1137

YEAR 1137

Scribed by Audacia

Spring 1137AD

Now come I to the Journal. Thisrecord kept now since the refounding of Severn Temple has detailed many trials,but this last; the attack of the Dragon, must surely be the closest to completedestruction that this covenant has come. Add to this my personal grief forthe death of my Pater, Caisus, who stood fast against the onslaught of thedragon twice; first at Blackthorn where he was driven back by the flames andfury of the beast, and lastly here. That a magus should ever once have toface such a terrible foe speaks volumes for that magus’s courage, butto willingly return to fight such a creature a second time must mark Caisusas one of the finest of my House. His name shall be spoken with honour atthe next House meeting where we remember those who have fallen in battle.He lived and died as a Flambeau, and woe betide any who seek to challengethat account.

For the living, we must endureand survive; that is our duty, both to the covenant and to those who laiddown their lives for it’s defence. The long and bitter task of rebuildingshall begin. I shall turn my magics to the task of clearing the debris andwreckage from the site so that rebuilding can begin. It is a long job, evenwith my skills, and will probably require more than one season’s work.Antonius shall scour the land for news; for the nobles make war with one anotherand we are in no fit state to hold the covenant against a determined mundanearmy. Caelestis will travel to Blackthorn in the hope that they have a spellin their library to create a new tower for our laboratories. Turold and Ruaridh,the latter still familiarising himself with the political landscape afterhis long absence, shall seek out the Archimagus Jolyon and encourage him toreturn from whichever regio he currently resides. The Grand Tribunal meetsnext season, and it would seem wise that Jolyon attend to speak for his House.

From the shade of Idris we havelearnt that, during the attack, a shadowy figure opened the gates of the covenantfrom the inside. Personally I believe the identity of this figure to havebeen Darius or his familiar. To gain further evidence of this we had Sereniato attend us again and investigate.

Antonius returned with news. Itseems the local mundanes have chosen different sides in what appears to beshaping up to be a bloody civil war. Monmouth, whose activities in the pasthave oft’ caused difficulty for this covenant and its allies, has sidedwith Henry and brings with him support from the Welsh. Chepstow, and thusour neighbour Martin of Lydney, has sided with Stephen.

Upon the road, Antonius was assailedby a group of bandits. One of the attackers summoned thick vegetation aroundAntonius’ legs, trapping him fast whilst the other bandits fired arrows.Fortunately, Antonius had the wit to evade the trap with little injury, saveperhaps to his pride. No doubt these bandits were unsettled by the fact thathe openly used magic to vanish before their eyes. Whilst they are a smallthreat, they have attacked my sodalis – for this, mark my words, theyshall pay.

At the end of the season Ruaridhand Turold returned. It appears that their excursion was successful, thoughnot without incident. Jolyon has despatched himself to Durenmar, and it ishoped he will arrive in time for the Emergency meeting of the Grand Tribunal.

Summer

Turold and Ruaridh reported thatthe fae play some game of politics with each other. As ever, Turold has beendrawn into their affairs and shall spend a season acting as a go-between forthe Gofannon and the Ninniaw. Ruaridh, wisely in my view, will leave the faeriediplomacy to Turold and venture into Mynnydd Myrddyn in search of Vis. Thebarrows therein are said to contain plentiful amounts of Terram vis in theshape of bronze weapons and armour. To return so soon to the regio where hewas trapped for nearly a decade reveals an admirable quality of courage inmy sodalis. Caelestis, frustrated that we have chosen to await the possibilityof Jolyon’s aid in the reconstruction of our tower rather than cast thespell he transcribed last season, has decided to unpack his laboratory inone of the undamaged buildings. It is hoped from there he will be able toextract some vim Vis so that we can recast the Aegis. I shall continue clearingthe site.

Antonius reported that the warhas begun in earnest within the Dean. Monmouth has ambitions to capture bothChepstow and Gloucester, it seems. With the Earl of Gloucester away fightingStephen’s enemies in the Southwest, it has fallen to our neighbour Martinto play a significant role in the defence of the Dean. Antonius believes that,should Stephen triumph, this will play well for our influence over the region.Apparently much depends upon the Archbishop of Hereford, who is yet to declarefor whom he shall commit Hereford’s formidable armies. It seems thatthe Knight of Goodrich has taken the opportunity to seize land for himselfduring the crisis. We have sent some grogs to keep watch, so that we are forewarnedif any attack comes towards Lydney.

Ruaridh returned towards the endof the season, touched by some spell of madness delivered upon him by someentity within the barrow. At the end of the season, Turold returned. He broughtwith him a horse and cart, apparently a gift from the Ninniaw to Cyrgig.

Autumn

With Ruaridh recovered from theenchantment, he related events that had occurred within the regio. They madebase within the abandoned hillfort, but their camp was disturbed by a magicalcreature which apparently tried to hunt them. This bestial, grey-skinned manwas eventually slain by Ruaridh and two pawns of Corporem Vis were extractedfrom its corpse. From the description given in Radolphus’s journal itappears it was one of the Myrddyn’s brood from the nearby caves. Theyalso espied a hunting party of Celts who made camp just outside the ruinedfort. Ruaridh says that a couple of them strayed into the fort and began exploring.He shouted at one, but they were so nervous they broke camp and fled at onceback into the forest.

