Scribed by Pyrrhus
Spring 1320AD
We live in tumultuous times, the shadow in the east threatens us all, and the Stonehenge tribunal now has attached itself to the King and acts as court wizards with no one apparently caring. The order is dead, the code means nothing, and when someone tries to maintain some law and order they are painted as evil, it is not evil to cut out a canker, it is not cruel to cauterise a bleeding wound, it is not bad to try and slow a patient's demise, the order is that patient. The order is a headless chicken, its head was taken off in Durenmar, and it now runs around with no direction or honour, achieving nothing. We have no chance even if we defeat the oncoming death from the east as we have no moral compass anymore and no one to be held accountable to for our misdemeanours. The bad times before Bonisagus is coming back and only the strong will survive, House Tremere being the most centrally controlled will eventually be the only house left with all other magi being hunted down and murdered for their resources. But enough foreshadowing let me get on with this damned journal.
We met on the first day of spring and all were in attendance. We discussed our surplus of Vim vis and what to do with it, we decided eventually to open up a sapphire for enchantment and Naeveus agreed to perform the task this year. I asked about the fearsome worm that my sodales had encountered in Hibernia and what to do about it. I wanted to kill it and Terentius agreed with me but the rest of the council decided to not get vengeance for the loss of our grog. I decided to send a letter via redcap to my friend Ricardus warning about the great Wurm and offered to join him on the hunt if he chose to go after it. I informed the council that after the meeting I would be going to Blackthorn to deliver the letter. Theoclea and Branwen stated they were going abroad this season, I extracted Vim Vis as covenant service, and Terentius and Jari were ensconced in their respective laboratories working on personal projects. Naevius decided that for each service in the previous year, we would receive four pawns of vis and because Theoclea brought a vast sum of three thousand silver pennies from the crown we each received five hundred pennies. I proposed that we should ensure that Lydney and Blackney should be supported by the covenant if they needed grain. There were some voices that opposed this but there rapidly stopped when it was obvious that most of the magi supported this action.
Two moons into the season Theoclea and Branwen returned from their journey and spent the rest of the season in the covenant.
A few weeks after they returned Gaines the redcap arrived at our covenant looking very nervous. We assembled in the council chamber and he started to recite the dire news. A party of magi and renounced magi were led by Argentius the Primus of house Tremere in an attack on Cliffheart covenant, My Primus was murdered by Guido ex of house Flambeau, renounced magus Tiberius and Emerius of Flambeau. Archimagus Numerius was murdered by Argentius and Eremon the Bjornaer who was nearly renounced at the Hibernian tribunal and only escaped as the quaesitor said. However, he was near the court of the king; he could not be proven to be a court wizard. Quaesitor Ladizlau was murdered by a coalition of unnamed flambeau magi. Magus Ricardus thankfully was not present at Cliffheart and so was not caught by this group of renegades. The assassins also suffered casualties; Emerius and Fulvius were slain and the renounced magus Pravia was severely injured. Guido even though he was kicked out of Flambeau has now claimed the primacy of the house and called all loyal flambeau to assemble in Verdi in the summer of 1321.
Gaines knew no more information and when I asked admitted he had not delivered the letter to Cliffheart I had wanted him to do. He left shortly after to take the news further afield.
Pyrrhuss’ Private Journal
I don’t understand, I can’t comprehend, My primus and my friends were killed with no trial, no accusation and no legal reason. This has to be the end of the order, was this what the schism was like? Has Argentius effectively become king of the order? I don’t know what to do, should I rush to Cliffheart to see if my friend Ricardus survived or would the scene of destruction drive me to foolish action.No no I must stay calm, there must be some legalities I do not know yet, they can’t simply of just decided to sail to Cliffheart and kill legally elected members of a different tribunal because they disagreed with their actions. I don’t know what to do and so I will do nothing else I do something foolish. This will be the big test for the Order, will Hibernia now fall under the “protection” of the Stonehenge tribunal, will Loch Legaen then follow, then will Argentius crown himself Emperor? Or was this some unnamed house plot, was Aegentius trying to destroy the order? I do not know but I do know that my head must be on the chopping block as I was an ally of those murdered.
Summer
We met on the first day of summer. As I came into the council chamber I saw that Terentius was wearing his cuirass, obviously trying to torment me over his primus murdering my primus. Taking this to be a challenge I stepped out of the council chamber and cast my personal defensive magics about my person, now in full armour, I reentered the council chamber and stared at Terentius. Immediately Naevius, seeing the tension in the room, called for an adjournment fearing a single mistaken word or phrase could turn the council chamber into a charnel house. It later transpired that Jari and Naevius quickly decided to act as peacekeepers with Jari agreeing to talk to Terentius and after that Naevius came to my Sanctum. Naevius spoke to me and I received him as my sodales, he said he understood my actions and hoped I understood why he had adjourned the meeting, I said I did and that I had come to the meeting in good faith and that Terentius was obviously trying to cause issues, why else should he wear armour, armour that would have little to no effect on my fire if released, I asked if such provocation was allowed and should I be allowed to sit with a barrel of black powder at the council meeting? This was obviously a reduction to the absurdity of the magi bringing anything to the council meeting, a fact which seemed lost on Naevius, but he was under a lot of stress trying to stop Terentius from goading me into breaking my oath. Being a reasonable man and realising the business of the covenant must continue I agreed not to attend the council meeting lest Terentius ended up a smoking pile of ash. Jari went to Terentius’ sanctum but he was not there so Jari searched the covenant and found him in the fox and chickens. Terentius would not talk to Jari, he seemed to be angry, I cannot work out what he had to be angry about, his Primus was alive. mine was dead, maybe he was ashamed of his house's actions working with renounced magi to murder magi in good standing, maybe he was angry not to of been taken along for the fight. In any event, I picked up the perdo books from the library and started to read them in my sanctum trying to lose myself in the studying of the magical texts so I did not do anything stupid and break the code. I can still relate what occurred at the meeting as Naevius promised he would tell me what happened so these writings are his recounting of the council meeting.
