by Henry G. Thomas
In a past message Joseph E. Beason (jbeason@s.psych.uiuc.edu) wrote...
> I've been wracking my poor little head for some one-shot plots that we > could use to fill the time while the bigger plotlines are getting > set-up.
so I figured I would bite. What follows is the text of a one-shot (which actually took more than one session, but who's counting) adventure that I ran for our Lowell, MA troupe about a month or two ago.
It should be rather easy to lift this adventure out of its current setting and place it practically anywhere else, as long as there are both a fairy forest and a village near to the covenant you wish to run this for.
Trean Dair is the name of our covenant. At the time of the adventure, it was a spring covenant set on the south-western coast of Hibernia, near Dingle Bay. The covenant is set on a hill, surrounded by a friendly forest. Of particular interest is the fact that the forest is protected by a treant that calls itself Blackthorn. The covenant has entered into a mutual protection agreement with Blackthorn. The magi protect the forest, and Blackthorn protects them (and doesn't chase them out). This is clearly used in the first scene of the adventure as a hook to draw the players in. Note that the later scenes basically bludgeon them over the head with the problem. This is a one-shot, and it's not supposed to be hard to figure out what the problem is.
The way I ran it, the climax of the adventure was the bargaining session from hell between the fairy king Ciaran and our local Merinita, whose name I can't spell, but he goes around by the name of Sirach.
Below is the ever-so-slightly dressed up description of the adventure. It is by no means perfect. If you don't like it, by all means don't use it.
For any of you who have read through the Vardian's Tomb adventure logs, yes, the pit section was inspired from there. I needed a humorous time-waster that could be configured on the fly to take up practically no time, or tons of time, depending on the progress of the magi.
Creature statistics are given at the end of the adventure. Some of them might seem a bit high for almost-new characters, but we have a munchkin Bjornaer (that the usual storyguide allowed) maxed-out for combat (great white stag heartbeast + form of the avenging beat, etc...) What I'm basically saying, is don't unleash these creatures as is on a group of unsuspecting Intellego magi with standard grogs and expect them to survive very long.
Feel free to use it, change it, redistribute it, but please don't try to make any money off of it...
- Henry G. Thomas -
Kevin Hudson, read it and enjoy the parts you missed, but whatever you do, don't tell Chris Clark about the fairy queen or Mark will never forgive you. He has plans...
Unseelie fairies have a problem with the village near Trean Dair, and decide to play a rather cruel joke on the village that will hopefully encourage the nearby magi to solve the fairies' problem for them. An atmosphere of dark humor, chaos, and wild action should be attempted.
Unbeknownst to the magi (who never go to the village unless they absolutely have to), the villagers have built a small chapel so that the priest from the next village over can come to their village to say mass once a week. Unfortunately for the villagers, the site chosen for this chapel lies directly across the path of a fairy-trod (leading to the nearby fairy forest, inhabited in part by a group of unseelie imps).
Well, a couple of weeks before the Trean Dair magi return from their adventure with the Golden Ship, the altar is consecrated, and that evening, a small group of imps using the fairy-trod are bumped out of Arcadia and into the midst of the village (fortunately for the villagers this happened late at night when nobody was in the chapel). The imps, seriously offended by the Dominion into which they had been deposited, immediately left for their forest and their king.
The imp king, Ciaran of the Kia-Sidhe ruled that the villagers had shown extreme rudeness in building a church across their road, and declared that a proper way must be found to remove the church. Remembering the nearby covenant of wizards, Ciaran decided upon a most excellent plan. If the proper joke were played on the villagers, those annoying magi of Trean Dair could be forced into doing the imps work for them. Even if they couldn't, the fireworks that were sure to occur would certainly provide his imps with proper entertainment.
So Ciaran and his imps created thousands of mice. These mice look like normal mice, but they are anything but normal. When killed, they explode in a ball of flame, doing +10 damage to all within one pace, and +5 damage to all out to two paces. Note that the mice are not immune to fire.
