Goethe: The King in Thule, The Minstrel, and the Cavalier’s Choice.
Our last episode of ballads from Goethe. Thanks again to the Librivox recorders. Shall we start with a potential candidate for cursed treasure? The King in ThuleA King there was in Thule,Kept troth unto the graveThe maid he loved so trulyA goblet to him gave.And ever set before himAt banquet was the cup And saddening…
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A satanic pact from “Wonderful London”
“Wonderful London” was published in 1878 and has a little fragment which is useful in roleplaying games. The anonymous narrator is talking with a late-night coffee seller about his most unusual customers, and there’s an odd little Satanic pact mentioned. Over to Peter Yearsley, from Librivox, with thanks to him and his team. *** Why,…
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Goethe : Seven Sleepers, The False Lover and The Water-man
The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus The Seven Sleepers has some deep links in Ars Magica lore., because an Infernal variant of them appears in Tribunals of Hermes: Rome. The Islamic version of this story has a sleeping dog that guards the door of the cave, which has made its way to Goethe. That character entered…
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Ashcan and audio of Mythic Venice Chapter One
An ashcan, by way of an explanation, is a proof of concept piece of work. In terms of the public facing part of this, it now pauses until the Atlas license goes live. I don’t want to do substantial layout work and then find, for example, that the character of Tytalus is off the table.…
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Witch stories: The Headless Bear and the Witch on the Plank
This is the third and last episode in our little series of witch stories by Linton. There was one story that I cut out because in the LibriVox recording the story took around 20 minutes, and I wanted it mostly for its Tolkienesque twist. Here’s the precis: There is a witch, a man, unusually, who…
Read MoreA note on the Venice material: I’ve changed the Palace.
Hello! The ashcan version of the players’ chapter is all but ready to be released. I accidentally gave unclear instructions to the cartographer about a map and he labelled it in Italian and English, so once he tidies that up I’ll have that ready to go out. The temptation, of course, is to put it…
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Goethe: The Erl-King, The Treasure Seeker and the Magician’s Apprentice
This is the second episode of poems from Goethe. Two of these will get stats eventually, and the middle is what happens when you fumble while selling your soul. Alan Mapstone pronounces “Erl king” in a way that I’m forced to admit is correct, but sounds strange to my ear. The word he’s saying is…
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Venice : A Revener on the Lagoons from Horatio Brown
I found a little ghost story in my researches for Venice. It has what we’d call a revener in Ars Magica (see Realms of Power: The Infernal). I’m not usuing this story in the Venice material, although I suggest a valle, as described later, might make a good navigable point outside The Shoruded Glen ritual…
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The Cranes of Ibycus by Frederich Schiller
The Birds of Nephelococcygia were first described for Ars Magica in Realms of Power: Magic. They didn’t really get much use after this, but they’re an interesting group, because they offer a soft Titanomachy, without all of the destruction required of the Viktir version in Deis Irae. These creatures are based on a play by…
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Games From Folktales 