1240, Winter 2
Our Ars Magica campaign continues, as we investigate the small Scottish village where everybody had fallen asleep. During the session, my character managed to botch a spell casting attempt and go into Twilight. I have to say, that the rules on Twilight are incredibly badly written, and it took us several attempts to figure out what they were trying to say.
For magi in Ars Magica, Twilight is when they lose control of their magic, and it begins to consume them. It can be negative, and it can be beneficial. For a Criamon maga such as Pisciculus, it is often beneficial. As a magus has more Twilight experiences, so they will last longer. Eventually, a magus never returns from Twilight, and it can be how many end their lives. This time, for me, I gained experience in my magic and also my Enigmatic Wisdom skill.
Pisciculus ex Criamon – Winter, 1240
Casting the Inexorable Search to find the ‘owner’ of the blood wine, we discover that it’s within “thumbs-width” of our current location. We have a map of the entire of Scotland, so a thumbs width is quite a large area, but it’s going to be close by.
We get some rest, since dawn isn’t until late morning. When we wake up, the sleeping villagers are all awake, and being looked after by the locals. Several are giving me strange looks due to my appearance, so I try to keep away and my tattoos covered up. Maedbh goes off to talk to Stella and explain what the cause of the sleeping was. She explains that it was the wine of the wee folk, which was probably a bit too strong for the people here.
Stella accepts this, and asks about how the sleeping was lifted. Maedbh says that she recited some protections that her mother had taught her.
After leaving Stella and the village, we follow the tracks which seem to have come from the hills to the East. We follow the tracks up into the hills and find a cave. As far as Knox is concerned, there aren’t any large animal tracks around from anything that might be using the cave as a home.
Greysen heads into the cave, when Knox points out some scrape marks that look like two grooves leading through the cave entrance. Maybe a sled came out of here?
Malcolm is given Eyes of the Cat, and some magical protections, and he heads into the cave, followed by Greysen, and then the rest of us. There are some barrels stacked up in the cave, and two large wooden tables. Each is about 7ft in length, and a yard across. There are straps and buckles on the table.
There is a cauldron above a dying fire. One of the walls to the cave has an odd shimmering light to it that only myself and Maedbh can see. This is probably a regio boundary. Given that the cave has a high faerie aura, the boundary probably leads to a faerie realm.
I cast an Intellego Aquam on the cauldron contents, but something goes wrong with the magic. Rather than lose control, I choose to ride out the magic, allowing it to carry me wherever it will.
The cave fades from sight, and is replaced by my master’s face. He looks angrier than I remember, and also disappointed. He begins berating me.
I’ve been watching you for some time young one, and I’m not pleased with some of the things that you have done.
What have I done wrong?
You’ve been studying rather than helping others. Knowledge will just come to you if you just experience life.
I return to the cave, and the others are still there exploring. Apparently my body vanished suddenly, leaving just my clothes which dropped to the floor. I’d been gone for two hours. I was also now naked. I get dressed, and try and catch up with what the others have found. There are at least two people’s blood, and they ended up in the cauldron. There is also a lot of whisky. There are also 3 pawns of Aquam in the water at the back of the cave.
Further careful checking, shows that there seems to be blood stains of a fey all around the room.
I step through the regio boundary. On the other side, I am looking over a snowy landscape similar to the one we left. The colours here are brighter and more vibrant. The air is fresher. There seems to be cottages in the distance.
I step back, and let the others know what I saw. We decide to explore, so head through into Faerie.
Knox, with his super vision, can see the people in the village. The people seem to be behaving strangely. They seem scared. When they go out of their homes, they do what needs to be done, then hurry quickly back inside. Darting around like nervous animals.
We head down the path towards the village. People seem to be hiding in their homes, some are looking out of windows furtively at us.
Maedbh knocks on a door. “Who’s there? Are you Snaptooth?” We ask who Snaptooth is, and they seem surprised we don’t know who Snaptooth is. The woman opens the door a crack – a short half sized human woman looks out.
She recoils at the sight of all of us. “Humans!” And shuts the door.
Another woman looks out, and complains about all the humans with their nasty iron. She insists that we leave it all outside, because it’s rude to bring it up to people’s houses. Greysen sings a song about how nice iron is, and she seems mollified, but still wants it left outside.
Maedbh says that ‘the humans’ belong to her, so the locals seem to think that we are her pets. Maedbh is invited inside, whilst her ‘pets’ wait outside.
The older lady is Margaret.
She explains that the lord and lady have disappeared. Snaptooth went out of control after that, grabbing animals and people. He mostly comes out at night. He is some kind of Redcap, that wandered the hills and glens of the land.
Whilst nervously left outside, Knox spots some large boot prints. These are significantly larger than the bootprints that we’ve seen before with red caps. They are two or three times longer than normal bootprints.
The last time that the lord and lady were seen, they were taking gifts to the humans ‘next door’. She doesn’t think that Snaptooth has hurt the lord and the lady, since he wasn’t misbehaving until after they went missing. Redcaps misbehave, but the lord and lady make them behave.
Apparently the village sent to the city for help, and they were told someone would be sent to help. Knights in shining armour.
Malcolm unhelpfully shouts out that he could have shining armour if he polished it. One of the little folk throw a pot of polish at him. He fails to catch it, but picks it up and starts polishing his armour and sword. Greysen starts a song (full of innuendo about polishing one’s bits), and Malcolm soon finishes. He now looks like he has a really good set of shining mail.
Maedbh suggests that maybe we can go and look at the lord and lady’s house, and see if they left anything there. Such as a message.
We head to the main house. Inside, we find portraits of the lord and lady and a map of the countryside on this side of the regio, and also on the other side.
I cast The Whole From The Part on the blood from one of the vessels. The image I see is of the woman in the portrait, minus clothes.
Thinking back to the cave, it could have been someone practising alchemy or other experiments. Maybe it had been one of the dodgy magi experimenting on faerie. Maybe they dragged them away on a sled when we turned up. I guess we need to find out what happened, and who caused it.
