Fjordbidden Knowledge
Scribed by Pyrrhus in Autumn 1330
I received a message delivered by Redcap Gaines to my covenant. It said I was to meet Magus Cassius at Blackthorn Covenant, and so using the Pallium Nubis Cloak; I invisibly flew there. Meeting Cassius there, I was pleased to renew my acquaintance with Maga Temeraria and was informed that she wanted to join house Flambeau, I was also informed that my house expected me to be her sponsor. I did as I was told, and she was sworn in as a member of House Flambeau, swearing an oath to support Guido by name, which was unusual in my opinion. After the small ceremony, Temeraria informed me that her sodales Aleserus had decided to join house Tytalus. Cassius then told me of a new mission the house had for me. There was a wizard called Svein Tierson of the order of Odin, who was acting as a unifying force in Iceland. Under his banner, the Odin followers were gathering and soon would make Iceland a very dangerous place for younger Magi, this went against house Flambeau's aims of creating some covenants there. Therefore, it was my duty to travel to the western fjords and identify the location of Svein's base of operations. There was also a secondary mission of examining a place called Troll Seat as a possible location for a covenant. I was told there was a ship called the “Sea Beacon” at Cardiff that would leave in three days for Iceland, and I should be on it. If I wanted to go on Flambeau's ship, I was told the captain's name was Roland Montefort. Cassius said he would be returning east as the Ottoman Turks had taken Istanbul and destroyed covenants there. The Order of the East had asked for assistance from the house, and Primus Guido was responding to their request.
I gathered supplies from the covenant, including money and vis and my trusty Norse guides, Halga Hergerson and Askir Gunnerson. We took the “Lydney lass” to Chepstow and then the “Dolphin” to Cardiff, I then sent the ship back to Chepstow to pick up Branwen, who had refused to travel with me. We met the Captain, a rotund fellow in his mid-thirties who took us onboard and put the men in a rope store, but I had a nice cabin (if a bit small) in the rear. We sailed north. , and I had a pleasant time chatting with my new fillia Temeraria, once clear of land, Captain Roland used some enchantments to fill the sails, and we headed north at an amazing rate. We must have averaged six and a half to seven knots for a week, for soon, we saw a reg glow on the horizon. I asked Temeraria what it was, and she said it was a volcano that had erupted a few months ago, I would love to examine the ejecta of such a magnificent mountain, the minerals and possibly even vis would be amazing to catalogue. But I was on house business and so had to continue my journey. Once in sight of land, we turned west and slowed to normal speed. We landed in Gundavik, and Temeraria bid us farewell. We attempted to get a pilot to Isafjordur (our final location), but to no avail, so we got one to take us around the peninsula to Reykjavik. The winds were against us, and loath to use the enchantments in front of a mundane pilot, we ended up casting anchor in a small rock-strewn bay, I went to sleep and was awakened to shouts of alarm. Apparently, there were some sea monsters in the sea, and one of the guards had taken a potshot at it with a bow, it had vanished, but later, a thin mist surrounded the ship, and the two guards vanished. Now, with guard raised, I warned the men not to go near the edge of the boat for fear they might be dragged in and remain below if possible. As I was traversing the deck from the forecastle to the aft castle, a massive wave swept over the ship, luckily, I was quick enough to grab a rope and was not swept over, which surely would have been to my death. Now forewarned, we now stood guard in the doorways, and another wave attempted to capsize us, but the makers of this ship knew what they were doing, and she stood firm. In the morning, the mist was gone, and we continued to the new port of Reykjavik. I do feel we were taken advantage of by the pilot, Hjalmar, who charged us an excessive amount for a short voyage, but in the end, we got there safely, so I could only complain a little. We spent some time in a tavern called the Anchor, well, I assumed it was as my Norse is not that good yet, but it had a rusted anchor outside its door. Inside, it was busy, and the innkeeper, a man called Thorsten Victorson, served us a nice ale which was slightly fruity. This slid down a treat, and we had several with a nice mutton stew. He said we could get a man called Knut to guide our vessel to Isafjordur, and we agreed to meet that evening at the anchor. Later that day, we met Knut at the bar, had a few ales, and hammered out a deal for extended employment. During the pleasant evening at the Anchor, there was music and many ales. Askir saw a man who, in his opinion, was a spy, and I decided foolishly to invite him over for a drink. He introduced himself as Brock Nyarlson, in his mid-thirties with a norse-looking top knot, he had a medium beard and shaved the hair on the side of his head. We chatted for a while, and he asked about my business. When he heard we were going north on our ship, he wondered if he could pay for a passage, and I agreed, my erroneous thinking was that he would help in the search for Svein. I then wanted to check if he was a magus, and so cast without words or gestures the physician's eye, with a start, he looked up and announced himself as Magus Corus of house Tytalus from the Provence tribunal. He stated, “Well, that's not playing the game”, Which is all these Tytalans care about.
We sailed north the next day, and Corus kept to himself, pretending to be a fur trader. How demeaning for a magus to pretend to be someone so common. We passed a recent shipwreck along the way, but there was no impetus to investigate, and so we sailed on. During the voyage, the pilot informed us the people of Isafjordur were very insular and did not trust strangers at all. Indeed, I worried about spies for Svien or if the entire village might be working for the order of Odin. Several days of following the crinkled coast later we started to pull into a fjord which the pilot said our destination awaited. As we were happy to be close to our destination, we suddenly felt a jolt as if the ship had hit something. Suddenly a tentacle wrapped up around the front of the ship and another swept the deck, luckily I managed to dodge it and then saw the huge creature rise from the sea at the bow of the ship, its giant maw moving to bite a huge chunk out of the prow. My first action was to rise up and fly, through the power of the Pallium Nubis and flew around near this creature's head, in the meantime more tentacles whipped across the deck and my companions attacked them with axe and spike and indeed the Kraken in writhing around, impaled itself on one of the spikes quite badly. Now near the head I shot three fireballs into its eye, all hit and I could see that it was mortally wounded but not yet down. Its mouth moved closer and closer to the bow and I realized this was my last chance before the ship took an incredible amount of damage. Concentrating again I loosed a further three fireballs and although only two hit that was all it took and the creature slowly slumped down into the depth. The tentacles had damaged the ship's sails, mast and deck, and we made our way to Isafjordur now with a ready-made excuse as to why we needed to make harbour there.
On arrival at Isofjordur, we were met by a belligerent-looking group of villagers and our pilot negotiated a short-term berth to repair the damages. It was obvious we were not welcome although Corus departed the ship and went off without a word to me. My companions and I decided to try the local tavern and were welcomed in by the innkeeper Odolf Tofoson, who served us ale and victuals. The tavern had a Warhammer outside and so I guessed that was its name, It was dark inside with smokey fish oil lamps giving a pitiful light. When we got there Corus was already ensconced in the corner looking towards the door. We spotted Holgar in the other corner, he was our guide the last time we came to Iceland and I must say it was a relief to see a friendly face we could trust in this village of bitter stares. Corus seeing we wanted to chat with Holgar eventually left and then we began our conversation. Holgar told us the Svein was eight or nine feet tall and had the blood of giants in his veins. He was not alone, his son and another wizard attended to him, and a group of female shapeshifters guarded his secret lair. His lair was somewhere in a cold and deserted peninsular called the Hornstrandir. I was also told of a seer in the hills to the south who hated Svein, and I thought that a conversation with her would be advantageous in that the enemy of my enemy might assist me.
The next day, we headed off being guided by Holgar, although the distance as the crow flew was short,t we had to walk in and out of the fjords, adding considerable time to our journey. Just on the other side of the fjord was the Trolls seat Legen has it that a huge troll was walking over the mountain tops and sat on the ridge, its weight left a massive seat-shaped gap in the fjord wall. During the day it seemed peaceful enough, but Holgar warned us of trolls in the nighttime and that in the past shepherds had vanished if they let their sheep graze there.
