1113

YEAR 1113

Scribed by Lothar

Spring 1113AD

The Council Meeting this seasonwas grim, many of our men and all of our animals had died in the plague andwe discussed long the possible causes and how we could defend against anothersuch event. One of the suggestions was that if Edith had been allowed to staywith us, she as a highly talented herbalist would have been able to save manyof the men. Antonius and Turold were gracious enough to accept they mighthave been wrong about her and we should maybe invite her to join our covenantafter all.

My dogs died, I found their bodiesin the snow. I had released them when we realised we were out of food butbecause of their domestication they were unable to hunt for themselves. Ivow now never to domesticate any animal again. If left in the wild state theywould have lived and so I can only blame myself for the selfish act of wantingcompany.

We decided at the council meetingto make a magical device to measure auras as Lydney is becoming a worry, theplague seems to have been centred on it and the corruption there may be spreading.Petrus and Turold will be building this device this spring. Antonius was giventhe task of investigating the Welsh as there were reports of cross borderraiding going on and with the reputation of this covenant as the home of theWelsh war wizard, we were worried that unwelcome attention from the mundanesmay result.

The season wore on and maybe becauseof the plague the rest of spring was quiet.

Summer

At the Council meeting Antoniusrelated what he had discovered. Gloucester was very badly hit by the plague,the damage caused by it lessening the farther away you got from it exceptfor one place, Lydney. Apparently Lydney was the worst hit of all, which confirmsour suspicions of the corrupt nature of the place. The Knight of Lydney'swife died her name - apparently was lady Elisa Stuart. Another interestingfact to crop up was that Father Christopher never went hungry and that peoplewere afraid to go to the church, maybe that cesspit of corruption has reopened.

Lucian met on his wanderings anEnglish merchant in Wales. The merchant had met a man claiming to be Idrisstirring up the Welsh in revolt. This the council decided was probably Stephenand Holy Isle would be informed immediately. There was talk of Welsh banditsin the woods and it was decided that as my covenant service I would clearthem out. Antonius proposed and Turold seconded that we ask Edith to joinus, I would have felt smug but I remembered the people who had died in theplague because of her absence.

The season progressed with Antoniusgoing to Holy Isle to report the sighting of Stephen. He used Petrus' flyingdevice to get there and back so as to be able to continue his studying.

A strange star was seen in thesky and Heather, a small girl who works in the kitchens who seems very knowledgeableabout legends and such like, was asked what it meant.

The Reeve's man arrived with atax demand for 450 pennies.

This is the time of year thatwe would normally collect Rego vis but the was none because of the miningat St. Briavel's hill.

I went into the woods, discoveredthe bandits and slew them all as directed by the council there was about adozen of them but in bear form they were no match for me. I also met the furtrapper known as Ciaran and reasonably asked him to stop trapping animalsfor their fur and to join the covenant. I did this because of complaints fromthe Reeve that poaching was continuing around the covenant and if we did notdo something about it he would. However Ciaran replied in the negative saying"No one owns these woods". As his continuing would have jeopardisedthe covenant I attacked him and bit his arm off but when I saw that he hadfaerie blood I desisted the attack and let him flee.

Later in the season a Norman knightarrived, calling himself Sir Maurice sworn to the Duke of York. He claimedto be hunting a hell hound, A dog so large it was bigger than a horse itseyes were red and fur as black as night. As he talked it started to appearthat this knight was not all he appeared to be. Antonius investigated hishorse while the knight was entertained in the great hall, to his amazementthe horse was capable of talking but was ashamed of being found out as theknight had left strict instructions not to talk around us. The knight wanteda guide and a squire to follow the hound with him so Hessa was summoned ashe knew the local wood well and as a squire the knight selected Lucian togo with him. When Lucian tried to lift Sir Maurice's shield it weighed 10times what it should have but Sir Maurice lifted it out of Lucian's strugglinggrip as if it weighed nothing.

