Journal for 1192
Spring
With the spring thaw well on the way I found myself again in the comfortable surroundings of the covenant forge. It was midway into the season that there were several strange occurrences. I am not privy to all the details; however I understand that it started when a farmer came to see Captain Viorel with concerns and accusations. A troubling event had occurred; a calf had been born with two heads, the animal dying shortly after birth. The farmer voiced his belief that Maga Mesticia or the "One Eyed Witch" as he so rudely named her, had placed a curse on the animal. It seems she had been seen walking past the animals shed, and that to this superstitious man was sufficient proof to warrant this ludicrous accusation against her. Captain Viorel rightly made every effort to quash any unsubstantiated rumours. He also informed Mesticia of the situation.
Later in the season there were again more reports of unusual incidents. More complaints were made to Captain Viorel and the village leader, tales of milk turning sour over night and other such events commonly attributed to witchcraft. Again Mesticia had supposedly been sighted in the vicinity of these occurrences. Viorel went to see Mesticia again, posing the question, could these actions be the work of the faerie known as "Nana"? However this appeared not to be the case, as the farmers cow had been marked with shadowy finger prints on its hide. Mesticia was able to confirm that this mark was not that of her past faerie guardian. With no other leads and rumours running wild in the village, the Captain approached Ioanna; she stated that this was most likely the work of some evil spirit. A search of the shed where the calf was born was made by those able to see spirits; there hidden in the knot work of the wooden roof was a vile twisted face. Perdo Vim spells were used to destroy this malevolent spirit, then further searches of the village where carried out for any signs of other such spirits. This seemed to be the end of the problems. As the warm weather of summer drew closer, the village rumours about Mesticia settled down. However it seems unlikely that will be the end of ignorant and prejudiced rumours regarding my unique sodalis.
The only other event of note this season was a mysterious light seen by some coming from the Turris Phasmae.
Summer
With the summer sun beating down upon us Gelidus, Loquellamedes and I made our way out of the Covenant, accompanied by the two champions Boyko and Yevgeny. Our intent was to once again endeavour to explore the mysterious island in the Sea of Marmara. Our leisurely journey to Varna passed without incident, though the occasional farmer would eye us with suspicion as we past by his field. The warm climate and clear blue sky reminded me of the Mediterranean sun of Genoa and I was filled with renewed hope that our journey would not be plagued with the difficulties we had encountered previously.
Arriving at Varna that hope was tarnished as our first complication arose. It seems the Bulgarians were taking security far more seriously than on any of our previous visits; a queue of people could be seen leading up to the city gates. Yevgeny was sent down to see what the situation was and he soon returned with troubling news. It seemed there had been problems with Greek spies earlier in the year. Everyone wishing entrance to the city were being scrutinised, questioned and those without legitimate reasons were turned away, non-Bulgarians trying to gain entry were likely to be held for questioning. This placed us in a difficult predicament, it was apparent that even disguised as a Bulgarian using magic, any of the magi trying to enter would likely come under suspicion due to the nature of the gift. After some consideration it was finally decided that Yevgeny would head into Varna to meet with Leonadas and see if he would consent to meet us outside the city walls. I will not go into the detailed intricacies of arranging this meeting, sufficed to say that even just meeting with Leonadas relieved us of significant coin from our ever dwindling reserve. For the meeting Loquellamedes took on the guise of a Bulgarian scribe, while Gelidus rendered himself invisible staying close by in case of trouble.
Leonadas arrived with a couple of burly mercenaries in tow; obviously he was still cautious of dealing with us. My Bulgarian remains weak so with Loquellamedes help, we put forward a business proposal to undertake a joint expedition. We explained the details of the mysterious islands appearance, how the Emperors fleet had been forced to turn away and that we knew the secret to landing safely. We also speculated on the treasures that we hoped to find there, while Leonadas seemed sceptical at first, our assurances that we had seen a golden statue of a woman, won over any lingering doubts he had. What occurred next was a lengthy negotiation, with Leonadas clearly taking advantage of us yet again. However given our difficult position we had little choice but to listen to his long winded explanations of costs and agree to his terms. In the end we settled on an equal venture, splitting the cost of the expedition and in return he would receiving a half share of any treasure found.
