1140

YEAR 1140

Scribed by Ruaridh

Spring 1140AD

Before discussing whether to admitthe Magus Madoc as a member of the covenant, we debated several possible modificationsto Severn Temple’s charter. We reasoned that this was a good opportunityto clarify the system for admitting new members and removing old ones to ensurethat it was both fair and transparent. The existing charter had served uswell for a great many years, but we had not fully considered the full rangeof circumstances that might cause Magi to leave the covenant, and we wereeager to close any loopholes that might result in legal difficulties in thefuture. The debate was good humoured, but we often got sidetracked into tryingto reword the charter to protect ourselves against all sorts of unlikely scenarios.In the end, we decided to limit the amendments to the following four clauses:

First, if the Council wishes toexpel one of its members against his wishes, it must first remove his GoodStanding as set out elsewhere in the charter. After a minimum of one seasonfrom this point has passed, the Council may debate a motion to expel fromthe covenant the Magus who has lost his Good Standing. This motion must receivethe votes of all Magi save the one who is to be expelled.

Second, a Magus in Good Standingmay choose to leave the covenant of his own free will. The Magus must announcehis intention to leave at a quorate Council meeting. The Magus so doing willcease to be a member of the covenant at the end of the Council meeting.

Third, A Magus joining the covenantmust complete a probationary period of two years. During this period, theCouncil may choose to expel him from the covenant by a vote of all Magi savethe Magus to be expelled. In this case, it is not necessary to strip him ofhis Good Standing or wait one season as set out in the first clause. In addition,the Magus in question may also choose to leave the covenant by following theprovisions in the second clause.

Fourth, let it be understood byall that the resources here specified belong to the covenant rather than individualMagi: vis sites (whether uncontested or contested), vis stores, magical items,magical texts, mundane texts, laboratory equipment and mundane resources (including,but not limited to, coven folk, grogs, artisans, money, goods, businesses,buildings and land). Any Magus leaving the covenant must surrender any andall of these resources in his possession. The Council may choose to granta departing Magus use or ownership of any resources at its discretion.

Once the amendments had been passed,we voted to invite Madoc to join us as a member of the covenant. After a briefinterlude when he questioned some of the provisions of the charter, particularlythose relating to access to vis, he accepted our offer. His first action asa member of the covenant was to declare his mundane brother, Aledd, to behis Amicus. Little else of note was discussed at the meeting save that Turoldannounced that he would depart immediately to attend his House meeting atVerdi. We bade him take four grogs to protect him during the journey giventhe uncertainties caused by the civil war.

The day after the meeting, Antoniusand I travelled to Clearwell to investigate whether the well, once a sourceof Rego vis, still retained any magic. Antonius scouted the village and wasquite surprised to find that it had not been taken by the Welsh. He then recalledthat there was some form of family relationship between the Knight of Coleford,under whose protection Clearwell falls, and a Welsh noble, and this had probablyensured the village’s safety. Unfortunately, I could detect no traceof a magical aura around the well, but we resolved to return on St Briavel’sday in summer to see whether this situation would change.

A week or so into the season,Turold returned and informed us that he had been attacked on the road to Oxfordby a band of fells. The situation had looked grim for our sodalis for a while,but he was eventually able to drive his assailants away using the Wand ofArcane Fire. He interrogated one of the fells and discovered that they hadbeen set the task of attacking wealthy merchants on the road in an attemptto gather funds. Two of the grogs had died in the melee and another was badlywounded. We therefore made arrangements to ferry them back to Severn Templeand provide Turold with replacement guards. This reduced the numbers of grogsat the covenant to a dangerously low level, and we were forced to ask someof the coven folk to take turns patrolling the walls. Antonius has been setthe task of recruiting more men, though he may find it difficult to do sogiven that almost all the fighting men in the region have been conscriptedinto the English or Welsh armies.

By the end of the season, I hadfinished inventing a most useful spell that I had read about elsewhere, theSeven League Stride. The task involved a great deal of delicate lab work,for the spell was at the limit of my capabilities, but I managed to succeedin my task. Indeed, by pushing myself to try hitherto untested methods ofexperimentation, I gained fuller insight into the intricacies of the Art ofCorporem. A most successful season, indeed.

