Scribed by Jari
Spring 1329 AD
All were present for the first council of the year, which began with a debate as to how we might best retrieve our barge from Gloucester. After some pretty heavy hints about who had lost it in the first place, not from me I hasten to add, Pyrrhus agreed that we would make such an attempt.
Terentius stated that our financial reserves were sufficient for at least the short term and that he has significant coin in his personal reserves that is available to the council should we need it.
There was then some back and forth about what we could expect the new Regent could or would likely do with our lands, given the Briavel and the forest hereabouts is a royal hunting ground. Hopefully, with Theoclea now ‘dead’, any punitive action should be a lower priority amidst the multitude of issues the Regent will have on her plate. We may well have to relinquish the orchards at Lydney if troops are sent to guard the manor house, but the resulting loss would not be great. As long as we have the mines, we will be fine.
Terentius and Theoclea said they planned to travel to Mynydd Myrddin to attempt to review what remains of Myrddin’s memories. Theoclea was very keen to journey there right away as she fears Myrddin’s memories will fade over time and Taliesin’s prophecies will be forever lost to us.
We discussed how best to minimise any time distortion from being inside that regio. Both Terentius and I possess the ability to find a swift route into that regio. I volunteered, probably unwisely, that I could likely ‘find’ a path from the standing stones in Mynydd Myrddin, though finding one into a regio of the 9th magnitude will undoubtedly possess more risk and difficulty than simply passing through the forest. There were several uncertainties to consider, not least that I had only ever created faerie trods before, not magical ones. Had the caves moved within the deep regio and would such a path last long enough to get us there? Of course, Terentius promptly wore me down into agreeing to come along. We did however compromise on waiting until Summer for I had magical research that I wished to complete first.
Pyrrhus’s initial investigations, though it might stretch things to call them such, as he simply asked Stefan to make enquiries and had not actually left the covenant, revealed little good news. We have no legal way of getting the barge back and our barge captain was executed as a traitor, with his three crew left to rot in Gloucester gaol.
Stefan did however have more intriguing news. It seems that one of our few remaining active spies in Cardiff, a law clerk named Andrew Peyton, had met Nicolas Stepney, a senior agent of the crown, whom he knew well enough. However, that man did not recognise him, nor did that seem to our spy that it was a pretence for the man seemed genuinely befuddled about his past. Stefan quite reasonably wondered whether this indicated some malign magic was, or at least had been, afoot. We discussed the matter informally in the library and, unsurprisingly, it was Terentius and I that agreed to investigate the matter. However, happily it turned out to be much ado about nothing and we soon returned to the covenant after a not unpleasant week’s investigation, largely centring around Cardiff’s better taverns.
Jari’s private journal
Terentius seemed unusually reticent to go. With mysteries like this one he is usually like a hunting hound with the scent of his quarry fresh in his nose, eager to slip the leash and make chase. However, I thought little more of it at the time. Now, obviously I know only too well what was on his mind. Why he did not allude to such I do not know. Even if it were a just quiet word in my ear when Pyrrhus was not around, it would have saved me a great deal of grief, and, in truth, I am disappointed in him that he chose not to.
We took ship to Cardiff and found the port town to be busy but calm. Using a ruse involving a legal contract issue to contact Andrew, we were able to get the full story from him. The meeting was just a week or so ago, which speaks well to the network that Stefan runs. Andrew was able to give us the address of the inn he believed Nicholas was staying at, so we headed there.
I was able to get close enough to Nicholas to cast ‘Sense the Lingering Magic’ upon him and saw that he had been affected by a 7th magnitude Perdo Muto Mentem enchantment, which took a thread of memory from his mind and erased it. The sigil was one of an overwhelming desire for vengeance, which sounded familiar, but I could not place it. My concern as I returned to Terentius was that this was a magus of the UnNamed House. I’ve always meant to keep a better track of their sigils as they are reported to us but have never quite got round to creating a thorough list. In truth, it might actually have been better for me had it been such but when I asked Terentius whether he recognised it, he said grimly that it was Quaesitor Pravia.
The hermetic ramifications of scrying on a Quaesitor, even if wholly inadvertently, are not good. And by that, I mean likely fatal if not immediately confessed and even then there was no guarantee under the Primary Code of the ultimate sanction not being applied. Terentius advised me that my best chance was to tell Romanus, who he said was a “straight arrow”. As to what Pravia had been doing removing memories from the King’s agents, well, it seems likely that it was a continuation of the Tremere attacks on Theoclea and her brother. Were I to tell anyone else, such as Theoclea, whose reaction is unlikely to be helpful to either me or her, could affect any future case against me. Which is to say, get me executed. So Terentius and I agreed to keep this to ourselves while I shall make the long journey north to speak with Romanus.
Thus, it was that I instructed the ship to take me to Borrea Tor, leaving Terentius to make his own way home. Fortunately, a watchful peace seemed to be in effect in the channel and we were able to pass unmolested through to the North Sea and up the coast to the small port of Tynemouth. Happily, I have always paid more attention to places rather than names. I made my way up into the mountains to the covenant without issue, the biting cold yet another reminder of what has been lost.
I was greeted by Minaxia but, to my surprise and relief, she seemed not up for any of our usual verbal sparring and I was soon granted audience with Romanus. From his reaction, it was clear that Pravia had already spoken with him, putting a more favourable spin on her deeds, that of her removing any memories that could be used to incriminate magi who had been acting on behalf of the tribunal. Another indicator in my book that she had been up to no good. Romanus said that it would be up to her as to whether she prosecuted me. If she accepted that it was an inadvertent act, then she could simply demand a fine to settle the matter. He stressed the importance of not revealing what I had learnt any further though. He suggested that I proffer a rook of vis as a fine and said that my coming to speak with him straight away was entirely the right thing to do and it spoke well of my innocence in this matter.
I returned to the covenant with a month of or so of the year already gone. Terentius said that he had said nothing, but that Theoclea had guessed some form of hermetic involvement. Great.
A week after the Equinox, Gaines rode up to the covenant with a letter for me. I made a weak and nervous joke about the phase of the moon and took the letter. It was indeed from Pravia. In her spidery handwriting, she stated her “grave disappointment” that I had “breached the Primary Code to spy on her endeavours and told another”. She said that if I paid a fine of 2 rooks of vis by the next tribunal than she would be prepared to let the matter rest, if not, then she would take such case to the tribunal. Of course, I immediately started setting aside the vis that I could best spare. The increase in the fine beyond Romanus’s recommendation was a sure sign of her flexing her power in this matter and I do not wish to put it to the test for I have little doubt that she and her House would not hesitate to have me, or other magi put to death to protect their own deeds. While our current Primus is clearly a terrible leader, I remain very glad that I worked to ensure that Primus Tremere does not hold such authority. For all his fine words about the betterment of the Order, by that he has only ever really meant the betterment of him and his house. Some houses never really change it seems.
A little after the Equinox, Gaines came with news for our council. It seems that the King of France, Charles, has died and has been replaced by Philip of Valois, who will reign as Philip VI. Unfortunately for England, though perhaps fortunately for us, his coming to power will likely increase the chances of further conflict over England’s disputed landholdings on the continent. To add to what was clearly a bad year for monarchs, Robert de Bruce has died, and his son David has been crowned, though apparently the treaty with England still holds, for now at least.
Parliament here has recognised the legitimacy of Isabella’s regency for her son Edward. So, there is now no serious opposition to her. Gaines did not know who the new Earl of Gloucester will be. though John Mortimer, the ‘face’ of Isabella’s coup and rumoured lover, is said to be most likely. More promisingly, there has been no sign that Isabella is taking any steps against the Order, hopefully because she has little real knowledge about its extent or powers.
Pyrrhus, in a rare display of interest in mundane intelligence matters, asked how it was that the King’s agents were taken so apparently unawares, mentioning the fact that a King’s agent in Cardiff had had his memories magically removed. He believes that it was most likely the doing of the UnNamed House, though I said that I had found nothing worthy of further investigation there.
Summer
The summer’s council started on a testy note, for my sodales were profoundly unimpressed when they learnt, after some prompting, that Pyrrhus’s efforts to get the barge back had not gone any further than simply speaking with the Captain of Scouts. Showing little remorse, he stated that we should simply buy a new barge, saying that they only cost one to two hundred pennies. However, when pressed as to how he had come with such a figure, it seems that he just came up with the number himself. A rather unamused Naevius pressed him to actually travel to Gloucester to sort things out and Pyrrhus ill-temperedly agreed to do so this season. He will take Halga and Asgeir, his two Norse consortes, as well as Steffan and another grog.
Terentius, Theoclea and I said that we would go to Mynydd Myrddin as previously discussed. Branwen requested use of the barge and two of the turb to go and search for a creature who she believes may be her future familiar.
Pyrrhus’s trip to Gloucester was actually very successful. Not only was he able to sail the barge away with minimal fuss using forged papers, the boat being renamed the “Lydney Lass”, but he was also able to free the three crewmen from the gaol in which they were rotting. Hopefully their gratitude for being spared from such a horrible fate will secure a firm loyalty to us. His group was also able to confirm that, unfortunately, the new Earl of Gloucester will indeed be John Mortimer. Let us hope that it does not draw too much of Isabella’s attention to this region.
Our trip to Mynydd Myrddin started well. Terentius was able to locate the secret path through the old forest that allows people to enter the main level of the regio without the usual time distortion. We walked across the regio’s rolling hills then scrambled up the steep slope to the ruins of Myrddin’s tower. After casting around a little looking for the best place to ‘find’ a trod, I found one leading back from the main entrance gate, down to a faint doorway in the wall of the small cellar. From there lay a long walk down a smooth rock passageway that stretched ever downwards. Not even Terentius, with his uncanny sense of direction, could get a clear feel for where we were headed, though judging by how tired we were by the time we reached the cave it was clear that we had been walking for a long time.
Inside the cave were the crystals, such as they were now, and the skeletal remains of a great wyrm. When I looked back at the wall from which we had come in, the trod was gone. I could only hope that finding it again would be as straightforward as it had been coming down.
Meanwhile, Terentius looked into one of the stones and saw Myrddin, Morgana and other speaking in Cymric, in a happy scene. He said he felt no sense of compulsion and when I called his name, he was able to break his viewing. He also confirmed that the scene that he had witnessed appeared to be related to what had been in his mind when he gazed into the crystal. With everything all seeming fine for Theoclea, we made to leave. I was able to find a narrow, looping, at least to Terentius's heightened senses, passageway back up which emerged at the same spot where we had entered. Terentius said that the spiral he felt us travel tightened on the way down and loosened on the way up. He said it felt similar to what I had described in my vision of the pathways coiling around Severn Temple. Whatever the shape of the path, it was an exhausting journey. By the time we made it back, I could barely stand and even Terentius was tired. Terentius cast ‘Endurance of the Berserkers’ on me and I was able to find a trod out of the forest and back into the mundane realm. After a much-needed rest at the camping spot, we returned to the covenant to find that we had only been gone for three days and two nights. Our plan had worked!
Just before the solstice, Gaines came to the covenant once more with news that John Mortimer had indeed been appointed Early of Gloucester, Sir Martin of Norfolk as the Baron of Bristol, while the current Baron of Chepstow had been kept on, presumably to avoid alienating too many of her unhappy but quiescent nobles. Mortimer however is not very popular amongst the common folk so it will be interesting see how that goes.
Branwen reported that she had found a magical cat and has brought it back to the covenant, she formally stated it was part of her magical resources. She said that if all went well with her vis studies, she will bind it the year after next.
Towards the end of the season, Terentius and I returned to Mynydd Myrddin. The tower showed a little evidence of further decay since the start of season, a reminder if we needed one that time is pressing. However, finding the trod again proving very difficult. After three failed attempts I realised I would need to find another entrance for failing three times in a row meant it was closed forever. I tried to think of another place which would have some resonance with Myrddin. Races remembered a tale of when Myrddin as a boy living in a village met with one of the previous magi at Severn Temple. Terentius recalled the tale well when Races recounted it and was able to lead us to the place, a site near the end of the valley, near a stream and a spring. There I noticed a dark rock face, with rivulets of water running down it into the Spring.
After one failed attempt, taking off my now clearly unlucky hat and having a quick refreshing swig of wine, I found what we were looking for. The pathway down was pretty much the same as last time and we emerged once more into the crystal caves cavern, exhausted but relieved to see Theoclea staring into a stone. She looked somewhat dirty and dishevelled, and had to warn us not to go near a particularly dark and foul-smelling corner of the cave, but seemed very excited with the fruits of her research. She had pages and pages of notes and said that she had seen a lot of Myrddin’s memories. Her sense of time seemed encouragingly good; she said that she felt she had a week left before she would have to leave. It’s always nice to have a theory come good.
In addition to the usual fixed crystals, she said that she had found a large, detached crystal with memories in it. She wondered if she could remove it without it losing the memories contained within it. My past suspicions about Myrddin reared up again, it seemed awfully convenient but she and Terentius were set on returning it to the surface and it would save me from being dragged here on a semi-regular basis. So, after we all had a proper sleep, I swallowed my suspicions and set about looking for a path back to the surface, with Terentius and Theoclea carrying the heavy stone between them, Theoclea using my wand to cast ‘The Unseen Porter’. I was relieved to find it first time and after a gruellingly long climb we exited the damp rock face and collapsed on the mossy banks of the spring, with Races deeply unconscious. After a further arduous trek back through the forest, where I was so tired I couldn’t find a trod, forcing Terentius to do it himself, we made it back to our camping spot.
Terentius and Theoclea were greatly excited to find that they could still view Myrddin’s memories in the stone outside of the regio. They reported that it was maybe a little harder to access the scenes and also that they both saw different things when they stared into it. From there we made it back to the covenant without further incident though my boots will need resoling ere I embark on any further such quests.
Autumn
I took a moment to admire the vibrant yellow and gold colours of our surrounding trees before I headed down to our autumn council. There, those of us who had been in Mynydd Myrddin explained what had happened. Terentius said that my creation of magical trods had proved a little harder than hoped for, which I felt was perhaps a little uncharitable given I had forged a path for us to travel down to a ninth magnitude deep in a mountain. Theoclea said that she needed further time to investigate her notes and so forth but seemed generally enthused about where her research was going. I’m certainly not going to complain if she can now conduct much of that research in the covenant for I worry that sooner rather than later something will go awry with my forging of paths within deep magical regio. We formally agreed by vote not to mention the crystal that we brought back from the Crystal Caves to anyone outside our council.
