Campaigns I'd Like to Run: III - Ars Magica in 19th Century Northumberland

There's this group of friends, right? And they're the second or third sons or daughters of aristocratic families and industrialists who never need to work again. They're what might be called, nowadays, the 'idle rich'. But they've become bored of polo, hunting, drinking and bridge. And the devil makes work for idle hands. So they spend their time researching magic, demons, evil spirits, alchemy, and things of that nature. They've learned the rudiments. And they've also learned that there is a whole other reality behind that which they know: a reality in which the rationality of the Enlightenment and the Victorian age is simply wrong. They find the thought of it truly terrifying. But they also suspect it may be the path to something greater than anything else to which they can aspire.

So they sequester themselves to a sprawling manor deep in the Northumberland hills to pursue their aims in private. A place hidden in the dark forest, out of sight from any road or track, which an indulgent parent built long ago and nowadays rarely uses. A place where they can learn the magical arts free from prying eyes. A place like Cragside: