Game Sessions: 4/5/99
Alpha Storyguide: Chris Blake
The pele tower was coming along nicely, and Richard had managed to recruit enough men to start patrolling the valley. He himself was too busy to make the first trip though the countryside. Nevertheless, he felt it is important that Christopher go, hoping that the presence of a knight might help recruit more men. Unfortunately, his presence did little to convince men to sign on, but the trip did yield some willing men. The most impressive results from the foray were that one of the grogs got himself a woman in Hawkshead, and the story of Christopher's exploits with the Scottish soldiers (see Look Who's Coming to Dinner) was spread throughout the area, seemingly to grow with each new telling.
Near the end of their journey, the patrol came upon an innkeeper whose daughter was deathly ill. Christopher sent his quickest rider home to fetch some of the magi to see if they could help the girl, named Marjorie. The only magus to come was Prava, and his magics oddly told him that nothing was wrong with the lass. Thinking this strange, he sent for more magi, and started investigating the townspeople to see if any of them had cast a spell or had the girl cursed. Soon Baelthornon and Roland arrived to aid in the investigation. They found a lot of odd behavior in and around the village: the local hunter (Willard) neglected his traps in order that he might learn to read; the miller was giving the village folk old and moldy grain, the grains coming from a near by farmer who knows that he is distributing bad grains; and the girl had apparently been raped a year ago by a stranger who was then murdered. The magi also met Sela, the local healer, who has some magical talent, but not the person behind the girl's illness. She was also a friend of Phædra's.
The poor girl died of her illness soon after, so the villagers sent her young friend to get the priest from Grasmere, but before he returned the long absent Father Bernard returned. Then the deaths really started. First was the hunter, who the villagers believed hung himself out of guilt for causing the girl's death. The young man who went to Grasmere never returned. Clark, another young man in the area, was trampled by a bull. While the village was deciding who should tell his father, the man arrived. He was quite shaken, and it took some time before he could explain that some creature had broken into his house and carried away his wife.
Sir Christopher immediately organized the villagers into search parties to find some sign of this creature. Two of the parties returned with news that they saw Marjorie and Willard heading for some caves near the village. The magi quickly went to these caves to see what was going on. The gruesome sight that greeted them was five dead people standing at points of a pentagram, with a bull-like creature holding Bernard in the center. Though fear gripped most of the party, Sir Christopher waded in, attacking the undead, and the other men soon came to their senses and helped him. The magi began to attack the bull-like creature, trying to wear down its Might. In the end, the demon was dispatched, with little harm to anyone, save the unfortunate Prava.
Cast: Sir Christopher and Baelthornon (Patrick), Prava (Mike), Jeremy and Roland (Ann).
Game Sessions: 4/11, 4/18/99
Alpha Storyguide: Chris Blake
The Tribunal was relatively uneventful. Each of the magi of Corona Montis was accepted into the Tribunal, with only Blackthorn and Trevenot of Gwyddbwyll voting against them. Blackthorn tried to make a stink out of John's relationship with the King, but was told that the Quaesitors would watch him, so they need not worry about it.
There was much activity outside the Tribunal as well. There was of course much vis and many magic items for sale or trade, and three new magi just out of apprenticeship visited likely candidates for covenants to join. Four magi seeking membership approached Corona Montis: Mirabel of House Vertitus, Peregrine of House Arteman, Savarik of House Gwyddbwyll and Gillis of House Tremere. After some debate, the magi agreed to accept both Mirabel and Savarik, interested in having another Verditius to team up with Prava and the two Bonisagi, while Savarik would allow for study of a non-Hermetic shapeshifting magic at the covenant. Savarik was, however, at great risk of being cast out of his House, since members of Gwyddbwyll has always studied and resided at the Covenant of the Skald Crow. Still, John seemed pleased with the decision the younger magi had made.
Scriptor of Arteman from Ygraine's Grief approached the magi with an interesting offer: a rook of vis in a exchange for magical gauntlets that Firman of Blackthorn had but would not trade directly to Scriptor. The gauntlets were believed to be the gauntlets of Authur himself. The magi got the gauntlets, but then Scrpitor would not meet the high price that they had paid for them. So the magi returned home with the gauntlets and a great deal of vis which they had acquired.