These mice were distributed throughout the village at night. Each night, more were brought to make sure that the village stays thoroughly infested. Over the next couple of days, the villagers noticed that they were suffering from an extreme plague of mice, so they set what traps they could, and made sure their cats were out at night. The results of this were immediately disastrous. Several dead cats, dead villagers, and housefires later, the villagers figured out that they were faced with a plague of "demonic" mice. The villagers quickly began to grumble against the nearby covenant, blaming them for the plague.
For effect, it would be good to start with normal covenant matters after the end of the Golden Ship adventure, and then build up the chaotic atmosphere over a period of time. This can be accomplished in the following way.
Scene 1: A Fire in the Forest
Not all of the mice put in the village stay there. Some wander off, say, in the direction of the forest of Trean Dair. Enter an innocent falcon, hunting for his midday meal. He dives for his catch, and boom, feathers everywhere. Of course, a small fire starts as well, and begins to spread through the woods.
Blackthorn senses the fire in his woods, and appears at the covenant. He is angry, and asks the magi why they are not putting out the fire in the forest (he doesn't really know that they don't have the same affinity for the woods as he does and therefore don't yet know about the fire). If they value their agreement with him, they will go and put this fire out. They are then to determine the cause of this fire, and inform Blackthorn of it.
It is likely that one of the magi will attempt Tales of the Ashes. Near the edges of the fire, this spell will show objects like bushes and trees being burned by a natural fire spreading outward. I suppose enough castings like this could determine the source of the fire (which most people would probably guess correctly to be somewhere in the middle of the burned area). At the source, a magus might be lucky enough to get some of the ashes from the falcon, or a burned feather. Casting the spell on these will show the image of the diving falcon being enveloped in a ball of flame (but the storyteller might not want to give away that it was a mouse exploding, rather, try to get the magi to believe that someone cast a creo ignem spell at the falcon, blowing it up).
Scene 2: What's Cooking, Doc?
A day or so later, at night, repeat scene 1 with an owl. Then have several more fires the next day. If the bjornaer spends a lot of time patrolling the forest, eventually he will see some animal go after a mouse and be blown to smithereens. At roughly the same time, it would be amusing for a couple of the kitchen grogs to see a couple of mice invading the covenant food stores. Arrange for at least one of the mice to explode nicely. This will probably injure the cooks, but hey, they knew covenant life would be dangerous, didn't they?
A short time after this event happens would be a good time for the village reeve to show up at the covenant, looking out of breath and somewhat harried. She will tell the magi that the villagers are all up in arms, and are talking about marching on the covenant. She will then fill them in on the events that have been occurring at the village over the last week or so. She might ask the magi what has upset them so much that they have sent this terrible plague on them. Of course, since she is supposed to be a good contact with the village, the magi should be able to convince her that they are not responsible. At this point she will beg for their aid, unless it seems obvious that they are on their way to the village anyway. Note: it would obviously be a very bad thing for the covenant to at this point ignore the village and what is going on there.
Scene 3: A Village Besieged, or, Playing Cat and Mouse
If they go to the village, the villagers will act in complete fear of them, but unless provoked, they will not start any acts of overt violence. There really isn't anything that the magi can say at this point that will convince the villagers that they are not responsible for the plague of mice. Perhaps even a couple of the elderly women will beg the magi for forgiveness with a statement like "Whatever we have done to arouse your anger, please have mercy on us! We beg of you, please end your curse now, before we are all destroyed!" etc.
The village is the center of the mouse-infested area. There are mice everywhere. Play up the villagers' reactions. Note: the village is has a Dominion aura of +1 during the day, except for the region near the new church, which has a Dominion aura of +3.
A mouse darts across the street from under one house to the next. A dozen stout men see it and run screaming from the mouse's path.
A cat is seen outside, looking through the door of one of the village houses, ready to pounce. Suddenly, the cat runs into the house, and several peasants come screaming out of the house. Seconds later, the house is enveloped in a huge ball of fire as the cat reaches his prey (and the several dozen other mice in the vicinity go up as well).
