1205

In this year, a Redcap named Arnulf traveled through Italy, the Holy Roman Empire, and France gathering up Gifted children which he had painstakingly collected over years. By the time he turned south and climbed a pass up into the Alps, there were twenty of these children, many of whom possessed magical powers.

Unfortunately for Arnulf, he was intercepted by a magus impersonating a Redcap. This magus, Grigori by name, had four of his own students with him and, after separating the children from Arnulf, trapped Arnulf and his men in a Pit of the Gaping Earth and then murdered him with Infernal Smoke of Death.

The Gifted children were led to a cave where a temporary camp was made and the five outlaw magi argued over which children they would claim as apprentices. Eventually some of the children discovered that Arnulf was dead; a fight broke out, some of the children tried to run, and the Shadow Magi were in the process of collecting them when the group was finally discovered by Kentigern Ex Miscellanea, a Quaesitor with a hunting party of Faerie Hounds, which had been scouring the passes looking for them.

The outlaw magi scattered, Kentigern remained at the camp to see to the wounded, and eventually the children were brought to the covenant of Tarragon Vale, where the Liberalia festival was being held. Finally safe, their wounds were tended and they were fed before being put to bed. Overnight, the Alpine magi debated which apprentices they would claim. In the morning, each child was called and presented to their new master. Arnulf was posthumously honored.

Spring

With the presentation ceremony over, the Liberalia breaks up. Most of the departing magi simply cast Leap of the Homecoming, vanishing in a flurry of robes and a gust of wind, leaving their grogs and companions to make their way home through the snow by more mundane means. However, some of the magi with apprentices -- including all the PCs -- travel together a short distance north to the town of Rorschach on the shore of Lake Constance. Entering the town, they find a merchant's home and workshop. The merchants, it turns out, are friendly Redcaps. In twos and threes, they descend stairs to a cellar where a magical archway has been constructed and decorated with Hermetic symbols. Paying the Redcaps there a token amount of vis per person, the magi, their apprentices, and a few privileged custos walk through the archway and vanish. Before each pair goes through the arch, a vision of the destination appears in the archway. Beatrice -- with a final goodbye to Tomas and Akakios -- is led off by Primus Andru of Jerbiton, along with the rest of the Jerbiton apprentices, to Valnastium. Little Marie and her new domina, a Criamon magus, depart for the Cave of Twisting Shadows. Ilsa accompanies Tomas, Akakios, Eva and others to Sinews of Knowledge. Rene and Gustov are led to the Icy North, and Breandan and Diana of Tremere return to Shadow of the Moon.

The Covenant of the Sinews of Knowledge (Tomas, Akakios and Eva):

Eva, Akakios and Tomas find themselves in a cave complex which, they soon discover, is hidden behind a waterfall in Bavaria, northwest of the town of Salzburg along the river Inn. To call the place a "cave" is a gross injustice, for it was mostly artificial to begin with and the tunnels have all been shaped, reinforced, and made comfortable by magic. Carpets line the floor and light is provided by a star pattern which repeats itself throughout the ceilings of the cave. The pattern does not represent any stars you recognize, but it creates a soft and eerie glow quite easy to navigate by.

After sarcastically giving Balbina a chance to explain the covenant's research mission to the apprentices -- she responds with a venomous glare -- Sabastien explains to the apprentices that Sinews of Knowledge is dedicated to unlocking the secret of eternal life. He explains that wizards of the Order already have special rituals which allow them to live for two centuries, but that potentially they might live even longer. "Of course," he adds, "we usually go stark raving mad before then, but that's a problem for another covenant to solve."

There are seven magi who dwell here, including your masters, Sabastien and Balbina. They include Ragoneda, the bone maga who healed Rene and answered some of Tomas' questions back at the Liberalia, and her beautiful, outgoing, 16-year old apprentice, Augustina. The head researcher here is Archmage Philomena of Bonisagus, a small, slender, young woman with pale blonde hair and purple eyes who has claimed Ilsa as her own apprentice. She quickly leads Ilsa away to her sanctum, pausing only to say to Tomas, "Perhaps we'll get a chance to talk later, if the Book of Instruction permits it."

Sebastian sighs dramatically, "I wish I could burn that accursed tome, I really do. But there's nothing to be done. The book must be obeyed."