The discussion led us briefly to another small flare up between Branwen and Pyrrhus, and then on to a more productive debate about my hypotheses about the web of ley lines that runs through this isle. Theoclea believes that the power lies within the individual lines themselves rather than any particular pattern, with the standing stones acting as nexuses of the naturally abiding power of the land. This could well be true, what I know very little for sure about such.
She also reminded us that the UnNamed House is very likely also investigating this, using the knowledge they possess passed down from Diedne. A troubling but useful reminder for me that the I need to be cautious about more than just the awful power of the unfiltered power of the Land.
She then derailed the conversation by revealing that she believes she has come across memories of someone other than Myrddin, namely the former magus Theo. She said she had seen memories of a journey across the sea in a small boat to a mist-shrouded island, on which Theo had found the Crown of Madh in a small cave. What this means is unclear as yet.
Next, Pyrrhus confirmed that the barge was now all sorted save for the matter of proper papers, he and Terentius will work together to arrange the forging of such, though Terentius said that he needs to see an example of the signature he is to forge before he can make such a copy.
There was also a discussion about crafting items to replace those lost with our previous ship and Branwen agreed to craft an item to cut ropes on sails and so forth at a good long range. Terentius and I said we would return to Mydnydd Myrddin to look for vis, as the covenant’s supplies are running very low.
Jari’s private journal
Theoclea came to see me shortly after the council, clearly having somehow got very close to working what happened in Cardiff with the King’s agent, likely from Terentius’s somewhat careless phrasing when we were in the Crystal Caves. If I were a more paranoid sort like Pyrrhus, I might think he was deliberately trying to undermine me, but I’m pretty sure it’s just incompetence.
I coldly told her that she needed to weigh her thirst for vengeance with my and Races’s lives. She said that she would ensure no consequences came back to me but refused not to act. I have very little faith that she has the emotional control to keep her actions subtle so but what else can I do but hope she’s as clever and careful as she thinks she is? I found out later from Terentius that she had gone straight from my sanctum to his and had asked directly whether House Tremere was involved in stopping the King’s spy network from warning him. He told her to leave, seemingly confirming what she already believes. And to think that my sodales consider me to be the annoying loose-lipped one!
A few days later, after Terentius and I had departed for Mynydd Myrddin, the tower began to gently shake. Pyrrhus hurried down to the magical stores which he found were full of heavy smoke, thick enough that he needed to cast ‘Eyes of the Bat’ to be able to navigate. Although he could hear Theoclea’s voice incanting in Cymric, he could find no sign of any fire producing the smoke. However, as he listened, he realised that the walls and floor were resonating in tune with her voice and on casting ‘Chamber of Spring Breezes’ to blow away all the smoke, he saw that it was emanating from her mouth. She seemed to be wholly oblivious to what she was doing so he hurriedly shook her awake. She appeared baffled by it all, saying that she had no idea what she was doing. She said that she’d been watching a battle in which Myrddin conjured a mist to hide his armies, the spell drawing from the essence of the land, not the platonic sphere we would use for such a hermetic spell. Theoclea was apparently unconcerned by what had happened, saying that she saw it as something of a breakthrough rather than a problem, despite not having any conscious control over events. She said that she could recall the sensation of channelling a flow of power from an infinitely deep source.
Fortunately, she was not so blithe as to recognise that anything causing the tower to vibrate was too dangerous to risk a recurrence and she had the crystal moved out to the armoury, which was duly cleared out for her further studies of that item. Raymond and Merrick were set to watch her with instructions to wake her should something similar recur.
At the Equinox, as the sun began to disappear below the horizon, Pyrrhus saw the clouds in the sky above the covenant turn a shimmering green. Meanwhile, Raymond said that Theoclea began incanting in Cymric again as she stared into the crystal, so he shook her awake. It was about this time that the clouds cleared. Theoclea later explained that she had been watching another battle in which Myrddin summoned a storm to slow down a force of cavalry pursuing Arthur.
Meanwhile, Terentius and I returned without incident to the ruins of Myrddin’s tower, finding it slightly more decayed that on our last visit but certainly no signs of any step change following our removal of the crystal. So, with a slight prayer to various Gods that I neither worship nor even like, I followed Terentius down into the caves. There was a gleam in his eye as he turned to check I was following him and a lightness to his step that I’d not seem for some time. Happily, such high spirits did not prevent him from carefully and often checking that the regio boundaries within the caves hadn’t moved, which happily it seems they had not. We agreed to try the lower levels of the regio first.
I could try and describe the seemingly endless twists and turns of the passageways within the dark rock, the narrow gaps he squeezed through and Races and I slipped through in the forms of otters, and the apparently random slopes up and down but frankly I haven’t the patience and, in truth, I lost track and interest of such fairly early on in our spelunking. I simply took an arcane connection to the entrance and each time we crossed a regio boundary, and hoped that would suffice should something happen to Terentius, who was humming to himself with excitement as he navigated the twists and turns of the caves. I’m still unsure what his real preference was when he told me that one passageway ahead of us led to a large place in which dwell “a horde of giant bats” who have previously attacked visitors. Naturally, I demurred and was greatly relieved when he said that he thought it probably unwise too.
I’ll thus content myself with recording the places that we visited and collected vis from. Hopefully, I won’t have got any details wrong, but I wouldn’t completely rely on it if you’re reading this and want to go looking for the sites yourself. With the protection from the fan which we use to collect ignem vis from the fissure, we gathered six pawns of perdo vis in the form of nodules of lime from a cavern full of stalactites and stalagmites, the air of which had a choking acidic stench. Then there was a cavern with a freezing cold stream in which we were able to find a few gleaming nodes of frozen mercurial silver containing five pawns of imagonem vis. The waters being so cold that without a ward against the cold, they were unbearable. At the top of a vertical shaft, which we ascended with the help of ‘Rise of the Feathery Body’, we entered a cave with a small dark pool where we collected some seven pawns of terram vis in the form of a rusty-coloured moss. After a long crawl down a steadily narrowing passage that rather unnervingly brought to mind a lobster pot, we squeezed through the end and eventually found a glimmer of daylight illuminating a green mossy bowl, in which we collected five lurid coloured mushrooms, each of which contained a pawn of muto.
After a rest, we tried what Terentius said was a new and unexpected entrance, down which, quite close to the surface I think, was a seam of glistening clay in a wall of rock. We were able to scoop out some six pawns worth of muto vis from it. The final place we visited was that cave with the deep, dark lake that lies in a deep, dark part of the regio, from where we had previously gathered intellego vis. My enthusiasm for that form was tempered quite strongly by the fact that we believe a big scary monster lives in that pool. However, as it so often the case when one accompanies Terentius on such missions, I somehow found myself creeping down towards the pool, into which disappeared a series of stalagmites. Even the slightest of sounds there seemed to echo loudly about the place. Terentius dipped his waterskin into the lake as I watched on anxiously but there was nary a ripple. However, as we crept back towards the regio boundary, there was a strange vibration in the air and we heard a man’s deep voice speaking in Cymric, which made the whole cavern vibrate. There was no anger to his voice, he seemed to be chanting for a minute or so before stopping. Terentius, who is more familiar with that tongue, said that he believed that there was a ritualistic element to what was being said.
