Scribed by Pyrrhus
Spring 1325AD
Private Journal
I do feel that I cohabit our covenant rather than partake in the meetings and suspect that there are many secret meetings where I am not trusted. I do not know what I have to do to regain trust but I feel whilst Branwen poisons any feelings of goodwill my hard work may kindle like bad air snuffs out a bright flame, I will be shut out from the covenant secrets, maybe if I am lucky and she dies a hopefully horrible death I will be readmitted to the brotherhood of trust.
We meet again in our council chamber, the last cold days of winter making the water troughs freeze in the night. All were in attendance apart from Theoclea. We discussed the name of the ship and I came up with the name “The Dolphin'', and with a unanimous vote of the council there present, it was named so. Branwen said she had travelled to Morrigan's Hill and conversed with her, on her way there she had seen that the Jack in the Green had taken over what had been the Fae region and the wildwood now spread much further than it had before. Morrigan stated that Theoclea had returned from death, something that hermetic magic says is not possible. Branwen believed the Morrigan and that Theoclea had returned from the dead, indicating she trusted the pagan spirits more than the magic theory she had supposedly learnt. Morrigan stated that any who had returned from death would have a dark fate and would not be the same as they were. Jari’s Hare familiar, “Races with the Wind”, stated that it believed she is who she says she is but that the moon says she was changed by the experience as were we all. I'm sure Races is a competent seer but I have difficulty listening and trusting something that is a big rabbit and that tears around the covenant in spring like a demented creature. Navius reported his findings about the Chalice and it can cure every magically inflicted problem for 16 points of creo vis which had to be liquid and not broken down. This is an amazing artefact of Britain and we are lucky to have it in our covenant. Meddyn had taught Terentius how to activate the tenth magnitude physical healing which was needed to heal Theoclea if she returned to the covenant after the emergency tribunal in summer at Blackthorn. There was a vote about what to do with the Chalice and the Council voted on it staying in Navius’ sanctum with three voting for and two abstaining who were Terentius and Navius. Navius stated he would extract Vim Vis for his covenant service, Branwen studied from the Mentem books, and I started to learn two spells, the eyes of the cat and lungs of the fish but due to events would not finish my studies. Terentius performed private activities in his laboratory and Jari went to Carrion Moor to finish learning the wizard’s anchor. Vis was distributed at three pawns per season and 50 silver pennies were offered but no one took it. I wish now I had taken the pennies, had I known the financial cost of the expedition I was about to undertake.
Jari left to go to Carrion Moor. A few weeks into the season Cassius arrived, he looked like he was in his fifties, not a big man with a neatly trimmed beard. He was wearing formal rows coloured in red with black hourglass symbols on the front and a black hat. Unfortunately, he met the singing grog at the gate which could have been very problematic as Cassius does not speak English but eventually, they landed on the French language as a common tongue and Cassisus was admitted by Navius when he was summoned.
Cassius and I conversed in the council chamber.
I left on House Business after gathering some items from the stores with Naveus’s permission.
Summer
I will relate the goings on at the summer council as they were related to me as I was not present being on house business. It was decided that everyone would be going to the tribunal and I had already given my sigil to Naveus to ensure the vote for Theoclea at the midsummer tribunal would be satisfactory. Four members of the council could immediately return if the Aegis was breached and so it was considered an acceptable risk, whilst away Naveus would hide the relics of Britain and only he and Jari would know the location. The fate of Theoclea was discussed with the important decision of had she died or not, Jari and Terentius stated she did not die Branwen stated she did die but came back as Theoclea and Naveus stated he did not know. There was a small discussion that If the tribunal had determined she had died and left the order would we invite her back into the covenant? There was a lot of back and forth on this issue and in the end, the four members of the council determined that they would probably allow her back in. This season's activities were that Terentius would bind the spell “Pose the silent question” into our sapphire necklace, Naveus would study from personal Vis, Jari would learn keen intuition of the magical veil and Branwen would study from the perdo texts.
