The Pitch
It's early February. Word has spread through the hidden channels: this year's Walpurgisnacht will be held in Lisbon, Portugal. The coastal city, built on seven hills overlooking the Tagus River, has hosted beforeâ1755, the year of the great earthquake. That Walpurgisnacht ended badly. The city still remembers, even if it doesn't know what it remembers.
The players are practitioners who've decided to make the Pilgrimage together. Maybe they're from the same city. Maybe they met on the road. Maybe they have a shared history that predates this journey. That's for Session Zero to decide.
What matters now: they have twelve weeks until the Moon rises over Lisbon. They need to get there, establish themselves, and survive long enough to contest the Wish.
Veil: 6
Next Full Moon: 3 weeks
Time until Walpurgisnacht: 12 weeks
Lisbon: The Host City
Lisbon is a city of light and shadows, of tiled facades and crumbling grandeur. The 1755 earthquake leveled most of it; what stands now was rebuilt by the Marquis de Pombal according to Enlightenment principlesârational grids imposed on ancient hills. Practitioners know the truth: the reconstruction was also a massive magical working, wards and bindings woven into the foundations.
Those wards are failing. That's why the Moon chose Lisbon this year.
Key Locations
Alfama
The oldest district, one of the few areas that survived the earthquake. Narrow streets, fado music drifting from taverns, laundry strung between buildings. This is where the old practitioners liveâfamilies who've been in Lisbon for centuries, who remember what the city was before Pombal's grid.
Useful for: Information about the city's magical history, traditional alliances, old debts.
Baixa
The downtown grid. Pombal's masterwork. The streets are mathematically precise, the buildings uniform. Beneath the rational facade, the wards are carved into every cornerstone. This is where the Pombaline Compact maintains its headquartersâthe local faction that's kept Lisbon's magical peace since the reconstruction.
Useful for: Official channels, negotiations, understanding local law.
Belém
The waterfront district where the explorers departed for the New World. The Tower of BelĂ©m guards the harbor. The JerĂłnimos Monastery holds secrets in its cloisters. This is where the foreign practitioners are gatheringâthose who've made the Pilgrimage from abroad.
Useful for: Meeting other outsiders, forming alliances, gathering intelligence on rivals.
Sintra
Not technically Lisbon, but close enough. The fairy-tale palaces in the hills have always attracted practitioners with a taste for the dramatic. The Pena Palace is gaudy, colorful, and sits on a site of genuine power. Several elder practitioners have taken up residence for the season.
Useful for: High-stakes meetings, ancient knowledge, dangerous bargains.
The Factions
Lisbon is contested ground. Several groups have stakes in how Walpurgisnacht unfolds.
The Pombaline Compact
What they want: Stability. The wards held for 250 years. They can hold for 250 moreâif outsiders don't break anything.
Who they are: Local practitioners, mostly Galileo and Agrippa bloodlines, who rebuilt Lisbon's magical infrastructure after the earthquake. They see themselves as custodians, not rulers. They're wrong about that, but they're sincere.
Their leader: Dona InĂȘs Ferreira (she/her), a Galileo elder who remembers the reconstruction firsthand. She's 280 years old and exhausted. She doesn't want to fightâshe wants to retire. But she won't abandon the city.
What they offer: Sanctuary. Safe passage. Access to the ward network. Information about the local terrain.
What they demand: Respect for local law. No open conflict before Walpurgisnacht. No damage to the wards.
The Saudade Circle
What they want: Change. The old wards are failing anywayâbetter to let them fall and build something new.
Who they are: Young practitioners, locals and foreigners alike, who believe the Compact has become calcified. They're drawn to Crowley and Tesla bloodlinesâtransgression and innovation.
Their leader: TomĂĄs Saldanha (he/him), a Crowley scion who grew up in Lisbon's shadow and resents every minute of it. He's charismatic, reckless, and convinced he's the hero of his own story. He might be right.
What they offer: Freedom from local rules. Access to forbidden knowledge. Allies who don't ask questions.
What they demand: Action. If you're not helping tear down the old order, you're part of it.
The Fado Collective
What they want: To be left alone. They're not here for the Wishâthey're here because this is their home.
Who they are: Practitioners who've woven themselves into Lisbon's mundane culture. They run fado houses, tiled workshops, pastry shops. Their magic is subtle, domestic, protective. Mostly Hildegard and MĂ©liĂšs bloodlines.
Their leader: No single leader. Decisions are made collectively over long dinners. The most respected voice belongs to AvĂł Celeste (she/her), a Mother Shipton hedge-witch who's predicted every Walpurgisnacht winner since 1923. She won't tell you who wins this year.
What they offer: Safe houses. Local knowledge. Warnings about what's comingâif they like you.
What they demand: Don't bring trouble to their doors. Don't expose the mundanes they've spent generations protecting.
The Rivals
Other practitioners are making the Pilgrimage. Some will become allies. Some will become obstacles. Here are three who'll definitely cause problems.
Mireille Vautrin
What she wants: To prevent a vision she's had since childhoodâa future where Lisbon burns again, worse than 1755. She believes the Wish is the only way to stop it.
Her problem: She's seen so many futures that she can't tell which one is real anymore. Her predictions are accurate but her interpretations are paranoid. She sees enemies everywhereâincluding in the player characters.
Her approach: Manipulation. She'll try to maneuver the PCs into positions that serve her vision. She genuinely believes she's saving them.
Distinguishing trait: She finishes other people's sentences. Not to be rudeâshe literally sees what they're about to say.
Solomon Achebe
What he wants: His family's grimoire, stolen three generations ago by a Crowley who's since died. The book is somewhere in Lisbonâhe's traced it this far. He'll use the Wish to locate it if he has to, but he'd rather find it the old-fashioned way.
