Back to the Home Page(This page was written by Mark Shirley)
Emergency Council Meeting of Spring 1233
(A write-up of an emergency Council Meeting called by Marcus to discuss
the Covenant's financial crisis, based on a long series of emails.)
The Visit of Holernes
(The tale of the visit of the wandering magus Holernes, and his mysterious
companion Heinrich, unfinished. It follows on from Holernes' missive
in the
Visitor's Book.)
Just Another Day
(Not strictly speaking a memorable event, but rather the story of a typical
day in the life of Marcus Rabinus.)
Three Score Years and Ten
(The short tale of Father Jean-Pierre's passing away. He now rests in
peace.)
Memorable Botches
(An account of some of the mishaps that have occured, both humorous and
tragic.)
This page lists some of the more exceptional and noteworthy events that have occured recently. For some of them, you just had to be there...
It was the Spring Meeting of 1233AD, and it was close to morning. Everyone was starting to get a little weary of the wrangling, when suddenly the door to the Council Chamber flew open.
Standing there was a monstrous beast, easily 12' high. It stood upright like a man, but on cloven hooves. Two oversized arms ended with wickedly curved talons. The head was the worst - a terrible combination of stag and man, with tushes like a wild boar. A crown of antlers swept upwards and outwards, brushing the ceiling whenever it moved its head. Magi scattered. Lady Odette scarpered out the window, calling the winds to her as she left. Id and Paul both drew weapons. Fionn just sat there, pale as the moon.
The creature glared around the Council Chamber with baleful eyes of emerald green. "FIONN!" it bellowed. "IT IS TIME, FIONN!" Everyone froze, unsure what to do. Our Chairman rose shakily to his feet, waving the others back as he did so. His expression was that of a man being led to the hangman's rope. He climbed over the Council Chamber and stood before the beast, changing as he did so. Coffa's Shawl, with its antlered cap, became part of the chairman's head, and the shawl itself lengthened and melded with his body, leaving as it went furred hide. When the transformation was complete, Fionn was a replica of the beast before him, albeit smaller, and distinctly punier. With a roar, the beast lowered its head and charged, and they met, locking antlers like stags in rut. The struggle lasted mere seconds - it was clear who was the strongest. A sharp tine slipped past the druid's defence and wounded him severely in the belly. Our Chairman dropped to the ground, and the monster bellowed its triumph. "UNTIL NEXT TIME!" It then swiftly turned and stalked out. Maria rushed to Fionn's side to do her witchery on the wound, whilst Id and Paul rushed down the stairs to follow it. However, it never left the tower, and it was later discovered that no-one saw it enter either.
Fionn was reluctant to speak of the encounter, but we did discover two things - that its name was Mawredd, and that it was his familiar...
Undaunted, she commanded the capture of a second rat. Events transpired that she did not get around to questioning the vermin until much later on that evening. This one denied all knowledge of a `King Rat', and refused to speak with her at all, despite her taunting it with food - the rat was obviously starving. Frustrated by the rat's refusal to give her any information, and pushed beyond breaking point by the creature's ill manners, she decided to resort to torture. Now, torture is a very delicate craft, and not something to be tried by an amateur. Not only is Maria a healer, and therefore not idealy suited to the task, she was also trying to get information out of a rodent. Needless to say, the rat quickly drowned in the wine that she poured into the jug before it could tell her what it knew.
With a dogged persistance uncommon in one so young, she procured yet a third rat, convinced still that this was where all the trouble lay. As she started to question this one, she heard a squeaky spectral voice warning the captured rat not to say anything, as he would be killed anyway, no matter how much truth he spoke. Maria gave up on the rats, and it transpired that the plague was down to an unholy artifact that had dwelt long within Elne's church, and the rats were merely responding to decay, as is the wont of vermin.
Now, whenever Maria is completely off the right course, whether in her studies or on expeditions, she has reported the sound of tiny feet scampering out of her way.
