Timeline
| 1170 - 1172 | 1172 - 1174 | 1194 - 1195 | 1195 - 1198 | 1198 - 1201 | 1201 - 1203 | 1203 - |
| 1170 | 1171 | 1172 |
Small images between paragraphs divide the seasons to gaming sessions.
- Summer 1170:
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Dughall McCallum, Nelly, Tomas and Murchadh out of apprenticeship. Tribunal. The fellowship of misery travels to Isle of Man and gets in conflict with norsemen. Dughall, Nelly and Tomas establish covenant of Calf of Man. Conflict with Whitehaven and norse lords. Bearnard out of apprenticeship, joins the covenant. Murchadh joins covenant.
Saga of Fallen Angel begins. James of Stagfield-on-Rhymes out of apprenticeship, joins covenant. Dughall dies in Port Erin. Argyle McBranigan out of apprenticeship, joins covenant. Fallen Angel banished.
- Fall 1170 - Summer 1171:
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Studying, building of the covenant.
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Fall 1171: -
Profanus out of apprenticeship, joins covenant. Mysterious deaths in a village of Bruinn discovered to be caused by a priest, mislead by a satanic plot. (See stories)
- Winter 1171:
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Gifts suddenly lost, stolen by Manannan Mac Lir, faerie king of the sea. Magi travel to kingdom of sea in Arcadia to retrieve their magical ability. It turns out that Brian of Whitehaven had proposed a deal to the faerie king; if all seven magi from Insula Maledictus lose their gifts, Whitehaven will also give seven gifts. That would be a interesting battle for the faeries to watch wouldn't it? Whitehaven had given only the magical gifts of newly taken apprentices and Opacus, a Tremere. Opacus realizes this and tells about it to the magi of Insula Maledictus and dies. Magi go back to Manannan Mac Lir to tell him he has been cheated, and get back their ability to manipulate magic.
The gifts were not really stolen, but rather suppressed by faerie power.
- Winter 1171 - Spring 1172:
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Studying.
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Spring 1172: -
Corvus from Voluntas (a powerful covenant in Stonehenge tribunal) was caught spying on Insula Maledictus. The case was investigated by Quaesitores and Corvus was ordered to copy two spells for Insula Maledictus: The Inexorable Search (InCo20) and Sight Over True Form (InCo35). In addition, he had to give the magi an arcane connection to himself and maps of Britain, so he could always be traced.
Sudden poisonings happen in the covenant; the magi trace this to be caused by a small faerie raising Ergot, a poisonous faerie plant. In exchange for some Imáginem and Perdo vis yearly, the magi give the Ergot-faerie a field he can live in.
The magi rescue the village of Bruinn. Sir Argyle McBrannigan deceased, condemned to eternal damnation in hell.
- Summer 1172:
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Studying. Details on Labwork history -page.
- Fall 1172:
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Studying. Details on Labwork history -page.
A Redcap, Caligula, joins the covenant and is placed on a season's trial period.
Father Laurentius joins the covenant.
Shopping trip went terribly wrong, as did the thieving one too. On the way back we met two shapechangers (?), who asked for a sanctuary. They were brought into the covenant.
The shapeshifters, man and wife cursed to dwell as wolf (the man during days) and hawk (the woman during nights), so they could not ever see each other in human form. The powerful curse had been cast with the aid of Stone of Loki, a standing stone rumoured to have been created by the norse god Loki himself. The norse vitki who had cursed the poor couple had been in love with the same woman. Magi kill the vitki during a "day that is not day, night that is not night" (an eclipse) and thereby remove the curse. The couple settles in the covenant. (Ever seen the movie "Ladyhawke"?)
The magical aura of the covenant starts to decrease; this wakes up the powerful dragon beneath the earth of Calf. Quake, the dragon of four elements, realizes that her offspring have been enslaved by norse vitkir using the power of Loki's Stone. Unwilling to take the lives of his children personally, Quake proposes a deal: if magi kill his children, he will get rid of the norse vitkir. The magi slay the children (air and earth, fire and water were already dead). Quake Flies away to destroy the vitkir, but the power of Loki's Stone is too great for the old dragon, who is also enslaved.
The characters travel back to the Loki's Stone, defeating a band of Gallowglasses, mercenaries hired to guard it. Bearnard uses 9 pawns of vis and casts a spontaneos Perdo Terram spell of level 42, breaking the stone into shards. Only Seumas realizes that the Stone is cracked, and starts to beat it with his battleaxe, and is soon joined by Kif and Ewan.
