Timeline

Small images between paragraphs divide the seasons to gaming sessions.

Summer 1194:

Returning from the feast with Arawn, we saw some people walking at us on the King's Road. From the looks of them, they seemed like magi. They had 6 armed men with them, forming a line of defense around them. As they were passing us, they kept eyeballing us, and we could sense, that they possessed the Gift.

We greeted them, "Salvete sodalis". Their leader turned to face us, demanding to know who we were and what were we doing on their island with their vis. Since we were the only covenant on the island, we were shocked to hear this indifference of our claims of property and rudeness.

We introduced ourselves, stated that we were from the Insula Maledictus, and told them that it was actually our island and our vis. The old man, their leader, refused to believe us. There was a short clash of wills, as we and they demanded to know who the others were. In the end, Tomas lowered his Parma Magica and James cast Frosty Breath of the Spoken Lie, while the leader, Crinos ex Tremere, told James what to ask.

They were quite shocked to see us, telling us that we had been missing for 20 years, and that they had the only covenant on the Isle of Man - had had it for 15 years now. It was our turn to be shocked. We realized that the feast had actually lasted 20 years instead of one night.

One of them, Ignus ex Flambeau gave Bearnárd hard time. He was a hot-headed mage, proud and sure of his own power with no respect for Ex Miscellanea like Bearnárd. They came close to certámen. At last Crinos told him to back off. We then proceeded to shake their hands and introduce ourselves properly. The other two magi were Trillon ex Bonisagus and a quiet Criamon magus.

Our trip back to the covenant was filled with similar awe. In Churchtown people gave us way, stared at us wide-eyed and pushed their children to safety behind them. Same thing happened in Port Erin. In our tavern, the Broken Gnome, our table had been taken, and the people did not recognize us, until we found Barry, the Innkeeper. Looking at our faces, his own clearing up with recognisation.

On our own covenant we had to convince the covenfolk to believe it was us, and we were back. Some magic at last succeeded, when talk did not. They had some bad news for us though. Our covenant was raided, our equipment taken (our sancti were left alone). Covenfolk explained that they had taken some of our books and vis safe. Some of them had been destroyed and stolen, like our magical equipment too.

While taking care of business in Port Erin, we were approached by a man, who wanted us to help a friend of his. He gave us directions, where we might find her, and told us that we would surely recognize her. We set off after we had everything we needed.

After a while, there was a trail of blood leading into the forest. We followed it sneaking, and found a woman, clutching her side, sitting and leaning to a tree on a clearing. Ewan approached her, and she told us she was on her way to the Calf of Man, to seek a hiding place from a bad man.

After a short while, magi came to the clearing with the rest of the grogs, and questioned the woman. She seemed to be a hedge wizard of some sort, able to control other minds. Our newest "friend", Ignus, came to the clearing, followed by a pair of grogs, shouting: "Hands off her, she's mine!"

Ignus wanted to kill her (he had already started doing so), since she was a hedge wizard. Bearnárd stood up to him while Nelly healed her wounds. Ignus tried casting spells and Bearnárd slapped him twice on his cheek. After a long mental arm-wrestling contest, Ignus was furious (especially after Bearnárd pointed out, that hedge wizards must be allowed a chance to join the Order - if they refuse, they will be destroyed), and we got ourselves a certámen-duel.

Bearnárd beat Ignus only barely, but Ignus was even angrier now. He promised to come back. After thanking us, the woman showed us an old unmarked grave, where there were four slots in the earth, and told us that if one burned four candles between the last of june and first of july, one would get magical power from the wax remains of the candles.

We took the woman to our island, and gave her a shelter. Later, we were approached by Whitburth Frithowebba, an Guernicus magus from the Horsingas covenant. She came to greet us, tell us tidings from the time we had been missing and - most importantly - returned us 25 pawns of Terram-vis.

We journey to the Whitehaven covenant, where Brian's sanctum is still intact, because nobody has found a way in. That's because we have his key. The covenant is full of mercenaries who have settled in and "own" the place now. They won't let us come in, and there is an ugly fight, where the half of us almost die. Some display of magic and the cowards run away.

We found the symbol of sanctum in the basement, in the end of one corridor. It has 12 keyholes under it arranged in 4x3 pattern. We did interrogate one of the mercenaries earlier, and now he had the honor of inserting the key in one of the holes. He got shocked with lightning though, and lost consciousness. We controlled him with spontaneous Rego Corpus spells, and tried another hole, which, in the end, killed him by teleporting him on top of a ledge from where he fell down to the ocean.

We burned 9 pawns of Vim-vis, when Tomas tried a spontaneous Intellego Vim on the keyholes. There were different art combinations, and three of them had Rego Corpus in them, others being notably harmful. Nelly tested one ReCo and was thrown back against the wall, injuring herself bad. The mercenary tried one unconscious, and it didn't work.

