Timeline

Small images between paragraphs divide the seasons to gaming sessions.

[ 1201 | 1202 ]

Winter 1201:

One misty morning, late autumn, a small boat was floating towards our island. The boat was in bad shape, it's small sail torn and the woodwork damaged, but in the worst condition was the woman lying in the bottom of the boat. She was beaten, bruised, and soaked in dried blood. When Thorbrand pulled her boat ashore, she opened her eye, and started shouting when she saw his face.

After the woman - named Dorrin, who turned out to be an aonaran - was brought into the infirmary, given first aid and her bone fractures healed, she told us about how the norsemen had come and killed his custo and her dog, razed her house and trampled her fields, raped and beaten her, and left her to die. She had had no choice but flee, and had come to us since we were mentioned in positive way in the last tribunal.

A little later, Niall ex Verditius and Ignus ex Flambeau appeared on the pier as well. They had come to warn us about the rising threat of the norsemen and their campaign against scots and the hermetic wizards. We thanked them for their news, offeded them dinner, but they declined and left.

One of the clues to the norsemen was Erlend Ragnarsson, who was tied to the Ogmundssen family. We travelled to Harek Ogmundsson's house, which was in a really bad shape. The cattle had starved and their corpses were rotting where they had died, and the only people there were Harek's brother and sister. He was really lean, with a mad rage in his eyes, and she was just mad, with a blank stare in her eyes.

After a bit of Mentem spells, we learned that Thurbrand Finsson had turned his back on the Ogmundsson after they had ganged up with Erlend Ragnarsson, and that a while ago, one night, a black-haired woman and some norsemen had entered their house, whispered something in their ears and weaved some spells to destroy the mind of Harek's sister.

The place was filled with Watching Wards and some ugly spells, and one of them hit Caligula hard, destroying his ability to communicate, when he cast Eyes of the Past. We sought help from Caitlin in Crun Clach, who cured Caligula of his disability. She told us that she would not help us after that, and that we were on our own. We should not discuss the case with anyone and try to solve it as fast as possible.

Caligula scouted Dorrin's home, Loch Ayerin, and didn't find much. Only thing that was left was a quiver, which had cut it's strap. It was found in a peculiar forest near Dorrin's sanctum. Caligula returned to Insula with the quiver, and we used Inexorable Search to locate the culprints, who were found east of Carlisle. Later, when we were inspecting the quiver more closely, we found out that it's strap had not been broken but cut, and inside the quiver was a small but nonetheless significant Rune of Connection. We had been carrying a homing beacon all along, instead of an arcane connection to track the witch with.

We searched the marauding norsemen from the ports in scottish lowlands, and only clue was the name of their boat, Svartvågen. At last we found a village, where they had been seen recently. One of the scots had become mad - possibly through magic, and was being held captive until a sheriff would come along and deal justice. He told us about the mansion in the highlands, where Erlend Ragnarsson, the leader of the norse - and our old enemy - was staying. We packed our bags and left for the mansion.

[ 1201 | 1202 ]

We found the Robart's mansion a few days later. Lago scouted the building in hawk form, and heard many voices inside it. After couple hours of planning, we decided on attacking the place quietly. In the combat that followed, there was a lot of magic, missiles and clatter of weapons. The norsemen perished one by one, and we got even some of them alive and could interrogate them.

The men did not reveal much, mostly because they either did not know or their hatred towards magi or just the folk of man was too strong; even the dead ones would not speak much through Whispers.

We found a few magical items inside; one was a mirror, and we thought that the woman had used it to stay in contact with the men, and the other was Erlend's necklace. Staying near them or holding them was not a wise idea. The maga who had grafted them used them to cast spells at us. The place was filled with Watching Wards everywhere, so we didn't want to stay there too long.

One thing we were able to find out was the name and home of the maga, Maighread ex Miscallanea, responsible for all the massacres. Since nobody knew where it was, we asked around in a few villages and were directed to the right place at the end.

The mad maga lived at a swamp, Laoghchr Moor (Moor of Disease), where she had put on her own Shrouded Glen. Luckily for us, our point man, Kif, walked straight through it. We took up positions on a hill nearby where we could watch the woman. She appeared after a while, casting some spells at a pit and kicking some dead hands back down to the pit. We sent our grogs to flank the place. That was not a very good idea, since when she noticed them, she lifted them all up, and then cast an improved version of Weight of the Thousand Hells on them all.

