Scribed by Petrus
Summer 1090 AD
And now, full circle, this journal has passed back into my hand. I, Petrus, shall resume the duty of relating the story of our covenant. The summer began hot and dry and did continue so for much of the season. I chose to study further of the Corporem tomes, as the time to make my first Longevity potion draws fast upon me. Ruaridh took three pawns of Muto vis from which to study and Idris began his covenant service; to exchange Ignem for Terram vis with Orlania at Blywyddan covenant. We also, after some debate, chose to send a request to Durenmar for a Perdo Vim ritual said to be powerful enough to destroy a first magnitude Infernal aura. That aura, perhaps created by Jean, was discovered shortly after his death by Quaesitor Yania. It resides in that place where we found the unholy book - a legacy of the diabolist Radulfus.
It appears that agents of the devil work also in Gloucester, perhaps while the dominion is weak while repairs to the cathedral are in progress. One of Ruaridh's spies, for want of a better word, was slain by a servant of the devil, and later came back to life to attack Ruaridh and his companions. It appears that Ruaridh was fortunate. The creature that attacked them was paralysed by the light of the sun, but not slain it seems. That night further sign of the creature's devillry was witnessed near to the cellar where the fight took place. We know little of these diabolists, save that they wear black cloaks and have the mark of the inverted cross upon their foreheads. What has become of them we do not know, and we can only guess the motivation for their attack.
At mid-summer one of the grogs, Ethric, was transformed into a hound. The cause is somewhat of a mystery, but the timing is suggestive of the Tuatha de Danu. We speculated at council as to the reason for this attack, but neither Ruaridh or myself understand much of them. Stassius arrived, and on this occasion stayed the night. It appears that the King of France has sent a host to Duke Robert's aid, and has besieged the King. We are already crippled by tax, and news of this sort does not bode well. More importantly Quaesitor Tyriania has confirmed the appraisal of Yania's investigations. Idris has been found of no fault regarding Jean's death. However, it does appear that Yania's suspicions have been confirmed also. Jean was indeed a diabolist. What sorry news, and one that has carried a deep air of depression across us all. That one of our very number should have defiled his oath and betrayed his Sodales. Tyriania will come to us in the Autumn to continue her investigations. It appears that Darius is also to be questioned regarding his filius. We also requested that Stassius carry with him our invitation for another magus to fill the vacant seat at our council chamber. Oscytel, since the breaking of his potion, has selected a man to take over from him when he retires. His name is Thurstan, and by all account he appears to have the qualities required of the station. He is currently a Captain, and will remain so until Oscytel passes the mantle of responsibility to him.
Autumn
As the leaves have turned from green to gold, the weather has broken and tho' mild, it is wet for much of the Autumn months. I shall, for the covenant's sake, extract Vim Vis. Idris, having successfully returned from Blywyddan with the Terram vis, has elected to return to Wales. The reason for his doing so is quite vulgar, but I suppose for record's sake I should relate it. He seeks a wife. Fortunately my Sodalis, Ruaridh, is disposed to more appropriate work. He shall design a Perdo Corporem spell to help him destroy the ripe corpses of the animated dead. Tyriania arrives to investigate further into the sorry tale of Jean's treachery. She questions both Ruaridh and myself , but of course Idris is away. The sanctum and the spring are examined, and both found to be free of any infernal taint. But on the night of the equinox, Jean's spirit is spied at the spring. There before us and the Quaesitor he admits his crimes, and casts further accusation against his Pater Darius. The depth of his crimes seem great. It appears that he strangled a child in order to infernally consecrate a part of the covenant, and killed the foreman of the mine and his wife. As his tormented shade passed away from the spring and back into the bowels of Hell, I was struck by something that Idris had said. That Jean's death has altered this place from Creo to Perdo. Indeed blood bubbled up from the spring this season delivering to us five pawns of Perdo vis. Idris believes that the repercussions of this are yet to come to pass.
Winter
The ice and snows of winter settle upon our covenant as we met upon the first dawn to discuss our business. I shall study three pawns of Vim Vis in order to improve my understanding of the theories of magic. I do think that perhaps an experimental application of Jerenius' principle might lead me to make a breakthrough. Indeed, I have been thinking that much of the difficulties that we magi suffer in the non-magical supernatural auras may be due to a simple clash between the principles of Jerenius and Lyberta's second law. It should be possible to formulate a spell which acts independently from the surrounding aura, indeed Dorsavias' magic was somewhat isolated from the environment. If his magic could be enacted by drawing upon, what he did term, the natural magic that resides within the person or body of a magus, then such a principle, if it could be applied Hermetically, could enable magi to cast their magics while inside incompatible auras and regios. This theory, if I could develop it, would allow a magus to cast spells within the Dominion or the Infernal realm without anything like the difficulty caused by their incompatibility with magic. Such a breakthrough would shift the balance of power between the Order and the Church, and allow us to defend ourselves more effectively within the realms of the Infernal. I must write to Xeros and request reference to this idea. Perhaps I should consider a visit to Durenmar some months before the next meeting of the House.
