Just after the Turn of the year into 1238, Brigit, appears, and states that Victor requests their presence in the Undercovenant.
After being reminded who Victor and Brigit were, they traipse down through the tunnel to Victor's Sanctum.
Then Brigit withdraws, whitout having said much throughout.
Victor then attempts to bring them up to speed on the probelm he has for them.
Back when he was alive, he was present at the first defeat of the Spider. The spider's army was scattered and he himself was thought to be killed.
Victor, together with two other Magi from the Order Ex Miscellenia (as it then was), Ealasaid and Macomb were tasked with setting up a Covenant in Northumberland to watch out for aftershocks from this battle.
They recovered an artifact that had been stolen by the Spider, a Gatestone. After much investigation, Ealasaid discovered that it was one end of a `conduit' that connected wherever it was set up with some other place. They cautiously went through and discovered Kelringarfjoll Valley
The Valley was disconcerting, in fact at first they did not realize that they were in Iceland, as the Climate and astrological measurements were much more suited to a Northern Mediterianian location.
The Valley was formed of (from what they could tell) a two tier regio superimposed on a mundane Valley, the gatestone deposited them in the first magical level of the regio.
The Mundane level is a green fertile and generally pleasant area, heated by steam vents along the sides, which keep the area warm and shrouded in mists. The river falls out of the southern end over a waterfall, and when they investigated this it acted as a valve. No attempt that they made allowed them to force their way through the permanent gales that sprang up as if from nowhere, as soon as the water turned downwards. As far as they can tell the only way in is via the gatestone. Any astonomical measurements made in the mundane level are consistent with it being in Iceland.
The first level of the regio is possessed of a Magic Aura +4 and is one mile long and half a mile wide and contains a ruined egyptian temple.
The second level covers only the temple and acts as a level 9 Magic regio, for the purposes of entry, but doesn't seem to enhance magic. Here the temple is restored.
After exploring this they decided to use the insights gained by Ealasiad's reserach to further improve the security of their covenenant. Ealasiad constructed three gatestones, and installed them at Vindolanda, and each magus took the partner to a different location.
Victor took his to Snaesfell where they have discovered him in the basement, None of the Magi knew where the other's Sancta were, (although they trusted each other, and often acted as each other's lab assitants)
In about 875 the Vindolanda Magi captured hetep, a fallen Thothian Spirit, who had given the spider help in constructing his external soul. Victor decided to try and make this spirit renounce the Infernal and return to its former master. The other two magi were extremely not happy about this, but acquisced, and agreed to create the wards necessary to imprison the two beings (Hetep and Victor) in a battle that could last all eternity... They (at Victor's request) disconnected the gatestone to his sanctum, and tasked Ian (Brigit's long lived father) with hiding it.
And so they battled until the gatestone was stolen by agents of the diabolist Lord Peter, who was defeated by the Magi. Victor learned that there are other Thotian spirits sent to hunt down Hetep, but that he cannot be tracked whilst possessing someone. Over the centuaries, Victor learned how to summon them so that they could deal with the transgressor, but thi sinformation was useless to him whilst the duel continued.
Shortly after this was done teh spider reemrged, and his forces attacked all of the Covenants in britain, but he himself led the assault on Vondolanda. His body was never recovered, but the Order did not hear from him again.
When hetep fled into the (gifted) brigit, Victor decided that (short of killing her) the best way to contain the threat would be to take her as an apprientice. So that is what they have been doing for the last few years. One season a year is spent instructing her as is traditional, and the other three, have been spent strengthing her defences, cannibalizing the wards that Ealasaid had set up all those centuries before.
Brigit and Victor have come up with a plan:
They have `let slip' the format of her gauntlet: She will be released somewhere near old Vindolanda, and she will pass if she can Exorcise teh demon within her. (Victor knows of St. Mungo's Well, which might aid her in this, and he suspects that hetep is also aware of it, which adds verisimiliitude: Victor has not told Brigit that the well exists)
This is actually a bluff. Now that Victor has been appraised of Hermetic history, he is convinced that Hetep values the spider, and would try and track him down once released. The idea is that brigit will act as a spy on hetep's activities. She will 'lose control' and hetep will take over. Thoughtfully she and Victor have crafted a mirror that displays everything that she sees, and she knows a version of leap of homecomming that Victor assures her will bring her back into the entrapment circle. Thus when she decides that enough is enough, she will leap back home. Victor will then Force hetep out of her, and summon the thothian watchers.
What he wants the magi to do is scout the grounds near Vindolanda to see what (if anything) has changed in teh intervening centuaries, and also to be with him and the mirror during the Gauntlet ( a few years hence) in case anything goes wrong.
The Magi absorb all of this information perfectly and are not fazed at all.
They decide to let Vincent (of Berwick) guide them to old Vindolanda, and teh part consists of him, Pumillius, Gunther and Orlaith.
Setting out from Iceland, Martin gives them a push with his new spell "Galleion before the Storm" which was very nearly impressive. He then went back to watching eggs. He likes watching eggs.
Surprizingly Vincent didn't want to revisit his old haunts, and so they landed near Carlisle on teh West coast, and proceede to where old Vindolanda should have been.
It seemed to be protected by an effect similar to "The Shrouded Glen", which is peirced by Gunther.
They wander past and find themselves, with no real effort on the first level of a regio with a +1 Aura.
An infernal regio.
Leaving Martin outside (Pumilius doesn't want the infernal to be subject to temptation) and
feeling slightly icky they wander round with Orlaith and Olga suddenly feeling rather techy (Pumilius feels fine). There are a few corpses and Orlaith examines them. Their clothing is certainly not roman. Olga being more skittish than normal senses an approaching rat swarm, which Pumillius wards against. The swarm is difficult to target with DEO, and wepwawet's arrows pick off them very slowly, but Orlaith has a few cubes of tin-to-fire which she tosses in. This being mundae fire, it works quite well.
With the rats dispersed Orlaith ventures that the regio might have formed from the fact that all of these corpses have not been sent to their proper rest, and wonders if either "a Chur-
In mid sentence they are all transported to a higher level of the regio (Aura is now+3)
-ch burial or wepwawet could do something".
The sky is redder, and the bodies are fresher. and the rat swarms more menacing. They beat a hasty retreat.
Once outside the regio Orlaith recovers her composure and is distraught at any offence she might have caused. They resolve to reenter, with a preformed stone ring to make wards quicker to trace.
They reenter directly into the +3 level, and try to levitate a corpse. A voice echos to tell them to leave well alone, and the regio boundary thickens behind them. They drop the corpse and scram.
Whilst discussing with Vincent outside he recalls that the nearby Covenant of Non Metuens (just south of Dumfries) had been known to try and distribute dodgy mentem Vis, and maybe this was thier source.
They returned home resolving to find some way to deal with the demonic infestation.
Next Session will be a few weeks before the 1238 Summer solstice.