The men stayed on the road, and using the cloak, I decided to do a quick survey of this bowl. Once I had risen up the scree slope of a hundred yards or so, it became easygoing, I landed and walked invisibly across. At the back, I discovered some caves and standing by the mouth and I measured an aura of the third magnitude.
Not wanting to be delayed by entering a Regio I decided to stop my investigation there and continue along the path to a village called Sudevik.
We continued on our walk with some pace and the views were incredible. The Fjords cliff rose from the placid water reflecting their grandeur. The crisp air and snow on the distant peaks reminded us that this was a place of Ice but the occasional steam vents we saw in the south and the volcano reminded us that this was also a place of fire.
Arriving late in Sudevik, Holgar spoke with a man he knew who allowed us to sleep in an empty fish smoker, it was dry, but the smell of smoked fish permeated everything. The man also asked us to take some gifts for the seer and warned us to not release her from her chains.
We made our way up the road, but then veered off into open country. Eventually, we arrived at a very steep slope and myself and Holgar pulled ourselves up to the narrow cave entrance near the waterfall. We travelled down and narrow passageway hewn from the volcanic rock filled with the sulphurous smells and steam. It opened up into a small chamber and there chained to the wall with a ghastly appearance was a woman with her scraggly hair dragged over her face, she was blind and chained to the far wall, this was the Seer. Her name was Signi and we talked for a while until I said I wished a vision of the location of her enemy and ours Svein. She said I had to sacrifice something something valuable to me and so without hesitation, I handed over twenty-one pawns of Ignem Vis, something so precious to me as it assists my magic and helps Certamen. She took this precious gift and tossed it into a crack in the cave rear, I heard it fall down and down into the mountain lost forever. She then proceeded to pound evil-smelling herbs together into a liquid, which she then passed to me and told me to drink I drank the potion and my visions started to blur. Holgar later told me that I fell into a fit shaking rapidly and Signi had leaned over me and licked my face I record now that vision I had whilst under the effect of the visionary brew.
I saw the North Star high over a coastal cliff, a shard or fan of rock extending above it. There was a verdant slope and the North Star hung above the cliff. I then seemed to move south and the stars resolved three times. I saw a huge eagle with a white tail above a peak which I took to be an omen and then flew past the peak to a rocky plain surrounded by three peaks. I saw a door set into the ground and power radiated behind and with that, I awoke.
Holgar reported that I lay in this state for a few hours, but I survived the hideous brew and awoke on the cold floor. Giving Signi the gifts and food the villages of Sudevik had asked me to give her we left her still chained to the wall. I asked Holgar about the cliff with the blade of rock but he knew nothing. He said maybe Arnolf in Sudevik might be of help as it would be the fishermen who might have travelled out of the fjord. We returned to the village and indeed were given directions to the cliff which was just a single-day sail from Isolfordur, which he called the Hornbjarg. He sketched in the sand a picture which I will try and recreate in this report.
Scribed by Pyrrhus in Autumn 1330
I received a message delivered by Redcap Gaines to my covenant. It said I was to meet Magus Cassius at Blackthorn Covenant, and so using the Pallium Nubis Cloak; I invisibly flew there. Meeting Cassius there, I was pleased to renew my acquaintance with Maga Temeraria and was informed that she wanted to join house Flambeau, I was also informed that my house expected me to be her sponsor. I did as I was told, and she was sworn in as a member of House Flambeau, swearing an oath to support Guido by name, which was unusual in my opinion. After the small ceremony, Temeraria informed me that her sodales Aleserus had decided to join house Tytalus. Cassius then told me of a new mission the house had for me. There was a wizard called Svein Tierson of the order of Odin, who was acting as a unifying force in Iceland. Under his banner, the Odin followers were gathering and soon would make Iceland a very dangerous place for younger Magi, this went against house Flambeau's aims of creating some covenants there. Therefore, it was my duty to travel to the western fjords and identify the location of Svein's base of operations. There was also a secondary mission of examining a place called Troll Seat as a possible location for a covenant. I was told there was a ship called the “Sea Beacon” at Cardiff that would leave in three days for Iceland, and I should be on it. If I wanted to go on Flambeau's ship, I was told the captain's name was Roland Montefort. Cassius said he would be returning east as the Ottoman Turks had taken Istanbul and destroyed covenants there. The Order of the East had asked for assistance from the house, and Primus Guido was responding to their request.