Quake approaches with two vitkir on his back, breathes fire on the three grogs, and Kif becomes incapacitated. Tomas casts a spell, and a big treebranch starts to push the stone, eventually breaking it to pieces. Quake is freed and characters return to their covenant.
The tribunal comes, and magi travel to Crun Clach covenant with their custos. Tribunal rules, that magi are allowed to search for Varina's last remains and that young magi are allowed to build a covenant at the northern parts of Isle of Man. The magi of Insula Maledictus oppose this, but the votes are cruel against them.
Returning from the tribunal, the magi receive news from the covenfolk. A hunter grog had been killed by a red arrow. The wound was just a small scratch, but the man lost his desire of living. Thanks to the Whispers Through the Black Gate magi know this. The death of the grog becomes an issue, over which Profanus, Bearnard and Caligula get into fight. Council is called and Profanus and Caligula engage in certámen, in which Caligula emerges as the victor.
We also received strange visitors, again. A band of byzantine warriors and seamen arrived to the Calf of Man, offering their services as veteran mercenaries and seafarers. Strangely enough, we accept them into our society. Like always.
Tomas comes out of his sanctum, wondering about missing dagger, that should've been in our treasury. None of the magi had taken it, or the hundred silver coins that were missing as well. After coming up with a guarding plan, it is discovered that the thief was the Demon of Greed we had bumped into earlier. It dies in the hands of Kif. The dagger is not recovered and the demon's stash not found.
The people of the Insula Maledictus start to feel strangely tired, as if someone or something was draining their life force. If there's nothing better to do, they just sleep till noon and generally don't do the things they are supposed to do. After all, fall is a busy time for the peasants.
A ship arrives at the dock, bringing a merchant and his servant to Calf. The merchant introduces himself as Amaryllis and his short, ugly servant as Nob. He is granted a place to sleep in exchange for a glance at his wares. A band of grogs sets out on a hunting trip, and Kif, Ewan, Hector and Juliette join them. The trip is enormous success, they catch 3 deers and an old man, who is dying with a red arrow in his side. His wounds being tied, the man is quickly brought to the Calf of Man. He looks like a monk with a frock, begging bowl and a crucifix, but does not belong to any brotherhood. Father Laurentius' actions save the man from his inevitable demise, and he can be questioned.
The man, Ephram, tells about his quest to follow his teacher, Josef. Even the well-traveled Father Laurentius hasn't heard of this strange mentor. Back on the Isle of Man, Ewan, Kif and Juliette lie in guard, waiting for the strange murderers to show up. They don't. In the morning, they try to find tracks, and are successful. They find two sets of tracks, small bootprints and large bare feet with claws. The clawed bigfoot did leave tracks at the earlier site too.
Ephram has almost lost his memory, but remembers that he was a band of devout christians, following Josef. He also recalls the shooting incident, altough vaguely. He remembers a beast, and a small boy, who traveled with him. Characters recognize the boy as the son of Fearghus and Alma, who lived in Bruinn.
Determined to find out the truth about the theft and the strange murder, magi roll up their sleeves and get to work. Profanus casts the Inexorable Search from the book in our library, using the arrow as arcane connection. The owner is found in the village of Bruinn, but the map burned. The characters set out to Bruinn, but find nothing. On the way back, the ship carrying Ewan, Profanus, Juliette, Nora and Angus, suddenly disintegrated to pieces. The boards just came loose and water flowed through them. Even in their heavy armors, they were able to swim until saved with another boat from ashore.
We agreed that this was the worst session of all times. We just couldn't do anything reasonable, we didn't see the clues the storyguide dropped in front of us and generally couldn't get anything done. We all hope to achieve more in the next session.
(I don't remember much of this, but I'll try to come up with something)
We dispatched the demon causing the laziness, discovered the smith's apprentice who had made a deal with a demon, got the key to open a portal at the crossroad, took Ephram there. We questioned the boy, found out about his dark secrets and that he had been in an abandoned monastery near the west coast - a place the Isle of Man has plenty of. Packing ourselves in a boat, we set out to find this place.
On second or third real try we found it. It was quite heavily guarded. Dispatching the guards was not a real problem, but entering the monastery gave us another problem. Our old friend, a demon named Eskarus, was holding the upstairs. There was the classic pentagram on the floor, and in the middle of it the other end of the staff. Short discussion with the demon made him send his pet, the Demon of Wrath, earlier known as Izarn of Bruinn (see above and in people and places). After some hack'n'slash, both of them were dead, and the staff waiting for its taker.
Bearnard and Juliette had failed in it before, but Nelly was able to get her hands on it. It caused a Dominion aura of 3 to its holder, so she did not want to hold it for long.