Initial discussions were about the code and how this might be seen that renounced magi of a legal tribunal were working with the Primi of houses to kill a primus in good standing. All our council could do was shake its head as it seemed that everyone they respected had decided to break their oath and attack without warning Cliffheart's covenant. Terentius admitted he knew something was going to happen but not what exactly, he was probably too young to be brought into the fight as he would have died very quickly. Theoclea declared she would go to London to show her face to court. Branwen stated she needed to read our extensive tombs on pagan gods and goddesses to understand her vision of the coming shadow. Naevius was going to study from personal Vis, Jari was going to the various covenants in the south to try to determine the fate of the broken mirror cult. Terentius spent the season in his lab though when I saw him around the covenant he did have a beautiful new bow and a huge scowl across his face when he saw me, maybe he blames me in some way for his primus breaking his oath?
Jari’s first visit was to Trevalga Covenant, he quickly sailed down the coast and reached it in just over a day, The Magus Flautus of House Flambeau met him at the door. He had a quick discussion with him, their faerie regio was still extant and he seemed a little doubtful of this news of the shadow from the east but the good news was there was no news on the Broken Mirror cult in the vicinity. His second visit was down the coast at Carrion Moor covenant where he spoke with Loreticus of house Tytalus, Loreticus told him that they had no silver gates nearby and only a shadow faerie regio in a boggy mire which seemed to be the common terrain in Carrion Moors covenants area. Maga Phaedra was also present at the covenant.
The next covenant he travelled to was Narwold on the east coast. Here Jari met Druscilla of house Merenita, Serano the crow Bjornaer, Festinius of house Tytalus and Livius a Merinitan of the court of earth. They told Jari that there were no silver gates in the vicinity, highlighting their rarity. Jari was told that the local fae were aware of the retreat and had told the members of Narwold covenant..Druscilla did have one suggestion and that was that we converse with some of the old gods such as the Morrigan.
Later in the season but before midsummer's eve, Gaines returned to the covenant redcap in hand to dispense news both hermetic and mundane, he came with a more thorough account of the battle at Cliffheart and some form of reasoning for the assault. Primus Durlag of Bjornaer, Primus Praesulis of Bonisagus, Prima Luthwin of House Ex Miscellanea, Primus Argentius of House Tremere and Primus Arvidia of house Verditius had consulted and coordinated by magical means and had agreed that a wizards march was declared on the wizards of Cliffheart in the name of the grand tribunal the group that used this wizards march called outside lawful tribunal were Agentius, the renounced magus Tiberius, Sulustria, Fulvis, Eremon, the renounced maga Pravia, Luthwin, Gethin, Emerius, Guido ex of house Flambeau, Claudius, Florenttia and Albius. A small group appeared in front of Cliffheart’s gates and demanded that the magi surrender to an investigation, at that point Fulvius was hit by multiple spells but it was determined that Numerius’ perdo spell crushed his heart and killed him. The magical assault then started and Emerius was killed along with Pravia being badly hurt. The search for Ricardus continued but he might have been hiding in a fae regio as he knew those locations well. I was ordered to present myself to Eris Aquilae inside a year to the renounced magus Pravia for an investigation into my actions at Crannagh Tomb.
At Midsummer's eve many in and around the covenant were struck with visions of events to come, races with the wind had a vision of the moon that the regio Mynydd Merddyn was now safe and the rent had been closed, Leolf who was then the “Grandfather Wolf” of the tribe of werewolves that we employ as miners in Blacknee told us of a vision granted to him by the wolf spirit that told of the forthcoming doom from the east but that the crown would resolve this and beware of the traitor within.
Pyrrhus’s Private Journal
Who this might refer to I do not know, but would have to be someone of power, maybe one of the Primi?
It would not surprise me if Guido or Agentius ended up dooming the world for their own petty gains, after all, they killed three of the most powerful fire magi for no legal reason.
Theoclea then related a vision she had had last season where she had gone to The grey hill. She had seen herself go through Mynedd Merddyn and saw Volutus calming the storm in its centre she then went to the valley of caves and thence into the earth, after what seemed a long time she appeared in the crystal caves and there she spoke to the trapped spirit of Merddyn who called he his apprentice, she was left with a feeling of hope and optimism.
We then held an emergency council meeting where Theoclea claimed the crown on Math, before we voted Branwen asked if it was through fear that she took the crown and she replied in the Negative, saying that although she had trepidations of the exertions to come she was not scared of them. Branwen also asked if she took the crown for herself or for everyone, and Theoclea answered that she took the crown for everyone to protect them from the oncoming shadow from the east which threatened to doom us all.
Pyrrhus’s Private Journal
Maybe Branwen wanted the crown for herself, with her infection of her already tainted soul by that wooden finger, maybe she was the traitor that the wolf spirit warned about and as the green wood penetrates her spirit maybe she will lose herself and become its servant just as she is currently a servant to the Green man. I will have to watch her as she seems to have ingratiated herself with our little princess and if she makes a move I will burn the witch as she deserves to be, her screams will be drowned out in the raging fires of my magic and rage.
We held a vote and unanimously agreed to allow Theoclea to take the crown which was retrieved from the floor of the council chamber and she then put it on her head, the road ahead will be hard for us all but for her the hardest and I hope she can have the strength of will and body to survive the coming tempest.
Autumn
Before the Council Naevius Approached both myself and Terentius to try and come to some form of agreement, It turned out that Terentius did not want to modify his behaviour and so I decided to show how stupid this whole situation was.
At the council, I brought a small barrel of wine with me, Jari looked very nervously at it and asked me if it was Blackpowder, I told him to mind his own business and he left the council chamber, at that Navius called an adjournment and Navius came and admonished me for deliberately provoking council, so it appears it is one rule for Terentius and another for me, I am now a second class magus at my covenant. We then met the next day which Branwen did point out was not allowed by the charter. It's nice that she can read Latin now, and she learnt it faster than I thought she would. Terentius talked about Mynedd Merddyn and how we should investigate it and offered himself to go and explore the Regio as a covenant service. I am sure he just misses going down the cave systems there. Theoclea reported that the Bridgwater cult is completely expunged and we discussed the woods and the possible taint of the infernal there, Theoclea offered to inform the Baron of Bridgwater of our intentions to visit his village to ease the investigation and as he was grateful for his freedom it should be a friendly place to go to. Theoclea said she would go to Blackthorn for her longevity potion and she said she would go to Bridgwater immediately after.