The rest of our time in the caves passed without incident as did our journey home. Once back in the covenant, Naevius called an informal council to discuss the season’s goings on. On the matter of Theoclea, I said that I suspected she was simply a conduit of some sort, rather than having any control over the magics and wondered aloud whether the crystal could have been left there deliberately. Branwen agreed, saying that she had noticed Theoclea’s “giddiness” after both instances. With the permission of my sodales and taking great care to avoid sensing anything about any of the magi there present, I cast ‘Sense the Lingering Magic’. There were signs everywhere, with strange swirling aurae, utterly non-hermetic with a ‘sigil’ of raw, wild magic, though with a tenor to it of empathetic mindfulness, Theoclea’s sigil.
Jari’s private journal
I wish she’d be a bit more empathetic and mindful of the threat than Pravia holds over me!
There was no sign of Myrddin’s sigil. As to the spell’s intended effect, it was something akin to calling the breath of the dragon to hide people from their enemies, with the reverberation of the tower merely a side effect affecting the magically conjured tower. I could glean no sense of a magnitude, and the extent of the vibration did not appear to correlate with such. As best as I could determine using a hermetic spell to measure something which was entirely non hermetic.
Jari’s private journal
I can’t help but feeling that Pyrrhus’s fumbling around in the smoke and vibration provides an uncanny metaphor for our researches into the ancient magic, whether via Myrddin or poking into the magic of ley lines and henges. Don’t get me wrong, it’s both fascinating and exciting, and I’m not going to give it up, but it quite rightly scares the hell out of me too. Theoclea’s over-enthusiasm about her research troubles me, she seems to have no trepidation about it, even knowing what it did to her mater. Is there some non-hermetic enchantment driving her? Is there truly some curse on her lineage to be drawn to such, with wisdom coming always too late? Or is she just a typically egotistical Bonisagan who thinks they know better?
The rest of the season passed without any further similar wild magics in the covenant. At least as far as I am aware.
Winter
Naevius began our final formal gathering of the year with the modestly cheery news that autumn had been dry enough to permit a not entirely disastrous harvest so while food prices would remain high, there should not be great risk of starvation.
Unsurprisingly, our attention then turned to the Cymric chanting of Theoclea and the voice Terentius and I had heard in the cave. Theoclea spoke a little about “Taliesin’s Prophecy” and her hopes that it could provide us with an answer to the coming plague, or whatever you wish to call it. She admitted she was unsure how to neutrally interpret it at present as she feels inherently optimistic about it which may well bias anything she comes up with. She said that she plans to continue her studies, expanding them to include all of Myrddin’s incarnations, not just Taliesin and Myrddin. Terentius asked whether this would include people like Stephen the bard and Meredith, but Theoclea was doubtful. She believes she will only be able to access those memories trapped in the crystal caves before Myrddin himself was trapped. When asked how then she could see Theo’s memories, she suggested that was because he himself had been trapped in the caves. She will also commit to further study of the Cymric tongue so as better to glean linguistic nuance, and no doubt, spellcasting in that language.
I said that the crystal she studies likely acts as an arcane connection to the crystal caves, albeit one to which regio boundaries are no bar. I’m not sure that this changes anything but thought it worth noting.
In mundane news, we agreed to continue to support Lydney for now and to not withdraw still further, at least until we see how our much attention our new Earl and Regent pay the place. Pyrrhus suggested we make Lydney uninhabited, but Naevius shut down such discussion for now. Terentius agreed to help forge the barge’s new papers. We shall all be working in our laboratories or the library this season it seems so will all be here if any more wild magic arises. As of course it inevitably will with Theoclea continuing her studies. For my part in our ongoing reckless poking into the magics that constitute reality as we know it, I shall be trying to invent a spell based around ‘Summing the Distant Images’ which will allow me to see and hear what is happening at the other end of a ley line.
The first half of the season was quiet but on the morn of the mid-winter feast, I sensed winds picking up around the covenant and felt a subtle vibration in the tower. This phenomenon had stopped by the time I had hurriedly made my way down to the Great Hall, along with several of my sodales. It transpired that in her head Theoclea had been watching the summoning of a wind to blow ships away from the coast of England. After a brief discussion, we agreed that we would let the next such occurrence go on for a little longer if there was no overt danger.
Jari’s private journal
I could see Theoclea struggling to contain an almost euphoric excitement at such news, or possibly following on from her earlier magical conduction. She was, unsurprisingly, very good at it too. Something to be aware of in the future.
A week or two later, as I gazed out of my window somewhat mournfully at the thick blanket of snow lying across the covenant and the icicles hanging from the eaves of rooves, I became aware of a sudden change in the weather. The dark grey snow clouds were being pushed aside in favour of a bright wintry sunshine that melted all the snow and ice. As I watched, the grass began to grow and the bare trees began to bud and grow leaves. There was a slight but definite vibration about the tower too. I hurried down to find Theoclea, arriving to find her standing in the small building, chanting in Cymric.
Jari’s private journal
Obviously as soon as I came across her with no one else yet present, I gazed at her, focusing my Sight. I could see a raging swirl of ancient magic around her, funnelling through her from the ground though not seemingly being absorbed by her. Confirming at least what I had suspected that she has been acting as a conduit rather than casting any spells herself.
As I stood and watched, all about me felt as I though it were a warm Spring day, albeit only within the area encompassed by the ring of trees. Later we would realise that there was some form of mind effect to the magic for everyone felt extremely cheerful, an effect which lasted for several hours. Even Pyrrhus smiled and cracked a joke, and although no one believes me now, I caught Branwen looking at him for a moment without bitter enmity. A powerful magic indeed!
Terentius had changed his shape to that of an eagle to observe the effects from up high up but he too was affected, though it was of course harder to discern much of a smile in the form he bore. As the sun began to set, the warmth quickly faded as sadly did the smiles on people’s faces. The snow began to fall again, and I could no longer hear Theoclea chanting in Cymric.
That evening as we sat and ate in the great hall, Theoclea told us that she had been watching the wedding of Arthur and Gwenhwyfar, and that Myrddin had used magic to ensure that they had a bright and sunny day for their wedding. Someone, I forget who, possibly me but probably Terentius, managed to remove any lingering happy memories of the afternoon by wondering what if the magic that had affected our minds was turned to a darker purpose? Theoclea, unsurprisingly given her previous admission of over-optimism concerning such magics, said that she believed she would be aware of something dangerous and could break her gaze upon the stone and then the connection with the land. She did at least admit though that she couldn’t be completely sure of this.
Pyrrhus, having clearly decided that one joke was quite enough for a lifetime, suggested firmly that she move her studies to Raegwulf’s cave, stating that “at the end of the day, we’re all responsible for our own actions”.
Jari’s private journal
It seemed imprudent at that moment to point out his repeated failures to take responsibility for his previous malign actions.
We pointed out that this wild magic will not be stopped by the Aegis of the Hearth and anywhere on this island could be within range, so banishing Theoclea to such cave would serve only to mildly amuse us without providing any extra security. Indeed, it would likely make things more dangerous as there would not be other magi around to help her should something go awry. A compromise was reached that in the future Theoclea will only proceed with such researches when she has a fluent grasp of Cymric and is looking at a scene which should not bring any hazard to her surroundings, and even then she will stop as soon as any environmental effects occur about her.
Towards the end of the season, I momentarily felt a tell-tale subtle vibration, but it stopped almost straight away. A result of Captain Merrick’s gentle intervention I later learnt. And thus, we made it through to the end of the season and the year without further event.