In the end, Seumas was the brave one to try one of the keyholes. He did get Lungs of the Fish, Ward against Heat and Flames and Ring of Defence on him before it though. He succeeded in getting into Brian's sanctum, where an image of Brian tried to spook him away. We returned all to that sanctum, only to trigger Brian's trap, as a modified Burst of Sweeping Flames exploded from the fireplace in the middle of the room. Luckily, everyone survived and the flames were cut down by a fast Perdo Ignem spell.

We found a note saying that Brian was to be supplied with "all the magical power he needed" by Lord Goulis. It was true - we did find a few queens of vis, but it was tainted (aesfotedia).

There is a fight on the island, as one grog accuses the other of stealing his grandfather's sword. A little investigation reveals that the younger one, Tormod, Ian's son, had indeed stolen the sword, that originally belonged to John and now to his grandson, Edmomnd. The thief is commanded to help the owner of the sword for a full week.

Morning comes and an alarm is sounded. A boat is approaching, with Hjaldir's colours. They shout that there is a King's messenger aboard, and should be let ashore. We welcome them to the peer, and two men rise off the boat; the king's messenger and another man, who later turns out to be the king's advisory (Ogmund). They tell us that King expects us to be in Port Erin in two weeks.

We travel to Port Erin, buy supplies, hire a tailor to sew clothes for us etc. before the audience with the king. The king wants us to pay taxes to his vassal, Hjaldir (we didn't pay taxes to Hjaldir's predecessor, Haakon). Shortly afterwards we run into Hjaldir again, who has a smug smile on his face.

We are approached by a man, Egil, who says he is the hersir of the northern lands, and wants us to help him in the games that are being held in Douglas in a week. He wants to humiliate his advisory, the man who won the contest last time, Amond. We tell him that we'll see what we can do.

In the games, Amond approaches Nelly with the intention of getting her into his tent and giving her sweet loving, but she escapes and turns his tent on fire with Phantasmal Fire. When she runs away, the people wonder why the fire can't be extinguished with water and why it doesn't spread. Ignus and Crinos also happen to be there, and see this remarkable fire.

Hector wins a archery contest, showing real skill, with Kif coming second. Later, a man starts to follow Hector and eye him through the crowds. Hector wants to know what it is all about, and after a while, the man accuses Hector of robbing him. Fury kicks in, and guards take them both away. Nelly goes in with her Smooth Operator-maneuvers, casts invisibility on herself, another spell on tent side to make it look like normal, cuts a hole through, and turns Hector invisible too. If this wasn't enough, she lights a Phantasmal Fire in the corner of the tent. Hector escapes barely, although the guards poke his footsteps with their spears.

In the games, we poison the beer barrels with poison that causes increased bowel activity, boost Egil's sword with Edge of the Razor and his armour with Unseen Porter. Egil wins the games, and kills his opponent - altough the fights were not to the death. Magi from the Stratus Intimus-covenant, Crinos and Ignus are also present, and Crinos grills us with his piercing eyes about the outcome of the fight.

We had a council meeting, where we decided, that our covenant needed more people. More farmers, more fighters, more grogs; we wanted people to see our island as a pleasant place to live, better than under the control of the hersirs and their greedy vassals.

We decided to have the certámen contest of the lab equipment after the tribunal in the fall of 1194. Profanus stated, that he would rather take the specialized Intellego-lab equipment than try to win the good generic lab eq, and it was decided that if James did not want them, they would belong to Profanus, and he would not take place in the contest.

We also decided that from now on, for at least 6 years (to the fall of 1200) every magus in the covenant has to donate one season in two years to the covenant, translating or scribing spells, creating or investigating items or otherwise help to achieve the common goals. If things are done in 6 years (or 3 seasons), we call the thing off - though I strongly doubt it.

We also set foot to the Varina's tomb again. As we got nearer, we found a rotting corpse of a magus (later found out that he was Brannigan, a Herbam-magus) who had been killed - Profanus got the chance to use his new spell - after a short pursuit by a gigantic man with a large tree trunk. We looted his corpse and buried him there.

When we got to the tower, it was changed. There were paths treaded to the ground, steps made into the cliff and a door cut in the wall. The tower had been transformed to an inn, Inn of the Two Owls. It was run by Phelan, a man who knew quite a lot about different things, faeries and the Order alike. He was quite secretive about the tower and the fate of Varina...

We were quite amazed. We had traveled there to see the tomb, maybe take a peek inside the sarcophagus, confront some resistance and fights. We were thrown off guard by this sudden peaceful milieu. Some of us, especially Profanus, were very, very disappointed.

In the evening, more and more people came to the inn, including two young magi, fresh out of gauntlet and without a covenant to turn to. They were called Muireach and Murchadh, twin brothers (other herbam- and the other animal-oriented). There was also a homunculus sitting in a jar, which Phelan, the innkeeper, brought out to see in the evening. We tried to talk to him and he kept asking if we "had anything to announce".

