Defence of Narva Covenant
Scribed by Pyrrhus
I will enter here the record of my adventure up the Baltic to save the covenants of Narva and Crintera the Domus Magnus of house Bjornaer, the recording of this journal gives me bittersweet memories of the times I had had in Cliffheart recounting our tales of daring with my friends, or magi whom I had thought were my friends. I began by learning of the route I would have to take. I flew up to Blackthorn and had a few hours with Gaines the redcap going over his maps and descriptions of the ports and locations of the covenant of Narva. From there I joined the ship at Chepstow and instructed the captain to sail to London where I hoped to pick up a pilot for the long voyage ahead. It took a few days to sail around the tip of Cornwall and along the English channel but we eventually docked in the great city, I did notice that there were signs of bad harvests and food was expensive, indeed we had to be more careful on the streets as we had been warned that brigandage was on the rise. After a few hours, the captain returned with a man called Andreas who had agreed to guide us through the cold waters of the North Sea and onward to the port of Narva.
We set sail down the Thames and as we had Andreas aboard decided not to use our enchantments on the boat as he might have become afeared of our magics. Our journey was a simple one heading east until we saw land and then sailing north and east along the coasts of the Normandy and then the Rhine tribunals, we sailed around the country of Denmark that poked north from the main body of Europe and passed through a straight there separating Europe from Scandinavia, we proceed along the north coast of the Rhine Tribunal until we made port in Konigsberg and picked up some supplies, here I made my first significant error of judgement and decided to try and exchange all our coin for local currency, I should have done lots of small transactions but was not thinking straight at the time, I could blame others for not speaking up but to be honest our mundane servants rarely speak up or come up with original Ideas. (Margin note maybe if I got myself another shield grog whom I nurtured the feeling that he could offer ideas to me and I don't criticise him for his foolish suggestions would be an idea, maybe I can pick one up in Novgorod, although the language will be tricky.)
We headed into the city up the main thoroughfares led by Andreas to a man he knew who would exchange the monies. It was quite intimidating being led through a foreign city by a foreigner whom we barely knew carrying such a sum in pennies. Eventually, we turned off the main street into a narrow side street and my pulse started to rise. I was about to ask Andreas how much further when three ne'er do well men appeared in front of me, we turned but then saw four behind us. In a pincer ambush, such as this the important thing is to divide the enemy and deal with them one group at a time, I instantly summoned a wall behind us to block off the approach to the four men, at the same time shouting at Andreas that I was a wizard (Margin note Looking back with the benefit of hindsight I should have terminated Andreas employment with fire at this point as his fear meant we had lost him as a useful pilot and he would later report us to the guards to save his skin.). I turned and although two of the thieves hesitated, one approached weapon drawn, As Flambeau himself taught when in doubt use fire, and never hesitate. Arcs of fiery ribbons pulsed multiple times from my hands incinerating all in front of me. I then ordered the Captain back to the ship and briskly walked there. The captain slipped at one point and dropped some coins and started to try and pick it up but I told him to leave it and we made it to the safety of the ship. We set sail and as soon as we had cleared the harbour we employed the enchantments and sped into open water and safety. We rapidly sailed up the coast until we came to the port of Libau in the Novgorod Tribunal, and the captain using his French language skills found a man who would pilot us the rest of the way to Narva, we purchased stores and water there as well.
(margin notes we must equip the boat with a barrel to Muto Aquam saltwater to freshwater for a moon’s duration as this would save time and money also some methods of catching fish, maybe a trained fisherman as a sailor and a Rego Animal Aquam device to charm fish into our nets, although that might be tricky maybe a simple device to create a dead fish that could be used as bait for seagulls or on hook and lines for other fish). It was a simple trip from there on continuing up the Baltic Sea with the coastline to our right sailing mainly eastwards, we did sail north for a bit with the coastline vanishing, but soon an island hove into view, the pilot called Osel and another called Dago were sailed past and the pilot told us we had passed the gulf of Riga on our right and we picked up the main coastline of the Novgorod Tribunal again, hugging the coast and using our best mundane speed to get us towards our goal.
A few days later we turned into an estuary and on the eastern bank was a port the pilot had told us we had arrived at Narva and we paid him off. We had no method of contacting people from the covenant however and all I knew of its location was it was a few days to the southeast in the forest and hills. I was determined to wait until contacted by agents of the covenant and raised a second flag of Flambeau’s sigil crudely painted on a piece of canvas. During this time we resupplied the vessel and I told the captain that when I had departed to the covenant he could use the port as a base and attempt to do some trading in the local seas. Eventually, a couple of men approached the ship and said something in a language I did not understand, but as soon as I said something in Latin they switched to that language, after a bit of too and froing attempting to assess if I was a magus we did establish that I was and they started to escort me to the covenant of Narva.
It was a three-day trek and nothing happened on the first day, but on the second we encountered a huge bear which instantly charged our small group, again without hesitating I summoned balls of fire to strike it and if not kill it then discourage its attack. The fire dissipated around it and I recognised it must be a magical bear of massive magnitude or a Bjornaer magus. Luckily, some might say, it turned out to be the latter and he reverted to human form and shouted at me to identify myself I did so and challenged his right to charge at my group without assessing friend or foe (margin note It was obvious this was an attempt by an elderly Bjornaer to cow a junior magus into submission but he had chosen the wrong magus.) he then challenged me to a certamen for some reason shouting the word Muto, I responded with Ignem and we began a flame appeared between us and he attempted to turn it to ice and I attempted to turn it back into fire. It was a short-lived certamen as he outclassed me and did not have the traditional weakness to Ignem that most Bjornaer have. I submitted after the first round and we then began a civilised conversation between Magi, he felt he had proved his prowess in some way. He told us to be wary of lycanthropes and to leave any bears alone in the area and I thanked him for his warning, even though the two covenant grogs had already told me this on the previous day. Maybe elderly Bjornaer become as stupid as their heartbeasts, it would explain a lot. On the way to the covenant we passed another tower that looked like a covenant to me but we walked around it, the men with me did not explain and I wondered if it was a forward defence tower to announce the presence of enemies in the wood, it later turned out to be an illusory tower to confuse our enemies as it had me.