It was up to the magi to beat her, and after a lot of burnt vis, her scorched body laid on the ground. We were able to recover some vis from her sanctum.

When reporting this to Praeco, she told us of their mutual history. The crazy maga was over hundred years old, and after some mishaps she was sentenced to live on the marsh and never leave it. She was the backbone of all the murders of the magi, and for that, she deserved what she got.

Severys ex Merinita, a magus from Crun Clach later addressed our covenant about this incident. We also found out the reason of Praeco's withdrawal - the bad blood between the two old magi. They also told us a story about Cathragguagch, a spirit of madness, who they believed had resided in Maighread. We expect to hear more of it sooner or later.

[ 1201 | 1202 ]

Spring 1202:

It was a late spring morning, when a strange incident happened. A grog in our covenant came and informed the magi that there were two members of our order sitting in our ale house. When the first of us, Dikaios, entered the alehouse, he saw two magi sitting there, dressed in robes bearing symbols of House Flambeau.

The men introduced themselves as Iratius ex Flambeau, filia of Tranius, and Corpes ex Flambeau, filia Leoniditius. Both of the Flambeau were from the covenant of Primo Scientia in Provencal. We were interested in their reasons to travel so far from home, but they did not say much about it. Instead, they had a suggestion for us, although we had to work to squeeze it out of them. They told us that they had earlier tried to recruit other magi for their cause, and slipped the name Stratus Intimus from their tongues. After that, we were of course interested. They told us that they did not want to talk about their encounter with Stratus and especially that with Ignus.

They wanted to plunder the tomb of Antonius, a magus ex Tremere of the covenant of Oculus Caecus. It was supposed to reside somewhere near Widow's Watch, which was a rock formation on the coast not far from Calf. After some negotiations about sharing of the wealth, we packed our bags and left for the lost sanctum.

It didn't take long to find the Widow's Watch, since it was a known landmark in these lands. The entrance to the sanctum under the Widow's Finger was a bit harder to find though, and the riddle to find it was not helping us a bit. Luckily we found the old ruins of a monastery quite fast, but that was just one milestone on the way. The Flambeau magi had a key that would open the sanctum, but it would only be on the midnight, when the time was right. Then the portal would stay open for six hours, and then close up for years again.

We found an ornament containing a blind eye on one of the walls, and after some searching we also found a hollow spot on the ground, covered by feets of stone. While Bearnárd was ready to blast the earth open, the others wanted to wait until the sun set and the key would work, which proved to be the wise thing to do. When the sun set, the way down appeared. According to the riddle, there were two eyes and five fingers who could enter, and that would be it. The eyes were the Flambeau, four fingers the magi, and the last finger was Seumas.

Inside the sanctum - or should I say tomb - it was quiet. We had to fight a few monsters (Juha, auta) and Antonius' filia, Saturnina ex Tremere. Luckily we made it in one piece. Despite our efforts, Iratius ex Flambeau perished. It was a big setback, but Corpes insisted that we would move on. After exploring nearly all of the dungeon, we came to a long corridor, where a low voice beckoned us to walk to the other side.

Taking careful steps with all the protective spells cast, we walked down the twisting corridor, and came into a room, which had, to our amazement, a drake half-buried into the wall. It greeted us with a blast of fire, which we did not take kindly. The golden short sword the Flambeau were after was in his possession, but the cunning drake would not part with it so freely. While attempting to grab it, the drake devoured Corpes, and left us there all by ourselves. The drake introduced himself as Magundur, the Copper Drake, when he noticed us to be members of the Order.

This was enough for us, and we left the dragon to the wall and returned to the antechamber - only to see that the portal was no longer open, since the key was so far below us - with the corpse of Corpes. We decided to try the mirror room, since one mirror had thrown Bearnárd out. We tied a rope around Seumas' waist, tied the other end to a torch on the wall, and ushered Seumas through. We had no idea what happened, but the rope went tight and turned into stone. It was a good pointer for us not to try it again.

There was only one way out of the place, and it was bartering with the drake for the key. Dikaios and Bearnárd went downstairs again to talk with the beast. He tried his scary moves, acted as if he was going to devour us and then stop just inches away. It did work to an extend, but we had a job to do and could not be persuaded by his tricks. We struck a deal with him. If he would help us out, we'd do our best to help him get out of here. The key to our escape was in Magundur's stomach, and we needed him to belch it out.

