1187

YEAR 1187

Scribed by Cormoran

Spring 1187 AD

It was as if winter had not releasedher icy grip on the world that first day of spring in the year 1187.There was much snow upon the ground and although we each raised ourParma Magica, the sun itself was hidden behind grey banks of cloud sothat its golden redness could be gazed on without pain, with the ritualof Bountiful Feast in full effect though I worry not for the health ofthe trees and this spring frost will be shaken off like a man takingoff his cloak ready for the years work that waits for my lovely appletrees.

The council itself reported nothingfrom the previous season as we had all been hard at labour in ourlaboratories. For the forthcoming seasons activities, Marius statedthat he would be wandering the Welsh lands and stated one of his goalsfor the year was to improve his French so he might better speak withthe nobles of this green and pleasant land. I stated that I would bestudying the pagan knowledge books as I feel that the only way to stopthe domination of the dominion is to try and recreate the worship ofthe pagan spirits who seem so powerful in this tiny corner of the land.To this effect I asked permission to perform a ritual of Beltane at thespring at the spring equinox this was permission was granted as even ifthere were no magical beneficial effects from the ritual the grogs andcoven folk would enjoy the party and it would improve morale. Due to myinterest in all things pagan I took to studying the pagan lore texts inwhatever spare time I was given. Tiarnan stated that he would bestudying from personal vis and enhancing his magic theory during theyear, Dialectica stated that she would undertake one of the major tasksin a magus's life and bind the owl she found as a familiar. Mediusdecided to read Yania's book about the rituals and knowledges of thechurch, to better know his enemy. Astrius stated that he would beinventing a spell that season and asked Medius if of an occasionalevening he could also peruse the book that Yania penned.

A week into the season Alanus a redcap arrived at the covenant and gave us the grave news that thatGiraldus was dead. Some ritual must have been performed at Harcocovenant and now they were sure of his demise. Alanus also broughtrequest that an investigation into his death be performed by ourresident Quaesitor. Of news mundane he told us that an army of theTurks has been raised and might march on the Christians in the Levant.This could be an interesting development if the Christian worldresponds in kind as many of the lords and priests of this Tribunalmight be tempted to go to those far flung lands in defence of thereholy city.

Astrius and Medius went andinvestigated Giraldus' sanctum and discovered a chest of Vis containing7 Aquam, 9 Ignem, 3 Corporem, 8 Herbam, 7 Creo, 3 Rego also in thesanctum was a box containing 300 pennies, Medius as Pontifex decided totake these treasures back into the covenant stores.

Medius and Astrius then went toinvestigate the disappearance and death of Giraldus. They took a grogcalled Raibert to Gloucester on the newly named barge Severn star. Oncethere the met with Marius and they all then went to Ross on Wyefollowing Giraldus' last known location. Marius asked around the townbut even his skills with people could not find a story related toGiraldus, this was not really a surprise as it would have been over ayear ago he visited the town, following a hunch that Medius had theyenquired at the docks and discovered that someone matching Giraldusleft on a barge south. Asking around the dock taverns it becamepuzzling for it appeared that Giraldus had apparently gave his travelplans to be travelling west on the road but this might have been a ployto throw off pursuit as he seems to have taken a barge. Travelling backto the covenant the Pontifex then asked Tiarnan if he would investigatethe river for a sunken barge, as Medius had a hunch that the barge hadnot made it to Chepstow. It must be either his quaesitorial training orjust his natural skill for his hunch proved correct again and Tiarnanfound it 1.5 miles north of Chepstow.