Ruaridh is experimenting with a spell to use against the barrow shade which defends the Mentem site, and Idris is to study three pawns of his Corporem vis. It appears that Idris' search for a wife has been successful, but I feel the least said about that sort of thing the better. A Magus has answered our request and travels down to meet us this season. His name is Turold, filius Corlear discipilus Verditius. Idris reports that some of the grogs had a vision of a Red Dragon, and says that he has seen it drinking from the Severn and staining the river with blood. I do hope this is all just pagan superstitious talk. The last thing we need is more conflict between the Welsh and the Normans. Our covenant is so precarious on the border here.
Turold arrives and without much delay we unanimously agree to invite him to join the covenant. A Verditius Magus will help our covenant grow in reputation and wealth, and it will be good to have such a specialist within our walls. We held a large feast in his honour, and celebrate our first decade, at which he and one of the grogs supplied musical entertainment. I must confess I am surprised that he had the time to learn music and magic; a magus of many talents it seems. More sour news from the mine, however. The iron begins to run dry, and we are not too far from the end of its life. Let us hope that with our combined talents we can establish a new mine before our reserves run out.
Our covenant has survived now for ten full years, and despite our trials and the treachery of one of our number, we prevail still. We passed quickly from Winter back to Spring. Let us hope that our journey through Spring is short and that we enjoy a long, peaceful Summer. Let Jean's evil be a lesson for us all to abide to our Oath, and give thanks to our arts that we have so much to show for our ten years of occupancy. Our Library is deficient in six arts yet, but our reserves of Vis are great. Our Laboratories would be the envy of many magi, and now that we have our full number again, with Turold's membership, let us look upon the next ten years with good spirit and firm resolve.
Summer 1090 AD
And now, full circle, this journal has passed back into my hand. I, Petrus, shall resume the duty of relating the story of our covenant. The summer began hot and dry and did continue so for much of the season. I chose to study further of the Corporem tomes, as the time to make my first Longevity potion draws fast upon me. Ruaridh took three pawns of Muto vis from which to study and Idris began his covenant service; to exchange Ignem for Terram vis with Orlania at Blywyddan covenant. We also, after some debate, chose to send a request to Durenmar for a Perdo Vim ritual said to be powerful enough to destroy a first magnitude Infernal aura. That aura, perhaps created by Jean, was discovered shortly after his death by Quaesitor Yania. It resides in that place where we found the unholy book - a legacy of the diabolist Radulfus.
It appears that agents of the devil work also in Gloucester, perhaps while the dominion is weak while repairs to the cathedral are in progress. One of Ruaridh's spies, for want of a better word, was slain by a servant of the devil, and later came back to life to attack Ruaridh and his companions. It appears that Ruaridh was fortunate. The creature that attacked them was paralysed by the light of the sun, but not slain it seems. That night further sign of the creature's devillry was witnessed near to the cellar where the fight took place. We know little of these diabolists, save that they wear black cloaks and have the mark of the inverted cross upon their foreheads. What has become of them we do not know, and we can only guess the motivation for their attack.
At mid-summer one of the grogs, Ethric, was transformed into a hound. The cause is somewhat of a mystery, but the timing is suggestive of the Tuatha de Danu. We speculated at council as to the reason for this attack, but neither Ruaridh or myself understand much of them. Stassius arrived, and on this occasion stayed the night. It appears that the King of France has sent a host to Duke Robert's aid, and has besieged the King. We are already crippled by tax, and news of this sort does not bode well. More importantly Quaesitor Tyriania has confirmed the appraisal of Yania's investigations. Idris has been found of no fault regarding Jean's death. However, it does appear that Yania's suspicions have been confirmed also. Jean was indeed a diabolist. What sorry news, and one that has carried a deep air of depression across us all. That one of our very number should have defiled his oath and betrayed his Sodales. Tyriania will come to us in the Autumn to continue her investigations. It appears that Darius is also to be questioned regarding his filius. We also requested that Stassius carry with him our invitation for another magus to fill the vacant seat at our council chamber. Oscytel, since the breaking of his potion, has selected a man to take over from him when he retires. His name is Thurstan, and by all account he appears to have the qualities required of the station. He is currently a Captain, and will remain so until Oscytel passes the mantle of responsibility to him.