Some villagers near the town square have set up a short wall of stout logs, and they are hiding behind it. In the center of the street is a small pile of cheese. Several mice are investigating. Once of the peasants has a sling, and with great trepidation, prepares to fire it at one of the investigating mice, while the others duck down and cover their ears.
The main room of the reeve's house is now an infirmary. There are about a dozen peasants here, suffering from burns of varying severity. Nearby, some peasants keep careful watch with brooms (to hopefully scare the mice away without killing them).
Several peasants are around the grain storage bins, carefully sifting through the grain, and putting what they can into new bags, to be taken elsewhere and guarded. A less cautious group is by one of the more distant bins. Give the magi a chance to stop them (read, get close) if they want, but suddenly the entire bin is ripped apart by an explosion, sending flames, pieces of wood, and grain everywhere (note that grain dust is highly flammable. Silos in the Midwest have been known rarely to spontaneously explode. Killing an exploding mouse with your shovel in a bin full of grain and other exploding mice is a bad thing to do). Those within range (whatever range the storyguide wants to set) should attempt to soak +25 damage from the blast.
A brave man with a broom is trying to chase a group of about a dozen mice out of town.
A falcon is seen diving for a nearby field.
Suddenly there is a small puff of fire, smoke, and feathers. Maybe a fire will start in the fields.
Perhaps a cat can go running by the magi, after a nearby mouse. See how many of them start trying to kill the innocent cat. If you are feeling particularly whimsical, the cat can kill the mouse, and nothing happens (this mouse is one of the few normal mice left in the village). If you are feeling cruel, boom. Roll that parma.
Scene 4: Things that go Boom in the Night, A Conspiracy Exposed
Nighttime is in a way better and in a way worse. At night many of the mice that were dormant during the day come out. On the other hand, the villagers, mostly exhausted, sleep huddled in the mill, a few of them keeping watch with brooms. Every once in a while there could be a random explosion, as a mouse is killed by some night creature, swarmed by a bunch of other, hungry mice, or killed by the traps (see below). Sleeping in the central square might be a safer idea, but that's where the villagers have set up all of their remaining traps, hoping to explode many mice out in the open, where they won't do as much damage.
If the magi wander the village at night, they will probably meet a group of five imps, appearing near the new chapel, with a new load of exploding mice to release upon the village.
If the magi try to talk to the imps, one of the imps will laugh as they are releasing the mice, and ask them (the Merinita if he's there)
"Isn't this just the greatest joke? Why I haven't had this much fun since we filled that other village's well with blood!"
Another imp will kick the first and drag him away, saying something like, "Hush you! Don't you remember, we're only supposed to be seen by them, not talk to them!", and the imps will run away, use their shapechange to animal abilities to turn into mice, and try to scurry off into the night.
If they attack the imps before they have freed all of the mice, it is likely that one of the mice that they are carrying will explode, causing the great big sacks full of mice that they are carrying to go up, most likely killing the imps, and probably some of the grogs (if they are there). This would be a bad idea.
If they try to sneak around and follow the imps, the imps will ignore them (they want to be seen by the magi, but not by the villagers). When they are done distributing the mice, one imp will say "There. We can go back to the forest now and tell the king that we're done for tonight. I only hope that nobody saw us here making our delivery." Then the five imps will all cackle for a bit and run off, eventually turning into mice to slip away.
If the magi follow the imps around and then try to kill them after they are done releasing the mice, they will do their best to defend themselves and get away. If one of them is going to get away, in parting, he'll say something like "Oh dear! It seems as if our little joke has been discovered! I'd better run back to the forest and tell the king that those annoying magi have ruined everything."
The bodies of any if these imps recovered (mostly) intact are worth 4 pawns of muto vis each, which will be gathered into their noses.
The idea here is that the imps want the magi to find out what they are doing, so that hopefully they will come and talk to the king. Ciaran figures that the magi are so dumb that they need help to figure out what is going on so that they can then solve the king's problem for him.
If the magi decide to go immediately to the fairy woods in search of the king of the imps, go directly to act II, and run act I, scene 5 when they return to the village later (in act III). If they hang around the village too long, and things seem to be slowing down, pick things up with scene 5 first, to possibly clue them in as to what the problem is, and to get them moving.
