Spring
Early in this season Enrico's mundane contacts reported that Hans von Sturmweiss, the Bishop of Lausanne's secretary (vile rumour whispered he was more), had been slain. The culprit was unknown, but most knowledgeable sources suspected Zahringen agents trying to dissuade the Bishop from his expansionistic tendencies. Less reliable sources said that he died by magic, in Lausanne's graveyard, on the night of the Spring equinox. The Bishop was known to be swearing vengeance.
Dragon's Challenge 1201 - Ambush!
Feeling that this news of mundane affairs was irrelevant to them, the magi continued their lives as normal. It was time for the Dragon's Challenge again and Haas decided to present his spell The Emperor's Clothes (CrAn15). Al-Nasir would accompany him in an attempt to keep in contact with magi of other Covenants.
As usual they were the last to arrive. Instead of the reassuring sight of a Mercere magus representing Lac Neuchatel, they were met by Brendan of Jerbiton, accompanied by Sir Hans von Vergoten, an ally of the Covenant. He confirmed that the Bishop of Lausanne was causing problems, claiming Avenches as part of his principate, when it actually belonged to Baron Albrecht. Given that the adjacent Roman ruins of Aventicum held important resources for Lac Neuchatel, they did not take this claim well. The representative from High Valley turned out to be Sebbing of Flambeau, one of the ex-apprentices presented at the previous year's Tribunal meeting. He claimed to be presenting the Dragon with a tenth magnitude Creo Ignem spell of his own devising! It was suspected that it was the spell of his parens, Arkanic the Serb, who was known to have left to join the Crusade currently gathering in Venice.
After the usual taunts and counter-taunts between grogs, the magi entered the Dragon's caves. The Dragon was obviously in no mood for his usual games, as unconsciousness took the magi. When they awoke the vis was in the High Valley camp. The mass devastation spell obviously (and worryingly) fitted the Dragon's mood.
Last to leave, the Spear Peak magi heard sounds of combat further down the track, along with the distinctive flashes of Ignem magic. Hurrying down, they found the party from High Valley in disarray. The grogs were dead or wounded, and Sebbing was badly wounded and unconscious. After making sure that the danger was past, Haas tended the wounded whilst Al-Nasir prepared to cast the ritual Eyes of the Past. Once cast, this revealed an attack upon Sebbing's company by several men-at-arms led by a knight wearing the blazon of the Bishop of Lausanne. Fire cast at him by Sebbing seemed to bounce off harmlessly. He cut his way through the grogs and hacked down the already fatigued magus. The assailants then took the vis Sebbing had so recently won and retreated.
Taking the wounded with them the magi returned to the Covenant.
The High Valley grogs were dispatched back to inform their masters of what had occurred, whilst Sebbing stayed at Spear Peak to convalesce for a few weeks. There was much theorising about how the power of the church could resist Hermetic magic, and about what this boded for Lac Neuchatel's conflict with the Bishop.
Summer
The Pact of Pasaquine
This is a published adventure that I won't spoil by detailing here. Pasaquine is a village owned by the Augustinian monastery at Lucerne, and is located in the woods a few miles north-west of that town. Haas visited the village in an attempt to aid Erwin the tinker, a confederate of the Covenant who has family in the village. Much goodwill with the village was created, and a regular supply of beer now arrives in the Covenant from a brewing family here. Some local girls also took the eye of the grogs, after which regular visits of grogs to the village occurred.
Autumn
Our woodsman and tracker, Roland, returned from an expedition and babbled about an encounter with a "faerie Lady". Little sense could be had from him about it but it became clear that he had entered a faerie regio and met one, possibly two of its inhabitants, the second of which was "a beast who was really a man". He returned bearing a strange stone. Obviously the keystone of an arch, it bore an unmistakable infernal taint. Roland said that it came from an infernal prison and, though his saga was vague, seemed to bear some relation to the second inhabitant of the regio. Oddly the keystone looked to be a perfect fit for the arch on top of the mountain.
Winter
Back to studies as the cold weather blew in from the west.
Back to 1200.
Forward to 1202.
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