Within the barrows, Ruaridh describedhow he had felt a cold presence and his Parma tested by some spirit. He soughtto use a Perdo Mentem spell he had developed for the destruction of such entities.However, and not for the first time it seems, the spell had an unpredictedeffect. The spirit appeared to be briefly empowered by the spell, and wasable to inflict a curse of madness upon Ruaridh. Whilst an unfortunate weaknessin such a spell, it is possible that the spirit is banished or exhausted bythe attack. Both Ruaridh and Antonius have used the spell in the past, bothhave then been attacked by the spirit, after which no more is seen or heardof it. When I have a laboratory and some time I may investigate this effect,for I have long sought an easier method for the destruction of spirits. Thisseason, Ruaridh shall assist in the rebuilding of a damaged section of theouter defensive wall.

Antonius reported that the Archbishopof Hereford has thrown his lot in with Stephen. This has seriously underminedMonmouth’s attacks on Chepstow and Gloucester, and has probably turnedthe tide of the war here in the Dean. Antonius will turn his attention tohis merchant contacts and attempt to find some recruits to bolster our numbersof grogs.

Turold has brokered a peace betweenthe courts of the wood and the stone, and they are once again allies. It appearsthe tension was over the Llyn-y-fan, who wished to be released from Ninniaw’scourt and wed the King of the Mountain. Turold will speak to Sylvania at CadGadu to see if she can give any insight into the ramifications for this union,for Turold believes the couple to be ill matched. I still do not understandwhy my Sodalis should care so much about their affairs and games, he has suchbrilliant and ambitious plans enough for his craft to fill his lifetime. Onebenefit to the covenant has arisen though, the horse and cart given to Cyrgigare of faerie nature and may pass freely and with ease through the faerieregio. This means we can at last install Cyrgig at the faerie settlement andbegin reaping the Terram vis produced there. Cyrgig may also be able to provideus with warnings of trouble from our faerie neighbours. Turold will offerhis assistance to Jolyon. The Archimagus has offered us help once he has rebuilthis laboratory, hopefully Turold’s aid will speed this process. He mayalso gain us news of what has happened at the Grand Tribunal last season.We shall meet again in two weeks to finally decide whether or not to awaitJolyon’s aid.

Caelestis will extract vim vis.For myself with Ruaridh’s assistance and some heavily armed grogs,I intend to pay our local nest of bandits, and their hedge wizard, a littlevisit.

The attack on the bandit campturned out to be more complicated than I had anticipated. Tracking the banditsto the cave, once used briefly by Petrus as a laboratory, was easy enough.From there I held the others to watch for any bandits trying to escape whileI went in. Within a short while all the bandits and the hedge wizard wereslain. Only then did we realise that we ourselves were being hunted. Fromabout the clearing edge wolves were seen, and amongst them a dark presence.The giant wolf, which we strongly suspected to come from the Dell, launchedan attack against us. Against the ordinary wolves, driven forward by the infernalbeast, we held our ground in the entrance to the cave. In the fighting oneman, Hassan, is worthy of mention. I saw him first cut down two wolves witha single blow from his great sword. Then, when the great wolf itself attacked,he bought the magi time to prepare defence by standing fast against the infernalbeast whilst the other men fled or panicked. In the end my spirit guardian,Ricardo, drew the infernal creature away, allowing us the opportunity to regroupand return to the covenant.

At the end of the second weekwe met as council. Jolyon had accepted Turold’s help with his laboratory,and was willing to create for us a ritual tower to our specifications. Aftera brief discussion we agreed to await this generous offer of aid. With luckit will not be too long now before we have a sturdy tower to replace the ruinedone.

Of the Grand Tribunal we heardthat some rulings had been passed. It seems that Jordael has been appointedthe Primus of House Ex-Miscellanea, and that the rights of membership to thatHouse have been restored. Members of Ex-Miscellanea need only present themselvesto the senior Quaesitor of each Tribunal to resume their seats and cast votesat Tribunals once again. However, McGreine and his rebels are still held outsidethe code, and the march against them will proceed until the necessary andinevitable outcome is obtained. For the rest of this season Turold returnedto Lear Valley to assist Jolyon, whilst I cleared the remaining debris aroundthe old main building. Come the new year, however, I have plans to hunt again.

Winter

In the council meeting we discussedthe danger posed by the demonic wolf. In the end I was content to have Turoldprepare three doses of a twelfth magnitude potion of demon’s eternaloblivion. In Spring, when they are ready, Ruaridh and I, accompanied by somemen, will try to track and slay this creature once and for all. In the meantimewe shall practice the Parma Magica together.

Antonius reported that the Baronof Monmouth has been forced into retreat after Hereford’s men came toChepstow’s aid. With some considerable effort he was able to recruitnine new fighting men to add to our numbers of grogs. However, despite theincrease in the price for iron, the markets have been disrupted by the fightingand our coffers will end the year shallower than they began. He has decidedto learn some of the Arabic tongue from the warrior Hassan. Caelestis willtravel to Blackthorn to study the Terram books in the visitor’s library.

The season passed peacefully enough,which was some relief after the terrible attack this time last year. We hadmany discussions about the design of the new tower. Indeed, after a long discussion,we decided to have two joined towers that would be placed near to the survivingsection of the old building. Turold advised us that we would need to finalisesuch a design by the end of the season to allow Jolyon time to incorporateit into the spell. This we did, and so ended the year.