1240, Spring 3
Our third session in Spring 1240 for our Ars Magica saga. Most of the session is spent in an actual combat. We don’t have many of these in Ars Magica. There might be the occasional spot of violence, but normally things are ended with a single spell. Here, we had multiple enemies, in a combat that lasted several rounds and we even had a battle map:
Though Pisciculus is a pacifist, she does have some spells to prevent things from fighting. Most of these are Rego Corpus, so only useful against people. She has one Imagonem spell though that causes bright lights that can temporarily blind creatures. Given that we were fighting giant spiders, I did consider renaming it to The Light of Elendil.
Pisciculus ex Criamon – Spring, 1240
We are in a forest of invisible spiders that begin to wake from their slumber. Maedbh has moved some of the human bodies out of the depression with her magic, and they are now in a circle behind us. There seem to be about half a dozen spiders coming towards us, each a couple of paces across. Allistor speaks, and spears of flame strike two of the spiders.
The first is frizzled, and it’s body makes popping noises from the heat. The second is badly scorched.
I cast An Enemy Awash in the Pure Sigil of the Magus, which creates bright lights over the eyes of the target which blinds one of them. Knox is also able to see them, and takes a shot with this bow, but misses.
Two of them are rushing towards us much quicker than we anticipated, so Allistor casts several more bolts of fire, then comes over all funny. One of the bolts heads off in a random direction, blasting apart a tree and setting it on fire. A strange sulphurous stench comes from these flames.
Maedbh casts a Rego Terram, and the earth ripples in a huge wave that knocks down trees and tumbles spiders backwards and buries some of them in earth.
As the nearest spider makes a leap towards us, I cast Awash again, and its eyes burst with light, blinding it. It misses, leaping into the flaming tree and catching itself on fire. It turns and runs, setting fire to things as it goes. I do consider whether I should expand the spell target to Group, but not sure whether the diverse spread of the spiders would allow me to target them all at once.
Knox takes a shot at it, and the arrow pierces through its head, killing it instantly.
Then something BIG comes out of the trees. A gigantic spider, about 8 paces across. It has antlers. It also seems put off by the trail of fire which the previous spider had spread. It sprays a web in our direction, but Allistor fast casts a spell to blow it back, stopping it over the burning trees where it bursts into flames.
I cast my blinding spell on the big spider, but it has no effect – the creature’s magic resistance is too high for me to penetrate. Allistor drops several trees on it, bruising it but not taking it down.
Knox shoots the small one, hitting it and hurting it but not killing it. It charges at Malcolm, who swings his axe at it, chopping off its head.
The big spider stabs its legs into the ‘small’ spiders and flips them into the air and hurls them at us. I notice that the almost dead smaller spiders seem to be losing their spider forms, and becoming more human. Are these the corrupted bodies of the fay who used to dwell here?
Allistor again fast casts a wall of wind, to blow the spiders backwards. This also fans the flames further, and they spread back towards the massive spider.
The spider seems to be trying to lift up a tree, probably to try and throw it through the wall of wind. Allistor speaks words, and the fires explode outwards, enveloping the spider and charring its hair.
More of the forest is destroyed as Maedbh again rips up the ground and hurls the earth at the spider, knocking it down, causing it to drop the tree trunk.
At last, my attempt to blind it works, and I concentrate on keeping it blinded. It randomly tries climbing a tree to escape, but this just leaves it up in the air with nowhere to go. Meanwhile, Malcolm charges towards the spider, but stumbles down the embankment and gets lost amongst the rocks, craters, upturned tree trunks and smoke.
Allistor moves the sulphurous fire across to where the spider is, dumping it on top of it.
More earth is moved, and then multiple bolts of fire crash into it, breaking through its magical resistance and burning large holes into it. It drops to the ground, unmoving.
Most of the area is now on fire, so Allistor summons water to drench the area. The ground is now broken, burnt and muddy. By the time that the fires are out, the giant spider is well and truly dead.
As it becomes possible to approach it, we notice that the corpse of the spider is gradually shrinking, and becoming more human like.
Looking around the crater, there doesn’t seem to be much here. We gather the essence on the corpses of the faeries, and then destroy the vis gained. We’re not entirely certain how ‘infected’ the source of the vis may be.
We take the two wounded people that we rescued back to the nearby town. The locals are grateful for our help, though are uncertain about myself and Allistor.
Pisciculus ex Criamon – Summer, 1240
The rest of spring and summer is spent by us learning new spells. I learn Lungs of the Fish and Mercury’s Winged Sandals which will allow me flight.
