The Means of Magical Warfare

While Lords of Men discusses mundane warfare, there is the likelihood of magical conflict taking place during this story. The Hermetic Projects supplement includes an entire chapter on the means and magic of waging Wizard War. Many of the effects and techniques detailed in that chapter may be useful inspiration for use in this story, either as additional spells available to the antagonists or as spells and effects that the player magi may invent in order to defend themselves. The Magi of Hermes supplement details several magi and their own particular inventions that may provide additional inspiration.

no further part in this scenario. But the duke's army does besiege the city, using Avedutus' enchanted bolts to breach the walls. If the magi do retreat to the city, the siege plays out as described here.

On arrival outside Verona, the duke sends his herald to offer terms to the Veronese. He demands that each councillor sends his wife, sons, and daughters to his camp by way of hostages and that he be crowned duke of Verona with the Veronese nobility swearing fealty to him. The city is confident of resisting a prolonged siege and so does not accept these terms, preferring instead to see the Casalmaggiore army exhaust itself against its walls. But if the magi are within the city, they are included in the war council, and the demand for hostages presents an opportunity for subterfuge that the players may take up.

Verona is a large walled city bisected by the Adige river, which enters the city in the north west, takes a sweeping s-shaped meander and then exits in the south east. With the Duke's army marching out of Caslamaggiore to the south east, this is the obvious point of contact.

Defending the city involves resisting bombardment by siege engine and Avedutus' enchanted devices. The magi should have had time to determine the appropriate defenses and prepare them. Note that Verona spans the Adige river, which means that sorties and spies may find entry relatively easy.

If the magi weather the initial assault, they may still need to deal with a prolonged blockade, which would mean using magic to feed a city and protect it from illness.

When the Casalmaggiore army arrives, the duke concentrates his force on the southern wall and attempts an escalade to scale the walls while his trebuchet is brought within range and made ready. This takes most of the day and is clearly visible from the city walls. Once the trebuchet is ready, the duke begins both mundane and magical bombardment with an archer using Avedutus' charged bolts to breach the wall. Each bolt that strikes the wall destroys one of that wall's damage levels.

The nature of the battle and siege rules puts the troupe players at the heart of the engagement. Where the troupe abandons the defending force to its fate, the defending city loses that discrete engagement. In this case, the city must defend against escalade and prevent the besieging enemy from scaling the walls. The players may place any combination of magi, companions, or grogs at the wall. Doing so allows them to influence the outcome.

This is played as a combat encounter, with the troupe characters forming one or more combat group defending the wall against twice their number of

The Lords of Men supplement provides rules for running and deciding sieges. These rules take a story-based approach combined with some simple statistics used to describe castles, towns, and cities.

• Garrison: Verona has a +4 weight of numbers bonus, which ensures that a significant combat event only happens once per season. While the besieging army initiates many attacks through the season, the large resident garrison easily absorbs most of the pressure.

• Defenses: The city has superior defenses, provided by the strong city walls, and a +3 defense bonus. This bonus multiplied by the city's size modifier of 4 means that the walls have a total of 12 damage levels. The strength of the walls means that any checks against enemy artillery happen at a rate of one per

• month, or three per season. Verona, given its frequent trouble with its neighbors, has an accomplished siege engineer with an Intelligence of 3 and a Profession: Siege Engineer Ability score of 5.

• Supplies: Situated on a river, Verona has a superior supply line. Under blockade it must make a supplies check only once per season and does so with a siege conditions bonus of +5. It is also allowed three failed rolls before the city is starved. At this point, troupe characters must make the standard deprivation checks against starvation as described in ArM5, page 180.

Once the siege digs in, the duke's strategy is to blockade the city, deploying his army to surround Verona's southern and western walls and crossing the river to stockade the east.

untrained combat groups consisting of standard soldiers (ArM5, page 22). The attacking soldiers take a round reaching the top of the wall, during which they are vulnerable to missile attacks and unable to make attack

rolls against the troupe characters. On reaching the top, they attempt to gain a foothold on the battlements. The troupe characters benefit from the standard +3 bonus for fighting from higher ground during this round. The attackers cannot disengage from combat here and fight to the death. No side has higher-ground advantage during subsequent rounds but the top of the walls counts as hazardous terrain and adds +2 botch dice to any botches.

At any time before the engagement is won, the troupe may withdraw their characters from the engagement, their retreat being covered by their allies. But this concedes the section to the enemy, giving them the foothold they need to secure the wall. If this happens, the city cannot reclaim it without help from the troupe.

It is worth noting that these combat actions pose little threat to wellprepared magi, which is as it should be, but spellcasting may be hampered by the need for Concentration rolls. During battle, magi must make Concentration rolls against an Ease Factor of 9 in order to cast any spell, as described in ArM5, page 82, and they are always cast with stress dice.

If the magi are not able to raise the siege during this initial engagement, either through negotiating an accord, routing the army, or breaking Lucia's hold over the duke, then the siege digs in and events play out on a seasonal basis.

It is worth noting that Avedutus is not at the siege of Verona during the initial engagement. He instead leads the attack on the player covenant, with the events timed to coincide.