Jari, Terentius and Branwen went to Mynedd Merddyn and at the camping site outside the regio. Jari saw a return of the quiet magic with his faerie-gifted sight. The next morning they entered the regio and decided to approach the copse where in the past there was a secondary regio boundary and a shrine to one of the aspects of the pagan triple goddess. They found a mossy pool from a spring and around them were some Wooden figurines which looked freshly painted, Terentius being the excellent tracker he found some recent tracks of a Mother and a child presumably worshipping at the spot. Leof looked very relaxed for a change and dangled his bare feet in the pool cooling his weary feet. The party took some moss and water from the pool as in the past it has been a source of vis.
They then left the glaze and walked over the open green area towards the lake, they observed a hut and a jetty and 2 women working on laundry on the jetty, as they approached and were spotted the older one sent the younger one back to the cottage presumably afeared of these strangers approaching with weapons and armour, But showing her defiance she faced the Magi and consorts with arms crossed. Jari approached alone trying to assuage her fears and subtly cast the tongue of the folk so she would not notice. She asked him where he was from and he said the far north, this panicked the woman who called Jari a Pict and as he stumbled over his answer she ran off to the hut and beyond the village shouting “The Picts are coming!”.
Jari rapidly retreated trying to avoid conflict at all costs, as is his nature and the group retreated to some woods a mile away, while discussing their next steps they detected men in the forest approaching them, a tall warrior and several men came forth and started talking in Celtic, luckily Jari’s companion Gwenifarn, a native welsh speaker could translate for the men and he tried to get permission for Terentius to approach so he could speak via tongue of the folk, maybe because of bad translation or maybe because of the threat of Picts this conversation did not go well and a standoff soon occurred, then a druid of some sort (it later turned out he was an elementalist) came into the wood and took over the conversation, he saw Jari even though my sodales had made himself invisible to the eye, but again the distrust was rife and in the end the party were instructed to leave the lands, to show off his power he summoned an Undine in the lake an air elemental and as the party retreated the keen eyes of Terentius detected a tremor in the ground that followed them , signifying some form of gnomish earth elemental was following them underground.
Terentius was obviously a bit annoyed at being forced to retreat by mundanes and being followed o suggested he fly quickly away to avoid the earth elemental following on by saying that those who could not fly could be sent away to cope on their own, these were not the words of a leader of men. Indeed a few miles toward the great wood he got so tetchy he insulted Jari and Branwen, at which Branwen being of fragile demeanour decided to flee Mynedd Myrddyn leaving the party without means to detect spirits or demons in the other world.
Terentius and Jari and the companions and grogs eventually found their way to the great wood and being careful not to harm the fauna or flora explored there they met another druid called Arthfael who announced himself as a lore keeper. Eventually, via Gwenifarns's translation, Terentius was allowed to approach and cast magic to speak with the Celt. Terentius explained that the Magi were from the future and were searching for Memories of a magician locked beneath the earth. Arthfaels explained that Morcant’s elementals or the Celtic warriors could not enter the woods due to its magical nature, he went on to explain that the Champion that the Magi had met was called Cercil but that the leader of the Celts was a man called Cardarion. Discussions with Arthfael were that we would present gifts to the chieftain of iron tools and a dagger for permission to explore as the party was in search of knowledge, with this agreement Arthfael agreed to act as a go-between and arrange a meeting with the chieftain. Whilst they waited for the agreement to be made they approached the great oak and Jari cast magic to be able to speak to it. Jari told the oak that he was there to avert a disaster which came from the east and that this place was out of time placed here by the great wizard Merddyn, The oak knew that the regio lay beyond the veil and knew nothing of the time before the great storm, Jari said that Merddyn created the veil and that Merddyn might be able to help us against the shadow approaching from the east. The oak told Jari that Merddyn did not live under the boughs of the great wood and it did not know the wizard's location. The oak did not know of the crystal caves as they lay beyond the great wood and the great oaks senses. Whilst Jari was hugging the tree’s trunk Terentius scouted the area as an eagle but did not observe anything of interest. After a while, Arthfael returned and said that the audience was granted, and Jari and Gwenifarn proceeded to the village, as they approached they saw stips of cultivation and barrows in the distance for the ancestors of these Celts. Observing them were the women and children working the land who eyed them with some trepidation Entering by a gate in the wooden wall they saw before them a big Roundhouse and entered it, where they saw a chive on an imposing throne-like chair and his senior men by his side. Arthfael introduced Jari and Terentius and Jari successfully cast the spell “tongue of the folk” and began negotiation. Jari proposed trade of goods for access to the lands of the celts and the first question was why did we wish to explore, Jari replied that we were seeking Merddyn a name they did not recognise and the Chieftain said he was not in his lands, Jari then volunteered that Myrddyn had other names he had gone under and that Telesin was one of them, at this, there was a gasp as that name was recognised and confusion then reigned. This confusion led to anger and the Chieftain banned us from his lands and told Jari to leave. Jari left the village with Arthfael who told them that because they did not mention Taliesin and that the chieftain had been warned by mordant that wizards are tricksy that the Chieftain thought he was only getting part of the reason and therefore not wanting to be lied to had banished the Magi, Arthfael did sound annoyed that he had not been warned by Jari of this name being mentioned and he might have lost some honour in front of his chieftain for bringing tricksy wizards into his court. During the return to the woods Arthfael tells of some invaders to the south who Jari surmised to be the Romans, Arthfael told of his hopes that they had no plans for the area he lived in, how little did he know that the Romans would sweep across Britain killing nearly every druid and hedge wizard to reinforce their rule. Arthfael also said it had been years since they had spoken with people from further afield not realising they were now echoes of the past trapped in a regio.