It looked like it had been scuttled from the inside, which was a puzzleand so Tiarnan investigated the sunken barge and discovered adecomposing corpse which enabled Medius to use his special skills toquestion the corpses spirit. Unfortunately the corpse knew nothing andso Medius cast eyes of the past to view the events himself. He saw abarge come up from Tintern and attack the barge which was moored by theside of the river, the attacking barge had the symbol of Lorraine on itand the attackers apparently kidnapped Giraldus then went back north onthe barge. After further searching on the river bed our water magefound Giraldus' lyre. Medius cast the inexorable search with the lyrebut no success was had. A council meeting was called and we discussedthe situation. Of the many discussions we had only one had results, andwhat results. There was an idea that someone in the covenant orBlackney was selling information to the monks and so we used pose thesilent question on the good folk of the covenant, only to find notraitors. In Blackney however a man ran once he saw what was occurringand Astrius' black hound familiar Drudwyl caught the fleeing man. Webrought him back to the covenant and questioned him magically to whichhe had no resistance. He revealed that his contact was a monk fromTintern called Justin. He had been in the pay of the monks for 2 yearshad been informing on the movements of the wizards and the names ofthere servants and companions for that time. On the last Friday of eachseason he travelled to Chepstow where he met the monk in the Swantavern near the docks.

We finished the interrogation andMarius went to Powys to continue his business with the mundanes butafter only a week he returned with the news that he had been attackedon the road by 3 monks on horseback and they killed 2 but one got away.

With this new we decided to inform thePraefector but on arrival at blackthorn it transpired that she hadtravelled to Narwold covenant in the east of the country, Medius andAstrius then decided to go to Narwold to tell the Praefector of ourtroubling news. After meeting with her and telling her the news shesuggested attacking this Justin and capturing him, which we werenervous to do in case of a breech of the primary code. We took sometime in deliberation of a plan but eventually settled on a robust andsimple one suggested by Tiarnan whose knowledge of all things Aquamobviously aided him in his planning. Just before the Friday thePraefector joined us and told us some news, that Jerusalem had fallenand a crusade had been authorised by the pope himself.

We implemented Tiarnan's plan and onceKai had warned us of the barges departure with the target monk aboard,Tiarnan pushed the boat to shore with his Rego and Aquam magics and weassaulted from the bank, we easily prevailed and the monk Justin wasimmobilised in a block of ice by Astrius. I then sailed the capturedbarge downstream and sunk it in the Severn, luckily Tiarnan hung aroundthe sinking barge as I had forgotten to weight the corpses and hecleared up my mistake.

The initial questioning of monk Justin went poorly as he used his pietyas protection from any magic's that might have revealed the secrets ofthe cult. Medius then using Coerce the spirits of the night on thesummoned ghost of the dead guards learnt of the names of the cultmembers these were Abbot Laurence of Tintern, Justin, Evered,Sebastian, Alan and Timothy there were nine others who served assoldiers and now act as bodyguards but these monks have not thereligious fervour of the named ones.

When this shade was asked about Giraldus it transpired that Alan tookhim to Tintern and Evered tortured him to death extracting a lot ofinformation, Giraldus' remains were burnt there.

On returning with this information toJustin it transpired that the Prior of Huntley was sympathetic to thiscults purposes as was Leonard of Prick Nash. It appeared that thepowers these monks possess is as follows. They can see throughillusions, heal the sick, they know gods purpose, they can sensedevilry and they can cleanse unholy places. The men who attack Mariuson the road turned out to be messengers who carried the news of war andthis cult who call themselves the Brothers of Christ shall crusade withthem. After much further and fruitless magical questioning the onlyother piece of information revealed was that the Baron of Chepstow wasa supporter of the cult, but as Oswald his magistrate was a member thisinformation was a bit obvious. The season ended with a visit from thesenior Quaesitor but even she could not rip the secrets from the mindof the pious monk.

Summer

The summer came and with it promises of easier times. The crusadecalled these Christians away to far lands to hopefully die in a futileattempt to regain their holy city. What makes it so holy, the onlyreason I can think of is that there Christ lord was executed on a hilloutside it. Medius told me over dinner that the religion of the Jewshas its main temple there, so I can understand their reverence for thatcity but as for these Christians I am unsure. The church is so wealthyand powerful, using the military tactics I have learnt divide andconquer seems a valid tactic if we could cause a schism in the churchas there was in our order then strike whilst they are weakened.

At the council meeting we discussedthe previous season plan to steal an arcane connection from the abbot'squarters so as to be able to scry on his doings. Astrius put Vis ofheats light into library at my request as I felt I needed a method ofseeing invisible creatures. Marius declared he would study from theRego book, Medius said this season would mainly be spent extractinginformation via torture from the monk Justin, Astrius learned a spelland I learned the vision of heat's light. Finally Tiarnan declared hewould study personal vis.

