Expected Sequence of Play

The adventure asks the player characters to enter Rome, specifically the Septizodium, and purposefully meddle in mundane affairs. This is not oath-breaking, which stipulates that meddling is forbidden if it "brings ruin to our sodales." In this case, the storyguide must impress upon the magi that not interfering may bring ruin upon the Order. The magi are not asked to pick a pope, merely to protect the cardinals from supernatural manipulation so that they can select a pope using their own mental faculties.

To get the magi involved, someone has to tell them what is happening in the Septizodium. Because of the supernatural involvement in this high-stakes game, this is easy to accomplish. Someone attached to one of the interested parties asks the magi to help protect the cardinals. Connecting this agent to a magus' Story Flaw is an excellent idea, and you are encouraged to warp the following suggestions so that seem palatable to your players. The player characters should only know about one threat at first: Oriens, the Planetary Divinities, Alyates, or Buonacorsus. They discover the other threats and how convoluted the deliberations are once inside the Septizodium.

If you favor a subtle approach, let the player characters do some of the work. Have the magi notice that the Magic aura that surrounds their covenant dips a point, for a day or two, before returning to normal. Investigation shows that other nearby auras area also fluctuating, ever so slightly, and people start having prophetic dreams that something is terribly amiss. Some great decision must be made, claim the awakened dreamers, but who, where, and what is a mystery. Let the player character fret and fiddle about, although if they have the means to enter dreams or question auras then they discover that the auras are fluctuating because the cardinals' supernatural manipulators are warring. When one gains an advantage in the number of needed votes, the other auras dip. The manipulators don't know they are doing this; this is Mythic Europe responding to an incredibly important decision. A pope affiliated with a realm other than the Divine may permanently alter every aura in Mythic Europe.

A more direct approach is to have an agent arrive and ask the player characters to intervene, telling them that something is wrong inside the Septizodium, and asking them to check it out and protect the cardinals. Who this agent is depends on your group.

• A divine agent arrives and asks the magi to help. Perhaps the magi have done something immoral and are looking for redemption. Perhaps they are paragons of virtue and regularly receive visiting angels. Perhaps a character's Guardian Angel steps forward; perhaps it is St Nerius

who strides into the covenant seeking aid. The agent does not have to be supernatural. A nearby priest or bishop might know what is going on and ask the magi for help. A divine agent tells the magi about Oriens and that one of the cardinals is a diabolist. The prospect of an infernal pope should terrify most Christians, who firmly believe that the Holy Father is the right hand of God. The idea of setting a diabolist on the papal throne is an abomination.

• A demon arrives, possessing a covenant character and informing the group that another demon is active in Rome. Demons are short-sighted and hold grudges, especially against each other. One of Oriens' enemies acts against Oriens, hoping to thwart the cardinal demon's plan. Between head-spinning and vomiting iron nails, the possessed character tells the magi that a diabolist is ready to assume the papal throne, and once successful every non-Infernal aura in Mythic Europe will dim. The possessed character cackles as it says that the first order of business of the diabolist pope will be to declare the Order of Hermes heretics, and allow the princes of northern Mythic Europe to crusade against the magi.

• A faerie agent arrives, one somehow

• connected to the covenant or a residing character. The faerie tells the magi that the planetary divinities are selecting the pope, and giggles with glee. Churches will disappear, replaced by pagan temples. The great faerie powers will return and rule the world. Unless the planetary divinities are stopped, and this would please the faerie agent even more. If the faerie and the covenant have tangled before, defeating the planetary divinities' chosen man will resolve the faerie-covenant conflict.

• A magic agent arrives, most likely another member of the Order of Hermes but other options are available. It all depends on the characters' pasts and the players' future goals for their characters. If a magus wants to become a Quaesitor or a hoplite, then a Guernicus magus arrives and tells the magi about Alyates and his suspected involvement with the past pope. Is he involved in delaying the decision? Or, a maga from a Roman covenant of Vardian's Tomb asks for help, saying that she thinks a Hermetic magus is interfering in the conclave but feels out of her league in dealing with the problem. If the player characters have previously encountered Virgilian wizards then the agent says that another is med-

dling with the papal conclave. The player characters will probably be reluctant to interfere, and the requestor must stress that involvement is not interference. The pope is a powerful man with vast resources. Controlling him would give Alyates or the Virgilian wizard a powerful advantage over their enemies, who the requestor insists would eventually be the Order of Hermes, present company included.

Use any other angle that pressures the magi into action, including character Story Flaws and covenant Hooks and Boons. Tell them what will happen if they do nothing: a diabolist will be elected pope and lead a crusade against the Order, a faerie puppet pope will bring a return of pagan worship and pagan powers, a rival wizard will eventually lead the emperor against the Order of Hermes, and a meddling Hermetic with a pope on a string could ruin the Order as well.

The locations described here presume that the characters are taking the initial mundane route that Emir Musa traveled, as described in the Tale of the City of Brass. If the characters use some other more direct means to enter the Magic Realm, skip over the details of Part One up to and including the Marble Palace, and place them directly on the Forgotten Road that leads to the City of Brass.

The following sequence of events happens if the magi react cautiously to the growing settlement, or if they don't act at all. The storyguide should take the player magi's activities into account, as the Soterists and Wächter adapt to events. If the magi respond with extreme violence to an early event, the grand plans need not be completely ruined for the antagonists; see the sec-

This scenario is, structurally, an excuse for a set-piece naval battle followed by a siege. These provide combat-orientated characters with environments filled with morally-uncomplicated targets on which to use their most devastating spells.

Once the necessity of battle is clear to the player characters, the story revolves around the strategies they use to reduce Eustace's capacity to resist destruction at their hands. The suggested course of events, after the hook, is that the player characters visit sites important in Eustace's life to gain more information and Arcane Connections. Each investigation includes the possibility of combat, but the foes are weaker than in the two large battles. This allows characters strongest in spells that gather information to contribute by facing these obstacles on behalf of the covenant.

The characters need a reason to meet Eustace in battle, and this should vary to suit each saga. Some suggestions follow.

The Order doesn't take sides in the mundane wars, but Eustace does. He is known to be a magician, and auctions his services in the most public way. He terrifies rulers, extorts noblemen, and pillages commoners. Eustace is such a villain that even other Satanists hate him. It's clearly to the Order's benefit for him to be removed.

Eustace again auctions his services. The losing side (as suits your saga) instead sends messages to the covenant, pointing out that they know that magi exist, that Eustace is clearly their problem, and that the Code doesn't protect him. An element of threat is added: if Eustace is not bought under control, then clearly the Crown needs to take some action to prevent similar problems. The characters have a choice: accept an exorbitant fee and strike Eustace down, or face a kingdom-wide census of magi, to determine their powers and capacity to pay tax.

This hook allows a diplomatic scene, to include player characters not skilled in combat in the story. An excellent diplomat can frame the entire event by setting the stakes. Rewards and possible consequences for failure are negotiated by this character in advance.

The story begins when the player magi are approached by Giuliano, heir to the dukedom of Casalmaggiore, asking for help against a magical force that threatens to steal his throne. This force turns out to be the first of the rogue covenant members that the magi meet across this story. The player covenant has the choice to either involve themselves in opposition to Hermetic magi, or to avoid potential interference in mundane affairs and leave the dukedom to its fate.

Soon after this, a nearby covenant, Castello del Selvaggio, falls to Avedutus, the spoils of Wizard War, and with a number of refugee covenfolk arriving at their gates the player covenant sees the plans of their Hermetic enemies