Terentius decided to go potholing, I have never understood his passion for going underground and squeezing through narrow gaps he cast spells to detect the presence of magic. On the subtle breeze he did sniff something and using various magics to go deeper into the cave network found a pool with some inky black water which he collected some of in a water skin, he returned to Jari and they departed the Regio having been gone ten weeks in the mundane world.
Now we come to my activities, and such a bitter pill I had to swallow as it appeared I had been misled by the people I trusted the most. I sailed blissfully unaware of my betrayal to Carlisle, a city on the west coast of northeast England, from there I travelled east and eventually ended up in Borria-tor covenant, I was welcomed in and after recovering from my arduous walk I talked with senior quaesitor Romanus. What he told me shocked me to the core. It was that the Hibernian tribunal had already ruled on the case against Crannagh tomb covenant and so the house ruling was illegal, and therefore the wizard's march was illegal. I had been tricked by my Primus, My archimagus and my House quaesitor to forsake my oath. I am ashamed, I am distraught, it also appeared that Guido’s exclusion from the house was illegal. Romanus told me that the Hibernian tribunal I attended was legal but the Stonehenge tribunal was not going to pursue the matter. I don't know if that means Tiberius and Pravia were expelled from the order or not and did not feel that pursuing the matter would gain anything. He advised me to go to Verdi for a house trial and I decided he was right. It would be my peers, not some coven of biassed hedge wizards that decided my fate. After I met with Romanus, I met with Menaxia who agreed to the three thousand penny price for our new spymaster. I returned home with my tail between my legs, via Cliffheart and left a letter for Ricardus in case he returned and wanted to accompany me to Verdi next summer
Pyrhuss’ Private Journal
I don't understand why three distinguished magi would throw their honour away like that and it could be four! Did Ricardus know was he in on the plan to trick me? I don’t know what to do. The rug has been pulled out from under me with no warning. I am distraught.
Winter
We met in the cold council chamber and I felt empty the distrust and disgust my sodales felt towards me was justified, I had killed not a renegade magus but a member of the order of Hermes and broken my oath, the only mitigation being I was naive enough to believe the fellowship offered by my then Primus, Archimag us and house Quaesitor was real. We discussed the adventure in Mynedd Merddyn and normally I would be keen to hear such but such was my dismay I could barely pay attention and several times Jari had to remind me that this journal would have to be written by myself and I should listen to the words spoken. We decided that the Bridgwater investigation was to go ahead and I agreed to go if needed, hoping to start to redeem myself by helping my sodales. As the investigation was not going to take a whole season I decided to study from some personal Vis, as did Naevius, Terentius worked in his laboratory and Branwen immersed herself in the pagan books, I felt sure she would gain more from reading Corlear's notes and work towards a basic understanding of hermetic magic but it is her time to waste as he wants. Jari learned a spell so he could speak to stone. He stated he wanted to learn about the standing stones that dot our countryside but the spell is for un-hewn stone so we discussed if it would work or not. Theoclea returned to Blackthorn to help Saphiphius as payment for her Longevity potion. We decided that an additional fifty silver pennies were worth it to secure our food supplies.
Terentius and Branwen went to Bridgwater and as a scholar of the hermetic order, Terentius talked to the baron under the pseudonym of Godfrey. The baron was only too pleased to assist the people who had freed him from the infernalists and allowed the investigation of the wood. Terentius and Branwwen shared a room in the Inn, something I would never do. The next day on their way to the forest they came across the village priest, and Leolf turned and ran away, he must have had an aversion to members of the clergy.
Once they had entered the forest they found it was a cursed place, they found dead animals in unnatural poses and the trees were sickly with black fungus growing on them, on testing the aura in daylight Terentius found it was a low-level infernal one. They made camp which was a brave thing to do in an infernally tainted forest and as the sun set the aura intensified and the shadows seemed to grow ominous. A fine rain started to fall and the forest went preternaturally dark, Terentius banished the shadow within near range with the lantern I had created for him and that seemed to allow them some comfort from the oppressive darkness. Leolf saw a smoke-like form with his second sight curling itself around one of the trees seemingly sucking the very life force from the branch. After a while, it descended into the earth and vanished but later in the night it is spotted again and it squeezes another branch and a thud is heard, come the morning a small squirrel is found under the branch its life drained from its body. This must be some form of infernal spirit that can interact with the physical without even entering the physical realm. They continued to explore and found a small structure hidden in the woods but decided to retreat rather than risk an encounter with a powerful demon. They decided to come back to the covenant and ask for my assistance, which I willingly proffered. Terentius took out a room for the rest of the year at the tavern and informed the baron of the dark spirit in the wood. I flew down to Bridgwater and after a bit of toing and froing by Terentius getting magical items he had forgotten we entered the regio surrounding the structure in the woods.
We entered the deeper regio surrounding the structure which turned out to be a well house of some description. There seemed to be a ritual site of some description with melted black candle wax at strategic locations. Terentius spotted a further regio boundary deep down the well and we discussed what to do, in our Regio level the sun set, making our parma’s and spells of sun duration drop. Terentius created a circle of warding of the 8th magnitude around us via the wand and I attempted to raise my Parma, however, I was not given the chance to do so as the invisible spiritual demon attacked us, It punctured through the circle and wrapped itself around Terentius draining his life force, he lashed out with a perdo Vim spell and the demon seemed to recoil back down into the well, we tried to recover ourselves but before we could the demon attacked again with this time Leolf being the victim, I tried to boost Leolf's health with a spell to enable him to better shrug off the malign corporem effects and Terentius lashed out with his perdo magics and again the demon retreated and with Leolf being unconscious Terentius drew a dagger and tore a rift in the regio boundary allowing me to lift Leolf and carry him from the damned place, I tried to revive him with my alchemical healing draught but for some reason, it went down into his lungs and caused Leolf to fall unconscious. We retreated to the covenant and nursed our wounds
With that failure in Bridgwater our season ended as we decided that the next time we returned there we should have a lot more ways of defeating the demon.