Scene 5: Heart of Stone
While the magi are wandering uselessly through the village, screams break out from near the church building. Investigation shows a large, irate, mean looking lizard creature charging directly at the group of magi and grogs. Fortunately for them, the peasants still alive are becoming quite experienced in running away from things, so none of them have been hurt yet. If any of them are found after the battle that will ensue and questioned, they will all claim that they have no idea where the creature came from. One minute they were walking by, returning to the mill from the trap area, and the next there was a screaming lizard-terror running through the streets.
The lizard creature was using the fairy-trod and appeared next to the church. Pained by the dominion aura, the creature wildly begins to strike out at the nearest creatures. Stats for the creature are given at the end of the adventure. Note that the creature's special abilities are permanent. To permanently restore a person who was turned to stone requires muto or terram vis. If the lizard creature turns out to be too powerful for the magi (i.e. they all are in danger of being killed or turned into statues) don't hesitate to lower the creature's potency a bit. It's meant to be a challenge, not a complete deathtrap. Note also that any damage done to statues of people will appear as wounds when the statues are restored to flesh (don't break off any arms or anything by mistake!). If the villagers see the magi fight off the creature, this might help them later in trying to convince them that they weren't responsible for the mice. The body of the creature is worth 10 pawns of terram vis (scales). If many of the magi are turned to stone, you might consider making the creature worth a little more vis (if you're feeling cruel, then maybe not).
Eventually, the characters will probably have to make a journey to the fairy forest to see Ciaran, the king of the imps. Ciaran and his court are unseelie fairies, and as such will only be met in the forest at night. During the daytime, play up the gloomy nature of the section of the woods into which they have journeyed, giant trees with moss hanging from them, and a slight smell of decay, etc., but don't do anything bad to them. That is what night time is for.
Ciaran will be expecting the magi to show up eventually (see scene 4). Therefore, at night there will be imps in the forest on the lookout for the magi. Note that they won't be terribly pleased if the magi bring grogs carrying lots of iron with them. The imps are supposed to report the presence of the magi to Ciaran, and they will, but they are not ones to ever let the opportunity for a good joke to pass. Therefore, on their way through the forest at night, they should have a few encounters with some of the various imps. During the day, the forest has a faerie aura of +1.
Scene 1: This is the Pits
While wandering through the forest, looking for the imps and their king, the magi notice that their forward progress seems to be getting slower. It seems sometimes as if they get turned around, or that they are walking in circles. Then one of the magi (or grogs) spots what appears to be an animal track leading through the thickening underbrush. If they follow this for a bit, it gets a bit more regular, and eventually looks like a regular path leading through the trees. Note, if at any time during this sequence of encounters, the magi leave the track, they will once again become lost, wandering in circles until they come upon the track once more. Obviously, they are in a regio. The faerie aura here is +3.
Eventually, they will come upon an open pit across the path in a region where the underbrush is quite thick and thorny to either side of the path. Since it is night time, and the pit is dug in the shadow of several great trees, characters without fairy sight must make perception rolls of 9+ to see the pit before falling in. Those characters with fairy sight need only make a perception roll of 3+ to see the pit. A botch indicates that not only did you fall in, but you dragged someone else in with you. The pit is about 10 feet deep (with a packed dirt floor, damage roll is +10). Obviously once the first person falls in, the others will know that there is a pit there.
If anyone falls in the pit, cackling laughter will be heard from behind the thorns, and an imp might make a comment like, "Got one! That was too easy, I guess these humans are blind as well as clumsy."
The two imps present will try to flee once their trap has been sprung.
Should the pit be spotted, and nobody fall in, after it looks as if the characters will safely circumnavigate the pit, brief cursing will be heard from behind the thorns, and then scurrying feet, as the imps try to make their escape.