We arrived at the covenant proper and I was greeted by Cassius, Rebellious and Ernestus, after refreshing myself from the journey we sat in council and made plans, I was given the defence of the covenant village which I was assured would not be attacked, which I found especially frustrating in that either I was being lied to or I was being put out of the way where I would not be hurt. During this meeting Ernestus would occasionally show his distaste for me by barking at me like I was a servant, I responded by demanding the respect that my gift gave me and this riled him, but being a blowhard he soon forgot and resumed being a normal magus. This pointless posturing annoys me, he told me to mind my place in the hierarchy and follow orders, which is exactly what led to the downfall of Crannagh Tomb.
I went to the village which was a half day’s travel over several hills and saw it was a sleepy valley village on a stream that led into the estuary, around the village were crop strips and at the centre a dozen or so cottages. I had been assigned 3 grogs from the turb to assist in my defence Helga Luca and Piotr and with them and the help of the villagers, we started to arrange some trenches if attackers came up the valley. We spent several weeks at the village but I maintained a regular watch and patrol taking a watch of my own. Even though I had been assured by my superiors that we would not be assaulted in the village I was awakened from sleep one night by the sounds of chaos in the village, It was apparent that the Teutonic knights had decided to assault the village as well and calling the 2 grogs with me we ventured out of the cottage and into the night. (margin notes In hindsight I should have allowed the grogs to put some armour on and given them enhancement spells, the difference in the destruction wrought would have been minimal but their survival chances would have been increased radically).
We saw two armoured men going from cottage to cottage and we attacked them, my ward stopped my opponent's blow and my magics turned him into a burning husk of a man, but these were well-trained fighters in the service of the Knights and one of my unarmoured grogs were rapidly gutted by the man fighting him, my other grog moved in to fight the knight's man and at the same time, I saw four enemies approaching from the darkness of the forest. Leaving my female grog to battle as well as she could I engaged the group of men with bolts of fire. I missed two which, at the range and at night, was not such a surprise and hit two, one was hurt considerably but the other had some form of magical protection as the fires washed over him. This was one of the knights with a magical charm I estimated of the fourteenth or fifteenth magnitude, as I can normally pierce the twelfth and sometimes thirteenth.
They swung their blades at me and my ward protected me from their mundane assaults, I don't know who trained them in fighting magically defended foes but they all instantly realised the issue and dropping their blades they attempted to grapple me. I fended off two of them grabbing for my arms but the main knight charged me down, knocked me to the floor and attempted to punch me in the face, I almost laughed now looking back at the look of frustration I saw in his eyes when the metal gauntlet he attempted to punch me with was averted by my ward. I was now in a tricky place knocked down with a heavily armed knight sitting on my chest and two men at arms attempting to grasp my hands. I had been trained for this sort of rough and tumble however and I cast Incandescence of the Escaping Wizard to smother myself in flames, this I hoped would dissuade the men from grappling me but they were very brave and well trained and even though they were burning continued to attempt to grapple me, one left my hands and managed to stuff a gag of some sort in my mouth, obviously trying to stop my casting magic by denying me the use of my hands and voice. The months they must have trained together for this operation knowing what to do instinctively impressed me, also the lack of fear in fighting a hermetic wizard, I wish we had some grogs like this in Severn Temple.
I however was equally well trained and having no voice and no use of my hands was not a problem, and neither was the jostling they constantly gave me. As the fires from my spell scorched the two unprotected men eventually they released me staggering away leaving the one knight sitting on my chest who had discarded the iron gauntlet and was attempting to strangle me. He had realised that my gift of Achilles in combination with my silvery scales of the knight gave him little hope to harm me in a normal physical manner and so he was trying to strangle me into unconsciousness, a clever move except I now had my hands free. I reached into a pouch at my waist and my fingers touched the raw Ignem vis contained within, I could feel its magical power tingle on my fingertips and as I opened up my spell to consume it the rush of the magical power shot up my arm and into my head, directing the blast of my ballistae of fire at the man sitting on my chest empowered by a rook or Ignem vis blew through his magical protections and his armour was rent asunder over his shoulder the skin, muscle and bone below blackened to an unrecognisable mass like a meat bone tossed in the fire during a feast. He recoiled but did not relinquish his grip until reaching into my other pouch I sent a second blast into him vapourising his face and leaving a gaping hole in his helmet. Standing, pushing the roasted corpse of the knight teutonic off me I looked around, all three of my grogs were dead but the villagers had been able to finish off the remaining militiamen with a few villagers lost in that final battle, even though they were burnt to a crisp the Teutonic militiamen continued to fight to the end with no thought of surrender, and I admired them for that. Typically just as we had won, reinforcements arrived from the covenant and Cassius with several grogs took command, I was sent back to the covenant and rapidly flew there in a few minutes guided by the burning forests around the covenant itself.
We all gathered in the council chamber and discussed the actions, the loss of the villagers and grogs was a blow to the covenant but not a mortal one, it was revealed however that an army had laid the port of Narva under siege and five ships were blocking the estuary with a chain the middle one was a mighty white warship flying the flag of the Knights a black cross. We scouted from afar the army besieging the city and unfortunately, I saw the Severn Star sitting in the harbour, trapped like a rabbit in a cage. We reconvened and after much discussion we came down to two plans of action, myself and rebellious would attempt to break the chains and sail the Severn star out of the harbour to inform Guido of what was occurring, and Ernestus would at the same time attack the supply camps of the besieging force, Cassius stated that he would guard the covenant. it was obvious that if Narva fell then it would be very difficult to prevent the Teutonic Knights from proceeding to destroy the covenant.
