Hooks / Rumors

Covenant Hooks

 * A heretical penitent cult and a leper and making themselves known in the city of Rome as poison and disease runs rampant. (dfd)
 * According to legend, the founder Guernicus was hounded by an enemy wizard who sought the secrets of Guernicus' terrae magic. Guernicus buried his foe alive along with the scrolls he so desperately sought. Finding these scrolls would be a source of prestige and insight into a pre-Hermetic tradition. (unclaimed)
 * A Quaesitor recently went missing in the Rhine. (dfd)
 * The Black Bishop has really pissed off Vardian's Tomb. A friendly bard named Santino says he can tell you how to put an end to him. (johns)
 * Alphubel wants to pursue research on unifying the Realms of Power in Hermetic theory (johns)
 * Derfel lost his legendary spear/relic to the hands of the Great Company, ruthless mercenaries (johns)
 * Lavinia wants to bring the Augustan Brotherhood into the Order of Hermes.
 * Gulielmus' mentor Renard is currently a prisoner of the Order of Suleiman, and may be responsible for the loss of Sansarron covenant. (johns)
 * Guy has commited horrible murder using Divine Vis, a secret known to multiple Tytalans in the tribunal including Lavinia. Surely there will be consequences. (unclaimed?)
 * Rosario wants to find the lost talisman of Flambeau (johns)
 * Lavinia believes she has divined the location of the lost city of Troy. She wants to sponsor an expedition there. (unclaimed)
 * The covenant, while retrieving one of the rings of Verditius, caused the ruin of a Corsican family, who will surely have a vendetta. (dys?)
 * The covenant possesses one of a set of tablets the profess to lead to the lost city of Canaan, desired by necromancers. Though no one in the covenant has a particular interest in necromancy or Canaanite history, perhaps someone else in the Order does. (unclaimed)
 * Derfel's life has been guided by a powerful Fae that wants him to assume a role like that of Eustace the Monk -- an outlaw mercenary friar trained in the dark arts. As a Fae it has a pretty set idea of the story it wants for Derfel, but is willing to accept certain liberties in how he achieves the important milestones of the tale. Derfel for his part wants nothing to do with this.

Distant Expedition Hooks

 * Using old correspondence records from the fallen Temple of Mercury, it may be possible to locate other temples of the ancient cult around Mythic Europe. (Unclaimed)
 * The cats Ailuros and Maahes Tyreos can direct you to the ruins of the Mechanician Cult of Heron in the area of Alexandria. The ruined temples will have many items of magical interest and can help you reconstruct the Mechanica mystery. (johns)
 * The journal of 10th century magus Prosperus of Jerbiton points to a magical regio located in the strait of Messina known as the Island of Airy Spirits. Prosperus never returned from his own expedition there. (johns)
 * House Tremere maintains stockpiles of resources in the deserts of North Africa. These would be worth looting. (cthinker?)
 * Some opportunities investigated but not pursued for combating the blight could still be followed up on:
 * Researching a way to the Canary Islands
 * Researching a way to the Kingdom of Prestor John
 * Fiorella's Jerbiton society and family connections are relevant to both of these
 * Recovering Institus' of Criamon's magnum opus, Catalog of Curiosities, which lists multiple magic realm vestiges, from Tremere Oppidium of the Scholomance in the Transylvania tribunal

The Great Pestilence

 * The Great Herbam Blight Pestilence has sent shockwaves through the Order of Hermes and beyond.
 * Famine and plague are growing widespread through Europe, fueling discontentment and peasant uprisings, and a belief that these are the end times.
 * Powerful members of the Order of Hermes have offered many options for dealing with the pestilence, none of them useful.
 * Herisson's Garden is free of the effects of the blight through the efforts of its former patron, as described by Richard Strabo. The means of protecting from the blight may be a clue to the blight's nature. The Bjoarner council has taken over the regio to research it themselves.
 * Tethys of Tytalus, expert on plant disease, went into twilight from a serious lab accident prior to the blight. Her note to Gulielmus after she returned indicated her theory of the order of the blight, and that it was caused by that lab accident, bringing a clump of diseased wheat to life and letting it enter the realm of magic.

Rumors & News

 * Before he disappeared, Venator warned the covenant not to trust the Primus of House Tremere, and shared that he had feuded with a necromancer cult in Normandy.
 * Aurora, gifted elder Maga of Harco covenant, also has a feud with the Tremeres.
 * The forest near Pamphili estate is home to a powerful ancient magical daimon of vengeance, the She-Wolf. The She-Wolf empowers those who feel they have been wronged and denied justice.
 * Galafre of Merinita, loathed antagonist, has disappeared from the Roman Tribunal. His cuckoo son Valentin, after turning traitor against Joanna I of Naples, has joined the court of Louis I, King of Hungary as a powerful knight after saving the king from an alleged assassination attempt.