During this session, Caligula botched a spell (Lifting the Dangling Puppet) on Kif, who was doomed to concentrate on staying on the ground the next month or fly away like smoke (see spell description in ArM4).
Collecting the other end of the broken staff, we headed home. Profanus cut a few corpses open, taking 5 human hearts as foci to his spells; the infernal activity in the area would be enough to conceal our tracks. We took the liberty of releasing the other ship to our use, tying it to our ship and taking it home with us.
At home, we had to rest a bit to recover from our wounds and fatigue. We presented the halves of the broken staff to Ephram, who was very interested in them, and wanted to continue his pilgrimage. He settled for a day's delay, so we took him to the crossroad a day later. There he struck the staff to the ground, and suddenly we were all standing in a Dominion regio, with Aura of 5.
This was not a very nice thing for Profanus or Nelly, who don't like the Dominion as much as a normal magus does. Ephram sat down by the staff, and for once, we were able to squeeze some real answers from him. When asked about Varina, he answered mystically "Imekää jerkkuanne hemot, mul on galaksin isoin kulli. Taidatte olla paskin peliporukka ikinä. Varmaan mä teille mitään kerron ".
The latest addition to our troupe, Amaryllix, did actually understand a bit about Ehpram's mindless chatter, and told the rest of us that we needed to head for the Highlands. We packed our bags and started the journey. Bearnard took care of the winds and we arrived in Fort William. We paid a big sum of silver pennies to a local farmer and were allowed to rest in his barn. Nelly and Profanus, our two sissies, wanted - of course - better commodition, but since the rest of us did not allow them to have it, they had to settle for the barn as well.
Amaryllix visited his contacts, followed by invisible Juliette and Caligula (we didn't quite trust him), and after filling our bags for food and miscellaneous utilities, headed for the highest point in highlands, Ben Nevis (1343 m). It was quite easy to find, but the bad weather and difficult terrain hindered our travel. Bearnard took care of the weather and we were able to reach the mountain quite easily.
Climbing to the top of the mountain we discovered a spring. We didn't have enough time to search for anything, when suddenly Nelly and Ewan found themselves in a faerie regio, talking to a gatekeeper beside a portal to Arcana. He required a strange payment for each person passing through the portal; for Nelly the price was four small rocks and two twigs, for Ewan 30 moons of sobriety (too much for a person with a compulsion: drinking).
The gatekeeper, Noggin, let others enter the regio as well. If outside was too foggy to see the sun, here the sky was clear and sun shone. We waited to the dusk, thinking of the possible courses of action, and when the sun set, we didn't notice anything out of ordinary. We were still thinking of entering Arcana, but after discussing Varina with the gatekeeper, we decided to wait another day to see if we'd notice anything during another sunset. And we did. Near another hill, there were two flashes of light, just when the last rays of the sun died out.
Nelly created a map, Bearnard took a close look at it, casted nightvision, and flew to the new mountain. He could then lead the others there with flashes of light. others followed later, on foot. The new mountain was a roughly 20 by 20 paces big chunk of rock, 20 paces high. Nothing was found near the bottom nor on top of it, until Kif saw some flashes of a structure on top of it - another regio.
Using ropes, Lifting the Dangling Puppet and climbing skill, we hoisted everybody up. On top of the rock we were once again clueless. Suddenly Kif disappeared, entering the regio. He found a tower of stone, without any doors or openings, and heard some movement on top of it.
Outside we realized it was another regio. Profanus wasted 5 of our 6 vim vis casting a spontaneous Glimpse Through the Magic Veil. We all held rope in our hands and were able to enter the new regio except Amaryllix, who decided to botch. Profanus had to get him in later. Luckily he did not fail his concentration.
In the evening, the monsters - two large (Size +2) owls - left to hunt food. With us on the doorstep, only the other one left and the other stayed around to guard the top of the tower. We forged a plan: first invisible Juliette and Bearnard scouted the tower. There was a nest and the other owl was sitting in it. Returning down, we made another plan. We hoisted Nob and Juliette, both silent and invisible (Perdo Imáginem works) and Bearnard flew in invisible. Bearnard cast a Pilum of Fire, followed by attacks from Juliette and Nob. The owl died quickly, since Juliette's blade was coated with poison (+10 dmg) from Caligula.
The other owl returned, saw its partner dead and attacked the only visible people near the tower, the ones below. It died too. We harvested the vis and some feathers (valuable merchandise as well as foci to Wings of the Soaring Wind) and lifted the troupe to the top of the tower. Below the owl's nest we found a hatch. The time was running late, so we had to stop here. Varina's treasures are at our fingertips, but there are perils down the tower we didn't have time to face yet.