On the next night with the tide coming in, Rebellious and I flew down to the ships blockading the harbour, I created a minor fire on board as a diversion and Rebellious landed and using Perdo Terram magics cracked the chain blocking the mouth of the estuary from traffic. He succeeded in doing so but got spotted and had to flee to the front of the ship where he took to the skies and fled into the night. With the chain now sitting on the bottom of the channel, I landed on the Severn Star and directed the captain to head to sea, with the enchantments about us we rapidly approached the blockading ships, but not quick enough as several archers started shooting fire arrows into our sails, luckily with two flambeau magi guarding the ship the flames were quickly snuffed out with Perdo Ignem magics. We then heard across the still night air a mighty twang as a ballista on the central larger ship threw a bolt into our hull, just above the water line. The captain rapidly went below to prevent the ingress of water by using one of the enchanted items that had been created just for this purpose. More arrows fell on the sails but we managed to extinguish them and we passed through the two vessels on the far left of the line, as we came out the other side there was another crack as a second bolt hit the Severn Star this time a little higher and less dangerous, once clear of the ships the sails snapped open as the conjured winds filled them and we sped into the night escaping the siege and making for open water. The big warship must have released its chains and attempted to follow us but with the tide against it and with our enchantments it was no match for our smaller vessel and it soon vanished behind us in the dark gloom of the Baltic.
I had been informed of the patrol patterns of the ships Guido maintained and we headed for Gotland, an island I was told was the headquarters of the Hanseatic league. We saw no signs of Guido's ships and sailed south where we encountered a fog bank south of the island. I believe this fogbank hid an Island and on that island is located Crintera the Domus Magnus of house Bjornaer. Not wanting to raise the ire of that very secretive house of wizards we skirted the fog bank and headed south looking for any sign of Guido's ships, The captain then came to me and informed me that we were running low on supplies and water and I made one of the worst decisions in my life, I told the captain to head to the port of Libau as it was the closest to our position, I did ask if the Captain could change our name and flag but he said it was impossible with the equipment we had on board and sailing into port without colours as he called the flag would lead to many more questions.
As we pulled into the port we espied the great white warship we had fled at Narva, we instantly turned and headed for the open sea but it was not one-quarter of an hour before we saw the fully rigged ship come after us, fed up of running I made myself invisible. I took to the air to blast the ship into charred planks. I targeted each of the sails with my creeping oil spell, but the sailors were very attentive and noticed the slightly darker stain creeping over their sails and started to pull them down, I then cast fire into the sails now on deck and they caught instantly, burning some of the sailors grappling with them. The sailors were well-trained and started to extinguish the flames with sand and soak blankets beating the flaming oil-soaked sails until the flames were no more. I then flew the length of the ship spewing oil from my fingertips, with the spell the mighty torrent of oil and then flew out to range again and ignited the oil with a bolt of abyssal flame. Several of the sailors were incinerated but again the training paid off and they soon had the fires under control, the ship was without sail now however and was drifting on the winds and the Severn Star was almost gone over the horizon. I was determined to blast the hull of the ship with bolts of abyssal flame and did a run to bring me closer, at that moment I was hit by a mighty Perdo Vim effect of the tenth or eleventh magnitude which lowered my Parama Magica considerably.
My bolts hit the side of the ship and although scorched the flames seemed to have little to no effect, thrice more I attacked the ship and thrice more, I was assaulted by the Perdo Vim effect, the last time my parm was flattened and I felt my silvery scales of the knight spell drop, obviously if the spell penetrated the parma it destroyed magic on my person. With this revelation, I decided to catch up with the Severn star as they had no hope of catching us now.
The captain informed me that if we did not make landfall soon we would die of thirst and starve. And so we made for the next port up the Baltic, why oh why did I not just make for a small village instead of a mighty Teutonic-controlled port? Maybe it was the hunger and thirst. We pulled into the port of Memel up the coast and the captain and first mate were led off by some officials, I assumed to purchase supplies but I had disastrously misjudged and not long later an armed contingent of men came to the ship and led us off to a keep, as we were led off each man was examined, I later discerned they were looking for someone with the gift but as mine lay gently about me they did not conclude I was a hermetic wizard. I could have at this point made a stand and killed the men and looking back that would have been the correct action, but the thirst and hunger and tiredness were making me docile and I went along thinking in some way that I could free the captain.
They took us to a keep in the middle of the city and in a courtyard there opened up a grate and ordered us at spearpoint into the oubliette. Then a large grate was lowered over the pit and it was padlocked, I waited for a while and bread and water were lowered to the men and we slaked our thirst and assuaged our immediate hunger. They also brought in a man, who stated in halting French that if handed over the hermetic wizard everyone else would be freed. The men looked at me but kept quiet.
Thinking clearly again I realised there was only one solution to escape and kill the guards, I went invisible via the Pallium Nubis, and lifted myself to the grate via my talisman I then attempted to reach the padlock but could barely touch it, it clicked open by my spell “Picking the tricky lock” but I could not then rotate the lock. Frustrated, I resorted to the element that had never failed me, FIRE! Using my spontaneous magic, I created a blade of flame that sliced through the thin bards of the grate. This was obvious and almost the second I cut through the grate nine guards were standing around the now open hole wielding spears. I rose above these men and then started the gruesome but beautiful work; arcs of fire rippled out from my fingers making beautiful shadows on the wall. The guards below did not see that beauty and as their skin turned black under the caress of flame they bolted as a man for the gate of the courtyard. I conjured flame again in the form of “Path of Incinerating flames” and watched as they all fell to the floor; the smell of roasting flesh filling the small courtyard. Sensing what I thought was an easy victory, I ordered the sailors to make for the ship. They picked up the singed spears off of the guard's corpses and charged for the next door. However, a group of armed men were waiting for us on the other side. I was pushed around in the scrum, as I was invisible, but I managed to kill these other guards with the assistance of a “ball of abyssal flame” and the sailors’ spears. The unarmoured sailors took casualties but we had no time to help them. We managed to open the outside door but, across the square in front of the keep, was another group of soldiers already set up in ambush. More sailors were dropped by arrows but the lightly armoured archers soon fell to my fire spells. We quickly advanced to the ship and I thought to create a distraction by setting Memel aflame. As we travelled swiftly towards the docks, I launched several bolts of fire into the thatches of neighbouring buildings. Back on the boat, the sailors cut the ropes and we escaped into the baltic. We had barely enough men to sail the ship but with the enchantment aboard the ship we managed to get away into the night on a ship with no supplies. It was only later that I discovered that the Teutonics had searched the ship and found much of the coin we had hidden around it.
Fleeing eastwards with the smoke of the burning city behind us we were desperate to find water and food. We tried alighting at a small fishing village hoping to get some fish and some water but I was unable to speak the language and for some reason, the men were unable to understand simple sign language they refused to help. I gathered a couple of skins of water from a stream but then our ship spotted another ship on the horizon and raised a flag to warn me. I flew back to the ship abandoning the rowboat on the shore. It seemed no matter where we went, even if we were static for a few hours, the enemy was upon us. We continued to sail further east along the coast, trying to head back to Narva and maybe to a port beyond the grasp of the Teutonic Knights. A small town hove in to view and we pulled in there. Again we suffered from the language problem a simple Mentem spell would have solved but eventually, my silver spoke a language both sides understood we managed to pick up food and water. Leaving the port the next day we felt more buoyant, happy that we had food in our bellies and ale in our barrels we should have known better than to think our luck had changed.
We sailed into the Gulf of Riga going south around the islands. I remembered that we had to sail across the gulf and then further east, passed the port of Revel and then on to Narva and then further east if Narva had fallen. But we never got that far as our luck such that it was, had run out. On the horizon, I would estimate four leagues away two ships were spotted, not a great white ship but a black ship and a smaller merchant. They came towards us and so we angled away and anticipating that if they were just merchants not looking for us they would not change their course, but our luck was no good and they did come after us. At that point, I decided to go out and destroy the sails of the enemy but they seemed to have closed the distance before I made my mind up what to do, from three leagues to three hundred yards, did I really dither for that long wondering what to do? I destroyed the sails but of course, they were already within ballista range and their bolts hit the ship, I shot at the ballistae and my flames washed over the ship but missed the crew of the big ballista. Again my Magic's were attacked, it seemed wherever I went I found these magically protected ships! The artefact destroyed a spell seemingly at random. my luck was not good however and the winds about me died and I started to plummet towards the sea, I had anticipated the possibility of this disaster however, activating my talisman I floated in the air and I reactivated the cloak to lift me into the air again.
At this point I made a tactical error and went to save my ship which was already listing from the ballistae bolts which seemed to have no problem in penetrating the ships hull, I should have destroyed the ballistae and after the futile attempt to stop the flow of water while more holes were being punched into the hull of the Severn Star, I realised my hopeless cause and decided to go and destroy the Teutonic warship. I flew and landed on the forecastle killing the crew the ballistae that had mortally wounded our ship by laying fire across the deck, ropes caught fire wood caught fire and people caught fire filling the air with the aroma of victory but then one figure approached my flames merely singeing his arm. A knight Teutonic charged towards me seemingly immune to most of my flame. I grabbed the last of my Ignem Vis, burnt it and launched a powerful bolt against the knight. He fried, his skin instantly blistered, then popping with the water contained within, his eyeball melted and the screams from his mouth music to my ears.
With one ship disabled and the crew killed, I flew over to the other the smaller merchant ship, there were archers shooting fire arrows at our ship so I killed their captain with a blast of flame and at that, the crew lept into the sea to save their skins. I then flew back to the warship thinking of searching for the Teutonic knight I had killed in case he had one of these devices on him that had deflected my magic. Back on the deck of the warship, I saw a priest or what looked like a priest trying to heal the knight. This I could not allow and so I washed the deck with my flame again attempting to kill the priest, but the waves of Ignem washed over him and he turned and in Latin, encanted a spell of Perdo Corporem and my parma failed and the lights went out. I was blinded and tried to guess the direction of the enemy magus but in combat, things happen and I lashed out again with flame and I heard again Perdo Corporem. This time my tongue was twisted and I could not use words to cast my magics, but I am a mighty Flambeau and need not my voice or my hands to bind the power of Ignem to my will and so yet again I lashed out blindly with flame about the ship, then he started casting other spells and I felt my strength flee me and fatigue washed over me, as I grew further and further tired and closer and closer to unconsciousness, I realized that I was outmatched and although I was willing to die I knew the information that a hermetic magic wizard was aiding the Teutonic order had to get out. So wrapping the winds about me again I took off straight up and then when I had reached altitude I felt the sun on my face and tried to fly south, in an attempt to get over land.
The sound of the sea receded and I landed. I came to land in a forest and I started to walk trying to find someone to help me in my blind and mute state after a day I heard some men they came and started to rifle through my pockets realizing I could not allow myself to be divested of my silver or my magical items, I called on the flame and killed the men. Realising I could not stay there I rose up again, picked a direction at random and flew for an hour trying to get away from that area in case more bandits came. I landed I think near a mountain lake and I walked around it, The temperature was cold but at least I had water, I wandered along the edge of the lake and eventually a dog came up to me and growled, getting ready to cast fire I then heard a man who took me into his house and fed me for the month I needed to recover. I paid him some silver for which he and his wife were very grateful as I could tell before I offered to pay she had been nervous about taking me in from the tone of her voice. Being able to see again, I set off south, down a path and once out of sight of the village where I had recovered, took to the air and flew along the coast to Narva which was captured by the Teutonic knights, I was shocked that three Flambeau were not being able to stop a mundane army from capturing the city, I found it hard to believe the cowardice or they're lack of willing to put fire to the enemy. I flew down the estuary until I came to the valley where the village used to be, flew up there and then from there I knew the route to the Covenant.
We had a council and I held back on my feelings of their incompetence and when I asked why they did not attack they said they could not display blatant magic. I asked myself are we not allowed to defend ourselves? Are we not allowed to defeat our enemies, they are cowards! The code is not a suicide pact and who was going to report them?
Supplies were low in the Covenant, so I agreed to go to a town to the east called Luga where we gathered supplies and came back, I was glad to be out of the Covenant the stench of defeat was intolerable. When I had returned with all the food and wine that would supply the Covenant for a while Guido arrived. He told me to return home, I did not understand his logic, the fight was here! What was the point of sending me home when I was one of the few people willing to fight, willing to kill to defend the order but he is my Primus (in name only), so I flew back to Luga. There I caught a redcap ship, which took me swiftly to London. Funnily enough, they had plenty of luck and we saw no Teutonic black sails on the way home. From London, I followed the great Thames up to Oxford, flew quickly to Gloucester and then down the Severn to Blackknee and then up to home there to recount my tail of misfortune and bad decisions.