So it was that a few days later a ship picked us up from the beach, were several years ago we had arranged a transfer of silver to the Genoans. It has to be said the accommodation on board was greatly improved from our last transport to Constantinople, this ship was obviously specifically designed to smuggle goods and people. For several days we travelled in relevant comfort within the hidden rooms. With no trouble from the harbour patrols, the ship docked at the harbour, and we were moved quickly into the city and put up in reasonable accommodation.
In our previous dealings with Leonadas he has taken advantage of us at every opportunity. Still the value of having an experienced guide making arrangements and purchases was abundantly clear. In short order he arranged passage on a Greek ship, purchased a number of items we had requested, including a live goat Gelidus had asked for; all of this at a cheaper price than we could ever have hoped to negotiate. This stood in stark contrast compared to our own previous dealings in Constantinople, so perhaps the avaricious Greek had finally earned his keep. Within a matter of days we boarded the sleek craft and set sail, electing to stay in our cabin for the two day journey to the island as not to rile the ships crew. On the second day as we approached the isle, all aboard were instructed to block their ears with the wax cloth purchased earlier, so not to look out of place all the magi did the same. As we drew closer familiar cliffs came into view, though we saw no sign of the golden maiden we had seen previously. Sailing around to the opposite side of the island, there the ship weighed anchor next to the shore with its pure turquoise waters, golden sands and remains of a wrecked ship.
Landing without incident a ramp was lowered to the sandy shore. Gelidus slowly lead the goat down the ramp towards the beach. Reaching the shore, he swiftly struck the animal's rump and shooed it up the beach. The goat seemed unconcerned at its new surroundings and after a brief pause made its way up the beach towards the green undergrowth. Gelidus pulled back his hood, gaining an unobstructed view, however also revealing his pale white skin and albino eyes. Upon seeing his face it was clear that the crew and Leonadas were shocked, and I heard several gasps and even the word 'Warlock' muttered by some on deck. Shortly after this I noticed a familiar rippling in the sand heading towards the goat; hurrying down the ramp I point this out to Gelidus. The ripples quickly reached the animal, the shifting of the sand stopped and moments later the giant crab arose from the sand, impaling the goat on its jagged pincer. The skewered animal thrashed about, its cries and bleats went unheard, as everyone still had their ears blocked. It was at this point Gelidus used his powerful Perdo spell to freeze the beast; his first attempt was successful as fine shards of ice gathered over the creature's claw. As the crab let it's pray fall from its grip, a second casting of the spell saw the pincer covered with even more ice. The beast was clearly heavily wounded and made a quick retreat beneath the golden sands.
I could tell from the look on his face that Gelidus was disappointed not to have finished off the creature. Still it was with caution we waited several minutes for the beasts return. With no sign of it returning, my sodalis made the brave move of heading over the sand and up the beach. Soon the rest of us were on the shore ready to move out. Leonadas and his mercenaries made it clear they would be staying on the ship; I suspected that if they had ever planned to accompany us ashore, the sight of the giant crab and Gelidus had put that notion out of their minds for good. Just before we made our way up the beach, I took a moment to catch the Captain's eye and activate an enchanted ring "Turning the Treacherous Heart", there by creating a strong sense of loyalty in the man. My hope being that he would have serious qualms about sailing off and marooning us if that became an issue.
In short order the magi and champions left the ship and travelled beyond the shoreline, heading towards a grassy hill near the centre of the island. The plan was to survey the land from that higher vantage point, before deciding on our next course of action. Upon reaching the top we discovered a perfect circle of dirt on the ground where no grass grew. I decided to use one of my Eye-Drops of Magical Sight, as the magic took hold my eyes turned to silver orbs and my vision shifted. My gaze surveyed the island landscape for signs of any magical boundaries and while none were visible from this vantage, when I turned to look at the perfect earth circle upon the hilltop, I could see a shimmer in the air that indicated the presence of a regio. By concentrating I could see past the haze and deeper into the regio itself. There where the earthen circle had been stood a most extraordinary object, similar to a standing stone but made from a metal substance akin to bronze. Upon its surface was etched a most intricate pattern. Taking time to study the object, I tried firstly to determine its construction, then drawing on my studies of mythical artefacts, attempted to garner what use or meaning the object might hold. It took me some time but as the effects of the magical sight faded, I felt confident I had solved the mystery of this device. To my reckoning by following the intricate pattern on the device and duplicating that in a path around the circle, I believed we could gain passage through the boundary.
