Ars Magica: Light in the Looking Glass

Back in the mid-90s, I belonged to a BBS called Red Wizard's Castle out of Toronto. Several of us were Ars Magica fans and in a thread, we posted tongue-in-cheek versions of our moderns selves in Ars Magica terms. One of the players decided this sounded like an interesting "Ars Modernica" campaign concept and took the idea and ran with it.

We set it 1995 Toronto, since all of us were from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). We each created a character sheet of ourselves with some editing to have us all in and around Toronto. For example, I was in university at the time so my school became the University of Toronto. The reference of the government organization investigating the occult, just remember, The X-Files had just come out. :)

I saved as much of the campaign as I could in printout form, but I had some of it as a softcopy. I've posted the first two postings here, after mentioning it to Tim. This is based on Ars Magica 3rd edition, where there was a realm of "Reason" that suppressed all other realms (Magica, Faerie, Infernal, and Divine). It was White Wolf's attempt to tie Ars Magica to the World of Darkness when they still owned Ars Magica. (There's a reason there's a Clan Tremere -- they appropriated House Tremere from Ars Magica!) The realm of Reason was nixed in later editions.

Initial Posting

Initial Posting

Red Wizard's Castle BBS

May 15, 1995, 14:58:16
From: JALAPENO
To: All
Subject: The Light in the Looking Glass

All of you should have a pretty good idea of what this game's all about, but just to set it out once and for all, here's an overview.

The Light in the Looking Glass is a tale of magic in the twentieth century. During the sixties, a cache of carefully preserved tomes, equipment and enchantments was found, locked away in an attic. These, combined with a gathered collection of Hermetic writings, provided the basis of a possessor of the Gift to educate himself in Hermetic Lore. After twenty year of experimentation, he had mastered enough magic to pass this knowledge to several aspiring youths, who just happen to bear a great resemblance to a certain group of Ars Magica players.

The setting is Toronto, the year is 1995. All the character have had approximately ten years of Hermetic education, on top of mundane schooling. Naturally, the characters are to be based on ourselves, but we are to overlook some details. For convenience sake, the characters must have been in Toronto for a good deal of the last ten years. This means a little modification for Dire, Gryphy and perhaps others. All the characters at present should be living in the GTA, with convenient access to Metro. In mundane histories, abilities and attributes, try to stick as close as possible to yourself, within bounds of an ArM character. Don't worry if the character doesn't fit you to a T, (the worst you'll get is a little friendly ribbing about that list of straight +5 stats :). In statistics, we're going to deviate a little from the usual character generation. Make your eight main stats whatever you feel represents you, and don't worry if you exceed a balance (I'd be surprised if in this bunch we hit anyone under 0 total), unless it's by some ridiculous amount (I'm trusting your good game judgement, and modesty :) Your initial XP should be AROUND twice your age, again, a little deviation is allowed, to ensure your character's abilities mimic your own.

As far as mystical traits are concerned, feel free to take a few, if you think a magical you would have them -- this is where we really leave the paths of our own lives. For example, I'm likely to take faerie blood for my character, since I have a great interest in the fay, and I've chosen to tie that into my magic. If you think you'd have Empathy (or you think you DO have Empathy), take it as a virtue. Likewise, if you think your parents are demon-spawn, you can take Diabolic Upbringing (though make sure Mom and Dad never see your character sheet :). Your virtues and flaws should, as usual, balance out and not exceed +10/-10

Hermetic Virtues and flaws will require a good sense of atmosphere. Don't take virtues that don't fit the scenario and some virtues may be worth more or less. Being a Redcap or Quaesitor or having Hermetic Prestige means diddly-squat, since there's not Hermetic Order, save this small bunch of magi. If you come across something which is iffy, check with me first. Finally, your art scores and spells: you have fifty points to purchase each with, form any arts you wish.

Ah yes... a couple of more things.... Reason is not as big a problem now as it was for Medieval wizard. Being immersed in it since childhood has built up a tolerance for your magi. Certainly, they'll have problems casting spells in a lecture hall full of physicists, but they can use a computer without ruining their magical sensitivities. Spells can be stored on computer, but magical text cannot be read while in the computer (ie in an editor), it must be transferred on to a hardcopy before it becomes useful. Magic and advanced technology cannot work in tandem (you can't read stuff off a computer disk with a InTe spell, or use a tape recorder to pick up a CrIm spell). Two more points... RWC may or may not exist in this world. I'm not sure yet, but even if it does, the characters aren't on it -- they all met through the Professor's program. Ars Magica doesn't exist in this world either. We are all stuck playing AD&D. :)

The next message contains some background material, keep your eyes open for more as it is produced and get those imaginations cracking!

