Blockhead

Blockhead is a wooden marionette created by Verditius Clementis early in his career. Although the puppet technically belongs to Clementis, he has gladly shared it with the other magi of the covenant and it is effectively available to everyone. Blockhead's primary use is entertainment, but it is also useful as a piece of exercise equipment for the Finesse and Concentration skills. Magi have also pressed it into service as an emergency surveillance and communication device.

Blockhead is invested with 6 vis, which is completely used by the following effects:

• Agility of the Dancing Sprite
• Summoning the Distant Image

Agility of the Dancing Sprite (ReHe 18)

Range: Arcane Connection	Duration: Concentration	Target: Small
Uses per Day: Unlimited		Penetration: 25
Effect Description
Blockhead is empowered to move at the caster's direction. The controller (a cross-shaped piece of wood to which strings would normally be attached) is an Arcane Connection to Blockhead, allowing it to be manipulated outside of Sight range of the magus. The magus contols all of Blockhead's movements using the Finesse skill. With a proper Dex+Finesse roll, the puppet can be made to move exactly as a mundane puppet can. It can wink its eyes, nod its head, bend its limbs, walk, and even rise above the ground as if being hoisted on strings. Example Dex+Finesse difficulties are: Walk: Simple roll of 3+ Jump onto a Table: Stress roll of 6+ Lift and Carry Small Objects: Stress roll of 9+; Blockhead's strength is -5 Climb an Easy Surface: e.g., a ladder or stairs. Stress roll of 9+ Communicate via Charades: Communication + Finesse roll of 9+ Since Blockhead cannot pass a sense of touch to the controlling magus, the marionette is harder to control when the magus is operating it outside his own line of sight, using only the puppet's senses for guidance. Increase the difficulty of all applicable Finesse rolls by 3 and add two botch dice. Blockhead may be used as a piece of exercise equipment to practice the Finesse or Concrentration Abilities. This is done using the normal practice rules and precludes any other major activities that season.
Level Rationale
Base Effect: Control an amount of wood, Level 5
Base Range: Reach	Base Duration: Concentration	Base Target: Small
Range Adjustment: +20	Duration Adjustment: 0	Target Adjustment: 0
Other Adjustments: Unlimted uses per day, +10; halve overall Level (35/2 = 18)

Summoning the Distant Image (InIm 35)

Range: Arcane Connection	Duration: Concentration	Target: Room
Uses per Day: Unlimited		Penetration: 25
Effect Description
The magus controlling Blockhead can see through its eyes and hear through its ears. This effect is identical to the spell, Summoning the Distant Image (InIm 25, p. 141).
Level Rationale
Base Effect: The spell, Summoning the Distant Image (InIm 25, p. 141)
Other Adjustments: Unlimited uses per day, +10

Due to Verditius Clementis' Wizard's Sigil, all his creations have a spark of life and personality. Blockhead is no exception: it is generally playful and high-spirited. It often embellishes its movements with a little flourish or dance step. If it has been sitting on the shelf too long, Blockhead gets restless and tends to drop off the shelf as someone is about to pass by. In order to keep his creation happy, Verditius Clementis frequently uses Blockhead to entertain children in the covenant and gladly lends the puppet to other magi, as long as they do not expose it to undue risk.

The Pick of the Dwarfs

When the covenant was founded near an abandoned silver mine, Clementis correctly judged that a little magic might help restore the mine to productive operation. This steel miner's pick is the result.

The Pick of the Dwarfs is invested with 10 pawns of vis, which is completely used by the following effects:

• Blow of the Faerie Miner
• Hardness of Adamantine
• Miner's Keen Eye
• Charm Against Magic

Blow of the Faerie Miner (PeTe 15)

Range: Touch	Duration: Momentary	Target: Small
Uses per Day: Unlimited		Penetration: 15
Effect Description
Each blow of the pick can shatter about a bucketful of stone or softer material. This makes digging through solid rock as easy as loose topsoil. This Effect works on rock, clay, and earth, but not refined metal. If wielded against a stone monster or automaton, the Pick inflicts +25 damage if its Penetration (15) overcomes the target's Magic Resistance. To use this effect, the wielder says "Mordeo!" (the Latin translation of the command, "Bite!") while swinging the pick.
Level Rationale
Base Effect: Destroy stone, PeTe 10
Base Range: Reach	Base Duration: Momentary	Base Target: Small
Range Adjustment: -5	Duration Adjustment: 0	Target Adjustment: 0
Other Adjustments: Unlimited uses, +10

Hardness of Adamantine (MuTe 3)

Range: Personal	Duration: Diameter	Target: Small
Uses per Day: Constant		Penetration: 5
Effect Description
The blade of the Pick is enchanted to be rustproof, nearly unbreakable, and eternally sharp. Clementis invested this effect mainly to protect the Pick from damage due to misuse or neglect; but it does make the Pick even more effective as a digging tool.
Level Rationale
Base Effect: Change metal in a highly unnatural way (MuTe 15)
Base Range: Reach	Base Duration: Sun	Base Target: Small
Range Adjustment: -10	Duration Adjustment: -5	Target Adjustment: 0
Other Adjustments: Constant use, +5; halve overall Level because the effect only affects the pick itself (5/2 = 3)

