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Scribed by Lothar

Spring 1113 AD


The Council Meeting this season was grim, many of our men and all of our animals had died in the plague and we discussed long the possible causes and how we could defend against another such event. One of the suggestions was that if Edith had been allowed to stay with us, she as a highly talented herbalist would have been able to save many of the men. Antonius and Turold were gracious enough to accept they might have been wrong about her and we should maybe invite her to join our covenant after all.

My dogs died, I found their bodies in the snow. I had released them when we realised we were out of food but because of their domestication they were unable to hunt for themselves. I vow now never to domesticate any animal again. If left in the wild state they would have lived and so I can only blame myself for the selfish act of wanting company.

We decided at the council meeting to make a magical device to measure auras as Lydney is becoming a worry, the plague seems to have been centred on it and the corruption there may be spreading. Petrus and Turold will be building this device this spring. Antonius was given the task of investigating the Welsh as there were reports of cross border raiding going on and with the reputation of this covenant as the home of the Welsh war wizard, we were worried that unwelcome attention from the mundanes may result.

The season wore on and maybe because of the plague the rest of spring was quiet.

Summer

At the Council meeting Antonius related what he had discovered. Gloucester was very badly hit by the plague, the damage caused by it lessening the farther away you got from it except for one place, Lydney. Apparently Lydney was the worst hit of all, which confirms our suspicions of the corrupt nature of the place. The Knight of Lydney's wife died her name - apparently was lady Elisa Stuart. Another interesting fact to crop up was that Father Christopher never went hungry and that people were afraid to go to the church, maybe that cesspit of corruption has reopened.

Lucian met on his wanderings an English merchant in Wales. The merchant had met a man claiming to be Idris stirring up the Welsh in revolt. This the council decided was probably Stephen and Holy Isle would be informed immediately. There was talk of Welsh bandits in the woods and it was decided that as my covenant service I would clear them out. Antonius proposed and Turold seconded that we ask Edith to join us, I would have felt smug but I remembered the people who had died in the plague because of her absence.

The season progressed with Antonius going to Holy Isle to report the sighting of Stephen. He used Petrus' flying device to get there and back so as to be able to continue his studying.

A strange star was seen in the sky and Heather, a small girl who works in the kitchens who seems very knowledgeable about legends and such like, was asked what it meant.

The Reeve's man arrived with a tax demand for 450 pennies.

This is the time of year that we would normally collect Rego vis but the was none because of the mining at St. Briavel's hill.

I went into the woods, discovered the bandits and slew them all as directed by the council there was about a dozen of them but in bear form they were no match for me. I also met the fur trapper known as Ciaran and reasonably asked him to stop trapping animals for their fur and to join the covenant. I did this because of complaints from the Reeve that poaching was continuing around the covenant and if we did not do something about it he would. However Ciaran replied in the negative saying "No one owns these woods". As his continuing would have jeopardised the covenant I attacked him and bit his arm off but when I saw that he had faerie blood I desisted the attack and let him flee.

Later in the season a Norman knight arrived, calling himself Sir Maurice sworn to the Duke of York. He claimed to be hunting a hell hound, A dog so large it was bigger than a horse its eyes were red and fur as black as night. As he talked it started to appear that this knight was not all he appeared to be. Antonius investigated his horse while the knight was entertained in the great hall, to his amazement the horse was capable of talking but was ashamed of being found out as the knight had left strict instructions not to talk around us. The knight wanted a guide and a squire to follow the hound with him so Hessa was summoned as he knew the local wood well and as a squire the knight selected Lucian to go with him. When Lucian tried to lift Sir Maurice's shield it weighed 10 times what it should have but Sir Maurice lifted it out of Lucian's struggling grip as if it weighed nothing.