It was the spring of 1234, and Salamandrus had just been restored from the Faerie Regio where he had lain trapped for a year. Recent events having reminded him of his mortality (and of his closeness to Final Twilight), he decided that he should banish at least one demon before his time is due...
Now it was known that a demon lived in the River Rhone, at the point where it passed through the city of Arles, in the south of France. It was believed by the townsfolk that the city was cursed never to have a crossing of the river. A new bridge had just been built when a previous party from Malinbois crossed it. Disasters tend to follow members of Malinbois as night follows day, and so it is not surprising that the bridge collapsed when they went over. Upon falling into the waters, Saeed espied the foul creature, a large beast shaking the foundations of the bridge to bits, and was deeply traumatised.
Thus it was that Salamandrus lead a return expedition to dispense some justice to the demon. The holy friar, Jean-Pierre, was invited on account of his previous experience in banishing demons. Severin and Jean and Davis came along also. They passed unnoticed through the city and went down to the riverside at low tide by the remains of the old bridge. One or two passers by asked them what they were doing. The reply of "There is a demon in the river," from the friar was met with amusement. Nothing was to be seen. So it was decided that they should cross to the other side (using the ford, some miles outside the city). As high tide approached, the party went down to the docks and hired out a boat. There was plenty of traffic up and down stream, but no-one was crossing the river. Bravely (and some would say foolishly) they decided to cross.
As the boat neared the centre of the mighty river, Salamandrus became paler than white, staring out over the waters, obviously seeing something with his Second Sight. The friar could see nothing, but sensed an infernal presence. Salamandrus began a casting of Demon's Eternal Oblivion as, in spiritual form, the malevolent amphibian approached the craft, which crumbled to dust at its touch. Chaos ensued as the party fell into the waters and began to drown. Salamandrus was sinking, but was still casting his magics. Severin, the best swimmer, was valiantly trying to hit the beast with a blessed sword. Although the power of the demon had been much reduced by Salamandrus' spells, it was still not looking good. Apart from Severin, who was sorely wounded by a blow from the creature, the rest of the party were sinking rapidly.
As the frail old friar was slowly descending, air escaping from his lungs as he struggled in vain, he realised that they were in dire need. Jean-Pierre raised aloft the crucifix of St Martin and prayed to God for Deliverance.
The city folk on both sides of the river watched in amazement as the heavens opened above the drowning melee. Bathed in Divine Light, an angel of the Host descended to help them in their hour of need. As the demon fled in terror and was banished, the angel reached down into the waters to retrieve the drowning men, and carried them to safety on the far bank of the river. (N.B. Jean-Pierre rolled two 1s and a 10, giving him a result of 50 on the Miracle roll!)
After several long moments of awe had passed, the nearby people clamoured forward to touch the holy man. Chaos ensued until the bishop and his retinue arrived. When there was quiet, Jean-Pierre wished to thank God for his mercy, and gave an impromptu sermon. He gave an inspirational performance, and his words seemed to carry unnaturally far, so that all who were present could hear. (This time he got a 33 on Com+Piety!) The bishop was impressed and he was invited back to the cathedral. With the testimony of the passers-by, the bishop could not deny that an incredibly rare Miracle had occured. The friar was invited to give more sermons, and the party eventually left a few days later as heroes, and the people of Arles can now build a bridge across their river with God's blessing.
Every Spring, a small party is usually sent out to harvest vis from the sites of Home and the Apple Garden. In the year of 1227, the captain Guy led an experienced group comprising the veterans Jean and Six, and the dim-witted sergeant Davis. The first problem was when they tried to cross the narrow bridge over the tortuous ravine. Heedless to the danger, and without even bothering to strip off his armour, Davis leapt across first. Guy tried to take the more conservative route (actually using the bridge) but was not quick enough to grab on when he fell off. Davis tried to catch him, but to no avail - with a wail the captain had vanished. Several seconds later a very distant splash was heard. Davis was distraught and at a loss as to what to do (the burden of leadership fell to him). To start with, he spent several minutes calling down "Captain! Captain!", but there was no reply. Eventually he resolved to climb down and rescue him - several hundred feet down a sheer cliff face in darkness - not the most sensible of ideas. Nevertheless, Davis (being an adept climber) made it all the way to the bottom, only to find no trace of Guy in the fast-flowing underground stream.