Obsolete

 * There is a submerged faerie regio level under Vulcanal covenant, whose entrance the troupe found but did not explore. (dfd)
 * Anson of Bonisagus needs the covenant's help to rebuild Vulcanal. (dfd)
 * Adronicus of Literatus has informed you that the Baron Torquato di Conti has a spy in your covenant. (Storyguide: Johns)
 * Hugo di Capocci, ally of the covenant, has been assembling a diverse array of mystics, hedge wizards, and magical items in his court.
 * Orsu Paganacci and Potom Flos, formerly of Vardian's tomb, has joined this court. The Hedge Wizards have taken a commanding rule in Capocci's domain.
 * The plains of Allumiere are laden with lead, silver, and arsenic, and supernatural beings of various realms. Having visited it once, the covenant may come up with ways to exploit the place. Conte di Capocci is the land's mundane ruler and has issued a charter granting Vardian's Tomb mining rights.
 * The untended vineyards of the Vulcanal covenant are overgrown and wild within their Faerie aura. Anson's guards claim to have seen monstrous women cavorting between the rows and are fearful of leaving the covenant grounds.
 * In his research at Durenmar, Venator has uncovered the possible location of an old schism war battlesite where Averna, a legendary Tytalan necromancer, dueled a powerful Diedne. No seekers have properly investigated the site so it may have remains of their magic and Averna's sanctum. The site is in the hills near the village of Allumiere, not far from Rome, and was also the site of a lucrative lead mine in the pagan era. (Storyguide: Johns)
 * Aristocritus wants to explore shipwrecks and undersea sites. (Storyguide: Johns)
 * Before it was destroyed by Saracen raiders, the Benedictine monastery of St. Sylvester on Zannone island was believed to house a fabulous treasure. The sole survivor of the monastery's destruction is now a priest in the city of Rome. (Storyguide: Johns)
 * The ancient Cult of Mercury had a central Temple of Mercury complex as its headquarters. Though its location is long lost, it is reasonable to assume it is somewhere in or near Rome.
 * The covenant has uncovered the ruins of an Arch that are the entrance to the Temple's regio. The Arch is missing part of its Triumphal engravings and is impassable. Restoring the arch may be the key to accessing the temple.
 * Bonisagus lived in the city of Rome in the 8th century and found a cache of Mercurian scrolls in a well near his uncle's home. The location of his find would be a site of interest to other magi.
 * Acting without the knowledge of Venator Ex Miscellenae, the magi of Vardian's Tomb battled and defeated a demon posing as an angel in the Pantheon. He left behind a mysterious rod inscribed with the words, "King Solomon made me for Kabshiel the Castigator." Tests done outside the covenant by a source of Venator's indicate that it is of Divine origin. Where did this ancient artifact come from?
 * Proclus and Orsu are both trying to woo the lady Hannelore.
 * No one has explored the full extent of the catacombs of Rome. (Unclaimed)


 * Hakim Kemal, a Sahir hedge wizard, has established himself as a pirate lord on Ponza island protected by his servant jinn and a fleet of buccaneers. He terrorizes the seas but more importantly is squatting on valuable magical lands. (Storyguide: Johns)
 * Kemal has worked for or against mundane powers in Italy, Sicily, and Aragon at varying times in his long career, leaving behind a trail of bitter enemies and clues to the nature of his powers.


 * Rome has 16 trade guilds: the Merchants, the Farmers, the Drapers, the Bankers, the Wool-Manufacturers, the Physicians and Apothecaries, the Judges and Notaries, the Blacksmiths, the Bakers, the Cobblers, the Chandlers, the Tanners, the Carpenters, and the Wine Sellers. All of these guilds have secrets and some of them might even be magical. It's up to the Covenant's Grogs to investigate them. [Grog Adventure] (Storyguide: Unclaimed)
 * The fairy Saint Simon Zealot has built up a substantial, heretical cult in the Pantheon, the source of the Coveant's Vim vis. (Storyguide: Endrite
 * A giant spider beast attacked a party on its way back from Durenmar, reciting the names of its targets as it did so. Among these targets was Simon, apprentice of Archibald. (johns)
 * Servants of an infernal power known as the "Emperor" have surfaced in Central Italy and taken an interest in Mercurian artifacts. (johns
 * A correspondence in the fallen Temple of Mercury refers to a Mercurian site known as the "Emperor's Pit," located somewhere near the present-day city of Isernia. The correspondence is signed by a centurion named Varro Claudius Colonnus.
 * Isernia was conquered in 1349 by the duke of the modern house of Colonna. A diabolist magister in the duke's employ claimed to be serving the Emperor he called "Caesar." In addition to Mercurian artifacts were artifacts from the ancient infernal Cult of Zenodorus
 * Gulielmus has returned from his captivity among the Sahirs with awareness of the Lands of the Nile and their magical treasures. (Unclaimed)
 * The City of Brass is a famed magical site among those with Suleimanic lore (or those who have read 1,001 Nights). It is said to be a place touched by the magic of King Solomon, who was able to bind powerful magic Jinn to bottles. (johns)
 * Renard of Flambeau, occasional ally of the covenant and mentor of Gulielmus, wants to organize raids against Order of Suleiman sites for resources. (johns)