Hit me with Temenos jaunt ideas

[u/Asheyguru]

In the last session a player called in a favour from their mentor, and they have an aspiration about wanting to impress her. I was thinking she might request his help for a trip into the Temenos, which also introduces the concept to my players for the first time.

She (the mentor) is a Mastigos Arrow famous for being extremely strict and difficult to impress. He (the PC) is a young new Thyrsus Arrow who works at an animal shelter and has a generalist build (no Arcana at three dots yet).

Anyone got any ideas for what it is she might need help with (or possibly "need help with" ie she doesn't actually need the help, but is using this as a covert learning experience for her pupil) and also for things/places/goetia that they might encounter in the local Temenos?

[u/Phoogg]

Have you got Tome of the Pentacle? It has a section on Order Realms that can be found in the Pentacle.

The Arrows's Realm is called the Luminous Bastion, and is a mountaintop fortress that stands amidsts a hundred battlefields, known as the Perilous Lands, which are rife with fighting and enemies applenty. It is always advised to travel in pairs through these Lands - initiates are taught that this is because the glory of combat and ordeals must be *witnessed*, and a lone champion's deeds go no further than themselves, while a pair of champions can spread the tale of their deeds, far and wide, so others may learn and be inspired. The real reason, which is taught to members in good standing is that a beast stalks the Perilous Lands, known as the Manticore. It does damage to the astral form *and* the physical one, so it has killed plenty of Arrows over the years. This requirement of travelling in pairs is a good reason for the junior arrow to accompany their mentor.

Arrows travel to the Luminous Bastion to meet other Arrows, meditate, challenge one another and learn. Many of the Order Rotes can be learned here not from books or scrolls, but from goetia, whom one must fight or defeat in a trial in order to learn the spell. This could be another reason the mentor is coming here - perhaps to learn a rote, perhaps to teach one to the junior.

Arrows also love olympics-style games, and hold them every few years on occasion. They are mostly physical games and trails, but the Russian contingent invented the psychic games that are more about mind control, illusions and breaking each other's will - the perfect type of game to be played in the Astral. Mind you, the Arrow base also lets you use your Physical Attributes in the Astral, so they can definitely hold physical games here as well. A game could be another reason the mentor is coming here.

Alternatively if you've read Astral Realms there's a few places you can go. The Realm of Mars is a realm of total war, and is another great realm for Arrows to hone their skills in. It's very John Carter of Mars, and does include some Martians, although they are not 'real' aliens per se, just warlike inhabitants that humanity dreams of. There could be some hidden secrets in the Martian realms - potentially including contact with *actual* aliens - or maybe indications of hidden supernal secrets located in the realworld Mars.

You've also got the Metropolis, which is a great place to find information on any major city of the world, and is a good place to meet other mages. The political realm in Astral Realms has a throne that, if occupied, kicks off a conceptual war to invade other realms - could be something the Arrow checks on periodically to get wind of any Temenotic wars that might kick off.

And finally, each Legacy has a realm. If the mentor (or the student) are interested in joining/advancing in a Legacy, then a visit to the Legacy Realm is usually a good idea!

[u/Asheyguru → u/Phoogg]

I do, but have no memory of the Astral stuff in it, I'll give it a closer look!

This is all great stuff that matches what I asked though it does give me concerns about involving other cabal members in the session, which I admittedly did not mention in the original question. Do you reckon the Arrow would mind other Diamond orders coming to their fortress?

[u/Phoogg → u/Asheyguru]

It's not beyond the pale, but it really does depend. That realm will have Arrow secrets hidden in it, so they would probably need pre-approval, and the non-Arrow would probably need to always have an escort with them.

The main question being asked is 'why are you bringing these outsiders here?'

If the answer is 'dunno lol' then that probably won't cut it. If you're doing an Arrow Games thing, then they definitely invite other Orders to participate, so that could work. If the Consilium is at war, the Arrow have been known to 'draft' other members and even teach them rotes, so that could be an angle.

Otherwise you need to think of a reason why an Arrow would ever show their Temenotic Realm to outsiders. Trying to recruit people to the Arrow could be one reason. Discussing a threat that other Arrows (and the cabal) should hear about could be another. If the cabal has witnessed anything that a lot of Arrow need to see/hear, then this is a good reason to bring them there. Evidence of a new left-handed legacy, Seer movements, witnessing an Ochema, some disturbing Abyssal activity, lots of stuff could qualify. Or perhaps *someone else* has seen something disturbing, and lots of Consilia are sending volunteers to the Arrow realm to get a security briefing - non-Arrow are specifically invited.

Hell, it could be a ceremonial thing. The Silver Ladder are sending an initiate bearing a symbolic gift for the Arrow and need a volunteer to carry it there. They do this every decade or something, and rotate which Consilium does the gifting, and the players are nominated to do it.

