Prospectus Logs #23: But the Turtle Came Back (The Very Next Day) +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Of the making of a god. Walking in the footsteps of Odin, including | | a trip to Germany, an ambush at sea, and the taking on of destiny's | | roles. How negotiations may prove more advantageous than conflict. | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Dramatis Personae: Albus of Tytalus Magus (Shannon Appel) Fraxima the Faerie Flambeau Magus (Donald Kubasak) Larissa of Mercere Maga (Kevin Wong) Lorum of Merinita Magus (Bill Filios) Aubrin of Merinita Elder Magus Forticulus of Flambeau Elder Magus Lucindia Senschal (Chris Van Horn) Andre Grog Gustau Grog Michelle Grog Roger-Tien Grog Torp Grog Xavier Grog Lord Jelel Thom's Brother Lord of the Sea Turtles God-in-Training May Queen Faerie Queen Oltar Guardian of the Well of Knowledge Story Guide: Chris Van Horn - * - Letter from Albus to Monya Translated into Arabic by Hufar Scribed December 15, 1216 Monya, I have not yet heard a reply from you regarding the message I recently sent your way. I have thus followed it up with this letter. I wish to apologize for the recent hostility between us. However, I still have a need for the two remaining silver amulets held by your people. The angel that plagues me insists I recover them. If you could see fit to give me this amulets the results will be beneficial. I will offer you a reward as you see fit for all six amulets. Please take this into consideration. Albus of Tytalus - * - The Council Records as recorded by Lucindia the Seneschal December 21, 1216 In attendence: Aubrin, Catorse, Drake, Fabricarious, Forticulus, Frangere, Lorum, Risus, Viator, and Xanti; also myself, Lucindia the Seneschal, and Berengarius, an associate member. Absent: Albus, currently unable to enter the covenant. Quorum was achieved and Aubrin called the one regularly scheduled meeting of Prospectus Locus to order. As is traditional the main topic of discussion was vis. Points of Information: * AUBRIN open the meeting with a description of our newest vis collections, totalling 11 pawns of techniques and 30 pawns of forms. * AUBRIN explained that 7 pawns of forms had already been traded to produce the Vim Vis necessary for our Aegis of the Hearth, as per the December 21, 1214 council decision. * LARISSA was acclaimed as a full member of Prospectus Locus, having fulfilled her commitment of studying Moorish culture. Points of Debate: * LORUM requested trading 4 pawns of Herbam for Terram. Passed. * AUBRIN suggested 16 pawns of vis go to paying off debt. Passed. At year's end our vis stores now include: 1 Creo, 4 Intellego, 2 Muto, 19 Rego, and 7 Terram. In addition our debt has been reduced to 103 pawns. This debt is currently owed to Barcelona, Estancia-es-Karida, Hamus Acerbus, Doissetep, Mistridge, and Windgraven, as is fully noted in the second addendum to the Spring, 1212 Council Records. - * - Albus' Dialogues December 21, 1216 Early Evening Damn her eyes! All the rest of her body parts too! We conducted the Aegis ritual today. It was to no avail. I am still barred from the covenant. Barred until I retrieve her last two amulets it seems. I'm going to kill Fabricarious if I'm stuck in his lab much longer. - * - Other Records as recorded by Lucindia the Seneschal December 22, 1216 A goat was killed last night. Signs show that a lion was the culprit. All the lions are still in their watery prisons. Berengarius is very upset. - * - Letter from Albus to Monya Translated into Arabic by Hufar Scribed January 29, 1217 Monya, Thank you for your reply. Your request is very reasonable. Giving you magic items to offset the power of the six amulets seems quite fair. Please offer me some information on what exactly you would like. Offensive possibilities: an object that throws flames; something that lames horses out from under foes; something that destroys walls or doors; something that scares people. Defensive possibilities: an amulet that repulses magic; something that protects the wearer from arrows; something that protects the wearer from swords; something that makes the wearer invisible. If you have other thoughts, please feel free to express them. However, there is a catch. My making such an object will take years. If possible I would like to retrieve the last two amulets earlier. My angel insists. If you would be willing to offer me this trust, I will in return make sure the object I create exceeds the value of your amulets rather than simply matching them. In Friendship, Albus of Tytalus - * - Albus' Dialogues March 15, 1217 Evening Another season of studies is done today. Lorum's Imaginem book was excellent. Still not competent to teach Imaginem, but very close. Nearly at wit's end as to what else I can study for Tara. Our library is inadequate. I think I must request some vis at the end of the year. In the meantime I have asked Lucindia to look for a disputatio trainer for me. Have decided to study Muto next. I am already competent in it, but more knowledge is always a good thing. Still no reply from Monya. I must remember patience. - * - Albus' Dialogues May 11, 1217 Late Evening Fabricarious seems very up on going after Monya this winter. I think we shall do it. I have been talking with the other magi and believe I will have their support. Definitely in the winter, when my magic is at its peak. - * - Albus' Dialogues June 7, 1217 Early Evening An odd happening outside my lab this evening. For once it was not Fabricarious interrupting my studies. Hearing noises coming from the main gate, I went out to see what was going on. There I found a satyr and a snow