Spring 1329 AD
All were present for the first council of the year, which began with a debate as to how we might best retrieve our barge from Gloucester. After some pretty heavy hints about who had lost it in the first place, not from me I hasten to add, Pyrrhus agreed that we would make such an attempt.
Terentius stated that our financial reserves were sufficient for at least the short term and that he has significant coin in his personal reserves that is available to the council should we need it.
There was then some back and forth about what we could expect the new Regent could or would likely do with our lands, given the Briavel and the forest hereabouts is a royal hunting ground. Hopefully, with Theoclea now ‘dead’, any punitive action should be a lower priority amidst the multitude of issues the Regent will have on her plate. We may well have to relinquish the orchards at Lydney if troops are sent to guard the manor house, but the resulting loss would not be great. As long as we have the mines, we will be fine.
Terentius and Theoclea said they planned to travel to Mynydd Myrddin to attempt to review what remains of Myrddin’s memories. Theoclea was very keen to journey there right away as she fears Myrddin’s memories will fade over time and Taliesin’s prophecies will be forever lost to us.
We discussed how best to minimise any time distortion from being inside that regio. Both Terentius and I possess the ability to find a swift route into that regio. I volunteered, probably unwisely, that I could likely ‘find’ a path from the standing stones in Mynydd Myrddin, though finding one into a regio of the 9th magnitude will undoubtedly possess more risk and difficulty than simply passing through the forest. There were several uncertainties to consider, not least that I had only ever created faerie trods before, not magical ones. Had the caves moved within the deep regio and would such a path last long enough to get us there? Of course, Terentius promptly wore me down into agreeing to come along. We did however compromise on waiting until Summer for I had magical research that I wished to complete first.
Pyrrhus’s initial investigations, though it might stretch things to call them such, as he simply asked Stefan to make enquiries and had not actually left the covenant, revealed little good news. We have no legal way of getting the barge back and our barge captain was executed as a traitor, with his three crew left to rot in Gloucester gaol.
Stefan did however have more intriguing news. It seems that one of our few remaining active spies in Cardiff, a law clerk named Andrew Peyton, had met Nicolas Stepney, a senior agent of the crown, whom he knew well enough. However, that man did not recognise him, nor did that seem to our spy that it was a pretence for the man seemed genuinely befuddled about his past. Stefan quite reasonably wondered whether this indicated some malign magic was, or at least had been, afoot. We discussed the matter informally in the library and, unsurprisingly, it was Terentius and I that agreed to investigate the matter. However, happily it turned out to be much ado about nothing and we soon returned to the covenant after a not unpleasant week’s investigation, largely centring around Cardiff’s better taverns.
Jari’s private journal
Terentius seemed unusually reticent to go. With mysteries like this one he is usually like a hunting hound with the scent of his quarry fresh in his nose, eager to slip the leash and make chase. However, I thought little more of it at the time. Now, obviously I know only too well what was on his mind. Why he did not allude to such I do not know. Even if it were a just quiet word in my ear when Pyrrhus was not around, it would have saved me a great deal of grief, and, in truth, I am disappointed in him that he chose not to.
We took ship to Cardiff and found the port town to be busy but calm. Using a ruse involving a legal contract issue to contact Andrew, we were able to get the full story from him. The meeting was just a week or so ago, which speaks well to the network that Stefan runs. Andrew was able to give us the address of the inn he believed Nicholas was staying at, so we headed there.
I was able to get close enough to Nicholas to cast ‘Sense the Lingering Magic’ upon him and saw that he had been affected by a 7th magnitude Perdo Muto Mentem enchantment, which took a thread of memory from his mind and erased it. The sigil was one of an overwhelming desire for vengeance, which sounded familiar, but I could not place it. My concern as I returned to Terentius was that this was a magus of the UnNamed House. I’ve always meant to keep a better track of their sigils as they are reported to us but have never quite got round to creating a thorough list. In truth, it might actually have been better for me had it been such but when I asked Terentius whether he recognised it, he said grimly that it was Quaesitor Pravia.
The hermetic ramifications of scrying on a Quaesitor, even if wholly inadvertently, are not good. And by that, I mean likely fatal if not immediately confessed and even then there was no guarantee under the Primary Code of the ultimate sanction not being applied. Terentius advised me that my best chance was to tell Romanus, who he said was a “straight arrow”. As to what Pravia had been doing removing memories from the King’s agents, well, it seems likely that it was a continuation of the Tremere attacks on Theoclea and her brother. Were I to tell anyone else, such as Theoclea, whose reaction is unlikely to be helpful to either me or her, could affect any future case against me. Which is to say, get me executed. So Terentius and I agreed to keep this to ourselves while I shall make the long journey north to speak with Romanus.
Thus, it was that I instructed the ship to take me to Borrea Tor, leaving Terentius to make his own way home. Fortunately, a watchful peace seemed to be in effect in the channel and we were able to pass unmolested through to the North Sea and up the coast to the small port of Tynemouth. Happily, I have always paid more attention to places rather than names. I made my way up into the mountains to the covenant without issue, the biting cold yet another reminder of what has been lost.
I was greeted by Minaxia but, to my surprise and relief, she seemed not up for any of our usual verbal sparring and I was soon granted audience with Romanus. From his reaction, it was clear that Pravia had already spoken with him, putting a more favourable spin on her deeds, that of her removing any memories that could be used to incriminate magi who had been acting on behalf of the tribunal. Another indicator in my book that she had been up to no good. Romanus said that it would be up to her as to whether she prosecuted me. If she accepted that it was an inadvertent act, then she could simply demand a fine to settle the matter. He stressed the importance of not revealing what I had learnt any further though. He suggested that I proffer a rook of vis as a fine and said that my coming to speak with him straight away was entirely the right thing to do and it spoke well of my innocence in this matter.
I returned to the covenant with a month of or so of the year already gone. Terentius said that he had said nothing, but that Theoclea had guessed some form of hermetic involvement. Great.
A week after the Equinox, Gaines rode up to the covenant with a letter for me. I made a weak and nervous joke about the phase of the moon and took the letter. It was indeed from Pravia. In her spidery handwriting, she stated her “grave disappointment” that I had “breached the Primary Code to spy on her endeavours and told another”. She said that if I paid a fine of 2 rooks of vis by the next tribunal than she would be prepared to let the matter rest, if not, then she would take such case to the tribunal. Of course, I immediately started setting aside the vis that I could best spare. The increase in the fine beyond Romanus’s recommendation was a sure sign of her flexing her power in this matter and I do not wish to put it to the test for I have little doubt that she and her House would not hesitate to have me, or other magi put to death to protect their own deeds. While our current Primus is clearly a terrible leader, I remain very glad that I worked to ensure that Primus Tremere does not hold such authority. For all his fine words about the betterment of the Order, by that he has only ever really meant the betterment of him and his house. Some houses never really change it seems.
A little after the Equinox, Gaines came with news for our council. It seems that the King of France, Charles, has died and has been replaced by Philip of Valois, who will reign as Philip VI. Unfortunately for England, though perhaps fortunately for us, his coming to power will likely increase the chances of further conflict over England’s disputed landholdings on the continent. To add to what was clearly a bad year for monarchs, Robert de Bruce has died, and his son David has been crowned, though apparently the treaty with England still holds, for now at least.
Parliament here has recognised the legitimacy of Isabella’s regency for her son Edward. So, there is now no serious opposition to her. Gaines did not know who the new Earl of Gloucester will be. though John Mortimer, the ‘face’ of Isabella’s coup and rumoured lover, is said to be most likely. More promisingly, there has been no sign that Isabella is taking any steps against the Order, hopefully because she has little real knowledge about its extent or powers.
Pyrrhus, in a rare display of interest in mundane intelligence matters, asked how it was that the King’s agents were taken so apparently unawares, mentioning the fact that a King’s agent in Cardiff had had his memories magically removed. He believes that it was most likely the doing of the UnNamed House, though I said that I had found nothing worthy of further investigation there.
Summer
The summer’s council started on a testy note, for my sodales were profoundly unimpressed when they learnt, after some prompting, that Pyrrhus’s efforts to get the barge back had not gone any further than simply speaking with the Captain of Scouts. Showing little remorse, he stated that we should simply buy a new barge, saying that they only cost one to two hundred pennies. However, when pressed as to how he had come with such a figure, it seems that he just came up with the number himself. A rather unamused Naevius pressed him to actually travel to Gloucester to sort things out and Pyrrhus ill-temperedly agreed to do so this season. He will take Halga and Asgeir, his two Norse consortes, as well as Steffan and another grog.
Terentius, Theoclea and I said that we would go to Mynydd Myrddin as previously discussed. Branwen requested use of the barge and two of the turb to go and search for a creature who she believes may be her future familiar.
Pyrrhus’s trip to Gloucester was actually very successful. Not only was he able to sail the barge away with minimal fuss using forged papers, the boat being renamed the “Lydney Lass”, but he was also able to free the three crewmen from the gaol in which they were rotting. Hopefully their gratitude for being spared from such a horrible fate will secure a firm loyalty to us. His group was also able to confirm that, unfortunately, the new Earl of Gloucester will indeed be John Mortimer. Let us hope that it does not draw too much of Isabella’s attention to this region.
Our trip to Mynydd Myrddin started well. Terentius was able to locate the secret path through the old forest that allows people to enter the main level of the regio without the usual time distortion. We walked across the regio’s rolling hills then scrambled up the steep slope to the ruins of Myrddin’s tower. After casting around a little looking for the best place to ‘find’ a trod, I found one leading back from the main entrance gate, down to a faint doorway in the wall of the small cellar. From there lay a long walk down a smooth rock passageway that stretched ever downwards. Not even Terentius, with his uncanny sense of direction, could get a clear feel for where we were headed, though judging by how tired we were by the time we reached the cave it was clear that we had been walking for a long time.
Inside the cave were the crystals, such as they were now, and the skeletal remains of a great wyrm. When I looked back at the wall from which we had come in, the trod was gone. I could only hope that finding it again would be as straightforward as it had been coming down.
Meanwhile, Terentius looked into one of the stones and saw Myrddin, Morgana and other speaking in Cymric, in a happy scene. He said he felt no sense of compulsion and when I called his name, he was able to break his viewing. He also confirmed that the scene that he had witnessed appeared to be related to what had been in his mind when he gazed into the crystal. With everything all seeming fine for Theoclea, we made to leave. I was able to find a narrow, looping, at least to Terentius's heightened senses, passageway back up which emerged at the same spot where we had entered. Terentius said that the spiral he felt us travel tightened on the way down and loosened on the way up. He said it felt similar to what I had described in my vision of the pathways coiling around Severn Temple. Whatever the shape of the path, it was an exhausting journey. By the time we made it back, I could barely stand and even Terentius was tired. Terentius cast ‘Endurance of the Berserkers’ on me and I was able to find a trod out of the forest and back into the mundane realm. After a much-needed rest at the camping spot, we returned to the covenant to find that we had only been gone for three days and two nights. Our plan had worked!
Just before the solstice, Gaines came to the covenant once more with news that John Mortimer had indeed been appointed Early of Gloucester, Sir Martin of Norfolk as the Baron of Bristol, while the current Baron of Chepstow had been kept on, presumably to avoid alienating too many of her unhappy but quiescent nobles. Mortimer however is not very popular amongst the common folk so it will be interesting see how that goes.
Branwen reported that she had found a magical cat and has brought it back to the covenant, she formally stated it was part of her magical resources. She said that if all went well with her vis studies, she will bind it the year after next.
Towards the end of the season, Terentius and I returned to Mynydd Myrddin. The tower showed a little evidence of further decay since the start of season, a reminder if we needed one that time is pressing. However, finding the trod again proving very difficult. After three failed attempts I realised I would need to find another entrance for failing three times in a row meant it was closed forever. I tried to think of another place which would have some resonance with Myrddin. Races remembered a tale of when Myrddin as a boy living in a village met with one of the previous magi at Severn Temple. Terentius recalled the tale well when Races recounted it and was able to lead us to the place, a site near the end of the valley, near a stream and a spring. There I noticed a dark rock face, with rivulets of water running down it into the Spring.
After one failed attempt, taking off my now clearly unlucky hat and having a quick refreshing swig of wine, I found what we were looking for. The pathway down was pretty much the same as last time and we emerged once more into the crystal caves cavern, exhausted but relieved to see Theoclea staring into a stone. She looked somewhat dirty and dishevelled, and had to warn us not to go near a particularly dark and foul-smelling corner of the cave, but seemed very excited with the fruits of her research. She had pages and pages of notes and said that she had seen a lot of Myrddin’s memories. Her sense of time seemed encouragingly good; she said that she felt she had a week left before she would have to leave. It’s always nice to have a theory come good.
In addition to the usual fixed crystals, she said that she had found a large, detached crystal with memories in it. She wondered if she could remove it without it losing the memories contained within it. My past suspicions about Myrddin reared up again, it seemed awfully convenient but she and Terentius were set on returning it to the surface and it would save me from being dragged here on a semi-regular basis. So, after we all had a proper sleep, I swallowed my suspicions and set about looking for a path back to the surface, with Terentius and Theoclea carrying the heavy stone between them, Theoclea using my wand to cast ‘The Unseen Porter’. I was relieved to find it first time and after a gruellingly long climb we exited the damp rock face and collapsed on the mossy banks of the spring, with Races deeply unconscious. After a further arduous trek back through the forest, where I was so tired I couldn’t find a trod, forcing Terentius to do it himself, we made it back to our camping spot.
Terentius and Theoclea were greatly excited to find that they could still view Myrddin’s memories in the stone outside of the regio. They reported that it was maybe a little harder to access the scenes and also that they both saw different things when they stared into it. From there we made it back to the covenant without further incident though my boots will need resoling ere I embark on any further such quests.
Autumn
I took a moment to admire the vibrant yellow and gold colours of our surrounding trees before I headed down to our autumn council. There, those of us who had been in Mynydd Myrddin explained what had happened. Terentius said that my creation of magical trods had proved a little harder than hoped for, which I felt was perhaps a little uncharitable given I had forged a path for us to travel down to a ninth magnitude deep in a mountain. Theoclea said that she needed further time to investigate her notes and so forth but seemed generally enthused about where her research was going. I’m certainly not going to complain if she can now conduct much of that research in the covenant for I worry that sooner rather than later something will go awry with my forging of paths within deep magical regio. We formally agreed by vote not to mention the crystal that we brought back from the Crystal Caves to anyone outside our council.
The discussion led us briefly to another small flare up between Branwen and Pyrrhus, and then on to a more productive debate about my hypotheses about the web of ley lines that runs through this isle. Theoclea believes that the power lies within the individual lines themselves rather than any particular pattern, with the standing stones acting as nexuses of the naturally abiding power of the land. This could well be true, what I know very little for sure about such.
She also reminded us that the UnNamed House is very likely also investigating this, using the knowledge they possess passed down from Diedne. A troubling but useful reminder for me that the I need to be cautious about more than just the awful power of the unfiltered power of the Land.
She then derailed the conversation by revealing that she believes she has come across memories of someone other than Myrddin, namely the former magus Theo. She said she had seen memories of a journey across the sea in a small boat to a mist-shrouded island, on which Theo had found the Crown of Madh in a small cave. What this means is unclear as yet.
Next, Pyrrhus confirmed that the barge was now all sorted save for the matter of proper papers, he and Terentius will work together to arrange the forging of such, though Terentius said that he needs to see an example of the signature he is to forge before he can make such a copy.
There was also a discussion about crafting items to replace those lost with our previous ship and Branwen agreed to craft an item to cut ropes on sails and so forth at a good long range. Terentius and I said we would return to Mydnydd Myrddin to look for vis, as the covenant’s supplies are running very low.
Jari’s private journal
Theoclea came to see me shortly after the council, clearly having somehow got very close to working what happened in Cardiff with the King’s agent, likely from Terentius’s somewhat careless phrasing when we were in the Crystal Caves. If I were a more paranoid sort like Pyrrhus, I might think he was deliberately trying to undermine me, but I’m pretty sure it’s just incompetence.
I coldly told her that she needed to weigh her thirst for vengeance with my and Races’s lives. She said that she would ensure no consequences came back to me but refused not to act. I have very little faith that she has the emotional control to keep her actions subtle so but what else can I do but hope she’s as clever and careful as she thinks she is? I found out later from Terentius that she had gone straight from my sanctum to his and had asked directly whether House Tremere was involved in stopping the King’s spy network from warning him. He told her to leave, seemingly confirming what she already believes. And to think that my sodales consider me to be the annoying loose-lipped one!
A few days later, after Terentius and I had departed for Mynydd Myrddin, the tower began to gently shake. Pyrrhus hurried down to the magical stores which he found were full of heavy smoke, thick enough that he needed to cast ‘Eyes of the Bat’ to be able to navigate. Although he could hear Theoclea’s voice incanting in Cymric, he could find no sign of any fire producing the smoke. However, as he listened, he realised that the walls and floor were resonating in tune with her voice and on casting ‘Chamber of Spring Breezes’ to blow away all the smoke, he saw that it was emanating from her mouth. She seemed to be wholly oblivious to what she was doing so he hurriedly shook her awake. She appeared baffled by it all, saying that she had no idea what she was doing. She said that she’d been watching a battle in which Myrddin conjured a mist to hide his armies, the spell drawing from the essence of the land, not the platonic sphere we would use for such a hermetic spell. Theoclea was apparently unconcerned by what had happened, saying that she saw it as something of a breakthrough rather than a problem, despite not having any conscious control over events. She said that she could recall the sensation of channelling a flow of power from an infinitely deep source.
Fortunately, she was not so blithe as to recognise that anything causing the tower to vibrate was too dangerous to risk a recurrence and she had the crystal moved out to the armoury, which was duly cleared out for her further studies of that item. Raymond and Merrick were set to watch her with instructions to wake her should something similar recur.
At the Equinox, as the sun began to disappear below the horizon, Pyrrhus saw the clouds in the sky above the covenant turn a shimmering green. Meanwhile, Raymond said that Theoclea began incanting in Cymric again as she stared into the crystal, so he shook her awake. It was about this time that the clouds cleared. Theoclea later explained that she had been watching another battle in which Myrddin summoned a storm to slow down a force of cavalry pursuing Arthur.
Meanwhile, Terentius and I returned without incident to the ruins of Myrddin’s tower, finding it slightly more decayed that on our last visit but certainly no signs of any step change following our removal of the crystal. So, with a slight prayer to various Gods that I neither worship nor even like, I followed Terentius down into the caves. There was a gleam in his eye as he turned to check I was following him and a lightness to his step that I’d not seem for some time. Happily, such high spirits did not prevent him from carefully and often checking that the regio boundaries within the caves hadn’t moved, which happily it seems they had not. We agreed to try the lower levels of the regio first.
I could try and describe the seemingly endless twists and turns of the passageways within the dark rock, the narrow gaps he squeezed through and Races and I slipped through in the forms of otters, and the apparently random slopes up and down but frankly I haven’t the patience and, in truth, I lost track and interest of such fairly early on in our spelunking. I simply took an arcane connection to the entrance and each time we crossed a regio boundary, and hoped that would suffice should something happen to Terentius, who was humming to himself with excitement as he navigated the twists and turns of the caves. I’m still unsure what his real preference was when he told me that one passageway ahead of us led to a large place in which dwell “a horde of giant bats” who have previously attacked visitors. Naturally, I demurred and was greatly relieved when he said that he thought it probably unwise too.
I’ll thus content myself with recording the places that we visited and collected vis from. Hopefully, I won’t have got any details wrong, but I wouldn’t completely rely on it if you’re reading this and want to go looking for the sites yourself. With the protection from the fan which we use to collect ignem vis from the fissure, we gathered six pawns of perdo vis in the form of nodules of lime from a cavern full of stalactites and stalagmites, the air of which had a choking acidic stench. Then there was a cavern with a freezing cold stream in which we were able to find a few gleaming nodes of frozen mercurial silver containing five pawns of imagonem vis. The waters being so cold that without a ward against the cold, they were unbearable. At the top of a vertical shaft, which we ascended with the help of ‘Rise of the Feathery Body’, we entered a cave with a small dark pool where we collected some seven pawns of terram vis in the form of a rusty-coloured moss. After a long crawl down a steadily narrowing passage that rather unnervingly brought to mind a lobster pot, we squeezed through the end and eventually found a glimmer of daylight illuminating a green mossy bowl, in which we collected five lurid coloured mushrooms, each of which contained a pawn of muto.
After a rest, we tried what Terentius said was a new and unexpected entrance, down which, quite close to the surface I think, was a seam of glistening clay in a wall of rock. We were able to scoop out some six pawns worth of muto vis from it. The final place we visited was that cave with the deep, dark lake that lies in a deep, dark part of the regio, from where we had previously gathered intellego vis. My enthusiasm for that form was tempered quite strongly by the fact that we believe a big scary monster lives in that pool. However, as it so often the case when one accompanies Terentius on such missions, I somehow found myself creeping down towards the pool, into which disappeared a series of stalagmites. Even the slightest of sounds there seemed to echo loudly about the place. Terentius dipped his waterskin into the lake as I watched on anxiously but there was nary a ripple. However, as we crept back towards the regio boundary, there was a strange vibration in the air and we heard a man’s deep voice speaking in Cymric, which made the whole cavern vibrate. There was no anger to his voice, he seemed to be chanting for a minute or so before stopping. Terentius, who is more familiar with that tongue, said that he believed that there was a ritualistic element to what was being said.
