Stranggore

The official name of the covenant "the Wizards' Council of the Stranggore".

Covenant Overview

Stranggore is a Winter covenant that was once arguably the mightiest collection of wizards in the British Isles, but has now crumbled almost to ruin. It is located in the Stonehenge Tribunal in the county of Somerset, on the real-world site of Maesbury Castle.

Reputation

Wise and learned magi +3

Purpose

The covenant is dedicated to safeguarding the land of Britain -- though since the Code of Hermes forbids magi interfering in mundane affairs, it is not clear exactly what this means. It has roots that go back to ancient times, before the Order arrived in the British Isles, and 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.

Certainly the covenant pays no homage to the heirs of that upstart Norman usurper William the Bastard.

Characters

See also the Character Index for other characters who don't reside at the covenant.

Magi

At the start of the Saga, the covenant has only three members:

• Argus
• Merewen
• Orzek

Companions

• Agnes, apprentice to Merewen
• Cedric the raven, familiar to Argus
• Maggie the cat, familiar to Merewen
• Torkel

Grogs

• Harold the Mad
• John the Peddlar
• Junior, a.k.a. Paul, the man-at-arms

Covenfolk

• Bertha the Cook
• Brian the Mad, aged autocrat of Stranggore covenant
• Katherine the Chambermaid

Neighbors

• Godwyn
• Thomas the Poacher
• Village of Barstow
• Village of Shepton Mallet

Other Player Characters

• Godwyn (may or may not be joining)
• James (will be joining shortly)
• Thomas the Poacher, Godwyn's servant and partner in crime

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 overlord of the village of Barstow and some surrounding hamlets. This provides income in the form of tax revenue 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. The grogs technically can't be fired by the magi because only the lord of the castle is supposed to do that; and there has not been a lord of the castle since the eleventh century.

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.: 40
• Casey: 40
• John: 40
• Matt: 34
• Vesna: 40

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

Library

see

• Stranggore Library
• Stranggore Grimoire

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
• 20 pawns Vim
• 12 pawns Intellego
• 10 pawns of Muto

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.

Uncontested Sources

Throne - Rego oath blood which stays wet (12 pawns/year each Winter)

• Oath blood will burn a traitor like acid +10 damage.

Unspecified source - 6 Vim / year (sufficient to sustain the Aegis of the Hearth')

Contested Sources

Pear Tree - Muto ferments as soon as picked (4 pawns/year, 2 in Summer and 2 in Autumn)

• Can make anyone who eats one drunk for Moon.

Income

We haven't discussed income in detail yet so this is preliminary

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.

Structure & Location

(We are still discussing what the physical structure of the covenant should look like. This is not final and indeed will probably change.)

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 covenant site is surrounded by a grassy rampart about 25' high. The rampart encloses an oblong area about 900' x 600'. From the outside, only the rooftop and ivy-covered towers are visible, making the place look like a ruined castle.

There are weathered but serviceable wooden gates defending two entryways through the rampart.

Inside the earthworks is a large yard occupied by a hall keep with two square towers. The towers are ivy-covered and dilapidated but apart from a few roof leaks the hall is in serviceable condition. The hall keep contains an impressive great hall and kitchen on the first floor, and sancta for four magi on the second floor. The towers are each four stories high and once housed four sancta each, but these have been abandoned for decades and are falling to ruin.

The main keep has deep basements two levels deep, which are now mostly disused.

Outbuildings once served as a stable (with attached smithy), granary, and servants' quarters. These are all ruined and overgrown with weeds and bushes.

There is a dilapidated stone wall linking the outbuildings with the hall keep. It is about 8' high but is tumbling down in several places.

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 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.

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.