A ways after the first pit, the magi will come across a second pit, similar to the first. This pit isn't hidden as well as the first though. It only takes a perception roll of 3+ to spot this one (besides, they should be looking for pits at this point). The pit looks identical to the first one, but in reality it isn't. This pit is an illusion. In reality there are two pits, one directly in front of the illusory pit, and one directly behind it. Both are covered with illusory ground. Anyone advancing to investigate the visible pit will fall into the pit in front of the illusion. The fairies will attempt to make it look like the investigator slipped on something and fell into the illusion. Hopefully (according to the imps), they can trick someone else into coming forward to investigate. If a first character falls in, the others will invariably hear stifled laughter coming from behind the thorns (on the other side of the illusionary pit). Again, when it looks like they will be attacked, the imps will try to get away.
A third pit is completely concealed beneath a glamour of a regular pathway. It was created by two imps hiding in the thorns by the side of the road. Grogs and companions passing over the pit will not fall in (this glamour has substance). However, if any magus touches the glamour and makes his/her parma roll, the glamour will be dispelled, and anyone standing over the pit will fall in. This will, of course be greeted with wild cackling from the bushes, and then the sound of scampering feet as the imps try to get away.
Note that if you decide to include any more pits, the characters should be well trained enough by this point to simply char the thorns to either side of the path when they see the pit, hoping to capture some vis, I mean, kill some imps. By the way, the nose of each pit imp killed is worth 2 pawns of either creo vis or imagonem vis.
Once you have amused yourself sufficiently with the pits, and given out enough vis, the path they were following suddenly ends. If they retrace their steps, the path continues a short distance back and ends as well. Must be another effect of regio. So it's off into the woods I guess.
Scene 2: Maiden in the Woods
Moving down the path, the characters notice the sound of music (lyre) coming from the woods. Off to the left of the path, there is a clearing in which sits a beautiful raven-haired woman, playing the lyre and singing to herself (if anyone listens, it's a song with an eerie tune, about the coming of autumn to the forest). There is a small campfire burning in the middle of the clearing, and the woman is seated on a fallen log, facing the fire. She is Fitheach na Kia-Sidhe, but will introduce herself, if asked her name, as Morgana. By the way, the clearing in the forest has a faerie aura of +6. When describing Morgana, use terms that refer to autumn or winter whenever possible (i.e. her lips are red like an autumn ripened apple, her eyes are as grey as a cloudy winter's eve, etc.).
She will take note of the arrival of the players, but will not stop her song until it is complete unless she is interrupted. If she is interrupted, make a note of who interrupted her, she will definitely think him/her rude (unless it is a him with the Curse of Venus flaw, in which case see below). She will converse with the characters for as long as they like, but she will not reveal who she is (the wife of Ciaran who is the king of the court). If asked why she is singing here, she will give some reply like "Well, it's a beautiful night under the stars. What more could one want than to spend the evening singing to the stars and to the seasons." If you can make it even more cryptic, then do so. She will not fight unless attacked. In this eventuality, she will do her best to escape.
If any of the characters in the clearing are male and have the Curse of Venus flaw, she will become strongly attracted to them (pick one of them if there are more than one with the flaw). She will try to get the character to stay with her after everyone else has left. If the character stays, she will seduce him and bring him with her to Arcadia (just wait until Ciaran finds out about this, see scene 4). If the character snubs her and leaves, remember her forgiving -3 personality trait. She will defnintely appear in the future just to make that charcter's life miserable. If nobody in the adventure has the Curse of Venus flaw, this encounter can be safely dropped to save time.
Scene 3: Ogre, Ogre
Wandering through the woods, the magi come upon a large oak tree under which stands a huge two-headed ogre, with a large club. The aura here has increased to +5 (faerie). The ogre will call out in a pair of loud voices:
Head 1: "'Ey, oo are ya oo be trapessin' in me woods?"
Head 2: "Yeah! 'An whar do ya tink ya be goin' anyways?" Anticipating a good fight, the ogre will begin tapping his club against his left palm. If they say they are looking for the king, they'll get a response something like:
Head 1: "Izzat so?"
Head 2: "I suspose youse can go, bucha gotta pays us furst!" They'll point at a random grog and say in unison:
"We'll take that one!"