Into the woods went the trio,the knight apparently knowing the way but deferring to the guide like it wasa role he was playing. They then went into the Faerie Regio the Knight leadingnow as the guide had no knowledge of this area. Into the cave of snakes wherethey discovered a pool at the back. There in the depths of the pool the houndsat glaring at the knight, refusing to come out and fight. The Faery knight(for what else could he have been) then left the two mortals alone sayingto hold the hound as well they could. Hessa and Lucian looked nervously atone another then slowly backed away from the pool. The dog erupted from thepool growing in stature until it was the size of a horse. At this point theFaerie knight flew in from a hole in the roof and with one slice removed thedog's head from its shoulders.

The knight then left but travelledat such a pace that the two mundanes had a tough time of keeping up with him.Apparently as they crossed the last regio boundary something happened to Lucianand he vanished. Hessa turned back to look for him letting the knight go backto the covenant on his own. The Knight returning claimed his horse and departedsaying that the two men he went with were to slow so he left them. Eanfledwas sent out to find Hessa and Lucian and succeeded but when passing throughthe last regio again something happened to Lucian and this time he appearedlost forever.

Eanfled returned to the covenantwith Hessa to face a few questions from Antonius about how the Fay knightmanaged to penetrate the Aegis. Which led to Antonius saying "You havemet the knight before" and Eanfled replying "Met who the night before?"which resulted in a few grins I can tell you. Eventually it turned out thatthe knight had met Eanfled on the road and had asked permission for him andhis horse to enter the covenant and as Eanfled is part of the ritual of theaegis he was able to grant the request. Lucian did not return and Antoniusfears for his safety but has not the knowledge yet to enter the Faerie regioto search for him.

At the end of the season Petrusflew to Scarfell covenant to get a wound healed and to talk to Edith.

Autumn

At The Council Meeting the Faeknight story was discussed along with what to do about human encroachmentinto the forest. Our loss of the rego site was discussed with much rancour.We were also informed about Edith considering our revised offer of joiningthe covenant. It was decided that Antonius and Ruaridh would investigate Lydneywith the aura detecting device to see how much the corrupt aura had grown.

They went into the village byday and found that the corrupt aura was the worst by the font of the churchwhere it registered third magnitude on the device the rest of the villagewas only of the first magnitude of corruption. They then decided to go againat night to see if the magnitude increased. The device showed that at nightif they were within sight of the village it was a first level magnitude. Thisworried them so they decided to close and investigate. They walked cautiouslyup to the stockade taking readings all the time. At the stockade the deviceshowed a reading of second magnitude and Antonius and Ruaridh noticed a massbeing said. They both noticed that the mass seemed a bit lazy and haphazardwith important bits seemingly missed out or slurred also while the mass wasbeing said ghostly spirits of children were seen dancing around the church.The mass ended, the peasants emerged from the church crossing themselves theopposite way too normal and as the doors closed all the lights went out inthe church at once. This panicked them a bit so they fled back to the covenantto discuss what they had found.

At the council meeting we discussedthe events and decided that as the dell of the wolves was very close to thecorruption aura it might be brought to life by it so Antonius and Ruaridhvolunteered to go back down to Lydney the next night to investigate. Whenthey got to Lydney they tried to get a reading on the device but there seemedto be no aura! Puzzled over this they discussed what to do next when theyrealised there had to be an aura so the corruption was blocking the Intellegomagics of the device. They then panicked and tried to fly away but to no avail,their magics failed them and so they resorted to their legs and started torun. They then noticed spirits of the children following them, getting closer,and closer, until the spirits were literally breathing down their necks. Atthis point they both took their leap of homecoming potions to escape theirtorment but something went wrong and they appeared in the Dell.

Scared out of their wits now Ruaridhtried to Rend the magical veil to reach the lowest part of the regio but becauseof the aura and his fear the spell did not work. A figure appeared in themiddle of the Dell hooded and dark, he throws back his hood and it was Myrvinlooking accusingly at Ruaridh. A single howl called out and then silence.

Suddenly the scene shifted andRuaridh and Antonius were suddenly transported to the church in Lydney. FatherChristopher stood by the altar not noticing their arrival. They ran for thedoors but then perceive that the doors had vanished to be replaced by a wall.Ruaridh frustrated at every turn by the corruption lashed out with a boltof lightning aimed at Father Christopher, but again the spell failed, possiblythe Father is protected by the spirits?

Again the scene changed and thetwo hapless victims were transported back to the council chamber. There onthe floor lay Petrus split in two by a bolt of lightning. The two looked ateach other in fear of what they had done. Turold walked into the chamber thenand stood aghast at the crime before him. Then I entered the council chamberand demanded to know what was happening. After the briefest of explanationsthe pair demanded that they wait for dawn to rise so they could know thatthey were truly home. So we waited until dawn then Antonius said that he wasgoing to leave, I would not allow this and cast Weavers trap of webs overthe widows to prevent him flying away. Turold fetched a Quaesitor who turnsout to be Dionysus and he starts to ask many probing questions he then demandsthat the guilty pair hand over all their magical items for examination. Assoon as they had done so Dionysus lifted his head in a triumphant laugh andthe scene changed once more.

It appeared to be Lydney in daylight,they were standing outside the stockade where they had started the previousevening and there was a blackened spot on the stockade where a lightning bolthad apparently hit it. Ruaridh flew back to the covenant to explain what hadhappened. Antonius Travelled to Tintern Abbey to here a proper mass so hewould know he was back in the real world before travelling home and relatinghis recollections of a most frightening night.

Winter

The Council Meeting started withthe acceptance of Edith who had arrived a few days previously by cart withall her possessions including Piewackit, a magical cat of some kind. She didnot want to move into a laboratory but instead chose to move into the infirmarywhere she said that she could be closer to her patients. It was decided thatfor her first season's covenant service she would act as a mundane healerin Blackney hoping to help some of the people in Lydney who seem very vunerableto illnesses, presumably brought on by the corruption there. Ruaridh thenwent on to discuss the trip to Lydney that happened in Autumn and its implications.Ruaridh and Petrus were both compensated for the loss of the enchanted itemstaken in that disaster as it was done as a covenant service.

Antonius reported that the nightbefore the council meeting Jacque was disturbed by a vision so powerful andrealistic he went to Antonius and related it to him. This vision was of ahill with a hut and a river flowing at the bottom of it with fishing rodslaid out . A young girl, a woman and Idris were there living an idyllic lifeapparently. Then the vision shifted and Jacque saw the heart of the forestre-growing after the corruption that had lain apon it. Again the vision shiftedand it seemed as if a bright light was beaming down at Jacque and as he recoiledfrom the light he saw a dark well of absolute night in the middle of it .As he withdrew further he saw not a well but an eye, an eye of a dragon andit was starting to wake . As it woke it stared at Jacque and this scared himenough to bring him to full consciousness. We discussed this vision, for that'swhat it surely was, and I proposed that it meant that Idris was in peace inthe Otherworld that he kept harping on about and that perhaps the dragon representedthe Welsh nation and that we might be attacked soon by the Welsh. My Sodalisthen stated that I was guessing and that if Idris was anywhere it would notbe in peace and contentment it would be in hell with his infernal associates.This got me too thinking that if the vision was true, did Idris consort withdemons? Or did we make a huge mistake? I have spent many restless nights sincethis vision pondering this matter.

Turold informed us that he wasgoing to Verdi Covenant for the house Verditius tribunal and would like totake Jacque along with him as it would make easier his trip through Francehaving a French speaker.

A few days later Mathus the Redcaparrived with news hermetic and mundane . Apparently black Hugh had got himselfin further trouble with the Church by imprisoning some of its leaders andplans were being made to invade England by the Duke of Normandy. House Flambeauhad met and planned to attack Ashenrise with Tremere and Tytalan support.A new covenant was started up in East Anglia called "Narwold" butit was set up by Normandy Tribunal and not Stonehenge. This will probablylead to a political fight which interests me very little, However we discussedapproaching this misplaced covenant to see what they could offer us in theway of trade.

A couple of weeks into the seasona report came from Blackney that some of the men had been attacked by a rivercreature and Antonius approached Heather the serving girl who seems to havea surprising knowledge of local legends. She said it was Llanigan-y-dur whichmeans in Welsh "water leaper" and was famous for dragging men downto the depths of the Severn.