The rest of our time in the caves passed without incident as did our journey home. Once back in the covenant, Naevius called an informal council to discuss the season’s goings on. On the matter of Theoclea, I said that I suspected she was simply a conduit of some sort, rather than having any control over the magics and wondered aloud whether the crystal could have been left there deliberately. Branwen agreed, saying that she had noticed Theoclea’s “giddiness” after both instances. With the permission of my sodales and taking great care to avoid sensing anything about any of the magi there present, I cast ‘Sense the Lingering Magic’. There were signs everywhere, with strange swirling aurae, utterly non-hermetic with a ‘sigil’ of raw, wild magic, though with a tenor to it of empathetic mindfulness, Theoclea’s sigil.
Jari’s private journal
I wish she’d be a bit more empathetic and mindful of the threat than Pravia holds over me!
There was no sign of Myrddin’s sigil. As to the spell’s intended effect, it was something akin to calling the breath of the dragon to hide people from their enemies, with the reverberation of the tower merely a side effect affecting the magically conjured tower. I could glean no sense of a magnitude, and the extent of the vibration did not appear to correlate with such. As best as I could determine using a hermetic spell to measure something which was entirely non hermetic.
Jari’s private journal
I can’t help but feeling that Pyrrhus’s fumbling around in the smoke and vibration provides an uncanny metaphor for our researches into the ancient magic, whether via Myrddin or poking into the magic of ley lines and henges. Don’t get me wrong, it’s both fascinating and exciting, and I’m not going to give it up, but it quite rightly scares the hell out of me too. Theoclea’s over-enthusiasm about her research troubles me, she seems to have no trepidation about it, even knowing what it did to her mater. Is there some non-hermetic enchantment driving her? Is there truly some curse on her lineage to be drawn to such, with wisdom coming always too late? Or is she just a typically egotistical Bonisagan who thinks they know better?
The rest of the season passed without any further similar wild magics in the covenant. At least as far as I am aware.
Winter
Naevius began our final formal gathering of the year with the modestly cheery news that autumn had been dry enough to permit a not entirely disastrous harvest so while food prices would remain high, there should not be great risk of starvation.
Unsurprisingly, our attention then turned to the Cymric chanting of Theoclea and the voice Terentius and I had heard in the cave. Theoclea spoke a little about “Taliesin’s Prophecy” and her hopes that it could provide us with an answer to the coming plague, or whatever you wish to call it. She admitted she was unsure how to neutrally interpret it at present as she feels inherently optimistic about it which may well bias anything she comes up with. She said that she plans to continue her studies, expanding them to include all of Myrddin’s incarnations, not just Taliesin and Myrddin. Terentius asked whether this would include people like Stephen the bard and Meredith, but Theoclea was doubtful. She believes she will only be able to access those memories trapped in the crystal caves before Myrddin himself was trapped. When asked how then she could see Theo’s memories, she suggested that was because he himself had been trapped in the caves. She will also commit to further study of the Cymric tongue so as better to glean linguistic nuance, and no doubt, spellcasting in that language.
I said that the crystal she studies likely acts as an arcane connection to the crystal caves, albeit one to which regio boundaries are no bar. I’m not sure that this changes anything but thought it worth noting.
In mundane news, we agreed to continue to support Lydney for now and to not withdraw still further, at least until we see how our much attention our new Earl and Regent pay the place. Pyrrhus suggested we make Lydney uninhabited, but Naevius shut down such discussion for now. Terentius agreed to help forge the barge’s new papers. We shall all be working in our laboratories or the library this season it seems so will all be here if any more wild magic arises. As of course it inevitably will with Theoclea continuing her studies. For my part in our ongoing reckless poking into the magics that constitute reality as we know it, I shall be trying to invent a spell based around ‘Summing the Distant Images’ which will allow me to see and hear what is happening at the other end of a ley line.
The first half of the season was quiet but on the morn of the mid-winter feast, I sensed winds picking up around the covenant and felt a subtle vibration in the tower. This phenomenon had stopped by the time I had hurriedly made my way down to the Great Hall, along with several of my sodales. It transpired that in her head Theoclea had been watching the summoning of a wind to blow ships away from the coast of England. After a brief discussion, we agreed that we would let the next such occurrence go on for a little longer if there was no overt danger.
Jari’s private journal
I could see Theoclea struggling to contain an almost euphoric excitement at such news, or possibly following on from her earlier magical conduction. She was, unsurprisingly, very good at it too. Something to be aware of in the future.
A week or two later, as I gazed out of my window somewhat mournfully at the thick blanket of snow lying across the covenant and the icicles hanging from the eaves of rooves, I became aware of a sudden change in the weather. The dark grey snow clouds were being pushed aside in favour of a bright wintry sunshine that melted all the snow and ice. As I watched, the grass began to grow and the bare trees began to bud and grow leaves. There was a slight but definite vibration about the tower too. I hurried down to find Theoclea, arriving to find her standing in the small building, chanting in Cymric.
Jari’s private journal
Obviously as soon as I came across her with no one else yet present, I gazed at her, focusing my Sight. I could see a raging swirl of ancient magic around her, funnelling through her from the ground though not seemingly being absorbed by her. Confirming at least what I had suspected that she has been acting as a conduit rather than casting any spells herself.
As I stood and watched, all about me felt as I though it were a warm Spring day, albeit only within the area encompassed by the ring of trees. Later we would realise that there was some form of mind effect to the magic for everyone felt extremely cheerful, an effect which lasted for several hours. Even Pyrrhus smiled and cracked a joke, and although no one believes me now, I caught Branwen looking at him for a moment without bitter enmity. A powerful magic indeed!
Terentius had changed his shape to that of an eagle to observe the effects from up high up but he too was affected, though it was of course harder to discern much of a smile in the form he bore. As the sun began to set, the warmth quickly faded as sadly did the smiles on people’s faces. The snow began to fall again, and I could no longer hear Theoclea chanting in Cymric.
That evening as we sat and ate in the great hall, Theoclea told us that she had been watching the wedding of Arthur and Gwenhwyfar, and that Myrddin had used magic to ensure that they had a bright and sunny day for their wedding. Someone, I forget who, possibly me but probably Terentius, managed to remove any lingering happy memories of the afternoon by wondering what if the magic that had affected our minds was turned to a darker purpose? Theoclea, unsurprisingly given her previous admission of over-optimism concerning such magics, said that she believed she would be aware of something dangerous and could break her gaze upon the stone and then the connection with the land. She did at least admit though that she couldn’t be completely sure of this.
Pyrrhus, having clearly decided that one joke was quite enough for a lifetime, suggested firmly that she move her studies to Raegwulf’s cave, stating that “at the end of the day, we’re all responsible for our own actions”.
Jari’s private journal
It seemed imprudent at that moment to point out his repeated failures to take responsibility for his previous malign actions.
We pointed out that this wild magic will not be stopped by the Aegis of the Hearth and anywhere on this island could be within range, so banishing Theoclea to such cave would serve only to mildly amuse us without providing any extra security. Indeed, it would likely make things more dangerous as there would not be other magi around to help her should something go awry. A compromise was reached that in the future Theoclea will only proceed with such researches when she has a fluent grasp of Cymric and is looking at a scene which should not bring any hazard to her surroundings, and even then she will stop as soon as any environmental effects occur about her.
Towards the end of the season, I momentarily felt a tell-tale subtle vibration, but it stopped almost straight away. A result of Captain Merrick’s gentle intervention I later learnt. And thus, we made it through to the end of the season and the year without further event.