1232, Autumn

In our previous session of Ars Magica, a sack of dead rats had been left for us by a magical cat that we had encountered before. It hinted that there were more intelligent rats to the north in Strone. My companion Jack accompanies two of the magi to find out what is happening there.

There’s a long section where we talk to Owen, and try to find out what has affected him. We don’t really find out anything – whether we were missing something obvious or whether there was nothing really to find out I don’t know. Jack’s narration of that segment is rather short, because it was mostly mage stuff and not much of interest to his sensibilities.

Jack – Autumn 1232

It is Autumn 1232, and it’s been decided to head up to Strone on Loch Ness to look into the Rats that escaped from the city below. The magi Allistor and Maedbh are heading up, and I tag along to look after the grogs Blane and Knox.

It’s a long walk, taking us five days to get up to the shores of Loch Ness. As we arrive at Fort Augustus, we find that people here are unwilling to head further north due to the fighting there with the armies of the Lidless.

Talking to the locals, we find that there’s an old trader, named Owen, who goes up and down the coasts of the Loch. He has been acting a bit odd recently. It may be the stress of the war that is making him nervous. Strone itself is on the north western shore, and there are no mountains between there and the Lidless so people are nervous of going that way.

There does appear to be a lack of fish in the market. The fishermen blame it on the ‘monster’ that lives there. Normally it leaves them alone, but it has been eating a lot of the fish recently. We decide that it’s not our problem, and find a place to stay for the night.

The next day the next day the weather is a bit damp and cloudy. Typical of Autumn. We head along the Western (Northern?) bank of the Loch until we get to a small cluster of houses at Alltsigh. There, with a donkey and cart, is a travelling trader.

Maedbh goes to talk to the trader, who turns out to be Owen. She tries to buy some silver hair pins, though he doesn’t have any. Owen seems… odd. His conversation is stilted, as if he is reading from a script. 

Maedbh casts a spell on him whist the grogs distract him, but he doesn’t seem to have any emotions. I straight up ask him if anything interesting has happened to him recently. He denies it. Asking about Strone, he says that Strone is a perfectly ordinary town and nothing interesting happens there.

There’s something really strange about Owen, but we have no idea what, so eventually (after puch probing by Maedbh) continue on northwards towards Strone. Maedbh kindly offers to bring us all under the protection of her magical shield, which we agree to.

The village of Strone is on the side of a hill overlooking the loch. One of the buildings has a small tower on top, where there is a green light shining. It almost seems like it is trying to catch our eye, but just slides past us. We consider it fortunate that Maedbh provided her protection to us.

Allistor casts a spell, apparently to give him better vision to look at the tower, but does it a bit too well, and has difficulty seeing the whole picture. Some of the villagers seem to be behaving somewhat robotically, repeatedly carrying out the same actions. Piping had been constructed along the side of the houses, and the odd rat is spotted running along the piping between the floors. It’s all very similar to the description that the magi gave of the city beneath the covenant which was sinking into lava. That also had pipes and tubes for the intelligent rats to get around.

There is larger building which has a lot of these rat runs built around it, as well as the house with the strange light on top. Waiting a while, around 5pm, there is a clanging of a bell and the villagers head into their homes. About half an hour later, they come back out and return to work.

Afterwards, the sun sets, and the magic of the magi briefly goes down. This allows Allistor to see correctly again. After sundown, the villagers head back into their homes, leaving it for us to decide what to do next. I’m all for burning the place down – especially the house with the green light. Rats that talk and think is something that the world could very much do without.