New Magi arrive. They find Horsingas to be a tower-keep, wholly buried into a hill just east of the village of Wark. They settle into the sancta on the lower level of the covenant. Hygwald Veritas, filius Goliard scholae Tremendi; and Eric Ribecus filius Sine Nomine scholae Tytali. This brings the Covenant of Horsingas up to nine. The leaders are Sir Edwin of Hexham, Sir Jehan of Surrey and the Quaesitor Whitburh Frithowebba. There is also Aelfred of Thirweall (the former leader), Guiseppe del Mato, and a married couple, Ealwynn of Keswick and Coenwulf Eofurcumbol. The three leaders seem somewhat standoffish, despite two of them being quite young (Whitburh is the oldest of all the active magi). Aelfred is shut away in his sanctum and has not been seen for many months. The remaining three magi are quite friendly and approachable. The covenant seems to be more of a miliary base than a place to study magic.
The Raid. Edwin announces to the PCs that the covenant will not have enough food to last the winter, and that a raid is needed. He has chosen the target – the covenant of Doire Druidhan. Eric agrees to take on this task, and he goes north to the Lammermuir Hills with Caswalla to conceive a plan. He decides upon the following: a distraction far to the north will hopefully draw away at least one of the two lances that Doire Druidhan maintains. The forces of Horsingas (5 crossbowmen and 15 horsemen) will then try to take the main gate by force. Hygwald decided to help, providing the distraction. He planned to disguised himself as a wounded redcap, stumbling into a farmhouse. He would plead for them to send a message to Doire Druidhan. The messenger would escape, but the Horsingas’ crossbowmen would surround the farm and slaughter everyone within (thus eliminating witnesses). This plan started to unravel when Hygwald botched the Perdo Corpus spell upon himself to create a minor wound. Instead, the wound was deep and serious, and one of his organs (he wasn’t sure which, having a deficiency in Corpus!) was bleeding internally. Deciding to make the best of a bad job, he decided to continue with the plan. He didn’t realise just how serious his wound was, however. Gasping with pain, he managed to get his message out, and the farmwife, skilled in chirurgy, started to tend to his wound. Then the crossbowmen carried out the rest of the plan, slaying the one person who could save his life.
Back at Doire Druidhan, the plan had worked partially. The messenger came in, and left with a fair few warriors, but neither of the knights were with them. Eric continued with the assault, using a battering ram strengthened with magic. The gates burst, and the fighting began. Wisely, Eric kept out of the fighting, but was challenged to certámen by Julia Genavensis, the only magus at Doire Druidhan at the time. Julia demanded that Eric withdrew immediately, and they duelled. Eric lost, but unconscious as he was, he was unable to comply with her wishes. When he came around, the men were already loading up the horses. They found a large amount of grain and vegetables (60 bushels in all), and 14 bushels of meat, along with supplies of parchment, blocks of ink, ingots of wax, and 15 fine swords. In with the swords was a very fine glass sword, which Eric took an immediate liking to. Eric returned to Horsingas with fully laiden horses. 8 of the 15 men he had taken with him had suffered serious wounds, but only two were dead.
Hygwald managed to make it to Edinburgh, where he paid a physician to tend his wounds. When he was fit to travel (a few weeks later), he returned to Horsingas.
Danes’ Graves. Eric and Hygwald went to Yorkshire to collect the vis from the two sources that Horsingas maintains there. Jehan had asked for an errand – the delivery of a package and a pouch of money to a priest by the name of Father Æscwin, who lived in a small village called Driffield. Eric continued on to Driffield with Bjorn, his man-at-arms, while Hygwald returned to Horsingas.
Eric and Bjorn received a decidedly cool reception in Driffield. They were told that the priest was busy, and he would be unable to see them tonight, despite the fact that Eric had taken on the appearance of Jehan of Surrey. They were given the coopers’s work room for lodging, and warned to bar the door.
The next day, Father Æscwin was free to see them. He apologised for the rough treatment they had received, and put it down to the stress that the people of Driffield were under – they were being terrorised on the nights of the full moon by a monster that had killed several villagers already. It came up from the marshes to the south, so Eric decided to take a look. The only thing he found was an ancient Roman temple dedicated to some orgiastic deity. He decided to wait here for the monster’s last appearance of this moon. Casting spells in preparation for an attack, Eric discovered an effect of the temple – there was a magic aura here, and it gave him an instant erection for the duration of the spell cast. Despite his raging hard-on, Eric managed to get some sleep, which was undisturbed by the monster.
Returning to Driffield, they found that the monster had attacked again, and killed the village’s only horse. A trail of blood ran north from the village, to an area in the hills called the Danes’ Graves – a series of barrows aligned north-south, a remnant of the Danish settlers who once occupied this area. One of the barrows had a stone on it, split into three by a heavy blow. It had a carving of a serpent and a tree, and in Old Danish runes, a poem. Eric surmised that the stone was an ancient spell who kept the beast within its grave. Using his magic, he spoke to one of the nearby bodies, who told him that the inhabitant of that barrow was a berserk called Vargr, who had been killed by his own jarl – and it had taken 26 men to do so. From asking Æscwin, Eric found that it was a group of legates sent by the new Archbishop of York who had smashed the stone, trying to stamp out the last remnants of pagans from the countryside. Eric opened the grave to try to deal with the body, but it was far too strong, and very nearly killed Bjorn before he was able to retreat to a safe distance – it didn’t follow him far from its grave.
Back in the village, the blacksmith Ælfhere revealed that he knew of a man who lived deep in the wolds who was strong in magic, and had taught his father a few simple charms. He offered to take Eric to see this man. They found his successor, a man by the name of Idda, who gave them a complicated rite that they must perform to lay this draugr for good. In return, Idda demanded a billy goat to keep his nanny company, and a promise to send back his true love, a woman by the name of Gyfja, should they ever meet her. He provded them with charms to enable them to recognise Gyfja.
Returning to the Danes’ Graves, Eric and Ælfhere dealt with the draugr, although it almost killed Ælfhere. Only the Endurance of the Berserkers kept him alive as he wrestled with the undead berserker. Completing the ritual, Eric took the heavily-wounded blacksmith back to Driffield. He also promised that in spring, he would send some men from Horsingas to come down and escort Ælfhere back there, where he would be given a job.
No events. Hygwald and Eric take part in the Aegis ritual at Horsingas, becoming natives to the covenant at last.