Vardian Log #27: Pawn to Books Three -- "Do they smell like books?" --Rupes [to Demoror, using Perceive the Magical Scent] "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." --John 10:10 -- Season: Spring, 1206 Dramatis Personae: Aaron Spirit Bran da Crustam of Flambeau Magus Calculus Rock Calios of Bonisagus Magus (Scott) Demoror of Quaesitor Magus (Billy) Felipe of Tremere Magus Flamma of Flambeau Maga (Eric) Insolitius Georgius of Criamon Magus Marlon of Tremere Magus Mendem of Ex. Misc. Magus (Donald) Rupes of Bjornaer Magus (Shannon) Sagino, Arch Mage of Tremere Magus Servola Autocrat Tiro of Jerbiton Magus (Chris) Tolas of Tremere Magus Voluptas Cook (Eric) ** ** From Rupes' Book It seems that my plan marches on. While I was at Literatus, studying boring foreign languages, I managed to find a copy of my prophecy. It seems that it did indeed come into the hands of the founders, and was then distributed, just as it was supposed to be. If all goes well, five seasons from now, everything will come together. However, a loophole in my prohecy seems to be causing my Covenant problems. When I spoke of the Tremere who would become Primus, I was purposefully vague, because I wasn't sure if I wanted to trust Marlon with the information or not. Since Marlon was maimed shortly before I left for Literatus, this turned out to have been a fortunate precaution. Now, however, Tremere seem to be flocking to our Covenant. When I returned, there were over half a dozen, and their numbers seem to be growing. Each seems to hope that they will become a friend of Flamma and myself, and thus the primus of their house. I will do my best, however, to see that Tolas remains the favored one, for I owe him a debt for coming to my Covenant when I was in need. ** ** From the Chronicles of Salvadore When Rupes of Bjornaer returned from Literatus, he brought with him my grand daughter, Servola. She has been trained at Literatus, and seems to be quite a competant scribe. I have made her the autocrat of the Tomb, and retired from some of my duties. Still, I plan to stay here, and keep the chronicles, and take care of some affairs, for it is truly my life. Now, however, I can pass the most odious tasks on to Servola, who is still young enough to approach such things with new curiosity. ** ** From the Chronicles of Salvadore The Council meeting of Spring, 1206, began when Sagino of Tremere started certamening elders of the Covenant. He demanded that Flamma and Rupes be named elders of the Tomb, and was able to defeat both Taron and Fortunatus before Terra Natus finally vanquished him. However, these two votes were enough to shift the balance, for several other elder magi also decided to make Flamma and Rupes elder members of the Covenant. Shortly thereafter, a vote was also held to make Tiro of Jerbiton an elder member of the Covenant. He was voted in as well, increasing the total number of Covenant elders to twelve. Following the votes, several more Certamens occured. Tolas beat Calios, and Felipe beat both Demoror and Mendem. A large number of arguments occured during this time, and Bran da Crustam stepped in several times to make decisions upon Certamen conditions. Finally, the Council meeting was called to an end. ** ** From Rupes' Book It seems that I have been corrupted by the Tomb. At Literatus, I enjoyed an entire year of peace and quiet. My studies were not interupted by either silly tasks or bickering magi. Yet, no sooner have I returned to Vardian's Tomb than suddenly I am set upon by tasks and mysteries, interupting the quiet studies that I once prefered. Somehow, it is not bad as it once was, however. I am starting to find that I enjoy the wild frenzy that this Covenant exists in. I guess it proves that magi can corrupt even the purest stone. The latest problems began right after the Council meeting that made me an elder of the Tomb. While studying, I got word that several books had been stolen. The Muto and Animal books were missing from the lesser library, and Mendem reported that a Corporem book that he had gotten at the fair of Champagne and been hoarding since, had been stolen as well. Although I was not too concerned about the books of the lesser library, since I now have access to much better tomes, I was quite interested in the Corporem book. I went and talked with Flamma and Tiro, and we soon came to the conclusion that we should collect these books for the Tomb, and we made preparations to set out. After we convinced Demoror and Tiro to help us, we began our search. Unfortunately, Mendem heard of our plans at some point during this period, and he decided to take off on his own to find the books, since he did not want us to confiscate his Corporem book for Covenant use. We still do not know his fate. We began our search for the books down in the Tomb. Calculus talked with the rocks, and Demoror questioned Felipe, but we got little information from either source, and thus we decided to ascend to the city of Rome, hoping to find the books there. In Rome, Flamma insisted that we go to the Mission of the Magic of God and talk with Insolitius Georgius. She chatted with him for a considerable time, but when she returned had nothing to report, so we all regrouped at the Inn of the Holy Statue, next door. Having no real leads, we decided to randomly search through the city. Demoror cast his Perceive the Magical Scent spell, and Flamma Wizard Boosted it to give it better range. Thus, we walked through the city, sniffing for magic of any type. Shortly, we smelled magic in a house, and quickly decided upon a plan of action. Tiro and I went up to the door and began loudly banging upon it. When a befuddled man opened the door, I began introducing myself as Lord Rupes of the Bjornaer Valley, and demanding entrance. The man was most uncooperative, so, after a minute or two of arguing, Tiro cast a spell to make him deathly afraid of me. As the man fled, the five of us strode into his house. Although we found none of our books within the house, we did come upon a magical bottle of wine. Demoror took it, and then made the owner of the house remember Felipe invading his house, rather than us. And then, we left. After a bit more walking, we came upon magic in another house. It was a very large, elegant house, and thus we decided to take the same tact as before. As Lord Rupes, I demanded entrance, and shortly it was given to me. As we entered the living room of this house, Demoror leaned over and told