Summer

Antonius informed us at the councilmeeting that he had managed to recruit three men during his travels in andaround the Dean. He had also spent some time ensuring that his business inChepstow will not be adversely affected by the war, which should provide uswith much needed income. Finally, he brought us news of political events inthe region and elsewhere in the country. The Welsh war band surrounding Monmouthhas still captured the city, but there are rumours that the Welsh sapperswill shortly have tunnelled far enough under the city walls to bring themdown. Further afield, it seems that Henry has ransomed the Duke of York fromhis Scottish captors and that the Duke, in gratitude, has switched his allegiancefrom King Stephen to Henry. This is likely to weaken severely Stephen’sposition in the north. It also seems that Baron Martin of Monmouth has fallenin battle, so we will acquire a new neighbour whichever side wins the civilwar.

A few days after the meeting,we spotted smoke rising from the direction of Monmouth. I flew over to investigateand found that the Welsh army had brought down the outer wall. It appearsthat the inner keep is still in English hands, though the Welsh have freereign over the rest of the city. Given the cramped conditions and lack ofsupplies, it surely will not be long before the keep also falls into Welshhands. This will allow the Welsh to march on the other English settlementsof the Dean and perhaps attack Gloucester itself.

Madoc returned to the covenanta week or so into the season. He had set out for Clearwell to check on thestatus of the village before heading southeast to look for vis sites on theSalisbury plains. Madoc’s initial foray ended in disaster after he ranafoul of a Welsh war band in the vicinity of Lydney. He was arrested and takento Monmouth, where he was thrown into prison. Quite what Madoc did to deservesuch treatment from fellow Welshmen escapes me, but both his nationality andhis Art failed to save him. At least he escaped the fate of the Saxon memberof his party who was left swinging from a nearby oak tree. Madoc eventuallymanaged to secure his freedom after he convinced his Welsh jailors that hewas a wizard, though I understand that he was almost burnt to death afterhis attempt to intimidate his captors failed spectacularly. Still, he reachedthe covenant with no further casualties and brought us news that the Welshmenwho captured him were camped in Lydney. Audacia and Antonius travelled downto the village to send a clear message that the wizards of the Dean shouldnever be molested in this way again. The leader of the Welshmen was left brokenand bloody; I doubt he and his comrades will bother us in the future. Withthe roads once again made safe, Madoc ventured out to complete his mission.

Later in the season, I travelledto Clearwell to check whether the well once again became magical on St Briavel’sday. Sadly, there was no change in the water or the aura, which means we seemto have lost the Rego site forever.

Autumn

Madoc brought us news of his travels.It seems the Welsh now own Clearwell and possibly Coleford. The ties of bloodbetween the local knight and the Welsh nobles are perhaps less important thanwe first thought. Madoc crossed the Severn into England and picked up theroad between Shaftesbury and Salisbury, where he heard rumours of a ghostlysettlement full of primitive but friendly villagers. After some investigation,Madoc discovered a strange, possibly artificial hill with a gentle slope atone end and a steep drop at the other. A local peasant claimed that his fatheronce spotted the ghostly village from the summit of the hill, and so Madocand his band began the hard climb to the top. There, though he could see nosign of the village, he discovered a ruined fortress.

Searching the debris in the fort,Madoc discovered an old fashioned short sword that, though somewhat decayed,gave off a magical scent; he also found the remains of an empty prison cell.Camping near the fortress one night, Madoc’s Amicus, Aledd, had a powerfuldream in which a man in Saxon dress beseeched him to carry a warning to othersof his kind so that he might not have died in vain. Madoc searched the cellagain and discovered the bones of a long dead man. He also found a loose brickin the wall that concealed a worn leather pouch. Inside was a sheet of finevellum covered in what appeared to be archaic Anglo Saxon runes. Perhaps mostintriguingly, the vellum, bones and short sword all dated from around 125years ago, which put them squarely in the period of the Schism War. We shouldtread carefully here.

At the council meeting, I casta spontaneous spell designed to give me an insight to the meaning of the runes.I received the impression that they formed a letter to a friend containinga warning and advice. The warning concerned something that had died yet livedstill, whereas the advice was in the form of a riddle. We decided that I wouldapproach Cad Gadu covenant this season to see whether we could arrange a fullertranslation. Primus Jordael professed some knowledge of the script, and hekindly agreed to furnish us with a translation next season.

