A tale of fire and Iceland
Scribed by Pyrrhus
We met in the council chamber and he informed me of the following. Following the destruction of Durenmar by the Templars another covenant was also destroyed in the Rhine tribunal called Blue Mountain in the summer of 1300. A maga called Vigilata of house Tytalus died there heroically fighting in hand-to-hand combat with well-trained Templar knights. Afterwards, a team was sent to see what might have been left behind and a letter was found in the ruins.
Salve Maga Vigilata,
Your last letter was greatly concerning to me, and I pray that you and your sodales remain well. It is hard to imagine how these Knights Templar might have achieved a means to overcome the heart of the Order of Hermes and we have since heard reports that their crusade has led to the fall of further covenants, for such news travels even to this remote island. While I can not imagine but that you will be able to find a way to overcome this terrible assault, I restate my offer that you travel here to the north, this time with your wellbeing at the centre of my intention rather than our own. We have placed a man within the port town of Grindavik, set on the southwest tip of Iceland, and he will be able to guide you to our covenant. His name is Eyvindr Gunnarsson and you shall find his home close to the harbour there. If there are others that you would bring do not be afraid to do so for I hold highly the bond that we have formed and trust that you will bring no harm to our home.
Yet I can not help but to wonder if there is opportunity to be found here also. These lands are rich with magic and the Order of Odin is more fragmented than ever. How ambitious Effrenatus was to believe that they could be unified for any more than a short moment. But he is long dead now and my pater Venatio has entered a twilight from which I do not believe he will ever return. With both gone then surely the risk that House Flambeau will seek to bring their bloody vengeance against us is also passed, and they must have more pressing matters to which they must attend given the inferno that strikes against you all now. We still greatly desire to be admitted to the Order of Hermes, despite the assails it faces, and is it not possible now that you might invite us to join without fear of retribution. Consider also that if all that we hear from the continent is true then this island may be sent as if a miracle from God, for there is surely room for several covenants to be established here and we must be well beyond this holy order’s gaze. The lands are largely wild and far from churchmen and the resources on which we rely are abundant. With numbers greater than the three of us residing here we would be able to ensure that even when the Odinist magi flex their muscle, as they may do every few years, we should send them fleeing like beaten curs.
Consider carefully my proposal and I sincerely hope that we will soon meet in person at last.
Your sodalis,
Subtilis
Scribed by the hand of Magus Subtilis, of New Eyrie Covenant in the Autumn of the year 1298
Prima Armada had suggested the grand tribunal to move to other regions and therefore Primus Guido was worried that If Iceland was chosen then there should be representation by House Flambeau.
Some history should be inserted here so the reader of my private journals can know the context, I hope I died heroically! A Tytalan Magus called Effrenatus using the mundane name of Hingist had tried to unify the Order of Odin to make a new house as had been mistakenly done with house ex-miscellanea, the waifs and strays of the magically gifted individuals. This new attempt failed however, he was renounced from the order and although he was never found, his compatriot Venatio who wrote the letter above was watched but no charge was raised against him.
Cassius provided two men to assist in the journey whom he had left in the Black Horse tavern in Chepstow, Ásgeir Gunnison a scout and Howgar Howgarson who was a language expert. Cassius informed me I should file a report and send it via Redcap and if I resolved this mission in a timely fashion it would count for more than the time spent against my debt to the house.
I escorted Cassius back to Chepstow and luckily enough our ship was in port. I told them to wait for me for a journey north and then went to the tavern to meet the men. Howgar was a big fat man with long braided blonde hair and a ruddy face. Ásgeir was a stocky man, obviously a warrior with many many miles under his belt, unfortunately, he also had a bad odour coming from him and because of a run-in with a sea hag, he explained, cursed to talk in rhyme.
We returned to the covenant and I prepared to leave taking items with Navius’ knowledge from the stores to assist our journey and six hundred silver pennies. We went back down the road to Chepstow and there we boarded. I gave instruction to sail to Kirkwall and the captain said he could take us to Chester but we would need a pilot from there to the Orkneys as the currents and rocks around the Scottish coast were treacherous. I agreed but was then shocked when told I would have to pay for the pilot. This left me with five hundred silver pennies, you may be wondering why I concern my journal with petty accounting of money but this was a costly mission and we nearly didn’t have enough money to return.