me that the hearthstone in the fireplace was extremely magical. Although it was not our goal, we decided to try and acquire it as well. At first, I tried to get the noble who owned this house to give me the stone, stating that it was the Great Heartstone of the Bjornaer Valley, and when that failed, I tried to buy it, offering large sums of gold. Finally, we decided upon a price, and I tried to pay him with silver pieces that I had transformed into gold. Unfortunately, when he caught the coins that I tossed to him, they turned back to silver, which I still do not understand. So, we made a hasty retreat. Since, I have told the other elders about the magical hearthstone, but further attempts to acquire it have been unsuccesful. Not quite discouraged yet, we continued our search, using Demoror's magic, and once again, we found a house with magic in it. When we knocked on this door, we were greeted by three people. Calios recognised one of them as a magus, and we began to get very suspicious, certain that these people were the ones who stole our books. Demoror used Frosty Breath of the Spoken Lie on the magus and he seemed to be innocent, but still, we were suspicious. As we continued to question these people, they became very angry, and asked us to leave, and at that point, Flamma became angry as well, and challenged the magus to Certamen. The magus demanded that we wait until morning, and then the three went upstairs, supposedly to leave. Instead, they tried to kill us. Demoror woke me up during his watch, saying that someone was moving around upstairs. As I woke everyone else, so that we could go and see what was going on, suddenly the whole ceiling came down upon us. While the other magi destroyed most of the ceiling, I turned into a rock, to protect myself from the debris. It was a lucky move, for as the ceiling fell, one of the pillars holding up the roof toppled, hitting me square in the side. When I returned to my human form, I was badly bruised. If I had not been a rock, I am sure that I would have been killed. Fortunately, everyone else was relatively unhurt, since the majority of the roof had been destroyed as it fell. We spent the next day trying to find the culprits who had tried to kill us, and no doubt had stolen the books as well, but we were unsuccesful. They had been very careful about removing arcane connections before they left, and thus, we had very little to go on. Finally, we decided to return to the Covenant. We were hurt and weary, and it seemed as if our books had indeed escaped us. The loss is not too terrible, but a bit annoying at the least. When I spoke with Servola after returning to the Covenant, she said that she thought that the people who had assaulted us were students at Literatus. I can't help but wonder if the whole thing is a Literatus conspiracy designed to destroy the libraries of all Covenants but their own. ** ** From the Journals of Fortunatus It seems that we are becoming less welcome in the streets of Rome, no doubt due to idiots like Certus and Taron. Just today, Insolitius Georgius, who has been working on a sword for the pope, was attacked by a band of religious fanatics. Apparently, he barely escaped with his life. I shall have to speak with the others in the Covenant of the care that they must show while they are on the streets of Rome. ** ** From the Chronicles of Salvadore. Both Tiro of Jerbiton, and our cook, Voluptas, have the left the Covenant. They were in quite a hurry, and gave little explanation, but I am under the impression that they will not be back. I shall have to tell Servola that we need a new cook for the Covenant, although I suspect that we will never truly be able to replace Voluptas. ** ** From Rupes' Book ** Several Weeks Later Marlon seems to have disappeared again. He hasn't been seen since some time before the books disappeared. I would hate to think that he helped Literatus in this foul plot. ** ** From Rupes' Book ** Spring, 1207 One of the old mysteries of our Covenant has finally been solved. It seems that the theft of some of our books last year was not due to a Literatus plot at all, but rather something stranger. Four years ago, Medicus and Mendem went several days North, and slew a spirit master named Sanzen, who had caused problems for our Covenant. When his former apprentice, Rantella, learned of this, she decided to gain vengeance upon those two magi. Medicus was already dead by the time she put her plan into action, so she spied on Mendem, waiting for an opportunity. When we rescued Marlon, two years ago, she saw a chance. He was weakened from his experiences at the hands of diabolists, and thus was unable to fend off a spirit that she sent to posess them. Afterwards, she again waited, sure that with patience the perfect opportunity to kill Mendem would be presented to her. Unfortunately, it seems that the spirit grew rather attached to Marlon's body, and thus when diabolists approached him, and offered to restore the parts of the gift that Marlon had lost while he was held captive, the spirit Aaron jumped at the chance. He saw the possibilities unfold before him when he considered a new life, in the possession of a fully gifted magus. To show his loyalty, Aaron, in control of Marlon, was told to steal several books from our Covenant. Still remembering some of his duties to Rantella, Aaron included some of Mendem's books in those he stole, hoping that he might lure him off, and kill him, as Rantella had wished. Apparently, he was almost succesful. Mendem, who has never returned, attained an arcane connection to the books, and tracked Marlon well into the Alps. There, he ran into the possessed Marlon, and the pack of diabolists who the spirit had been consorting with, and barely escaped with his life. From what we can tell, Mendem then headed for Germany or France, apparently no longer wishing to be part of a Covenant that might force him to share his books. If that was his attitude, than it was probably for the best. In any case, Marlon, who related the whole story, is now back with us, cleansed of the spirit that so brutally used him. He does seem more useful now, since the spirit caused all of his gift to be restored, but still I will stick with Tolas when the matter of my prophecy comes to a head in Summer. With all of this revealed, one question still sticks in my head. Who were those Literatus people who attacked us while we looked for the books in Rome, and why did they try and kill us?