Philomena is assisted by Hubert, also Bonisagus, and Archmage Paxon of Verditius, whom you eventually learn is the greatest living master of Longevity Rituals currently alive in the Order. You are told that the seventh wizard at the covenant is Cara of Bjornaer, but you do not meet her. "She dwells in the deep caverns," Sabastien explains. "It's just as well. I don't need these halls to smell like dead fish."

"Sabastien," Ragoneda says with a sigh. "Be nice."

Over the next three months you learn the maze of complex passages that make up Sinews of Knowledge. You are told about sanctums and you learn the sign that marks them, though Sabastien makes it clear that he intrudes on sanctums all the time, "And I am well paid for it." There are other places you are not allowed to go, including the Hermetic Library and the lower levels of the complex. Ragoneda explains about Magic auras, and that the aura of the covenant strengthens the deeper you go. This can be very dangerous. Most of the covenfolk's staff are not permitted below the Fifth Deep, but you are allowed to go to the Seventh Deep, which is where the magi have their sanctums. Ragoneda explains you are strictly forbidden from going deeper but, as she says this, Sabastien winks and nods from behind her to suggest, What the hell. Go for it.

Sinews of Knowledge uses water and steam-power for countless labor-intensive tasks throughout the covenant. This is enabled through a complex hydraulic system which you all must learn to operate in order to complete your chores. The hydraulics enable flush toilets, washing machines, and steam presses. When you enter a chamber, turning a gear on the wall activates lamps on the walls or ceiling. Stone hearths light and burn with similar levers. The hydraulics and steam power have even been used to enhance the covenant's defenses; throughout the caves there are "death chambers" which can be triggered by turning brass gears. This causes stone walls to descend into the cave, sealing intruders within. Once trapped, the trespassers are drowned with hundreds of gallons of water, or boiled to death with gouts of steam heated to hellish fury.

Archmage Paxon is assisted by an apprentice: a hunchbacked boy named Lucius who is 12 and has been here for several years. Lucius's lot seems to be a miserable one, working endless hours in the workshop. He takes this out on all of you, whom he attempts to bully and intimidate. While he is neither big nor strong, he can work magic and cast spells. Augustina, however, is your ally and better at magic than Lucius, a fact which she demonstrates by pointing at him, shouting, "Discipulus Minimus!," and shrinking Lucius down to the size of a cat. Over the next few months, the five of you come to know each other better and generally commiserate the unfortunate nature of your lives.

Your apprenticeships are grueling, unpleasant, and hard. Tomas and Akakios are alternately encouraged to explore by Sabastien, and then ruthlessly punished when they do so, according to the Book of Instruction, a massive black-bound tome bound in iron which Sabastien consults with exaggerated weariness at every possible occasion. The Book's list of infractions are completely random and arbitrary, impossible for you to predict, and they seldom affect both Tomas and Akakios in the same way. You have been punished for wearing black on a Monday, for eating an apple without peeling it first, and for being inside when it rains. Notably, the Book dictates a slavish deference to Sabastien which he suffers through with pained drama, always sharing his sympathy for your plight and deriding the rules until, after long suffering, you break them, at which point he turns to the Book's list of humiliations.

The punishments in this first season are, quite simply, torture by any definition and varied in their sadism. You are burned with coals, though magically no marks are left behind. You are told to stand in a corner until the sand runs out of an hourglass, but eventually you realize the hourglass is an illusion and the sand never runs out. After two days without water, you are given some to drink, but when you taste it, it turns out to be urine. You are placed in a tub full of spiders. You are locked in a room full of smoke until you pass out. You are chained with manacles. You are beaten with a switch. One day you wake up and you realize you don't remember anything that happened over the last fortnight. There is only one rule that is true in all these punishments: Tomas always has it easier than Akakios. Tomas gets let off early, is allowed small considerations which alleviate the worst of the suffering, and once -- the ultimate shame -- one of his transgressions against the Book is actually forgiven wholesale. Sabastien just waves it off with a conspiratorial "just this once," then orders Akakios to wear a pig's head for a week for "intransigence."

All of this is made more difficult for Akakios because Kallisto, his ghostly mother, cannot enter the Covenant thanks to the Aegis of the Hearth. She is trapped outside, where she gives what consolation she can whenever Akakios is able to escape to see her.

