Dring this season, the five magi made their way to the new site on Manor Head to start their own covenant. Through a series of long council meetings, they decided upon the name of 'Portus Viduae Vastae', and agreed on a charter.
There is an election in Faverloch for the post of Village Elder, to replace Paedda. Æthelbald at first decides to run for it himself, but then realises that it would not do for the lord of the manor to get inolved in village affairs. Instead, he makes it known that Beorhtric is his favoured candidate, and, when the vote is taken, he scrapes through with a 3 vote lead against Dremic, the local boat-wright and moneylender.
On May Day, the villagers have a feast, and invite Æthelbald to attend. The main course is a whole, roasted dolphin, and the other courses have a similarly fishy theme. During the feast there is a ceremony involving the presentation to the lord the scist-fish, huge barrels of salted herring. Æthelbald is somewhat confushed, until it is explained to him that this is his right as Lord of the Manor, a fifth of all fish caught by the village. He is expected in this ceremony to provide ale and coppers for all the fishermen, and shillings for all the skippers, who swear an oath to uphold the scist-fish next year. The sale of this fish will meet most of the covenant's needs. Æthelbald immediately bequeaths a quarter of the tithe to the poor of the village.
Hachim, through his research, discovers that it is possible to garner vis from the stone circle. The vis gained is dependent on the astrological sign, and the method involves approaching Twilight and returning with vis. The closer you get to Twilight, the more vis is gained. With a certain amount of trepidation, Hachim decides to collect Rego vis during the summer.
Eric sets off for Turmaris to retrieve the Golden Boat, resolving to stop in at Glascarnoch on the way past to visit the Clan MacKar (see Spring 1222 for their first meeting). He is accompanied by Bjorn, and four grogs, Æddi, Ogmund, Grim and Halfgrim.
The Boar King: Upon arriving in Glascarnoch, he is a little surprised to find Caroline, the clan's matriarch, still alive - she's well into her eighties now. Dhugal is currently away, at a meeting with other clan-chiefs. Giorsal, a young member of the clan returns home late from a hunting trip without his uncle Michael. They were attacked by beast-headed men, and Michael was captured. Eric accompanies Giorsal back to the woods the next day. They find the woods dark and foreboding, and Eric determines that there is a faerie aura here. They are guided in by Giorsal's spear, which is floating in mid air at the entrance to a gate. The spear is an heirloom from his grandfather, chased in gold with a gleaming, sharp head. However, it has never floated before. The spear leads the group down a path into the heart of the wood, past a guardian spirit to the body of Michael, who has been pinned to a tree with massive arrows. the caterva cut him down, and carry him where the spear leads them next, to a horrific kitchen, where a huge wolf tends to spits bearing human corpses. Æddi downs the wold with his arrow, and Eric finishes it off with a spell. In the adjoining glade they discover the feasting beast-men, horrific creatures with brawny, hairy bodies and the heads of wild animals. While the caterva hide, they eventually get hungry enough to enter the 'kitchen' and help theirselves, leaving the way unblocked for Eric and his grogs to proceed. They do have to fight three of the beast-men, and both Grim and Halfgrim are sorely wounded in the fight. Eric turns their remaining ale to poison, hoping to finish the other dozen off without a fight.
Continuing to follow the spear, Eric first comes across a marble sephulcure witht he image of a stag-headed man graven on the top, but decides not to open it. In the last, bowl-shaped glade beyond, the spear darts forward and impales the body of a man chained up against a tree - it's Giorsal. The ghost of Giosal that had accompanied them howls in pain and fades. An immense, boar-headed man steps out of the shadows, announcing himself to be Garambar, Lord of the Forest. He claims that Giorsal's grandfather stole the spear from him, and slew his brother Helvennian with it. Garambar now considers the blood-debt finished, and allows the group to leave, if they leave now. They do.