When listening to the Murchadh-Muireach twins, we learned that the homunculus ran a little bulletin board for trading magical things. M-M-combo announced they would be trading Curse of Circe, Edge of the Razor, Twist the Living Tree and Dance of the staves. A magus called Laureus was needing books about Magic Theory, Rego and Mentem.

The next day the innkeeper, Phelan, asked us to do a little favor for him. We were supposed to go back to the village near Fort William, and bring him a few barrels of ale and meat. Profanus and Nelly stayed in the inn, because they felt they were above such menial tasks. Others took a cart and left for the village. After a bit of haggling we were able to buy the ale and meat, and heard that there were wolves bothering the town, mutilating and killing the sheep. A quick search near one of the shepards revealed a large paw-print, almost a foot long. Knowing that no animal would be that large, we began suspecting lycanthropy - it was new moon, and the print was approximately two weeks long...

We also found out, that the village healer, Brannigan, was missing. Remembering the body we had found earlier, we decided to check out his cabin. The cabin had the mark of sanctum on its door, drawn with coal, but since Brannigan was already dead and did not belong to any covenant, we entered. Caligula found some herbs and Bearnárd some papers, and when the looting was almost done, we found a peculiar green serpent in there. The serpent was identified as a basilisk, and it was in very poor condition. When we were leaving the town, the new priest came out from his church and started driving us, the dabblers of the dark arts, away from his village.

Bringing all these items back, we briefed Nelly and Profanus of the events. We wanted to investigate a bit further. We knew how the healer had died, but not by whom - only that the killer was a big man, over eight feet tall. It was time for Whispers through the Black Gate. When we got to the grave, we noticed, that it had been tampered with, and the body was no longer in there. Tracks led back to the path and towards the village, so we headed there. Innkeeper told us that best place to ask about it would be the church, and Caligula went there to investigate. Priest told him, that a corpse had been dropped in front of his door in the dark of the night, and he had blessed and buried it in the morning.

Only reason for this, as far as we could tell, was our investigation. We returned to the inn, at the door we noticed, that the log the Hymyhuuli ("Smiley") was sitting on was the same log Brannigan was beaten to pulp with. It even had some dried bloodstains on it. Hymyhuuli himself cleaned it up while we were inside, and when we returned, he denied all knowledge of it.

Inside the inn we walked back and forth to the Homunculus, asking him about various things; Phelan, Brannigan, werewolves etc. He told us that the basilisk was announced to be sold a week before Brannigan's death. He had already lost the homnculus in a game of dice, maybe the basilisk was his next bet? Homnculus also told us that the basilisk would only speak, when the conversation was private. Bearnárd went to the sleeping chambers to ask questions from it. The basilisk told us, that Brannigan had created potions to prevent lycanthrope from changing his shape during a full moon. It was effective only for a day after it was mixed, altough the results did last for a full month. The most important piece of news was the fact, that the potion contained some special ingredients, and was meant for a faerie.

We also realized that we had seen species like Hymyhuuli before; in Arcadia they had been near the Faerie Lord, probably as bodyguards. There they were a lot bigger though, over eight feet tall. We had the murderer, murder weapon, but lacked the motive. And we didn't know who the werewolf was. Sitting in the inn we started to wonder how we could transform a werewolf into it's other shape, or to tell if a person was a werewolf. Then it struck us. Magic. Shiver of the Lycanthrope.

Bearnárd went out to cast it, while Profanus kept an eye for everybody else for interference, while Caligula and the grogs started singing loud drinking songs. We had to spend quite a few pawns of vis, because we wanted the spell to go through magic resistances of the targets. It was a success. Bearnárd felt a shiver while paying for a mug of ale and touching Phelan. Hymyhuuli didn't cause the same effect, and while Bearnárd was on his way to the M&M brothers, his concentration failed and the spell ended.

After sharing this information, we decided to question the lycanthrope in private. he led us downstairs to the cellar, and we told him that we knew his servant, Hymyhuuli ("Smiley") was the Brannigan's murderer. We told him that we would keep it all silent from the village, it's priest and the Order of Hermes, if we could see the Tomb of Varina again. He was angered by this, and we added the fact that we knew about his lycanthropy and could possibly offer a cure for him. He did not seem happy, and instructed Hymyhuuli to show us the way out from the inn.

We packed our bags, left the inn with Hymyhuuli. Outside he started to grow in height, ending in 3 meters. We walked the stairs down, prepared for a fight, and realized that the tower on top of the stairs was gone. Up we went and Profanus opened the regio for us and lead us through. Hymyhuuli did not like this, and attacked. In the end it was Profanus' Clenched Grasp of the Crushed Heart that killed him. Some patrons from inn came out and left the inn when they saw what was going on. We went inside and confronted Phelan about the death of Brannigan, and told the whole inn about it as well. Phelan closed the inn and the customers left. He then instructed us to leave as well, but we held on to our demand to see the tomb of Varina once again.

