Stranggore

The official name of the covenant is "the Wizards' Council of the Kingdom of Stranggore". It has a proud and regal heritage and was once one of the pre-eminent covenants of the Stonehenge Tribunal, but has now fallen into the senility and decrepitude of Winter. It is located in Somerset, England on the historical site of Maesbury Castle, along the ancient Roman road known as the Fosse Way.

Introduction

Stranggore is a very old covenant that has sunk into stagnation and decay. It was once very well-respected and is still admired for the many great historical British magi who once called it home. It has roots that go back to ancient times, before the Order of Hermes arrived in the British Isles. In the early days it was sworn to the service of a royal court. The covenant still has symbols and customs that acknowledge that heritage. Some of these are subtle -- for example, the head wizard of the covenant is called the Chancellor -- and others are overt, like the grogs' green-on-gold livery or the carved wooden throne that stands empty in the council chamber, a reminder of its ancient (and, officially, forsaken) royal allegiance.

When the Stonehenge Tribunal was incorporated into the Order of Hermes, the wizards of Stranggore were forced, on pain of death, to renounce their allegiance to mundane kings. They re-dedicated their covenant to safeguarding the land of Britain -- though it is not clear exactly what this means.

The covenant has a certain nostalgia for the ancient Britons, though by now the Britons in England are only a legend, even among wizards. (The remaining descendants of the ancient Britons in 1220 are the Welsh.) Certainly the covenant pays no homage to the heirs of that upstart Norman usurper William the Bastard.

Characters

To simplify maintenance, all characters (both player and non-player) are on the Character Index page.

Residents of the covenant include:

Magi

• Argus, Chancellor of Stranggore
• Merewen and her apprentice, Agnes
• Ozerk, currently missing
• Sandre Paen of House Tremere
• Caballus
• Peregrine
• Hywel Mawr

Fighting Grogs

• Bloody Bill
• George the Bastard
• Junior
• Randolph

In addition, there are several grogs who take more comfortable quarters in Barstow:

• Angus
• Edgar
• Eustace
• John the Pedlar

Servants

• Bertha the cook
• Catherine the chambermaid
• Joseph the errand-boy
• Rhys the orphan

Ghosts

• Ghost of Charles
• Ghost of Lady Elinore
• Ghost of Matthew
• Ghost of Wilfrid

More ghosts to come ...

Covenant Statistics

Hooks

Hooks are more interesting than Boons, so we list them first.

Centralized Kingdom

Simply setting the Saga in England is worth a Hook, because every piece of land has an owner and everyone is subject to the king's law. This is especially a Hook when the king is John Lackland.

Contested Resource

The covenant has a distant vis source in The Weld: an enchanted pear tree that yields 4 pawns of Muto vis per year. Unfortunately they haven't been collecting from it for a few decades and now other individuals, including Godwyn, think it's up for grabs.

Crumbling

The castle is ancient and crumbling. The player characters are probably going to want to fix it up, which would require stories to get both the money and the labor.

Flickering Aura

The magi of Stranggore must perform occasional mystical ceremonies in order to maintain the Magical aura. Sometimes these ceremonies require odd ingredients, involve obscure prophecies, or are otherwise interesting.

Protector

The covenant is the mundane landlord of the village of Barstow and some surrounding hamlets. This provides income in the form of rent but also creates an obligation to protect the village.

Rights and Customs

The grogs and covenfolk have traditional rights and customs that go back to ancient days. They expect lots of holidays and two annual feasts. Only the Chancellor can dismiss grogs from service.

Road (minor)

The covenant is located along the Fosse Way, one of the mystical ancient roads of Britain. We chose this as a Minor Hook because we don't want it to dominate the Saga. It will definitely create some stories, though.

Unknown (x3)

Each player has one Hook that is Unknown and can be developed later.

This totals 10 points of Hooks.

Boons

The Wizards' Council of Stranggore enjoys the following Boons:

Fortifications (Major)

We are using the Fortifications Boon from the core book, rather than the Castle Hook from Covenants, because we don't really see how having a castle produces a major amount of stories. The covenant is an ancient ringwork castle with a (less ancient but still crumbling) manor. There are some additional magical defenses to round it out to Major Fortifications.

Favors Owed (Major)

In ancient days, before the Order of Hermes came to Britain, the Wizards' Council of Stranggore forged alliances with numerous mystical beings: spirits of the wood and streams, ghosts of pagan kings, Ravens of Virtue, and so on. Some of those alliances are still honored, though they will require research and diplomacy to activate. (Whether those allies can also ask help of the covenant falls under the Unknown Hooks we've left to the discretion of the storyguides.)

Aura

The Magical aura for the covenant and its living area is +4.

Informants

The villagers of Barstow report interesting happenings to the covenant. Merewen also has other descendants scattered about the shire who can occasionally feed information, and of course Argus (or more accurately, his familiar, Cedric) is a significant source of information in his own right.

Loyal Covenfolk

Largely because of their rights and customs, the covenfolk and grogs are especially loyal.

