to use the player characters to force the representatives of the other side to take the form of those who died defending the village from the initial raid. This allows the raiding faeries to rout the defending faeries, completing a version of the current story. And this prevents the defending faeries from stealing the story for another hundred years.

The advisor's problem is that he can only force the defending faeries into material form by having a creative human evoke them, and define their role. If there is a suitable player character, the advisor tries to subtly hint that the humans should pray to their ancestors in the churchyard. The advisor does this by temporarily taking on the semblance of one of the people who has been killed by his faction and, using this appearance, speaking to as many of the peasants as possible, encouraging them to pray to their ancestors for a miraculous deliverance. If the villagers do this, aided by a human with Free Expression, then the faeries that oppose the raiders have no choice but to come forth from the churchyard and attack, taking the roles of the villagers from hundreds of years ago.

These faeries use the statistics for young warriors, above, but lack the Damaging Effect power and are harmed by immersion in seawater, not the church bells. Without the aid of the player characters, who can change the story, they are massacred by the Vikings, as most of the original villagers were. This does, however, leave the humans cowering in the church safe. They take the role of the survivors of the original raid, rebuilding the village so that the two sides can terrorize them again in a hundred years.

The defending faeries consider this a failure, because it means they have not stolen the story from the raiders. Sallying forth, to deliberately recreate the original massacre, is the worst possible outcome for the defending faeries. There is no fundamental difference, to these faeries, between any of the endings where they do not capture the progress of the story. This ending is less pleasant than the Vikings slaughtering everyone in the village because that would not hurt the faeries at all, while sallying forth may lead to incidental pain and has a chance of permanent destruction.

Player characters who hear this report, that a ghost of one of the recently dead has suggested the locals must pray to their ancestors, may be alarmed by it. Characters who make an Intelligence + (Theology or Dominion Lore) roll against an ease Factor of 3 or more will know that praying to the human dead for miracles is an impious act, and that acts of impiety may harm the Divine aura around the church. If the characters raise this concern with the priest, he is able to prevent his people from praying to their dead. This prevents the defending faction of faeries from being slaughtered.

do so if it is clear that enemy soldiers are harbored within it. The raiders could simply bottle the defenders inside, by placing javelineers about the mill. Fortunately, because these are faeries who are more interested in valor and fear than in success, they confront the defenders. This is another clue, to the defenders, that they are not facing Magical undead.

The mill is two stories high, and rests on a race — a narrow artificial waterway that connects the village's stream to the sea by a swifter path. The narrowness of the race forces water to wash along it more swiftly, and with more force, than in the stream, which allows water power to supply some of the force for milling. It is very dangerous to swim in a race or the millpond that feeds it.

The race also acts as a narrow moat, helping the miller to discourage burglaries. To attack the mill, the raiders must select one of the following strategies. They could use missile weapons, but these are unlikely to hurt people inside the mill, or, given that it is one of the few stone and slate buildings in the village, set it on fire. They can approach one at a time over a narrow bridge, but even a single skilled warrior, with the aid of some friendly archers, could hold the bridge path while his Stamina and skill lasted. The raiders can pull apart nearby houses to get timbers to stretch across the race, or re-board one of their ships and attack the mill from the stream. These two strategies allow them to swarm their enemies, which are preferred tactics, but holding the bridge is a particularly heroic thing for a human to do, and the faeries would like to present that opportunity, at least for a time.

A character holding the bridge can force the Viking raiders attempting to cross to fight as single individuals, rather than as members of a combat group. A character holding the race who becomes tired can fall back to the mill, but this is made easier if accomplices in the mill

provide missile cover. The raiders will not throw spears at someone who is holding the bridge: their role allows them to accept this as a series of personal duels, with which they should not interfere, while their faerie nature makes allowances for humans who wish to do glorious things. If the defending side is not honoring the situation in the same way — for example, if they are using magic or missiles to kill the spectators to the duel on the race — then the Vikings withdraw and use more effective tactics.

The fine dust that accumulates in a mill, and in the granary that shares the lower floor of the building, is incredibly hazardous. Millers water down the flour they store, to prevent the dust filling the air. If the dusty air comes into contact with a spark, then it ignites as a cloud of flame, which can cause the building to explode. Hermetic magi have tried to create the fine power that causes explosions before, but the Finesse required is too high to make it a practical weapon outside a working mill.