Spring 1320AD
We live in tumultuous times, the shadow in the east threatens us all, and the Stonehenge tribunal now has attached itself to the King and acts as court wizards with no one apparently caring. The order is dead, the code means nothing, and when someone tries to maintain some law and order they are painted as evil, it is not evil to cut out a canker, it is not cruel to cauterise a bleeding wound, it is not bad to try and slow a patient's demise, the order is that patient. The order is a headless chicken, its head was taken off in Durenmar, and it now runs around with no direction or honour, achieving nothing. We have no chance even if we defeat the oncoming death from the east as we have no moral compass anymore and no one to be held accountable to for our misdemeanours. The bad times before Bonisagus is coming back and only the strong will survive, House Tremere being the most centrally controlled will eventually be the only house left with all other magi being hunted down and murdered for their resources. But enough foreshadowing let me get on with this damned journal.
We met on the first day of spring and all were in attendance. We discussed our surplus of Vim vis and what to do with it, we decided eventually to open up a sapphire for enchantment and Naeveus agreed to perform the task this year. I asked about the fearsome worm that my sodales had encountered in Hibernia and what to do about it. I wanted to kill it and Terentius agreed with me but the rest of the council decided to not get vengeance for the loss of our grog. I decided to send a letter via redcap to my friend Ricardus warning about the great Wurm and offered to join him on the hunt if he chose to go after it. I informed the council that after the meeting I would be going to Blackthorn to deliver the letter. Theoclea and Branwen stated they were going abroad this season, I extracted Vim Vis as covenant service, and Terentius and Jari were ensconced in their respective laboratories working on personal projects. Naevius decided that for each service in the previous year, we would receive four pawns of vis and because Theoclea brought a vast sum of three thousand silver pennies from the crown we each received five hundred pennies. I proposed that we should ensure that Lydney and Blackney should be supported by the covenant if they needed grain. There were some voices that opposed this but there rapidly stopped when it was obvious that most of the magi supported this action.
Two moons into the season Theoclea and Branwen returned from their journey and spent the rest of the season in the covenant.
A few weeks after they returned Gaines the redcap arrived at our covenant looking very nervous. We assembled in the council chamber and he started to recite the dire news. A party of magi and renounced magi were led by Argentius the Primus of house Tremere in an attack on Cliffheart covenant, My Primus was murdered by Guido ex of house Flambeau, renounced magus Tiberius and Emerius of Flambeau. Archimagus Numerius was murdered by Argentius and Eremon the Bjornaer who was nearly renounced at the Hibernian tribunal and only escaped as the quaesitor said. However, he was near the court of the king; he could not be proven to be a court wizard. Quaesitor Ladizlau was murdered by a coalition of unnamed flambeau magi. Magus Ricardus thankfully was not present at Cliffheart and so was not caught by this group of renegades. The assassins also suffered casualties; Emerius and Fulvius were slain and the renounced magus Pravia was severely injured. Guido even though he was kicked out of Flambeau has now claimed the primacy of the house and called all loyal flambeau to assemble in Verdi in the summer of 1321.
Gaines knew no more information and when I asked admitted he had not delivered the letter to Cliffheart I had wanted him to do. He left shortly after to take the news further afield.
Pyrrhuss’ Private Journal
I don’t understand, I can’t comprehend, My primus and my friends were killed with no trial, no accusation and no legal reason. This has to be the end of the order, was this what the schism was like? Has Argentius effectively become king of the order? I don’t know what to do, should I rush to Cliffheart to see if my friend Ricardus survived or would the scene of destruction drive me to foolish action.No no I must stay calm, there must be some legalities I do not know yet, they can’t simply of just decided to sail to Cliffheart and kill legally elected members of a different tribunal because they disagreed with their actions. I don’t know what to do and so I will do nothing else I do something foolish. This will be the big test for the Order, will Hibernia now fall under the “protection” of the Stonehenge tribunal, will Loch Legaen then follow, then will Argentius crown himself Emperor? Or was this some unnamed house plot, was Aegentius trying to destroy the order? I do not know but I do know that my head must be on the chopping block as I was an ally of those murdered.
Summer
We met on the first day of summer. As I came into the council chamber I saw that Terentius was wearing his cuirass, obviously trying to torment me over his primus murdering my primus. Taking this to be a challenge I stepped out of the council chamber and cast my personal defensive magics about my person, now in full armour, I reentered the council chamber and stared at Terentius. Immediately Naevius, seeing the tension in the room, called for an adjournment fearing a single mistaken word or phrase could turn the council chamber into a charnel house. It later transpired that Jari and Naevius quickly decided to act as peacekeepers with Jari agreeing to talk to Terentius and after that Naevius came to my Sanctum. Naevius spoke to me and I received him as my sodales, he said he understood my actions and hoped I understood why he had adjourned the meeting, I said I did and that I had come to the meeting in good faith and that Terentius was obviously trying to cause issues, why else should he wear armour, armour that would have little to no effect on my fire if released, I asked if such provocation was allowed and should I be allowed to sit with a barrel of black powder at the council meeting? This was obviously a reduction to the absurdity of the magi bringing anything to the council meeting, a fact which seemed lost on Naevius, but he was under a lot of stress trying to stop Terentius from goading me into breaking my oath. Being a reasonable man and realising the business of the covenant must continue I agreed not to attend the council meeting lest Terentius ended up a smoking pile of ash. Jari went to Terentius’ sanctum but he was not there so Jari searched the covenant and found him in the fox and chickens. Terentius would not talk to Jari, he seemed to be angry, I cannot work out what he had to be angry about, his Primus was alive. mine was dead, maybe he was ashamed of his house's actions working with renounced magi to murder magi in good standing, maybe he was angry not to of been taken along for the fight. In any event, I picked up the perdo books from the library and started to read them in my sanctum trying to lose myself in the studying of the magical texts so I did not do anything stupid and break the code. I can still relate what occurred at the meeting as Naevius promised he would tell me what happened so these writings are his recounting of the council meeting.