We landed at the Orkneys after the ninth day sailing around the rocky islands of the inner and outer Hebrides the pilot called them. Kirkwall was a small village but the biggest on this small island group and we saw a Norse ship in the harbour called “the Fair Maiden”. After making enquiries we discovered that she was sailing for Iceland a few days later which was lucky. We met Captain Sindri Rigsson of the “Fair Maiden” and Howgar negotiated a reasonable cost of thirty-seven pennies for the crossing but we would call in at places called the Shetland isles and the Faroes on the way to buy and sell cargo and to take on food and water. The ship would sail in two days hence so we had to find accommodation until then, we spent the first night on the Dolphin and the second night at the Inn called the Selkie where the innkeeper, a man called Syndrie Riggs, charged us five pennies for a room, the place had low ceilings and small windows, I suppose to help keep the heat in. The lack of light meant that lanterns were always lit and the smell of the fish oil permeated the air. a man came in during the evening in his mid-thirties, bulky with a heavy beard. Speaking in the Scotts tongue he asked Howgar who I was and then announced himself as Magus Fulgar of Ex-Miscelania, he had come from the Ring of Brodgar Covenant. He was an offensive man who seemed worried I had come from the Cape Wrath covenant. He stated if I was from the enemy covenant he would harm me and my men. I mentioned that if he had a problem with me the solution would be Certamen, before Howgar had had the chance to translate this barbarian of a magus shouted out “Certamen!” and then “Creo”, oh what a foolish warrior to charge in not knowing your enemies strengths and weaknesses. I called Ignem and we created a flame that lit the room the brighter the light would determine the winner, I handily defeated him without much effort. We dumped his unconscious form in my room after the Innkeeper begged us to stay in his cousin's hut to prevent further conflict when Fulgar awoke, and I agreed to preserve the peace.
We sailed to Shetlands to the port of Lerwick and stayed at the Compass Inn, it had very low ceilings and no bar, just two barrels with a couple of planks, to be honest, I don't know how they had the gall to call themselves an Inn, it didn't look like a tavern at all, just a public house. The ageing owner of this poor establishment charged us 7 silver pennies for the room for two nights however Ásgeir stayed in the stable due to his stench and Howgar stayed there with him to keep him company. Surprise surprise we had fish again for dinner. I am starting to get sick of fish stew. We headed to the Faroe Islands and its biggest port, Torshavn, two days later. During the voyage across the open and dangerous sea, there was a shout of Whale and the crew soon put out a small boat which was filled with eager sailors and harpoons, Ásgeir chose to join the men and they rowed away from the safety of the ship into the rolling seas. They spotted a small jet of water released into the sky from the surface which I was told was the way that the whales give themselves away. They powered towards this point and I was told that the Whales have a rhythm of seven surfaces each time filling their lungs with more and more air and then diving deep flipping their tails in the air. With a time limit of a few surfaces left the men struck throwing harpoons and attaching floats to the ropes, the whale immediately dove but eventually weakened and the floats dragged it to the surface, again and again, the men took in turns from there small skiff to throw the spears into the great beasts back until it lost the fight and died on the surface, a great effort then hauled the beast alongside the big ship and thence onto the deck where huge blades were brought up from below to cut the animal up into chunks. The deck was awash with blood and guts which leaked down to the lower decks as well, and the stench was appalling, but luckily this only lasted a few days before we pulled into port and were able to unload the flesh of the leviathan. At Torshavn, we had to sleep in the commons, but it was a nice large commons and many of the sailors stayed there after drinking their share of the whale meat sale. There were fish oil lamps which stunk but in these northern climes, everything was made of fish or stunk of fish.
We sailed north for eight days of fine sailing and the captain impressed me with his confidence. The weather was fine but then started to turn, the clouds rolled in and gradually grew darker, the waves started to pick up, the captain wisely shortened the sail to prevent a capsize, we were ordered below as the deck was starting to be swamped by huge waves, Ásgeir remained on deck aiding where he could. Suddenly the waves calmed and we appeared to be in the eye of the storm, lit by multiple lightning flashes we spotted a column of water twisting and tuning and slowly sucking the ship towards it. The captain laid on more sail and luckily got the ship out of the eye and away from the waterspout. We were tossed around all night but come the dawn we were relieved to see calm seas again and we continued towards our final port. We saw a black sand beach and snow-covered mountains, by the small fishing port we saw a hill with a flat peak and a church on its top, it was the village of Vik the captain told me and we would not be making landfall there but travelling to the west to the port of Grindavik, We headed along the coast passing a small archipelago and finally reached the port. I asked the captain which port is the best to get a return ship from and he stated that Grindavik is still the best port to get a ship to the Faroes or to Bergen but that a new port more sheltered was becoming popular called Reykjavik.