I gathered supplies from the covenant, including money and vis and my trusty Norse guides, Halga Hergerson and Askir Gunnerson. We took the “Lydney lass” to Chepstow and then the “Dolphin” to Cardiff, I then sent the ship back to Chepstow to pick up Branwen, who had refused to travel with me. We met the Captain, a rotund fellow in his mid-thirties who took us onboard and put the men in a rope store, but I had a nice cabin (if a bit small) in the rear. We sailed north. , and I had a pleasant time chatting with my new fillia Temeraria, once clear of land, Captain Roland used some enchantments to fill the sails, and we headed north at an amazing rate. We must have averaged six and a half to seven knots for a week, for soon, we saw a reg glow on the horizon. I asked Temeraria what it was, and she said it was a volcano that had erupted a few months ago, I would love to examine the ejecta of such a magnificent mountain, the minerals and possibly even vis would be amazing to catalogue. But I was on house business and so had to continue my journey. Once in sight of land, we turned west and slowed to normal speed. We landed in Gundavik, and Temeraria bid us farewell. We attempted to get a pilot to Isafjordur (our final location), but to no avail, so we got one to take us around the peninsula to Reykjavik. The winds were against us, and loath to use the enchantments in front of a mundane pilot, we ended up casting anchor in a small rock-strewn bay, I went to sleep and was awakened to shouts of alarm. Apparently, there were some sea monsters in the sea, and one of the guards had taken a potshot at it with a bow, it had vanished, but later, a thin mist surrounded the ship, and the two guards vanished. Now, with guard raised, I warned the men not to go near the edge of the boat for fear they might be dragged in and remain below if possible. As I was traversing the deck from the forecastle to the aft castle, a massive wave swept over the ship, luckily, I was quick enough to grab a rope and was not swept over, which surely would have been to my death. Now forewarned, we now stood guard in the doorways, and another wave attempted to capsize us, but the makers of this ship knew what they were doing, and she stood firm. In the morning, the mist was gone, and we continued to the new port of Reykjavik. I do feel we were taken advantage of by the pilot, Hjalmar, who charged us an excessive amount for a short voyage, but in the end, we got there safely, so I could only complain a little. We spent some time in a tavern called the Anchor, well, I assumed it was as my Norse is not that good yet, but it had a rusted anchor outside its door. Inside, it was busy, and the innkeeper, a man called Thorsten Victorson, served us a nice ale which was slightly fruity. This slid down a treat, and we had several with a nice mutton stew. He said we could get a man called Knut to guide our vessel to Isafjordur, and we agreed to meet that evening at the anchor. Later that day, we met Knut at the bar, had a few ales, and hammered out a deal for extended employment. During the pleasant evening at the Anchor, there was music and many ales. Askir saw a man who, in his opinion, was a spy, and I decided foolishly to invite him over for a drink. He introduced himself as Brock Nyarlson, in his mid-thirties with a norse-looking top knot, he had a medium beard and shaved the hair on the side of his head. We chatted for a while, and he asked about my business. When he heard we were going north on our ship, he wondered if he could pay for a passage, and I agreed, my erroneous thinking was that he would help in the search for Svein. I then wanted to check if he was a magus, and so cast without words or gestures the physician's eye, with a start, he looked up and announced himself as Magus Corus of house Tytalus from the Provence tribunal. He stated, “Well, that's not playing the game”, Which is all these Tytalans care about.
