Tribunal: The 57th Tribunal of Loch Leglean. Hygwald and Eric travel with Edwin and Ealwynn to Loch Leglean; Whitburh makes her own way there.
On the first night at Loch Leglean, Hugh and Eric meet two members of the Covenant of Eilean Beg, Chearlach mac Caolin magus Ex Miscellaneorum and Peter of Uist, scholae Flambonis. They spend the evening drinking the former's magical whiskey, and they see Edwin truly relaxed for the first time. Over the next few days the magi from the other covenants gradually arrive.
The tribunal is opened, and on the first night the new magi get their first glimpse of the Pact of Crun Clach as they are asked to swear to it before the whole tribunal. Bricis Devontis of Doire Druidhan makes his now-traditional objection to the treatise. Hygwald and Eric are particularly taken by the lawlessness of the tribunal - compared to the Stonehenge tribunal it is more akin to a boxing match than a meeting of magi.
The second night of the tribunal is the busiest, concerned in the main wioth conflicts between magi. They witness several certamens, and a newid gornest between two gruagachan, Chearlach of Eilean Beg and Nechtan of MacGruagach. Eric puts a bet on that the outsider, Chearlach will win, but he loses. He owes 2 pawns of Perdo vis to [name].
Directly after the shape-shifting duel, Eric is called to the arena by Julia Genavensis and Bricis Devontis. They have a pair of charges to bring against him regarding the raid he lead against their covenant. The first charge is that he refused to withdraw his men after he lost at certámen against Julia, and they continued to sack the covenant. Eric's rebuttal that he was unconscious and therefore unable to comply with those wishes was upheld by the tribunal. The second charge was brought by Doire Druidhan on behalf of their sodalis Somnifer. He requested the return of an item stolen from him during the raid, a sword made of flawless glass that he had had made at great expense. Somnifer claimed that this item was his talisman, and therefore contributed to his magical power. Eric decided that he wanted to keep the sword, as he had begun to enchant it. On behalf of her companion, Julia demanded the return of sword, and compensation for its loss, in the form of a rook of vis. Hygwald issued a counter-sue, demanding compensation for the slurs uttered against his sodalis. He challenged Somnifer to certámen over the issue, agreeing to fight his champion as the magus himself was not present. Much to the chagrin of Hygwald, Bricis answered the challenge - Hygwald had been counting on Julia to do so. He was firmly defeated in no time at all, and for the rest of the tribunal (and until the next full moon), he was surrounded in a fiery halo which consumed all flamable objects he touched. The compensation of 10 pawns of vis was levied equally on Hygwald and Eric; and Hygwald made an immediate payment of 8 pawns. Eric was deemed to now own the sword, and by the Pact of Crun Clach it was within his rights to keep it if he wished.
On the third night of the tribunal, conflicts over lands and resources were dealt with. Particularly vocal on this night were Eilean Beg (who had stolen many resources) and Arbroath and Doire Druidhan (who had suffered many losses in the last 7 years). Among the losses suffered by the latter was mentioned the raid conducted by Eric. They demanded a return of the food stolen that summer, and compensation for the men killed. Both charges were dismissed by the Tribunal as allowable under the Pact of Crun Clach.
On the fourth and final night of the tribunal, affairs with mundanes were dealt with. Once again, the recent raid on Doire Druidhan was cited as breaching the Code. In conducting the raid, Hygwald had impersonated a redcap, and this was later revealed to have been an obvious decoy. If the witnesses to this event (particularly the boy whose family was slaughtered as he was allowed to take a message to Doire Druidhan) had gone to a priest or a lord, the office of the redcap, hitherto given the respect of a king's messenger, would have been severely compromised. Doire Druidhan demanded that Hygwald should be Marched for this, but the tribunal disagreed. No lasting damage was done, as the only witness was now a member of the Doire Druidhan turb; however, Hygwald was admonished for his actions and ordered to pay reparation to House Mercere, in the form of three seasons of work in the next seven years, at his own expense, with projects to be decided upon by the local redcap, Thomas Verus of Doire Druidhan.
The tribunal was closed with the customary vote of validation, to which all members of MacGruagach covenant, as tradition has it, voted against the validity of the tribunal. Nevertheless, it was still declared valid, and the meeting closed.
Tongue of Vipers: before leavng the Loch Leglean, Horsingas were approached by two Flambeau magi from Lombard Covenant in Hibernia. Dalton Ballaugh and Brian of Cilldara had come straight from their own tribunal meeting. They had been informed - somewhat smugly by a rival covenant - that one of their number, Cliona ni Illait, had been imprisoned for attempting to murder Baron Hugh Melion of Ballymount. On the evidence presented, Cliona was Marched for interfering with the affairs of mundanes. Lombard Covenant are involved in trying to protect the wild areas of Hibernia from the deprevations of the Norman invaders; however they knew Cliona to be incapable of such an act. Both Dalton and Brian were outlawed in the Pale, and so were unable to help her themselves. Desparate to prove her innocence and save her life, but unable to enter Ballymount and become involved for fear for their own, they came to find Horsingas Covenant, as they knew that their goals were similar to their own.
