1114

YEAR 1114

Scribed by Lothar

Spring 1114AD

At this season's council meetingthe Llanigan-y-dur was discussed and as it had eaten one of our sergeantsAntonius was going to do some recruiting to bring the numbers up to a reasonablelevel. Antonius had heard in his travels that duke Henry had died and anyinvasion was probably put off as his son would have to re-negotiate the dealsdone with the kings of France and the Holy roman emperor.

An alchemist named Leduc arrivedshortly after Turold left for Verdi and asked if he could work here as hisgoal of forging metals which fall from the sky had brought him into conflictwith the church as he described them as gods own metals as they had fallenfrom heaven. This season then continued peacefully and an enjoyable time washad by all.

Summer

The council meeting started withAntonius telling us about a new priory starting up in the borders of the forest, I was troubled about this incursion but to take direct action would havebrought trouble down on the heads of all of us and so I accepted it. We agreedto let Leduc join as his skills with metals were almost magical.

A few days later Cassitus arrivedand asked Antonius to reconnoitre Ashenrise for the main assault and afterbribing him with vis and magical gifts he accepted. Lucian returned to usfrom the Faerie regio but for him no time seemed to have passed which canhappen sometimes when you lose yourselves in the aura.

The Reeves man rode up with thetax demand, 500 pennies which I thought a bit much even if there was a warabout to start.

At the Summer equinox I was downby the spring and there saw Idris. He conversed with me and told me that therewere two factions in house Diedne, one a pure druidical sect that he and Stephenbelonged to and another that had fallen and linked itself to the infernal.These two factions he claimed were constantly fighting one another . Thenhe went on to say that the Infernal faction were going to raise up a blackdragon at Stonehenge and send it to attack Blackthorn covenant. I asked himabout Varsavia and he claimed it was an accident that he killed her. I couldbelieve this as I occasionally do things accidentally which turn out for theworse. When I reported this knowledge to the council they stated that Idriswas a traitor and couldn't be trusted but they agreed to pass on warningsto Cad Gadu (for they own Stonehenge), Blackthorn and Holy Isle as they areresponsible for attacking House Diedne.

A few days later Piewackit declaredthat it saw the dragon in the magical realm flying north to Blackthorn. WhenRuaridh flew up to Holy Isle he was informed that Stephen had been capturedand was being interrogated and a few days later Mathus the redcap arrivedwith a letter for Ruaridh inviting him to attend the interrogation becauseof a case he was working on. Unfortunately by the time Ruaridh arrived atHoly Isle Stephen had died, the explanation given to Ruaridh was that he wasextremely resistant to magical interrogation but responded better to mundanetorture and so that method was taken.

At the end of the season Turoldreturned smiling telling that he had risen two places in the ranking systemthat that house uses and that the same person who won last time won again;apparently Nauticus had developed a ring of warding against the dragon whichhe created a horn to summon which won him the contest last time. I think hemust be in control of something very precious to this dragon for controllingthem with small magical items should be impossible.

Autumn

Antonius left early in the seasonfor Ashenrise. His first stop was Bristol where he obtained passage on a traderto Cliffheart covenant where he rested for a day before starting to scoutWaterford. There he questioned locals about the infernal covenant but gainedlittle information and so he went closer to Ashenrise . When he got to thelocal villages he used magic to investigate men loading barges of food obviouslygoing to Ashenrise. He learned there were fifty men at Ashenrise but he gainedlittle information on the Magi there. He then returned to Cliffheart to reportall that he had found out.

With all the information gatheredin the assault began, Antonius observing all on a magic mirror and reportingto the Primus. First a group of grogs went up to the walls with a lone magusto detect where the aegis began. Then the majority of the magi went in blowingdown the main outer gates with ignem magics then destroying all the mundanedefenses with ease. Once the perimeter had been secured the Primus Flambeauentered the outer compound and destroyed the walls supporting ensorcelledgates to the underground part of the complex. After a rest of one hour twogroups of magi and soldiers moved in until they came to two staircases whenthey split .Down and down they went down there separate staircases workedwalls making way for roughened stone. One of the groups met a shadow creaturethat slew three soldiers and injured Marius a Flambeau magus. More Magi arriveto give him support and they advanced. Then all the lights were extinguishedbar one cast by a powerful magus. They came across a set of doors and blewthem open and entered a great hall with lots of exits. Slowly they investigatedthe various exits. Suddenly green fire and explosions filled the view of themirror and it shattered. Darius worrying for his own safety, thinking thewhole thing a trap, recommended withdrawal antagonising Primus Flambeau. ThePrimus, worried about his followers, decided to ignore the tribunals rulingand entered Ashenrise. It later turned out that six magi and two Archimagiwere killed and all for nought as no Diedne magi were found. The batteredforces withdrew to Cliffheart to lick there wounds and Antonius took his leaveand returned to Severn temple.

Back at home a shiver ran througheveryone with the gift. We gathered together but Petrus did not appear sowe rushed up to his sanctum, but when Ruaridh did a perdo terram on the lockit did not break as expected instead melting slowly. Ruaridh speculated thatmagic had been warped somehow. Petrus was unconscious and when carried downto the infirmary his body was as light as a baby, obviously warped by themagical mishap. When Edith managed to resuscitate Petrus he went immediatelyto check the spring as his experiment involved muto vim. It transpired thatthe aura had risen to the seventh magnitude and the spring now lay acrossa magical regio, also the aura was expanding we fled before it hoping it wouldhave a limited duration but when it completely absorbed the covenant intoit we had to flee to Blackney. We decided to live at Blackney until the aurahad returned to normal.

Winter

The Redcap Mathus arrived to findour council meeting being held in a barn at Blackney much to Petrus and Turold'sdispleasure; these Latin magi need their home comforts. The redcap told usof an important meeting in Rome between an Archimagus and an Archbishop andthat they declared that the order is not an enemy of the church. He also saidthat Edward Duke of Normandy was gathering his forces to invade England andthat the Pope had given his permission for the invasion. We were informedthat Dionysus was no longer head Quaesitor and was going to be replaced. AMerinitan called Tyrell of Scarfell covenant has gone into the faerie regioand vanished.

Two weeks later we decided tore-enter the regio to work even though the risks may be great. When in therewe discovered that Idris' spirit had been at work protecting the spring andcovenant with his bow slaying several spider corpses (which I bravely wentand collected from the forest edge) which contained perdo vis. As the seasoncontinued we noticed several people had changed from living in such a regioseveral looking thinner but having a strange look in there eyes, myself included.It was a relief to us all that at the start of the next season the aura diminishedand the covenant returned to the normal world.