Adventures

This page is intended to help storyguides to choose and acquire published Ars Magica adventures (official or fan-made) for their games. Only full scenarios are covered; story seeds, locations, NPCs, stand-alone encounters, or so on do not belong in this page.

SPOILER ALERT: If you are not a storyguide looking for an adventure to run, you’ll probably be wiser not to read this page. It contains lots of spoiler for adventures your storyguide may throw at you.

Fifth Edition

The Broken Covenant of Calebais

The Broken Covenant of Calebais has been published three times, for one different edition of Ars Magica each time. It was the first published scenario for the First Edition; it was later revised and republished for the Second Edition; and finally, it was revised yet again and published in 2004 for the Fifth (and current) Edition of Ars Magica.

The story has elements both of a "dungeon crawl" (a specific type of adventure well-known by RPG players) and of a mystery adventure.

The Fallen Fane

The Fallen Fane is a LARP (Live Action Role Playing) adventure designed for around 12-24 people and based on a meeting of the Rhine Tribunal. It uses modified and simplified rules and is therefore fairly easy to adapt to other editions despite being nominally designed for Fifth Edition.

Earlier Editions

The Bats of Mercille

Project Redcap currently has very little information on this (1988/89) scenario. At least one off-site source of information does exist, though. See the article Bats of Mercille.

The Broken Covenant of Calebais (2e or Revised)

See The Broken Covenant of Calebais for 5e. The adventure is essentially the same.

The Stormrider

"Loose upon the winds of the tempest, astride his fierce steed, is a rider, a creature of rage, a creature of the storm."

In this introductory adventure to Ars Magica, two quarreling apprentices and their entourage pursue the Stormrider, a creature famous in local lore which seems to embody the fury of the storm. They follow his trail, finding his victims as well as a saint that directs them to his salvation. When they finally confront him, they must choose whther to save or destroy him.

This adventure is known for railroading the characters, and to be run as-is requires the use of the pregenerated characters. Adapting the adventure for starting magi, rather than apprentices, should be easy. The quarrel is more integral to the plot, but not essential to it. It is also entirely possible to adapt this adventure for looser play, but thought should be given for making the character's encounters have more impact on the plot. It would still be somewhat heavy-handed in its moralistic approach.

Converting the adventure to Fifth Edition will certainly require creating the statistics for the Stormrider himself. Note that the "villain" here can be of any Realm: it can be an eidolon, a spirit of rage, of the Realm of Magic (which mirrors the original intention best); a Faerie feeding off anger as his Vitality; or, perhaps most suitably given the Divine connection, a demon of wrath empowering the knight and enjoying the mayham it causes.

The Stormrider has been released twice - as a Second Edition jump-start kit under Lion Rampant, and as a Third Edition jump-start kit under White Wolf. The White-Wolf edition is available as a PDF through e23, and contains additions and improvements but is essentially the same as the previous one. Return of the Stormrider is a jump-start kit for Fourth Edition that presents another adventure, building on The Stormrier as background.

Tales of the Dark Ages

This Second Edition 66-page product is a collection of four adventures.

Tongue of Vipers

A courtier in the viscount’s service asks for a magus to visit the court. But when the magi visit, they find that she is in prison awaiting execution for attempting to poison the viscount. The magi must find the true culprit and save her from the machinations of two rival courtiers, if they are to secure an ally in the viscount’s court and gain permission to harvest a vis source under its control.

The 14-page adventure is centered on talking to NPCs to find clues, and on convincing the viscount and court. As such, it is primarily a Companion adventure, with the magus likely serving a secondary (even detracting) role due to his Gift.

Very little in this adventure depends on game mechanics, and it can be run almost as-is under Fifth Edition. A full conversion, however, will require creating two hedge wizard characters.

The Inheritance

A player character receives an unexpected inheritance - a small estate, built on Roman ruins. Exploring the estate leads them to discover a pair of Roman ghosts and the water spirit that cursed them. With some bargaining, the characters can rebuild the ancient waterways, and thus both free the ghosts and strengthen the water spirit. This will allow them to establish the estate as a Magical aura, and to open up a regio leading to the Realm of Magic itself.

Note that this (14-page) adventure is rather crude in several ways. The heir receives the notice of inheritance by mail, and is knighted nonchalantly by an official. This official turns out to be an Hermetic wizard deeply interested in restoring the water spirit - yet he does nothing to that effect, not even visiting the place throughout the adventure. The ghosts are likewise not really ghosts but rather stranger, mis-shaped dwarfs, and return to life once their curse is broken even though they have been killed. In short - this adventure may need some work to be usable.

Nevertheless, the overall plot, setting and ideas on Roman ruins, numina (nature spirits) and so on that are found in this adventure could be the basis of a sound adventure; perhaps even the founding of a new Spring covenant.

Copse of Skulls

A failed apprentice goes missing near a cursed wood. The party sent after him soon discovers he is in the redoubt of an ancient drake that lives in the forest, and has built an army of outcasts for himself. Now the drake seeks to learn Hermetic magic to further his capabilities, and has used the failed apprentice as a spy. Now the party much choose how to treat the traitor, and how to deal with the drake.

