1110

YEAR 1110

Scribed by Antonius

Spring 1110AD

Once again the start of a newyear begins with tidings of no little import from the mundane world. The Forestof Dean, in which this covenant is situated, has been declared a royal forest.This means that poachers and trappers will be hung and as landlords here wewill have some responsibility to ensure that this is the case or risk angeringthe Baron. On the positive side, if we can acquire dispensation from the Reeve,it is a free mining area and there will be no tax paid on any mines providedthat all metal and ore produced goes to the local towns. To try and obtainsuch dispensation I journeyed to see Hubert, the current Reeve of Dean. Heis now based in Monmouth, rather than Gloucester as used to be the case withprevious Reeves, after falling out with the Earl. He seems a very efficientReeve, a very determined man who considers himself too busy to bother attendingchurch. I enquired, as casually as I could, to the legality of our landholding,it being essential that we officially own the land if we are to gain rightsassociated with it. The Reeve told me that, in his opinion, as we pay taxeswe have right of abode there and can own Blackney. However it seems that thelegal owner of the land must present himself to get dispensation to hunt andmine the land freely, I believe this means that Ruaridh must journey to Monmouthto resolve the matter finally but I foresee no problems. Other mundane mattersof note, Sir Gerald it seems, desperate to bolster his ailing finances, plansto mine South of Blackney hill. More darkly rumours of a curse at work inLydney have reached Monmouth now. From my sources within the village I havealso heard that restless spirits have been slowing work upon the church. Icannot decide whether this is a good or a bad sign, it is ill that such spiritsactively slow work on the church but perhaps they fear its completion? Ona brighter note, we managed to recruit five new grogs so we now have fivefull squads of four men once more.

Turold had a rare expedition outof the covenant this season. Welsh peasants had come from Blaenavon seekinghelp from Idris, the Welsh war wizard, against the giant who he had bestedsome years ago. The giant was lured into drinking a barrel of poisoned aleand then Pendaran, by all accounts, fighting the battle of his life, slewthe giant with some awesome blows.

Summer

Ruaridh returned for the startof the season. It seems he has been accepted at Magvillus as a Quaesitor andnow has only a years probation to serve. Turold returned the vis that he hadborrowed from the council as agreed. Quaesitor Feremir arrived not long afterhis more junior Sodalis, for the Tribunal sanctioned investigation of thiscovenant. After a thorough and extensive study he concluded that there wasno evidence of mismanagement. It was only the exuberance of youth and inexperiencethat had led to the mistakes of the past. He ruled that the treachery of thefallen magus Idris was not the fault of the covenant and seemed confidentthat the senior Quaesitor, Dionysus, would agree with his ruling.After theinvestigation had been completed Ruaridh left to begin his own inquiry intothe incident at Llandolwyn's cave.

To no little concern we heardthat one of the grogs had been attacked by a shadow in a manner ominouslyreminiscent of the occurrences when Varsavia's spirit was sucked into thecorrupted heart of the forest. Petrus thought that it might be a sign thatthe Radulfus demon was active again. On checking the secret chamber behindthe magical stores where the creature has been found before Petrus felt hisParma attacked but not breached. There was an infernal aura there and so heconducted his Perdo Vim ritual to suppress the aura there. With luck we willhave a few more years before the creature raises its head again.

Autumn

As a result of his investigationsRuaridh will be acting as Accusator against Maga Jerania on behalf of Llandolwynat the next tribunal. The council agreed that the 4 pawns of vis that Ruaridhreceived for his efforts will not be subject to the usual council tithe butRuaridh must still complete a seasons service for the covenant each year.The season then passed fairly uneventfully save for the Petrus somehow uncoveringa tome hidden in the chimney in his laboratory. Intriguingly it appears tobe an early history of the tribunal. With my lack of need for slumber andthus more free time to study such a tome I have undertaken to see what itcontains.

Winter

It seems that the tome is indeedan early history of the tribunal, however on reading further it also appearedto refer to events related to the Schism war. Aware of the forbidden natureof such knowledge I stopped reading immediately and returned the book to thecouncil, it will be given over to Holy Isle at the earliest opportunity. Thecouncil was also concerned to discover that we could harvest no imagonem visthis year, there were no mushrooms in the glade and tracks leading from itgive us reason to suspect that someone has picked them all and potentiallydestroyed the site. We will ask Lothar to investigate when he returns. Turoldalso raised the matter of his house item, which he intends to be a map ofthe area with figurines representing the people in it, a version of the InexorableSearch which could prove extremely useful for the covenant if we can collectarcane connections to people of interest. T he council agreed that it wouldpay most of the vis involved in it's manufacture and in return Turold wouldgive his time for free. A mutually beneficial arrangement that should, wehope, aid our Verditius Sodalis in the furthering of his craft and reputation.

Varein returned to the covenanthaving managed to rescue his love, Ruth from the Erequith but tragically asthey entered the Aegis wounds suddenly opened up on both of them as the faeriemagic that had healed them shut was dispelled. Varein was dead before he evenhit the ground, such was the terrible severity and number of his injuries,but Ruth was able to be saved. With Varein dead, Gareth was officially appointedCaptain. He is still quite young for such a post and a bit of a dreamer butwith our limited numbers he is the best choice and I am sure he will striveto do his duty.

We received reports from Blackneythat the mine was running dry so the council agreed that each of the magiwould spend a week of our time this season with the mask to try and locatesome fresh seams. It seems that the building of the church in Lydney has beencompleted but the troubling signs in that village grow ever worse. Stewart,who has come from there on behalf of the Rector, to see what manner of placewe have here, told us what he knew. Ghosts and spirits are apparently stillactive throughout the village and Stewart himself, an educated and intelligentman, saw a shadow move. Father Christopher has however apparently seen nothing.Villagers have been suffering from "standstills", a condition thatsounds uncannily like that which the shadows we have had here have inflictedupon those they touched. Still more worryingly, if earlier prophecies areto be considered, a child has been born and baptised within the church. Couldit be an unholy baptism, and if so what could that mean? The news from furtherafield is scarcely more encouraging. The King has been excommunicated, andthe Archbishops of Hereford and Canterbury held a strife ridden synod. Alsowith the union of Normandy and Germany, there may be war. If so, will theWelsh seize the opportunity to attack with many men fighting far away? SirGerald and his men would ride to the aid of the King, Stewart says he maywish to speak to us as his nearest neighbours to arrange some sort of mutualsupport alliance if Chepstow cannot help.

With the situation sounding increasinglygrim in Lydney, Ruaridh, Lucian and I journeyed down to check on the strengthof the aura. The aura just outside the church appears to be of the first,possibly second magnitude but is almost certainly higher inside. Later inthe season one of our grog patrols was attacked within the woods by a devil.The creature slew one and badly wounded another but fortunately Ruaridh wasclose by and vanquished the creature with The Demon's Eternal Oblivion. Isthe Radulfus demon now destroyed? Only time will tell.

The Merinitan Quaesitor, Linaris,arrived towards the end of the season, to investigate the damage down to thefaerie regio by Adolphus. The last act of this year was the wake that washeld for Varein. A mourning of his death but also a celebration of his life.An apt end perhaps to a year of mixed fortunes for the covenant and so aswe look ahead to the next year I conclude my duties as scribe.