Eric strikes two deals with the Clan MacKar. The first is between him and Caroline only, a longevity potion, for which she provides a sack of vis and a pint of blood, warning Eric that should she die before the potion is made, she'll curse him with her dying breath. In return, Caroline offers to find him potential apprentices from amongst her clan. The second deal is with the clan as a whole. Eric promises that Vidua Vasta will provide proper military training for the men of Clan MacKar, and aid against their enemies the Boggarts, in return for whatever surplus vis is collected from the mountain each year. with this deal struck, Eric leaves Glascarnoch, leaving Grim and Halfgrim behind to recover from their wounds, and taking Luke MacKar with them instead.
Twenty days later, Eric arrives at Turmaris, and is greeted by Mariella, the leader of the covenant. Neither Aeliophanes nor the Golden Ship are around, but the magus is usually only away for a handful of days, so Eric waits. When a week has gne past with still no sign of Aeliophanes, his sodales try to contact him with an arcane connection, to no avail. The next day, the Golden Ship arrives back at the covenant, without Aeliophanes. Eric goes off in it looking for him, only to find the ship wanting to sail in a particular direction, towards the north-west. Eric lets it steer, and they meet up with a group of Fae called the Blue Men of Minch. Eric and their leader enter a rhyming duel, and despite some awful poetry, Eric seems to win and they sail off. Eric decides to give chase, but the Blue Men are moving too fast, so he summons a water spirit to help him. The spirit demands a life to do this, at which point, Eric orders Bjorn to throw Æddi overboard. Fortunately, Æddi is a strong swimmer, and manages to get back aboard, at which point he swears and curses at Bjorn, which makes him fly into a fury, and he tries to kill Æddi. Probably the only thing that saves Æddi's life is his proficiency with his net, which he uses to entangle the furious Bjorn, whilst Ogmund tackles him and waits for him to calm down. In the meantime, the Blue Men have gone. They sail to the Scottish mainland, but can see no sign. Æddi suggests they put him to shore so he can ask directions, at which point he runs for his life. This is just as well, as Eric didn't bother to go back and collect him, but instead returns to Turmaris. Here he learns a few of the legends that surround the Blue Men, including the approximate location of their regio-hidden island. Eric sets sail once more, and with some judicious Intellego Vim, finds the island and rescues Aeliophanes.
A few days later Eric sails for home, around Cape Wrath, through the Pentland Firth, then down the eastern Scottish coast to Vidua Vasta. He encounters a few problems at Cape Wrath, where he sees a ship whose sail bears the sigil of Eilean Beg; and simultaneously runs aground on rocks in the middle of the sea. However, he manages to run away with consummate skill.
Meanwhile, back at Vidua Vasta, Hachim prepares to collect vis from the standing stones. He feels Twilight clutch at him as he enters a trance, and he allows it to take him towards an ecstactic experience, but, like a true master, denies himself the glory of Twilight at the last moment. When he recovers, the glass bubble he holds contains a glowing purple light - ten pawns of Rego vis. He defers his right to the first harvest of this vis, because the covenant needs this Rego vis for the Aegis. He had agreed on a payment for this Twilight (under the agreements for covenant work) of 1 pawn of vis for every five he collected, with a minimum of two.
Lucas accompanies Julia to Paddesham at Midsummer and finds out the location of the Hill of Mushrooms, and how to find the vis concealed there. Lucas also searches for the Giant's Gold this season; using the clues in the poem found in the old library he manages to locate where the Cospatrics' hid it - in the wood to the south of the bay. While searching within, he meets Dremic, who owns the right to collect wood in the forest. Dremic offers to sell Lucas a sword he dug up in the forst, and to show him where he found it. The sword once belonged to Cynhafal Cospatric, and Lucas uses a spell to discover that there is indeed something buried at the spot. When he returns later that night, he finds a hole - someone has been there already. Correctly surmising it to be Dremic, he uses a spell to take on the boatwright's semblance, he terrifies Dremic by pretending to be his fetch, and regains the large stone jar that was buried at the site. As the mouth of the jar is marked with arcane symbols of Mercurian origin, it remains unopened for now.
At the end of summer a priest arrives in the village, bearing a letter of recommendation from the Bishop of St Andrews. Eric had scribed a letter to the bishop, ostensibly from the village elders, requesting a learned man of the Scottish Church to take up the parish. Father Callum is invited up to the manor house by Æthelbald, and he meets the magi, masquerading as members of the lord's household (Hygwald is a cousin, Julia the stepmother, Eric a visiting scholar and Lucas his chief knight. Hachim remains out of sight). They discover that the obese Father Callum was educated at a cathedral school and is quite urbane, with an interest in Alchemy that makes his attitudes towards magic a little more conducive than the average priest.