Or maybe it's a grand tour of *all* the Order realms. Maybe they wouldn't be allowed into the heart of the fortress, but a quick look at all of them, with a senior Arrow to guard them so they don't fall prey to enemies. Maybe it's a plot mcguffin style thing, 'we need to renew the alliance by carrying a burning torch to all five Order realms and light a ceremonial beacon in each realm that symbolises the unity of the pentacle blah blah blah'. This gives you opportunities for Seers or anti--Pentacle mages (Nameless or enemes within) to try and sabotage said ceremony.

Or you could just have the Arrow mentor take the non-Arrow there anyways, and piss off a lot of people. Makes for great political drama if your cabal unwittingly enabled a massive faux pas that this senior Arrow did just to prove a point or piss off their rival.

[u/Asheyguru → u/Phoogg]

The Senior Arrow is an 'infamous' mentor, so that last option does have some appeal, but I will mull further. Thanks for the thought-food!

[u/Phoogg → u/Asheyguru]

The Arrow are a lot less 'secretive' than the other Diamond Orders. Of course they have secrets - weapon caches, training facilities, rotes, shameful histories, etc. - but they are a lot more transparent about their stuff than the others, so it's not beyond the pale that they'd not totally freak out the way the Mysterium or the Guardians would...

[u/Lonrem]

Remember that there is no "local" Temenos but rather where in the Temenos the Mage might appear after stepping away from their Oneiros. I would suggest a journey to the Astral Realms of the Diamond Orders (as seen in Tome of the Pentacle). Starting from a place that reflects the interests of the Mage and traveling from connection to connection to finally arrive there would be a good show of cunning and resourcefulness.

I would suggest deciding a path in advance so the player doesn't have to figure it out, and instead providing the challenges of each realm they visit.

[u/Asheyguru → u/Lonrem]

Hmmm, is there no local Temnos, though? I know it's a wild and woolly place but I figured things derived from, for example, the citizens' perceptions of their city might be a likely landing point, especially if you all live in and come from said city. And the Buenos Aires Tome of the Pentacle write-up has the mystery lie "in the city's Temenos reflection."

Deciding on a path and challenges ahead of time is a good idea! I made the thread hoping people might have ideas for such that I could crib or bounce off.

[u/Lonrem → u/Asheyguru]

Yeah, the Mage might show up in the Temenos realm of their city, but that's not necessarily where the Mage will first show up. The Oneiros "landing" is intentionally a place of travel, so leaving from there might take them to the idea of their city (which could be one of several versions too). If you like the idea of a city start, then maybe use Metropolis which is worth up in the 1e Astral Realms book.

As for some other ideas, if she wants to really show off to an AA mentor, hit some realms of violence, service, duty. She can search out negative aspects and defeat them, which is figurative, since the Goetia will reform over time or maybe using the concept of "counting coup" and sneaking into Seer controlled Realms like tyranny, fear, greed and others, capturing Goetic weapons and taking them back as locked up trophies in their Oneiros.

[u/Asheyguru → u/Lonrem]

Ooh, that's good! There is a (Fate enforced) non-hostility agreement between the Pentacle and the Seers in this setting, but the Arrow mentor hates it and would actively like to look for loopholes, I could use that...

Maybe attacking Goetic representations of Seer powerbases is far enough removed to avoid breaking the treaty while still being irksome for said Seers.

[u/Rollo_napalm]

I usually have a few favourite places in temenos as a narrator that i find myself using:

the great library of alexandria: in ancient times it was believed that all human knowledge was contained in the library and to this days we know that some treaties from ancient times that have been lost were part of the library's collection (for. Ex many lost stuff from arostoteles). The library is also tied to incredible chracters like hypatia and erathostenes (even visiting people like archimedes) that i usually have as goetia in there. The way i use it is that if everything was ever written it can be found there (more or less). To gain entrance to the mouseion, as per historical rule, visitors have to bring something to be copied. Also it is a great place to meet on neutral ground other awakened and the goetia of great thinkers that could have been awakened themselves. If my players are somewhat action hungry (or the story needs some action) i make it so that the library is sacked and destroyed over and over again as the very idea of the library of alexandria is tied to the multiple times it was destroyed and thus the players might find themeselves trying to escape a burning library with assailants trying to murder them while they have to save the books they went there to find. To rise the stakes when the library is destroyed the works that have been accessed by visitors are destroyed permanently: you name it, it exists, it can be lost. Accessing the library from the fallen world can be as easy or difficult as you want: the library of alexandria is probably the closest historical library to the platonic idea of a library so astral travel in any library could have connections to the library of alexandria, alternatively the idea of the library is clearly fading from our society so it could be more difficult and the "easiest" way could be to travel to alexandria and access the astral from the modern incarnation of the library (possibly the council there also strictly monitors accesses).

Another theme i usually go for is: what nerdish thing my players like? From mortal kombat to star trek i've used multiple times astral realms from games and movies as settings for astral journeys. For ex. If you want to learn soul stealing theory you could hunt down shang tsung lol. If you want a god challenging your ethics (for mastigoi) you can go hunt for Q in star trek universe, if you want to learn absurd martial arts you could go to look for the 8 immortals of taoism in a chinese mythical realm or even a wuxia setting. Anyway i try to use my players to guide me to throw them in a realm from one of the things they like in real life, usually adding twists.