Vardian Log #34: Grave Tidings Season: Winter, 1207 Dramatis Personae Avisis Apprentice (Donald) Certus of Bonisagus Magus Domita of Ex. Misc. Maga (DougL) Flamma of Tremere Maga (Eric) Frederick Grog Luigi Grog Captain Marcelo Grog Parco Magus Pietro Grog Recanto Grog Sagino of Tremere Magus Senzior of Ex. Misc. Magus Tolas of Tremere Magus Tonsor Magus Verdan of Bonisagus Magus (Shannon) Vexo of Tremere Arch Magus Vinum Corpse ** ** From the Chronicles of Salvadore Since the Tribunal of 1207, most of the Tremere have left the Tomb. Today, Sagino was one of the last to depart. Now, only five Tremere remain at the Tomb. They are Flamma, Karantia, Marlon, Tolas and Tractare. It seems that each of the five plans to remain at this place. ** ** From the Diary of Luke of Jerbiton On today, October the 10th, of the twelve hundredth and seventh year of our Lord, Flamma and Tolas of Tremere had their first born child. He is a young boy with the gift who they have named Primus. ** ** From the Chronicles of Salvadore The warrior Luigi has been returned to our Covenant, and is again the grog captain of this place. Certus of Bonisagus apparently extracted him from his castle when he learned that the whole place was part of some nefarious diabolic plot. Luigi's wife, Becky, as also returned from his valley. ** ** From the Diary of Verdan of Bonisagus In 1207, when I finished my apprenticeship, I began to consider the different Covenants that I might join. After a bit of studying, I learned of Vardian's Tomb, and became quite excited about the place. Firstly, it seemed to have one of the largest collections of Bonisagus in all the Order. I saw great possibilities for new learning in such an environment. Secondly, I learned that it was buried deep below Rome, surrounded by miles of Caverns. I imagined the great mysteries of such a place, and could not restrain myself. Thus, after I was made a full magus at the Tribunal of 1207, I set out to Italy, heading for the city of Rome. When I arrived in the Tomb, led through the catacombs by one of the Covenant's helpful grogs, I saw that interesting things were going on. Many of the magi were gone, exploring the city of Carthage, and a magus named Parco was anxiously waiting for them to return. Unable to control my curiosity, I began to ask around the Covenant about Parco, wanting to know why he had come here. What I learned was this: Parco was the former apprentice of Vinum, an Arch Magus who had visited the Tomb several years before. At the Tomb, Vinum had found trust and friendship, and this is why Parco had returned. It seems that poor Vinum had recently died, and now Parco wished magi of the Tomb to help carry Vinum's body to it's final resting place. As I heard more rumors, I became more excited. Some of the magi of the Tomb spoke in whispers of an Arch Magus grave yard. They said that this is where Vinum was to be buried. I was scarcely able to control myself, waiting until the magi returned, and a Council Meeting would be held. ** ** From the Chronicles of Salvadore The Council Meeting of Winter, 1207 was opened by Certus of Bonisagus. He announced that by vote of the elders of the Tomb, he was now officially the leader of this Covenant. After discussion of that matter, a new member who was seeking admittance, one Verdan of Bonisagus was introduced. In 1197, the magi of the Tomb made an agreement to allow in any new magi who sought admittance. This was done because conflicts had caused any new people from being admitted for several decades. The Covenant had been stagnating, and this seemed the only way to stop the eventual destruction of the Tomb. This agreement only allowed for new magi to be guaranteed admittance until Summer, 1207. Thus, Verdan of Bonisagus was the first magus who the elders had to vote upon since before 1198. After discussion and a pointless Certamen between Tolas and Flamma, Verdan of Bonisagus became the first member to be voted into the Tomb in over thirty years. Afterwards, the magus Parco began to speak of why he had returned to the Tomb. He said that his master, Vinum, had recently entered the Final Twilight, and that now his body needed to be buried. Parco asked for aid in this task, but warned that those who helped would have to make an oath of secrecy. After Parco promised one season in his master's library to each who aided him, several magi offered to help. The Council Meeting of Winter, 1207 came to an end when several of the magi went to talk with Parco in private. ** ** From the Diary of Verdan of Bonisagus After the meeting, I went off with Parco to learn of the secrets