And yes, Kif still levitates.
Intellégo Terram spells did not reveal anything but rock below our feet, as did not Intellégo Corpus spells either. Glimpse Through the Mystic Veil and Varina's regio key let us all - except Nora - through the sealed hatch.
The hatch concealed a room in the round tower, with 6 pillars, a few bookcases, a fireplace and a pile of books and scrolls in the middle. Our valiant sensor-grog, Kif, was sent in to investigate, with a rope around his waist (altough ankle and neck were suggested, too) in case of emergency. Scouting expedition revealed nothing unusual, so the rope was tied to the chamber below and the hatch above. Then we descended. Greedy magi immediately went for the books and scrolls, but the minute the pile in the middle was touched, a horrible scream was heard from the ceiling. There, perched on top of the pillars, were 6 man-sized statues, who just awakened to see the graverobbers in action. They came for us, jumping down on the magi. A few of us were unnlucky enough to get caught under them, pinned on the floor with a few hundred pounds of stone on them.
A fight ensued, naturally. It was not a pretty sight, since most of the grogs rely on edged weapons instead of crushing ones. Kif had an axe, and therefore an advantage. Nora was left out and could not get into the regio, leaving Nelly alone. Other grogs protected their masters as well as they could.
Combat was not going well. Both Juliette and Profanus were bitten by the beasts, and Nelly and Bearnard were only barely able to escape from under the stone men. After a while it became clear that the gargoyles were a bit too much for us to handle. Our grogs fought valiantly, but it was not enough. This cost Juliette her life. She did not go down alone; Bearnard's spell turned one of the statues to rubble. Profanus and Bearnard flew onto top of a pillar, but one of the statues was climbing up as well, since Caligula, its target, had become invisible. A few more spontaneous spells did nothing but cause loss of fatigue for the casters.
Down below things were bad. Kif had luckily gotten some damage through - being the only one of us. The statues had it better: Juliette was dead, two of the critters were attacking Ewan and one Nelly. Without armor she fell, incapacitated, and her attacked moved on to Ewan. Spontaneous Hands of the Grasping Earth immobilized one of the gargoyles, but again they had more luck: Ewan too fell incapacitated.
Things were looking grim. Caligula made Kif and the fallen ones invisible in the hope of getting them still saved. Spontaneous Rego Terram spell from Bearnard took control of one of the gargoyles, and caused it to attack its colleagues. After a while of fruitless combat, we decided that it was time to fall back. Statues had lost one of their numbers, we three. Concentration botch with Bearnard speeded the process a bit, and confidence points were burned.
Licking our wounds upstairs we managed to awaken Ewan and Nelly. Realising there could be vis in the remains of the sole dead gargoyle, Kif was sent to get it up, invisible. (Again Kif, why? He still levitates freely, so he earns his food with it.) Burning horrible amounts of Terram and Vim vis (4 + 5 * 3 pawns, Tomas would've killed us if he were there) Bearnard managed to destroy the statues and avoid botching (3 pawns of vis and an aura of 3 means at least 7 botch die - SG ruled, that double botch would mean twilight) with Kif going down to fetch the remains - new vis to burn.
The melee in the middle of the old and brittle scrolls and books resulted naturally in destruction of the majority of them. Although drawn to the library of books, we had bigger fish to fry: Varina's other goods. Again we found a portal to a new level of the regio, and Kif managed to get in first, finding himself in a dark stairway. Profanus was quick to follow, managed to create light and found himself in the mother lode, the grave with a large sarcophagus. (Looks of terror appeared on the faces of everyone else of the troupe - see Varina's letter and Profanus' sheet)
Luckily the rest of us got down there and Profanus controlled himself, and instead of groping the corpse he searched some of the chests lying around. After a while of paranoid searching and looking around in the fear of more gargoyles appearing, we managed to carry the equipment upstairs. We took them all the way, back to the real world.
Some of us were very eager to go back and search the sarcophagus, but some of us were in too bad condition or just exhausted and their self-confidence taken. We decided to flee to fight for another day, to come back after the equipment was safe. Hauling the chests back to the shore, we rented a ship and returned to our covenant.
Looting the chests and exploring the books convinced even the most cynical of us that the trip was worth taking. Our library is now amazingly vast, filled with expensive (and priceless) books and worth envying from most covenants. One thing remained to do: inform the tribunal of our success; we wanted the fame and figured that if we inform others of our findings and provide them with proof, they would stop searching for the grave. If we chose to return to the sarcophagus, it would still be there.
Continued in the next chapter.