The Ghoul of St. Lazare: Towards the end of Autumn a body is found floating in the millpond. Æthelbald and Beorhtric go to investigate the matter. They take the body - that of a young girl - back to the covenant. Lucas decides to pay the miller a visit, while Hachim and Father Callum independently inspect the body. The girl died of the pox, but after her death, deep cuts were made in her body before she was thrown in the river. The winding sheet in which she was wrapped perhaps indicates that she received a church burial, and the failure of Eric's attempts at necromancy seems to confirm this. Lucas, in the meanwhile, has unaccountably taken the shape of Dremic and harrasses the somewhat unstable miller. Lucas is felled by a blow from Sim's bill-hook - a grievous wound to the head. Returning to the covenant in a daze, Lucas demands that Beorhtric arrests Sim for wounding him, claiming that he heard Sim and Dremic arguing before the miller lashed out at him for no reason. Beorhtric speaks with the miller, who knows his right as a freeman - he can only be tried by the king's justice, as Æthelbald has no right of view (power to act as a sheriff). Bringing this case to court will perhaps reveal Æthelbalds imposture as the Lord of the Manor, so for the moment it looks like Sim will get away with his crime.
Meanwhile, Æddi has been sent up river to investigate. He comes back, having found his way to Paddesham, and met the somewhat frightening deacon of the church there, as well as the supercilious priest. Eric, Beorhtric and Luc-Paul head up there and begin investigations. Father Tanchus tells them that it cannot be Helen, the only young girl whose died of the pox in their village, because her hair is the wrong colour. Eric decides to investigate Helen's grave that night, and has a gravestone pushed over on him. He pursues and strikes down the assailant with magic, only to find that it was Brother Nollis, the misshapen deacon. Not wishing to admit to his crime, Eric buries the body at the edge of the woods.
The next day, Eric sends Luc-Paul to fetch Father Callum, as he believes his assistance will be needed, meanwhile he does a bit of poking around. At lunch time, Father Tanchus gets the villagers together to look for his missing deacon, and by the time Father Callum arrives with Æddi, they have discovered the poorly-buried body. Tanchus is clearly distraught at the discovery of his deacon's corpse, and sits vigil that night, declining assistance from Callum. The next day, Beorhtric and Æddi visit the other sufferers of the pox, Helen's remaining family, to try to confirm her appearance, but they only succeed in frightening a little girl, and return empty handed. When sent back again by Eric, they just manage to upset Helen's aunt. Finnaly, Eric has to visit the family himself, promising a pig if they'll answer his questions, which they do, confirming that Helen's hair was flaxen, like the body found at the mill. By this time, Nollis has been buried, although Callum noticed the way in which Tanchus muttered his way through the ceremony, he put it down to grief. That night, Callum is woken by a feeling of unmistakable evil, and upon investigating, is attacked in the graveyard by the revenant of Nollis. Fortunately his screams bring the rest of the group running, and Æddi puts an arrow through the revenant's head, felling it to the ground. They awaken Father Tanchus, who, clearly shocked by the story he is told, gets Callum to assist him in sanctifying the church. However, it is obvious to Callum that Tanchus's gibberish is not part of church doctrine, particulalry when the figure of Christ shatters and the cross catches aflame. Meanwhile, Eric has returned to the body, only to find it gone. Æddi and Beorhtric go in search for it, and Æddi eventually catches up with it as it enters the church. Eric wrestles the priest to the ground while Callum confronts the demon with his cross, but it is Æddi with his spear that finally disposes of the creature. Tanchus reveals his culpability in a venomous debate with Callum, stating his belief that Christianity is a lie perpertrated by the Devil. The priest's belongings include a book, written in Greek, which Callum believes holds the root to the priest's apostasy, and he sends it to the nearby monastery for translation, while Tanchus is imprisioned, ready for taking to St Andrews where he will be tried for heresy.
