All articles filed in Ars Magica

A ghost story with a cheat at the end, which could still be a great Ars Magica monster. Statistics eventually. Thanks to Dale Grothman and his team at Librivox. *** “Happy” Bill Ransom of struggling Medical College days is now Dr. William Ransom, world renowned surgeon, and collects thousands in fat fees every year. But…

Some simpler stories this time. The creatures from a version of the Seven Pork Rinds were used in Realms of Power: Faerie, so no new stats. I like this because its a very early, particularly successful, confidence trick. Let’s start with some Burtonish faux-Jacobean. Seven Pork Rinds An old woman, a beggar, giveth a good…

So, this audio went live six months early. The episode that I meant to schedule will come out next week in audio. The Face Burton’s faux-Jacobean on this story is “Renza is shut in a tower by her father, it having been foretold that she would die through a big bone. She falleth in love…

Taking this poem literally, there’s a woman here with a regio inside herself, and the things people do in there affect her personality traits. I love this as an idea for a non-player character, and it seems similar to the Dream Magic rules we have for people who are turned into memories. Thanks to Andrew…

A missed transcript. This is a cutdown of a story from Black Spirits and White. Thanks to the Librivox team! Statistics eventually. *** The last room fell to me, and I looked it over carefully. It seemed innocent enough, a commonplace, square, rather lofty Parisian sleeping-room, finished in wood painted white, with a small marble…

In The Ballad of the Harp Weaver, we see a magic item which uses, what in Ars Magica terms is, Drudic magic that allows you to spend life energy instead of vis. This sort of blood magic is also sometimes practiced by Cthonic magicians, but here we just see Fatigue and Wounds poured out to…

This week, two poems linked by the theme of hearts eaten away. I was going to save this for Halloween, but I’m sure something else will appear. The first was recorded for Librivox by Devorah Allen, and could be reskinned from the Miser’s Pot in Realms of Power: Infernal. Stats eventually. For where your treasure…

The Burton version of this story is, in his own words, summarized as “Nardiello is sent three times by his father to buy some wares with an hundred ducats each time. The first time he buyeth a mouse, the next a large crab-louse, and then a cricket, and being expelled by his father for this,…

This is one of my favourite stories in this collection, because it’s obvious a magus with a Hermetic twist is loose in the background, mucking people about. let’s hear Burton’s take on the plot, in his weird mock-Jacobean English: Penta scorneth to wed her brother, and cutting off her hands, sendeth them to him as…