I paid 5 silver pennies to stay at the Puffin Inn where we were treated to a local delicacy, a seabird called Puffin. Now I'm not going to say it's as nice as a pheasant or goose but compared to the constant tedium of fish eating it made a pleasant change. We asked where the house of Eyvindr Gunnarsson was and it turned out it was only five doors down the street. Wandering down there we asked around for the occupant but was told he had died but his disreputable son Holger Eyvindrsson was down at the Anchor Tavern, after getting directions we headed down there and met him. He was slumped in the corner drunk on cheap ale, with a mop of dark hair and in his late twenties, he had a pockmarked face and was armed with a short sword and a nice-looking lap fiddle. Talking to him he seems keen to gain employment to pay off some local debts and after a bit of haggling which Howgar seems very good at we settled on a price of one hundred and fifty pennies, half in advance but it will be a dangerous journey of a week to ten days. He told us of his one trip to the covenant as a lad escorted by his father and they met Magus Subtilis. The next day we went and purchased supplies and a pony that Ásgeir named Tofti. In total, we spent one hundred and twelve pennies a lot of which unfortunately was on dried fish and a hard bread which reminded me of the sailor's biscuits we had eaten when low on rations in the Baltic. We met Howgar at his house which looked like it had once been very nice but now was rundown and needing a lick of paint. He disappeared for a short while once I had paid him half his wages and I worried for a bit that we would not see him again but true to his word he returned, apparently after paying off some of his creditors.
We set off over the strange terrain following a small track in the lava fields carved by hundreds of feet and hooves. The first village we would stop in was called Þorlákshöfn which is pronounced Thorlakhavn after a saint Thorlak, a nice little port we passed on the way to Grindavik. We set out from there for a village called Selfoss but we did have to go over a river called the Olfusa by ferry boat for two silver pennies. We arrived in Selfoss without incident twenty miles later and spent the night at the inn for five silver pennies. From there we walked hard and fast, passing through a small hamlet called Raudalaekur, to Hela some twenty-four miles in a day and stayed at a nice inn and had Mutton stew, oh how I savoured it such a relief from a constant fish diet. The next day we ventured onward over some loamy plains through the village of Hvolsvollur where en route we spotted some huge wild cattle grazing. We ignored the beef though I was tempted to kill one for meat, and camped at the base of a big waterfall called Seljalandsfoss we were warned of a witch called Kelda who lived in a hut at the top of the falls who would tell your future, I was not keen to associate with a witch especially after I was told of their death curses. We continued to Skogafoss and there was a beautiful waterfall with a cave near the top which would be treacherous to get to on foot. Holgar also told me of a treasure hidden in the falls by two apparent magi Thrasi Thorolfsson and Lodmundur, he said that a lot of men had died searching for it and I guessed that there was a Regio in the cave somewhere, given his love of caving I am sure Terentius would have loved to explore its depths. During the night where we were camped out Ásgeir heard singing from the direction of the witch we left behind us. This was odd as it was nearly two leagues away but it was ignored and we continued onwards the next day. Finally, our goal along the south coast walk came into view Vik, this being the same Vik we saw from the ship, I was understandably frustrated as we could have made landfall there and bypassed this whole tiring walk with its abundance of salty fish dinners. We saw some pillars of basalt in the sea and we were told that they were trolls turned to stone by the rays of the sun that were looking for the magical fish that are seen in the waters here. We stayed the night at the tavern here and Ingling Ivarson the innkeeper told us the myths and legends of the place.
The next day we headed inland heading for the covenant and slowly the thin grass that surrounded Vik vanished to solid rock and scree we headed uphill and the going was tough. Suddenly the weather changed and we were inundated with a rain shower, leaving Tofti to graze in the rain we found a hollow right on the edge of the cliff and sheltered there for the night. On Ásgeir’s watch, he heard something coming up the slope and I was awakened and looked out. I could see nothing with normal vision but when I cast the “Gaze of heat’s light” I saw a huge wyrm coming up the hill. I cast multiple bolts of flame at it and wounded it quite hard but then it responded with a blast of venomous breath, luckily my parma deflected the gas but Ásgeir got a lungful and went down on his knees coughing. Another three firebolts dispatched the creature and it tumbled down the scree slope,
Remembering from my lessons of long ago about dragons I remembered that some, if not beheaded, came back twice as strong and so ignoring the danger I created a rope ladder with a magical device and descended the slope, when I tried to behead it though I had no success piercing its skin and so I burnt it until the skin peeled away from the bone and I was able to separate what was left of the head from the body, I returned the way I came back up the mountain and we remained on high alert for the remainder of the night. In the morning the sky had cleared and we proceeded, we descended from the highest point and looking back the path was very narrow, I am glad I have a head for heights. Onwards we travelled until we met three men, obviously grogs on patrol, via my translator we convinced them I was a magus and they escorted us to the covenant of New Eyrie.