Unknown

We have one point of Boons left to balance the Hooks; it is currently Unknown and can be assigned by some future storyguide. Probably it will take the form of Hidden Resources.

This totals 10 points of Boons.

Resources

The covenant is designed with 1250 points of resources, which puts it at the high end of the "medium" power scale. Our objective is to give the player magi enough resources that they can develop and pursue their own agendas, but not so many that they can get everything they need without leaving the covenant walls.

Players' Discretionary Build Points

Each player (except Andrew G., the Alpha Storyguide) has a budget of covenant build points to spend on anything he or she wants, subject to the limits imposed by the rules. Here is how much each player has remaining:

• Andrew M.: 0
• Casey: 40
• John: 0
• Matt: 0
• Vesna: 40

Players, please reduce your point totals here when you add something to the covenant.

Specialists

• Valera, scholar of Barstow
• The Skull of Cissa (currently in Peregrine's lab, Summer 1195)

Library

see

• Stranggore Library
• Stranggore Grimoire
• Stranggore Labtexts

Enchanted Items

see

• Stranggore Enchantments

Vis Stocks

The vis stocks are available for use for covenant business. Members may take loans of up to 10 pawns of vis, to be repaid in kind within 2 years, at low interest (one pawn per year).

• 12 pawns Creo
• 14 pawns Vim
• 12 pawns Intellego
• 12 pawns of Muto
• 15 pawns of Corpus - Giant Bones (3 build points)

Vis Sources

The covenant's vis sources are worth 130 build points.

The covenant does not have a lot of reliable, perennial vis sources. The meta-game reason is that we want to encourage magi to go out and search for their own vis; the vis hunt will not often be a story in its own right, but it gets the magi out into the countryside where they can more easily discover story hooks. The in-game reason is that stable, renewable sources of vis are uncommon in our version of Mythic Europe. Most vis exists as one-off sources that magi harvest and deplete. This enables us to let magi find as much vis as they need, while still making perennial vis sources special and valuable.

See the Vis Guidelines for this Saga.

Uncontested Sources

• Throne: Oath blood which stays wet (12 pawns Rego/year each Winter). Each year the magi renew the Oath of Stranggore and drip their blood onto the arms of the throne. Due to mystical forces beyond Hermetic theory the mingled blood ceases to be an Arcane Connection to any of the magi and remains fresh and liquid for the whole year. This yields two pawns of Rego vis per magus per year.
• Moss from Milestones: The magi gather moss from the milestones along the Fosse Way. This provides 6 Vim / year (sufficient to sustain the Aegis of the Hearth). It could be harvested for more but that could diminish or destroy the yield for future years.

Contested Sources

• Pear Tree: Located in the Weld. Fruit ferments as soon as picked (4 pawns Muto/year, 2 in Summer and 2 in Autumn). Can make anyone who eats one drunk for Moon.

Mundane Resources

See:

• Stranggore Animals
• Stranggore Armory
• Stranggore Buildings

Income

We want to downplay the importance of money in the Saga. We take the view that magi need a lot less money than Covenants suggests. Most covenants keep a small turb so they don't have to spend a lot of money on equipment and payroll. Low expenses mean low income, and allow covenants to blend into the landscape instead of dominating it.

The covenant gets most of its income from two sources:

1. Rents from the village of Barstow and surrounding hamlets.
2. Sale of potions and magical services, mostly by Merewen.

Cash Reserves

50 pounds of silver available for covenant business.

Location and Neighbors

The covenant is located in the county of Somerset, on the real-world site of Masebury Castle (see the Google map. It is near several interesting magical sites, including Glastonbury Tor and Wookey Hole Caves.

The nearest settlement is the small village of Barstow, inhabited by peasants who work the covenant's land. It is about a mile away from the covenant. The nearest sizable village with a church and market is Shepton Mallet.

Physical Structure

The covenant of Stranggore stands in the center of an ancient ringwork fort on a hilltop with a panoramic view of the countryside.

Outer Defenses

The ancient earthworks are still very much intact, consisting of a steep rampart (well drained and sodded) between 15' and 20' high. There a gateway through the rampart, but as of 1195 it is just a gap in the rampart with no wall or gate.

From outside, only the peak of the roof and the towers are visible. Travelers often mistake the place for an abbey or a large church.

Bailey

Stranggore exterior

The bailey is an oblong area about 900' by 700'. It's open and grassy with a few apple trees scattered about. It encloses the main building, the grogs' cottages, and a few outbuildings, now all ruined.

Main Building

The main building is a large manor house about 85' x 65'. It is two stories high and has four square towers at the corners, each three stories high.