Autumn

The apples reddened beautifully as the summers warmth started to ebb.The great curve of the Severn looked beautiful reflecting the morningsun as I flew down to check on my orchards. The trees bathing in theblessing of the bountiful feast were starting to strain under theweight of the fruits that would provide us with food and drink. Ittruly is a wonderful plant that can provide such and although I canmake wheat beer, I find that the quality and character of the treescomes through, almost as if they are old friends gifting me therebounty once a year to create the wonderful elixir that is cider. I haveread recently of a ritual involving apples in the pagan knowledgetexts, it states that it invokes the health giving powers of theamazing apple. By following the ritual then passing out the apple tothe common folk to eat it will act as a ward against evil humours ofthe frost. I will have to try this next spring as these simple effectwill help our coven folk. This brings me to ponder the deeper powers ofthe apple, that might be locked inside its golden shell, many storiesfrom all religions tell of its powers, when we were in Novgorod I hearda tale of a giant who changed into an eagle and captured a god , hethen demanded of this god that a goddess who grew golden apples thatgranted immortality be given to him so that he might live forever .Eventually this god rescued the goddess through trickery. Even thehated Christianity grants the powers of knowledge to the apple. I thinkI might have to investigate further these tales and somehow obtain agolden apple.

We met in council and Medius told us of his results in torturing themonk Justin, apparently Giraldus had passed on every piece ofinformation about the covenant. This news was not surprising as I wouldimagine everyone would break under torture eventually. Tiarnansuggested that our spy in Huntley might have been given away by thetortured babbling of our sodalis and we determined to send word ofwarning to him. Medius went on to report that many of the brotherhoodof Christ will be crusading, as they believe that Richard will beagainst the order of Hermes. The brotherhood knew of Arcturus in Londonand there might be other wizards who have fallen under the sway of theChristians, indeed he reported in all secrecy that there was anotherpious magus who was called Henry of Jerbiton from Scarfell covenant.

Our seasonal tasks where then discussed,Tiarnan made an item for Mariusto protect him on the road, Medius continued the torture of the monk toextract all the information he possessed, although after a wholeseasons torture what shell of a man remains I wonder. I made leap ofhomecoming potions as we were running low. Marius improved his skillwith Imagonem, Astrius extracted Vim vis for the Aegis later in theyear and Dialectica was binding her owl familiar to her will.

Winter

I wander the orchards at dawn,the mist shrouded branches stand empty,there treasure gently plucked by the goodly folk of Blackney and storedaway from the frosts and chills. Only the occasional rotting fruit canbe seen, a reminder of the golden globes that even now are beingpressed for the nectar they contain. But for now the trees sleep thereyearly task done, and done well. But in this quite season they begin tocoil again for the task that awaits them again. You can almost hearthem gasp for air as if they have run a race and stand at the endbranches on their trunks bent over from the effort. Rest now my flockrest for you have again provided us with food and drink for anotheryear.

At the council Medius reported that it seems that these monks have thegift which is a blessing as that restricts the number of them withthese miraculous powers, do we have to invite them into the order Iwonder? They know of the Parma but thankfully choose not to learn it asit would be sinful to there religion. They also believe that Arcturushas given up magic even though we know that to be untrue. There was abig meeting of the brothers in Christ in London 6 years ago. Mediusalso reported that our spy in Huntley has gone to Tintern and hasprobably divulged his knowledge to these monks. He left a letter for ussaying that he had finished acting as a spy for us and has gone toretire in Tintern, I suggested we might still maintain contact with himbut the risks are judged to high. I hope he has a long and peacefulretirement in the abbey as he worked long for us and deserves his rest.As we had lost our spy, the general discussion in the council cameround to the spy network in general, because of its lack of activemembers it was decided to increase the amount of money to the spynetwork to 75 pennies. I suggested Blackney as a centre of operationsas a lot of the bargemen come to the bargeman’s rest tavern. Theygossip all the time about river traffic and news from the local towns.It became obvious that this brotherhood of monks was about to assaultEdwin of Huntley and because of that I offered the suggestion that wewarn Edwin to make there victory Pyrrhic but it is again deemed toorisky and immoral by some of our council, but Tiarnan suggests that westrike the monks as they retreat after there assault if they do so. Ithought this a good idea but it seemed that the rest of the councildecided to ignore this valid suggestion. The use of Fae spies arediscussed and Tiarnan declared he would investigate this option when henext goes into the regio. Dialectica introduced her familiar, she hadnamed Aleri, it apparently could not talk and was not of an independentnature.