All characters automatically understand that if they fire the mill, they cause famine in the town this winter, unless they have a Flaw that makes them unable to understand basic elements of society, like Sheltered Upbringing. An Ignem specialist of sufficient skill can determine how much flour can be saved from the mill, while still providing the necessary amount of dust to trigger the explosion. This is an Intelligence + (Ignem/5) roll against an Ease Factor of 12. On a botched roll, too little flour is left in the mill, and the explosion does not occur. On a failed roll, too much flour is left in the mill, causing unnecessary hardship in the village at winter.

The mill belongs to the distant liege of the local lord. If this remote potentate discovers that the player characters set one of his mills on fire, even in good cause, he demands compensation. If it is not paid, he becomes the covenant's enemy. Locals aiding the player characters inform them of the mill's ownership if a plan to destroy it is discussed.

Player characters know that mills are owned by influential people automatically if they have the Common Sense Virtue, or if they make an Intelligence + Folk Ken roll against an Ease Factor of 3. If they make an Intelligence + Area Lore roll against an Ease Factor of 9, they know who this particular mill belongs to.

Dangers in This Area

Flour: Aside from serving as the fuel for explosions, flour can also be stirred up, to create an obscuring cloud that lasts five combat rounds in enclosed spaces with still air. It can also be added to water to create a paste that, if boiled, adheres to the victims so that they suffer heat damage for two rounds longer than if doused with boiling water.

The Race: Characters who fall into the race drown unless they make a Dexterity + Swim roll against an Ease Factor of 9. This includes the raiding faeries, which technically do not need to breathe.

Working Parts of the Mill: A character thrown into the working parts of the mill takes +5 Damage per round, until he is pulled clear with a Strength roll against an Ease Factor of 9. The trapped character may add his Strength to this roll.

Sexton's Cove

The role of sexton, or gravedigger, of the village is passed from father to son, and the current sexton's mother has information that may interest magi skilled in Mentem or Corpus magic; she knows where the real Vikings were buried. The villagers chose not give them Christian burial in the hallowed ground of the cemetery, but to bury them on a pebbly, unused beach several miles from the village.

The original Vikings are useful to the player characters in several ways, particularly if they believed the story Pellew spread, and sent a magus skilled in dealing with ghosts. Their ghosts, who hate the idea of impostors, will advise the characters on the strategy that their duplicates will employ. If the characters can call up the ghosts of the Vikings, they use the statistics given above for seasoned warriors, except they have Magical rather than Faerie Might, don't have any sort of traditional ward, and don't have the Damaging Effect power, which reduces their damage by 5.

Tannery

Medieval villages use a lot of animal products, but the most dangerous and disgusting are in the tannery. The tannery is where leather is made, by placing animal hides into pits filled with lime, dog excrement, and other even less pleasant things. The slurry of excrement, lime, and animal fats can be controlled with Animal magic, as can the hides, bones, and other animal detritus in the area.

The tannery is outside the village, and upwind. If there is a large group of raiders, the tannery will be one of the first buildings that the raiders pass.

Dangers in This Area

Falling into a Tannery Pit: This is disgusting, but not immediately lethal for humans. A faerie warrior held in one for more than few moments will subconsciously choose to drown, give up its role, and fade back into Arcadia.

Lye: Lye is a caustic liquid made from the ash of hardwood trees. Small amounts of lye can be found in the richer homes of the village: it is used to clean clothes. The tanner uses it to strip the flesh and hair from skins, so he has it in larger quantities. Contact with lye does +3 Corrosion damage. Lye loses its caustic properties only very slowly if correctly stored, so it can evaporated into a white powder and coat non-reactive surfaces, eating away the skin of those that touch them.

Scattered around the town are also various houses where the peasants live.

Peasant Houses

The peasants of this village are poor, and the village is of only moderate size, lacking skilled tradesmen who make houses. Typical houses in this village are a single story high, and are constructed of wattled panels supported by a wooden frame. That is, the sections of the wall that do not bear weight are made of woven sticks that have been coated in a layer of clay, dung, and fat. The internal walls are washed with lime, partially as decoration but also to discourage insects from colonizing the house. Poorer houses are huts, triangular in crosssection, made by their owners of sticks, with mud and straw for walls.