It took some time to get everyone correctly following the patterns directions, but soon we found ourselves looking over a distinctly different landscape, the slope that once lead downwards towards the sea cliffs now lead up and in the distance there were signs of rock formations and caves. Looking back towards the beach, there was no sign of the ship; however upon the beach there appeared to be gigantic sheep. It took some time to reassure the champions that the ship had not sailed away and a rudimentary explanation of what had happened followed. With the fear of being trapped on the island gone, the Bulgarians turned their attention to this colossal sheep; I presume it must have seemed like some great bounty to them. With Boyko and Yevgeny's optimistic joking about taking this great sheep back to the village, we turned our backs on the beach and made our way towards the caves in the distance. Further down the hill we found tracks of not only large hoof prints but also those of a giant man. Upon seeing them my mind wandered to past lectures on magical beasts, and while many varieties of giant came to mind it was impossible to determine what manor of creature could have made these. Continuing our journey towards the cave, we had not travelled far before the ground behind us began to rumble. Loquellamedes and Gelidus became invisible while I and the two champions made for cover. Soon looming over the hilltop a fearsome giant came into view; even a large man like Boyko would barely have come up to its knee. This giant was clearly a Cyclops; its large yellow eye staring out from the centre of its temple, with a cruel face screwed up into a sneer, it came forward sniffing the air.
Yevgeny and myself had found reasonable hiding places, unfortunately Boyko had not. And while his poor choice of hiding place was clear to us, we were unable to warn him of his precarious position before the Cyclops drew near. With a bellow of rage the giant saw Boyko and moved quickly towards him. Realising his perilous position the seasoned champion broke cover and ran from his pursuer, dodging the giant as its huge hands made to grab him. I could hear my invisible sodales casting spells, trying to aid Boyko or distract the Cyclops. The earth in front of his feet was destroyed so he would trip, and though this allowed Boyko a small chance of escape, the giant appeared to be surprisingly agile. Suspecting the Cyclops feasted on the large sheep we had seen earlier I spontaneously used a Creo Imaginen spell to create the smell of mutton coming from behind the giant. Unfortunately he either did not notice or it failed to distract him, I tried once more by creating the sound of a barring sheep again from behind the Cyclops. With luck this time the distractions proved the better of the Brute, "Who's been cooking my sheep?" came a gruff rumbling voice. Boyko took the opportunity to run for his life. The Cyclops gave one final look around before running off in the direction of the beach and presumably his flock.
With all speed we moved out of our hiding places, Boyko was however no where to be seen. At the time I could only hope that he had found himself a good hiding place and would wait for our return. We continued following the tracks up towards a large cave, ever conscious of the Cyclops possible return. Within the cave was a large fire and hanging not far away suspended from the cave roof by a large metal chain was an enormous gold cage. Imprisoned in the cage was an old man of Arabic descent. Loquellamedes was able to converse with him in his native tongue. The man called himself Ahmad and begged to be released, after further conversation he announced himself as a member of the Order, hailing from my own house. There seemed to be no other exit from the cave and no sign of how to safely get him down. We discussed possible options to release this fellow wizard, however such talk became academic when Ahmad informed us that the cage could resist up to a fourteenth magnitude spell. After the initial shock at the supposed power of this enchanted cage we listened as Ahmad told us how he had come to be trapped in this cage and how we might grant him his freedom. Ever aware that the Cyclops could return at anytime, He explained that the Cyclops, named Carus, was not actually evil just angry. It seemed there had been an unfortunate misunderstanding, one of Ahmad's creations a bird called Eumelia had stolen a ring belonging to Carus. Enraged at having his ring stolen the giant had locked Ahmad in his own enchanted cage before he could explain the situation. This bird apparently made its home further down from the cave in a spire. If the ring was retrieved and returned to Carus we might be able to convince the giant to let Ahmad go.
