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Scribed by Lothar

Spring 1114 AD


At this season's council meeting the Llanigan-y-dur was discussed and as it had eaten one of our sergeants Antonius was going to do some recruiting to bring the numbers up to a reasonable level. Antonius had heard in his travels that duke Henry had died and any invasion was probably put off as his son would have to re-negotiate the deals done with the kings of France and the Holy roman emperor.

An alchemist named Leduc arrived shortly after Turold left for Verdi and asked if he could work here as his goal of forging metals which fall from the sky had brought him into conflict with the church as he described them as gods own metals as they had fallen from heaven. This season then continued peacefully and an enjoyable time was had by all.

Summer

The council meeting started with Antonius telling us about a new priory starting up in the borders of the forest , I was troubled about this incursion but to take direct action would have brought trouble down on the heads of all of us and so I accepted it. We agreed to let Leduc join as his skills with metals were almost magical.

A few days later Cassitus arrived and asked Antonius to reconnoitre Ashenrise for the main assault and after bribing him with vis and magical gifts he accepted. Lucian returned to us from the Faerie regio but for him no time seemed to have passed which can happen sometimes when you lose yourselves in the aura.

The Reeves man rode up with the tax demand, 500 pennies which I thought a bit much even if there was a war about to start.

At the Summer equinox I was down by the spring and there saw Idris. He conversed with me and told me that there were two factions in house Diedne, one a pure druidical sect that he and Stephen belonged to and another that had fallen and linked itself to the infernal. These two factions he claimed were constantly fighting one another . Then he went on to say that the Infernal faction were going to raise up a black dragon at Stonehenge and send it to attack Blackthorn covenant. I asked him about Varsavia and he claimed it was an accident that he killed her. I could believe this as I occasionally do things accidentally which turn out for the worse. When I reported this knowledge to the council they stated that Idris was a traitor and couldn't be trusted but they agreed to pass on warnings to Cad Gadu (for they own Stonehenge), Blackthorn and Holy Isle as they are responsible for attacking House Diedne.

A few days later Piewackit declared that it saw the dragon in the magical realm flying north to Blackthorn. When Ruaridh flew up to Holy Isle he was informed that Stephen had been captured and was being interrogated and a few days later Mathus the redcap arrived with a letter for Ruaridh inviting him to attend the interrogation because of a case he was working on. Unfortunately by the time Ruaridh arrived at Holy Isle Stephen had died, the explanation given to Ruaridh was that he was extremely resistant to magical interrogation but responded better to mundane torture and so that method was taken.

At the end of the season Turold returned smiling telling that he had risen two places in the ranking system that that house uses and that the same person who won last time won again; apparently Nauticus had developed a ring of warding against the dragon which he created a horn to summon which won him the contest last time. I think he must be in control of something very precious to this dragon for controlling them with small magical items should be impossible.

Autumn

Antonius left early in the season for Ashenrise. His first stop was Bristol where he obtained passage on a trader to Cliffheart covenant where he rested for a day before starting to scout Waterford. There he questioned locals about the infernal covenant but gained little information and so he went closer to Ashenrise . When he got to the local villages he used magic to investigate men loading barges of food obviously going to Ashenrise. He learned there were fifty men at Ashenrise but he gained little information on the Magi there. He then returned to Cliffheart to report all that he had found out.

With all the information gathered in the assault began, Antonius observing all on a magic mirror and reporting to the Primus. First a group of grogs went up to the walls with a lone magus to detect where the aegis began. Then the majority of the magi went in blowing down the main outer gates with ignem magics then destroying all the mundane defenses with ease. Once the perimeter had been secured the Primus Flambeau entered the outer compound and destroyed the walls supporting ensorcelled gates to the underground part of the complex. After a rest of one hour two groups of magi and soldiers moved in until they came to two staircases when they split .Down and down they went down there separate staircases worked walls making way for roughened stone. One of the groups met a shadow creature that slew three soldiers and injured Marius a Flambeau magus. More Magi arrive to give him support and they advanced. Then all the lights were extinguished bar one cast by a powerful magus. They came across a set of doors and blew them open and entered a great hall with lots of exits. Slowly they investigated the various exits. Suddenly green fire and explosions filled the view of the mirror and it shattered. Darius worrying for his own safety, thinking the whole thing a trap, recommended withdrawal antagonising Primus Flambeau. The Primus, worried about his followers, decided to ignore the tribunals ruling and entered Ashenrise. It later turned out that six magi and two Archimagi were killed and all for nought as no Diedne magi were found. The battered forces withdrew to Cliffheart to lick there wounds and Antonius took his leave and returned to Severn temple.

Back at home a shiver ran through everyone with the gift. We gathered together but Petrus did not appear so we rushed up to his sanctum, but when Ruaridh did a perdo terram on the lock it did not break as expected instead melting slowly. Ruaridh speculated that magic had been warped somehow. Petrus was unconscious and when carried down to the infirmary his body was as light as a baby, obviously warped by the magical mishap. When Edith managed to resuscitate Petrus he went immediately to check the spring as his experiment involved muto vim. It transpired that the aura had risen to the seventh magnitude and the spring now lay across a magical regio, also the aura was expanding we fled before it hoping it would have a limited duration but when it completely absorbed the covenant into it we had to flee to Blackney. We decided to live at Blackney until the aura had returned to normal.

Winter

The Redcap Mathus arrived to find our council meeting being held in a barn at Blackney much to Petrus and Turold's displeasure; these Latin magi need their home comforts. The redcap told us of an important meeting in Rome between an Archimagus and an Archbishop and that they declared that the order is not an enemy of the church. He also said that Edward Duke of Normandy was gathering his forces to invade England and that the Pope had given his permission for the invasion. We were informed that Dionysus was no longer head Quaesitor and was going to be replaced. A Merinitan called Tyrell of Scarfell covenant has gone into the faerie regio and vanished.

Two weeks later we decided to re-enter the regio to work even though the risks may be great. When in there we discovered that Idris' spirit had been at work protecting the spring and covenant with his bow slaying several spider corpses (which I bravely went and collected from the forest edge) which contained perdo vis. As the season continued we noticed several people had changed from living in such a regio several looking thinner but having a strange look in there eyes, myself included. It was a relief to us all that at the start of the next season the aura diminished and the covenant returned to the normal world.
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