Vardian Log #49: Skin & Bones

--
"I figure the midget will keel over first."
	--Flamma [referring to the unseen water, and it's potential
		  effect on Turbator]
--

Season: Summer, 1213

Dramatis Personae:

Abrogo						Grog
Acutus of Ex. Misc.				Magus
Alondra						Unseelie Fay
Angus of Bonisagus				Magus		(DonP)
Arridere of Jerbiton				Magus		(Dave)
Certus of Bonisagus				Magus
The Dark Man					Demon
Demoror of Quaesitor				Magus		(Billy)
Domia of Ex. Misc.				Maga
Durus						Ghost
Flamma of Tremere				Maga		(Eric)
Gotho						Grog
Hans of Bjornaer				Magus
Hebria						Mongoose
Mary Ann					Peasant Girl
Marlon of Tremere				Magus		(Phil)
Meles of Criamon				Magus
Muris of Verditius				Magus		(Donald)
Nevill						Grog
Nicholi of Jerbiton				Magus		(John)
Parins						Thin Man
Pietro						Grog
Quippe						Grog
Rupes of Tremere				Magus
Taron of Bonisagus				Magus
Tolas of Tremere				Magus		(Woo)
Turbator of Tremere				Magus		(Scott)
Turelli						Grog

**
** From the Journals of Certus

A new magus named Nicholi of Jerbiton has been added to the Tomb as an
associate member.  He wishes to occasionally use our labs, and
occasionally use our books, but plans to spend most of his time in Rome.
So, a special position was made for him.  As long as it is benefical to
the Tomb, he shall remain a member of my Covenant.

**
** From the Secret Diary of Tolas

It was three weeks into Summer, in the year 1213, that Certus called an
emergency meeting.  I didn't really have much better to do, so I decided
to humor the old guy by attending.  Now I wish I hadn't, for it led me
into much more danger than I care to meet.

I knew something was up when I got to the Council Room.  A bunch of the
other magi were standing around, like dumb cattle, waiting.  A big grog
who I had never seen before stood in front of the doors, saying that none
would enter.  I would have gotten upset and left like Flamma and Arridere
did if I hadn't heard the violent arguing inside.  I was quite curious
about that.  I hoped that it meant that the Jerbiton and Bonisagus had
finally divided again, for that would greatly increase Tremere power at
the Tomb.  It was due to that curiosity that I waited, until the big grog
named Pietro finally opened the doors to the council room.

Even I was surprised by what I saw inside, for the people arguing inside
were not the other elders.  They were us.  In Certus' place was Angus, and
he was standing, yelling at the top of his voice.  Just to his right,
where Ferramentum had sat before he returned to Verdi was Demoror.  He was
mumbling to Angus about some new enchantment that he had put in his door.
Of course, no one was paying attention to him.  Meles sat to Angus' left,
in the seat once held by Hadrian.  It seemed that he didn't even realize
that an argument was going on.  Straight across from Angus was Arridere,
standing above Fortunatus' chair.  He too was yelling at the top of his
voice, saying the most unchristian things to the Bonisagus across from
him.  To Arridere's right sat my beautiful Flamma, dressed in, of all
things, Jerbiton blue.  She was sitting quite primly, waiting for the
argument to end, just as Luke would, and, indeed, it was in Luke's chair
that Flamma sat.  Acutus sat to Arridere's left, where I would usually
expect to find Terra Natus.  He too quietly waited for things to end.
Finally, in the middle of the table, where Tractare and Chavin sit, were
two others.  One was Rupes, and one was myself, looking a bit older, but
nobler as well.  As we stood there, gaping, I, that is the other me,
challenged Rupes to Certamen, as a favor to Angus.  The other Angus that
is.  The other Rupes too, for ours was not even with us.  I beat the fool,
of course.

As the Certamen ended, we were finally noticed.  The other Angus and the
other Arridere turned to us, and, in unison, they demanded to know what we
wanted.  We all began to argue for a bit, each asking to know why the
other was there.  Angus and Angus were just about to fight a Certamen,
when suddenly Certus walked into the room.  Perhaps floated would be a
better word, for he was walking half a foot above the ground.  He looked
around a bit in amusement, and then incanted "Perdo Imagonem."  The
illusions faded, and we soon realised that we were in a deserted Council
Room, standing in water half a foot deep.  Certus began to give us an
explanation at once.

**
** From the Journals of Certus

When Taron uncovered that secret room in Guiseppe's tower and we began to
learn the truth about the old Bonisagus, I was somewhat humored.  We had
all respected him so much, and I suppose I really should have known that
he was as fallible as any of us.  Still, both Taron and I were astounded
when we learned that Guiseppe made mistakes, as any of us do.

His magical fountain had been constructed with the help of an Unseelie
Faerie from Germany named Alondra.  Even more, it did not always show the
future, as it had first seemed, but rather showed the future on brief,
random, occasions.  The rest of the time it simply projected what the
viewers expected to see.  Still, there it was, all in Guiseppe's writing,
in the journal that we had found in that secret room.  Taron and I simply
chalked it up as another lesson learned.  He turned away from his studies
of the fountain, and I returned to my other works.