With this as our only option we left the cave and made our way down in search of this birds abode. Soon enough we saw ahead of us, rising out of the ground, a tall spire of rock with numerous crevices and caves dotting its rocky face. For awhile we saw no sign of anything unusual; however after a time we spotted what can only be described as a mechanical bird, flapping around in the sky above. There it circled the spire before coming down to land and enter one of the tiny caves some thirty foot up. Unsure as to how to go about trapping this unusual bird we discussed our options, while doing so we heard subtle a subtle tune flowing out of the birds cave. Loquellamedes listened to its unusual tune for several minutes before he began to mimic it. Soon the two of them, wizard and bird, were in perfect harmony creating a most impressive, if strange, melody between them. This carried on for some time until finally Eumelia poked her head out of her home. Then we saw clutched in her metal claw a tiny silver ring. Further singing encouraged her to leave her home and flutter down to the ground. She was obviously a cautious creation, for while she was happy to continue singing with Loquellamedes, she eyed the rest of us with what appeared to be suspicion, ensuring she kept a safe distance from us. Waiting until she was calm again Gelidus rendered himself invisible, moved around behind the creature and grabbed it. With his strong hold, the rest of us were able to rush in and secure the ring from her grasp; Yevgeni provided a sack to put the creature in.
Gelidus and Loquellamedes being able to render themselves invisible, headed back towards the cave to negotiate with this Carcus, while myself an Yevgeni moved back around the side of the island and headed for the hill with the bronze artefact on top, hoping to find Boyko in our travels. I understand Loquellamedes bargained well with the Cyclops Carpus, not only did Carpus accept his ring back and free Ahmad, he also commented on the honour of Loquellamedes. Free from his imprisonment Ahmad introduced himself as Magus Ahmad bin Musa ibn Shakir. Obviously fatigued from his incarceration, he was keen to return to his residence and lead my soldalas back there. In the mean time I and Yevgeni had found Boyko on our journey and now awaited the others at the metal artefact on the hill. Ahmad came to find us, looking almost unrecognisable, in fine garb and now able to fully converse in Latin. He took us to his home.
My word's are far from eloquent, so I will not sully the place with a description that could never live up to the reality, sufficed to say it was the most astonishing place I had ever hoped to see, truly not since my time at Verdi had I seen such wonders. From the striking Persian styled buildings to the fruits and foods that looked like perfect specimens of their kind. Automatons moved around everywhere, the most impressive of which was a marvellously crafted metal horse running around a nearby field. Ahmad continued to talk about his home and the nature of the island, before expressing his gratitude to us, giving each of us a generously rewarded for our coming to his aid. Loquellamedes was given the mechanical bird Eumelia, so he may try and discover the secrets of the birds song and in turn an understanding of how the maidens song could breach the boundaries of mundane language. Gelidus was provided with 3 rooks of vim vis to replace what he had used in his journeys here, I myself gained a prize I would have thought unobtainable, a copy of the "Kitab al-Hiyal" roughly translated to "The Book of Ingenious Devices." Judging from Ahmad's creations there are clearly many deeper mysteries within my house that I cannot yet deduce. Eumelia for example is a beautifully crafted piece of art, while I have no aptitude for music I can appreciate the unusual tune it sings and the detail of craftsmanship is evident. Perhaps the most amazing quality is that she is obviously no mindless automaton set to work a specific task, it is clear this creation has a mind, dare I say a personality of its own, something quiet remarkable!
The question of our departure and paying off Leonadas arose as a real issue, with none of us willing to hand over such fine magical treasures, Ahmad again generously came to our aid, offering up a chest of gold coins of ancient origin that would prove ample payment for our Greek merchant. As we left we were informed how the island had remained hidden for so long and why it had recently appeared. Ahmad used a ritual to employ a water elemental to hide and protect his home. Clearly the laps in his ability to command this elemental while imprisoned had caused the island to reappear. Ahmad assured us the elemental would once again ensure the island disappeared after our departure, however he did inform us that should we have a real need Eumelia would be able to help aid our return. Moved back through the boundary to the mundane world we walked down towards the beach, relieved to find the ship still there.
Our goodbyes said we boarded the ship and set sail, as we left a deep turquoise shape was visible in the water moving off beneath our keel. Once well on our way we presented the chest of coins when Leonadas came to our cabin. He seemed satisfied enough, though whether he suspected us of hiding more treasure I cannot be sure. Returning to Constantinople the gold coins were smelted down, then that gold was sold in turn to goldsmiths and the like. Once everyone had had their cut, and Leonadas had taken his half, we were left with twelve soladis each. Leonadas later informed us he would be purchasing a ship similar to the one we used to travel down to Constantinople in. This may be of use to us if we plan to travel abroad in the future.
As the last light from the summer sun broke through the gathering autumn clouds, we arrived once again on Bulgarian soil.