Most houses are a single room. They lack chimneys, the smoke that circles up through the thatch being useful for keeping the roofing material free of vermin. Windows are uncommon, and small. Furniture is sparse.

The few richer families in the village have houses that have stone framing about the corners, doors, and windows. They have chimneys, and their houses may have a second floor. The lower floor is used for the family's craft, and for cooking. The upper floor is used for sleeping. These houses are better furnished than those of their neighbors, but are far from luxurious: they are simply less poor.

Pellew and the village should be foreshadowed.

The player characters become aware that the raid will occur between two weeks and eight weeks from the current date, depending on how long it will take them to travel to the site and prepare it. Pellew's masters have had contact with Hermetic magi, and want to limit the timeframe sufficiently that the characters cannot craft new magical devices before the story begins. They worry that a sufficiently powerful device could destroy the story at the beginning, preventing them from harvesting the terror and courage they so crave.

The player characters find the locals surprisingly receptive of their aid. This is because the eldest of the Children of the Drowned has been telling his family, and their friends, that there is trouble coming but help on the way. He has been warned by the ghost of his father, who is one of the defending faeries in disguise.

The player characters may prepare the ground for the raid, but they are limited by the manpower of the village, and the brief time allotted them by Pellew's side. The magi may also investigate the graves of the Vikings, as described in the section on the sexton's cove, earlier. If the faeries have involved the local lord, he arrives with his retinue slightly after the magi do, and then tries to take command of the situation. The faeries guide the story back to the control of the player characters, if they can, because they expect the magi to provide the strategy, and the lord merely to provide muscle.

The raiders send a single, small vessel in first, as a scout. The resistance the scout meets determines how many faeries manifest and attempt to come ashore as Vikings. A desperate struggle to hold off the first boat inspires a raid that has only one vessel, while a scout ship incinerated distant from the village by powerful magic summons up to at least two large ships, each with a crew of 50.

If the Vikings face massed resistance, the young warriors form a shield wall. If the presence of the force makes this impossible, the berserkers are ordered to attack the defenders, to give the young warriors time to form up. The chieftain then throws a spear over the enemy, to dedicate them to Odin as sacrifices, meaning that none will be taken alive. A shower of javelins follows. As each faerie's attention wanders, these thrown javelins vanish, but any injuries or damage they have caused remain. Each faerie finds itself rearmed and probably unaware of how strange that seems to a human.

The young warriors then change to the boar formation, which is a wedge, and run toward the enemy, attempting to kill their leaders. Seasoned warriors, or those fighting with two-handed axes, exploit any weakness in the defenders' formation that the charge opens. The young warriors then fight with little discipline until the battle ends.

If the raiders do not face an opposing massed force, or defeat such a garrison, they spread out, seeking things to steal, drink, or burn. They stop to engage points of resistance, and then commence with house-to-house fighting even though it is an inefficient way to raid. For these faerie vikings, stolen goods are only props; what they really want is to feed on the emotions of the people they are grinding down. This lasts until the church bell stops tolling, and the Vikings concentrate their attack there.

If the players keep the church bell ringing the entire time, or simply relocate the population, then the raiding faeries slowly burn down the entire town, kill all of the livestock, and raze the fields. This destroys the village, because it needs its buildings and fields to survive: their lack will lead the lord to move these people to other villages. The defending faeries, through their human pawns, attempt to prevent this by spurring the player characters to action. They also have one of their human dupes cut the bell rope if necessary.

The covenant gains vis from the fallen faeries, but cannot use their equipment. At the conclusion of the story their boats, weapons, and bodies disintegrate into sea foam, which evaporates away.

The player characters may have earned the goodwill of the villagers, the mundane lord, and the defending faeries. In coming months the defending faeries will appear to locals as the ghosts of villagers who died in the battle, and even more of the Children of the Drowned will be born. These make excellent companions and grogs.

The youngest Child of the Drowned has The Gift. The faeries selected him as the one to find the ancestral weapon because they have high hopes for his career, and personal legend. They subtly assist the fortunes of the covenant, if it is the home of their protégé. Pellew will be sent to involve the characters in further stories.