The news discussed we declared our seasonal actions, Medius extractedvim vis for personal use, I read from the Aquam texts, Tiarnan Studiedfrom Rego vis, Marius went to Gloucester,Astrius studied Animal vis andDialectica was training her apprentice.

A few weeks into the season Alanus the red cap paid our covenant avisit. Of news s hermetic he told us that the Praeco has moved fromBlywythen to Blackthorn and a warning missive from the Praefector thatArcturus has moved from south east but where he had gone was unsure, Ithought at the time he might have gone on crusade to cleanse his soul.Trevalgar covenant reported that they were having trouble with a giantand had asked for my assistance. Of news mundane he reported that therewas a war in the levant tribunal, Jerusalem has fallen to a generalcalled Saladin of the Turks and prince Richard has taken the cross andgone upon crusade with many knights to retake there holy city. Becauseof this there would be a tax rise to pay for the crusade.

Skinfrith castle reported that a great beast had struck a horse and wediscussed the possibility that it was some creature from Mynyth Myrthen.

I caught the boat to Trevalgar covenant and received the news that onthe way to a local vis site my sodalis at Trevalgar covenant wereattacked by a wild giant, from there description it sounded like agiant who had lived a life of eating humans and therefore had lost allhis humanity. It is a shame that a giant has lost all his willpower andsubsumes himself into the animal side of his nature. It is the lot ofour kind that those of limited intelligence will falter and become likea beast. I met the 2 surviving grogs and they agreed to take me to theforest where they were attacked. The next day we ventured into theCornish hills and the smell of that beautiful land filled my nostrils.Once we had reached the area of attack I sent the men home so theywould not get hurt, also if I could reason with the beast I did notwant the smell of meat to inflame his senses. I set up camp that nightand fell into a deep sleep, around the darkest hour I was awoken by myfaerie friend and heard the Giant come crashing towards my campscreaming in anger, As he got within earshot I called out to him“Brother let us talk” but he attacked anyway and he landed a cruel blowon myself, I heard ribs crack and felt the breath knocked out of me, Ithen took another blow and decided that it would be foolish to attemptto talk and in my wounded condition, decided to flee, I used my Sceptreof smothering fog and ran , then turning into a wolf I limped back tothe covenant where I spent a week recovering from my wounds, I bless myblood for I healed quickly from wounds that on any other would bemortal. My only regret was losing the wonderful armour that Ildernacthad crafted for me. In wold form I tracked the giant to his lair a caveof huge size on the reverse hill from the forest where he bested me. Ientered the cave and in the pitch black made my way towards the scentof the Giant. He must have heard me though and so I retreated and triedagain the next night, I think if I had entered in man form he wouldhave smelt me and so on the second night I cast spontaneous magics tomake my skin to emit wolf scent instead of man scent. I entered thecave and just as he had struck me twice and stolen my armour Idetermined to strike him twice and steal his mattock. Unfortunately mysecond strike was exceptionally powerful and I cut his huge leg cleanoff. I took his mattock hoping that he would recover from his woundsand flee the area, on the way out however i thought that mayhaps he hadput his essence into the mattock and therefore my taking it might haveslain him. I regretted this decision but in the end felt that we hadfought and he had lost and I am sure he would have shown me no mercy. Ireturned to Trevalgar and declared my victory, I asked if Ildernactcould repair my armour that the giant had rent in two and he readilyagreed. I determined to return in the summer to collect it. I portedhome and then because of the length of time I had been away decided tochange my study to the Perdo texts as I might learn something from themas they were so voluminous.