Almost a year to the day after our first expedition, Lucca, Gelidus and I set off once again for the singer's isle. We were able to make our way there again without too much difficulty, though we still had to endure the unpleasantness of being smuggled into Constantinople in a ship's hold. But the journey from the great city was straightforward enough and soon we were standing on the chartered boat looking down at the beach. Gelidus had made sufficient preparation to lure out the giant crab and was able to hurt it enough to send it burrowing back down beneath the sand, from whence it troubled us not. Thus reassured, we walked up the beach and clambered up to the top of the hill that lay at the centre of the island so that we could get a view of the whole isle. On the summit we found a circle of bare earth, in the middle of which stood a strange metallic, seemingly man-made object. After some investigation we determined that it marked the entrance to a deeper regio and so we passed quickly through.
This level of the regio appeared broadly similar to that which we had just left, save for a huge cave from which emanated a deathly stench. Unfortunately, as we approached, we disturbed the cave's occupant, a huge cyclops. Naturally everyone scattered and sought desperately to hide at the sounds of his approach, but he espied one of the grogs and chased him off, accusing him of stealing his sheep. Curiously, when we discussed the incident later it transpired that all present understood him, even though we do not share a common language. It seems more than coincidental that such should occur on the self same island as the bronze-skinned songstress.
Those of us not fleeing down the hill, that is to say the three magi, then sneaked into the cave. At the back of a series of caverns we found the cyclops's living area, from the ceiling of which hung a large elaborate cage in which sat a haggard-looking man who was praying to Allah in Arabic. I addressed in him that tongue and he replied eagerly, begging me to rescue him. He told me that his name was Ahmed bin Shakri du Mousa, filius Teroman of the cult of Verditius and that he had been imprisoned since the time of the Caliph, which according to my somewhat shaky history was at least a couple of hundred years ago, maybe even longer. The prisoner went on to explain that the cyclops's name was Carpus and he was not the maneater that he first seemed, but had caged him because one of his magical creations had stolen Carpus's ring. Ahmed pleaded with me to go and retrieve the ring, which he said was held by a magical mechanical magpie that nested in some holes in the cliffs that lay behind the cave. I agreed to do so and we set off.
We found the cliffs without too much difficulty, but it was quickly obvious that it would be a demanding climb. As we stared up at the rock face a musical tweeting started up from one of the higher holes, definitely bird song of some sort, but more like a bird song might sound if it were played on a musical instrument rather than the throat of a flesh and blood bird. Surely this was the song of the creature that we sought. As best I could I sought to sing the tune back to the bird and must have produced a fair likeness of it for I was able to lure it down to the ground. There, despite its wariness, an invisible Gelidus was able to trap the bird and retrieve the ring from it. As we made our way back up to the cave I mused a little more on the nature of the song that this mechanical wonder had sung, for it had seemed to me that there was something intelligible buried within its tune, almost like a language, though certainly unlike any I had ever heard before.
I carefully presented the ring to Carpus and grudgingly he set Ahmed free. The magus, for wizard he clearly was, then led us through another regio gateway that he had constructed, this time in a grove of olive trees. There lay his sanctum, a beautiful villa in the Persian style, with elaborate and finely made mosaics, slender marble columns, and practically every Eastern luxury that could be desired. Once he had refreshed himself, Ahmed insisted upon rewarding us for freeing him. I was delighted to be given Eumilia, the magpie that he had constructed, and I look forward eagerly to studying the musical language that she sings. Lucca, while he may have had an eye on Eumilia himself, was far from disappointed when he was gifted with a copy of the "Kitab al-Hyal", which translated from the Arabic means 'Book of ingenious devices'. I am sure he will find much of interest in there. Gelidus opted for a much more prosaic reward, accepting only a sum of vis. With that we left, the only sad note being that now Ahmed is returned, he will once more hide the island from mundane sight, though Eumilia can apparently sing a song that will alert him to her presence so all hope of return is not lost.
Autumn
The autumn season was spent in relative peace until, Loquellamedes and Ioanna approached the rest of the council. It seems Loquellamedes had received one of his precognitive visions, these have proved more accurate than not in the past, so it was with no small concern that we listened to the latest one. It seems he had witnessed a dragon like creature, possibly a Wyvern from the description, awakening deep in the mountains. Ioanna mentioned she had found record of an encounter with such a beast in the journal, some two hundred years ago. There had been an earthquake and the following season the covenant had come under attack, during which a member of house flambeau had been slain. It was noted that the creature had attacked in the season following the earthquake, with that in mind and aware that winter often brought down horrors from the snow laden peaks, preparations were made for a possible attack come winter. Though in truth I believe should such an attack arise none present here could realistically stand against it.