A few weeks into the season a mundane messenger came bearing a message from the king for Terence, Terentius’ mundane name. Terentius had a quick meeting with Branwen and Naveus where it was agreed to tell the king the truth in that Theoclea did not want the king informed of her location as he would be overprotective of her, especially in her weakened state. Terentius then left for Chepstow for an audience with the King, He related that it went well until the king related a prophetic dream he had had the night previous, in it he saw his sister enter a great hall, one side lined with women all holding bloody daggers behind their backs, on the other side men with the heads of wolves, She did not walk alone, however, a few friends walked in with her but to no avail, as the women and wolf-headed men attacked and eventually killed Theoclea. The King was agitated by this dream and exploded at Terentius that if magi laid a finger on his sister in an attempt to hurt her he would find and kill them all, in addition he would consider the pact between crown and order broken and order his earls, dukes, barons and knights to find and destroy all the covenants in his lands. Terentius was dismissed with the King stating he was the only magus he could trust, a dangerous place to be. Terentius came straight home and an emergency council meeting was held. There was a deep worry about how the Order would react to the threat and if the decision to destroy Theoclea would also mean they would have to kill the King, ignoring their oaths again. Terentus went from the meeting to Blackthorn to inform Theoclea of her brother's dream and threat and also sent letters via Gaines the redcap, to Primus Argentius, Luthwin and senior quaesitor Romulus to inform them as well.
Emergency Tribunal
I decided to travel in a mundane fashion up to Blackthorn Covenant escorting Naveus on the journey, it was a pleasant trip and the lush greens of the Wye valley made me realise how lucky we were to live in this green and pleasant land compared to some of the places I had been recently. There were about fifty magi in attendance and the first order of business was the determination of Theoclea’s status within the order of Hermes. The history of the events was first recalled by Terentius explaining the events in Mynydd Myrddin, He was questioned by Primus Argentius quite thoroughly for several hours.
Then Rominus spoke for some time of his investigations of the body and how he determined that she had indeed died, and the magic that supported her body was effectively very powerful preservation of the corpse spells cast by a spirit claiming to be Myrdden with a Sigil of twisting dragons one red and one white. Next spoke Sopheseus, in a long rambling dialogue he explained how yes the spirit and body had been separated but that deep down the flicker of life was not extinguished but you would have needed very specialised magics to detect it as it was suppressed to such an extent to enable the body to live on without sustenance effectively indefinitely. Looking around the room I could see that many in the crowd were lost by this description, maybe they had not paid attention when their paters were teaching the theory of magic or with the preponderance of Ex-Miscellaneans in the room maybe they had not been taught it at all. There were questions for both sides but then Quaesitor Pravi of house Tremere spoke, She attacked Terentius, deflecting attention away from the testimonies of Romulus and Sopheseus claiming, with no evidence, he had been afflicted with Psycomachia which is some form of demonic mental assault. She went on to say, as it cannot be detected, it was impossible not to prove it had happened and because of his out-of-character actions, it was obvious to her that it had happened. Jari was questioned as to how Terentius had changed and he stated the facts and nothing more, attempting not to fuel the fire that Pravia was trying to stoke. She sat down satisfied that she might have swayed some of the undecided in the room Then Prima Luthwin stood up stating how house Tremere was falling back on the old ways when they had been the ones under the influence of demonic powers when they attacked Ex-Miscellanean’s with no evidence and executed them. This was a surprise as many had expected Luthwin to side with her ally Primus Argentius. Eventually, after much vitriol in the room was spilt into the debating floor we were called for a vote on whether Theoclea had died, Tremere as one voted against as expected but the majority including most of the members of Ex-miscellanea voted aye. It turned out that after a long discussion with Luthwin the previous night, Terentius who still did not have a house, but had regained his sigil and voted that Theoclea had not died. A surprising thing happened next, Romulus went and talked to the Praeco, who then declared the emergency tribunal closed much to the shock of house Tremere and Pravia as they had expected to discuss other factors of Theoclea’s membership.
I left a report for my Primus and Cassius with Gaines.
We returned the way we had come with Theoclea in attendance and once back in the covenant she used the Chalice and ten pawns of creo vis to repair her body from the magic travails it had suffered. She then went to see her brother, the King at Chepstow.
A couple of weeks before the end of the season the redcap Gaines arrived bearing a message for Theoclea, The importance of this was it was on the full moon and so could have been a declaration of wizards war. It came to light after this that Terentius went to Prima Luthwin and applied for membership of Ex-miscellanea, this was to stop him from being executed for being out of the order and therefore able to assist or at least warn Theoclea of the wizard’s war declared on her.