Scribed by Pyrrhus
I will enter here the record of my adventure up the Baltic to save the covenants of Narva and Crintera the Domus Magnus of house Bjornaer, the recording of this journal gives me bittersweet memories of the times I had had in Cliffheart recounting our tales of daring with my friends, or magi whom I had thought were my friends. I began by learning of the route I would have to take. I flew up to Blackthorn and had a few hours with Gaines the redcap going over his maps and descriptions of the ports and locations of the covenant of Narva. From there I joined the ship at Chepstow and instructed the captain to sail to London where I hoped to pick up a pilot for the long voyage ahead. It took a few days to sail around the tip of Cornwall and along the English channel but we eventually docked in the great city, I did notice that there were signs of bad harvests and food was expensive, indeed we had to be more careful on the streets as we had been warned that brigandage was on the rise. After a few hours, the captain returned with a man called Andreas who had agreed to guide us through the cold waters of the North Sea and onward to the port of Narva.
We set sail down the Thames and as we had Andreas aboard decided not to use our enchantments on the boat as he might have become afeared of our magics. Our journey was a simple one heading east until we saw land and then sailing north and east along the coasts of the Normandy and then the Rhine tribunals, we sailed around the country of Denmark that poked north from the main body of Europe and passed through a straight there separating Europe from Scandinavia, we proceed along the north coast of the Rhine Tribunal until we made port in Konigsberg and picked up some supplies, here I made my first significant error of judgement and decided to try and exchange all our coin for local currency, I should have done lots of small transactions but was not thinking straight at the time, I could blame others for not speaking up but to be honest our mundane servants rarely speak up or come up with original Ideas. (Margin note maybe if I got myself another shield grog whom I nurtured the feeling that he could offer ideas to me and I don't criticise him for his foolish suggestions would be an idea, maybe I can pick one up in Novgorod, although the language will be tricky.)
We headed into the city up the main thoroughfares led by Andreas to a man he knew who would exchange the monies. It was quite intimidating being led through a foreign city by a foreigner whom we barely knew carrying such a sum in pennies. Eventually, we turned off the main street into a narrow side street and my pulse started to rise. I was about to ask Andreas how much further when three ne'er do well men appeared in front of me, we turned but then saw four behind us. In a pincer ambush, such as this the important thing is to divide the enemy and deal with them one group at a time, I instantly summoned a wall behind us to block off the approach to the four men, at the same time shouting at Andreas that I was a wizard (Margin note Looking back with the benefit of hindsight I should have terminated Andreas employment with fire at this point as his fear meant we had lost him as a useful pilot and he would later report us to the guards to save his skin.). I turned and although two of the thieves hesitated, one approached weapon drawn, As Flambeau himself taught when in doubt use fire, and never hesitate. Arcs of fiery ribbons pulsed multiple times from my hands incinerating all in front of me. I then ordered the Captain back to the ship and briskly walked there. The captain slipped at one point and dropped some coins and started to try and pick it up but I told him to leave it and we made it to the safety of the ship. We set sail and as soon as we had cleared the harbour we employed the enchantments and sped into open water and safety. We rapidly sailed up the coast until we came to the port of Libau in the Novgorod Tribunal, and the captain using his French language skills found a man who would pilot us the rest of the way to Narva, we purchased stores and water there as well.
(margin notes we must equip the boat with a barrel to Muto Aquam saltwater to freshwater for a moon’s duration as this would save time and money also some methods of catching fish, maybe a trained fisherman as a sailor and a Rego Animal Aquam device to charm fish into our nets, although that might be tricky maybe a simple device to create a dead fish that could be used as bait for seagulls or on hook and lines for other fish). It was a simple trip from there on continuing up the Baltic Sea with the coastline to our right sailing mainly eastwards, we did sail north for a bit with the coastline vanishing, but soon an island hove into view, the pilot called Osel and another called Dago were sailed past and the pilot told us we had passed the gulf of Riga on our right and we picked up the main coastline of the Novgorod Tribunal again, hugging the coast and using our best mundane speed to get us towards our goal.
A few days later we turned into an estuary and on the eastern bank was a port the pilot had told us we had arrived at Narva and we paid him off. We had no method of contacting people from the covenant however and all I knew of its location was it was a few days to the southeast in the forest and hills. I was determined to wait until contacted by agents of the covenant and raised a second flag of Flambeau’s sigil crudely painted on a piece of canvas. During this time we resupplied the vessel and I told the captain that when I had departed to the covenant he could use the port as a base and attempt to do some trading in the local seas. Eventually, a couple of men approached the ship and said something in a language I did not understand, but as soon as I said something in Latin they switched to that language, after a bit of too and froing attempting to assess if I was a magus we did establish that I was and they started to escort me to the covenant of Narva.
It was a three-day trek and nothing happened on the first day, but on the second we encountered a huge bear which instantly charged our small group, again without hesitating I summoned balls of fire to strike it and if not kill it then discourage its attack. The fire dissipated around it and I recognised it must be a magical bear of massive magnitude or a Bjornaer magus. Luckily, some might say, it turned out to be the latter and he reverted to human form and shouted at me to identify myself I did so and challenged his right to charge at my group without assessing friend or foe (margin note It was obvious this was an attempt by an elderly Bjornaer to cow a junior magus into submission but he had chosen the wrong magus.) he then challenged me to a certamen for some reason shouting the word Muto, I responded with Ignem and we began a flame appeared between us and he attempted to turn it to ice and I attempted to turn it back into fire. It was a short-lived certamen as he outclassed me and did not have the traditional weakness to Ignem that most Bjornaer have. I submitted after the first round and we then began a civilised conversation between Magi, he felt he had proved his prowess in some way. He told us to be wary of lycanthropes and to leave any bears alone in the area and I thanked him for his warning, even though the two covenant grogs had already told me this on the previous day. Maybe elderly Bjornaer become as stupid as their heartbeasts, it would explain a lot. On the way to the covenant we passed another tower that looked like a covenant to me but we walked around it, the men with me did not explain and I wondered if it was a forward defence tower to announce the presence of enemies in the wood, it later turned out to be an illusory tower to confuse our enemies as it had me.