Ground Floor

Floor plan, ground floor

• Entry Hall
• Autocrat's Office
• Parlor
• Great Hall
• Kitchen
• Pantry
• Servants' Quarters
• Servants' Day Room
• Guards' Quarters
• Northwest tower: Hywel's sanctum
• Southwest tower: sanctum (currently used for hoarding by Brian the Mad)
• Northeast tower: Caballus's sanctum
• Southeast tower: Sandre's sanctum

Second Floor

Floor plan, 2nd floor

• Great hall (upper gallery)
• Autocrat's quarters
• Library
• Scriptorium
• Small meeting room (currently used as "storage" for various odds and ends)
• Northwest tower: sanctum (in ruins)
• Southwest tower: Argus's sanctum
• Northeast tower: Peregrine's sanctum
• Southeast tower: Merewen's sanctum

Third Floor

Floor plan, 3rd floor

• Northwest tower: empty sanctum (repaired Autumn 1196) - no laboratory yet
• Southwest tower: Argus's sanctum (second level) and observatory
• Northeast tower: sanctum (haunted and abandoned)
• Southeast tower: Ozerk's sanctum

Basement

• Armory
• Middens
• Storage for food and building materials

Sub-Basement

• Treasury
• Vault (contains vis and enchantments)
• Laboratory stockroom
• Summoning chamber
• Dungeon

Stable (ruined)

There was once a stable large enough to house ten horses, with an adjacent smithy. The roof has fallen in and the building is an abandoned ruin.

Guest House (ruined)

The guest house on the grounds is a spacious two-story cottage whose second level is large enough to serve as a laboratory. Unfortunately the building was gutted by fire over a hundred years ago and never rebuilt.

Potter's Shed (abandoned)

Until about 1170 the covenant maintained a potter on the premises to make containers and stoneware for the magi. This was a wooden building that is now dilapidated and abandoned.

Grogs' Cottages

The remaining grogs have built wooden cottages for themselves on the covenant grounds, where they live with their families. They also have a common barn where they keep chickens, pigs, two milk cows, and about a dozen sheep.

Surroundings

Stranggore is located in Somerset, which as far as I can tell (from a cursory browsing of Wikipedia) is divided into about 700 fiefs, not under control of a single noble. Presumably they are a mix of royal fiefs, ecclesiastical fiefs (controlled by the Bishop of Salisbury and/or the Bishop of Wells), and local barons. Some of these fiefs no doubt are held by great nobles of the realm. The royal fiefs are each maintained by a constable; manors would be maintained by a bailiff.

Nearby settlements include:

• Village of Barstow
• Village of Shepton Mallet

History

Main article: Stranggore History

The covenant of Stranggore traces its existence back to the days shortly after King Arthur. When Camelot fell, the petty kings who had sworn allegiance to Arthur re-asserted their independence. Stranggore was one of those small, early British kingdoms. Perhaps following the example of Arthur seeking the aid and counsel of Merlin, one of the kings of Stranggore gathered to his court the three most powerful wizards in the land. Under his patronage this circle of court wizards throve and grew for generations.

The Mythical Land of Stranngore

Stranggore is an early British kingdom mentioned briefly in the legend of King Arthur; in Le Morte D'Arthur, [Book I, Chapter XII], King Brandegoris of Stranggore is one of eleven kings who joined forces against King Arthur. In our history of Mythic Europe, the kingdom of Stranggore was defeated by Arthur and assimilated into his realm. After Camelot fell, several of Arthur's vassal kings reclaimed their independence, and Stranggore was one of these. It was in this post-Arthurian period of independence when the Wizards' Council of Stranggore was established.

No one really knows where Stranggore was in Mythic Europe; it's not a real place. It was probably in the northwest of England. The kingdom of Stranggore was eventually conquered by the invading Angles and Saxons. The Wizards' Council went into exile but survived, clinging to the hope of one day restoring the rightful British ruler.

The Wizards' Council and the Order of Hermes

When the wizards of the British Isles joined the Order of Hermes, the Wizards' Council of Stranggore was forced to relinquish its ties to the broken royal line of Stranggore. It renounced its royal ties and re-dedicated itself to the service and protection of Britain as a whole. The Grand Tribunal stipulated that the Wizards' Council of Stranggore must relocate away from its ancestral lands. So it came to settle in Somerset.

For two centuries Stranggore prospered. It was among the mightiest and most prestigious covenants of the Stonehenge Tribunal, attaining a size of twelve members. The events of the eleventh century -- the Schism War, followed by the Norman conquest -- sent the covenant into a slow but irreversible decline.

The Oath of Stranggore

The Wizards' Council's Oath of Stranggore has been unchanged for many years, last one being when they joined the Order, and has always been a blood oath. Every year on the Winter Solstice every member of the covenant cuts thier hand and swears the Oath of Stranggore before the Council:

By this blood, I swear to serve the kings of Stranggore so that through my wizard's council fulfill thier noble charge to protect this land from man and beast both magical and mundane, and through this service form a brotherhood of wizards whom together strive to keep this land fruitful magical and safe, and as this is the will of the Wizard's Council of Stranggore so it is my will to serve within the boundaries of my Hermetic Oath and conscious to God. This I do swear.

When the oath is complete one places thier hand on the Throne of Stranggore; this is the source of the Oath Blood Vis.