Autumn
We all met in the council and discussed Theocleas wizard’s war and what we might do. It was decided that she would flee and hide, which we understood for Silestra, the Tremere maga who had challenged her was very powerful. I volunteered to trap her sanctum if she wanted but she declined the offer. The next thing that happened was a shock to us all Theoclea declared she did not wish to be the queen of the land any more and that Branwen should be, Branwen was uncomfortable with this but it seemed Luthwin’s support at the tribunal might have come at a price, although I had no evidence of that I hasten to add. Theoclea declared that through Merddyn's memories, she had unearthed a method of controlling the land and might know of a method to protect some people from the coming plague, but it would require research. She had seen a dark fate for herself and thus she wanted to pass the crown to prevent that fate from affecting the queen of the land. I'm sure she had her reasons for picking Branwen but I could see issues with the queen of the land and the control that the wooden finger might have on Branwen and the influence that Luthwin might exert could be problematic. Theoclea asked us not to fight in Certamen to defend her and there were a few nods of heads around the table, however, if she thought for a single second I would not rise to the challenge, no matter how futile, she misunderstood me. Jari told us that Phaedra was coming to learn from him this season. Naveus told us he would learn Aegis of the Hearth, Terentius kept his business secret, but it was obvious he was going to assist Theoclea in some manner. I decided to investigate the magic ring I obtained on my northern journey and Branwen yet again studied the Perdo texts probably for the good of the land.
A few nights later we felt the Aegis breached, and I raised the alarm, Just in case it was not Silestra. I decided to patrol the treeline defending our covenant and asked the Captain to rouse the men to full alert, Naveus went and guarded Theoclea’s sanctum and was startled when a bird flew in through the narrow windows and landed in the corridor, it changed swiftly into the form of a magus who told Naveus to get out of the way, I wonder now looking back on it how she knew which sanctum was Theoclea’ s but she must have had a lot of intelligence about the layout of our covenant from the former member of her house Terentius. This woman instructed Naveus to move and he refused, she challenged him to Certamen with the call of Muto to which Naveus replied Anima, he never stood a chance and the experienced Tremere knocked him unconscious in a heartbeat. She charged into the Sanctum and did not check for traps, but there were none so she started searching for something, possibly arcane connections to track our long-gone Sodalis. Not finding any sources of connection she left and we felt the Aegis breached again, assuming that she had left, My pater always warned me not to let my guard down though and suddenly in front of me she appeared and challenged me to Muto to tell her of Theoclea’s location, I replied Ignem. I thought I would have had a chance as it was my speciality but this magus seemed to have beaten me, in a similar time frame that she had beaten Navius. Once I awoke she appeared at the gatehouse demanding my attendance and answer to the certamen. I went and told her truthfully that I would have thought that Theoclea might have headed to the Crystal Caves as it was a very dangerous place for a non-skilled person to go. Silestra accepted this saying she had a full report of these caves from Terentius. With that, she fled into the night and we stood down from the alert.
A few weeks later Branwen, Gwendolin and Gavin the grog left the covenant but she did not say where she had gone too,, I suspect some witchy business for her Prima.
Personal Journal
The ring I had obtained from the member of the order of Odin was an “eyes of the treacherous terrain“ effect but non-hermetic which could be activated twice daily and maintained concentration for you.
Winter
The cold winds rattled around the corridors and I was called on a few times to provide heat without a flame to make the lives of our coven folk easier. With Myddyn's magics fading we stated in the new year, that we would examine the Regio to make sure it was still a source of Vis. As our covenant services both myself and Branwen made potions to close a wound, she using herbalism and myself using Alchemy. I won't say which art turned out to be the better but she made one potion and I made four. Terentius invented a spell, Navius was completing some magical research, Theoclea went to Winchester to be with her brother and Jari did some private research in his lab.
The only thing of note that happened this cold season was a messenger came to the front gate and summoned me to Lydney where my Primus had come by ship to talk with me.
Private Journal
I was congratulated on my work and thoroughness of my report and was told that my two seasons would count as three and so now I have paid off half my season service to the house for following the apparently legal orders of my Primus and house Quaesitor, I am still bitter about this but then again if my Primus had asked me to do these duties for the house I would have done them with or without the punishment.
