Faerie Huntsmen (cont'd)

is a large, lanky humanoid. His misshapen face has the beak of an owl rather than nose and mouth, and his dark eyes glare maliciously. His lower legs are those of a deer, and he is dressed in black and dark greens.

Equipment: An elaborately shaped longbow, a curved and jagged sword at his side. He wears a leather scale hauberk made from the leather of exotic animals. His dark horse bears a quiver of greenfeathered arrows at the saddle.

Encumbrance: 0

Dark Huntsman

Faerie Might: 30 (Corpus)

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

Size: 0 Age: n/a

Virtues and Flaws: None Personality Traits: Vengeful +2

Reputations: None

Combat:

Dodge: Init +2, Attack n/a, Defense +7, Damage n/a

Talons: Init +2, Attack +10, Defense +8, Damage +5

Spear, Short: Init +4, Attack +11, Defense +9, Damage +7

Thrown Spear, Short: Init +4, Attack +11, Defense +9, Damage +7 Range 10

Soak: +7

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

Pretenses: Brawl 5 (talons), Single Weapon 6 (spear), Riding 6 (horse), Survival 5 (forest), Hunt 5 (humans)

Powers:

Spear of Cursed Wood, 5 points, Init +2, Herbam; A Dark Huntsman can transform his spear – wherever it may be within his sight – into a 10-foot high tree with twisting, flailing ,and thorny branches.

The power must be activated as he attacks in melee or throw the spear; it continues to cause the victim +10 damage each round. Anyone approaching within 3 paces suffers +5 damage from the thorns.

Use the rules for Wall of Thorns (ArM5, page 135) regarding damaging it or forcing one's way through. The thorny bush is protected by the Huntsman's Magic Resistance, as it is a part of his glamour. The Huntsman can approach his spear safely to pick it up again.

Appearance: Dark Huntsmen look like stocky humans, except that they have no mouths, and their eyes radiate a mixture of infinite sadness and vengeful spite. Their hands have elongated fingers with sharp talons for nails. They too dress in black and dark greens.

Equipment: Their only armament is a single spear with a large, barbed tip. They wear leather scale hauberks made from the leather of exotic animals and ride dark horses.

Encumbrance: 0

ging a path into its sides, and finally dig canals to drain the swamp. Unfortunately, this very swamp also holds a significant vis source belonging to the player magi. To make matters worse, the hill has a magical aura rating of 3 as well, and is in fact a tether giving rise to the aura in the area. The player magi need not necessarily be aware of this in advance, although if described as an idyllic place, the perfect forest hill, where all sensory input is stronger than in other places, that might tip them off. A Magic Sensitivity + Perception Stress roll against an Ease Factor of 9 (calculated as 12 minus aura rating) reveals its role. If using Magic Lore or Area Lore the Ease Factor is 3 higher, and success only gives the character a sense of the supernatural, without any details.

Normally such a project would not be built so far from the village; the village would more likely have been built at the site of the clay. But Relisius has planned this very meticulously and has placed the village at the optimum site for many other factors, making this lone resource a secondary one. By establishing a satellite location and seeding it with mundane activity he hopes to affect larger areas with the encroachment of the Dominion. The clay pit won't be worked all year round, but while it is active the workers live there in small huts with their families. In time this site is expected to become a new village by itself, buying food from Willehad and producing its own goods and services to pay for this.

The player magi learn much the same information no matter how they are investigating, as long as they are investigating. When the player magi hear about the clay pit, it is still just talk; the villagers mention their forthcoming plans to send out advance scouts before the engineering and work crew arrives. The scouts leave in a few days, but the work crew isn't due at the village until the end of the second week. The scouting party consists of the most skilled woodsmen in the village. This is by no means an impressive group, since they have little experience of hunting and haven't had the time to thoroughly get to know the locale. They have only sparse information of the direction in which they are to go as well as some landmarks for finding the hill and swamp. As with most other major events in this story, simply killing or driving off such a mundane group is easy but won't solve the problem for good. It might entice the Soterists to raise the stakes and risk more overt help or force them to use political power against the saboteurs. On the other hand, this could be the setback that forces the abandonment of the project.

If the player magi have intervened before, Relisius sends an appropriate group of agents to secretly accompany the villagers. The agents may bring along grogs, who may travel as part of the villagers' group. Unless magic used earlier by the player magi suggests that different Arts would be most useful, the agents are skilled in Imaginem and Mentem to counter illusions and mind control, or the elemental Forms for physical aid. These magi have the means to survive and move comfortably in the wilderness, and spells or devices to do so invisibly and silently. The player magi are unlikely to become aware of them before the agents act, although particularly thorough scrying might reveal them (and therefore break the Code.)

At least one of these magi has the means to either teleport back to Relisius' staging area, or to transmit information. In this way, Relisius is able — through his underlings — to know what has happened. But, in the main, they are on the defensive; one of the reasons for this event is to allow the player magi to take initiative. In general they take no direct action against the player magi. The agents may use Perdo Vim or Muto Imaginem to reveal invisible magi, or sabotage any spells they may cast, but they do not cast spells to directly harm the player magi, in the hope of avoiding confrontation at this point. The agents defend themselves and retreat if exposed rather than let the situation escalate. Clever and inventive players should be rewarded with success for their magi.