Aquila Saxum:Covenant

This is the covenant for the Aquila Saxum saga for the Ars Magica game.

Resources

A baseline covenant has no magical resources. However, each player may choose up to 40 build points worth of resources (see AM5 p. 71) at the start of the game. More resources may be acquired during game play.

Library

This is a list of the Summae and Tractati of the covenant's library.

Laboratory Texts

This is a list of the Lab Texts of the covenant's library.

Level 25 Grip of the choking hand (pg. 133)

Level 5 Comfort the drenched traveler(pg. 123)

Vis

This is a list of the vis sources and vis stocks available to the covenant.

Vis Sources

Fay SpringsBold text as a source of vis 3 pawns a year (collected in mid-spring) muto, animal, and terram. Properties of the spring is known to turn a goat's fleece into gold... there is much potential here.

Enchanted Items

This is a list of the enchanted items available for use by the covenant.

Specialists

This is a list of the NPC specialists available to the covenant. Some important roles to fill (by NPCs or PCs) would be Chamberlain, Turb Captain, and/or Steward. Also, craftsmen would be useful as well (mason, carpenter, furniture maker, thatcher, blacksmith, chandler, tinker, weaver, leatherworker, cooper, cobbler, glass-blower, goldsmith, lapidary, brewer, vinter, baker, chef, miller, swordsmith, armorer, bowyer, ink-maker, bookbinder, illuminator, or scribe).

The covenant possesses, as a baseline the following craftsmen:

• Blacksmith 4
• Carpenter 4
• Bookbinder 4

Hooks and Boons

The players may each choose one hook (either a major hook, or a minor hook) and a corresponding boon or boons to balance it out (one minor boon for a minor hook; three minor boons or one major boon for a major hook). Hooks and Boons may be chosen from the core book, from the 5th edition Covenants book, or you can come up with your own!

Site

The baseline site of a covenant is in a magical aura of 3 (4 with minor boon), located somewhat distant from other settlements such that unexpected visitations are uncommon events.

MAJOR HOOK The Chevoleur. (Monster)

It lives among us. You can hear it skittering just at the edge of your hearing at night. In the empty halls of the covenant it prowls at night - and it lurks in the dark corners that litter the buildings of the covenant. Tales have circled about some devious thing that stalks the darker hours of the (Name to be announced?) covenant's lands, preying on the goats and occasional child. Some have said it takes the form of a shadowy hound, with glowing green eyes... and others say its a shadow itself, amorphous, save for its gnarly, grasping talons... stories about the thing appear more often than its own physical appearances.

Whatever it is, it is real. And it is dangerous. And it wants our goats.

MAJOR HOOK The Crack of Infinite Ebon. (Unknown Regio)

The walls are ancient, standing from long before any remember. They have sheltered forces and legions. But they are gone, and all that is left is some rubble, parched bones, and echoes in the wind through the old halls. The saying goes if "If these walls could tell tales . . ." But there is one wall that should never be heard. It's tale is one Darkness. Darkness that seeps into the soul, and lurks a smothering blanket. And if you are really lucky, you will wake up in time to throw it off before it drags you into the Darkness for eternity, taking with it your very presence in this life; past, present, and soul. Avoiding the Crack in this ominous stone support is your only of survival.

But which wall is it? There are so many, and everyone of them has cracks.

MAJOR HOOK Road

There is a major mystical route that passes near the covenant. Atop a nearby peak is a magical spring that is frequented by many magical and faerie creatures. This brings many strange mystical visitors to the covenant's proverbial doorstep.

Minor Boon Difficult Access

The covenant rests upon a magical plateau in the mountains, its only mundane avenue of access lies in a treacherous and twisting mountain path that includes a guarded Troll Toll Bridge. This deters a lot of would-be invaders, robbers, and opportunists away from the covenant's valuable resources - and saves the covenant's members the trouble of building their own defenses.

Minor Boon Aura

Due to the presence of the nearby magical spring and all the magical traffic it generates, the aura of the covenant is stronger than average.

Fortifications and Buildings

The baseline fortifications of a covenant is a manor house or small tower (choose one). Baseline buildings are whatever buildings are required from the fortifications and residences for the magi and their covenfolk.

Minor Boon Fortification

A thick ancient wall of ebony stone jets out of the ground and surrounds the covenant. Across its top like a spine lays razor sharp iron spikes.

Resources

The baseline covenant possesses either one typical source of income (100 pounds per year), or two lesser (40 pounds per year each -- there are benefits, however, to diversity).

Minor Boon: Wealth

Herding the goats to the magical spring has caused them to gain many strange special properties -- a few have even begun to produce golden fleece. The covenant's goat herding income source is advanced from typical (100 pounds per year) to greater (250 pounds per year).