Head 1: "Yumm!"
Head 2: "Tasty!"
There are three ways to proceed here, the brute force way, the heartless way, and the intelligent way. Attacking the ogre is the brute force method, and probably the one that the magi will choose, but you never know. The heartless way is to give them the grog to eat (so much for morale). The intelligent way is to try to find a way to get the two heads to argue with each other (like suggesting that they might want to consider eating a different grog, and pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of eating each). Then they can slip by unnoticed, or attack with some surprise. If they kill the ogre, they can extract 8 pawns of corporem vis, four into each hand and four pawns of terram vis, two in each jawbone.
Scene 4: In the Halls of the Forest King
After getting past the ogre by some means, let them wander about in the woods for a short time. Then they come across a clearing in the underbrush, beneath a great stand of beech trees. In the center of the clearing is a ring of toadstools. Note that the region has a faerie aura of +8. Nothing will happen at all in this clearing until one of the characters steps into the fairy ring. At this point, the party's light sources will all be extinguished, and everything will be plunged into darkness. Before anyone can react completely (there might be just enough time for someone with lightning reflexes to stab the person behind them...) the branches above will rustle and draw back slightly, the clouds will part, and the moonlight will shine brightly down upon the clearing. Literally hundreds of imps will step from the shadows of the trees (I could swear they weren't there before). Among them will be a few large ogres, and several unidentifiable creatures, large and misshapen. At the front of the circle stands a man-like fairy with black hair and elfin features, wearing a circlet of silver, Ciaran of the Kia-Sidhe, king of the assembled court (by the way, the aura just jumped to +9).
Ciaran will speak as if he doesn't know why the magi are here, even though he knows exactly why they have come. "I am Ciaran, king of this court, and you have trespassed on my domain and harassed my people. Explain yourselves! What manner of creatures are you, and why have you come thus into my realm, bearing implements of cruel iron?" Of course, he already knows who they are and why they have come, but he has to put on a good show for his court, doesn't he?
If they want to attack Ciaran in these conditions, they are totally clueless. Warn them off once or twice, if they persist, kill the bastards.
If, on the other hand, they do a reasonable job of explaining themselves and why they have come, negotiations can begin. Ciaran is willing to stop sending the mice to the village, but he'll see just how much the magi are willing to give up. His initial demands will be outrageous, but he'll be willing to bargain down. The following is a list of sample conditions that Ciaran might ask for.
Non-Negotiable:
The church in the village must be destroyed.
This is an initial condition. It can be negotiated down to just moving the church away from the fairy-trod. This is the main reason for the fairies to be playing the joke on the village (and the magi), so they must do something about the church.
Strongly Desired:
Chase off the priest, and make sure he never comes to the village again (the priest has convinced the villagers that it is a sin to provide "tribute" to the nearby fairies, and they miss the gifts of food and drink that they used to receive).
Convince the villagers to provide "tribute" to the fairies. Scraps of food and bowls of milk used to be provided for the fairies to partake of before the priest stopped the practice.
Absurd, but if the Magi Agree He'll Take It: (he really doesn't expect to get these)
7 years of service from each magus. This will be dropped fairly quickly to 7 years service for one magus. Then it can be haggled down to 1 year, a season, and then perhaps eliminated completely.
A pledge of fealty from Larry's Fairy companion (if he's there).
The spear of Laochailan (la ok lan), a Daoine Sidhe fairy hero.
The firstborn child of one of the grogs.
A pledge of aid to be called upon in the future (basically he'd like them to help him in a battle with seelie fairies in Arcadia that would happen in another adventure later on, if the players agree to this term. They would be needed to lend permanence to the results of the conflict).
The heart of Liosliath (liess-lia). This is a grey Sidhe fortress deep in Arcadia. He obviously doesn't expect to get this one, but maybe he can get them to agree to it without knowing what they are agreeing to. You never know.
A new joke.
Any other completely unreasonable task you can think of at the time.