Miner's Keen Eye (InTe 40)

Range: Personal	Duration: Momentary	Target: Sight
Uses per Day: Unlimited		Penetration: 20
Effect Description
As the spell, Miner's Keen Eye (InTe 30, p. 150). The Level of this spell has been changed according to a house rule.
Level Rationale
Base Effect: The spell, Miner's Keen Eye (InTe 30), modified according to house rules.
Other Adjustments: Unlimited uses per day, +10

Charm Against Magic (ReVi 30)

Range: Personal	Duration: Diameter	Target: Individual
Uses per Day: Constant		Penetration: N/A
Effect Description
The pick's wielder is protected by +25 Magic Resistance. Contrary to the Storyguide's verbal description of the Pick, this resistance protects only the wielder and does not also protect the pick itself.
Level Rationale
Base Effect: Charm Against Magic, ReVi General (25); see Ars Magica™, 4th Edition, p. 88
Other Adjustments: Constant use, +5

Axe of the Titans

The Axe is a Lesser Enchanted Device containing 25 Levels of effects. It can be used to fell mature trees in just a few minutes. It was used heavily when the covenant was being built. Grogs occasionally use it to collect timber and firewood, but after Cedric accidentally provoked the ire of the woodland faeries by cutting down an enchanted tree, the grogs have been reluctant to use the Axe for routine wood-cutting.

Stroke of the Titanic Woodcutter (PeHe 15)

Range: Touch	Duration: Momentary	Target: Individual
Uses per Day: Unlimited		Penetration: 15
Effect Description
The Axe of the Titans can cut any wood, living or dead, as if it were soft cheese. This effect is entirely magical; the Axe itself is actually very dull. Although the Axe is a tool, not a weapon, this effect would inflict +25 magical damage against any wooden object or opponent if it overcame the target's Magic Resistance.
Level Rationale
Base Effect: Destroy a plant, PeHe 10; +5 for precise, partial destruction
Base Range: Reach	Base Duration: Momentary	Base Target: Small
Range Adjustment: -5	Duration Adjustment: 0	Target Adjustment: +5
Other Adjustments: Unlimited uses per day, +10

Like all of Verditius Clementis' creations, the Axe of the Titans has a spark of life. It seems to enjoy cutting down living trees, the bigger the better. Grogs claim that the Axe makes a barely-perceptible hum, more felt than heard, when it is cutting trees; and that it always strikes true against living wood, but it awkward and heavy when cutting dead wood.

Amulets of Comprehension (3)

While traveling to Verdi, domus magna of House Verditius, in 1219, Clementis noticed how many different languages are spoken across Mythic Europe and how difficult it can be to find a good interpreter. While at Verdi, he met another magus who had created some magical charms of translation and was willing to sell them for a large amount of vis. Each talisman is a Lesser Enchanted Device device in the form of a cheap-looking brass medallion, marked with the Verditius runes for Intellego on one face and Mentem on the other.

Thoughts Within Babble (InMe 35)

Range: Personal	Duration: Concentration	Target: Group
Uses per Day: Unlimited		Penetration: 25
Effect Description
As the spell, Thoughts Within Babble (InMe 25, p. 146)
Other Adjustments: Unlimted uses per day, +10

Clementis could not afford to purchase these items on the spot, but he told his sodales they were available as soon as he returned to Spiritus Draconis. The magi decided that the amulets would be useful and they placed an order by Redcap to purchase all three of the amulets their maker was offering for sale.

One amulet is kept at the covenant at all times- it is useful in the library for reading non-Latin texts. The other two are lent to individual magi if they receieve approval from the Council.

Oar of Homecoming

In 1205, one of the covenant's fishing boats disappeared with all hands. No one ever found out what became of it. The grogs refused to make further fishing trips for several years, until Clementis finally made a magic steering oar to help ensure their safe return.

This oar is installed on only one of the covenant's two fishing boats. In an emergency, the second boat could follow or be towed by the boat with the enchanted oar.

Sailor's Homecoming (InTe (Re, Aq, He, Au) 25)

Range: Special (Arcane Connection)	Duration: Sun	Target: Individual
Uses per Day: One		Penetration: 20
Effect Description
Upon command, the oar can steer any boat to which it is attached back to the fishing village of Rhyl on the northern Welsh coast. The oar can correct for currents and winds. The oar will avoid rocks and shoals, but it does not make the boat more seaworthy. It only steers the boat; propulsion must be provided by the crew via sails or oars. The Oar is mostly useful in helping fishermen return if they become lost or lose sight of land. The oar is built around an Arcane Connection to that village: a piece from the pillar of a house that has stood in the village for two hundred years.
Level Rationale
Base Effect: See an object and its surroundings (InTe 4)
Base Range: Reach	Base Duration: Concentration	Base Target: Small
Range Adjustment: +16	Duration Adjustment: +5	Target Adjustment: +5
Other Adjustments: None