One evening mid-way through the season I was woken from my slumbers by the sound of Eumilia singing a shrill song of alarm. Somehow she must have a similar sense to mine for once awakened I could hear a great roaring from high in the mountains. It sounded so loud as to be deafening and caused a maddening vibration to reverberate around my laboratory as though the ground itself was shaking. As I closed my eyes to try and shut out the shaking and calm myself, I found that although my eyes were screwed tight shut I could see the tops of the mountains, as though I were perched somewhere up in those icy heights myself. The roaring was even louder there, but as I listened and attempted to make some sort of sense of it, I caught the unmistakable harmonies of siren song of twilight amidst the animalistic cacophony. Then, almost as swiftly as the vision had come, I found my senses returned to my sanctum.
However, the gifts of sights and sounds being gifted to me that day were not yet complete, for as I sat back down upon my cot I saw a great winged serpent uncoiling its sinuous scaled body and lazily unfurling its wings. As I stared at it I felt a sudden premonition of dread, but just as in those dreams where you try to run from a foe but find inexplicably that your legs will not work, so in my vision I was not able to tear my gaze away from the creature's head before its eyes locked onto mine. The surge of fear that I felt course through my body as I stared into those terrible blue orbs broke the spell and I was once again sitting in my sanctum, this time for real. All was now quiet and still, save for the sound of the rain pattering against the heavy wooden shutters, but I was deeply shaken for I felt in my very bones that the creature was real and now knew of my presence down here by the lake.
When I had recovered my composure, I sought out Ioanna to see if she knew aught of such a creature. Although she could not immediately remember where, she felt sure that she had heard of something akin to what I had experienced. After a couple of hours in the library reading through some of the dusty old copies of the covenant journal, Ioanna found what she was looking for. Over two hundred years ago, in the summer of 980, an earthquake afflicted the covenant and in the following autumn the covenant was assailed by a dragon-like creature with the venomous sting of a scorpion for a tail. The poison inflicted by this was so virulent as to instantly kill any unlucky enough to be stung by it and several villagers were slain before the beast turned its attention to the covenant. While not as large or as intelligent as a dragon, this creature reportedly had a level of cunning akin to that of more mundane predators such as lions and was dangerous enough to slay a magus of House Flambeau in the battle that ensued. That winter, while the survivors were still licking their wounds and mourning the dead, there was a blizzard so severe that many people froze to death in their beds.
Ordinarily such visions excite and inspire me, for it is my belief given all that I have experienced here thus far that there are many long-forgotten secrets that lie in the highest reaches of the mountains of Kolyada's Retreat, but this vision unsettled greatly and I must confess that I shall not be sorry if it does not come to pass.
Winter
Come the winter council all preparations that could be made had been; then we had to wait out the season and see if history would repeat itself.
With the waters of our lake beginning to freeze, one of the fisherfolk who dwell on its shores came to the covenant with an intriguing tale. A few days ago, he had been on a boat on the river that runs East from our lake, making his way home from a day's fishing. It was dusk, and he and his companion were looking for a safe place to make camp for the night when they espied flickering lights in the woods on the south shore. As they looked more closely they realized that it was a procession of torches carried by a small group of men. The fishermen believe that these woods are haunted so they were greatly afeared and dared not risk entering the woods to learn more. This superstitious unease was reinforced the next day when they had the distinct sensation of being watched from someone or something in the tree-line and they hurriedly made their way back to their village. Fortunately, they remembered our request to be told of any suspicious activity in the lands hereabouts and so the man came here to tell Captain Viorel what they had seen.
A quick study of the maps of the area where the torches were seen showed that an old barrow lies to the East of the woods, exactly the direction in which the torch-bearers were heading. Suspecting that this could be the coven that has plagued us over recent years, a war party was quickly assembled and Gelidus, Laertes, Mestitia, Milko and Zvonimir set off. Guided by the fisherman, they were able to make good time and swiftly made their way to the tombs that they suspected were the destination of the torchbearers. Sure enough, when they got there, they found that one of the tombs had been disturbed and there were etiolated toadstools and other witch signs in the area around the ashes of an old campfire that presumably marked a campsite. There was a shadowy and ancient spirit within the barrow, so Laertes used his mentem magics to command it to speak, which it did in an old Bulgarian dialect.
