Hermetic Projects Chapter Two: The Burning City

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The Burning City

The Burning City project is about constructing a covenant in the heart of a volcano. The effects in this project involve constructing buildings on either lakes of lava or the crater rim, effects to ensure that the magi and covenfolk can survive in this inhospitable environment, and effects to deal with the possible supernatural denizens of a volcano. Effects to find a volcano and to regulate its behavior are also detailed.

Although the Burning City is predicated on an entire covenant constructed within a volcano, there is no need for interested magi in your saga to take this approach. Perhaps your magi are only interested in building a small chapterhouse, or a laboratory, on the lava fields. Alternatively, your magi might not be interested in colonizing the volcanic heart at all — maybe they only want to survive inside a volcano for a particular adventure. In any case, your magi only need to develop the elements of the Burning City project they find useful.

Finally, if the particular effects of this project are not useful in your saga, some of the ideas discussed in this chapter may give the troupe inspiration for the construction of covenants, chapterhouses, or laboratories in the other inhospitable places of Mythic Europe.

Why Build a Volcano?

Why might magi want to build a covenant inside a volcano? For some magi, merely the challenge and the fact that it can be done is enough of a reason. However, some other reasons for colonizing a volcano include:

• Living inside a volcano could be a part of a Mystery Cult initiation.
• The heart of the volcano could have a very high magic Aura, which makes the effort of building a laboratory in the volcano worthwhile.
• Laboratories built inside a volcano can be designed to take advantage of the volcano’s natural features for a bonus to appropriate laboratory work (some examples are given later in this chapter).
• A magus whose magic suffers from a particularly harsh Necessary Condition or Restriction Flaw (see ArM5, pages 56 and 58) may only be able to use his magic within volcanic regions.
• A magus with a Study Bonus Virtue or a Study Requirement Flaw (see ArM5, pages 49 and 59) who already has an Ignem Art Score in excess of 35 can only take advantage of his Virtue when he improves his Art (or improve his Art at all, if he has the Flaw) if he studies in an extreme location, such as a volcano’s heart.
• The volcanic heart could contain vis sources that the covenant wants to ensure do not fall into the hands of other magi, or other forces beyond the Order of Hermes.
• The volcano’s heart could contain an entrance to the Magic Realm, the Infernal Realm, or the Faerie Realm, which the magi want to monitor, control, destroy, or explore.
• A covenant built inside a volcano is likely secure and hidden from mundane interference. Even many Hermetic or other supernatural foes would be reluctant to casually assault a covenant embedded in a volcano.
• A volcanic covenant may be allied to indigenous inhabitants of the volcano. The covenfolk could include fire elementals and other magical creatures, faeries, or humans with lava flowing in their veins (perhaps due to ancestors who were volcanic creatures).

Volcanoes in Mythic Europe

In Mythic Europe most volcanoes are found in Greece, Italy, and Iceland. However, there is nothing to prevent a volcano occurring elsewhere in Mythic Europe, in your saga — especially if the volcano arises due to magic.

The Greek Volcanic Islands

The Greek island groups of Methana, Milos, Nisyros, and Santorini are all volcanic. Each group consists of dozens of islands that have been formed by volcanic activity, and there are further volcanoes beneath the surface of the sea — the activity of these marine volcanoes sometimes causes the sea to boil. Many of the surface volcanic craters have broken their walls and also been flooded by the sea, and there are also a number of hot springs and pools heated by volcanic activity on the islands. There are frequent earthquakes on the islands, and the breaking of the islands by the shifting earth has revealed striking, brightly colored layers of rock deposited by successive eruptions. These layers of volcanic rock are good sources of the exotic minerals that are needed for some Hermetic laboratories.

Fishing villages dot the islands, and the larger islands have substantial towns. Many of the inhabitants use water heated by the volcanoes for bathing, and the island-dwellers could be recruited to act as covenfolk.