Regardless, at the end of Spring Sabastien announces that your instruction will begin. When he commands you to work some magic, it seems at first impossible to obey him, since you have not been told how to do so. Struggling to summon some magic, any magic, you find that you can, indeed, create tiny and unreliable effects through sheer will and imagination. Sabastien reveals that each of your fantastic tortures were keyed to one of the Arts (Ignem for the burning coals, Mentem for the missing time, and so on), and, by suffering through them, your Arts have opened. Now that they are, he teaches you the basic words and gestures of Hermetic magic in a single day, allowing you to cast Spontaneous magic. He immediately announces that Akakios will be sent to school at another covenant, Icy North, to learn his letters and will not return until winter. Tomas will remain here at Sinews of Knowledge to begin his training as a magus of the Order.

Compared to all that Tomas and Akakios go through, Eva's apprenticeship is a relief, but to most Gifted children it would still seem grueling and difficult. She is kept in Balbina's workshop, within her sanctum, for much of the spring, where she is tasked with everything from minor repairs of covenant tools to mending Balbina's clothing or fashioning repair or replacement parts for the covenant's hydraulic system. She is introduced to one of the covenant's marvels: an overshot water wheel which has been made invisible and placed in the waterfall that conceals the covenant's entrance. The wheel supplies most of the motive power for the covenant's fantastic machinery. Eva is not permitted to work with the wheel itself, but she is tasked with creating some replacement parts for it to exact specifications. Although the work never ceases, and Eva is forced to rise early and work late in a sunless cave, Balbina seems to approve of her work and there is a steady supply of small comforts, from a plate of Austrian deserts to a new dress or a poppet purchased from a traveling merchant. Balbina seems to know about Gero and gives Eva a brass finger ring which -- she slowly and painfully explains through a crippling stutter -- is for Gero to wear. After this, Gero can enter the covenant, but he must be accompanied by Eva whenever he leaves the sanctum.

About a fortnight before the end of the season, Balbina has Eva pack for a journey; domina, discipula, and Gero travel by Hermes Portal back to Rorschach and then back through the portal again to Verdi, the domus magna of House Verditius, located on the island of Sardinia. This is a bustling community of seven stone towers and various outbuildings with a population of over a hundred, plus visitors. The weather on Sardinia is pleasantly warm and fresh. Eva is allowed to play and explore on the island while Balbina meets with her fellow Verditius magi. Occasionally Eva is taken along on tours of studios -- chambers set up with the best creations of various Verditius magi, where each marvel can be investigated and explained. She meets many other magi and a few other apprentices during this time. Eventually, she is led down below the central tower through a labyrinth of caves to the Forge of Hephaestus, a mythical place where the god of the forge fashioned his many wonders. Into the raging, immortal fire that burns here, Balbina sacrifices gold and precious jewels, beseeching Vulcan, Boethius, the legendary smith Wayland, and the Founder Bonisagus to bless Eva and make her a good and loyal servant. Eva feels these four mystical presences focus their attention on her from somewhere beyond space and time. Under that overwhelming gaze, she collapses into a stupor. When she awakes the next day in a bed, a happy and proud Balbina carefully explains that Eva is now an apprentice of the House and can work magic. Balbina has a bandage around her hand; Eva learns that her domina, in order to overcome her stutter for the ceremony, pushed a nail into her own palm.

A day later, Eva returns to Sinews of Knowledge and Balbina instructs her on the words and gestures of Hermetic magic using a Mentem effect that allows her to speak directly into Eva's mind. She also tells Eva that she will be sent to school to learn her letters, Latin, and the basics of philosophy; this has already been arranged, and will last until the winter. She will go to the covenant of Icy North with Gero for company.

Rene and Gustov at the Covenant of the Icy North:

Rene and Gustov emerge from the Hermes Portal in a castle chamber, which they soon learn is within the Covenant of the Icy North. This is a large settlement that includes a small town surrounding an unusual fortress, the central building of which is essentially a granite cone with a spiral stair which winds its way all the way up the outside to the summit. The Hermes Portal and various other important chambers are located within this cone. Additional buildings, including walls, towers, and other fortifications, surround the central building. From windows in the central cone you can see a nearby grassy field with some large stone buildings; it is surrounded by another stone wall and looks abandoned. You find out later than Icy North hosts an annual Summer Fair for the entire Order of Hermes, but when the Fair is not being held, the fairgrounds are empty.