Into the woods went the trio, the knight apparently knowing the way but deferring to the guide like it was a role he was playing. They then went into the Faerie Regio the Knight leading now as the guide had no knowledge of this area. Into the cave of snakes where they discovered a pool at the back. There in the depths of the pool the hound sat glaring at the knight, refusing to come out and fight. The Faery knight (for what else could he have been) then left the two mortals alone saying to hold the hound as well they could. Hessa and Lucian looked nervously at one another then slowly backed away from the pool. The dog erupted from the pool growing in stature until it was the size of a horse. At this point the Faerie knight flew in from a hole in the roof and with one slice removed the dog's head from its shoulders.

The knight then left but travelled at such a pace that the two mundanes had a tough time of keeping up with him. Apparently as they crossed the last regio boundary something happened to Lucian and he vanished. Hessa turned back to look for him letting the knight go back to the covenant on his own. The Knight returning claimed his horse and departed saying that the two men he went with were to slow so he left them. Eanfled was sent out to find Hessa and Lucian and succeeded but when passing through the last regio again something happened to Lucian and this time he appeared lost forever.

Eanfled returned to the covenant with Hessa to face a few questions from Antonius about how the Fay knight managed to penetrate the Aegis. Which led to Antonius saying "You have met the knight before" and Eanfled replying "Met who the night before?" which resulted in a few grins I can tell you. Eventually it turned out that the knight had met Eanfled on the road and had asked permission for him and his horse to enter the covenant and as Eanfled is part of the ritual of the aegis he was able to grant the request. Lucian did not return and Antonius fears for his safety but has not the knowledge yet to enter the Faerie regio to search for him.

At the end of the season Petrus flew to Scarfell covenant to get a wound healed and to talk to Edith.

Autumn

At The Council Meeting the Fae knight story was discussed along with what to do about human encroachment into the forest. Our loss of the rego site was discussed with much rancour. We were also informed about Edith considering our revised offer of joining the covenant. It was decided that Antonius and Ruaridh would investigate Lydney with the aura detecting device to see how much the corrupt aura had grown.

They went into the village by day and found that the corrupt aura was the worst by the font of the church where it registered third magnitude on the device the rest of the village was only of the first magnitude of corruption. They then decided to go again at night to see if the magnitude increased. The device showed that at night if they were within sight of the village it was a first level magnitude. This worried them so they decided to close and investigate. They walked cautiously up to the stockade taking readings all the time. At the stockade the device showed a reading of second magnitude and Antonius and Ruaridh noticed a mass being said. They both noticed that the mass seemed a bit lazy and haphazard with important bits seemingly missed out or slurred also while the mass was being said ghostly spirits of children were seen dancing around the church. The mass ended, the peasants emerged from the church crossing themselves the opposite way too normal and as the doors closed all the lights went out in the church at once. This panicked them a bit so they fled back to the covenant to discuss what they had found.

At the council meeting we discussed the events and decided that as the dell of the wolves was very close to the corruption aura it might be brought to life by it so Antonius and Ruaridh volunteered to go back down to Lydney the next night to investigate. When they got to Lydney they tried to get a reading on the device but there seemed to be no aura! Puzzled over this they discussed what to do next when they realised there had to be an aura so the corruption was blocking the Intellego magics of the device. They then panicked and tried to fly away but to no avail, their magics failed them and so they resorted to their legs and started to run. They then noticed spirits of the children following them, getting closer, and closer, until the spirits were literally breathing down their necks. At this point they both took their leap of homecoming potions to escape their torment but something went wrong and they appeared in the Dell.

Scared out of their wits now Ruaridh tried to Rend the magical veil to reach the lowest part of the regio but because of the aura and his fear the spell did not work. A figure appeared in the middle of the Dell hooded and dark, he throws back his hood and it was Myrvin looking accusingly at Ruaridh. A single howl called out and then silence.

Suddenly the scene shifted and Ruaridh and Antonius were suddenly transported to the church in Lydney. Father Christopher stood by the altar not noticing their arrival. They ran for the doors but then perceive that the doors had vanished to be replaced by a wall. Ruaridh frustrated at every turn by the corruption lashed out with a bolt of lightning aimed at Father Christopher, but again the spell failed, possibly the Father is protected by the spirits?

