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.

Tales of Mythic Europe

Tales of Mythic Europe contains nine short adventures for Fifth Edition. These are

The Champion's Portion

In a magical regio, an ancient hero grants "the champion's portion" to those who win his contests of bravery and physical and martial prowess. A Flambeau magus wants to raid the regio, and an Ex Miscellanea maga seeks to stop him. The PCs need to choose sides, and perhaps win the champion's portion for themselves. This plot is further complicated by rival Irish and English forces that war over the mundane layer of the regio - an English fort in Irish territory. The magi may decide to aid one side against the other, especially as one holds the key to entering the regio, or may be dragged into their struggles unintentionally.

This is a combat-heavy scenario intended to be run over three sessions, for young magi (2-3 magi up to 10 years out of gauntlet) and a militant entourage. While set in Ulster, this can be easily altered. The adventure includes travel to Ulster through the Magic Realm, but this too can be replaced with more mundane travel (although this would rob the adventure of some of its oomph, and lessen the time pressure and the Flambeau's position).

The Ship of Desire

This (34-page) adventure is about an en route encounter, where the PCs and NPCs are trapped in a boat where they are toyed with by a faerie "Cupid". The adventure comes complete with a rich NPC cast to make things interesting, including a venditor, a faerie, a papal legate with scheming against the Order, and not one but two troubadours.

The adventure is suitable for a session of adventure for companions and grogs, with perhaps a weak magus. It can serve to probe the characters' inner lives, form new relationships - or to have a bawdy session filled with lewd jokes.

Fall and Rise

In this convoluted adventure an ancient Tytalus magus is manipulated by faeries, who orchestrate his downfall and, later, his rise. The PCs can get entangled in these machinations in various ways, but would most likely seek to help the magus against his oppressors and help his rise. The adventure includes combat and social encounters with faeries, as well as the ruins of a fallen covenant and an Hermetic hidehout, and interfering with the fate of queen Eleanor of Britain. It provides an opportunity to explore Hermetic past through the magus' old magic and knowledge (e.g. he could be a remnant from the Schism War).

The adventure is an excellent example of faerie manipulation, with the chief antagonist manipulating the magus - and perhaps the PCs! - to unknowingly further her goals. The antagonist also has a wonderful fairy-tale like atmosphere to her, that comes off well in her encounters.

The material is fairly modular, and can be used for anything from a brief single adventure (perhaps saving the magus from his attackers) to eight or more connected adventures (ranging from an attack on the PC's covenant to upending the politics of House Tytalus).

The Hospital's Due

The Hospitallers confiscate some of the covenant's valuable property, and the PCs must travel to a nearby town, where the Hospitaller's hospital is located, to claim back their goods.

This story can pan out in many ways, but some sort of negotiation for the return of the property is most likely. The adventure includes a description for the hospital, complete with a full contingent of Knight Hospitaller crusading warrior-monks and their leaders, a Gifted child, a treacherous merchant, the town's mayor and lord, a local bishop, and more. Depending on the covenant's attitude towards Christianity, it lead to major new enemies and allies, and to deepen or introduce relations with the Church and the crusading order. It also serves to introduce the historial elements of the Hospitaller's hospitals and their charitable and crusade-supporting works.

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 Tempest

A Diedne magus awakens from deep slumber to discover that the player character's covenant now stands in place of its own. He swears vengeance, and pursues a long plan to reduce the covenant's aura and destroy the covenant itself. Aided by an equally-ancient Mercurian refuge from the Schism War, the characters travel far to undermine the Diedne's source of power and, ultimately, battle him at their covenant.

This adventure is intended to be a long saga, moving your covenant from late Spring to Summer. It has a linear plot, consisting of about five stages: the Diedne magus first awakens and, in a confused state, brings havoc until the PCs chase him off; the Mercurian wizard is then discovered after chasing mysterious dragon attacks; the Diedne then approaches the PCs asking to be an apprentice, and studies under them, only to be later discovered and escape; the Diedne's ritual starts to undermine the covenant, leading the PCs to seek out a Viking ghost ship to sail to the druid's source of power, to undo it; and finally, the PCs confront the antagonist in a massive battle at the covenant grounds.

In addition to the adventure itself, this 66-page adventure includes a lot of background information that was pivotal in defining later references to House Diedne, the Schism War, the Cult of Mercury, and more. Its protrayal of House Diedne is very positive, and the Order in contrast appears petty and immoral.