Initial discussions were about the code and how this might be seen that renounced magi of a legal tribunal were working with the Primi of houses to kill a primus in good standing. All our council could do was shake its head as it seemed that everyone they respected had decided to break their oath and attack without warning Cliffheart's covenant. Terentius admitted he knew something was going to happen but not what exactly, he was probably too young to be brought into the fight as he would have died very quickly. Theoclea declared she would go to London to show her face to court. Branwen stated she needed to read our extensive tombs on pagan gods and goddesses to understand her vision of the coming shadow. Naevius was going to study from personal Vis, Jari was going to the various covenants in the south to try to determine the fate of the broken mirror cult. Terentius spent the season in his lab though when I saw him around the covenant he did have a beautiful new bow and a huge scowl across his face when he saw me, maybe he blames me in some way for his primus breaking his oath?
Jari’s first visit was to Trevalga Covenant, he quickly sailed down the coast and reached it in just over a day, The Magus Flautus of House Flambeau met him at the door. He had a quick discussion with him, their faerie regio was still extant and he seemed a little doubtful of this news of the shadow from the east but the good news was there was no news on the Broken Mirror cult in the vicinity. His second visit was down the coast at Carrion Moor covenant where he spoke with Loreticus of house Tytalus, Loreticus told him that they had no silver gates nearby and only a shadow faerie regio in a boggy mire which seemed to be the common terrain in Carrion Moors covenants area. Maga Phaedra was also present at the covenant.
The next covenant he travelled to was Narwold on the east coast. Here Jari met Druscilla of house Merenita, Serano the crow Bjornaer, Festinius of house Tytalus and Livius a Merinitan of the court of earth. They told Jari that there were no silver gates in the vicinity, highlighting their rarity. Jari was told that the local fae were aware of the retreat and had told the members of Narwold covenant..Druscilla did have one suggestion and that was that we converse with some of the old gods such as the Morrigan.
Later in the season but before midsummer's eve, Gaines returned to the covenant redcap in hand to dispense news both hermetic and mundane, he came with a more thorough account of the battle at Cliffheart and some form of reasoning for the assault. Primus Durlag of Bjornaer, Primus Praesulis of Bonisagus, Prima Luthwin of House Ex Miscellanea, Primus Argentius of House Tremere and Primus Arvidia of house Verditius had consulted and coordinated by magical means and had agreed that a wizards march was declared on the wizards of Cliffheart in the name of the grand tribunal the group that used this wizards march called outside lawful tribunal were Agentius, the renounced magus Tiberius, Sulustria, Fulvis, Eremon, the renounced maga Pravia, Luthwin, Gethin, Emerius, Guido ex of house Flambeau, Claudius, Florenttia and Albius. A small group appeared in front of Cliffheart’s gates and demanded that the magi surrender to an investigation, at that point Fulvius was hit by multiple spells but it was determined that Numerius’ perdo spell crushed his heart and killed him. The magical assault then started and Emerius was killed along with Pravia being badly hurt. The search for Ricardus continued but he might have been hiding in a fae regio as he knew those locations well. I was ordered to present myself to Eris Aquilae inside a year to the renounced magus Pravia for an investigation into my actions at Crannagh Tomb.
At Midsummer's eve many in and around the covenant were struck with visions of events to come, races with the wind had a vision of the moon that the regio Mynydd Merddyn was now safe and the rent had been closed, Leolf who was then the “Grandfather Wolf” of the tribe of werewolves that we employ as miners in Blacknee told us of a vision granted to him by the wolf spirit that told of the forthcoming doom from the east but that the crown would resolve this and beware of the traitor within.
Pyrrhus’s Private Journal
Who this might refer to I do not know, but would have to be someone of power, maybe one of the Primi?
It would not surprise me if Guido or Agentius ended up dooming the world for their own petty gains, after all, they killed three of the most powerful fire magi for no legal reason.
Theoclea then related a vision she had had last season where she had gone to The grey hill. She had seen herself go through Mynedd Merddyn and saw Volutus calming the storm in its centre she then went to the valley of caves and thence into the earth, after what seemed a long time she appeared in the crystal caves and there she spoke to the trapped spirit of Merddyn who called he his apprentice, she was left with a feeling of hope and optimism.
We then held an emergency council meeting where Theoclea claimed the crown on Math, before we voted Branwen asked if it was through fear that she took the crown and she replied in the Negative, saying that although she had trepidations of the exertions to come she was not scared of them. Branwen also asked if she took the crown for herself or for everyone, and Theoclea answered that she took the crown for everyone to protect them from the oncoming shadow from the east which threatened to doom us all.
Pyrrhus’s Private Journal
Maybe Branwen wanted the crown for herself, with her infection of her already tainted soul by that wooden finger, maybe she was the traitor that the wolf spirit warned about and as the green wood penetrates her spirit maybe she will lose herself and become its servant just as she is currently a servant to the Green man. I will have to watch her as she seems to have ingratiated herself with our little princess and if she makes a move I will burn the witch as she deserves to be, her screams will be drowned out in the raging fires of my magic and rage.
We held a vote and unanimously agreed to allow Theoclea to take the crown which was retrieved from the floor of the council chamber and she then put it on her head, the road ahead will be hard for us all but for her the hardest and I hope she can have the strength of will and body to survive the coming tempest.
Autumn
Before the Council Naevius Approached both myself and Terentius to try and come to some form of agreement, It turned out that Terentius did not want to modify his behaviour and so I decided to show how stupid this whole situation was.
At the council, I brought a small barrel of wine with me, Jari looked very nervously at it and asked me if it was Blackpowder, I told him to mind his own business and he left the council chamber, at that Navius called an adjournment and Navius came and admonished me for deliberately provoking council, so it appears it is one rule for Terentius and another for me, I am now a second class magus at my covenant. We then met the next day which Branwen did point out was not allowed by the charter. It's nice that she can read Latin now, and she learnt it faster than I thought she would. Terentius talked about Mynedd Merddyn and how we should investigate it and offered himself to go and explore the Regio as a covenant service. I am sure he just misses going down the cave systems there. Theoclea reported that the Bridgwater cult is completely expunged and we discussed the woods and the possible taint of the infernal there, Theoclea offered to inform the Baron of Bridgwater of our intentions to visit his village to ease the investigation and as he was grateful for his freedom it should be a friendly place to go to. Theoclea said she would go to Blackthorn for her longevity potion and she said she would go to Bridgwater immediately after.