concerning Vinum's burial. With me went Domita, Flamma and Tolas, three of the younger members of the Tomb. After we had all sworn that we would keep secret what we learned, Parco began to speak. He said that there was indeed a Tomb where Arch Magi were buried, and that this is where Vinum was to be taken. We were to go to Vinum's House, which is what Vinum had named his Covenant, and collect his body. From there, we were to go on the the Arch Magus' Tomb, where a ritual would be done, and his body buried. Parco said that he had several other things to do, and would meet us at the burial spot. His grog, Frederick, would lead us first to the Covenant, and then to the graveyard. Before we left, Parco did give us several grave warnings. He said that there were those who might try and take the body from us. Apparently, Vinum had angered several fairies, and Parco was afraid that they might seek vengeance. Also, he warned that we should keep a lookout for Sagino, another who had once been the apprentice of Vinum. ** ** From the Epic of Luigi, as told to his beautiful wife, Becky After being rudely yanked from my kingdom by the mage Certus, my first mission was to watch after a bunch of magi while they lugged around a corpse. It did not seem too demanding of a task, so I collecting together Marcelo, Pietro and Recanto to help me. The trip to Vinum's House, where we were to collect the body from, was simple enough. It was well into the Alps, and so it was not the most comfortable of trips, but even the magi had the stamina to undergo it. When we got near the Covenant, the magi started to act in their usual foolish way. One of them saw something in the bushes, and they spent several minutes carefully approaching it, worried that it might leap out at them. Finally, they saw that it was a statue, and became even more worried. Containing a smirk, Frederick, a grog from Vinum's House, told them that the magi left these statues here. Apparently, they were to scare the peasants off. As the magi showed, it was an effective deterrant against the simple minded. ** ** From the Secret Diary of Tolas I was quite unimpressed when I saw the Covenant of Vinum's House. It consisted of one tower, perhaps three stories tall, that looked run down in the extreme. A few shacks were nearby, no doubt built to house the grogs of the Covenant. As I trudged through the weeds, I asked myself how magi could live like this. I did find, however, that the place had a fourth rank aura, which is the optimum level. Flamma and I both made careful note of this, adding it to our lists of strong auras throughout Italy. With a bit of work, I think the place could be made acceptable. Going into the Covenant, we quickly retrieved the body that we had been sent here to get. At the same time, Frederick was given a map showing the way to the Archmagus' Tomb, which is also located in the Alps. I did my best to memorize the map, and noticed that the new magus, Verdan, was being quite nosey as well. Shortly, we set off again, with the grogs carrying the pallet with Vinum's body upon it. ** ** From the Diary of Verdan of Bonisagus It was a few days out from Vinum's House that we had our first encounter with the faeries that Parco had warned us of. We were camping in the woods one evening, when I was rudely awakened by much shouting. Everything about me was chaos. Domita was screaming that elves were attacking us, while Flamma was throwing balls of flame into the darkness. Nearby, a tree was shaking, and just as I woke, it fell at us. Tolas and I desperately called out with our magic to move the tree away, while Flamma took a more direct approach. Her blast of flame managed to help our spells in knocking the tree away from us. After Flamma had determined that there were no faeries nearby, I helped Tolas to create a ward against the creature. Then, we all set back to sleep, although it was many hours before for eyes again closed, for my mind churned with thoughts of the creatures that had attacked us, and what their exact motives were, and what we could learn from them. We continued on the next day, and then that night, we encountered the faeries again. It was Marcelo who first noticed the wall of smoke coming towards us. Flamma created some wards against smoke and flame about our camp site, and then woke the rest of us. By this time, Marcelo had gone off to search about our camp site, and as we woke, we all heard him yelling out for help. I ran up to him, and found him fighting a desperate battle with an elf. I hoped to club the faerie into unconcious, but did not have the opportunity, for as the elf dodged