The rest of the season was fairlyquiet until a group of Cors appeared at the edge of the Aegis heralding thearrival of their mistress, the Ruadan. Exacting my now usual deal concerningsafe passage, I left the protection of the Aegis to speak with the faeriesorceress. She told me that a Christian priest had entered the Morrigan’sGlade, and that his fervent prayers were disturbing the power of the area.The Ruadan and her allies were powerless to interfere with the man, whichperhaps hinted at his holy nature. I agreed to enter the glade and try topersuade the priest to leave. When I first saw him, it was clear that he wasvery scared at being trapped in such an alien environment, and he refusedto listen to my words and promises of safe conduct. However, I was eventuallyable to get through to him and began to lead him away. Unfortunately, he insistedon completing his ritual, and I noticed, with a degree of alarm that I stilldo not truly understand, that the runes of the Morrigan’s Stone had begunto fade as they were touched by the priest’s holy water. I moved to stophim defacing the stone, but his faith compelled him to continue and he wouldnot listen to reason. As the holy water continued to splash the stone, I felta searing pain as the blood in my veins turned to fire. I cast several spellsdesigned to render the priest unconscious or move him forcibly from the area,but they all failed to affect him. In a last effort, I summoned my remainingenergy and let fly the deadly Incantation of Lightning. The priest’sdivine protection failed him in this instance, and he did not survive. Pausingonly to sacrifice a portion of my blood to restore the runes on the stone,I travelled back to the covenant to face the inquiries of my sodales.

Winter

The Council discussed the factthat Turold had not yet returned from his travels to Verdi despite his previousclaims that he would be back by Autumn. We resolved to take no action at thisstage, but we decided we would investigate his whereabouts if he had not arrivedby the time of the next meeting.

A few days after the meeting,a Cor approached the covenant and explained that it had apparently been givento me, presumably as payment for securing the Morrigan’s Glade. I wasminded at first to send it away for I had desire to keep the creature, butI was persuaded by Audacia and Antonius that it might serve as a useful spyif we could be assured of its loyalty. I tested the Cor’s willingnessto follow my orders by demanding it touch a cold iron blade. It did so withlittle complaint despite the fact that metal clearly hurt its skin.

We carried out an experiment tosee whether the Cor’s keen eyes could detect spirits, and, to our surprise,it managed to locate not only Audacia’s spirit guardian but also thefurther spirit watching the village of Blackney. Audacia interrogated thisinterloper, and she discovered that it had been summoned and bound by thediabolist Francis. It had been set the task of watching the movements of theMagi here and making regular reports to what it described as ‘dark spirits’.Audacia then destroyed the spirit, and I commanded the Cor to keep watch overthe village in case Francis returned in the future. If we are lucky, perhapswe will catch the diabolist next time he pays Blackney a visit.

Later in the season, Loretiusthe Redcap brought us news of mundane and Hermetic events. It seems that thenew alliance between the pretender Henry and the Duke of York has encouragedother nobles to desert King Stephen. The barons of the Welsh marches provedparticularly rebellious once Stephen refused them permission to leave hisarmy to defend their lands from the Welsh. Bishop David of York has arrangedan agreement between Henry and Stephen to ban the use of flaming barrels ofoil when conducting sieges; several towns had previously been raised to theground after barrels were indiscriminately catapulted inside their walls bybesieging armies. Both Henry and Stephen have also sent emissaries to Rometo seek the backing of the Pope.

Onto Hermetic matters. Du Clercof Borri Tor said news that there were rumours that MacGreine had returnedto the Loch Legean Tribunal, and that he was in discussions with the Scottishrebels. Elsewhere, Serenia had been summoned to Holy Isle to investigate anattack by an infernal creature on Maga Fenriata, who had apparently been inthe process of investigating Darius’ former sanctum. A great storm hadhit Narwold covenant; when the winds calmed down, the Magi there discovereda set of magical tunnels between the covenant and the sea. Finally, our sodalisTurold had been sighted at Harco covenant, having lost an arm in an encounterwith a rampaging bear. To our great relief, Turold had survived the battleby the skin of his teeth, and he was apparently now making his way back toSevern Temple through the faerie realm of Gofannon.

Loretius also brought me a letterfrom Jordael that contained a complete translation of the Anglo Saxon runeson the vellum scroll discovered by Madoc. I shall quote it in full here, forit contains some quite startling revelations: "Imprisoned through nofault of my own, I know it is only a matter of time before I am executed.For my Saxon brothers that come after me, I record this warning and one pieceof advice. Know that Padraig of Swallowcliff, follower of Diedne, long helda suspicion that the Tremere had fallen under the sway of one who had diedbut whose spirit still resided within his corpse. I know not how he learnedof this, but my death is testimony to their desire to keep this secret. Alsoremember this: the red-eyed serpent follows the rainbow. Bryhtgan, Magus ExMiscellenea." We sat in silence for a few moments after I read the letterto let the news sink in. After much debate, we then resolved to inform SeniorQuaesitor Serenia of the letter and let her decide what should be done withthe information.

So ends my time writing the journal.I now hand over to the Magus Madoc, who I feel will have much to record overthe next few years. Truly, we live in interesting times.