At the beginning of this season, Vidua Vasta receives the first of two visitors, Seumas an Cait from the Covenant of Crun Clach. A small magus who resembles the wild cat from which he takes his name, Seumas offers the best wishes of his covenant to Hygwald before getting down to business. He requests the return of an item stolen from them seventy years ago, which goes by the name of the Token of the Star. He offers a 'finder's fee' of two pawns of vis, which Hygwald finds insulting, and sends him away.
The second visitor was Azenis of Tytalus, laden with two pack horses, and accompanied by his grog-captain Andrew and his vulture familiar. He requested to speak with the council, requesting status as a guest member of the covenant for the next few years. Lux ex Tenebris had collapsed through neglect, and he and Andrew were the only survivors. He has his laboratory and the remains of the library, which he will gift to Vidua Vasta. He merely asks for a laboratory in which he can complete the final stages of his research, although he refused to be drawn on the nature of this research. Azenis met in secret with all five of the current magi, presumably offering some inducement to them if they voted for his admittance. When the matter came to a vote, just before the solstice, Hachim absented himself from the meeting, and everyone else voted for Azenis to join, which according to the charter, admitted him.
The Summoning of the Demon: Azenis and Eric both donated vis for the first casting of the covenant's Aegis. All magi were present while Hygwald paced out the intricacies of the ritual spell he had learned, drawing a precise circle in the middle of the council chamber to focus his energies. After most of the hour long ritual had passed, the watching magi noticed a change in Hygwald's cadence, and his voice became shriller as he struggled to contain the energies bound up in the spell. Unfortunately, his efforts were insufficient, and with a crack of thunder, the spell turned in on itself. In the silence that followed the thundeerclap, as the smoke from the incense cleared, the magi of Vidua Vasta were horrified to see an immense, black-scaled arm reach out from the burning circle in the centre of the floor, a circle that assuredly lead straight down to Hell...
As the assembled magi hurled spells at the demon, it climbed out of the hole in the floor, which closed behind it. It seemed immense, with the head of a dog, flames for eyes, and a distorted, black-scaled body covered with tufts of black hair. As it arrived, one of Lucas's spells went horribly awry, and he was plunged into a fiery Twilight episode which left him incapacitated. The demon tried to attack, but was blocked by an invisible barrier. The magi quickly surmised that their Aegis ritual had partially worked, creating a magical barrier 7 paces in diameter, trapping the demon within. The magi kept a watch on the demon, concerned that the Aegis might fail at sundown, which it did not. They then guessed that they had at least until the next full moon to find a way to rid their council chamber of the demon. Eric, Lucas, Hygwald and Julia took turns keeping an eye on the demon. They discovered that not only was the demon trapped, but they were unable to affect it either. Azenis seemed unwilling to help, when asked by Eric. He claimed that he was powerful enough to dispatch the demon, or dispel the Aegis allowing others to do so, but could not do both at the same time. He offered to do one or the other in exchange for a season of a magus's time assisting him in the laboratory. Lucas agreed to this. The Flambeau discovered a lasting after-effect of his Twilight - he leaked minor destructive magics when casting spells.
The magi discussed many options to try to rid themselves of this demon, who seemed somewhat brutish, and somewhat dim of thought. They finally decided that before the full moon they would get Azenis to dispel the Aegis, then they would all blast the demon with magic. Hygwald armed himself with 5 pawns of Rego vis, hoping to slow the demon down. When all was prepared, they entered the council chamber. The demon spoke, apparently for the first time. He wanted to know why they had summoned him. He offered riches, fulfilled wishes, revenge on enemies. In the end, Hygwald grew tired of his puerile temptations and said "Demon, as your Master I command you to be silent!" - and it was. Azenis then shattered the Aegis. The demon surged forwards towards Hachim, dealing him a fearful blow. Spells rained down on him, but they seemed to have no effect. Eventually, after the demon had turned on Lucas as well, the spells of Eric, Azenis and Lucas seemed to have an effect, and the demon was banished. Hachim's leg was mangled severely, and lacking the vis to cast an effective healing spell, he has been left permanently lame.