Amurgsval's Secrets

Amurgsval, like any covenant, has some things it attempts to keep quiet. The materials on this page are only meant for the eyes of folks who are either already in the campaign and aware of them, for storyguides using Amurgsval as an NPC covenant, or for folks definitely not planning on interacting with Amurgsval in their Saga.

Gambrinus' Breeding Project

Gambrinus spent many decades attempting to sculpt the folk of Amurgsval into being more magical beings. The population keeps to generally Celtic cultural patterns, including the worship of pagan gods. The annual fertility festival at Beltane was arranged to provide great mixing of bloodlines, with many local faeries and other supernatural creatures being invited to come along. With the supernatural blood mixing in from one direction and the warping caused by the magic aura being +6 or higher for quite some time, the peasants of Amurgsval have become quite peculiar, and quite magical. This is one aspect of Gambrinus' master plan: by having the entire population take part in magic-- both being magic and the magic of contact with pagan gods-- he was attempting to heighten the power of magic in the Valley.

Applied Geomancy

Another facet of Gambrinus' master plan was to meddle with the local leylines. He did this by setting up a standing stone network around the Valley, and where that wasn't quite enough, rearranging the local landscape, to cause all four local leylines to converge on the standing stone in the middle of the main brewvat at the bottom of the covenant. The most extreme thing he ever did toward this end was to build a mountain using a level 100 ritual that he had invented (with a lot of time and the help of a couple of apprentices). Since he didn't actually need the mountain for his purposes-- just the leyline going through the valley-- he made it into a gift for the local Seelie Court, receiving an excellent apprentice, Ciaran, in return.

Gambrinus' efforts have certainly been effective: Amurgsval had a +5 magic aura before the magi settled there, and since then, the valley has become a +7 regio.

The Four Treasures

When Gambrinus was about to build his mountain, several powerful gnomes-- the same sort who build weapons for gods-- showed up wanting one to be created for them. Gambrinus acquiesced, and they paid for the effort with four great treasures. The whole matter of these is generally kept quiet, since the news that Amurgsval has limited capability for resurrection would attract unwelcome attention.

Brenna, the Spear of Amurgsval: a spear with the power of sunlight, made of alder and bronze that must be kept in a vesel of water, as its head tends to be burning-hot and will blaze up when enemies threaten the valley. Gambrinus used it to put out one of the eyes of the dragon serving Tharviz.
Skarpr, the Sword of Amurgsval: a sword with the power of starlight, dedicated to fight demons; it is always kept with the scabbard Skarpkono, since their powers are lessened when separated, and a geas suggests this would be fatal.
Styrkr, the Boots of Amurgsval: hammered in darkness, these boots grant great strength and fortitude to the wearer. The man who wears these boots must never wash the socks he uses with the boots.
Djupastr, the Cauldron of Amurgsval: the most amazingly powerful artifact in the valley, it possesses truly impressive powers of healing. It is powered by the vis-rich beer brewed in Amurgsval, and is capable of creating vast quantities of food, of contributing greatly to the crops, and (when using large quantities of vis) healing folks of any disease or wound, including death. (This mode of healing involves being chopped up and cooked in the cauldron; Vector Tempestatum has done this for Aeolus, and this is how Aeolus gained his title Thrice-Born.) The vessel must always have its lid on when not in use, and the meat of dogs may not be cooked in it. The players call it the "E-ticket ride."

The Scriptorium

One of the more impressive enchantments in Amurgsval, the Scriptorium is a room bearing all fifteen Verditius runes and containing several scribing lecterns; Corylus managed to talk Gambrinus into creating the enchantment with the help of a few junior masters. The room contains four invisible, tireless scribes who function with Strong Writer that are capable of reliably copying magical texts around the clock. (The enchantment is around level 80.) Amurgsval has quietly been backing up its tremendous library this way. This is not a completely terrifying enchantment, but it is nevertheless kept hushed up around the covenant; someone noting that Amurgsval also has a formulaic for creating a Sun. duration copy of a book might put two and two together and decide the Scriptorium had great potential for espionage. (A few texts in Amurgsval are kept hidden from visitors who might report back to the original covenants that the books appear to have been duplicated. Whether or not this is against the Code is arguable-- it's certainly not depriving a magus of their power, as the original is still intact-- but the magi of Amurgsval would prefer not to argue it, and try to obtain books by paying or trading for them when possible.) Books copied by the Scriptorium can easily be discerned by the naturistic themes of illumination.