You can have a lot of fun tormenting the magi with this. Start out demanding 7 years service for everyone. Then drop it to seven years service for just the magi, but add a couple of the other requirements like destroying the church and the new joke. Each time the service gets bargained down, add more of the other things. If they bargain away one of the other things, replace it with something else. Feel free to re-introduce something that they thought they had taken care of again during the bargaining. After the magi have finished their bargaining, Ciaran will say:
"So be it! According to your word and mine, let it be done! Now begone and see to your tasks. I shall see to mine. Do not think to cheat me of what you have promised me. I will know if you forsake your promises, and my vengeance will be complete!"
With that, the trees will rustle once more, the boughs closing over the clearing, and the clouds moving back again. The darkness will encroach once more. When all is completely dark, the party's light sources will once again flare up, and the clearing will be as it was when the first person stepped into the fairy ring. If anyone pledged service to Ciaran, they will be missing. If they all pledged service to Ciaran, then none of them will be missing, but they will be expected to return when they have finished moving the church, etc. If they do not, they will be visited by (read, plagued by) imps until they return.
The journey out of the forest will only take an hour or so (while the journey in might have seemed to take much longer). I guess its back to the village to take care of that church.
The players return to the village (eventually) and have to take care of the chapel (and maybe the priest and the "tribute" as well). If it hasn't already been run, now would be a good time to run act I, scene 5.
At this point, there really aren't any more discrete "scenes." Things in the village are still just as bad as when the magi left. Ciaran promised to stop sending the mice, he didn't say that he'd do anything about the ones that were already sent. If the magi want to make a good impression with the villagers, their first order of business ought to be ridding the place of the mice, preferably without burning down the entire village. If the magi do a good job with this, the villagers might be more disposed to listening to suggestions about moving the church. Otherwise, there may be trouble.
It's always possible for the magi to keep their promise and in the process burn the chapel down. Perhaps they could corral all of the mice into the chapel and then throw in a pilum of flame or a rock, grog statue, etc. If they just burn the place down, the villagers will be extremely angry. If they destroy it in the process of ridding the town of the mice, they might be able to be reasoned with (although there are those who will blame the magi, no matter what they do).
They'll have to find some way of explaining to the villagers that they can't have a church across the fairy-trod. The best way of doing this is probably to convince the village reeve, who is the most sympathetic person in the village to the magi anyway.
If they agreed to any of Ciaran's other conditions, like chasing off the priest and getting the villagers to provide "tribute," they'll have to figure something out. It would be best not to tell the villagers about getting rid of the priest. This could be done secretly at some later time (but not too much later, or the imps will start visiting). The tribute will probably have to be explained to the reeve. Most of the villagers won't mind "paying the tribute" as they were used to doing in the past. In fact, some of could even be convinced to transfer all of the blame for this entire incident on the priest if they were properly motivated. A few bribes couldn't hurt either.
All in all, if they are reasonable to the villagers after removing the mice, the villagers will be reasonable in return. If the church isn't destroyed in the process of removing the mice, however, there might be a bit of a problem. The villagers really don't want to move the building. After all, the ground has already been consecrated, and the building is already finished. This obstacle can be surmounted by the judicious use of rego herbam spells once the altar stone has been removed from the building. Of course, if the villagers see the magi doing this, they will react badly (its best to try to move the church in this instance after a couple of days, once things have cooled down a bit).
After this adventure, the magi should be looking forward to the relative peace and quiet of their covenant. The villagers, and perhaps some of the magi, may give any mice they see in the future a healthy respect. The Merinita should also have learned a healthy respect for the unseelie court in the nearby forest. Never let them forget that there is a slight chance that the mouse that they see running for cover just might explode some day.
Exploding Mouse:
(not really a fairy creature. Treat as a waiting spell on a creature with a penetration total of 23. If you're feeling particularly nasty, the penetration total is 44, Ciaran's faerie might)
Size -5, Cunning 0 Personality Traits: Hungry +1, Explosive +3 Combat Scores: Explosion: Dam +10, 1 pace, +5, 2 paces Fat: n/a Def: 0 Soak: +1 Body Levels: Incapacitated
Imps in the Village:
Faerie Might: 23 Size: -1 Int: +1 Personality Traits: Frivolous +2, Respectful -2 Knife: 1st +6 Atk: +6 Dam: +10 Dodging: Fat +2 Def: +7 Soak: +8* (tough skin) Body Levels: 0, -1, -3, -5, Incapacitated * +4 damage from iron and steel.
