Hermes' Portal 04.pdf

hermes' portal

Hermes' Portal

Issue n° 4

2002

Who's Who . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Publisher's corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

M erinita Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

by David Chart

News from the Line Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

St ories for Elder Magi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

by Timothy Ferguson

C ovenants as Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

by Erik Dahl

Dear Abelard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

H ermetic Information Storage and Flow . . . . . . . . . . . .31

by Timothy Ferguson

E x Bibliotheca Durenmare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

by Eric Minton

H eretic's Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

by Andrew Gronosky

hermes' portal

Publisher: Hermes’ Portal

Layout: Eric Kouris

Contributors: David Chart, Erik Dahl, Timothy Ferguson, Andrew Gronosky, Eric Minton

Editorial and proofreading help: Sheila Thomas

Cover and back: Angela Taylor (C), Radja Sauperamaniane (B)

Interior illustrations: Angela Taylor (border & p. 4, 8, 13, 15, 17, 30, 37), Alexander White (p. 10, 12, 16), Radja Sauperamaniane (page

numbering) & illustrations from Lacroix P., Sciences & Lettres au Moyen-Age et à l’époque de la Renaissance (Firmin-Didot, Paris, 1877)

Thanks : All the people who submitted ideas, texts, illustrations or helped in the production of this issue.

Hermes’ Portal is an independent publication dedicated to Ars Magica players. Hermes’ Portal is available through email only.

Hermes’ Portal is not affiliated with Atlas Games or White Wolf Gaming Studio. References to trademarks of those companies are not

intended to infringe upon the rights of those parties. Ars Magica was created by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein Hagen.

Contacting HP

Hermes.Portal@wanadoo.fr

Web site

www.hermesportal.fr.st

Who’s Who?

Angela Taylor

Angela studied English Literature at Clare Col-

lege, Cambridge, and Mediaeval History at York,

taught for some years, then married Neil. She draws

and paints, while making rude comments about

Neil’s gaming (fair enough, really!); she is a non-

gamer… almost a “gaming widow” even!

Sheila Thomas (editor)

Sheila Thomas has been editing technical publi-

cations for paper and electronic distribution for

years. This is her first attempt at doing it for game

material. She discovered RPGs about ten years ago

but it was a couple of years before she learnt that

AD&D wasn’t the only RPG system around. She

now devotes most of her gaming time to Ars Magi-

ca but is still playing in that AD&D campaign.

Alexander White

A scribbler in the spare time between uni lectures

and essay deadlines, Alex (who uses the third person

all the time) always wanted to sketch a few pictures

for a roleplaying game. As someone who likes com-

plements, he takes his sketch pad to all his gaming

sessions and is really annoyed when people point out

that the perspective is wrong and that the women

look like men.

Publisher’s corner

Hello!

When I launched Hermes’ Portal, I planned to

release four issues a year.

It looks like I’ve been a bit out of schedule. Issue

#4 is here and there is enough time to release a fifth

before the first anniversary. So you’ll see a fifth issue

sometime during Summer.

And now, let’s concentrate on this issue.

First, I’d like to thank Eric Minton for taking

charge of a new column, “Ex Bibliotheca Duren-

mare”, presenting Hermetic books and new spells.

I also thank David Chart, Ars Magica Line Edi-

tor, for giving us some insight regarding Ars’ future

in his “News from the Line Editor”.

Of course, you’ll also find “Dear Abelard” and

“The Heretic’s Corner”, although Michaël de Ver-

teuil gave the quill to Andrew Gronosky.

Again, don’t hesitate to send your questions to

the column’s authors – if they are published, you’ll

receive a free copy of Hermes’ Portal.

The Mysteries trend continues with David’s take

on Merinita’s secrets. New virtues and new societies.

Timothy gives us two articles, one on information

flow in the Order, the second (in two parts) on story

ideas for elder magi. Now your SG will have more

than enough ways to make your 100+ year old magus

shudder.

Erik Dahl takes a new look at Covenant creation,

applying to it the concepts behind character creation.