leopard talking with Lorum. The satyr was doing most of the talking. The snow leopard was panting and looking hot. They had come from the May Queen to deliver a message, but were requiring Lorum to submit to some tatooing beforehand. Probably something to do with all that time Lorum spent with the faeries early this year. Lorum finally acceded. The tatooing was long and seemed painful. When it was done Lorum had a most beautiful map on his back depicting the way to a "Well of Knowledge." Also a recipe. For human soup. We were later able to ascertain that the tatooing satyr--or perhaps the May Queen--had been bribed just a little by Lorum's nemesis--the Lord of the Sea Turtles. The letter was also about the Lord of the Sea Turtles. It was from Dux Aquil. It said that his "former servant" was trying to "become greater." It seems the turtle is bearing the jewels of Nyrea and a tear from Lorum to the "Well of Knowledge." He hopes to become "God of the Liminals." Apaprently "liminal" refers to some type of in-between place. The "Well of Knowledge" is where the god Odin is said to have given up his eye in return for wisdom. I am vaguely familiar with it because it is in my native Germany. I remember something about a haunted forest and a castle of ghosts. I have agreed to accompany Lorum in a quest to prevent the turtle from achieving wisdom, godhood, or whatever. We will leave in three days when my Muto studies are done. In the meantime Lorum is off to various tasks. First to get Forticulus to Perdo that tatoo off his back. Then to write letters about a certain turtle having magi tatooed with recipes. - * - Albus' Dialogues June 10, 1217 Mid-day We are off, though our party is frighteningly small. Myself, Lorum, Larissa, aand six grogs. We plan to head to the north coast of Iberia then take a boat to Germany. Hopefully we should be at the Haunted Forest in a month. +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Look, it's you, me, and Larissa trying to stop him; | | he could become a god." | | -Albus, on reality checks | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ - * - The Memoirs of Aubrin the Evil June 15, 1217 Bwah ha ha! Bwah ha ha! - * - Albus' Watersoaked Dialogues June 21, 1217 Late, Late Evening Oh my. What a dreadful day. We were still on the sea this morning. Crossing between Britain and France. Our first sign of trouble was when a magical glowing light began pointing at us. At Lorum, really. We tried to get rid of it, to no avail. After a few hours it faded. It was after dark that the real trouble struck. Ducks started circling. People moved on shore. A fog rose. Something began banging on the bottom of our hull. Our grogs woke us up, of course. Lorum insisted on seeing what was going on. I doffed my amulets, we both cast Lungs of the Fish, and into the water we went. Most distressingly, we found ourselves face-to-face with a huge beaver, eating away at our ship. The same one that Lorum angered late last year, no doubt. The beaver charged us. Lorum and I barely made it back to the boat in time. About then we noticed the seals swimming our way. They had been men on the shore, but had transformed. They had daggers in their mouths. For a while we tried to fight them all. Our archers fired into the darkness while our enemies bobbed on the waves. It was no good--we could not hit them. The beaver returned to the bottom of our ship and continued eating while the seals mocked us. Lorum tried to fix the hole with magic, but only made things worse. Finally the captain shouted that we must row to shore. And, we did. Perhaps a little too enthusiastically. We all rowed hard and when we saw the rocks coming up, we rowed even stronger. We could still hear the beaver eating away at our boat, you see. And so we smashed hard into the shore of northern France. After that it was a struggle for survival. We scrambled for the rocks to climb to shore. But, they were wet and slippery. I fell into the water as did many of my fellows. My Lungs of the Fish was gone, for I had redonned my amulets. I was forced to swim to shore. Many of my fellows were more able than I. They swam agiley to shore. Some actually managed to stay upon the rocks and thus were able to get to shore dry--more importantly two bows stayed dry as well. After minutes--hours?--of struggling there were only two of us still out in the waves. Myself and poor Gustau--a grog I handpicked in Barcelona. The seals--selkies to be precise for they were lycanthropes--closed in. Somehow I found the strength in myself to make a mad swim for shore. Poor Gustau was not so lucky. The selkies closed in on him. They reverted to their humans shapes. Knives sharply descended. The water turned red. Gustau disappered below the waves. As I struggled on to shore--amidst grogs and magi ready to make a final stand--I found the whole situation grown more complicated. There was a magus involved in the attack. Fraxima of Flambeau. +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "We were sailing by when we were attacked." | | "Uh oh!" | | -Torp and Fraxima, on the Hermetic Code | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Very fortunately, the Flambeau was not a madman. Madwoman. She had been manipulated into supporting this attack--not realizing the victims were magi. She began to shout at the selkies as she ran toward the beach. A few of our fellows were still in the water--among them Larissa. I had passed them during my mad flight. I began wading out into the surf, determined to protect my fellow magus from harm. Depending on the power of God, I am embarrassed to say. But it never came to