Summer 1252:
The council is meeting as there are various things to discuss. The apprentices sneak in to see what is what. Vincent, Gunther and Wepwawet all notice, but say nothing at first.
Vincent takes the lead. He mentions:
Buying the Leasehold to Vindolanda from Insula Canaria (located in the Great Glen) has been finalized. Their payment will be a Collar of Lizard training, and a Thistle Whistle to be crafted by Pumilius. This will give access to the covenant necessary for exploring the old Portal Network. Alas they still need a Mage who understands Hermetic Theurgy.
Something called the Hanseatic League has been formed centred on Lubeck The increased Fees, incurred from trading with Hanseatic ports has hit the profitability of the Covenant's trading network. Pumilius suggest a few castings of Touch of Midas might be needed, as the spy network in that area (both Magical and Mundane) was quite useful.
The dwarves of Sundabar (Ironforge) are ready to start trading for the high quality beer that the covenant has finally started producing. They agree that precious gems would be an appropriate remedy. Game note: From now on the covenant can ask for one precious stone a season. It takes a season to arrive. Semi-precious gems are easier to come by, you can get them immediately at 5 per season. I will assume this is only used when noted onscreen, unless Vincent tells me otherwise.
The mundane and ecclesiastical politics are also woth noting. The Current bishop of Northen Iceland, Heinrekur Karsson, is leading the Anti-Harold IV faction, and the Southern Bishop Sigvarthur Thettmarsson is Pro Harold IV. Harold has been slowly exanding his influence over the Island of Iceland, and clearly wishes to add it to his domain. This is noted without comment.
Then the matter of their Confessor comes up. Brother Micheal's replacement, Brother Simon, is going to retire soon. Do they wish to try to influence the replacement? It is decided that they will try to seek to influence this. Karl agreed to look into it.
The Matter of the recompense to Praesis for the safe recovery of the two apprentices, was brought up by Orlaith. It was agreed that a rook's worth of Items crafted by Pumilius would be appropriate, and that Vincent would work out the details.
Just as Orlaith was about to say something pertinant about the apprentices, Vincent and Gunther caught Qiliaq whispering to Iliaq and had them politely escorted from the chamber.
Finally Karl mentioned that a Siethkonar by the name of Inga is about to take a gifted apprentice a small girl called Unn. It is agreed that Gunther will travel to her hamlet of Hvammstangi, and see if he can open her arts after her abilities have been opened.
ROAD TRIP!
Gunther takes Martin, Karl and Orlaith and the apprentices on an ice-slunt to Hvammstangi. The sail is one of Pumilius's and Martin uses Galleion Before the Storm to make it go.
Auntie Orlaith has now made her ring of forgetting, and is quite chatty with the apprentices, talking about her bookmark, and how it was useful for when they were guarding the dragon eggs. Noone sinks to playing I-spy, but Illiaq is particualrly cheerful.
THey happen on the small fishing-hamlet of Hvammstangi, and Inga's hit is a little way away inland. While Gunther is negotiating with Inga, Uncle Karl entertains the four apprentices with Excerpts from the Sagas. Unn is quite quiet and reserved, but likes the stories, especially those about trees, as they are very rare in her neck of the ....
It is agreed that Gunter will observe the opening of Unn's Witch Abilities, and then in the next season open her arts as well. Thihs takes place in Winter and then Spring of 1253, and the four apprentices have much fun helping in Uncle Gunther's lab. Unn is especially please to have freinds that don't hate her, even though she is seven and they are all twelve!
At the start of Summer 1253, a redcap arrives, with a Summa on Magic Sensitivity asked for by Gunther, Quality 9, Level 3. and a Sealed message for Martin.
It is from Vassily Romanovitch, parens of Krabava Amvrossi ex bjornear from the covenant of 1001 Caves who they met at the Rigan tribunal where the crusade was derailled. It is by way of a last message, as it was dispatched after Vassily's death. It turns out that their crusade was called off, not just by the eloquence of the Magi there, but by the mention that they had inducted a lot of folk witches into the order. A similar thing happened about 50 years ago at 1001 Caves. Vassily does not go into detail, but intimates it was all hushed up, and the integrated hedgies were never seen again. He had hoped to mention this quietly to Martin at the gathering of the twelve years, but as Martin never attends them....
In short his was a warning that Lavinia (queasitor of Novgorod and leader of teh crusade) probably hasn't given up.
It was agreed that Vincent should *really* step up his surveilance of the Novgorod Tribunal. Incidently the next Novgorod tribunal is NOW, i.e. at the end of Summer 1253. It was discussed on how they could prove that the Ex-Misc Magi were resident in the Novgorod tribunal as they did not have properly constituted covenants. No answer was forthcoming, except to get them to Cad-Gau to get them registered. This might take a while as very few can travel.
There was also a vert curt message from Murion inviting Gunther to attend the next Rhine tribunal in 1256 “to talk about his magical impact on the Order”
On a coda, Gunther is looking for a fellow Bonisagus to Foster Ahnah with.Asking through contacts discreetly through the redcap network, and excluding the more Murion-focused magi he can think of, he alights on Binro of the Covenant of Xylintes (in Constantinople). Binro is a reasonably young Magus with a deficiency in intellego, who is known to be a seeker rather than a researcher, and so was looking for someone to complement his interests. His apprentice is named Unstoffe.