The covenant itself was in a small valley with a stream fast flowing down its middle, it consisted of a stable, a large roundhouse in the Viking style and an obviously summoned four-story tower where the Magi lived this tower had an annexe made of wattle and daub into which we were ushered We were introduced to a Magus Alacerus filius Subulis who was a tall man of over six feet in height, with a blond beard and hair and crystal blue eyes, dressed in a Norse overcoat with hermetic runes on it and a long belt.
We talked for many hours and I explained that I wanted to help them join the order and partake in its benefits. We talked for a long time about Iceland and I took copious notes for my report which I hoped would please my Primus. It was obvious that they wanted to join but could not afford to abandon their covenant, which I understood and swore to not invite them into the order and force their hand whilst iI was present, understanding this may go against Cassius’ wishes of to ask “join or die”. I did suggest that he might consider joining House Flambeau and then joining another house later if he found our house not compatible with his ideals, which I think he took as a welcoming compromise. Later when she returned from her business abroad I met Temeraria filus Aurus. She wore a blue dress and was a dark-eyed raven-haired woman. She appeared to me to fit the warrior mould and we got on from the start.
After a few days at the covenant gathering information on potential covenant locations and sources of Vis which included Lake Myvatn, Troll Seat (opposite the town of Ísafjörður (in the west fjordlands), West Snaefellsness near the village of Arnastapi) and a place called Studlagil canyon and getting Alacerus and Temeraria promise to seek out a primus or prima and join the order as soon as they could, I determined it to be a good time to leave. Hogar had in the meantime gotten employment with the covenant as their man in Grindavik like his father which had cheered him greatly. Temeraria asked me if I would like to help her with two members of the Order of Odin whom she had had difficulty with in the past and given the opportunity to fight I gladly took up the offer. We refilled our supplies and set off via Sundafoss and the witch's hut. Temeraria warned me that if the Witch conversed with us we were to be polite and try to keep conversation to a minimum to avoid peaking her interest. We climbed the cliff from below the hut and had a very hard time with Tofti, something I might have to create a small item to help with in the future. Temeraria went and spoke to the witch out of courtesy, but she did not seem interested in the two powerful Magi but rather my grog Ásgeir whom she decided she wanted to spend the evening with. We heard many disturbing noises coming from the hut, not all from Ásgeir and in the morning he returned to us tired and sweaty although I find it hard to believe he would have lain with someone so ugly as the witch. He stated that the witch Kelda had freed him of the sea-hags curse in the daylight hours which made conversing with him a lot easier. In return, she and he had laid together and he saw not the witch but a beautiful woman during the night. We set off across a plain of grass which turned more rocky as we advanced.
We planned that I would provide cover from the cliff above and she would enter the enemy's hut, going invisible. I flew up onto the cliff, dropped my invisibility and signalled her to advance. She skillfully moved up to the hut and disappeared inside just then I heard a noise behind me and turned to see a Norseman advancing on me, I neither knew nor cared if this was a member of the Order of Odin and cast three firebolts at him as he seemed to somehow utilise a rune in his hand to release fire at me. My parma warded his blast but it was weakened, he was hurt by my superior fire. He ducked back behind a rock and I charged headlong down the rocky cliff to pursue him. Coming around the cliff he prepared another run but I was faster and 3 more balls of fire lept skillfully from my fingers to roast him where he stood, his face and tongue blacked as I managed to hit him on his big fat nose with one fireball. I rushed back to the cliff edge and looked down to see Temeraria coming out of the small roundhouse. I threw the body of the dead wizard down the cliff then followed using my talisman's power to slow my descent. She rebuked me for no warning but I could see she was pleased as could be to have vanquished these magi, I asked about her target and she said he had not even woken up with a savage satisfaction. We divided up the loot by kill and I got a magic ring and some bones.
We separated then, Temeraria returning to her covenant and me starting the long road back to mine. I will not recount the tedium of the return journey or the number of times I had to endure a fish supper. At Grindavik I paid off Holgar and we found a ship to Bergen and from there, it was easy to get ship to London then up the Thames to Oxford by the road I knew well and from there a short journey to Gloucester and thence home. We returned four weeks into summer, and I prepared myself for the emergency Stonehenge tribunal and wrote my report for Primus Guido. In total, the trip had cost me around six hundred silver pennies (I am now officially poor compared to my sodales ) but I had fulfilled my house commission and hopefully pleased my Primus and Cassis (although I don't think I could ever do the latter).