Again the scene changed and the two hapless victims were transported back to the council chamber. There on the floor lay Petrus split in two by a bolt of lightning. The two looked at each other in fear of what they had done. Turold walked into the chamber then and stood aghast at the crime before him. Then I entered the council chamber and demanded to know what was happening. After the briefest of explanations the pair demanded that they wait for dawn to rise so they could know that they were truly home. So we waited until dawn then Antonius said that he was going to leave, I would not allow this and cast Weavers trap of webs over the widows to prevent him flying away. Turold fetched a Quaesitor who turns out to be Dionysus and he starts to ask many probing questions he then demands that the guilty pair hand over all their magical items for examination. As soon as they had done so Dionysus lifted his head in a triumphant laugh and the scene changed once more.

It appeared to be Lydney in daylight, they were standing outside the stockade where they had started the previous evening and there was a blackened spot on the stockade where a lightning bolt had apparently hit it. Ruaridh flew back to the covenant to explain what had happened. Antonius Travelled to Tintern Abbey to here a proper mass so he would know he was back in the real world before travelling home and relating his recollections of a most frightening night.

Winter

The Council Meeting started with the acceptance of Edith who had arrived a few days previously by cart with all her possessions including Piewackit, a magical cat of some kind. She did not want to move into a laboratory but instead chose to move into the infirmary where she said that she could be closer to her patients. It was decided that for her first season's covenant service she would act as a mundane healer in Blackney hoping to help some of the people in Lydney who seem very vunerable to illnesses, presumably brought on by the corruption there. Ruaridh then went on to discuss the trip to Lydney that happened in Autumn and its implications. Ruaridh and Petrus were both compensated for the loss of the enchanted items taken in that disaster as it was done as a covenant service.

Antonius reported that the night before the council meeting Jacque was disturbed by a vision so powerful and realistic he went to Antonius and related it to him. This vision was of a hill with a hut and a river flowing at the bottom of it with fishing rods laid out . A young girl, a woman and Idris were there living an idyllic life apparently. Then the vision shifted and Jacque saw the heart of the forest re-growing after the corruption that had lain apon it. Again the vision shifted and it seemed as if a bright light was beaming down at Jacque and as he recoiled from the light he saw a dark well of absolute night in the middle of it . As he withdrew further he saw not a well but an eye, an eye of a dragon and it was starting to wake . As it woke it stared at Jacque and this scared him enough to bring him to full consciousness. We discussed this vision, for that's what it surely was, and I proposed that it meant that Idris was in peace in the Otherworld that he kept harping on about and that perhaps the dragon represented the Welsh nation and that we might be attacked soon by the Welsh. My Sodalis then stated that I was guessing and that if Idris was anywhere it would not be in peace and contentment it would be in hell with his infernal associates. This got me too thinking that if the vision was true, did Idris consort with demons? Or did we make a huge mistake? I have spent many restless nights since this vision pondering this matter.

Turold informed us that he was going to Verdi Covenant for the house Verditius tribunal and would like to take Jacque along with him as it would make easier his trip through France having a French speaker.

A few days later Mathus the Redcap arrived with news hermetic and mundane . Apparently black Hugh had got himself in further trouble with the Church by imprisoning some of its leaders and plans were being made to invade England by the Duke of Normandy. House Flambeau had met and planned to attack Ashenrise with Tremere and Tytalan support. A new covenant was started up in East Anglia called "Narwold" but it was set up by Normandy Tribunal and not Stonehenge. This will probably lead to a political fight which interests me very little, However we discussed approaching this misplaced covenant to see what they could offer us in the way of trade.

A couple of weeks into the season a report came from Blackney that some of the men had been attacked by a river creature and Antonius approached Heather the serving girl who seems to have a surprising knowledge of local legends. She said it was Llanigan-y-dur which means in Welsh "water leaper" and was famous for dragging men down to the depths of the Severn.
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