Stranggore Boons and Hooks

The covenant of Stranggore has the following Boons and Hooks.

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 used to lay claim to an enchanted pear tree in The Weld. In the past, this was a Contested Resource. In the autumn of 1197, Hywel Mawr relocated the tree to the covenant grounds, so it's no longer contested.

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.

Rival (minor)

Stephen is a probable danger to the covenant of Stranggore.

Unknown (x2)

We have two Unknown hooks that can be developed later.

This totals 9 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 used to be +4, but when John usurped the throne, the aura suffered as England suffers.

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.

Hidden Resources

There is probably all kinds of useful stuff in the hoard of Brian the Mad, the disused laboratories, and the sancta of the senior magi.

This totals 10 points of Boons.