As if this wasn't bad enough, there was yet another fatality at the Apple Garden! Before it was slain, the Rainbow Serpent managed to inflict a serious wound upon Six. It looked like she would probably make it... before Davis tried his hand at chirurgy, that is! Now Davis is notoriously clumsy, and despite his claims to the contrary, is hopelessly incompetant where healing is concerned (Chirurgy -3). Id returned to find the hapless sergeant covered in blood and guts, desperately trying to insert some bits back into the dead body of Six, muttering "What's the f**king matter wiv you? Come on, go back in, live!" Needless to say, the curator was not impressed! It was not exactly the most successful mission Davis had ever been on, coming close to that time where he pushed Nafesi off a cliff!
Evnissyen could do nothing but look on in horror when the decision of whether or not to attack a Marched Magus-turned-Faerie-King was left in the hands of Davis, the terminally stupid sergeant. Davis is not used to making decisions (the most important being along the lines of whether or not he should piss in the campfire to put it out in the morning) and so he was rather worried about this burden of responsibility. He could sense that it was an important decision - whether to help Colan or attack him - but he was overwhelmingly confused. However the procrastinating Id and Francois insisted that the decision was his. Davis eventually let it be decided on the toss of a coin, it came up tails, so the decision was that they would help Collan.
However Francois did not seem satisfied with this, so he took the sergeant aside and ordered him to attack the King. Normally Davis doesn't need to be told twice, but since this seemed to contradict the decision he had just been asked to make, he sought clarification. His query of "You wot?" was answered with "Charge!", and that was all the clarification he needed. Poleaxe aloft, he ran at the King shouting before anything could be done. Unfortunately, he did a little too well, and King Collan's head was cleaved in twain with a single blow. Somewhat belatedly, Davis was tackled to the ground by a grog and hit by three restraining spells, but the damage had been done.
Evnissyen laid a death-curse on Davis on Collan's behalf, sure that this would not be the only retribution taken...
A rather strange tale of experimentation into the continuity of the space-time continuum, uh, I mean the strangeness of regiones, by Imanitos and Salamandrus. They were hunting for a quarter of the caligo heart of the Devourer, and eventually came across the ruins of Phoenix Covenant deep in the Alps, where Marcus and Peregrine had used to live. It transpired that the group happened to enter some kind of strange regio, so that they appeared to be amongst the living magi of Phoenix, in the year 1180 AD - 48 years earlier! At this "time" Marcus and Peregrine were absent, but Imanitos and Peregrine couldn't resist the opportunity of investigating Marcus' sanctum...
The problems began almost immediately for the two young magi standing outside the tower. They could not get past the front door, which appeared to be locked with no mundane mechanism. Instead Imanitos tried to "float" up to the open window on the third floor. (It was here that Imanitos first noticed the problems with Corpus magicks in this aspected regio, but that's a different story...) Although wobbly, his spell managed to levitate him up, and he clambered through the window. Inside appeared to be a laboratory, all was well until Imanitos' feet touched the floor... And promptly stuck in, leaving him trapped there! His Perdo magicks were not helping much until Salamandrus finally arrived to help him out. Salamandrus clambered over the benches until he was in a position to help destroy the floor around Imanitos' feet. Imanitos tried another Rego Corpus spell to glide over the floor, but his concentration was interrupted and he became stuck again. After again being released, Imanitos opted for the rather unglamourous approach of avoiding getting stuck by scootling around on his backside with his legs in the air! After this comedy of errors, the two magi eventually made it to the internal door leading to the staircase... which was again magically shut. The two magi, both being rather overspecialised and hopelessly incompetant in the Arts of Muto and Terram, eventually gave up in disgust. They returned to the window, and before leaving, surveyed the evidence of their arrival. There were two strange sets of foot imprints in the floor, and the wooden bench was warped and blackened where Salamandrus had sat. Grinning to themselves, the two magi princepes couldn't resist leaving a riddle for Marcus, were he ever to return. With a minor Perdo spell, Imanitos wrote with his finger into the floor. After thinking for a moment, the first thing that came into his head was Eclipse of the Fishes. Satisfied with their handiwork, the two meddlesome magi left via the window again.