Jari, Terentius and Branwen went to Mynedd Merddyn and at the camping site outside the regio. Jari saw a return of the quiet magic with his faerie-gifted sight. The next morning they entered the regio and decided to approach the copse where in the past there was a secondary regio boundary and a shrine to one of the aspects of the pagan triple goddess. They found a mossy pool from a spring and around them were some Wooden figurines which looked freshly painted, Terentius being the excellent tracker he found some recent tracks of a Mother and a child presumably worshipping at the spot. Leof looked very relaxed for a change and dangled his bare feet in the pool cooling his weary feet. The party took some moss and water from the pool as in the past it has been a source of vis.
They then left the glaze and walked over the open green area towards the lake, they observed a hut and a jetty and 2 women working on laundry on the jetty, as they approached and were spotted the older one sent the younger one back to the cottage presumably afeared of these strangers approaching with weapons and armour, But showing her defiance she faced the Magi and consorts with arms crossed. Jari approached alone trying to assuage her fears and subtly cast the tongue of the folk so she would not notice. She asked him where he was from and he said the far north, this panicked the woman who called Jari a Pict and as he stumbled over his answer she ran off to the hut and beyond the village shouting “The Picts are coming!”.
Jari rapidly retreated trying to avoid conflict at all costs, as is his nature and the group retreated to some woods a mile away, while discussing their next steps they detected men in the forest approaching them, a tall warrior and several men came forth and started talking in Celtic, luckily Jari’s companion Gwenifarn, a native welsh speaker could translate for the men and he tried to get permission for Terentius to approach so he could speak via tongue of the folk, maybe because of bad translation or maybe because of the threat of Picts this conversation did not go well and a standoff soon occurred, then a druid of some sort (it later turned out he was an elementalist) came into the wood and took over the conversation, he saw Jari even though my sodales had made himself invisible to the eye, but again the distrust was rife and in the end the party were instructed to leave the lands, to show off his power he summoned an Undine in the lake an air elemental and as the party retreated the keen eyes of Terentius detected a tremor in the ground that followed them , signifying some form of gnomish earth elemental was following them underground.
Terentius was obviously a bit annoyed at being forced to retreat by mundanes and being followed o suggested he fly quickly away to avoid the earth elemental following on by saying that those who could not fly could be sent away to cope on their own, these were not the words of a leader of men. Indeed a few miles toward the great wood he got so tetchy he insulted Jari and Branwen, at which Branwen being of fragile demeanour decided to flee Mynedd Myrddyn leaving the party without means to detect spirits or demons in the other world.
Terentius and Jari and the companions and grogs eventually found their way to the great wood and being careful not to harm the fauna or flora explored there they met another druid called Arthfael who announced himself as a lore keeper. Eventually, via Gwenifarns's translation, Terentius was allowed to approach and cast magic to speak with the Celt. Terentius explained that the Magi were from the future and were searching for Memories of a magician locked beneath the earth. Arthfaels explained that Morcant’s elementals or the Celtic warriors could not enter the woods due to its magical nature, he went on to explain that the Champion that the Magi had met was called Cercil but that the leader of the Celts was a man called Cardarion. Discussions with Arthfael were that we would present gifts to the chieftain of iron tools and a dagger for permission to explore as the party was in search of knowledge, with this agreement Arthfael agreed to act as a go-between and arrange a meeting with the chieftain. Whilst they waited for the agreement to be made they approached the great oak and Jari cast magic to be able to speak to it. Jari told the oak that he was there to avert a disaster which came from the east and that this place was out of time placed here by the great wizard Merddyn, The oak knew that the regio lay beyond the veil and knew nothing of the time before the great storm, Jari said that Merddyn created the veil and that Merddyn might be able to help us against the shadow approaching from the east. The oak told Jari that Merddyn did not live under the boughs of the great wood and it did not know the wizard's location. The oak did not know of the crystal caves as they lay beyond the great wood and the great oaks senses. Whilst Jari was hugging the tree’s trunk Terentius scouted the area as an eagle but did not observe anything of interest. After a while, Arthfael returned and said that the audience was granted, and Jari and Gwenifarn proceeded to the village, as they approached they saw stips of cultivation and barrows in the distance for the ancestors of these Celts. Observing them were the women and children working the land who eyed them with some trepidation Entering by a gate in the wooden wall they saw before them a big Roundhouse and entered it, where they saw a chive on an imposing throne-like chair and his senior men by his side. Arthfael introduced Jari and Terentius and Jari successfully cast the spell “tongue of the folk” and began negotiation. Jari proposed trade of goods for access to the lands of the celts and the first question was why did we wish to explore, Jari replied that we were seeking Merddyn a name they did not recognise and the Chieftain said he was not in his lands, Jari then volunteered that Myrddyn had other names he had gone under and that Telesin was one of them, at this, there was a gasp as that name was recognised and confusion then reigned. This confusion led to anger and the Chieftain banned us from his lands and told Jari to leave. Jari left the village with Arthfael who told them that because they did not mention Taliesin and that the chieftain had been warned by mordant that wizards are tricksy that the Chieftain thought he was only getting part of the reason and therefore not wanting to be lied to had banished the Magi, Arthfael did sound annoyed that he had not been warned by Jari of this name being mentioned and he might have lost some honour in front of his chieftain for bringing tricksy wizards into his court. During the return to the woods Arthfael tells of some invaders to the south who Jari surmised to be the Romans, Arthfael told of his hopes that they had no plans for the area he lived in, how little did he know that the Romans would sweep across Britain killing nearly every druid and hedge wizard to reinforce their rule. Arthfael also said it had been years since they had spoken with people from further afield not realising they were now echoes of the past trapped in a regio.