The magi had hoped to trade some Vim vis at high price. The fact that the vis was demon-tainted confused the issue, but was only slightly questionable. In the end Trevenot of Gwyddbwyll offered the high bid and took the vis, with the explanation that he wished it to stay out of Blackthorn's hands.
The other young covenant to be voted on at this Tribunal, Chapel Hill, never showed up, so it was decided that all the magi there had two years to claim another covenant, or they had to declare themselves members in another tribunal.
On a related note, Osgarus of Arteman of Palma Sorviodunum asked the magi if they would look in on his late apprentice Baldric there. In Baldric's last letter he said that was looking forward to the Tribunal, so Osgarus was concerned by his absence. Given that the magi could easily stop by the Isle of Man on their way back to Eskdale, he booked passage on a ship for them.
Cast: Baelthornon (Patrick), Prava (Mike), Roland (Ann), Celer (Chris), Marcellus (Greg).
Game Sessions: 4/25/99
Alpha Storyguide: Chris Blake
The wizards left the Tribunal and entered Wales to join some men-at-arms that were to serve under Sir Richard at Austhwaite Manor. Prava left with them overland, while Baelthornon, Celer, Roland, and their new companion Savarik of Gwyddbwyll set sail for the Isle of Man per Osgarus' request. The magi made their way to Ballydoole and asked about local tales of wizards, and were surprised to learn the locals all knew of (and apparently were unfazed by) the magi of Chapel Hill. Following easy directions, the magi found themselves at the small keep poised atop the hill fort which gave the covenant its name.
The magi were greeted by Maeve of Bjornaer and Benezet of Trianoma, who related how they were mysteriously unable to book passage off the island to attend the Tribunal. They also explained that the rest of their magi were away, investigating a potential vis source. During the discussion of the repercussions of their failure to attend the Tribunal, the magi of Corona Montis became suspicious of their evasive hosts, who seemd to lack some basic Hermetic knowledge. This perhaps would be expected of some Bjornaer, but Baelthornon and Celer could hardly expect this of a Trianoma magus! Confronting the pair, the magi learned that they were in fact mundanes, servants of the magi they were masquerading as. A couple of the magi had left to investigate the vis source as they had said, then the others went looking for them when they failed to return. Now all were gone, and their servants used their ruse to keep visiting magi in check, a most admirable plan.
Determined to find their sodalis, the magi set out for St. Patrick's Isle on the north side of the island. Shortly after beaching their chartered boat, the group approached a hedgerow only to be attacked by three of the Chapel Hill's grogs, though they were quickly dispatched. Entering a hedge maze, Celer levitated Marcellus to allow him to find the exit. He spied a huddled form in the maze, and guided Roland and Baelthornon to it. Finding a naked form talking to himself and swatting away "spirits," Baelthornon tried to talk to him. But upon hearing the Bonisagus, he spewed something about the magi not "taking his soul," then fled right through the hedges, as if he were himself a ghost. Finding him down by the shore, where Ælfred of Bjornaer's pet dog (given to the magi by the servants of Chapel Hill) barked not at the crazed man, but at the wizards of Corona Montis. They tried to approach him, but Ælfred assumed the form of a mighty white stag and swam towards the mainland.
The only structure on the island was an old wooden fort, which the magi enetered. Finding a trapdoor leading to a basement, they parleyed with several magi of Chapel Hill who were hiding "after having being attacked by two of their own magi" when they arrived to find out what had become of them. Maeve of Bjornaer, Baldric of Arteman and Feargal of Merinita came up and formal Hermetic introductions began. Ever the gentleman, when Roland went to take the lady Maeve's hand, her hand passed right through his! Both groups stepped back, accused the other of being ghosts, and started casting Perdo Mentem spells. Roland left after trying to resume parlaying, but Celer, Savarik and Baelthornon dispatched the three ghost magi after having their Parmae reduced somewhat.