me, Marcelo killed him. I shall have to speak with him at a later time about the sanctity of sentient life. Knowing that there was nothing I could do for the elf, I gathered the vis from his body, and returned from the camp site. There, I learned that Tolas had almost managed to capture a second elf, but that it had gotten away. As well, I learned that we were in for a bit of trouble. ** ** From the Epic of Luigi, as told to his beautiful wife, Becky About then, the magi noticed that it wasn't just a little bit of smoke heading towards us, but rather an inferno. The faeries had set a forest fire, and seemed to be directing it straight at us. So, Flamma began to frantically cast spells of protection, while Tolas destroyed trees to create a fire break. The rest of the magi wandered about, looking for something useful to do. Finally, Tolas and Flamma decided that their protections were enough, and we prepared to wait as the fire passed by. About then, Tolas noticed another faerie, hiding in the nearby brush. I was ready to slay the creature, when Flamma suddenly got all soft hearted. She insisted that we talk with the thing, and asked it why they wanted to hurt Vinum's body. The faerie said that he had crimes to pay for. So, that idiot Tolas started kicking the body, asking if this was punishment enough. The faerie insisted that more was needed, and that the corpse must be tried, and then the magi let it run off. And, of course, the faeries showed no thanks for our good deed. Instead, they continued to try and kill us, as I knew they would. ** ** From the Secret Diary of Tolas It was about a week after Flamma insisted that the Faerie be let go that they caused problems for us again. We were walking on a narrow path, along a mountain side, when suddenly Verdan began to shout out. Looking up, we all saw an avalanche rumbling down towards us. Flamma and I both began to cast spells of rock creation, desperately erecting barriers between us and the snow. Verdan helped, by boosting our spells, while Domita proved as useless as ever. Still, we managed to create enough barriers that we were not buried, bearly. I knew that this was faerie's work, and was about to turn around and tell Flamma that I could have told her that this was going to happen. Then, I thought better of that action, and held my tongue. Several days later, the faerie's tried their last futile attack against us. They had approached a town ahead of us, and told the townspeople that we were evil, vile magi (rightfully, of course), and that we should be killed. Thus, as we approached that town, over a score people waited for us, armed with farm implements. They told us to surrender and then that fool Verdan tried to argue with them to let us be. I was pretty fed up with the whole thing, so I shouted to our warriors to kill them all, and we very nearly did. ** ** From the Diary of Verdan of Bonisagus I was astounded when Tolas shouted to kill those poor villagers. For a few seconds, I couldn't decide what to do. Then, as I saw Avisis fire arrows at the villagers, and Flamma throw balls of flame, I decided to try and scare the villagers off, hoping to save some of their lives. Screaming of virulent plagues, I cast an Imagonem spell to make one of the peasants turn green. Yet, he still continued forward, leaving me to question the usefulness of my action. And then, Domita cast an Animal spell, and suddenly the peasants were covered in a sticky web. I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that we had found a non-violent solution. Yet, Avisis kept firing arrows into the crowd, and so I was forced to reach out with my magic, and break her bow string, again hoping to stop the killing. As Avisis dropped her bow, and charged forward at the helpless villagers with her dagger, Flamma called up great Ignem magic, and an arc of fiery ribbons went flying forth from her hands. Avisis had stepped in front of Flamma as she charged, and she was burned to death, as were all of the villagers in the web but one. Peasants who had been circling around us fled, and they, at least, survived. I can not believe the carnage that the magi of this Tomb caused, killing over a score people. For an instant, I was prepared to leave, never looking back. Then, as my senses returned to me, I reminded myself that this was the act of just two magi, two of the Tremere of the Covenant. Others, such as Domita, and the four other Bonisagus of the Tomb have all proven themself much more worthy. They are the ones that I wish to associate with, and perhaps, just perhaps, we can show these others how wrong their actions