Residents

The baseline residents of a covenant are normal medieval peasants whose customs are neither particular convenient nor inconvenient to magi, making difficulties with its inhabitants an uncommon event.. In addition to any specialists and magi, the covenant possesses a number of NPC soldiers equal to the number of magi, and a number of NPC servants and laborers equal to twice the number of magi.

Minor Boon: Criminals

The covenant has found some unlikely friends with the "Mountain Trolls". A group of bandits that holed up in the mountains and named themselves after the Troll that guarded the pass to where the Covenant now rests. Led by a man named Jarl, they are an unruly and wild lot, used to the harshness of a life living in the mountains, surviving only on what they could collect in tolls and booty from travellers unfortunate enough to cross their path. After befriending the eponymous troll, the bandits sought out the wizards and offered their specialized services and arms - in exchange for a bit of protection from the less mundane threats of the mountains. So far, the pact has worked well - the Trolls are a rough and rowdy bunch, but they do a good job of deterring those that might otherwise bother or molest the covenant.

Residents

• Magi: 5 (25 pts)
• Companions: 5 (15 pts)
• Warriors: 5 (5 pts)
• Bandits: 5 (5 pts)
• Specialists: 3 (6 pts)
• Servants: 10 (10 pts)
• Laborers: 0 (0 pts)
• Teamsters: 6 (6 pts)

External Relations

The baseline covenant exists in a state of unsteady neutrality with its neighbors, making conflicts and intrigue an uncommon events.

Minor Boon The Mountain Troll (Local Ally)

Guarding the pass that leads to the magical plateau in the mountains is a Troll named Girblerfangramen. He has for ages tended to the singular bridge that provides the access a mundane traveller would need to get to the plateau. A horrible looking thing, his age showing in forms of crags and wrinkles as deep as ravines - his age does not diminish his apparent might - and the aged troll has stacked high the bones of those that had not paid proper tribute over the decades in order to pass the bridge's toll. He is dimly aware of the world outside of the bridge - and knows of the magi that have made their home on the plateau. A formidable beast, he is no unhinged monster - and he recognized the potential harm that might befall his beloved bridge should he make war against them... Instead, he bargained - and as long as the covenant pays him a sum of three goats a year, all of its members shall be granted free and unmolested passage o'er the bridge.

Surroundings

The surroundings of a covenant deal with everything within 20 miles around it. The baseline surroundings of a covenant are somewhat common and mundane, making emergencies and issues involving the surroundings uncommon.

Governance

This is how the covenant is governed.

• Democracy - the covenant's magi make their decisions based on equal votes.
• Autocracy - the covenant has placed one of its magi in charge of all decisions.
• Hierarchy - the weight of the magi's votes is based on some sort of criteria.

Your vote weighs "one stone" for each season that you have spent in service to the covenant. The issue with the most stones wins.

• Bureaucracy - Each aspect of the covenant's operation have been placed in the hands of one or more magi who are then responsible for its individual governance.
• Anarchy - no established method of governance.

Prevailing Loyalty

This is the prevailing loyalty of the covenfolk.

Wealth

This is a record of the covenant's wealth.

Income

The average covenant has an income of 80 or 100 pounds.

Source of Income: Goatherding.

The mountains are home to a wealth of goats, the milk of which fetch a decent price in the mundane markets as raw milk, butter, or cheese. The goatherds range over the mountains - grazing in what flat grassland there is to be had - and are kept by a force of grog goat-herders. Fully 1000 head of goats are kept by the covenant for their marketable worth.

Expenditures

The covenant has many expenses.

• Buildings - The cost of upkeeping the covenant's buildings and fortifications. (7 pounds for habitations + 2 pounds for ancient wall = 9 pounds)
• Consumables - The cost of everyday consumables for the day to day operations of the covenant. (14 pounds)
• Inflation - Covenants that spend too much money cause local inflation in the economy, and thus end up having to pay more and more each year.
• Laboratories - The cost of upkeeping the magi's laboratories. (5 pounds)
• Provisions - The cost of food. (35 pounds)
• Debts - The repayment of debts. (0 pounds)
• Wages - The payment of wages. (14 pounds)
• Weapons and Armor - The cost of upkeeping arms and armor. (1 pound)
• Writing Materials - The cost of writing materials. (6 pounds)

Gross Expenditures: 84 pounds

Cost Savings

• Laborers: 0 pounds
• Blacksmith: -2.8 pounds from Consumables
• Carpenter: -3 pounds from Buildings

Total Savings: 5.8 pounds

Net Expenditures: 78.2 (84 - 5.8) pounds.