Patronus' Faeries

The following faeries are summoned into existence by Patronus' spells.

Faerie Might: 10 (Terram)

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

Size: 0

Virtues and Flaws: Improved Damage, Improved Soak (x3), Lesser Faerie Power (Damaging Effect); Sovereign Ward (sea water); Arthritis, Incognizant

Personality Traits: Loyal to Creator +3, Wicked +2

Combat:

Knife: Init +2, Atk +9, Def +8, Dam +8 (includes the bonus from Improved Damage, but not the Damaging Effect power)

Soak: +8

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

Pretenses: Athletics (running) 3, Awareness (in combat) 3, Brawl (knife) 5

Powers:

Damaging Effect 0 points, Init –2 (2 intricacy points on cost). Adds +5 to the damage for the Lord's knives, in an obviously unnatural way; for instance the knives can be seen to cause wounds while leaving armor unscathed. The bonus for this power has not been calculated into the combat stats above.

Equipment: None

Vis: As an impermanent thing, this faerie has no vis.

Appearance: A gangly skeleton of rusting black iron bars with bulbous joints and arms tipped with knives in place of fingers. It squeaks and squeals as it moves but is deceptively fast.

The Lord of Knives' creaking skeleton suffers from arthritis, which means he is liable to seize up on any combat botch. This can be brought on immediately by the presence of sea water, which is this faerie's sovereign ward. The smallest drop of true sea water that touches the faerie's body rusts it solid within a round and it starts to fall into lifeless rusted flakes in the next round.

The statistics here are for the horde of summoned faeries both as individuals and acting as a swarm.

Faerie Might: 1 (Herbam)

Characteristics: Int 0, Per 0, Pre 0, Com 0, Str –20, Sta –1, Dex +2, Qik +14

Characteristics (swarm): Int 0, Per +1, Pre +1, Com –1, Str +2, Sta –1, Dex +2, Qik +4

Size: –10

Size (swarm): +1

Virtues and Flaws: Improved Damage; Incognizant

Personality Traits: Hungry +2, Mischievous +1

Combat:

Bite: Init +14, Atk +11, Def +9, Dam –14

Bite (swarm): Init +4, Atk +11, Def +9, Dam +8

Soak: +0

Wound Penalties: Dead (1+)

Wound Penalties (swarm): –1 (1–6), –3 (7–12), –5 (13–18), Incapacitated (19–24), Dead (21+)

Pretenses: Athletics (running) 3, Awareness (in combat) 3, Brawl (bite) 5, Hunt (fleeing combatants) 5

Powers: None Equipment: None

Vis: None

Appearance: A teeming jumble of tiny faeries made of sticks and leaves scrambling over each other to get to their targets or anything else that looks in any way edible.

A swarm is a mass of creatures of Size –3 or smaller with a combined Size of +1 or more. Given the fluid makeup of a swarm, it is almost impossible to stop one in its tracks. Shield grogs are used to holding off single or even group enemies but a swarm has the power to overwhelm defenders. Apply the following rules:

• Swarms ignore defenders and can always reach their intended target.
• Swarms may attack a number of targets equal to the swarm's size each round.
• At the storyguide's discretion, swarms may have an immunity or resistance to regular weapons; a blade passing harmlessly through a swarm of locusts, for instance.
• Being made up of many smaller individuals, a swarm is hard to destroy. Unless a swarm is destroyed outright, it can disengage and return at full strength after a number of rounds equal to its single highest wound penalty.

Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults (pages 94–95) provides guidelines for the Merinita mystery of Animae Magic, the ability to spontaneously create faeries from the raw matter surrounding the caster. Two considerations should be applied when using this magic. Firstly, faeries created through ritual magic in this way may be permanent and may have a Might Score, but they do not contain raw vis. The vis is actively sustaining the faerie from the moment it is created. Once that faerie dies, the vis finally dissipates. Secondly, the total Might Score of all faeries summoned by the spell must be added to the level when the spell is invented. So a spell to create a single faerie with a Might Score of 5 must add 5 to the spell level. A spell to create a group of 10 similar faeries must add 50 to the spell level.

Avedutus is characteristically unwilling to discuss anything pertaining to the court or their presence, but it is clear that he views Giuliano as an arrogant brat. He is not rude but he defers to Lucia on any matters pertaining to Federico. Other than that, if he is engaged in harmless conversation he is relaxed.

The storyguide should assume that Federico's faction controls ten of the votes to Giuliano's two. This means that they need to influence four votes in order to force an even split, which places the deciding vote in the hands of Hieronymous. Taking five votes away from Federico secures the election for Giuliano.

Unless the magi have already met the electors and discussed their positions, they do not know how many votes are actually controlled by each faction. Known supporters of Federico may be identified as follows, which starts to reveal the weight of support he has gained.

Roll Assessment

Botch Giuliano already has enough support despite Federico's efforts

• 0–2 Identify two known Federico supporters
• 3–5 Identify four known Federico supporters
• 6–8 Identify six known Federico supporters
• 9–10 Identify eight known Federico supporters
• 11+ Identify Giuliano's supporters

In order to secure Giuliano's election the magi must influence five votes. The magi could achieve this a number of ways: