1098

YEAR 1098

Scribed by Ruaridh

Spring 1098AD

At the first council meeting ofthe year, we agreed that Varsavia should spend her season's service in thefaerie regio, mediating between the covenant and Ruadan, the faerie sorceress.We can only hope that the events of the past year have, if not improved, thenat least halted in any decline in relations with the dark fae; if Ihad my way, both parties would stay as far out of each other's way as possible.We also agreed to recompense Idris for the loss of his enchanted bow, whichseems only fair given that he was not responsible for its loss.

Following our failure to poisonthe diabolist Henry of Lakewood last year, we resolved to make another attemptto slay him, reasoning that we had only a limited amount of time before hecarried out his fell plans. Petrus agreed to invent a sixth magnitudeversion of the spell 'Opening the Intangible Tunnel' this season - and itsurely says something about his aptitude for the Arts of Rego and Vim thathe will be able to accomplish such a feat in just one season - which Varsaviawill then use to roast our foe with a 'Ball of Abysmal Flame'. If allgoes to plan, we intend to carry out the assassination early next season.

A few weeks later, Idris toldus that he had had a disturbing dream about being attacked by wolves;apparently, as he awoke he could still hear their howls ringing in his ears.He and Petrus travelled to the infernal dell to the west of the covenant tocheck for signs of activity. Although they saw no wolves, Idris noticedthat the moon in the dell, which normally moves through its phases much moreslowly than the moon in the mundane world, was almost full; somehowthe cycle had speeded up. The cause seemed clear: in the centreof the dell, rammed into a crack in the ground, was a black wooden staff witha clenched fist pointing upwards. There was also the faint smell ofsulphur in the air...

As any diligent reader of thesehistories will no already know, the last time the moon in the dell becamefull, a pack of fearsome shape shifting wolves went on a bloody rampage, utterlydestroying a nearby village. We therefore reasoned that someone, mostprobably an ally of the diabolists in Gloucester, had placed the staff inthe dell to awaken the wolves once again; perhaps this time the focusof their rage would be the covenant. Petrus and Idris tried to destroythe staff, but they were unable to set it alight or move it out of the regio.They therefore sent word of the problem back to the covenant, and I made thejourney to the dell. Using as much Perdo vis as I could safely manage,I was able to crack the staff and then splinter it into a hundred pieces.I just hope that whoever or whatever put it there doesn't have another one.

Summer

Varsavia reported that Ruadanseemed back to her former self; she was as cold and unfriendly as before,but there was no sign of an infernal influence. Varsavia spent the restof the season in the regio, and she was able to capture one of the multicolouredbirds. The covenant's reserves were therefore bolstered by five pawnsof Auram vis. Petrus managed to invent his spell as planned. Theone thing we needed to put our plan into action was an arcane connection toHenry, but this time Godwin came up with the goods, apparently bribing oneof the castle's serving folk for a hair from the diabolist's beard.Petrus cast the ritual and Varsavia threw in two balls of flame. A fewdays later, we learned via Godwin that Henry had burned to death in his sleep.

That was the good news;the rest of the season was an unmitigated disaster. The covenant wasvisited by a wandering troubadour who told the story an ancient king who challengeda mighty faerie lord for his crown. The king made off with the fae'streasure, living a long and prosperous life before being buried in a greatstone tomb with most of his belongings. The covenfolk - and even someof the Magi - seemed completely enchanted by the tale. The troubadourwas certainly skilled at his craft, but I thought some of the gushing praiseheaped on him was a bit over the top; if this is how they react to anevening's entertainment, perhaps they should get out a bit more.

What really caught my interestwas the man's claim that the king's tomb was located only a few miles awayfrom the covenant; he told us that we would be able to recognise itby the stone dolmen that had been erected on the tope of the burial mound.Slightly sceptical, the Magi nevertheless reasoned that it would be worthinvestigating whether any such dolmen existed; if this ancient kingwas truly buried nearby, his tomb might contain much of value. Idriswas the only one of us to council against disturbing the king, arguing thatthe place was bound to be guarded. Still, the lure of treasure was toostrong for us to listen to his words, and Petrus, Varsavia and I set out forthe place the troubadour mentioned; from the look in Turold's eye, Iam sure he would have liked to accompany us.

True enough, we found the dolmen,and Petrus detected a slight magical aura emanating from the place.Using Turold's mask, we were able to detect goodly quantities of gold, silverand bronze buried in the mound. I broke the seal on the tomb, and immediatelyfelt my parma magica resist some sort of assault. As I stood back, Isaw the figure of a warrior - clearly the king we had been told of - materialiseat the top of the mound. He let out a great howl, and Petrus and mostof the grogs fell incapacitated to the floor. I threw a Perdo Mentemspell at the figure, but, if anything, it seemed only to increase the itspower. The spirit struck me with its sword, and I fell to the ground,somehow blinded by the blade. The ghost had time to strike me once againbefore Varsavia was able to drive it off with her fire magics.