Spring 1325AD
Private Journal
I do feel that I cohabit our covenant rather than partake in the meetings and suspect that there are many secret meetings where I am not trusted. I do not know what I have to do to regain trust but I feel whilst Branwen poisons any feelings of goodwill my hard work may kindle like bad air snuffs out a bright flame, I will be shut out from the covenant secrets, maybe if I am lucky and she dies a hopefully horrible death I will be readmitted to the brotherhood of trust.
We meet again in our council chamber, the last cold days of winter making the water troughs freeze in the night. All were in attendance apart from Theoclea. We discussed the name of the ship and I came up with the name “The Dolphin'', and with a unanimous vote of the council there present, it was named so. Branwen said she had travelled to Morrigan's Hill and conversed with her, on her way there she had seen that the Jack in the Green had taken over what had been the Fae region and the wildwood now spread much further than it had before. Morrigan stated that Theoclea had returned from death, something that hermetic magic says is not possible. Branwen believed the Morrigan and that Theoclea had returned from the dead, indicating she trusted the pagan spirits more than the magic theory she had supposedly learnt. Morrigan stated that any who had returned from death would have a dark fate and would not be the same as they were. Jari’s Hare familiar, “Races with the Wind”, stated that it believed she is who she says she is but that the moon says she was changed by the experience as were we all. I'm sure Races is a competent seer but I have difficulty listening and trusting something that is a big rabbit and that tears around the covenant in spring like a demented creature. Navius reported his findings about the Chalice and it can cure every magically inflicted problem for 16 points of creo vis which had to be liquid and not broken down. This is an amazing artefact of Britain and we are lucky to have it in our covenant. Meddyn had taught Terentius how to activate the tenth magnitude physical healing which was needed to heal Theoclea if she returned to the covenant after the emergency tribunal in summer at Blackthorn. There was a vote about what to do with the Chalice and the Council voted on it staying in Navius’ sanctum with three voting for and two abstaining who were Terentius and Navius. Navius stated he would extract Vim Vis for his covenant service, Branwen studied from the Mentem books, and I started to learn two spells, the eyes of the cat and lungs of the fish but due to events would not finish my studies. Terentius performed private activities in his laboratory and Jari went to Carrion Moor to finish learning the wizard’s anchor. Vis was distributed at three pawns per season and 50 silver pennies were offered but no one took it. I wish now I had taken the pennies, had I known the financial cost of the expedition I was about to undertake.
Jari left to go to Carrion Moor. A few weeks into the season Cassius arrived, he looked like he was in his fifties, not a big man with a neatly trimmed beard. He was wearing formal rows coloured in red with black hourglass symbols on the front and a black hat. Unfortunately, he met the singing grog at the gate which could have been very problematic as Cassius does not speak English but eventually, they landed on the French language as a common tongue and Cassisus was admitted by Navius when he was summoned.
Cassius and I conversed in the council chamber.
I left on House Business after gathering some items from the stores with Naveus’s permission.
Summer
I will relate the goings on at the summer council as they were related to me as I was not present being on house business. It was decided that everyone would be going to the tribunal and I had already given my sigil to Naveus to ensure the vote for Theoclea at the midsummer tribunal would be satisfactory. Four members of the council could immediately return if the Aegis was breached and so it was considered an acceptable risk, whilst away Naveus would hide the relics of Britain and only he and Jari would know the location. The fate of Theoclea was discussed with the important decision of had she died or not, Jari and Terentius stated she did not die Branwen stated she did die but came back as Theoclea and Naveus stated he did not know. There was a small discussion that If the tribunal had determined she had died and left the order would we invite her back into the covenant? There was a lot of back and forth on this issue and in the end, the four members of the council determined that they would probably allow her back in. This season's activities were that Terentius would bind the spell “Pose the silent question” into our sapphire necklace, Naveus would study from personal Vis, Jari would learn keen intuition of the magical veil and Branwen would study from the perdo texts.