It would be extremely interesting to converse with such a spirit to see exactly how the language of the Bulgars differs from that spoken now. Indeed, the whole question of why languages change is an extremely interesting one. Do such alterations improve a language's descriptive power or fluency for song, or conversely is there a general decay in the quality of a tongue? Of course, how one might define decay is another question entirely. What we might regard as a ruder, more simplistic language may have been better suited for the times when it was spoken by the living. On this point, are changes a result of a conscious or unconscious effort? If conscious, how might someone affect the structure of an entire living language? If unconscious, are there non-human or supernatural forces at work? Might the language itself have some animating force or essence?
To return to the record however, the spirit told Laertes that it was the ghost of a long-dead king. This royal shade went to describe the tomb raiders. There were three that it spoke of, a man, a woman and a third figure, the precise nature of which was unclear as Laertes did not recognize the word that the spirit used, though the best translation he could get was the ominous "flesh that walks". All three individuals were cloaked and hooded, with full face masks and were careful not to use any of their names. Most significantly of all perhaps, the ghost said that they used magic. The purpose of their journey seems to have been to steal a pendant and a sword from the king's tomb. The shade stated that the pendant ensures that the wearer cannot be struck by any blade, while any wounds caused by the sword will not heal naturally. If as it seems, this is the work of the coven, then our enemy appears even more dangerous than we had feared. This was confirmed that night, when, after having followed tracks that led South from the tomb to a second campsite deeper in the woods, our party was assailed by the animated corpses of the dead. Thankfully the martial magics of the three magi, combined with Zvonimir's prowess with an axe, were able to put to rest five of these creatures, though Milko did suffer a slight wound. With that, they returned to the covenant. We shall all have to step up our watch for the coven for it is clear that their plots are active and ongoing.
Later in the season, on mid-winter's eve, after a day spent teaching Lucca, I was suddenly overcome by a strange and overpowering somnolence and fell asleep on my table. My visual perspective then rose out from behind my eyes to a hovering position a foot or two above my inert body for a moment before I felt an increasingly strong pull from outside my sanctum, in a north-easterly direction. My spirit, or vision, I know not which, was dragged swiftly outside the covenant at an ever faster rate until I lost all bearings. Then I sensed the ground rushing up towards me. I braced myself instinctively for an impact but there was none and I felt as though I had been plunged into the earth. There was now a rising sense of panic inside me and I clawed my way desperately up towards the sun's light as whatever force it was continued to drag me down. Eventually, the pull ceased and I stopped, but there was little comfort to be had from this for I was deep within the dark and suffocating earth. I tried to push my way up to the surface but it was too hard and after a while I grew tired and then resigned to my fate. With such resignation came a strange sense of calm and the earth felt almost comforting. Then, with my frantic efforts having stopped, I became aware of a breathing sound around me, the gentle susurration of something in a deep, peaceful sleep. I felt a sense of warmth and it seemed to me that the earth was holding me in a loving embrace. My desire for the sun evaporated and it felt natural to be where I was, as if it had ever been thus.
Suddenly my reverie was shattered by a cracking sound overhead as the earth was shattered and I sensed a presence above me. The very soil seemed to shriek in pain and I shared its anguish as I was ripped from the earth's embrace in what could only be a sacrilegious and deeply wrong act. Then, before I could learn aught of who or what had done this, I found my senses back in my body on my laboratory table. I was drenched in sweat and there was a strong smell of earth pervading my sanctum. I was exhausted, it felt like I had run for miles and been physically assaulted. Both Boris and Eumilia shared my discomfort and I saw later that evening that the webs in Boris's cage were disturbed, with a fissure in their middle that seemed uncannily like that which had been rendered in the earth where I had lain. As to the meaning of this, I confess that I am still in the dark, even though it is the most involved that I have yet experienced. Clearly, the symbology suggests that something, a body most likely, has been dug up. The sense that such an act was profoundly wrong, coupled with the recent activities of those we believe to be coven members, makes me think it likely that this is more of the work of those infernalists who lurk nearby. If my previous visions are anything to go by it is probable that this has not yet happened, but will do so in the near future. I must meditate on this and try and gleam some further meaning from it so that this desecration does not occur and mayhap, those magi here with martial talents might catch them in the act.
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