As Bernat, Orban, and Cleis moved towards the three skeletal revenants, another warrior charged from the shadows. This was Alvaro, Almogavar and grog in the service of Tereysa Ionahes of Flambeau. Together, the four warriors made short work of the skeletons, though the two bandits were slain.
The magi regrouped in the chamber, joined by Tereysa and her surviving followers, for three had already perished in the catacombs. She related her story: having been told that the wizards coming to Rome for the coronation were meeting in the catacombs—a lie that seemed plausible thanks to the presence of a Hermetic covenant in these catacombs—Tereysa and her followers had been lured underground and then abandoned, left to wander lost until they died. But with sunset, corpses had crawled to life, and there had been a running battle in the catacombs. Her servant, Pablo, had been drug off by the walking dead and, after a brief debate over the value of a servant vs the risk of further battle in the catacombs, the magi agreed to a rescue.
Cleis was able to follow the tracks of the walking dead, who had drug Pablo down various passages until the trail ended at a stone block. Gergo cast prying eyes to see through the stone, Kykna used eyes of the cat on him, and he related what he saw: four skeletal warriors had Pablo captive, and were preparing to murder him in some kind of ritual, watched over by a revenant in ancient Roman armor, who sat upon a stone throne. The grogs tried to move the stone, but it was too heavy. Kykna and Tereysa, however, used Terram magic to hurl it aside, and the grogs and magi poured into the chamber.
Orban quickly destroyed a skeleton near the door, and Bernat charged another corpse holding a knife upraised, ready to kill Pablo. Tereysa, drawing her greatsword, charged the Roman revenant. But the creature exhaled its deadly poison breath, and Tereysa staggered backward; both she and Pablo took were now Moderately Wounded, but Bernat shrugged off the poison. Alvaro and Bernat destroyed the remaining two skeletal warriors, whose claws were not strong enough to get through the armor of the stout warriors.
Meanwhile, the magi’s spells were rebounding off of the revenant’s Infernal Might, which had so far resisted two daggers of ice and the earth’s carbuncle. But Ilius’s mastery of cloth allowed him to animate the revenant’s tattered cloak, turning it against him, and this made the Infernal creature easy prey for Tereysa, even wounded as she was. She destroyed him, and with his death the chamber again fell quiet. No lives had been lost, though Pablo and Tereysa were badly hurt.
The group rested and briefly debated collecting the vis from the revenants, but eventually left the corpses alone. They returned to the surface, found their way back to the Mercere camp, cleaned up, and considered how to best treat the wounded.
Tereysa and Pablo both had Medium Wounds. None of the magi had any healing magic, but there were plenty of other magi around. A Redcap put them in touch with a leper magus of House Tytalus, who agreed to perform the ritual provided the magi could provide 5 pawns of vis forma. After some sticker shock over the cost of magical healing, Tereysa agreed to pay, but at the last minute Kykna instead offered to pay for the magic with a favor. This offer was accepted by the Tytalus magus, and Tereysa was healed of her injury. Pablo, however, was left to recover the old-fashioned way.
The next day, Innocent III crowned Frederick II Holy Roman Emperor. The day was filled with celebration. That evening, at a party thrown by Frederick for the Order of Hermes, the Emperor regaled the wizards with his tale of the Children’s Crusade and how he made friends with wizards. He announced a competition of wizards to be held in Sicily, and the winner of this competition would be made his court magician. Tereysa was very interested in this competition, but the other magi realized the Oath forbade them from becoming court magician to anyone, even the Holy Roman Emperor.
That night, the magi met at the pavilion of Andreas Niger of Tremere, a magus who had agreed to help them find a location for their new covenant. Andreas had a request though: in exchange for his help, Andreas wanted to send another magus with the young magi, to join them in whatever covenant they decided to make. To this, the magi agreed. In a long conversation, Andreus then walked the magi through ten potential covenant sites, including two in Iberia, two in the Theban Tribunal, two in Provencal, two in the Roman Tribunal, the Rhine Gorge and the Isle of Man. The magi talked among themselves and slowly eliminated candidates until five remained, then they took a vote.
The decision was: the Isle of Man. There, they would make their home.