We arrived at the covenant proper and I was greeted by Cassius, Rebellious and Ernestus, after refreshing myself from the journey we sat in council and made plans, I was given the defence of the covenant village which I was assured would not be attacked, which I found especially frustrating in that either I was being lied to or I was being put out of the way where I would not be hurt. During this meeting Ernestus would occasionally show his distaste for me by barking at me like I was a servant, I responded by demanding the respect that my gift gave me and this riled him, but being a blowhard he soon forgot and resumed being a normal magus. This pointless posturing annoys me, he told me to mind my place in the hierarchy and follow orders, which is exactly what led to the downfall of Crannagh Tomb.
I went to the village which was a half day’s travel over several hills and saw it was a sleepy valley village on a stream that led into the estuary, around the village were crop strips and at the centre a dozen or so cottages. I had been assigned 3 grogs from the turb to assist in my defence Helga Luca and Piotr and with them and the help of the villagers, we started to arrange some trenches if attackers came up the valley. We spent several weeks at the village but I maintained a regular watch and patrol taking a watch of my own. Even though I had been assured by my superiors that we would not be assaulted in the village I was awakened from sleep one night by the sounds of chaos in the village, It was apparent that the Teutonic knights had decided to assault the village as well and calling the 2 grogs with me we ventured out of the cottage and into the night. (margin notes In hindsight I should have allowed the grogs to put some armour on and given them enhancement spells, the difference in the destruction wrought would have been minimal but their survival chances would have been increased radically).
We saw two armoured men going from cottage to cottage and we attacked them, my ward stopped my opponent's blow and my magics turned him into a burning husk of a man, but these were well-trained fighters in the service of the Knights and one of my unarmoured grogs were rapidly gutted by the man fighting him, my other grog moved in to fight the knight's man and at the same time, I saw four enemies approaching from the darkness of the forest. Leaving my female grog to battle as well as she could I engaged the group of men with bolts of fire. I missed two which, at the range and at night, was not such a surprise and hit two, one was hurt considerably but the other had some form of magical protection as the fires washed over him. This was one of the knights with a magical charm I estimated of the fourteenth or fifteenth magnitude, as I can normally pierce the twelfth and sometimes thirteenth.
They swung their blades at me and my ward protected me from their mundane assaults, I don't know who trained them in fighting magically defended foes but they all instantly realised the issue and dropping their blades they attempted to grapple me. I fended off two of them grabbing for my arms but the main knight charged me down, knocked me to the floor and attempted to punch me in the face, I almost laughed now looking back at the look of frustration I saw in his eyes when the metal gauntlet he attempted to punch me with was averted by my ward. I was now in a tricky place knocked down with a heavily armed knight sitting on my chest and two men at arms attempting to grasp my hands. I had been trained for this sort of rough and tumble however and I cast Incandescence of the Escaping Wizard to smother myself in flames, this I hoped would dissuade the men from grappling me but they were very brave and well trained and even though they were burning continued to attempt to grapple me, one left my hands and managed to stuff a gag of some sort in my mouth, obviously trying to stop my casting magic by denying me the use of my hands and voice. The months they must have trained together for this operation knowing what to do instinctively impressed me, also the lack of fear in fighting a hermetic wizard, I wish we had some grogs like this in Severn Temple.
I however was equally well trained and having no voice and no use of my hands was not a problem, and neither was the jostling they constantly gave me. As the fires from my spell scorched the two unprotected men eventually they released me staggering away leaving the one knight sitting on my chest who had discarded the iron gauntlet and was attempting to strangle me. He had realised that my gift of Achilles in combination with my silvery scales of the knight gave him little hope to harm me in a normal physical manner and so he was trying to strangle me into unconsciousness, a clever move except I now had my hands free. I reached into a pouch at my waist and my fingers touched the raw Ignem vis contained within, I could feel its magical power tingle on my fingertips and as I opened up my spell to consume it the rush of the magical power shot up my arm and into my head, directing the blast of my ballistae of fire at the man sitting on my chest empowered by a rook or Ignem vis blew through his magical protections and his armour was rent asunder over his shoulder the skin, muscle and bone below blackened to an unrecognisable mass like a meat bone tossed in the fire during a feast. He recoiled but did not relinquish his grip until reaching into my other pouch I sent a second blast into him vapourising his face and leaving a gaping hole in his helmet. Standing, pushing the roasted corpse of the knight teutonic off me I looked around, all three of my grogs were dead but the villagers had been able to finish off the remaining militiamen with a few villagers lost in that final battle, even though they were burnt to a crisp the Teutonic militiamen continued to fight to the end with no thought of surrender, and I admired them for that. Typically just as we had won, reinforcements arrived from the covenant and Cassius with several grogs took command, I was sent back to the covenant and rapidly flew there in a few minutes guided by the burning forests around the covenant itself.
We all gathered in the council chamber and discussed the actions, the loss of the villagers and grogs was a blow to the covenant but not a mortal one, it was revealed however that an army had laid the port of Narva under siege and five ships were blocking the estuary with a chain the middle one was a mighty white warship flying the flag of the Knights a black cross. We scouted from afar the army besieging the city and unfortunately, I saw the Severn Star sitting in the harbour, trapped like a rabbit in a cage. We reconvened and after much discussion we came down to two plans of action, myself and rebellious would attempt to break the chains and sail the Severn star out of the harbour to inform Guido of what was occurring, and Ernestus would at the same time attack the supply camps of the besieging force, Cassius stated that he would guard the covenant. it was obvious that if Narva fell then it would be very difficult to prevent the Teutonic Knights from proceeding to destroy the covenant.