Scribed by Pyrrhus
We met in the council chamber and he informed me of the following. Following the destruction of Durenmar by the Templars another covenant was also destroyed in the Rhine tribunal called Blue Mountain in the summer of 1300. A maga called Vigilata of house Tytalus died there heroically fighting in hand-to-hand combat with well-trained Templar knights. Afterwards, a team was sent to see what might have been left behind and a letter was found in the ruins.
Salve Maga Vigilata,
Your last letter was greatly concerning to me, and I pray that you and your sodales remain well. It is hard to imagine how these Knights Templar might have achieved a means to overcome the heart of the Order of Hermes and we have since heard reports that their crusade has led to the fall of further covenants, for such news travels even to this remote island. While I can not imagine but that you will be able to find a way to overcome this terrible assault, I restate my offer that you travel here to the north, this time with your wellbeing at the centre of my intention rather than our own. We have placed a man within the port town of Grindavik, set on the southwest tip of Iceland, and he will be able to guide you to our covenant. His name is Eyvindr Gunnarsson and you shall find his home close to the harbour there. If there are others that you would bring do not be afraid to do so for I hold highly the bond that we have formed and trust that you will bring no harm to our home.
Yet I can not help but to wonder if there is opportunity to be found here also. These lands are rich with magic and the Order of Odin is more fragmented than ever. How ambitious Effrenatus was to believe that they could be unified for any more than a short moment. But he is long dead now and my pater Venatio has entered a twilight from which I do not believe he will ever return. With both gone then surely the risk that House Flambeau will seek to bring their bloody vengeance against us is also passed, and they must have more pressing matters to which they must attend given the inferno that strikes against you all now. We still greatly desire to be admitted to the Order of Hermes, despite the assails it faces, and is it not possible now that you might invite us to join without fear of retribution. Consider also that if all that we hear from the continent is true then this island may be sent as if a miracle from God, for there is surely room for several covenants to be established here and we must be well beyond this holy order’s gaze. The lands are largely wild and far from churchmen and the resources on which we rely are abundant. With numbers greater than the three of us residing here we would be able to ensure that even when the Odinist magi flex their muscle, as they may do every few years, we should send them fleeing like beaten curs.
Consider carefully my proposal and I sincerely hope that we will soon meet in person at last.
Your sodalis,
Subtilis
Scribed by the hand of Magus Subtilis, of New Eyrie Covenant in the Autumn of the year 1298
Prima Armada had suggested the grand tribunal to move to other regions and therefore Primus Guido was worried that If Iceland was chosen then there should be representation by House Flambeau.
Some history should be inserted here so the reader of my private journals can know the context, I hope I died heroically! A Tytalan Magus called Effrenatus using the mundane name of Hingist had tried to unify the Order of Odin to make a new house as had been mistakenly done with house ex-miscellanea, the waifs and strays of the magically gifted individuals. This new attempt failed however, he was renounced from the order and although he was never found, his compatriot Venatio who wrote the letter above was watched but no charge was raised against him.
Cassius provided two men to assist in the journey whom he had left in the Black Horse tavern in Chepstow, Ásgeir Gunnison a scout and Howgar Howgarson who was a language expert. Cassius informed me I should file a report and send it via Redcap and if I resolved this mission in a timely fashion it would count for more than the time spent against my debt to the house.
I escorted Cassius back to Chepstow and luckily enough our ship was in port. I told them to wait for me for a journey north and then went to the tavern to meet the men. Howgar was a big fat man with long braided blonde hair and a ruddy face. Ásgeir was a stocky man, obviously a warrior with many many miles under his belt, unfortunately, he also had a bad odour coming from him and because of a run-in with a sea hag, he explained, cursed to talk in rhyme.
We returned to the covenant and I prepared to leave taking items with Navius’ knowledge from the stores to assist our journey and six hundred silver pennies. We went back down the road to Chepstow and there we boarded. I gave instruction to sail to Kirkwall and the captain said he could take us to Chester but we would need a pilot from there to the Orkneys as the currents and rocks around the Scottish coast were treacherous. I agreed but was then shocked when told I would have to pay for the pilot. This left me with five hundred silver pennies, you may be wondering why I concern my journal with petty accounting of money but this was a costly mission and we nearly didn’t have enough money to return.
