The Olive Branch Season: Winter, 1219 [From THE ROLLS OF DRAGON'S RISE]: Full Members: Demoror of Quaesitor Teacher (Billy) Dubius of Criamon Faerie Envoy (Woo) Flamma of Flambeau Head Protector (Eric) Nicholi of Jerbiton Teacher (John) Tolas of Tremere Leader Verdan of Bonisagus Lab Worker (Shannon) Members: Ahmed of Flambeau Hunter (Scott) Arturo of Mercere Protector (John) Lysander of Jerbiton Chancellor (Chris) Malcolm of Jerbiton Lab Worker (Matt) Pumilio of Erimor Hunter (Dave) Apprentices: Maria Apprentice of Nicholi Head Mundanes: Manual Head Ship Captain (Billy) Mundanes: Bartolini, Mercury Grog Guardian of Dubius Iago, Mercury Grog Guardian of Tolas Jocopo, Mercury Grog Guardian of Demoror Luchino, Mercury Grog Guardian of Pumilio Nickoli Storyteller (Eric) Samson, Silver Grog Guardian of Lysander * * * [Dramatis Personae]: Antonio Werewolf Calios of Bonisagus Magus Fret Blue Dragon Rogers of Ex. Misc. Magus Stagnum Os of Bonisagus Magus Turbator of Tremere Magus Xenethon of Bonisagus Magus * * * [A Timeline of the Magi of Stagnum's New Covenant]: Fall, 1210 Xenethon becomes the apprentice of Calios of Bonisagus, when his former master, Stolatov, explodes. -Vardian Log #40 Winter, 1211 Turbator comes to Rome, seeking beasts which had escaped the Covenant of Morwennon. -Vardian Log #45 Winter, 1211 Calios leaves Vardian's Tomb after learning the painful truth of the other Bonisagus' feelings towards him. -Vardian Log #45 Winter, 1211 Rogers wanders out of the faerie realms where he had been lost for centuries. -Vardian Log #45 Spring, 1218 Stagnum Os leaves Dragon's Rise when he is not granted full membership. -Rise Log #1 * * * [From the RISE LOGS OF TOLAS OF TREMERE]: The Council Meeting of Fall, 1219 has passed, and for once, it was a mostly uneventful one. At the start of the meeting, Flamma was terribly upset about all the Crusaders the we had killed, Fortunately, I had coached Ahmed, Malcolm and Pumilio to say all the right things. They told her that killing the Crusaders was utterly unavoidable, and pointed out that we had saved the one, Arthur, when we could. Flamma was finally mollified and agreed to make a spell to restore Ahmed's lost leg. Verdan has already been recalled from Literatus to help her in that task. Next, we began to speak on the status of various members. Ahmed and Arturo were both advanced to the status of Probationary Member, granting them a vote. Ahmed was named a Hunter, and Arturo a Protector. The latter title is not truly appropriate, but was the best that we could do. I can see that our Charter will need to be modified for him at some time. While we were discussing positions, Nicholi mentioned that he would like to take Pietro's daughter, Maria, as an apprentice. After much discussion, we decided to change Nicholi's position to Teacher. Lysander shall be the new Chancellor. Hopefully, he can be competant in that. Afterwards, Manual mentioned that he had exchanged the Santa Cruz for a new boat, as we had requested. We have decided to name this new ship the Vicious Troubadour. I am sure that it will do quite a lot to improve our financial situation. Before the meeting was broken up, we discussed longevity potions for a while. Fabricatio and Dubius will both need theirs soon, it seems. Verdan will be making them, of course. I told him that I would need a new one soon as well. I really don't trust the fool to not blow himself into oblivion, and I wish to be assured of my longevity before that point. After that, it would be good to rid ourselves of the idiot. He is a political enough Bonisagus to be dangerous. * * * [From THE RISE LOGS OF TOLAS OF TREMERE]: It was just three days after the Winter Council meeting. I was fast asleep when an earth shattering howl broke the night. At first, I was simply annoyed at my disturbed sleep. Then, visions of attacking werewolves, and piles of vis began to fill my head. Unfortunately, Flamma was woken at well, and she went with me to find the source of the disturbance. Thus, a quick, fiery strike was not possible. When we arrived in the courtyard, we found that there was indeed two werewolves there. Flamma created a dome of stone over them to prevent unfortunate accidents. When the werewolves had calmed down, Antonio, who we had spoken with us before, finally deigned to talk with us. Angrily, Antonio claimed that we had violated our agreement. He shouted of a magus violently ripping a branch from an olive tree in his woods, and then hurting a werewolf who was trying to defend it. In return, Antonio wanted blood. After much discussion, I was finally able to get Antonio to give us a description of the magus. I recognised him as Calios, one of the fool Bonisagus who once belonged to Vardian's Tomb. Quickly, I assured the werewolf that I would solve the problem. If there were other magi on my island, I wanted to be the one to deal with them. Since I would be heading into Shen's Faerie Forest, I took Dubius, the Faerie Envoy with me. Demoror and Lysander also joined me, as did all of our grogs, and the storyteller, Nickoli. He at least was familiar with the forest, and that was why I allowed him to accompany us. When we entered the forest, just north of Omedeo, we were at once set upon by the troublesome inhabitants. Bartolini was the one who found the small blue dragon named Fret rooting through our packs. We chatted with the creature for a while, and I quietly found