The Journal of Marcus Rabinus - Volume 4
(Last update: 11/8/95)
(this page written by Mark Shirley)
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The Journal of Marcus Rabinus
filius of Belisarius, follower of Jerbiton
Volume 4
Preparations were made to leave for Hibernia, where the next portion of Sabian's document could be found, at the Covenant of Circulus Rober. Callidus decided to lead this expedition. He travelled overland to La Rochelle, and then set sail there for Cork. From Cork it was merely a 2 day journey to the forest of Yaelin, in which the eldest of Hibervna's Covenants is hidden. The guest house at the edge of the forest was deserted, except for a corpse hidden under one of the beds. A watch was posted, but the night passed undisturbed Travelling through the forest on the next day resulted in persistant molestation by a being of living shadow, who swept into the midst of the caterva, attacked and then swept out again, untraceable. Eventually the Covenant was reached, and found to be abandoned. The huge hollow stone spire that housed an entire town of covenfolk on its ground floor was devoid of life, although food and belongings lay decaying in the houses. The spire itself held the laboratories, which the caterva stared to explore as the sun reached its zenith. There was no sign of the 12 Magi that once inhabited this Covenant either. The first 8 laboratories belonged to the younger Magi, and 6 of these had been sealed with lead saying "Mortuus" and blue wax bearing the sigil of Wendlehone, Praeco of Hibernia and leader of this Covenant. By the time the library was reached, the sun was setting outside. The library was huge, and famed for its mundane knowledges. However it was completely bare - not a single scrap of paper remained. Then one of the grogs spotted movement by the pool on the ground floor. The centre of the spire was hollow, and looking down it could be seen a lone figure in pale robes standing staring into the pool. By the time that Callidus had made it back down to the ground floor, there were four figures there. A strange conversation then ensued. The eldest, female figure did all the talking, although there was very little of that, Callidus managed to piece together the following tale. A strange disaster had befallen the Magi, resulting from the betrayal of the other Magi. The library was burnt, but not before all of its knowledge had been transferred into the Scrying Pool. If blood from three separate sources is poured into the pool it is possible to summon the image of a book, and study from it. Between the studies of the remaining Magi, the Covenfolk "got finished". The remaining Magi now have strange dietary requirements, best not mentioned. Callidus struck a deal on behalf of the Covenant - for the price of 8 pawns of vis (either Mentem or Vim AND Corpus) a year for five years, the Magi would allow Callidus to make a copy of Sabian's Missive. Upon returning to the Covenant there was a lot of argument as to whether Callidus had the right to make this deal with them without the consent of the Council, but it all seemed academic to me - the deal had been struck already, and the strange survivors would not have settled for anything else.
Tribius of House Verditius has decided to leave the Covenant. He claims that he has had an offer elsewhere, and whether or not this is the truth, I think the real reason that he is leaving is to escape the Crusade. This puts us down to only seven members again.
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