Icy North has a complicated history and you do not learn all of it right away; suffice to say that it is now home to Quaesitors and hoplites who police the Tribunal and enforce the Code. There are not many magi here and much of the covenant is empty, especially the outer buildings that surround the main structure. You learn that there are a dozen more magi which technically belong to this covenant, but in fact reside in isolated sanctums throughout the Alps. These remote not-covenants are called "Chapter Houses."

The leader of the covenant is Athena Alpina, senior Quaesitor of the Alps, whom you briefly met back at the Liberalia. She is courteous, fair, and dedicated to the Order, treating you politely but usually in a very cursory fashion; you get the sense she always has a lot to do, and she has little time for other magi's apprentices. She has her own new apprentice now, Garcette, who is extremely stubborn and seems to hate Athena unreasonably. Garcette tries to run away soon after arriving at the covenant; Athena retrieves her from somewhere in town, and you do not see Garcette for a fortnight. When you do see her again, she is sullen and withdrawn, obedient only because she is forced to be.

Other than Athena, Kentigern, and Hugh, the only other magus you meet is Archmage Vincent, a strangely happy and emotional Criamon who is bald and wears almost nothing but a loincloth and sandals within the covenant. This gives you plenty of opportunity to observe his bizarre tattoos, which cover almost his entire body and which he refers to as stigmata. Vincent drinks a lot, has delectable rare food carried from Rome, Normandy and the Rhine at great price, and generally seems to revel in worldly pleasures. While your characters don't know enough to recognize it, this makes him a very weird Criamon, most of whom are ascetic monks. He also radiates heat like a fireplace.

Rene is instructed in the basics of the Hermetic Arts by Hugh, largely through martial training. In the company of the covenant's many Grogs, all of whom respect and admire Hugh as a great leader, Rene is walked painstakingly through each of the 15 Arts, roughly one week at a time. Hugh takes Sundays off in observation of the Sabbath, spending most of these days reading and tasking Rene with chores. Each week, Rene is instructed on the basics of one Art, such as Creo or Ignem, shown the basic hand gestures and told the command words. In the earliest weeks, this education is very difficult and Rene finds it very hard to work even the most basic of magic, but by the end of the season he is picking up the Form in a day, casting Spontaneous spells by Wednesday, and capable of showing off by Friday. Hugh is a very quarrelsome, argumentative man and he chews Rene out like a drill sergeant, but he seems content with Rene's progress. During this season of instruction, Rene observes much of Hugh's magic; he has the power to grow to the size of a giant, summon a suit of mail armor around his body with a gesture, or animate shields to float up and defend others, but he relies on weapons to attack, especially his poleaxe, which is called Troll's Wife. Hugh is almost always shouting and he seems to expect Rene to shout in reply; after a week or two Rene eventually realizes that his master is just hard of hearing, and he can't clearly hear most people unless they shout.

At the end of the spring, Hugh informs Rene that he will join a number of other apprentices for schooling. A school for Latin, the liberal arts, philosophy, and magical theory is being set up in one of the Icy North's unused outbuildings. With the school here, the Quaesitores will be able to keep an eye on everyone and protect them in case Grigori should be so foolish as to strike again. Rene will attend the school for six months.

In contrast to Rene, Gustav's introduction to the Arts occurs in the wilderness and the outdoors. Kentigern is a Quaesitor, but he is not House Guernicus. Instead, he is a magus Ex Miscellanea who was chosen to become a Quaesitor and has spent a few years training for the job at Magvillus, the domus magna of House Guernicus. Gustov learns that Kentigern was assigned to the Alps only a few years ago.

Kentigern is a passionate hunter and he appears to see no reason why he should interrupt his love of the hunt just to initiate Gustov into Hermetic magic. Instead, he packs Gustov in a magically-warm bear coat, puts a floppy fur hat on his head, and parks him on the back of Kentigern's Wizard's Mount before riding like a bat out of Hell through the Alpine sky. No mundane animal is a challenge for Kentigern anymore; he hunts magical animals through the snows and elementals through the sky. Gustov is exposed to all of this over the course of the spring, and each hunt, each sign of quarry, each magical site becomes an opportunity for a lesson on the Arts. When they find the spoor of a salamander, Kentigern explains Ignem. When they chase a Kelpie into her underwater home, Gustov learns about Aquam. Kentigern can also speak to animals and he introduces Gustov to Tobias, his Faerie Hound familiar, and the rest of the Faerie Hound pack, but he cautions Gustov on being too soft-hearted when it comes to animals in the wild. "The hunt is a test of man against beast," he says, "and it is the curse of mankind ever since we were cast out of the Garden of Eden. There, the lion lay down with the lamb. But ever since, the predator feeds on the prey. So it is with the animals, and so it is with Man, and so it ever shall be, until the Day of Judgment." From words like this, it is clear that, despite his Wild Hunt trappings and his obsession with beast magic, Kentigern is a Christian.