On the next night with the tide coming in, Rebellious and I flew down to the ships blockading the harbour, I created a minor fire on board as a diversion and Rebellious landed and using Perdo Terram magics cracked the chain blocking the mouth of the estuary from traffic. He succeeded in doing so but got spotted and had to flee to the front of the ship where he took to the skies and fled into the night. With the chain now sitting on the bottom of the channel, I landed on the Severn Star and directed the captain to head to sea, with the enchantments about us we rapidly approached the blockading ships, but not quick enough as several archers started shooting fire arrows into our sails, luckily with two flambeau magi guarding the ship the flames were quickly snuffed out with Perdo Ignem magics. We then heard across the still night air a mighty twang as a ballista on the central larger ship threw a bolt into our hull, just above the water line. The captain rapidly went below to prevent the ingress of water by using one of the enchanted items that had been created just for this purpose. More arrows fell on the sails but we managed to extinguish them and we passed through the two vessels on the far left of the line, as we came out the other side there was another crack as a second bolt hit the Severn Star this time a little higher and less dangerous, once clear of the ships the sails snapped open as the conjured winds filled them and we sped into the night escaping the siege and making for open water. The big warship must have released its chains and attempted to follow us but with the tide against it and with our enchantments it was no match for our smaller vessel and it soon vanished behind us in the dark gloom of the Baltic.
I had been informed of the patrol patterns of the ships Guido maintained and we headed for Gotland, an island I was told was the headquarters of the Hanseatic league. We saw no signs of Guido's ships and sailed south where we encountered a fog bank south of the island. I believe this fogbank hid an Island and on that island is located Crintera the Domus Magnus of house Bjornaer. Not wanting to raise the ire of that very secretive house of wizards we skirted the fog bank and headed south looking for any sign of Guido's ships, The captain then came to me and informed me that we were running low on supplies and water and I made one of the worst decisions in my life, I told the captain to head to the port of Libau as it was the closest to our position, I did ask if the Captain could change our name and flag but he said it was impossible with the equipment we had on board and sailing into port without colours as he called the flag would lead to many more questions.
As we pulled into the port we espied the great white warship we had fled at Narva, we instantly turned and headed for the open sea but it was not one-quarter of an hour before we saw the fully rigged ship come after us, fed up of running I made myself invisible. I took to the air to blast the ship into charred planks. I targeted each of the sails with my creeping oil spell, but the sailors were very attentive and noticed the slightly darker stain creeping over their sails and started to pull them down, I then cast fire into the sails now on deck and they caught instantly, burning some of the sailors grappling with them. The sailors were well-trained and started to extinguish the flames with sand and soak blankets beating the flaming oil-soaked sails until the flames were no more. I then flew the length of the ship spewing oil from my fingertips, with the spell the mighty torrent of oil and then flew out to range again and ignited the oil with a bolt of abyssal flame. Several of the sailors were incinerated but again the training paid off and they soon had the fires under control, the ship was without sail now however and was drifting on the winds and the Severn Star was almost gone over the horizon. I was determined to blast the hull of the ship with bolts of abyssal flame and did a run to bring me closer, at that moment I was hit by a mighty Perdo Vim effect of the tenth or eleventh magnitude which lowered my Parama Magica considerably.
My bolts hit the side of the ship and although scorched the flames seemed to have little to no effect, thrice more I attacked the ship and thrice more, I was assaulted by the Perdo Vim effect, the last time my parm was flattened and I felt my silvery scales of the knight spell drop, obviously if the spell penetrated the parma it destroyed magic on my person. With this revelation, I decided to catch up with the Severn star as they had no hope of catching us now.
The captain informed me that if we did not make landfall soon we would die of thirst and starve. And so we made for the next port up the Baltic, why oh why did I not just make for a small village instead of a mighty Teutonic-controlled port? Maybe it was the hunger and thirst. We pulled into the port of Memel up the coast and the captain and first mate were led off by some officials, I assumed to purchase supplies but I had disastrously misjudged and not long later an armed contingent of men came to the ship and led us off to a keep, as we were led off each man was examined, I later discerned they were looking for someone with the gift but as mine lay gently about me they did not conclude I was a hermetic wizard. I could have at this point made a stand and killed the men and looking back that would have been the correct action, but the thirst and hunger and tiredness were making me docile and I went along thinking in some way that I could free the captain.
They took us to a keep in the middle of the city and in a courtyard there opened up a grate and ordered us at spearpoint into the oubliette. Then a large grate was lowered over the pit and it was padlocked, I waited for a while and bread and water were lowered to the men and we slaked our thirst and assuaged our immediate hunger. They also brought in a man, who stated in halting French that if handed over the hermetic wizard everyone else would be freed. The men looked at me but kept quiet.
Thinking clearly again I realised there was only one solution to escape and kill the guards, I went invisible via the Pallium Nubis, and lifted myself to the grate via my talisman I then attempted to reach the padlock but could barely touch it, it clicked open by my spell “Picking the tricky lock” but I could not then rotate the lock. Frustrated, I resorted to the element that had never failed me, FIRE! Using my spontaneous magic, I created a blade of flame that sliced through the thin bards of the grate. This was obvious and almost the second I cut through the grate nine guards were standing around the now open hole wielding spears. I rose above these men and then started the gruesome but beautiful work; arcs of fire rippled out from my fingers making beautiful shadows on the wall. The guards below did not see that beauty and as their skin turned black under the caress of flame they bolted as a man for the gate of the courtyard. I conjured flame again in the form of “Path of Incinerating flames” and watched as they all fell to the floor; the smell of roasting flesh filling the small courtyard. Sensing what I thought was an easy victory, I ordered the sailors to make for the ship. They picked up the singed spears off of the guard's corpses and charged for the next door. However, a group of armed men were waiting for us on the other side. I was pushed around in the scrum, as I was invisible, but I managed to kill these other guards with the assistance of a “ball of abyssal flame” and the sailors’ spears. The unarmoured sailors took casualties but we had no time to help them. We managed to open the outside door but, across the square in front of the keep, was another group of soldiers already set up in ambush. More sailors were dropped by arrows but the lightly armoured archers soon fell to my fire spells. We quickly advanced to the ship and I thought to create a distraction by setting Memel aflame. As we travelled swiftly towards the docks, I launched several bolts of fire into the thatches of neighbouring buildings. Back on the boat, the sailors cut the ropes and we escaped into the baltic. We had barely enough men to sail the ship but with the enchantment aboard the ship we managed to get away into the night on a ship with no supplies. It was only later that I discovered that the Teutonics had searched the ship and found much of the coin we had hidden around it.