His problem: He's a spy by training and inclination. He doesn't trust anyone, and his constant intelligence-gathering has made him enemies. The Saudade Circle thinks he's working for the Compact. The Compact thinks he's working for someone else entirely.
His approach: Information brokerage. He'll trade secrets, but every exchange is calculated. He's always listening.
Distinguishing trait: He never sits with his back to a door. Ever.
The Valdez Twins: Lucia and Marco
What they want: Freedom. They were raised in a Familia that treated them as toolsâescape artists trained from birth to infiltrate and extract. They're done being used. The Wish is their chance to disappear forever.
Their problem: They don't know how to exist without a handler. They keep falling into old patternsâtaking jobs, following orders, serving someone else's agenda. Every time they try to go independent, they end up working for a new master.
Their approach: Heists. They're very good at getting into places they shouldn't be. They'll steal what they needâincluding from the PCs if necessary.
Distinguishing trait: They finish each other's sentences, but differently than Mireilleâthey're so synchronized it's unsettling. Some practitioners think they share a soul.
The Complications
Three problems that'll emerge during the Pilgrimage. Use them when you need to raise the stakes.
The Earthquake Prophecy
Mireille isn't the only one who's seen Lisbon burn. A prophecy is circulating among the older practitionersâsomething about "when the Moon touches the river, the hills will fall." No one agrees on what it means. Some think it's a warning. Some think it's instructions. The Saudade Circle thinks it's an opportunity.
The truth: The prophecy is real, but incomplete. The full text is hidden somewhere in Sintra. Finding it might reveal how to preventâor causeâthe disaster.
The Ward Collapse
The Pombaline wards are definitely failing. Every few days, another section goes dark. The Compact is scrambling to repair them, but they don't have enough practitionersâtoo many have left for safer cities, and the young ones have joined the Saudade Circle.
The opportunity: A collapsed ward section means a gap in the city's defensesâuseful for practitioners who want to move unseen. It also means something might get in that shouldn't.
The danger: If too many wards fail before Walpurgisnacht, the Moon's influence might not be contained to one night. The entire month of April could become... unpredictable.
The Mundane Investigation
Detective Inspector Ana RosĂĄrio of the PolĂcia JudiciĂĄria has noticed patterns. Missing persons who were last seen near the waterfront. Unexplained structural damage in Alfama. Witnesses who describe events that can't have happened. She doesn't believe in magicâbut she believes in crimes.
The danger: She's competent, persistent, and protected by mundane law. Practitioners can't just make her disappear without consequences. If she gets too close to the truth, the Veil will strain.
The opportunity: She hates the Saudade Circleâtwo of their members are persons of interest in her investigation. Enemy of my enemy...
Session One: Arrival
The players arrive in Lisbon. Here's how to start:
The Opening Scene
Begin with the characters togetherâon a train pulling into Santa ApolĂłnia station, or disembarking from a flight at Humberto Delgado, or driving across the bridge at sunset. Their first view of Lisbon: white buildings climbing seven hills, the Tagus River glittering below, the light that painters have tried to capture for centuries.
Then the feeling hits them. Every practitioner feels it when they enter a host city: the Moon's attention, like a spotlight they can't see but know is pointed at them. They're being watched. They've been registered. There's no turning back now.
Ask each player: What's the first thing your character does when they feel the Moon's attention? Do they embrace it? Flinch? Pretend they didn't notice?
The First Contact
Within an hour of arrival, someone approaches the group. Choose based on the party composition:
- If the party includes a Galileo or Agrippa: A representative of the Pombaline Compactâpolite, formal, offering "assistance navigating local customs." Translation: we're watching you.
- If the party includes a Crowley or Tesla: A Saudade Circle recruiterâyoung, hungry, promising freedom from "the old fossils." Translation: we want your talents.
- If the party is mixed or none of the above: A member of the Fado Collectiveâolder, wary, offering a place to stay "where you won't be bothered." Translation: we want to know what you're about before anyone else gets to you.
This first contact sets the tone. The faction that approaches first will expect something in return later.
The First Problem
Before the session ends, introduce one complication:
- The characters witness a ward collapseâa section of wall in the Baixa suddenly crumbles, revealing geometric carvings that flare blue and die. No mundanes notice.
- Mireille Vautrin approaches one of the characters and says something they haven't told anyone. "You're worried about [personal secret]. You should be." Then she walks away.
- The characters' luggage has been searched. Nothing is missingâbut someone left a calling card. A tarot card: The Tower, reversed. Someone knows they're here.
End of Session One
By the end of the first session, the characters should:
- Have a place to stay (temporary)
- Have made contact with at least one faction
- Know that at least one rival is watching them
- Have one lead to pursue next session
Award 1 XP for arrival. Award additional XP for any Doctrine triggers that occurred.
GM Notes
Tone
Lisbon is beautiful and melancholy. Fado music is about saudadeâa longing for something lost, a nostalgia for what might have been. Let that mood infuse the game. This isn't a city of villains and heroes; it's a city of people who want things and can't have them.
Pacing
This scenario is designed for 8-12 sessions. The first third (sessions 1-4) should focus on establishing the characters in Lisbonâmaking contacts, learning the landscape, identifying rivals. The middle third (sessions 5-8) escalates the complicationsâthe wards fail faster, the prophecy becomes urgent, Detective RosĂĄrio gets closer. The final third (sessions 9-12) is the convergence and Walpurgisnacht itself.
Flexibility
The factions, rivals, and complications are tools, not scripts. If your players decide to burn down the Saudade Circle's headquarters in session two, let themâand show them the consequences. The best games happen when plans fall apart.
The Wish
By mid-campaign, you should know what each PC wants from the Wish. If they haven't declared it, ask. The Wish is the emotional engine of the game. Everything else is just getting there.