Our players are so far Grady Moore donm55@aol.com Grant Hatter reptile@purplenet.net Bill Arpin warpin@lucent.com Stacey Arpin arpin@mindsrping.com Josh Reiners wyrm@hotmail.com GM, Lord on High rymoore@hotmail.com Construct a mailing list on your mailer if you can it'll make it that much easier. How this will work is I will describe the scene to you and you write a message that describes what your character is doing. Send your message to everyone on the list. If you need to ask a question or speak to me directly just send me a message directly. If you need to speak to another player privately send them and email and CC me. If I don't read it didn't happen :) Format your subject lines like this: Normal Move Character Name, Turn #, General Location For Example Subject: Ralph,Turn 5, In My Sanctum Private mail to me Character Name,GM For Example Subject:Ralph,GM Private Mail Between Two Players Private Msg, Character 1, Character 2 Subject: Private Msg,Ralph,Phred You can each have two characters , one mage and one companion. Don't worry I'll have plenty of NPC grogs to watch the mages backs. I can help you generate your characters as much or as little as you want. I will mail you six sets of stats for and you can pick two that you want for your characters. There is a ton of good Ars Magica info on the net. This site contains links to most Ars Magica pages on the net. http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/4947/redcap.html The basis for this campaign is that your characters are joining winter covenant. Covenants go through four "seasons" of power. Spring is a new covenant with young mages. Summer is a covenant that has some power and influence. An autumn covenant is a very powerful covenant usually ruling the tribunal that it is located. A winter covenant is an autumn covenant that has fallen. The power has fled and the covenant is nearly forgotten by other members of the order. Your characters have been invited or possibly even sought out this covenant to join. Even though the covenant may be in shambles in still possesses immense magical resources. Here is what I have detailed so far about the covenant. If you want to fill in any details or add anything please email me. Winter Covenant The covenant is located on a hill in a swamp near a Loch in Scotland. Aura It has a magic Aura of +6! (Any spells cast inside the covenant get 6 added to them) Note a magic aura of this magnitude tends to cause strange things to happen sometimes. Buildings The covenant is an immense ancient roman fort from when the Roman Empire occupied most of the British Isles. It needs at least 100 grogs to defend it properly. Some of the fort has fallen into ruin and needs to be rebuilt. Also the wall surrounding the fort has many holes in it and the top two stories of the watch tower have collapsed. Location The fort was situated on a River in earlier times. The river has now turned into a swamp. The covenant itself is set atop a large hill but you have to travel through the swamp in order to get anywhere. Also the strong magic Aura of the covenant makes the swamp a perfect habitat for many magical beasts. Mages The covenant is currently inhabited by three mages (See Npcs below) Well that's all that show themselves anyway quite a few mages have simply disappeared over the years and could very well be living in an unused part of the immense fort. Inhabitants The covenant has a small contingent of covenfolk who tended to the mundane needs of the covenant when it was active. Now they mostly just live in the covenant because they have no where else to go. They are all very loyal though most of them have no useful skills. Arsineois the Scribe is the leader of the covenfolk though all this really means is that he talks to the mages when the coven folk need something. Grogs Currently there are only 20 Grogs defending the covenant. These are the descendants of the original grogs. They are very loyal to the covenant because it is the only life they have ever known. They have average fighting skills but have never seen real combat. They are completely disorganized and have no sergeants. However, since no one's even visited the covenant in over 30 years and the mages never leave they haven't had much chance to prove themselves. The grogs have taken surpassingly good care of their equipment and are equipped with standard armor and armaments. Hermetic Status In terms of Hermetic status most mages think that this covenant either vanished or was destroyed long ago. You are in the dark in terms of information about the outside world. Redcaps have not come here in over 30 years. One of the first things you may want to tackle is reestablishing the covenant into the order of Hermes. In its greater days the covenant had many enemies and allies. These have faded over times but some enemies may still hold a grudge. LABS The 3 older mages have superior quality labs. There are many other labs in the covenant but they have fallen in disrepair. They will need work before then can be used again. Library The covenant has an immense Arcane Library and a fairly decent mundane library. Arnsinious considers all the books his and jealously guards access to them. Any "young whippersnappers" who want access to "his" library will need to convince, charm, or otherwise persuade Arsineois to let them in. You could just push your way past him of course but without his help to find the right books you won't get much out of the library. Here are the stats on the Arcane Library. Creo: 21 Animal: 12 Ignem: 9 Intellego: 15 Aquam:9 Imagonem:22 Muto: 12 Auram:17 Mentem:10 Perdo:12 Corporem:17 Terram:10 Rego: 11 Herbam:12 Vim:17 The library also potentially has any spell in the Rulebook and the wizards Grimiore. If you are looking for a particular spell roll a d10 on a 1-8 the spell exists in a book on a 9 or 10 the book has been carried off by a mage long ago. The mundane library has the following books: Hermes History: 1 Hermes Lore: 2 Hermes Law: 4 Area Lore (Scotland):2 Area Lore (England): 3 Church Lore: 2 Legend Lore: 5 (This is possibly the best work on legends in existence!) Medicene:2 Humanities:3 Occult Lore:1 Magical Resources The covenant has such a strong magical aura that it is literally teeming with raw magic. When it rains aquam vis is produced if you dig up a pile of dirt you can get terram vis. The mages can gather up ten points of random vis each season in this way. (40 pts a year) The covenant also has claim to two sources of contested vis. One of these is a magical shrine to the ancient Roman god Hermes. This source produces 10 Vim vis and 10 corpora vis each year. This is because a drop of Hermes blood appears on the shrine on All Hollows eve. The fountain is located in the swamp that surrounds the covenant. The problem is that there is always some type of test to get the vis. Sometimes it is guarded by a fearsome beast sometimes the shrine moves of it own will and hides from those wishing to harvest it. The mages have not visited this site in years. The other source of contested vis is quite strange. The unicorn figures into heavily in Celtic myth. One of these happens to live near the covenant. If you can catch the unicorn it will give its horn to its captor which is worth 2 pawns of each type of vis. The unicorn is not harmed by this and will regrow the horn by the next year. The unicorn considers this great sport and will give you a merry chase. This may not seem that hard but a nearby covenant also lays claim to the unicorn and since no one at your covenant has tried to catch it in quite a while showing up to collect now may cause some ripples. Certemen will almost certainly be involved. Scattered about the ruins of the covenant are quite a few magic items that have been lost over the years. If found these items can prove useful or at the very least some extra vis can be extracted from them. The covenant has no stored Vis to speak of the elder mages may have some personal stores but good luck on getting any access to that! The covenant currently has no Aegis of the Hearth Protecting it. (The Aegis of the hearth is a shield over the covenant to protect it from harmful magic.) Mundane Resources The covenant currently has no source of income but in the glory days it was quite wealthy and many mundane treasures still exist in the covenant. The covenant also has a sizeable stockpile of Gold and Silver coins from various countries in Europe. If the money is managed well it could last a while before you need to seek outside sources of income. The covenant used to have a well equipped storehouse of mundane goods. These have fallen into disrepair. If you need a piece of mundane equipment roll a d10 on a 8 9 or 10 the piece you need is either gone or so badly worn as to not be useful.