Dikaios went into the cavern, and the drake positioned himself so that Dikais could not escape with his other possessions. The the drake coughed up a bundle of stuff, including badly chewed and digested body of Corpes, the golden shortsword and load of other equipment. Under the watchful eye of Magundur, Dikaios picked only the key up and the drake let him walk away, swallowing all the rest of the stuff on the floor.

The key opened the door up to the surface. We had a long talk up there, whether or not to release the drake from his earthen prison, but lastly we decided to honor our word. Since Bearnárd was the only one able to do something to the drake's prison, he stood behind while all the others escaped the tomb. It was time to descend once again into the depths of the tomb.

On the surface the grogs were astounded. Earlier Bearnárd had floated through the air back into the tomb through the stone, but then Seumas had appeared in mid air, a rope around his waist, and immediately turned into stone. The rope was short enough to avoid his collision with the land, but the sight of a friend hanging in mid-air was too much for the grogs.

Face to face with immensely powerful being, able to crush you in a blink of an eye, makes your legs feel strange. When you are about to release the malign beast from its prison, freeing it to do as it pleases with you and the world around you, you can only begin to wonder if you really are sane. It was a deal, and the magi of the Insula Maledictus stand behind their words; so it was time to free Magundur. A few high-powered spontaneous Perdo Terram -spells broke the stone prison around the drake and sent earthquakes around the tomb, when the drake streched it's limbs. One last time it tried to scare it's benefitors, but the deal made with it prompted it to travel north, towards the lands of Fire and Ice, where legends tell of many other such great creatures roaming.

Bearnárd got to the surface just before the structure collapsed. Others had jumped or flewn into our ship, including the stone Seumas, who was later restored to his normal self. Magundur made a few passes above the ship and the tomb, and then took a heading up north, and flew towards the northern lands. We could breathe again easier, and headed home as well.

[ 1201 | 1202 ]

Summer 1202:

While Bearnárd, Dikaios and Nerienda were in a council meeting, John came to inform us of a grog who had something to tell us. The man in question, Steven, had joined our covenant some time earlier. There was something wrong in his home village. On their lands there was a chapel built next to a healing fountain, which was the resting place of St. Patrick. A nearby village, with whom they had been friends with for long, had suddenly turned hostile and wanted the fountain for themselves. Seasons were turning and our labwork was already done, so we took the chance to stretch our legs.

We took Steven to be our guide and headed to the village. We were greeted with joy and respect, and offered food and lodgings. The village elder, Steven's father, told us how they allowed everyone to freely bathe in the fountain, but how the nearby village now demanded the fountain to themselves, and based their demands on some obscure marriages. We inspected the fountain and bathed in the cold waters, and to our amazement, the fountain's magical properties actually worked. Spontaneous Intellégo Vim spell showed us that the fountain contained Corpus vis - much like expected.

When we arrived in the other village, there was some shouting and fuss, and when we got near enough, we saw two men fighting and all the other villagers rooting and cheering around them. Apparently the other man had killed the other's dog, and was beaten because of this. The villagers treated us with open disdain and were reluctant to answer any of our questions. We talked to their priest and village elder, but neither of them revealed anything important, and at the end drove us out of their huts. All they could tell us were vague explanations why the fountain should be theirs.

We followed the priest to a cairn where they still worshipped their ancestors. He brought a sacrificial rabbit to the place, and while he saw us, he didn't care much. The place had some tracks - wild animals from a nearby forest had apparently dragged the sacrifices away. More disturbing were the signs of occult practises and norse runes at the site. Later we were told that Cormac, the ancient hero, had been in the place to bless the cairn.

We returned to Steven's home village for the night, and informed his father of the situation. The next morning we returned to the other village, and this time were greeted with open hostility. The peasants were armed with pitchforks and other utensils, and loudly explained that we were not welcome there. They wanted to get rid of us with physical force, and we, of course, objected to that.