Story Seeds for Mythic Europe's Volcanoes Creeping Earth At Campi Flegrei parts of the earth frequently creep, causing the earth to rise by 10 to 12 feet over a period of several years. This is fast enough for people to observe, and the inexorably rising earth can cause buildings to collapse and split. This is clearly a supernatural phenomena, and the recent collapse of a small town not long after a new church was constructed has convinced some magi that the creeping earth is the work of a magical spirit at the heart of Campi Flegrei, fighting against the encroachment of the divine on natural places. Pompeii and Herculaneum The Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed in an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. If your saga follows history, then these towns are buried and their location is not precisely known in 1220. However, the eruption and subsequent destruction was documented by Roman writers, so magi may decide to search for the towns. It is possible that the violent eruption caused the towns to fall into a regio, and perhaps the inhabitants, or their descendants, still live within. Maybe there is even still a functioning Temple of Mercury within the towns. The entrance to the regio might be found within the crater of Mount Vesuvius (or even other volcanoes). The townsfolk (who are surely supernaturally changed by their experience) could be recruited as covenfolk by the Burning City. Alternatively, perhaps the towns really are merely buried beneath tons of ash and mud. In either case, the two towns are now inextricably entwined with volcanism. This means that any artifacts recovered from Pompeii or Herculaneum may be used as a Sympathetic Connection of +1 to aid the Penetration of effects that target creatures that live in volcanoes. Artifacts from Pompeii or Herculaneum also have a +3 Shape and Material bonus for volcanism effects. This Shape and Material bonus is in addition to any other bonuses for the artifact.

Italian Volcanoes

Campi Flegrei, or the Burning Fields, is an area of volcanic activity about five miles across located very near the city of Naples. There are numerous craters and the last eruption was in the year 1158, in which the crater of Solfatara exploded. Some of the craters have been flooded by the sea, creating harbors.

Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in Mythic Europe. It is almost 10,000 feet high and it dominates the skyline above the Sicilian city of Catania. At the summit of the mountain there are two main craters (Bocca Nova, and Voragine), and together the craters are nearly continuously sending forth showers of ash and molten rock. Every few years there are larger eruptions that cause rivers of lava to flow from the mountain, and there are hundreds of frozen rivers of lava on the volcano’s flanks. The last large eruption was in 1194. Exceptionally large eruptions occur every few hundred years, and during these eruptions massive fountains of lava are ejected thousands of feet into the air. Some legends say that the two main craters are inhabited by separate magical spirits who have trapped several brother-spirits beneath the earth. The escape of one of the brothers could cause a major eruption and the formation of a new crater. Other legends say that there is only a single magical spirit beneath the crater (see Realms of Power:Magic, page 111).

Lipari is an island volcano in the Eolian Islands. The volcano has a number of small craters, which have been fairly quiet of late — although there are records of a large explosive eruption several hundred years ago. The island is the pre-eminent source of pumice and obsidian in Mythic Europe. Lipari has been continuously occupied since before Roman times and there are a number of settlements on the island. The largest is the town of Lipari, which is the seat of the bishop of Lipari (which has been a diocese since the fifth century).

Stromboli is another island volcano in the Eolian Islands, with a number of craters. The volcano is nearly constantly active, and most evenings glowing fragments of lava are ejected hundreds of feet into the air from the crater. Although the intensity of this continuous activity varies from week to week, it is fairly predictable and not very hazardous. However, every few years, rivers of lava flow from the volcano into the sea. These outflows can overwhelm the unprepared, but even this hazard does not prevent people settling on the island, and there are a number of fishing villages on the coast. Even more rarely (perhaps once in a generation) a large explosive eruption occurs, which can cause damage within several miles of the volcano.

Vesuvius is near Naples and is, like Stromboli, almost continuously active at a low level, though it sometimes falls almost dormant for periods of about a century. During times of activity, larger eruptions might send fountains of lava into the air, or rivers of lava down the mountain slopes. Vesuvius is also famous for unexpectedly erupting in a massive explosion, typically following a period of dormancy. The Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed in such an eruption (see nearby insert).

Vulcano is formed by two islands in the Eolian Islands: the main island is Vulcano and just north is a smaller island Vulcanello. There are a number of small villages and monasteries on the larger island, and the island is reputed to be a very healthy place to live; many people bathe in hot mud pools on the beach. The rim of the main crater (La Fossa) is constantly blanketed in steam and sulfurous fumes.

Hazards of Volcanoes

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