We sailed north the next day, and Corus kept to himself, pretending to be a fur trader. How demeaning for a magus to pretend to be someone so common. We passed a recent shipwreck along the way, but there was no impetus to investigate, and so we sailed on. During the voyage, the pilot informed us the people of Isafjordur were very insular and did not trust strangers at all. Indeed, I worried about spies for Svien or if the entire village might be working for the order of Odin. Several days of following the crinkled coast later we started to pull into a fjord which the pilot said our destination awaited. As we were happy to be close to our destination, we suddenly felt a jolt as if the ship had hit something. Suddenly a tentacle wrapped up around the front of the ship and another swept the deck, luckily I managed to dodge it and then saw the huge creature rise from the sea at the bow of the ship, its giant maw moving to bite a huge chunk out of the prow. My first action was to rise up and fly, through the power of the Pallium Nubis and flew around near this creature's head, in the meantime more tentacles whipped across the deck and my companions attacked them with axe and spike and indeed the Kraken in writhing around, impaled itself on one of the spikes quite badly. Now near the head I shot three fireballs into its eye, all hit and I could see that it was mortally wounded but not yet down. Its mouth moved closer and closer to the bow and I realized this was my last chance before the ship took an incredible amount of damage. Concentrating again I loosed a further three fireballs and although only two hit that was all it took and the creature slowly slumped down into the depth. The tentacles had damaged the ship's sails, mast and deck, and we made our way to Isafjordur now with a ready-made excuse as to why we needed to make harbour there.
On arrival at Isofjordur, we were met by a belligerent-looking group of villagers and our pilot negotiated a short-term berth to repair the damages. It was obvious we were not welcome although Corus departed the ship and went off without a word to me. My companions and I decided to try the local tavern and were welcomed in by the innkeeper Odolf Tofoson, who served us ale and victuals. The tavern had a Warhammer outside and so I guessed that was its name, It was dark inside with smokey fish oil lamps giving a pitiful light. When we got there Corus was already ensconced in the corner looking towards the door. We spotted Holgar in the other corner, he was our guide the last time we came to Iceland and I must say it was a relief to see a friendly face we could trust in this village of bitter stares. Corus seeing we wanted to chat with Holgar eventually left and then we began our conversation. Holgar told us the Svein was eight or nine feet tall and had the blood of giants in his veins. He was not alone, his son and another wizard attended to him, and a group of female shapeshifters guarded his secret lair. His lair was somewhere in a cold and deserted peninsular called the Hornstrandir. I was also told of a seer in the hills to the south who hated Svein, and I thought that a conversation with her would be advantageous in that the enemy of my enemy might assist me.
The next day, we headed off being guided by Holgar, although the distance as the crow flew was short,t we had to walk in and out of the fjords, adding considerable time to our journey. Just on the other side of the fjord was the Trolls seat Legen has it that a huge troll was walking over the mountain tops and sat on the ridge, its weight left a massive seat-shaped gap in the fjord wall. During the day it seemed peaceful enough, but Holgar warned us of trolls in the nighttime and that in the past shepherds had vanished if they let their sheep graze there.
The men stayed on the road, and using the cloak, I decided to do a quick survey of this bowl. Once I had risen up the scree slope of a hundred yards or so, it became easygoing, I landed and walked invisibly across. At the back, I discovered some caves and standing by the mouth and I measured an aura of the third magnitude.
Not wanting to be delayed by entering a Regio I decided to stop my investigation there and continue along the path to a village called Sudevik.
We continued on our walk with some pace and the views were incredible. The Fjords cliff rose from the placid water reflecting their grandeur. The crisp air and snow on the distant peaks reminded us that this was a place of Ice but the occasional steam vents we saw in the south and the volcano reminded us that this was also a place of fire.
Arriving late in Sudevik, Holgar spoke with a man he knew who allowed us to sleep in an empty fish smoker, it was dry, but the smell of smoked fish permeated everything. The man also asked us to take some gifts for the seer and warned us to not release her from her chains.