Savarik assumed raven form, flew upstairs and was attacked by the other two magi, as he related when he returned. Hearing them approach, the group made their Hermetic presence known, so Benezet of Trianoma and Olaf of Tremere came downstairs to talk. They claimed the other magi had attacked them and not the other way around. The suspicious magi of Corona Montis shook hands with Benezet, and were glad he seemed real enough. But Roland (always the source of consternation) shook hands with his companion Olaf, only to have his hand go right through him! Thus began another round of spellcasting... Besides Marcellus perforating Savarik with a longbow arrow by accident, the magi were lucky. Olaf was put to rest and the Trianoma rendered unconscious. They found the bodies of the other magi (sans Aelfred) upstairs.
On the way back to Palma Sorviodunum, Trevenet awoke, and was told that he was being taken to await Hermetic justice. He was surprisingly reticent, said he understood and agreed he must be punished, but told how his actions were not his own: in return for showing him a vis source, he had foolishly allowed a malicious spirit on the island to briefly possess his body. The spirit made him slay his sodalis, and he erected illusionary defences (such as the hedges, explaining why Aelfred passed through them without harm). The Quaesitors imposed a large vis penalty to be paid to the slain magi's paters for 20 years, and Corona Montis got the dead magi's grimoires for their trouble.
Cast: Baelthornon (Patrick), Roland (Ann), Marcellus (Greg), Celer, Maeve, Baldric, Feargal, Olaf, Ælfred and Benezet (Chris).
Game Sessions: 5/2/99
Alpha Storyguide: Chris Blake
As he did every fall, Baron Strickland held a tournament, and the knights of Austhwaite Manor were invited to participate. This year, however, the winner would earn the right to compete in London at the King's court, making the event all the more prestigious. The tournament took place over three days, with feasting every night and much dancing and singing. Sir Roland performed excellently on two separate nights, and once again had the eye of Lord Lancaster's young and beautiful wife Lena (as he had before during the story Look Who's Coming to Dinner). Once again in honorable fashion Roland refused her advances. There were plenty of available women there trying to find suitable knights to wear there favor. Sir Christopher won Strickland's widowed sister Adrienne's favor, while young Clothilde gave hers to young Fray Lancaster. There were other couples getting to know one another at this tournament as well, some smiled upon, others frowned upon. The pairing of Stephen Austhwaite and Margaret Armestronge caused the usual consternation, and Sir Aeddan tried to distract the girl from the rogue. He succeeded, perhaps all too well, as he then spent the rest of the feasts trying to avoid Margaret's advances.
The tournament consisted of six separate contests, points being received by the top five finishers of each event. First came an archery contest, won by Sir Thomas Anning, in the service of the Austhwaites. The rest of the day was occcupied by a hunt, won by Leigh, one of the Austhwaites' soldiers. The next day the lance work came into play, with three contests. First was an accuracy contest, in which knights had to pass their lance through as many rings as possible. Sir Christopher beat Sir Letard in a tiebreaker pass, securing yet another victory for the Austhwaites. Next came a contest of strength, in which it was judged how hard a jouster struck a practice dummy. The Austhwaite's stranglehold on the tournament was finally borken, the contest won by Sir Ben of parts unknown.
Then came a grueling joust. Sir Kevin, in service to Lord Pennington, nearly killed Sir Fray in one blow. Thanks to the quick action (and spells) of Baelthornon the young knight lived, much to Lady Clothilde's relief. Another scary moment came when Sir Richard and Sir Christopher met; Richard was dismounted by a particularly hard hit but was only knocked unconscious.
At one point during the joust, Roland and Baelthornon noticed a wizard casting spells upon Sir Kevin. They moved to ensure that he did not mange to cast any more magics, and learned that he was a court wizard in the service of Lord Pennington; he claimed no knowledge of the Order. After the confrontation Baelthonon followed the wizard and watched as he turned into an owl and flew away.
Sir Christopher went on to defeat Sir Kevin in the joust, outlasting him in the longest joust of the day, with so many passes many marveled at the flower of knighthood on display.
The last day of the tournament is a day of hand-to-hand combat, won by Sir David of Lancaster, with most knights weary or unable to compete because of the toll the jousting had taken. Yet at the end of the day, Sir Christopher was named the champion, having taken fourth place in the hunt, first in the rings, second in the damage contest, first in the joust and an exhausted fifth in combat. He earned the right to compete at the King's court in the spring.
Cast: Leigh, Marcellus and Roland (Ann), Chistopher and Baelthornon (Patrick), Thomas Anning (Mike).
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