Abilities:
Shapechange to Animal (mouse costs 1 point).
Elfshot (see Faeries p.49). Only Cause Pain (2 faerie points).
Bodies are worth 4 pawns of muto vis (collected into nose).
Also, each of these faries has a waiting Talons of the Winds cast upon it which is triggered if the imp dies.
Lizard Creature:
Faerie Might: 30
Size: +2 Cunning: 0
Personality Traits: Irate +3
Bite: 1st: +8 Atk: +8 Dam: +20
Fat: +4 Def: +7 Soak: +20
Body Levels: 0/0/0, -1/-1, -3, -5, Incapacitated
Abilities:
Medusa's bite, 1 faerie point, venom that turns its victim slowly to stone (takes 4 rounds) unless a stamina roll of 12+ is made. The effects are permanent unless magically reversed (MuCo(Te) 40). Faerie magic applies.
Faerie Sight.
The body is worth 10 pawns of terram vis (collected into scales). If a magus or several grogs are turned to stone, the storyguide might consider increasing this award. Then again, maybe not.
Pit Imps:
Faerie Might: 15 Size -2 Int: -1 Personality Traits: Sadistic +1, Respectful -2 Knife: 1st: +6 Atk: +6 Dam: +10 Dodging: Fat: +2 Def: +7 Soak: +8* (tough skin) Body Levels: 0, -3, -5, Incapacitated * +4 damage from iron and steel.
Abilities:
Shapechange to Animal.
Illusion (pit covers cost 2 faerie points to make each).
Faerie Sight.
Body worth either 2 creo vis or 2 imagonem vis (collected into nose).
Two-Headed Ogre:
Faerie Might: 25
Size: +4 Int: -2
Personality Traits: Belligerent +3
Brawl: 1st: +8 Atk: +9 Dam: +15 (gets 2 punches/round)
Club 2H: 1st: +10 Atk: +9 Dam: +25
Fat: +4 Def: +9 Soak: +30*
Body Levels: 0/0/0, -1/-1, -3/-3, -5, Incapacitated * +2 damage from iron and steel.
Abilities:
Faerie Sight.
Each hand worth 4 Corporem vis. Each jawbone worth 2 terram vis
If you don't have a munchkin Bjornaer white stag with form of the avenging beast in your troupe, you might want to tone the stats on this one down a little bit.
Ciaran na Kia-Sidhe:
Faerie Might: 44
Size: 0 Int: +5
Personality Traits: Calculating +3, Domineering +2, Impulsive +1
Silver sword: 1st: +8 Atk: +9 Dam: +14
Fat: +2 Def: +9 Soak: +15*
Body Levels: 0, -1, -3, -5, Incapacitated * +2 damage from iron and steel.
Abilities:
Faerie Sight.
Infatuation.
Shapechange to Animal.
Enchant Objects.
Magical Ability: Herbam, 1 faerie point per 5 spell levels.
Fitheach na Kia-Sidhe:
Faerie Might: 44
Size: 0 Int: +5
Personality Traits: Posessive +2, Forgiving -3
Burning sword: 1st: +9 Atk: +11 Dam: +22
Fat: +2 Def: +9 Soak: +20(*)
Body Levels: 0, -1, -3, -4, Incapacitated
(*) +2 damage from iron and steel
Abilities:
Faerie sight.
Infatuation (sight).
Shapechange to Raven (2 points).
Elfshot.
Kiss of life draining (PeCo) (2 points) Victim loses 1 fatigue level per round. A stamina roll of 12+ is required each round to avoid losing a body level as well. Particularly nasty storyguides might require a perception roll of 9+ to notice the effects.
Last Modified: 4th January 1998