One day, while hunting in the Alps, Kentigern and Gustov encounter two other magae whom Kentigern knows and, Gustov later learns, are actually members of Icy North. Adrasteia of Tytalus is accompanied by Katrina of Bjornaer, who appears as a fantastically huge wolverine. The conversation between Kentigern and the two women is largely above Gustov's head, but after they part Kentigern explains that they are Hoplites -- warriors of the Order who hunt down its enemies. They have been searching for Grigori and his band of black magi, but so far there is no sign.

By the end of the spring, Gustov has learned the basic words and gestures of Hermetic magic and can work spontaneous spells. Much of the season is spent in the wild, but Kentigern returns to Icy North at the end of April and informs Gustov that he is to be sent to school here at the covenant. Many of the apprentices are being brought here to study their letters, Latin, and other subjects. This will take six months and Kentigern expects Gustov to study hard. "You must hone your mind like the tip of a spear, little one," he tells you. "Lest it go awry when you need it most."

Breandan at the Shadow of the Moon:

Breandan emerges from the Hermes Portal inside a circular stone chamber which, he soon discovers, is at the center of the Covenant of the Shadow of the Moon. In the journey to Rorschach, Diana matter-of-factly explained the Limit of the Lunar Sphere and that her covenant is devoted to breaking this limit; magi could then travel to the Moon. This would enable all kinds of amazing offensive tactics and strategies, including the observation -- and attack of -- any place in Europe from an unassailable vantage point. In other words, successfully breaking the Limit of the Lunar Sphere would enable orbital bombardment. The Order would gain the ultimate weapon. "Of course," Diana explains patiently, "we would only use it to defend ourselves."

The covenant's main building looks like nothing so much as a grain silo at the base of Mount Blanc, the highest point in Mythic Europe. This large round tower is filled with rooms and almost all the covenfolk live here. It includes the mundane library (which Breandan is allowed into) and a Hermetic library (which he is not). It is surrounded by beautiful formal gardens which, you eventually discover, Diana likes to walk by night when she thinks she is being unobserved. However, the magi's labs and sanctums are located at the top of Mount Blanc and accessed by Hermes Portal; this position, Diana explains, is one of the most powerful Magic auras known to the Order. It is thus very dangerous, and Breandan is told never to work any magic up there. "One mis-pronounced syllable," Diana tells you, "And you could destroy not only yourself, but years of research."

Leading you to her Sanctum at the top of Mont Blanc, where the moon looms gigantic through the windows, Diana patiently explains the Order and her House to you; she has clearly read all about you in Arnulf's letter, so she knows your family lineage and your background, but she feels it necessary to clear up some misconceptions, which she blames on your grandfather's house, Tytalus, and their known hatred of Tremere. She relates the story of the Founder Tremere, his misguided attempts to rule the Order and, through it, Mythic Europe, his failure in the Sundering three centuries ago and the humiliation of the rest of the House. She outlines Tremere's renunciation by the rest of the House, which continues to use the tools he created -- Certamen, for example, or the breed of white wolves which serve the House as familiars -- but they have forsaken his methods, including the original House motto, "The Will Conquers All," replacing it with a quote from Lykurgos of Sparta, "Obedience is the Highest Benefit."

"We are a House of soldiers," she explains, "serving the Order and making it strong. We oppose its enemies now, and prepare for the crises that are to come. In this we are guided by our Prima and our eldest brethren, who are wiser than we. To serve Tremere is a duty, and it not easy, but it is an honorable duty." She also reveals that, because of your training in Latin and your knowledge of the Order, you were highly sought after by various other magi, including one Archmage. However, Diana successfully won the right to claim you after beating all of them in Certamen, challenging each of them one at a time. She barely finished by morning, when the presentation ceremony was held. This has made her many powerful enemies, literally overnight.