This did not make Phelan happy. He grabbed a knife and cut himself on hand, turning himself into a werewolf, and attacked us. After many rounds of fighting he finally died with a crushed skull. By this time there was a party of 20 people outside, heading towards the tower. We went out to welcome them, and found out that it was the Sidhe Lord Oneiron, whose kingdom this was and who was the ruler of the faeries in this area. We explained the matter to him, and he promised that it would be all ok, if we could re-install the old Churchgrim (a benevolent faerie in a church) tradition in the village by getting rid of the village priest, Celvin. It would also earn us 24 hours investigating in the tower.

We took up on the offer. A plan was formed: Nelly was to learn what Celvin, the village priest looked and sounded like. Then, in the dark of the night, Caligula would go in and assassinate him while he slept, and in the morning Nelly would pack his stuff and leave the village, disguised (with Imáginem-magic) as the priest, naming the old Titus-monk as his follower and the new caretaker of the church and congregation.

After this was done, we returned to the tower. We searched for the entrance to the lower levels, and found it. Only Profanus, Madog, Bearnárd and Ewan entered; others did not want to come down. Downstairs there was the sarcophagus with a heavy stone lid. Bearnárd used magic to make it lighter while Madog and Profanus moved it aside. This revealed the corpse (illusion) of Varina, holding a wooden doll and with two wings, black and white, beside her head. Instructed not to touch the corpse, Profanus reached for the doll, touched the corpse and triggered the waiting spell - a boosted version of Infernal Smoke Of Death. Ewan and Madog were wounded by the poisonous gas, Bearnárd was saved by a fast-cast spell, but Profanus was incapacitated.

Frantically trying to escape, only Ewan made it out at first. Bearnárd, Madog and the incapacitated body of Profanus made it first into the laboratory of Varina, then the tower roof and the ground beside the tower. After this they used the regio key, and were able to return to the real world. With some healing from Nelly and a Chirurgeon's Healing Touch, Profanus was awake and ready to return to the grave. With him went Madog, Caligula, Kif, and Ewan - Bearnárd went into the ale cellar but was fetched by Profanus a while later.

While Bearnárd controlled the poisonous cloud below, Profanus and Madog went down again to get more equipment from the sarcophagus. With trembling fingers from excitement, fatigue and wounds, Profanus reached for the wings but touched Varina's ear, triggering another poisonous cloud. Without armour and already at severe wounds, it meant end for Profanus. We were saddened by his death, but at least he left this world doing what he always wanted to do - desecrating graves and the dead.

We buried the troll statue underground, and started our trip to the Loch Leglean. Tomas took James' sigil, aesfotedia, Seumas and Siubhan with him and travelled by boat to the tribunal. Bearnárd, Caligula and Nelly were there first with their grogs and the loot from Varina's tomb, but Tomas arrived only an hour later.

Beginning of the tribunal was delayed, because Whitburth Frithowebba (only Quaesitor in Loch Leglean, excluding James) and the other magi of Horsingas arrived late in the evening. In the beginning, a few apprentices were declared magi, and then all the participants began to announce their items of discussion. Insula Maledictus received much attention because of the recent events.

Siubhan was allowed to join the Order, and Ignus was commanded to pay her 4 pawns of vis, penalty of giving her hard time. Tomas later tricked her into a deal for two pawns for 15 pennies. We were forced to pay 3 pawns of vis to the tribunal, in punishment for the Games of Douglas and our (indeliberate) participation in mundane politics.

Tribunal voted that Insula Maledictus and the south side of Isle of Man should stay in Loch Leglean tribunal instead of Stonehenge, and this pleased us. We also gave up the aesfotedia we got from Brian's sanctum, and Domhnull Beg volunteered to destroy it. He, Caitlin suil Uiaine and Edwin of Hexham were also choosed to participate in the Great Tribunal of 1195, the reason this tribunal was delayed a year.

After the official business we had a little time to trade goods with the other magi. Tomas traded some of his own vis, Bearnárd traded Circling Winds of Protection for Prison of Flames as well as Perdo-summa 7 to Animal-summa 7. I can't remember what Nelly and Caligula did, but they can probably tell me.

Just as the tribunal was nearing its end, a young magus, whom many remembered to be the young prodigy taken away to far lands by a bonisagus magus, entered the room and introduced himself as Nathair and that he had returned from the tribunal of Levant. A few months later this Bonisagus appeared at our jetty in Insula Maledictus, asking to join us. We welcomed him with the normal procedure: a trial period of undefinite time (without a right to vote). In thanks of this he promised to spend a season scribing his spells into our library.

Continued in next chapter.