The covenant agreed to offer assistance to Lombard, and both Eric and Hygwald (along with two grogs, Bernard and Flatus) returned to Ireland with Brian. Their mission was primarily to prove Cliona's innocence to Lord Melion. If this was impossible, they planned to rescue her so she would at least be able to prove her innocence to the tribunal. Hygwald took the guise of Hugh of Cornwall, and announced himself as a justicar. Eric was his scribe. Cliona had come to the baron's court to try to persuade him from laying waste to any more of the primal forest that his land bordered upon. Her secondary task was to gain access to a magical spring on his lands. They discovered that the Baron was nearly poisoned, but his seneschal Garvon noticed that the wine tasted strange. Otto, who brought the poisoned cups to the baron claimed that Cliona had interfered with the cups betwixt the cellar and the table, and she was imprisoned. However, under questioning, Otto could not tell the same story twice, making Hygwald suspect that his mind had been interfered with. During her month of confinement beneath the keep, Cliona had been whipped regularly, and her mind had become unhinged - she was unable to assist Hygwald and Eric in their investigations. Birot, the bailiff of the castle was particularly obstinant in assisting Hygwald, and he was forced to use magic to impersonate the Baron to get compliance. Apart from Garvon and Birot, the other suspects in the case were Jacques de Bray, the baron's soothsayer, and Father Gaston, his chaplain. Both had offered advice to the baron, and were at each other's throats for his favour. They both had reason to be jealous of the young, pretty woman who had gained the baron's ear.
Eric investigated the forest, trying to follow Jacques de Bray, who he had seen heading in that direction. He lost the soothsayer in the forest, but did come accross the baron's forester, who, suspecting him to be either a poacher or a spy for the Ostmen, escorted him out of the forest. Not wanting to be caught out by the lies that he'd told the forester, Eric murdered him with spell and steel, and planted evidence on him linking his murder both to de Bray and devil worship. His plan was that if he couldn't prove Cliona's innocence, they would just murder somebody else - probably Father Gaston - and blame it upon de Bray, thus saddling him with the attempt to kill the baron as well. While enacting this crime, Eric was contacted by Fingal, Cliona's eagle familiar, who showed him the Well of Boann and the magical paraphenalia laid out there, which belonged to Jacques de Bray. Fingal also revealed that he'd seen someone trying to climb into Cliona's window on the night after her arrest.
Back at the keep, Hygwald and Eric found marks that climbing spikes had been used to gain entrance to the room. Searching de Bray's room, they found some climbing spikes, along with some herbs which, when later fed to a chicken, caused it to collapse as if dead - but it wasn't, just paralysed. When de Bray was confronted with this evidence in front of the baron, he fell into a fit - a sure sign of his guilt. On his person was found a letter from Cliona to the baron, naming Garvon's wife as a sure and certain alibi to her innocence - de Bray must have intercepted it. Once de Bray was jailed, Madam Garvon was interviewed. She had been counselled to keep her knowledge to herself by her confessor, Father Gaston. Gaston was searched for, but he had used the confusion during de Bray's seizure to escape. Finally, Cliona was released, and as she came into the sunshine her faculties were restored. In gratitude for her life, she offered Hygwald and Eric a half-share in the magical waters of the Well of Boann, which yields four pawns of Creo vis a year.
Just as Hygwald was leaving, he was pulled to one side by Lord Melion. The baron had discovered that 'Hugh of Cornwall' was not one of the Pale's justicars, and wanted to know who he was. Needless to say, Hygwald did not reveal his true identity.
During the midsummer collection of vis at Hadrian's Wall, Hygwald spots a mysterious cloaked figure moving away. He didn't pursue.
Eric returns to Driffield to see if his efforts to lay the draugr has created a vis source. Hygwald accompanied him, hoping to also generate vis from the Roman fane in the estuary. Eric gathers the blood-red seeds of the flax sown on top of the draugr's howe, and it indeed contains four pawns of Corpus vis.
Hygwald's plan was more involved. Reasoning that the fane was some fertility shrine, Hygwald had brought a couple of members of the turb with him - a man and a woman. He ordered them inside the fane, and then commanded them to have sex. His plan was to scrape off the sweat that their erotic exercise produced, and test it for vis. Needless to say, the grogs did not react well to his plan. He had to resort to magic to give them both unnatural lusts before they would copulate as he desired. Unfortunately for him, his lust spell lasted all night, and Hygwald was forced to listen to their rutting. At sunrise, he handed them each a strigil, and commanded them to gather their sweat. Unfortunately for him, it did not contain vis.
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