pax vocum,
Jalapeno

History

May 15, 1995, 14:57:52
From: JALAPENO
To: All
Subject: A bit of history

In the mid sixties, Gwen Llewy, a young doctor of Medieval history, recently graduated from Oxford, inherited a small country cottage in Wales. In the attic, she found an amazing collection of odd books, charts, and paraphenalia dealing, in latin, with various subjects of the occult. She contacted a colleague, Duncan Medraugh, who was well-versed in both latin, and the occult, and the two of them spent a week sorting through the chests of material. During this time, it became apparent that these twelfth-century items were the tools, records, and scriptures of an organization of alchemists and scholars, known as the Order of Hermes. Dr. Llewy recognized the name from something a friend in Canada had mentioned he was studying, and contacted him over it. When Medraugh heard that she had spread the news, he flew into a rage, claiming that this knowledge was not to be shared with others. When Gwen insisted her friend see the equipment, Medraugh stole a good part of the books and fled from the cottage. Dr. Llewy tried to track him down with the aid of the police, but the trail went cold, with him travelling into the north of Ireland.

Her friend, Professor Siegfried Morgan, who had been a long-time practitioner of ceremonial magic, arrived from Canada shortly after, and looked over the remaining books. He had only scanned them for a few minutes before he insisted she return to Canada with him, and bring the cache of artifacts. They took the next flight to Toronto, and there, at Morgan House, the Professor's home, he showed her a collection of scrolls and artifacts, scribed with symbols very similar to the ones in the books. According to Morgan, the Hermetic Order was not simply a group of scholars, but an association of powerful wizards. The two studied the books over the next decade, and in the process got married. PRofessor Morgan discovered through certain incantations, he could do impossible things. Dr. Llewy, though she was as well, or perhaps better versed in the Lore of the order, and the magical knowledge, was unable to work spells, it seemed she lacked the Gift mentioned so many times in the tomes, referring to a magician's power. Professor Morgan grew in power over the next several years, and began his own experiments and writings. He discovered a whole new world of magic, including a rare type of matter known as vis, the existence of faeries, and the fact that demons still roamed the earth.

In 1976, Duncan Medraugh, now Sir Mordred Dunn, resurfaced. It seemed he had been studying his part of the ancient library, and had the Gift as well. He appeared at Morgan House and engaged the Professor in magical combat in an attempt to capture the rest of the books. While the two struggled, Gwen took her hunting rifle off the wall and shot Medraugh in the shoulder. The rival magician fled and was not seen for several years. When Professor Morgan recovered from his battle, he continued his studies, no more careful than ever to secure his lab form intrusion. In the mid-eighties, after two more unsuccessful attempts by Mordred to capture the books and several other attempts to destory the Professor and Doctor's professional reputations, Morgan decided he would take an apprentice.

Under the pretense of a seminar in European folklore for youths at the ROM, he began to investigate the interested population of Toronto. The first possible student he found was Gord McLeod, an eleven-year-old boy who obviously possessed the Gift. He located several others: Eric Pommer, Sarah Imrisek, David Clark and Mark Pascual. These students were offered the opportunity to "study history" on weekends, during the summer and after school with the Professor and Dr. Llewy at the museum, and later at Morgan House. Over ten years, through computer, fax, telephone, dreaded "homework" assignments and many 'trips to the museum', as lessons became known, the students all developed their magical skills. Later in their studies, when students began to reach adulthood, Morgan managed to offer them high school or university credits in "Medieval History and Folklore" in return for the time they spent learning magic.

In 1990, through explorations of the Internet, Dr. Llewy-Morgan found a rumour of a U.S. government organization dedicated to the investigation of the occult. Through a few years of research and, in 1994, a very close call with the FBI, Gwen discovered that the organization did exist. It was a small section of the FBI, unofficially known as the Inquisition. The Inquisition's role is to locate, apprehend and study anyone showing signs of supernatural power.

Evidently, Morgan, Llewy and Dunn were not the only ones to discover magical techniques, for in a file that someone within the Inquisition had leaked to Gwen, there was a list of nearly twenty organizations that had shown some capability for magic. Aft er the near-uncovering of Professor Morgan's school by the Inquisition, he began to study powerful magical artifacts to hide it from detection. Morgan had had some accidents in magic before, which had approximated descriptions of Twilight given in the old texts, and he well knew the dangers of using this sort of magic, especially since he had been reserving himself on longevity potions for two decades. As he performed a spll that would direct inquiring minds away from Morgan House, and defend it from magical invasion, he was caught up in one Final Twilight and in the presence of his students and wife, Professor Morgan vanished from the world.

It is from two months after Professor Morgan's Final Twilight that our game begins.