Dikaios, ever the one wanting no bloodshed, erected some Walls of Thorns to block the path of the angry mob. Some of them started hacking at the wall, while others tried to go around them and the houses they were raised between. Peadar saw something disturbing behind the angry mob though - there were two shadowy creatures with burning red eyes, who seemed to be giving the villagers subliminal orders - Peadar saw the other of them create some black shadowy mist, which enveloped the peasants and made them enraged.

While Nerienda was up in the air shooting out lightning, Dikaios was growing walls and others were waiting for the battle to begin, there was some noise in a barn, and a woman charged out, armed with a pitchfork. She somehow managed to dodge Peadar's swing, lost her balance, plunged her pitchfork into the ground from where it sprung up and caught Dikaios' side - even though he had his Wizard's Sidestep cast! After that incident, the woman scurried away, and the voices behind the houses and the Walls told us to leave.

We headed back to the other village, took a turn and walked to the cairn. We wanted to break the spell on it, and after some inspection, broke it to pieces. We found a body in the hole below the stone pile, which was not decayed. The corpse suddenly raised it's arms through the earth, and another one nearby did the same. Seumas hit the first one with the shovel he was holding, and Peader almost took the head off the other one. At that time, Peadar informed that the shadowy forms returned with an unearthly speed. They stepped into the corpses, whose skin took a lifelike color, eyes opened up, and started to speak in a old norse language.

The shadows jumped out of the corpses, too far behind to be out of weapon's reach. The corpses - who now were clearly living men - were amazed to find themselves there, and tried to get up. Dikaios' improvised version of Strings of the Unwilling Marionette kept the other one in sitting position. The shadows behind them started taking physical forms, and then it was clear, that the corpses were not the main concern here.

The other shadow was growing black, leathery wings, and was growing to be at least eigth feet tall, and had a cruel impression on its unholy face, and a burning whip in his hand. The other was taking a form of an unearthly beautiful woman, with long, deadly claws in her hands. They spoke to us, and somehow the male demon seemed oddly familiar, at least to Bearnárd.

The norse reincarnated did not much participate in the fight but fled to the woods, leaving us to deal with the demons. The male flew directly to the grogs, but his thick black hide was too strong for our weapons. The succubus was hit with a Pilum of Lumen and Incantation of Lightning, and was banished. The other demon withdrew from the fight after wounding Seumas with a burning cut on his neck.

The evil was banished, but the villagers still held us in contempt. They wanted nothing to do with us, and when we asked the help of the priest, he stated that he would rather die than help us. We left the village after Peadar had almost strangled the haughty man. We spent the night in the other village, and returned the next day. The healing process had already begun, and the villagers stated that they no longer had any claims on the fountain - but we were still not welcome.

The other village had warmer welcome in store for us. They even told us of a member of our Order, who regularly came and bathed in the waters. We immediately suspected him of robbing our vis, as the village was on our side of the Isle of Man, and asked the villagers to inform us immediately next time, when the man came.

The man was Trillon ex Bonisagus from Stratus Intimus, as we expected. We scried him through the Mirror of Distance, and saw him bathe in the fountain and then cast a spell, scoop up some of the water in the pool, and leave with it. We sent Nathair to the village via Seven League Stride to tell the man that we knew of his robbery. Trillon promised not to visit there again and gave up the vial of water.

[ 1201 | 1202 ]

Fall 1202:

A man in the Broken Gnome informed us that a village on the Isle of Man had disappeared. While villages born and die often, this one just disappeared without a trace. And while magi normally don't care about the mundane world, this time it was different, since the village was the birthplace of Absolon and Brennan.

Travel to the village was uneventful, and there was not much to see at the site, since there was no village present. Only thing left was an old stone chapel. While searching for some kinds of tracks, Madog suddenly disappeared, followed by Peadar, enraged by the disappearance of his friend. The magi found a regio with Intellego spells, and after that entrance was easy.

Inside the regio we found the village. The villagers themselves looked older and exhausted, and many looked like they hadn't slept for days. They were clearly scared of something, and kept glancing at the hilltop, some even muttering that they could come, and that we should leave while we still could.

On top of the hill there was another level of the regio, which Brennan found, again by accident. Others soon followed him. In the inner regio, there was a wide hole in the ground, and Brennan had disappeared somewhere below. The bag of pasi provided us with rope ladder and spikes to attach to the ground, and we could climb down. Showoffs used magic, of course.