We made our way up the road, but then veered off into open country. Eventually, we arrived at a very steep slope and myself and Holgar pulled ourselves up to the narrow cave entrance near the waterfall. We travelled down and narrow passageway hewn from the volcanic rock filled with the sulphurous smells and steam. It opened up into a small chamber and there chained to the wall with a ghastly appearance was a woman with her scraggly hair dragged over her face, she was blind and chained to the far wall, this was the Seer. Her name was Signi and we talked for a while until I said I wished a vision of the location of her enemy and ours Svein. She said I had to sacrifice something something valuable to me and so without hesitation, I handed over twenty-one pawns of Ignem Vis, something so precious to me as it assists my magic and helps Certamen. She took this precious gift and tossed it into a crack in the cave rear, I heard it fall down and down into the mountain lost forever. She then proceeded to pound evil-smelling herbs together into a liquid, which she then passed to me and told me to drink I drank the potion and my visions started to blur. Holgar later told me that I fell into a fit shaking rapidly and Signi had leaned over me and licked my face I record now that vision I had whilst under the effect of the visionary brew.
I saw the North Star high over a coastal cliff, a shard or fan of rock extending above it. There was a verdant slope and the North Star hung above the cliff. I then seemed to move south and the stars resolved three times. I saw a huge eagle with a white tail above a peak which I took to be an omen and then flew past the peak to a rocky plain surrounded by three peaks. I saw a door set into the ground and power radiated behind and with that, I awoke.
Holgar reported that I lay in this state for a few hours, but I survived the hideous brew and awoke on the cold floor. Giving Signi the gifts and food the villages of Sudevik had asked me to give her we left her still chained to the wall. I asked Holgar about the cliff with the blade of rock but he knew nothing. He said maybe Arnolf in Sudevik might be of help as it would be the fishermen who might have travelled out of the fjord. We returned to the village and indeed were given directions to the cliff which was just a single-day sail from Isolfordur, which he called the Hornbjarg. He sketched in the sand a picture which I will try and recreate in this report.
On the way back to the Ship, I took another look at the troll seat and explored inside I did see a regio boundary but worse than that I saw a sigil which I assumed to be Clorus’s, not knowing the hermetic significance of this I had to stop my exploration. I felt he had claimed it and knew not what rights I would have to challenge that claim or even what tribunal would hear any charge.
Returning to the ship, I was pleased to see the repairs had been completed and under the surly gaze of the villagers we set sail for the Hornbjarg. Once there I instructed the captain to set anchor and wait for my return.
Flying invisibly I rose up from the ship and flew inland, rising quickly to the plateau behind the cliff which would have been most of a day's travel if done mundanely. Flying quickly south I passed a peak and unusually for me saw a man climbing along a cliff attempting to get to a huge eagle's nest where I saw a single egg. I continued south and had to cast a spell to allow me to see through the mist as I did not want to run into a mountain at such speed. After an hour the terrain looked nothing like my vision and I returned to the eagle's nest to see if there was something I had to do there, as the Eagle in my vision was quite prominent. I landed at the nest and through my skill avoided any damage to it from the winds whipping around me. Looking over the cliff's edge, I saw the man a blonde-headed Viking climbing just a few yards below me. Leaning over I shouted at him and he looked at me, activating the Fons Sapientiae I asked his mind if he was a member of the order of Odin to which I heard in my head a resounding “Yes”. With his fate sealed I launched a total of six balls of abyssal flame at him and he tumbled burnt and dead to the valley below. Then from behind me, I was hit in the back by the eagle returning and I stumbled, knocking the egg. It started to roll towards the cliff edge and so using my magics quickly I created a ramp of stone to gently stop it from falling off the cliff. Quickly replacing the egg in the nest I saw the eagle land and check its precious egg. Once satisfied it leapt skywards and circled a few times before flying east, I rose to the air once more and followed the eagle. It led me through a hidden valley that without its aid I would never have found and soon came to the place in my vision. However, it was slightly different with some small huts in the middle of it with what looked like women being about their daily business. These might be the shapechangers I had heard about and not wanting to let the prey know its lair had been found iI took several arcane connections from the edge of the valley and then quickly returned north to the ship.
With my quest complete I instructed the captain to return to Cardiff via Reykjavik, where we paid and dropped off our pilot. I wrote my report on the peaceful and quick homeward journey, which the captain then delivered the report to Primus Guido and Magus Cassius.