that. At Fraxima's words, the selkies began to draw back, to reconsider their attack. She threatened them and their courage broke. The danger was over. At Fraxima's command the selkies scoured the water for our lost equipment--swords, shields, and armor that had gone down with the ship. Some of it was recovered. Fraxima was quick to offer us gold to pay for the rest, and for our dead grog. She was generous and I can bear to grudge against her. Even though she didn't let me kill the selkies. Two final notes on Fraxima. First, she is a faerie. Explaining why she was working with the selkies. A very fay faerie too. I burned her when I shook her hand while wearing my relics. Second, she has decided to join us. Guilt, no doubt. We quizzed the selkies before we let them go. They admitted that the Lord of the Sea Turtles had hired them to ambush us. They said he was trying to become the Lord of the Amphibians. Or Liminals or whatever. Fraxima seemed distressed by this too. Something about upsetting the natural order. In any case we must now go overland. Our journey still looms long ahead of us. - * - Albus' Less Watersoaked Dialogues June 26, 1217 Evening Brief stop in a covenant today. Lorum wrote Aubrin a letter to tell of the turtle's assassination attempt. Back on the road. - * - Albus' Dialogues July 21, 1217 Evening Finally, the Haunted Forest! - * - Albus' Dialogues July 22, 1217 Evening Well, who would have imagined. A most strange finale to our quest against the turtle. We arrived today at a mouldering castle. It was surrounded by dead knights. They insisted our champion must fight their champion to enter. Must to my surprise, Fraxima took up the gauntlet. She seems a superb fighter, but was only just barely able to take her opponent down. He used magic--breathing flames on her. None of our grogs would have been able to stand against him. Inside the castle we found a court of the dead. It was filled with corpses--very reminiscent of Lord Thom's court. And, for good reason. The ruler--Lord Jelil--claimed to be Thom's brother. We sat at a table filled with plates of rotting food. The turtle ate, not far away. Lorum began to eat as well. I wandered about, talking to first the turtle then Jelil. So I learned the rules of our contest. The turtle had been forced to wait because he could not quest for the Well of Knowledge without opposition. Which would be us. All who wanted to fight for the privilege of the Well had to first eat the rotting and poisoned food. Then they had to engage in a gift-giving contest. Giving gifts to some guardian named Oltar. This was apparently how Odin lost his eye. In the end, the leader of the losers would die. The leader of the winners would drink from the Well of Knowledge. We all began to eat the loathsome food. Lorum cast spells on us to hold away the poison. As we did we talked about gifts. We learned that the turtle was prepared to offer a tear from his greatest enemy--Lorum--and the jewels of some sea trollop--Nyrea. We had nothing. I came up with a plan. A bad plan. A bad, off-the-cuff, not carefully thought-out plan. I walked up to the Lord of the Sea Turtles and poked him in the eye. As he tried to protect his wounded ocular I managed to capture a single tear. A hush fell over the hall. I handed the tear off to Lorum. Jelil was not pleased. He yelled that I had broken hospitality and threatened to imprisoned me. Then to wither my hand. Then to banish me. Finally he realized that my actions were the fault of his majordomo. The man--corpse, whatever--had never told us the rules of hospitality for Jelil's hall. The majordomo was punished. I promised to respect hospitality. I returned to my friends. It had all been for nothing, though. Lorum had accidently evaporated the tear with his magic. We were back where we had started. I cracked. I told Lorum that we were wasting our time. That he should give up his anger. That we should allow the turtle to become a god. I offered to broker a deal. Much to my surprise Lorum agreed. So, I went to the Lord of the Sea Turtles and told him that he could bribe us to not oppose him. I hinted that we had wonderful gifts and might win the gift-giving contest. I made sure he understood his life was at risk. The Lord of the Sea Turtles saw reason. He promised to give us thirty pounds of gold and the jewels of Nyrea. He also promised that he would offer no intentional harm or humiliation to Lorum or his friends in the future, unless Lorum first offered intentional harm to the Lord of the Sea Turtles. The gold and jewels are to be paid to us in a month and a day. In the meantime we will leave. The Lord of the Sea Turtles will be able to get his drink. Lorum has set aside his vengeance. I consider it a win all around. With that hostility behind us, we can now safely sail home--our job well done. - * - Albus' Dialogues August 1, 1217 Evening Fairie time is funny. We emerged from Jelil's court today, after spending a night. Torp assures us more than a week has passed. Most disturbingly Xavier keeled over after emerging. Apparently the poisoned food had got to him more than Lorum could cure. Fraxima has healed him up a little with her touch. He should recover. Now we are homeward bound. Larissa is still quite broken up over Gustau's death. She has opted to travel home on her own. Something about "setting old wrongs right." - * - Albus' Dialogues September 1, 1217 Evening All's well that ends well. Back home today. Our jewels and gold were waiting. Fraxima has decided to stay on, beginning Moorish studies. She is still feeling guilty, I think. No Larissa yet. I hope her personal mission goes well.