There was another regio border in the bottom of the pit. After passing through it, there were some tunnels and the sounds of digging were heard coming from them. Brennan was nowhere to be seen, but we found his weapons and equipment there. When we started to explore the tunnels, there suddenly were a few hideous, big monsters behind us, happy to see more workers. The trow attacked, and we defended ourselves. There came a few more from the opposite end of the tunnel, and one of them even used magic to entrap us in the stone floor.

After one of the trow had died and the battle was raging to our favor, there was a suddenly a loud voice and even bigger trow walked in, ordering us to end the fight. He was a kunal trow, the chief of the settlement, and he wanted to know what we were doing there. We explained to him that we were there to bargain for the village and to retrieve Brennan. He, in turn, told us that they had woken from a long sleep, and got the permission of Arawn to use the villagers as workmen.

We were off to Arawn's realm next. We knew a place to enter Arcadia, and had been there before. The faerie lord told us that he had granted the trow the permission to use the resources in their building projects. He had no idea how the trow had been awakened, only that they had appeared once again after a long time. It was about the same time the chapel had been destroyed, though.

[ 1201 | 1202 ]

It all started when we were killing time in the Broken Gnome, enjoying some red wine. Suddenly Caligula's goblet flew away from his hand, spilling the wine on the table and causing others to back a bit. A hooded man told us that the wine was poisonous, and a spontaneous spell proved it also. The man led us to a more quiet place, an alley, where we naturally feared an ambush, but it did not come. The man did not give us his name, only told us that he was a vitki, and that we were in grave danger. The other covenant on the island, Stratus Intimus, was already destroyed, and we would follow their fate soon. The head vitki had been distrayed from the old faith by an ancient celtic warrior by the name of Cormac. We then parted ways.

When our jubilation of the destroyed rival covenant was over, we had a big problem on our hands. Absolon and Caligula were sent to scout the northern covenant for news and living magi, and then report back to us and the Praeco, if the situation was as grim as we were told. And that it was. There were a few giants searching for living humans in the covenant ruins, every village and house was empty for miles around the place, and there were massive signs of a battle nearby. As Caligula set out to Crun Clach, Absolon created a signal for the magi who were still alive. Suddenly he felt two words forming in his mind, big oak. There was one nearby, and when he approached, he heard a familiar voice nearby - Crinos. He was injured, but it was even worse for Ignus, who was badly wounded and hiding in secret areas in their covenant. He asked us for our help, and Absolon promised to return shortly.

Back at the covenant, we were already organising defenses and supplies, when Absolon returned with the news. Bearnárd and Dikaios could leave at once, but others were not present. Climbing up to the highest point of the aura of the island, Bearnárd cast spontaneous spells enabling the magi to fly at will until the next sunset, imitating Wings of the Soaring Wind. Off they flew, invisible Absolon in the lead. Dikaios and Bearnárd hide behind a ridge, while Absolon informed Crinos of our arrival, who was slightly disappointed that two magi was all that Insula could muster. They made a quick plan; Crinos would sneak into the caves and save Ignus, while the three of us would distract the giants, and if possible, defeat them.

In Crun Clach, Praeco, Caitlin Suil Uiane granted Caligula an audience, but her help was not quite like what we had in mind. She promised us a few hoplites in a few years, and possibly to grant us some vis as well. Caligula tried to explain her how fast we needed the help or there would be nobody left to help, but all she could do was to tell him that she would do her best.

At Stratus Intimus, the three magi rose up from behind the ridge in formation, and started closing in on the two frost giants and a fire giant. At hundred paces, Pilums of Lumen began to fly and a greatsword was lighted aflame. The giants realised a new threat, and began lumbering towards us. In the battle that followed, each one of the magi took out one giant, each in their own way. Descending to the smoking corpses and collecting their vis we saw Crinos and Ignus approaching, offered to heal them and a sanctuary in our covenant. Both were very pleased and accepted our offers.

Back at the covenant we continued our preparations for the difficult times that were to come. New houses were built, suitable for visiting magi to accomodate. Palisades and walls were raised, food was bought in generous amounts to warehouses, infirmary was expanded and messages sent and received. In the following months we received many visiting magi, and the Praeco herself promised us the vis needed to our projects before the attack that was coming later. All these preparations in progress, we waited for the right time to attack or the first signs of one on ourselves.

[ 1201 | 1202 ]