A few weeks into the season a mundane messenger came bearing a message from the king for Terence, Terentius’ mundane name. Terentius had a quick meeting with Branwen and Naveus where it was agreed to tell the king the truth in that Theoclea did not want the king informed of her location as he would be overprotective of her, especially in her weakened state. Terentius then left for Chepstow for an audience with the King, He related that it went well until the king related a prophetic dream he had had the night previous, in it he saw his sister enter a great hall, one side lined with women all holding bloody daggers behind their backs, on the other side men with the heads of wolves, She did not walk alone, however, a few friends walked in with her but to no avail, as the women and wolf-headed men attacked and eventually killed Theoclea. The King was agitated by this dream and exploded at Terentius that if magi laid a finger on his sister in an attempt to hurt her he would find and kill them all, in addition he would consider the pact between crown and order broken and order his earls, dukes, barons and knights to find and destroy all the covenants in his lands. Terentius was dismissed with the King stating he was the only magus he could trust, a dangerous place to be. Terentius came straight home and an emergency council meeting was held. There was a deep worry about how the Order would react to the threat and if the decision to destroy Theoclea would also mean they would have to kill the King, ignoring their oaths again. Terentus went from the meeting to Blackthorn to inform Theoclea of her brother's dream and threat and also sent letters via Gaines the redcap, to Primus Argentius, Luthwin and senior quaesitor Romulus to inform them as well.
Emergency Tribunal
I decided to travel in a mundane fashion up to Blackthorn Covenant escorting Naveus on the journey, it was a pleasant trip and the lush greens of the Wye valley made me realise how lucky we were to live in this green and pleasant land compared to some of the places I had been recently. There were about fifty magi in attendance and the first order of business was the determination of Theoclea’s status within the order of Hermes. The history of the events was first recalled by Terentius explaining the events in Mynydd Myrddin, He was questioned by Primus Argentius quite thoroughly for several hours.
Then Rominus spoke for some time of his investigations of the body and how he determined that she had indeed died, and the magic that supported her body was effectively very powerful preservation of the corpse spells cast by a spirit claiming to be Myrdden with a Sigil of twisting dragons one red and one white. Next spoke Sopheseus, in a long rambling dialogue he explained how yes the spirit and body had been separated but that deep down the flicker of life was not extinguished but you would have needed very specialised magics to detect it as it was suppressed to such an extent to enable the body to live on without sustenance effectively indefinitely. Looking around the room I could see that many in the crowd were lost by this description, maybe they had not paid attention when their paters were teaching the theory of magic or with the preponderance of Ex-Miscellaneans in the room maybe they had not been taught it at all. There were questions for both sides but then Quaesitor Pravi of house Tremere spoke, She attacked Terentius, deflecting attention away from the testimonies of Romulus and Sopheseus claiming, with no evidence, he had been afflicted with Psycomachia which is some form of demonic mental assault. She went on to say, as it cannot be detected, it was impossible not to prove it had happened and because of his out-of-character actions, it was obvious to her that it had happened. Jari was questioned as to how Terentius had changed and he stated the facts and nothing more, attempting not to fuel the fire that Pravia was trying to stoke. She sat down satisfied that she might have swayed some of the undecided in the room Then Prima Luthwin stood up stating how house Tremere was falling back on the old ways when they had been the ones under the influence of demonic powers when they attacked Ex-Miscellanean’s with no evidence and executed them. This was a surprise as many had expected Luthwin to side with her ally Primus Argentius. Eventually, after much vitriol in the room was spilt into the debating floor we were called for a vote on whether Theoclea had died, Tremere as one voted against as expected but the majority including most of the members of Ex-miscellanea voted aye. It turned out that after a long discussion with Luthwin the previous night, Terentius who still did not have a house, but had regained his sigil and voted that Theoclea had not died. A surprising thing happened next, Romulus went and talked to the Praeco, who then declared the emergency tribunal closed much to the shock of house Tremere and Pravia as they had expected to discuss other factors of Theoclea’s membership.
I left a report for my Primus and Cassius with Gaines.
We returned the way we had come with Theoclea in attendance and once back in the covenant she used the Chalice and ten pawns of creo vis to repair her body from the magic travails it had suffered. She then went to see her brother, the King at Chepstow.
A couple of weeks before the end of the season the redcap Gaines arrived bearing a message for Theoclea, The importance of this was it was on the full moon and so could have been a declaration of wizards war. It came to light after this that Terentius went to Prima Luthwin and applied for membership of Ex-miscellanea, this was to stop him from being executed for being out of the order and therefore able to assist or at least warn Theoclea of the wizard’s war declared on her.