We landed at the Orkneys after the ninth day sailing around the rocky islands of the inner and outer Hebrides the pilot called them. Kirkwall was a small village but the biggest on this small island group and we saw a Norse ship in the harbour called “the Fair Maiden”. After making enquiries we discovered that she was sailing for Iceland a few days later which was lucky. We met Captain Sindri Rigsson of the “Fair Maiden” and Howgar negotiated a reasonable cost of thirty-seven pennies for the crossing but we would call in at places called the Shetland isles and the Faroes on the way to buy and sell cargo and to take on food and water. The ship would sail in two days hence so we had to find accommodation until then, we spent the first night on the Dolphin and the second night at the Inn called the Selkie where the innkeeper, a man called Syndrie Riggs, charged us five pennies for a room, the place had low ceilings and small windows, I suppose to help keep the heat in. The lack of light meant that lanterns were always lit and the smell of the fish oil permeated the air. a man came in during the evening in his mid-thirties, bulky with a heavy beard. Speaking in the Scotts tongue he asked Howgar who I was and then announced himself as Magus Fulgar of Ex-Miscelania, he had come from the Ring of Brodgar Covenant. He was an offensive man who seemed worried I had come from the Cape Wrath covenant. He stated if I was from the enemy covenant he would harm me and my men. I mentioned that if he had a problem with me the solution would be Certamen, before Howgar had had the chance to translate this barbarian of a magus shouted out “Certamen!” and then “Creo”, oh what a foolish warrior to charge in not knowing your enemies strengths and weaknesses. I called Ignem and we created a flame that lit the room the brighter the light would determine the winner, I handily defeated him without much effort. We dumped his unconscious form in my room after the Innkeeper begged us to stay in his cousin's hut to prevent further conflict when Fulgar awoke, and I agreed to preserve the peace.
We sailed to Shetlands to the port of Lerwick and stayed at the Compass Inn, it had very low ceilings and no bar, just two barrels with a couple of planks, to be honest, I don't know how they had the gall to call themselves an Inn, it didn't look like a tavern at all, just a public house. The ageing owner of this poor establishment charged us 7 silver pennies for the room for two nights however Ásgeir stayed in the stable due to his stench and Howgar stayed there with him to keep him company. Surprise surprise we had fish again for dinner. I am starting to get sick of fish stew. We headed to the Faroe Islands and its biggest port, Torshavn, two days later. During the voyage across the open and dangerous sea, there was a shout of Whale and the crew soon put out a small boat which was filled with eager sailors and harpoons, Ásgeir chose to join the men and they rowed away from the safety of the ship into the rolling seas. They spotted a small jet of water released into the sky from the surface which I was told was the way that the whales give themselves away. They powered towards this point and I was told that the Whales have a rhythm of seven surfaces each time filling their lungs with more and more air and then diving deep flipping their tails in the air. With a time limit of a few surfaces left the men struck throwing harpoons and attaching floats to the ropes, the whale immediately dove but eventually weakened and the floats dragged it to the surface, again and again, the men took in turns from there small skiff to throw the spears into the great beasts back until it lost the fight and died on the surface, a great effort then hauled the beast alongside the big ship and thence onto the deck where huge blades were brought up from below to cut the animal up into chunks. The deck was awash with blood and guts which leaked down to the lower decks as well, and the stench was appalling, but luckily this only lasted a few days before we pulled into port and were able to unload the flesh of the leviathan. At Torshavn, we had to sleep in the commons, but it was a nice large commons and many of the sailors stayed there after drinking their share of the whale meat sale. There were fish oil lamps which stunk but in these northern climes, everything was made of fish or stunk of fish.
We sailed north for eight days of fine sailing and the captain impressed me with his confidence. The weather was fine but then started to turn, the clouds rolled in and gradually grew darker, the waves started to pick up, the captain wisely shortened the sail to prevent a capsize, we were ordered below as the deck was starting to be swamped by huge waves, Ásgeir remained on deck aiding where he could. Suddenly the waves calmed and we appeared to be in the eye of the storm, lit by multiple lightning flashes we spotted a column of water twisting and tuning and slowly sucking the ship towards it. The captain laid on more sail and luckily got the ship out of the eye and away from the waterspout. We were tossed around all night but come the dawn we were relieved to see calm seas again and we continued towards our final port. We saw a black sand beach and snow-covered mountains, by the small fishing port we saw a hill with a flat peak and a church on its top, it was the village of Vik the captain told me and we would not be making landfall there but travelling to the west to the port of Grindavik, We headed along the coast passing a small archipelago and finally reached the port. I asked the captain which port is the best to get a return ship from and he stated that Grindavik is still the best port to get a ship to the Faroes or to Bergen but that a new port more sheltered was becoming popular called Reykjavik.