Last, you still have until May 31 to send in your

stories for the scenario contest.

David Chart

David Chart is the Ars Magica Line Editor. He

has been writing material for Ars Magica since the

first Wizard’s Grimoire, co-developed the Wizard’s Gri-

moire Revised Edition, and wrote Heirs to Merlin. In real

life, he is a mild mannered teacher of philosophy.

Erik Dahl

His name means “King of the Valley.” He is a

Cancer, which means that today is a 7. He works as

an information architect, which involves applying

strategy to web design and drawing up site maps. He

has been playing Ars Magica for about seven years,

and has been a part of a troupe for almost a third of

that time. He and his wife live in Davis, California

with a lot of books, theater props, musical instru-

ments and cooking utensils. He also heads his local

chapter of the American Association Against

Acronym Abuse, Abbreviations and Ambiguity

(AAAAAAA). You can listen to the wacky music of

his band Volvo Maroon for free at

http://www.volvomaroon.com/.

Timothy Ferguson

Timothy Ferguson is 28 and works as a library

locum in Thuringowa, North Queensland, Australia.

He’s currently fossicking about for a new job, as

locums do, and studying for his next degree.

Andrew Gronosky

Andrew Gronosky is a scientific programmer liv-

ing near Boston, Massachusetts. He even knows how

to spell “Massachusetts.” He has been playing Ars

Magica since 1st Edition in 1988. His most signifi-

cant gaming-related accomplishment has been meet-

ing an unattached, female gamer— a feat heretofore

believed impossible— and being fortunate enough to

become her boyfriend. And he owes it all to Ars

Magica.

Eric Kouris (publisher)

Eric is 34 and teaches mathematics. He began

playing RPGs in 1982 with FGU’s Chivalry & Sorcery

(instead of AD&D), then Space Opera, Call of Cthul-

hu,… In 1989, he turned to Ars Magica, and in 1994,

he began publishing a French zine for Ars Magica

named Ars Mag.

Eric Minton

Eric Minton works as a web designer by day, and

as a layabout, freeloader and all-around slacker by

night. He started roleplaying over 20 years ago and

has been running a diceless Ars Magica saga for the

past two years; he may write an article about this

someday. He shares domestic bliss with his lovely

gamer boyfriend Conn in Astoria, NY. This is his

first publication.

Radja Sauperamaniane

Radja is working in a game store in Paris. He

worked on the card game Zoon. He has been doing

illustrations for Ars Mag since issue #11.

Eric

Merinita Mysteries

by David Chart

Thanks to Neil Taylor and Sheila Thomas for

helpful feedback on earlier versions of this article.

The Mysteries

Buildings are on a road if the primary access to the

building is from that road. Plants and small objects

must be between the edges of the path.

For purposes of spell level calculation, Road is

the same level as Far.

Bargain (Duration): As in WGRE, page 137.

Fire (Duration): As in WGRE, page 137.

Until (Condition) (Duration): As in WGRE,

page 137.

Year + 1 (Duration): As in WGRE, page 137.

Bloodline (Target): As in WGRE, page 137.

Arcadian Bridge (+2 Virtue)

Magi who have initiated this mystery have a clos-

er link to faerie regiones, and to Arcadia. The virtue

grants two minor abilities and one major one.

First, magi with this virtue may move between the

levels of a faerie regio automatically, and may lead

others between the levels, just as if they were faeries.

They are automatically aware of the presence of a

faerie regio, and can see into adjacent levels of the

regio if they so choose. (See ArM4 page 245 for

more details.) If the maga enters Arcadia from a

regio, she may choose the relative rates at which time

passes in Arcadia and the mortal world, and may lead

others there as normal. (See Faeries, pages 85-88 for

details on Arcadia.)

Second, the maga may use Int + Faerie Lore +

Faerie Magic to navigate in Arcadia. The extra bonus

means that she rarely gets lost.