Terentius decided to go potholing, I have never understood his passion for going underground and squeezing through narrow gaps he cast spells to detect the presence of magic. On the subtle breeze he did sniff something and using various magics to go deeper into the cave network found a pool with some inky black water which he collected some of in a water skin, he returned to Jari and they departed the Regio having been gone ten weeks in the mundane world.
Now we come to my activities, and such a bitter pill I had to swallow as it appeared I had been misled by the people I trusted the most. I sailed blissfully unaware of my betrayal to Carlisle, a city on the west coast of northeast England, from there I travelled east and eventually ended up in Borria-tor covenant, I was welcomed in and after recovering from my arduous walk I talked with senior quaesitor Romanus. What he told me shocked me to the core. It was that the Hibernian tribunal had already ruled on the case against Crannagh tomb covenant and so the house ruling was illegal, and therefore the wizard's march was illegal. I had been tricked by my Primus, My archimagus and my House quaesitor to forsake my oath. I am ashamed, I am distraught, it also appeared that Guido’s exclusion from the house was illegal. Romanus told me that the Hibernian tribunal I attended was legal but the Stonehenge tribunal was not going to pursue the matter. I don't know if that means Tiberius and Pravia were expelled from the order or not and did not feel that pursuing the matter would gain anything. He advised me to go to Verdi for a house trial and I decided he was right. It would be my peers, not some coven of biassed hedge wizards that decided my fate. After I met with Romanus, I met with Menaxia who agreed to the three thousand penny price for our new spymaster. I returned home with my tail between my legs, via Cliffheart and left a letter for Ricardus in case he returned and wanted to accompany me to Verdi next summer
Pyrhuss’ Private Journal
I don't understand why three distinguished magi would throw their honour away like that and it could be four! Did Ricardus know was he in on the plan to trick me? I don’t know what to do. The rug has been pulled out from under me with no warning. I am distraught.
Winter
We met in the cold council chamber and I felt empty the distrust and disgust my sodales felt towards me was justified, I had killed not a renegade magus but a member of the order of Hermes and broken my oath, the only mitigation being I was naive enough to believe the fellowship offered by my then Primus, Archimag us and house Quaesitor was real. We discussed the adventure in Mynedd Merddyn and normally I would be keen to hear such but such was my dismay I could barely pay attention and several times Jari had to remind me that this journal would have to be written by myself and I should listen to the words spoken. We decided that the Bridgwater investigation was to go ahead and I agreed to go if needed, hoping to start to redeem myself by helping my sodales. As the investigation was not going to take a whole season I decided to study from some personal Vis, as did Naevius, Terentius worked in his laboratory and Branwen immersed herself in the pagan books, I felt sure she would gain more from reading Corlear's notes and work towards a basic understanding of hermetic magic but it is her time to waste as he wants. Jari learned a spell so he could speak to stone. He stated he wanted to learn about the standing stones that dot our countryside but the spell is for un-hewn stone so we discussed if it would work or not. Theoclea returned to Blackthorn to help Saphiphius as payment for her Longevity potion. We decided that an additional fifty silver pennies were worth it to secure our food supplies.
Terentius and Branwen went to Bridgwater and as a scholar of the hermetic order, Terentius talked to the baron under the pseudonym of Godfrey. The baron was only too pleased to assist the people who had freed him from the infernalists and allowed the investigation of the wood. Terentius and Branwwen shared a room in the Inn, something I would never do. The next day on their way to the forest they came across the village priest, and Leolf turned and ran away, he must have had an aversion to members of the clergy.
Once they had entered the forest they found it was a cursed place, they found dead animals in unnatural poses and the trees were sickly with black fungus growing on them, on testing the aura in daylight Terentius found it was a low-level infernal one. They made camp which was a brave thing to do in an infernally tainted forest and as the sun set the aura intensified and the shadows seemed to grow ominous. A fine rain started to fall and the forest went preternaturally dark, Terentius banished the shadow within near range with the lantern I had created for him and that seemed to allow them some comfort from the oppressive darkness. Leolf saw a smoke-like form with his second sight curling itself around one of the trees seemingly sucking the very life force from the branch. After a while, it descended into the earth and vanished but later in the night it is spotted again and it squeezes another branch and a thud is heard, come the morning a small squirrel is found under the branch its life drained from its body. This must be some form of infernal spirit that can interact with the physical without even entering the physical realm. They continued to explore and found a small structure hidden in the woods but decided to retreat rather than risk an encounter with a powerful demon. They decided to come back to the covenant and ask for my assistance, which I willingly proffered. Terentius took out a room for the rest of the year at the tavern and informed the baron of the dark spirit in the wood. I flew down to Bridgwater and after a bit of toing and froing by Terentius getting magical items he had forgotten we entered the regio surrounding the structure in the woods.
We entered the deeper regio surrounding the structure which turned out to be a well house of some description. There seemed to be a ritual site of some description with melted black candle wax at strategic locations. Terentius spotted a further regio boundary deep down the well and we discussed what to do, in our Regio level the sun set, making our parma’s and spells of sun duration drop. Terentius created a circle of warding of the 8th magnitude around us via the wand and I attempted to raise my Parma, however, I was not given the chance to do so as the invisible spiritual demon attacked us, It punctured through the circle and wrapped itself around Terentius draining his life force, he lashed out with a perdo Vim spell and the demon seemed to recoil back down into the well, we tried to recover ourselves but before we could the demon attacked again with this time Leolf being the victim, I tried to boost Leolf's health with a spell to enable him to better shrug off the malign corporem effects and Terentius lashed out with his perdo magics and again the demon retreated and with Leolf being unconscious Terentius drew a dagger and tore a rift in the regio boundary allowing me to lift Leolf and carry him from the damned place, I tried to revive him with my alchemical healing draught but for some reason, it went down into his lungs and caused Leolf to fall unconscious. We retreated to the covenant and nursed our wounds
With that failure in Bridgwater our season ended as we decided that the next time we returned there we should have a lot more ways of defeating the demon.