Imanitos was most disappointed when, upon his return to Malinbois, his cryptic enquiry of "Eclipse of the Fishes?" was seemingly not recognised by Marcus. Instead, the older magus went off in a huff, slamming his door behind him (he had never been fond of Criamon riddles)...
The horrendous earthquake at Malinbois was interpreted as the Seventh Sign, and so the time of the Battle was imminent. Already the covenant was in bad shape, the towers had been severely damaged by the movings of the earth and there were already several casualties. Darkness was over the place as the party set out; Imanitos, Salamandrus, Id and Saeed, together with Father Dietrich, Sir Rodriguez and a small band of trusted grogs.
They arrived there at the allotted time and found it worryingly easy to enter the infernal regio. At the top level, it could be seen that on either end of the Battlefield, there were two small hills, adorned with statues representing Harkerr the Devourer and Tyritescus the Betrayer. Attempting to navigate the battlefield was hazardous enough, and the trusted scout Jean was slain in an ambush. This was to the despair of all, since he was the only one who could use the magical arrows that had been enchanted with Whitefire Chant.
Strangely, the magi found that there was an area of calm in the vicinity of the Devourer's edifice. Imanitos spotted the complete caligo heart, and stepped forth to grasp it. As he took it up, he was overcome with an urge to destroy it, which he chose not to resist, and so he thrust one of his daggers deep into the stone. As he did so the heart dissolved, and this was the last stage that was necessary to allow Harkerr to fully manifest himself in the land that he claimed. As the Devourer and his minions came forth, so appeared some of his mortal servants. Others, including his chief tool, Annabelle de Clevault, did not appear, perhaps lurking out of sight in the mist.
Harkerr was awesome to behold, and it was soon clear that the chaotic battle that ensued was going badly for the Malinbois magi. Those that were brave enough (or stupid enough) to charge him directly were left writhing in agony on the floor. Saeed and Id were occupied with some of the others, including Father Tanchus, but Salamandrus concentrated on the biggest target of all. Even his best spells seemed to have little effect. Meanwhile, Imanitos prudently retreated to the nearby hillside and sat down. As he was watching the progress of the battle, suddenly Annabelle appeared beside him and asked him to join their cause. Imanitos was considering his reply when they were interrupted by the culmination of the melee below.
Already injured, Salamandrus knew that it looked bad, and so in a last-ditch effort he gathered together all the Perdo and Vim vis that he had prepared, and spontaneously unleashed it all in the largest Demon's Eternal Oblivion that he had ever cast. (26 pawns of vis were used, giving a 102nd level spell!) As the huge demon recoiled in great shock, badly crippled but not fully banished, he retaliated and Salamandrus was immolated. As the masked magus fell to the ground in flames, the last thing he saw with his second sight was the arrival of the Watchers to drag the Devourer back off to Hell, and he knew that he had witnessed the demotion of an Echelon Devil.
Meanwhile, back on the hillside, Imanitos did not have the opportunity to answer Annabelle's question, as she vanished there and then. Likewise, the remaining servants of Harkerr below fled the scene of battle and were not seen again.
One of the few left standing rushed forward to smother the burning body of Salamandrus. The attempts at chirurgy seemed to have little effect - his time was nigh and he seemed about to draw his dying breath. Then, strangely, a feeling of calmness came over Salamandrus, and he clearly heard the gentle voice of Jean-Pierre. "God has need of you yet, my son." He felt the healing hands of the friar upon his chest. After a long moment, those watching saw that he opened his eyes again and he was saved.