This 10-page adventure is a fairly straightforward exploration of the forest leading up to the dragon’s lair. The problems with this scenario, for Fifth Edition, are numerous. For one thing - Magical creatures aren’t supposed to learn Hermetic magic. That’s what mortal magi are all about. The drake’s statistics also need an overhaul. His minions too, although they may be demoted from “humanoid race” to “highly-Warped outcasts”. Finally, a failed apprentice under Fifth Edition rules won’t have significant magic to wield or to teach the drake - and most certainly won’t have Parma Magica - so his stats will need an overhaul too. Add this to the fact that this adventure require quite a lot of build-up as the failed apprentice has been in the covenant for years, and what you’re left with is, well, very little that fits Fifth Edition or a standard saga.

The Ghoul of St. Lazare

An exhumed body washes ashore, and the player characters investigate its origin up-river, in the village of Vezay. There they investigate the villagers in search of the grave-robbers. Their investigations soon take an unexpected turn as they are attacked by a demon, and come to blows with it in a climactic battle at the local church.

The adventure is designed for weak characters - perhaps a starting magus and his companions and grogs - and may be concluded in one or a few sessions.

This 16-page adventure is ostensibly a mystery, but in practice the events will simply lead the characters into a series of conflicts, culminating in a climatic battle. The Infernal is presented here as somewhat-subtle, but strangely crude and lacking in follow-through - the church is desecrated, but the demonic revenant is a simple brute and at the end hell is left with a desecrated church but no diabolists to exploit that.

The adventure is largely suitable for Fifth Edition, and can be run with only minor changes. Note that it has been reprinted in Festival of the Damned Anniversary Edition, which included more extensive notes on the village and a follow-up adventure.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

This Third Edition 98-page supplement provides a nearly-complete saga for a Spring covenant; stretching over several (in-game) years, told over dozens of game sessions, and meant to be interlaced with more personal, minor, stories. The saga centers around a crusade that is being undertaken in the player’s Tribunal. This, in turn, angers the Faeries who fight back against the mundanes - and in so doing threaten the covenant. The players must ultimately neutralize both the Faeries and the crusade’s local leader to save their covenant.

This adventure is based on the Albigensian Crusade and the Cathar heresy. It also set in the Provençal Tribunal, and includes a Tribunal session held in Doissetep, local politics and laws, and so on. These elements can be easily stolen for other Tribunals or replaced with local corresponding features if the adventure is transported to another Tribunal.

The Sorcerer’s Slave

The characters chase down a former member of the covenant that had a powerful Gift, and is now a slave of a foreign wizard. They face him in the covenant of Urania, where the wizard is contesting its leadership position by attempting to seize control of a faerie court. It is ultimately revealed that the “slave” is really the faerie lord’s son, and is plotting a cruel revenge against his master. The party must decide how to deal with the master, the slave, the faerie lord, and the magi of Urania.

The Pact of Pasaquine

When the wolf lord’s child is murdered, the characters must find and face the true killer, or let the wolve’s pact with the villagers crumble.

For a century the Pact of Pasaquine has held between the villagers of Pasaquine and the wolves of the forest. The wolves did not attack the village, and the villagers did not harm the wolves. Now the son of the wolf lord is dead, and he demands the blood of a human child in return. The player characters must appease the wolf lord by finding the true killer, or the Pact will be forgone. But when they find out that the young wolf’s death was a result of an elaborate scheme to weaken the Dominion over the village and return it to Magic, will they support the killer or let the Pact crumble?

During two (“perhaps more”) sessions, the characters will resolve three story lines - the fate of the Pact, the machinations of Lise against the Dominion, and the fate of a villager she uses to facilitate them. This is a mystery story, where the characters will need to locate the true culprit - but that can be resolved fairly quickly by investigating Lise’s minions, leaving action or diplomacy as the way to conclude the story.

The Pact of Pasaquine is a 96-page “Sourcebook/Story” written by Carl Schnurr for Ars Magica Second Edition, under White Wolf publishing. In addition to the main story, it presents the village of Pasaquine itself, as well as the magical forest which includes several regios, and several story seeds.

Storyguides that aren’t strict about following the rules can run this product more-or-less as-is for Fifth Edition player characters. The two main points of conflict with Fifth Edition are that the wolf and forest are probably Magical rather than Faerie (which makes little practical difference, but means some descriptions and background should be altered), and that Companions would probably need to lead the interactions with the villagers due to the magi’s Gift. The story can be concluded with only relatively little interaction with mundanes, to minimize the latter problem, but that will rob the adventure of much of its content and emotional impact.

A full conversion to Fifth Edition rules and setting assumptions requires more extensive work. Lise’s machinations against the Dominion, in particular, will need to be revised to make more sense, and her minions and powers will need to be redesigned.

Mistridge

Tales of Mistridge

Promises, Promises

A short, free, downloadable scenario that is still available for download as of 2013 and is in fact available in several languages. It was released close to Ars Magica Fourth Edition and is meant to be an introduction to various important concept of playing Magi from the Order of Hermes.

Living Lore

Living Lore is a collection of adventures, published late during the timeframe of the Fourth Edition.

Nigrasaxa

A short free scenario, released in the same timeframe as Promises, Promises and assuming a bit more familiarity with the concepts. It introduces and develops more of the core Ars Magica concepts, and has a detailed Covenant which lends its name to the adventure itself.

Sub Rosa

Ars Magica adventures are found in several issues of the Sub Rosa fanzine.

Unofficial

Adventures from the net.