it's magical worth. Since the dragon was only worth two pawns of vis, I decided to allow it to live. The dragon took a liking to Dubius and stayed with him as we continued on. That night, as we were setting up camp, we heard someone nearby. It was Pumilio, with his grog Luchino. They had been sent out to search for vis for the season, so it was not too surprising that we ran into them within the faerie forest. I quickly decided that Pumilio would accompany us upon our expedition, in case we needed to kill Calios. The next morning, we continued on towards the glen where Antonio said the attack had occurred. The whole time, that damned dragon kept talking. I almost killed him, but somehow managed to restrain myself. Flamma would have been proud. When we came to the clearing, it was easy to see which tree Calios had mauled. It was a magical olive tree, exactly the type of thing that we had sent Pumilio into the faerie forest looking for. Calios had clearly gathered the vis into a tree limb, then ripped the entire branch off the tree. Such stupidity. Looking around the clearing, Iago realized that the olive tree sat at one corner of a triangle. There were olives trees in the other two corners as well. Not surprisingly, they were also magical. After verifying with Antonio that it would be all right to harvest the fruit from the trees, I carefully gathered the magical essence of each tree into olives. Four pawns of muto and three pawns of imagonem were our reward. After we had looted the vis from the clearing, we all returned to our earlier task, tracking down Calios. It was not hard to find a bit of hair that Calios had left behind. So, Demoror began to cast spells. Soon, we had found that Calios was no longer upon my island. Rather, he seemed to be residing upon Corsica, the island just to the North. I sent Lysander ahead to prepare the Vicious Troubadour. The trek back to Cagliari and the trip to Corsica were both uneventful. Continued spells showed that Calios was staying in a place near the center of that island. As we approached the center of Corsica, we were confused for a time. It became clear to me that a Shrouded Glen was protecting the location that we were heading towards. With that knowledge, and Demoror's continued location spells, however, we were able to penetrate that arcane defense. Shortly, we came upon a village of fourty. The villagers there directed us to what they called the institute, down a long ravine. By then, we had all realized that this institute was a new Covenant. Stagnum Os, the leader, greeted us in one of the outer buildings. Quickly, he introduced us to Calios, Rogers, Turbator and Xenethon, the other members of his covenant. Then, he inquired about the nature of our problem. I was furious by that time, and I started yelling and threatening Stagnum. The next several hours were not too pleasant. By the time I was done, I had defeated Stagnum twice in Certamen and extracted a huge number of promises. He swore that he would not take vis from my island, or from Corsica, and that he would give my Covenant shares of any other vis that his Covenant might gather. In addition, I recovered the vis that Calios had stolen from my island, and made all of Stagnum's magi promise not to hurt the lands on my island, so that the wolves would not be again offended. Finally, I convinced Calios to provide me with some of his blood, to appease the werewolves. After several hours of argument, I left, with Stagnum in tow, for he owed me a year of service due to one of our Certamens. All the way back to the Covenant, he whined. However, when I got home, Flamma was not too pleased. She was a bit intolerant of my temper, and unhappy with all of the promises I had extracted from Stagnum's Covenant. So, I released Stagnum from most of them. In final, it was agreed that the magi of Stagnum's Covenant would not take vis from my island, and would not hurt the lands of my island. Additionally, Stagnum swore that he would try and support my Covenant in tribunals. I vaguely recall giving the fool the same promise with regard to my tribunal votes. Finally, to show my largess, I even released Stagnum from his year of service. He left much relieved from what I could tell. In all, I think the situation turned out well. I have held my stake on this island, and at the same time proved my superiority over Stagnum's new covenant. I think the worry that I gave Stagnum before I released him from his promises was indeed a correct punishment. Even better, Calios has shown me what I expect will be a renewable source of vis. Next year, I shall have to have my hunters look and see if the vis has returned to those olive trees. Oh, and I should note that that dragon, Fret, has decided to remain near our Covenant. The other magi are all insisting that I allow him to participate in the Aegis ritual next year. Quite annoying. I wish I could have pushed through a charter that was not nearly as democratic. Still, I will bide my time and wait. * * * [From THE RISE LOGS OF TOLAS OF TREMERE]: Last week, Pumilio and Dubius went to collect the vis from the sea horses that we found last year. They gathered nine pawns of vis marking the expedition as quite successful. It seems that we were not succesful in breeding any new horses, but the vis more than makes up for it. I am glad that Durus was able to find the true usefulness of the horses before we gave up on them entirely.