Autumn
We all met in the council and discussed Theocleas wizard’s war and what we might do. It was decided that she would flee and hide, which we understood for Silestra, the Tremere maga who had challenged her was very powerful. I volunteered to trap her sanctum if she wanted but she declined the offer. The next thing that happened was a shock to us all Theoclea declared she did not wish to be the queen of the land any more and that Branwen should be, Branwen was uncomfortable with this but it seemed Luthwin’s support at the tribunal might have come at a price, although I had no evidence of that I hasten to add. Theoclea declared that through Merddyn's memories, she had unearthed a method of controlling the land and might know of a method to protect some people from the coming plague, but it would require research. She had seen a dark fate for herself and thus she wanted to pass the crown to prevent that fate from affecting the queen of the land. I'm sure she had her reasons for picking Branwen but I could see issues with the queen of the land and the control that the wooden finger might have on Branwen and the influence that Luthwin might exert could be problematic. Theoclea asked us not to fight in Certamen to defend her and there were a few nods of heads around the table, however, if she thought for a single second I would not rise to the challenge, no matter how futile, she misunderstood me. Jari told us that Phaedra was coming to learn from him this season. Naveus told us he would learn Aegis of the Hearth, Terentius kept his business secret, but it was obvious he was going to assist Theoclea in some manner. I decided to investigate the magic ring I obtained on my northern journey and Branwen yet again studied the Perdo texts probably for the good of the land.
A few nights later we felt the Aegis breached, and I raised the alarm, Just in case it was not Silestra. I decided to patrol the treeline defending our covenant and asked the Captain to rouse the men to full alert, Naveus went and guarded Theoclea’s sanctum and was startled when a bird flew in through the narrow windows and landed in the corridor, it changed swiftly into the form of a magus who told Naveus to get out of the way, I wonder now looking back on it how she knew which sanctum was Theoclea’ s but she must have had a lot of intelligence about the layout of our covenant from the former member of her house Terentius. This woman instructed Naveus to move and he refused, she challenged him to Certamen with the call of Muto to which Naveus replied Anima, he never stood a chance and the experienced Tremere knocked him unconscious in a heartbeat. She charged into the Sanctum and did not check for traps, but there were none so she started searching for something, possibly arcane connections to track our long-gone Sodalis. Not finding any sources of connection she left and we felt the Aegis breached again, assuming that she had left, My pater always warned me not to let my guard down though and suddenly in front of me she appeared and challenged me to Muto to tell her of Theoclea’s location, I replied Ignem. I thought I would have had a chance as it was my speciality but this magus seemed to have beaten me, in a similar time frame that she had beaten Navius. Once I awoke she appeared at the gatehouse demanding my attendance and answer to the certamen. I went and told her truthfully that I would have thought that Theoclea might have headed to the Crystal Caves as it was a very dangerous place for a non-skilled person to go. Silestra accepted this saying she had a full report of these caves from Terentius. With that, she fled into the night and we stood down from the alert.
A few weeks later Branwen, Gwendolin and Gavin the grog left the covenant but she did not say where she had gone too,, I suspect some witchy business for her Prima.
Personal Journal
The ring I had obtained from the member of the order of Odin was an “eyes of the treacherous terrain“ effect but non-hermetic which could be activated twice daily and maintained concentration for you.
Winter
The cold winds rattled around the corridors and I was called on a few times to provide heat without a flame to make the lives of our coven folk easier. With Myddyn's magics fading we stated in the new year, that we would examine the Regio to make sure it was still a source of Vis. As our covenant services both myself and Branwen made potions to close a wound, she using herbalism and myself using Alchemy. I won't say which art turned out to be the better but she made one potion and I made four. Terentius invented a spell, Navius was completing some magical research, Theoclea went to Winchester to be with her brother and Jari did some private research in his lab.
The only thing of note that happened this cold season was a messenger came to the front gate and summoned me to Lydney where my Primus had come by ship to talk with me.
Private Journal
I was congratulated on my work and thoroughness of my report and was told that my two seasons would count as three and so now I have paid off half my season service to the house for following the apparently legal orders of my Primus and house Quaesitor, I am still bitter about this but then again if my Primus had asked me to do these duties for the house I would have done them with or without the punishment.