I paid 5 silver pennies to stay at the Puffin Inn where we were treated to a local delicacy, a seabird called Puffin. Now I'm not going to say it's as nice as a pheasant or goose but compared to the constant tedium of fish eating it made a pleasant change. We asked where the house of Eyvindr Gunnarsson was and it turned out it was only five doors down the street. Wandering down there we asked around for the occupant but was told he had died but his disreputable son Holger Eyvindrsson was down at the Anchor Tavern, after getting directions we headed down there and met him. He was slumped in the corner drunk on cheap ale, with a mop of dark hair and in his late twenties, he had a pockmarked face and was armed with a short sword and a nice-looking lap fiddle. Talking to him he seems keen to gain employment to pay off some local debts and after a bit of haggling which Howgar seems very good at we settled on a price of one hundred and fifty pennies, half in advance but it will be a dangerous journey of a week to ten days. He told us of his one trip to the covenant as a lad escorted by his father and they met Magus Subtilis. The next day we went and purchased supplies and a pony that Ásgeir named Tofti. In total, we spent one hundred and twelve pennies a lot of which unfortunately was on dried fish and a hard bread which reminded me of the sailor's biscuits we had eaten when low on rations in the Baltic. We met Howgar at his house which looked like it had once been very nice but now was rundown and needing a lick of paint. He disappeared for a short while once I had paid him half his wages and I worried for a bit that we would not see him again but true to his word he returned, apparently after paying off some of his creditors.
We set off over the strange terrain following a small track in the lava fields carved by hundreds of feet and hooves. The first village we would stop in was called Þorlákshöfn which is pronounced Thorlakhavn after a saint Thorlak, a nice little port we passed on the way to Grindavik. We set out from there for a village called Selfoss but we did have to go over a river called the Olfusa by ferry boat for two silver pennies. We arrived in Selfoss without incident twenty miles later and spent the night at the inn for five silver pennies. From there we walked hard and fast, passing through a small hamlet called Raudalaekur, to Hela some twenty-four miles in a day and stayed at a nice inn and had Mutton stew, oh how I savoured it such a relief from a constant fish diet. The next day we ventured onward over some loamy plains through the village of Hvolsvollur where en route we spotted some huge wild cattle grazing. We ignored the beef though I was tempted to kill one for meat, and camped at the base of a big waterfall called Seljalandsfoss we were warned of a witch called Kelda who lived in a hut at the top of the falls who would tell your future, I was not keen to associate with a witch especially after I was told of their death curses. We continued to Skogafoss and there was a beautiful waterfall with a cave near the top which would be treacherous to get to on foot. Holgar also told me of a treasure hidden in the falls by two apparent magi Thrasi Thorolfsson and Lodmundur, he said that a lot of men had died searching for it and I guessed that there was a Regio in the cave somewhere, given his love of caving I am sure Terentius would have loved to explore its depths. During the night where we were camped out Ásgeir heard singing from the direction of the witch we left behind us. This was odd as it was nearly two leagues away but it was ignored and we continued onwards the next day. Finally, our goal along the south coast walk came into view Vik, this being the same Vik we saw from the ship, I was understandably frustrated as we could have made landfall there and bypassed this whole tiring walk with its abundance of salty fish dinners. We saw some pillars of basalt in the sea and we were told that they were trolls turned to stone by the rays of the sun that were looking for the magical fish that are seen in the waters here. We stayed the night at the tavern here and Ingling Ivarson the innkeeper told us the myths and legends of the place.
The next day we headed inland heading for the covenant and slowly the thin grass that surrounded Vik vanished to solid rock and scree we headed uphill and the going was tough. Suddenly the weather changed and we were inundated with a rain shower, leaving Tofti to graze in the rain we found a hollow right on the edge of the cliff and sheltered there for the night. On Ásgeir’s watch, he heard something coming up the slope and I was awakened and looked out. I could see nothing with normal vision but when I cast the “Gaze of heat’s light” I saw a huge wyrm coming up the hill. I cast multiple bolts of flame at it and wounded it quite hard but then it responded with a blast of venomous breath, luckily my parma deflected the gas but Ásgeir got a lungful and went down on his knees coughing. Another three firebolts dispatched the creature and it tumbled down the scree slope,
Remembering from my lessons of long ago about dragons I remembered that some, if not beheaded, came back twice as strong and so ignoring the danger I created a rope ladder with a magical device and descended the slope, when I tried to behead it though I had no success piercing its skin and so I burnt it until the skin peeled away from the bone and I was able to separate what was left of the head from the body, I returned the way I came back up the mountain and we remained on high alert for the remainder of the night. In the morning the sky had cleared and we proceeded, we descended from the highest point and looking back the path was very narrow, I am glad I have a head for heights. Onwards we travelled until we met three men, obviously grogs on patrol, via my translator we convinced them I was a magus and they escorted us to the covenant of New Eyrie.