With the spirit gone, I was ableto restore my sight. We were all reluctant to enter the tomb, for wewere far from sure that the spirit had been destroyed; indeed, I donot understand how it could have been affected at all by Varsavia's spell.While we debated what to do, we discovered to our horror that Varsavia, acouple of the grogs and I had been afflicted with a strange wasting disease.We quickly determined that it resembled the effects of one of the most hideousof all Hermetic spells, Curse of the Leprous Flesh. We fled back tothe covenant with all speed.

It was clear that we could nothope to survive the disease without the help of magic, but none of us hadthe skill to cure it completely. We resolved to journey north to Scarfellwhere Blodwyn, one of the Tribunal's most accomplished healers, dwelt.We bought passage on a ship from Bristol to Carlisle; I remember littleof the journey as I slept off the effects of casting regular spontaneous spellsto halt the progress of the disease. From Carlisle, we flew to Scarfellusing 'Wings of Soaring Wind'. We eventually managed to locate Blodwyn,and she was able to use the vis we had brought to cure the disease.We are both very aware of how lucky we have been; three of the grogswho accompanied us were not so fortunate.

Autumn

The near disaster of last seasonconvinced us to pass a resolution stating that none of us would disturb thetomb of the ancient king before receiving the permission of the council.This seems like a sensible ruling in the present circumstances, though I forone (and, in truth, I feel I am not alone) am hardly willing to let this matterrest entirely. Give me a few more years, and we shall see just how strongthis spirit really is.

Stassius of Mercere arrived afew days into the season, bringing with him most alarming news. In themundane world, King Robert had reached and taken the great city of Antioch,but the Christian army had made little further progress because of internalbickering. Closer to home, Prince Henry, the heir to the throne, hadrecently been killed in a hunting accident near Huntley Hill. I do notknow anything of the circumstances surrounding this event, but I sincerelyhope that Henry of Lakewood did not have a hand in it. The new heirto the throne is Prince Hugh.

In Hermetic circles, Dionysisof Holy Isle has accused Idris' pater, Daffyd, of consorting with agents ofthe Unnamed House, thereby violating one of the recent rulings of the GrandTribunal. This is an extremely serious accusation; though I findit difficult to believe that it could be true, I somehow doubt that Dionysiswould risk his reputation by making such a bold statement without at leastsome evidence to back up his claim. I do not know enough about Hermeticlaw (or should that be politics?) to state with any certainty how the investigationwill proceed, but it is clear that Idris, as Daffyd's filius, will be drawninto it. Gruder of Solis Castle was also accused of dealing with theUnnamed House, but I understand that the charge relates to the time of theSchism War.

On a less troubling note, Stassiusalso told us that Tyrenia had ruled in Eloria's favour, allowing the her totake a considerable share of Blackthorn's mundane and magical resources withher to Blywyddan. Perhaps predictably, Blackthorn retained control overits vis sites.

Winter

In past seasons, we had debatedlong and hard about possible reasons for the recent instability in the magicalaura; in this season we reaped the rewards of our efforts. Carefulstudy of the fluctuations in the aura indicated that they followed a regularpattern, and that it would be in this season that the aura came into closestcontact with the higher level of the magical regio. This knowledge meantthat we at least had time to prepare ourselves for the possibility that wewould have to face the giant spiders - or some other peril - again.

True enough, on the night of theWinter Solstice, the two magical planes overlapped once more. We hadassembled virtually everyone who lived in the covenant in the great hall,reasoning that it would be easier to protect them if we kept them close together.As the two magical fields came into contact, Petrus and several of the grogsdisappeared, having been drawn into the higher level of the regio; thatwas the last we saw of them for some time.

A scream from one of the servingfolk alerted us to the fact that this time, the giant spiders had come tous. Barricaded in the great hall, we were relatively safe from the monstrouscreatures, but we felt obliged to take the fight to them in order to safeguardthe delicate equipment in our laboratories. The melee that followedwas too fast and furious to relate in any detail; suffice it to saythat we slew all of the creatures, but suffered heavy casualties. Severalof the grogs were tragically slain, and even mighty Pendaran came close todeath.

I learned later that Petrus hadsuffered an even worse fate in the upper level of the regio. Realisingat once what had happened, he immediately set about casting a spell to opena portal between the two levels. Unfortunately, he did not notice thespider that approached from his rear, and he was savagely wounded. Thegrogs managed to slay the spider, but Petrus appeared too weak to cast thespell needed to take them all to safety. After several abortive attempts,he finally managed to summon the energy needed to control the magics, andhe and his companions were able to flee the area. With Ceadwith's help,Petrus was able to make a full recovery, although he remained incapacitatedfor most of the season.

As the season neared its end,the night sky was illuminated for a short time by strange, flickering lightsthe like of which none of us had seen before. Varsavia explained thatthey marked the changing of the faerie seasons once more; just as summerhad recently given way to autumn, now autumn was giving way to winter.I am sure this will bring challenges of its own, but it should hopefully markthe end of the fluctuations in the aura, and we should not have to face thedenizens of the upper level of the regio again for quite some time.