In running this adventure under Fifth Edition, a number of options and difficulties stand out. Most importantly - it is unclear what benefit the Diedne will have from infiltrating the covenant, or how he will do so convincingly. Since his Gift is already opened to Hermetic Magic, and given his advanced Arts, it would be impossible for a PC magus to Open his Arts. Even if this can be circumvented - why is he doing this for ? In the Second Edition original, he is doing it to learn the secrets of Ritual magic; in Fifth Edition it is at least unclear whether this is reasonable, given that a Didene magus should be able to cast and invent rituals just fine. It is possible he requires to pick up certain advances in Magic Theory, and the troupe will need to decide how the ancient magic of him and his Roman counterpart differs from modern Hermtic magic.

It might be appropriate to make the Diedne a Drowned Man (see RoPM) and the Mercurian wizards a recipient of Immortality of the Forest (see GotF).

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.

Trial by Fire

In this adventure the PCs face off the great dragon Pan Caudarax. Furious at the theft of a priceless magical artifact from his horde under the wizard-friendly city of De Panne, the dragon comes to it to exact his vengeance. This has all been prophesied, but will the PCs manage to defend the city from the dragon ?

This 31-page adventure largely consists of descriptions of De Panne, with a closing chapter on the dragon and his tactics. The PCs must deal with the thief, who turns out to be another magus. Otherwise, this is a fairly straight-forward confrontation with a dragon.

For conversion to Fifth Edition, the origin of the artifact needs to be considered as there is no way Hermetic magic could create such a powerful prophetic device, and by extension Roman magic should be incapable of doing this either. Such divinatory powers might be related to the Greek oracles.

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

The last chapter of this book, Tales of Mistridge, contains a sad, ghost-filled adventure called Echo. In pursuit of a ghost that seems to try to get to their covenant, the characters come upon an hermitage desecrated by undead that still covet the treasures hidden inside it. The PCs must brave the undead to gain the treasure and, perhaps, lay the wandering spirit to rest.

The story is deeply connected to the past of Mistridge, but it can be adapted to other covenants if a covenant like Windgraven, employing undead servants, can be located nearby. If not, further adaptation may be needed. For example, the ghost seeking the covenant can be that of a recap, and the undead grogs replaced with ones sent by diabolists - perhaps an Hermetic one, seeking to prevent the redcap from reaching the covenant for some reason.

Promises, Promises

"If they choose to do something different, however, this is not a problem, since when [the Quaesitor] Timor arrives, she will require that they recover the Stone or face immediate Renunciation (expulsion from the Order and likely subsequent death)."

Promises, Promises is a short, free, downloadable scenario that is available in several languages. It was released close to Ars Magica Fourth Edition and is meant to be an introduction to Ars Magica, serving to introduce various important concepts for playing Magi from the Order of Hermes.

The adventure begins with the Final Twilight of the covenant's leader, Stephan, leaving only the PCs in charge. Immediately a Redcap arrives with the message that a Quaesitor and Hoplite are about to investigate the covenant for some serious crime. Quick rummaging through Stephan's affects reveals that he has secured a charter for the covenant grounds by providing a magic item, an enchanted stone, to the abbey that owns the land. It is made clear that this is against the Code and punishable by death to all. The players must undo the contract and retrieve the stone.

Note that under Fifth Edition, there is very little crime here. In some tribunals, the Peripheral Code may be so severe that Stephan's actions might nevertheless make the magi "court wizards" of the abbot, but this is not clearly the case. For a Mundane Interference charge, these dealings have to harm other magi (ArM5 page 14), which does not seem readily apparent. Indeed, the major crime here seems to be simply that Stephan effectively sold a permanent magic item without going through a mundane middleman (see ArM5 page 17).

A milder Fifth Edition alternative to the railroading is, hence, to make the sell of a permanent magic item the crime, and encourage the PCs to negotiate replacing the stone with less permanent solutions lest their covenant be fined. The spurious hoplite can be dropped, and the nosy Quaesitor left as a nuisance rather then a life-and-death threat.

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.

In addition to pregenerated characters and the covenant, this 31-page pdf has three small adventures (each playable in a session or less).

One Small Favor: Maximianus, the covenant's leader, tells the characters to help a local lord, whose daoughter fell down a hole and disappeared. Investigation reveals she has been abducted by faeries, and the characters must rescue her - but negotiation, or force.

Maximianu's Final Twilight': Maximianu's final twilight threatens to break the covenant - literally, as well as socially as the covenfolk chafe against the rule of the new magi in this time of crisis. The PCs must quickly save what they can of the covenant and their authority.

The Tribunal: A free-form tribunal session for the Stonehenge tribunal, with representatives from Nigrasaxa and four other covenants. Each representative brings with him a few conflicts with other covenants that he'd like to resolve, and a few desires for resources that Nigrasaxa (or other covenants) may provide.

Sub Rosa

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

Unofficial

Adventures from the net.