are. Apparently, this was the Faerie's last trick, for a few days later, we arrived at the tomb of the Arch Magi. The entrance was atop a hill, marked by a big, white stone. A vein of black stone in the hill marked a circle, which Frederick warned us not to cross. I was tempted to, just to see what would happen, but my common sense got the better of me. So, I sat down to wait for Parco to arrive. ** ** From the Epic of Luigi, as told to his beautiful wife, Becky When talking of that white stone, Frederick said that a certain magical ritual was neaded to gain access to the Tomb. So, for the next two days, we all got to watch the fools Flamma and Tolas yelling challenges at the rock, having somehow determined that this was how to gain entrance. I can never understand how magi become magi when they all seem so dumb. ** ** From the Diary of Verdan of Bonisagus Finally, Parco arrived, and he had with him several others. One was named Vexo, and he was an Archmagus of Tremere. It seemed that he was in some way officiating over the Ceremonies. Another was Senzior of Ex. Misc., and it was quite clear that he did not want to be there. He was securely bound, and mind numbing spells had clearly been cast upon him. I became quite upset, and asked about this, and Vexo calmly explained that Senzior was currently in a Wizard's War with him, and he was going to be sacrificed as part of the ceremony to entomb Vinum. I began to protest, for I thought that such barbarism had gone out hundreds of years before, but my complaints fell upon deaf ears. We all participated in a brief ritual, and a perfectly circular hole opened in the base of the white stone. We descended, climbing down an iron ladder which was just within the hole. Once we reached the ground, we began to walk down a long corridor. To the sides of the corridors were alcoves, each of which contained a skeleton or a zombie, armed with all manner of weapons. Vexo explained that they were some of guardians of the Tomb. I shuddered, thinking that so many had been killed just to protect the mouldering bodies of a few magicians. Eventually, we came to a large chamber. Along the walls were many side tombs, and we went to one of these. There, the ritual was done to entomb the body of Vinum. I desperately wanted to aid in this ceremony, so that I could learn more of it, but my morales did not let me. They were sacrificing a man in the ritual, and even if there was nothing I could do to stop it, I would not help. Eventually, the ritual was completed, and now poor Senzior is some type of eternal guardian for the body of Vinum. I am still sickened at the thought. So, we went back to Vinum's House, and there collected the season of service that was promised us. When we finally returned to Vardian's Tomb, in early Summer, we returned Avisis' ashes to Vates, her master. I was a bit distraught at his attitude, for he did not seem upset at all. Rather, he said that she had been studying Muto, and had proved herself a master of the craft. Smiling broadly, he stated that she had made a great change, from life to death, and so proven herself worthy. Even now, Avisis sits in a jar in Vates' lab. The jar is labeled Muto, and there is no more explanation than that. What worries me is the space for fourteen more containers along the same shelf. ** ** From the Lab Notes of Verdan of Bonisagus My season at Vinum's House was well spent, for I was able to copy over a considerable number of spells, which will no doubt aid me greatly in future research. I was originally upset with the policies of Vardian's Tomb, for there were no provisions to allow continued knowledge to come into the Library. At most Covenants, one would occasionally have to write into the Library, but here, there was nothing. So, upon my return, I set my books in the Library at the outside of my lab, and convinced Domita to do the same with hers. Next, I wrote up some rules for my library, which would require magi to write into it once, for every four seasons that they worked in it. At about this point, Certus came and spoke with me. He was a bit upset at me breaking apart our Libraries in this way, and worried that I might waste time duplicating the Covenant's knowledge into my own Library. Thus, he proposed that the Lesser Library of this Covenant gain the rules that I had originally set for my own. I gladly accepted, and moved the books I had written to that place. I am quite astounded that I have been able to affect such a major change upon this place, while I am still so young here. And now, the Library at the edge of my Sanctum stands empty, but it is well worth it.