The covenant itself was in a small valley with a stream fast flowing down its middle, it consisted of a stable, a large roundhouse in the Viking style and an obviously summoned four-story tower where the Magi lived this tower had an annexe made of wattle and daub into which we were ushered We were introduced to a Magus Alacerus filius Subulis who was a tall man of over six feet in height, with a blond beard and hair and crystal blue eyes, dressed in a Norse overcoat with hermetic runes on it and a long belt.
We talked for many hours and I explained that I wanted to help them join the order and partake in its benefits. We talked for a long time about Iceland and I took copious notes for my report which I hoped would please my Primus. It was obvious that they wanted to join but could not afford to abandon their covenant, which I understood and swore to not invite them into the order and force their hand whilst iI was present, understanding this may go against Cassius’ wishes of to ask “join or die”. I did suggest that he might consider joining House Flambeau and then joining another house later if he found our house not compatible with his ideals, which I think he took as a welcoming compromise. Later when she returned from her business abroad I met Temeraria filus Aurus. She wore a blue dress and was a dark-eyed raven-haired woman. She appeared to me to fit the warrior mould and we got on from the start.
After a few days at the covenant gathering information on potential covenant locations and sources of Vis which included Lake Myvatn, Troll Seat (opposite the town of Ísafjörður (in the west fjordlands), West Snaefellsness near the village of Arnastapi) and a place called Studlagil canyon and getting Alacerus and Temeraria promise to seek out a primus or prima and join the order as soon as they could, I determined it to be a good time to leave. Hogar had in the meantime gotten employment with the covenant as their man in Grindavik like his father which had cheered him greatly. Temeraria asked me if I would like to help her with two members of the Order of Odin whom she had had difficulty with in the past and given the opportunity to fight I gladly took up the offer. We refilled our supplies and set off via Sundafoss and the witch's hut. Temeraria warned me that if the Witch conversed with us we were to be polite and try to keep conversation to a minimum to avoid peaking her interest. We climbed the cliff from below the hut and had a very hard time with Tofti, something I might have to create a small item to help with in the future. Temeraria went and spoke to the witch out of courtesy, but she did not seem interested in the two powerful Magi but rather my grog Ásgeir whom she decided she wanted to spend the evening with. We heard many disturbing noises coming from the hut, not all from Ásgeir and in the morning he returned to us tired and sweaty although I find it hard to believe he would have lain with someone so ugly as the witch. He stated that the witch Kelda had freed him of the sea-hags curse in the daylight hours which made conversing with him a lot easier. In return, she and he had laid together and he saw not the witch but a beautiful woman during the night. We set off across a plain of grass which turned more rocky as we advanced.
We planned that I would provide cover from the cliff above and she would enter the enemy's hut, going invisible. I flew up onto the cliff, dropped my invisibility and signalled her to advance. She skillfully moved up to the hut and disappeared inside just then I heard a noise behind me and turned to see a Norseman advancing on me, I neither knew nor cared if this was a member of the Order of Odin and cast three firebolts at him as he seemed to somehow utilise a rune in his hand to release fire at me. My parma warded his blast but it was weakened, he was hurt by my superior fire. He ducked back behind a rock and I charged headlong down the rocky cliff to pursue him. Coming around the cliff he prepared another run but I was faster and 3 more balls of fire lept skillfully from my fingers to roast him where he stood, his face and tongue blacked as I managed to hit him on his big fat nose with one fireball. I rushed back to the cliff edge and looked down to see Temeraria coming out of the small roundhouse. I threw the body of the dead wizard down the cliff then followed using my talisman's power to slow my descent. She rebuked me for no warning but I could see she was pleased as could be to have vanquished these magi, I asked about her target and she said he had not even woken up with a savage satisfaction. We divided up the loot by kill and I got a magic ring and some bones.
We separated then, Temeraria returning to her covenant and me starting the long road back to mine. I will not recount the tedium of the return journey or the number of times I had to endure a fish supper. At Grindavik I paid off Holgar and we found a ship to Bergen and from there, it was easy to get ship to London then up the Thames to Oxford by the road I knew well and from there a short journey to Gloucester and thence home. We returned four weeks into summer, and I prepared myself for the emergency Stonehenge tribunal and wrote my report for Primus Guido. In total, the trip had cost me around six hundred silver pennies (I am now officially poor compared to my sodales ) but I had fulfilled my house commission and hopefully pleased my Primus and Cassis (although I don't think I could ever do the latter).