Finally, she may create ‘gates’ to and from Arca-

dia. To create a gate to Arcadia, she must perform

some artistic task, and generate stress die + Com +

Faerie Magic + Artistic Ability + Aura. Aura bonus-

es and penalties are taken from the Faerie column of

the realm interaction table. The Ease Factor for

opening a gate to Arcadia is 18. For every full three

points by which she exceeds the Ease Factor, the

maga can take another person to Arcadia with her.

his presentation of Faerie Magic is a

complete replacement for Faerie Magic

as presented in The Wizard’s Grimoire,

Revised Edition. The spells listed there

could be converted to standard Hermetic spells,

without the magnitude adjustments, if you wanted to

keep them in your saga while using these rules.

Outer Mystery: Faerie Magic

Faerie Magic is a +1 Virtue. A character cannot

initiate this virtue, or start with it at character cre-

ation, unless she has been touched by the fay in some

way. Anyone with a faerie virtue or flaw, including

Faerie Enmity, qualifies. Lesser contact may also

count. Having a faerie lover would be enough, and

attending a number of faerie feasts most likely would

as well. However, simply fighting a few faeries does

not count. The troupe must make the final decision.

A maga who is touched by the fay must still be initi-

ated into this mystery in the usual way.

A maga with this virtue gets the full value of

faerie auras as a bonus to her magic totals, and does

not have to roll additional botch dice. In effect, she

may treat faerie auras as if they were magic auras, for

most purposes. If a maga with this virtue extracts vis

from a faerie aura, the vis is faerie-touched. This does

not usually have any game effects, but someone who

drinks a longevity potion made with faerie-touched

vis counts as faerie-touched, and thus may initiate

this mystery.

Magi with this virtue have the Arcane Knowledge

Faerie Magic, which starts at a value of one and may

be increased like any other knowledge. This knowl-

edge acts as an affinity with all spells invented using

the Mysteries of Faerie Magic. It is not possible to

learn the Inner Mysteries without a score of at least

one in Faerie Magic.

Finally, the maga can use additional Ranges,

Durations, and Targets, as follows. These categories

may be used in spontaneous magic by magae with

Faerie Magic, subject to the limitation that sponta-

neous magic may not have a duration greater than

one month (ArM4 page 69).

Road (Range): The maga may target anyone or

anything on the same road or path as her. The iden-

tity of roads and paths is not always clear, and the

troupe must decide if things are difficult. Two paths

may cross each other, but two paths may not become

one. In that case, either one path joins the second, or

the junction is actually the joining of three paths.

The maga need not be able to see her target, but she

must know that it is there, unless the spell is an Intel-

lego effect intended to find out if something is there.

People are only on a road if they are actually

between the edges of the path, at least partially.

Creating the gate takes as long as performing the

artistic task, generally about two minutes (Diameter

duration).

The artistic task may be of any sort, and need not

be performed well. If the maga has no artistic abili-

ties, she gets no bonus, but she does not get a penal-

ty for working unskilled. Magi might draw the gate

on some convenient surface, or play music that

seems to lift you to another world, or dance faster

and faster until they vanish. The art must be made

public in some way, but quietly reciting a poem would

be enough. It is not possible to see where a gate leads

before you use it.

Gates are not usually passages that open and wait

for people to pass through. Rather, the people tar-

geted by the maga are caught up by the magic and

taken to Arcadia. Thus, it is not normally possible to

sneak through an Arcadian Gate. Of course, on a

botch the gate may stay open as long as it takes the

wild hunt to pass through.

The gate opens at a place in Arcadia chosen by

the maga. She must make an Int + Faerie Lore +

Faerie Magic roll against an appropriate Ease Factor

to see if she gets it right. On a failure, she is simply

somewhere else. On a botch, she arrives somewhere

dangerous.

If the gate creation roll fails, the maga may try

again. Botches on the gate creation roll may have a

number of effects. The gate may open to somewhere

other than Arcadia, or the maga may summon faeries

to the mundane world, rather than travelling to them.