Autumn
As the leaves have turned from green to gold, the weather has broken and tho' mild, it is wet for much of the Autumn months. I shall, for the covenant's sake, extract Vim Vis. Idris, having successfully returned from Blywyddan with the Terram vis, has elected to return to Wales. The reason for his doing so is quite vulgar, but I suppose for record's sake I should relate it. He seeks a wife. Fortunately my Sodalis, Ruaridh, is disposed to more appropriate work. He shall design a Perdo Corporem spell to help him destroy the ripe corpses of the animated dead. Tyriania arrives to investigate further into the sorry tale of Jean's treachery. She questions both Ruaridh and myself , but of course Idris is away. The sanctum and the spring are examined, and both found to be free of any infernal taint. But on the night of the equinox, Jean's spirit is spied at the spring. There before us and the Quaesitor he admits his crimes, and casts further accusation against his Pater Darius. The depth of his crimes seem great. It appears that he strangled a child in order to infernally consecrate a part of the covenant, and killed the foreman of the mine and his wife. As his tormented shade passed away from the spring and back into the bowels of Hell, I was struck by something that Idris had said. That Jean's death has altered this place from Creo to Perdo. Indeed blood bubbled up from the spring this season delivering to us five pawns of Perdo vis. Idris believes that the repercussions of this are yet to come to pass.
Winter
The ice and snows of winter settle upon our covenant as we met upon the first dawn to discuss our business. I shall study three pawns of Vim Vis in order to improve my understanding of the theories of magic. I do think that perhaps an experimental application of Jerenius' principle might lead me to make a breakthrough. Indeed, I have been thinking that much of the difficulties that we magi suffer in the non-magical supernatural auras may be due to a simple clash between the principles of Jerenius and Lyberta's second law. It should be possible to formulate a spell which acts independently from the surrounding aura, indeed Dorsavias' magic was somewhat isolated from the environment. If his magic could be enacted by drawing upon, what he did term, the natural magic that resides within the person or body of a magus, then such a principle, if it could be applied Hermetically, could enable magi to cast their magics while inside incompatible auras and regios. This theory, if I could develop it, would allow a magus to cast spells within the Dominion or the Infernal realm without anything like the difficulty caused by their incompatibility with magic. Such a breakthrough would shift the balance of power between the Order and the Church, and allow us to defend ourselves more effectively within the realms of the Infernal. I must write to Xeros and request reference to this idea. Perhaps I should consider a visit to Durenmar some months before the next meeting of the House.
Ruaridh is experimenting with a spell to use against the barrow shade which defends the Mentem site, and Idris is to study three pawns of his Corporem vis. It appears that Idris' search for a wife has been successful, but I feel the least said about that sort of thing the better. A Magus has answered our request and travels down to meet us this season. His name is Turold, filius Corlear discipilus Verditius. Idris reports that some of the grogs had a vision of a Red Dragon, and says that he has seen it drinking from the Severn and staining the river with blood. I do hope this is all just pagan superstitious talk. The last thing we need is more conflict between the Welsh and the Normans. Our covenant is so precarious on the border here.
Turold arrives and without much delay we unanimously agree to invite him to join the covenant. A Verditius Magus will help our covenant grow in reputation and wealth, and it will be good to have such a specialist within our walls. We held a large feast in his honour, and celebrate our first decade, at which he and one of the grogs supplied musical entertainment. I must confess I am surprised that he had the time to learn music and magic; a magus of many talents it seems. More sour news from the mine, however. The iron begins to run dry, and we are not too far from the end of its life. Let us hope that with our combined talents we can establish a new mine before our reserves run out.
Our covenant has survived now for ten full years, and despite our trials and the treachery of one of our number, we prevail still. We passed quickly from Winter back to Spring. Let us hope that our journey through Spring is short and that we enjoy a long, peaceful Summer. Let Jean's evil be a lesson for us all to abide to our Oath, and give thanks to our arts that we have so much to show for our ten years of occupancy. Our Library is deficient in six arts yet, but our reserves of Vis are great. Our Laboratories would be the envy of many magi, and now that we have our full number again, with Turold's membership, let us look upon the next ten years with good spirit and firm resolve.