Fleeing eastwards with the smoke of the burning city behind us we were desperate to find water and food. We tried alighting at a small fishing village hoping to get some fish and some water but I was unable to speak the language and for some reason, the men were unable to understand simple sign language they refused to help. I gathered a couple of skins of water from a stream but then our ship spotted another ship on the horizon and raised a flag to warn me. I flew back to the ship abandoning the rowboat on the shore. It seemed no matter where we went, even if we were static for a few hours, the enemy was upon us. We continued to sail further east along the coast, trying to head back to Narva and maybe to a port beyond the grasp of the Teutonic Knights. A small town hove in to view and we pulled in there. Again we suffered from the language problem a simple Mentem spell would have solved but eventually, my silver spoke a language both sides understood we managed to pick up food and water. Leaving the port the next day we felt more buoyant, happy that we had food in our bellies and ale in our barrels we should have known better than to think our luck had changed.
We sailed into the Gulf of Riga going south around the islands. I remembered that we had to sail across the gulf and then further east, passed the port of Revel and then on to Narva and then further east if Narva had fallen. But we never got that far as our luck such that it was, had run out. On the horizon, I would estimate four leagues away two ships were spotted, not a great white ship but a black ship and a smaller merchant. They came towards us and so we angled away and anticipating that if they were just merchants not looking for us they would not change their course, but our luck was no good and they did come after us. At that point, I decided to go out and destroy the sails of the enemy but they seemed to have closed the distance before I made my mind up what to do, from three leagues to three hundred yards, did I really dither for that long wondering what to do? I destroyed the sails but of course, they were already within ballista range and their bolts hit the ship, I shot at the ballistae and my flames washed over the ship but missed the crew of the big ballista. Again my Magic's were attacked, it seemed wherever I went I found these magically protected ships! The artefact destroyed a spell seemingly at random. my luck was not good however and the winds about me died and I started to plummet towards the sea, I had anticipated the possibility of this disaster however, activating my talisman I floated in the air and I reactivated the cloak to lift me into the air again.
At this point I made a tactical error and went to save my ship which was already listing from the ballistae bolts which seemed to have no problem in penetrating the ships hull, I should have destroyed the ballistae and after the futile attempt to stop the flow of water while more holes were being punched into the hull of the Severn Star, I realised my hopeless cause and decided to go and destroy the Teutonic warship. I flew and landed on the forecastle killing the crew the ballistae that had mortally wounded our ship by laying fire across the deck, ropes caught fire wood caught fire and people caught fire filling the air with the aroma of victory but then one figure approached my flames merely singeing his arm. A knight Teutonic charged towards me seemingly immune to most of my flame. I grabbed the last of my Ignem Vis, burnt it and launched a powerful bolt against the knight. He fried, his skin instantly blistered, then popping with the water contained within, his eyeball melted and the screams from his mouth music to my ears.
With one ship disabled and the crew killed, I flew over to the other the smaller merchant ship, there were archers shooting fire arrows at our ship so I killed their captain with a blast of flame and at that, the crew lept into the sea to save their skins. I then flew back to the warship thinking of searching for the Teutonic knight I had killed in case he had one of these devices on him that had deflected my magic. Back on the deck of the warship, I saw a priest or what looked like a priest trying to heal the knight. This I could not allow and so I washed the deck with my flame again attempting to kill the priest, but the waves of Ignem washed over him and he turned and in Latin, encanted a spell of Perdo Corporem and my parma failed and the lights went out. I was blinded and tried to guess the direction of the enemy magus but in combat, things happen and I lashed out again with flame and I heard again Perdo Corporem. This time my tongue was twisted and I could not use words to cast my magics, but I am a mighty Flambeau and need not my voice or my hands to bind the power of Ignem to my will and so yet again I lashed out blindly with flame about the ship, then he started casting other spells and I felt my strength flee me and fatigue washed over me, as I grew further and further tired and closer and closer to unconsciousness, I realized that I was outmatched and although I was willing to die I knew the information that a hermetic magic wizard was aiding the Teutonic order had to get out. So wrapping the winds about me again I took off straight up and then when I had reached altitude I felt the sun on my face and tried to fly south, in an attempt to get over land.
The sound of the sea receded and I landed. I came to land in a forest and I started to walk trying to find someone to help me in my blind and mute state after a day I heard some men they came and started to rifle through my pockets realizing I could not allow myself to be divested of my silver or my magical items, I called on the flame and killed the men. Realising I could not stay there I rose up again, picked a direction at random and flew for an hour trying to get away from that area in case more bandits came. I landed I think near a mountain lake and I walked around it, The temperature was cold but at least I had water, I wandered along the edge of the lake and eventually a dog came up to me and growled, getting ready to cast fire I then heard a man who took me into his house and fed me for the month I needed to recover. I paid him some silver for which he and his wife were very grateful as I could tell before I offered to pay she had been nervous about taking me in from the tone of her voice. Being able to see again, I set off south, down a path and once out of sight of the village where I had recovered, took to the air and flew along the coast to Narva which was captured by the Teutonic knights, I was shocked that three Flambeau were not being able to stop a mundane army from capturing the city, I found it hard to believe the cowardice or they're lack of willing to put fire to the enemy. I flew down the estuary until I came to the valley where the village used to be, flew up there and then from there I knew the route to the Covenant.
We had a council and I held back on my feelings of their incompetence and when I asked why they did not attack they said they could not display blatant magic. I asked myself are we not allowed to defend ourselves? Are we not allowed to defeat our enemies, they are cowards! The code is not a suicide pact and who was going to report them?
Supplies were low in the Covenant, so I agreed to go to a town to the east called Luga where we gathered supplies and came back, I was glad to be out of the Covenant the stench of defeat was intolerable. When I had returned with all the food and wine that would supply the Covenant for a while Guido arrived. He told me to return home, I did not understand his logic, the fight was here! What was the point of sending me home when I was one of the few people willing to fight, willing to kill to defend the order but he is my Primus (in name only), so I flew back to Luga. There I caught a redcap ship, which took me swiftly to London. Funnily enough, they had plenty of luck and we saw no Teutonic black sails on the way home. From London, I followed the great Thames up to Oxford, flew quickly to Gloucester and then down the Severn to Blackknee and then up to home there to recount my tail of misfortune and bad decisions.