When creating a gate from Arcadia, the total is

the same, but uses the aura of the target location

rather than the aura of Arcadia. The process takes

the same time as opening a gate in the other direc-

tion. The Ease Factor is, again, 18. The roll is

penalised depending on how well the maga knows

the place she wants the gate to reach. If she knows

the place intimately (e.g. her sanctum), there is no

penalty. If she knows it very well (e.g. the area around

her covenant, the village where she grew up), the

penalty is -1. If she knows it well, and has visited sev-

eral times, the penalty is -3. Examples might include

a faerie forest near the covenant, or the town nearest

to the covenant. A place that she has visited a few

times imposes a -6 penalty. The area around another

covenant, or a local city, might qualify. A place she

has only been to once imposes a -9 penalty. It is not

possible to deliberately open a gate to a place you

have never been, but that is a likely result of a botch.

Merinita magi with this virtue do use Arcadia as a

shortcut between places. It is possible to create a gate

out of Arcadia before you are challenged by a

guardian, as long as you do not fail the first roll.

However, if you would have to beat a certain magic

resistance to affect the target place with a spell, your

gate total must exceed the same amount. Note that

the magic resistance does not penalise your roll. For

example, creating a gate from Arcadia to a covenant

you have visited a few times has an effective Ease

Factor of 24. If the Aegis of the covenant is level 24

or lower, any roll that succeeds in creating a gate will

open a passage to the covenant. If the Aegis is level

25 or higher, the total must exceed that level, rather

than the Ease Factor.

Lesser Glamour (+3 Virtue)

Lesser glamours are illusions with a significant

amount of reality. A glamour of a thing has all the

effects that a real item of the same type would have.

Thus, a glamour bridge can support weight, a glam-

our fire can ignite parchment, and glamour wine can

quench thirst. However, glamours are not real, so

their effects are not long-lasting.

All glamours are Creo or Muto Imaginem spells.

They should be noted as glamours when invented or

recorded; only magi with this virtue can learn or cast

such spells. The basic level for a lesser glamour is 20

for an unliving thing and 30 for a living thing (either

target or effect), whether it is Creo or Muto. A level

20 Creo Imaginem glamour affects all five senses,

and is physically tangible. It behaves as a real item of

that type would behave, so that flames flicker and

spread, and a glamour sword can be used to strike

opponents. A level 30 Muto Imaginem glamour

could make a rock look like a horse. The horse would

move, make noises, smell, and possibly allow itself to

be ridden (it would also tolerate magi). Changes to

the range, duration, and target modify the level nor-

mally.

Lesser glamours are no more flexible than normal

formulaic spells, and tend to be less flexible than nor-

mal Imaginem spells. Thus, while the Hermetic spell

Phantasmal Animal creates any animal, there are many

lesser glamours, one for every species of animal.

However, Glamoured Horse (CrIm 30) can create any

kind of horse, with tack and harness if desired. In

general, use Creo and Muto spells of other forms as

guidance for how broad lesser glamours should be,

but remember that lesser glamour creates effects

rather than duplicating other spells.

A glamoured object is ‘really’ whatever it is

underneath. Thus, a Creo Imaginem glamour is actu-

ally Imaginem, and responds to Intellego spells

appropriately, while a rock glamoured to appear as a

horse is still not a horse, and can be detected as such.

Second or Faerie Sight also allows characters to know

that something is a glamour, if they make a Per +

Sight roll against an Ease Factor of half the spell lev-

el. Note that, even if you know that something is a

lesser glamour it will still affect you as normal. Real-

ising that something is a glamour does not make it

vanish, even for you.

Glamours disappear under a number of condi-

tions. Most obviously, they vanish when the spell

duration ends. However, they also disappear if

brought into contact with iron, or if blessed by

someone in Holy Orders (subdeacon, deacon, priest,

or bishop). Finally, if a glamour enters a Dominion

Aura it disappears. Glamours cannot be cast in the

Dominion, or in Infernal auras. They can be cast in

areas with no aura, and a glamour cast in another

aura could enter an Infernal aura without vanishing.

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