Over the next week, you meet the other magi of Shadow of the Moon, including the Lunarian, Yrio of Bonisagus. The Lunarian is the current head of the research project and Yrio is ancient and frail. His mind seems sharp, but he simply doesn't pay attention to things that are not relevant to his research, which makes him seem forgetful and senile. He is constantly assisted by a nurse and an attendant who help him walk and see to his physical needs and comforts. But Diana affords him an almost comical degree of profound respect and she expects you to do the same.

Fabian of Verditius and Kynthia of Merinita are both at Shadow of the Moon pursuing a secondary goal: physically traveling to the moon. You don't interact with them much; Diana seems to monitor their progress but otherwise be uninterested in them. At some point in the season, Fabian shows off his masterpiece: an enormous bow capable of firing arrows all the way to the lunar sphere. He has used this to verify that, yes, a circle of elemental fire lies between the Earth and the moon. Finding a way to survive that fire is a problem he must solve. Finally, you meet Aurore of Bonisagus, who is a diviner and astrologer. Diana seems to consider her something of an advisor and consultant. She gets frequent mail, letters from throughout the Order written by magi who seek her counsel. Aurore spends most of her time in the Planetarium, a chamber which you are not permitted to enter.

Over the course of the season, Diana establishes a rigid schedule for Breandan that involves rising early, calisthenics, hiking, and chores. In the evenings, she teaches Breandan chess and plays with him. She has a habit of referring to the pawns as various Forms, and the major pieces as various Techniques, calling out each move in advance. Diana has a particularly odd way of holding the chess pieces, and she obsessively insists Breandan copy her, correcting him on every minute detail in a highly frustrating manner.

She observes this daily schedule with pathological certainty for three months, making occasional disparaging comments about "thieves and beggars" which indicate that there will be no more of this criminal tomfoolery such as Breandan engaged in previously. At the same time, Diana acknowledges that any man can put the past behind him and forge a new destiny for himself. Like the House itself since the Sundering, we are not shackled to the errors of our youth, and only a fool judges a man by his past instead of his present. She is hard on Breandan, but fair, in the manner of an aloof parent. Nevertheless, she refuses to teach him any magic, and by the end of the Spring Breandan is no closer to working spontaneous spells than he was in Grigori's camp.

Breandan's frustration builds. He knows Diana is holding magic back from him, and his scheming nature prompts him to sneak his way into the Hermetic library to learn the secret for himself. All is going smoothly and he finds a book likely to help him: Instructing the Hermetic Apprentice. But when he tries to take it off the shelf, he is slowly and painfully turned to stone. Diana shows up just as the effect is completing, and he has just enough time to experience her look of scathing disappointment before he becomes a statue and loses all power of thought. At sunrise, he wakes up, in the same position, in his room in Diana's sanctum. Emerging, he finds her at the hearth with a simple breakfast of porridge and tea, staring at her chessboard.

"Sit down," she says, indicating the chair opposite her. And then she begins to play, calling out the moves in her usual odd style. Wearily, perhaps seeking to humor her, Breandan follows suit. Over a few minutes, each player begins to move faster and faster -- as Diana cannily sets up obvious winning moves for Breandan to take. Suddenly, as Breandan moves "Muto to Ignem in the Fourth Magnitude," the bishop he is holding bursts into flame ... but it does not burn up. It remains a chess piece made of painless fire. Diana doesn't hesitate for an instant, moving and setting up Breandan's next move, a rook. As he holds the piece in that distinctive odd way and calls out the combination, the castle crumbles to dust. The game is never completed.

Breandan did not know it, but he was being drilled on the Arts every evening. The strategies of the board have, all along, been symbolic of the way in which Techniques and Forms are utilized together to create Spontaneous magic. The particular way in which each piece was held, and the specific inflection of each spoken syllable, the slightest of errors obsessively corrected by Diana, has instilled in Breandan a mechanically perfect command of the Techniques and Forms.

Diana grunts, gets up, and goes to bed. "Now practice," she says, then shuts the door.

Advancement

Eva is initiated into the outer mystery Verditius Magic

Gustov gains Affinity with Animal and Incompatible Arts: PeAn and MuCo

All PCs gain 5 XP from Adventure. These points can be spent on anything you did during our session (including the relevant Arts, for those who tried or succeeded in Turbulence) or on any Arts for which you have an Affinity (which manifests now that you have Arts).

All PCs also accumulate 1 point towards Cantations -- spells of level 5 or lower. Since there's not much you can do with a 1 point spell, I presume this point is banked.