And so, we all ignored the Tower for a time.  We ignored it, that is,
until the problems started.

Early in Summer, Abrogo came to me after his watch and told me that in
some of the caverns above us, rivers of water were starting to form.
After a bit more investigation, it turned out that the water was all
coming from the cavern where Guiseppe's tower was.  So, I decided to
investigate.  I was quite saddened by what I found.

Where Guiseppe's mighty tower had once stood, now there was only a
blackened husk.  The whole cavern was dead, devoid of the mushrooms that
had once grown there, devoid of any life at all.  And there, at the center
of the cavern, was what was causing our problem.  Guiseppe's fountain had
been smashed, and water was continually issuing forth from it,
uncontrolled.  I began to encant magical formulas at once.

After talking with the rocks for a while, I was able to learn when the
destruction had occured.  Then, I cast Eyes of the Past, and sat down to
watch what had happened.  As the past began to unfold before me, two men
approached the fountain, or two entities, at the least.  One was a tall
man, of Italian stock, while the other was a humanoid creature with skin
colored pure ebony.  Since, I have been able to name the two.  The man is
named Parins, while the ebony beast is a great warrior demon known among
legends simply as The Dark Man.

As I watched, the one known as Parins began to gesture with his hands, and
the images in the water began to swirl about, as if they were obeying the
commands of their master.  As he motioned, a cascade of pictures began to
move through the waters.  There was Angus, destroying a bug demon, and
then Fortunatus, yelling at Mario, who had betrayed us to the Vampire
Gustari.  There was Angus again, this time speaking with Quaesitors, and
then Arridere, destroying Luigi's demonic weapons.  Image after image
passed.  Every time, I saw magi of the Tomb acting, usually against the
forces of darkness.  Finally, the images ended, and when I looked again at
Parins, his face was a mask of anger.  He gestured to The Dark Man,
clearly yelling, though I could not hear the words.  And then The Dark Man
turned, and a blast of fire came from his hands.  It exploded inside the
tower, burning the place from top to bottom.  The Dark Man turned again,
facing the fountain this time.  He clenched his hand into a fist, and
there was an explosion of water.  When the waters settled to the ground,
both the Dark Man and Parins were gone.

And so, I pondered the situation for a while.  The water, it seemed was
not too great of a threat.  Although I could not destroy the fountain by
magical means, I remembered that Guiseppe had described a certain ritual
in his Secret Journal.  It required a certain plant, found only in The
Black Forest, but that was not a problem.  Long ago, Guiseppe had
constructed a Hermes Portal to the Black Forest, for that was where the
Faeries who had helped him to construct his fountain lived.  This Portal
had been located in the Secret Lab, under his tower.  Thus, it was
unscathed, despite The Dark Man's attack.  I knew that the waters would
cause problems in the Covenant eventually, when they reached our levels,
so I called a Special Council Meeting, several days in the future, and
then moved on to the second problem.

The second problem was, of course, this Parins fellow.  Remembering the
visions, I decided to do some investigations.  After I borroweded Taron's
Seven League Boots, I did some travelling, to sent what I could learn.  I
went to Magvillus first.  From my description of Parins, the Quaesitors
were able to tell me that he had had something to do with the downfall of
Sansaron, the Covenant that once stood in the ruins of Old Carthage.  When
I proceeded to give the Quaesitors Parins' name, I was pleased to learn
that they had even more information.  Apparently, Angus had mentioned it
to them several years before, when he had come to Magvillus after losing
Durus.  He had named Parins as some great demon, surely in league with the
Bug Demon that I saw him kill in visions.

More disturbed than ever, I moved on to Rome, where I spoke with Mario,
who I had also seen in visions.  When I mentioned Parins to him, he also
knew the name.  It seems that the creature had at occasion stayed at his
house, and had seemed to be a friend of Gustari.

>From my research, I drew some unsettling conclusions.  It seemed likely
that Parins had caused the downfall of Sansaron, and, even worse, that he
has chosen us to be next.  He was manipulating us, throwing entities such
as Gustari and The Bug Demon at us, seeing how we would react.  Or, at
least, that is what he had been doing, before he looked into the fountain,
reviewed how we had been dealing with his minions, and exploded into
anger.  I am not anxious to learn what he may plan next.  Another
disturbing question that nags at my mind, is, who is this thing? From what
I have seen, he seems to control the most powerful demonic entities.
Surely, he must be a Duke of the Nether Realms, at the least.

I was still considering these possibilities when I arrived back at The
Tomb, the morning that I had called the Council Meeting.  There, I found
that disaster had struck.

It seems that the water flow from the fountain had been constantly
increasing, and that it had reached the Covenant far before I would have
expected it.  When I reached my lab, it was already half a foot deep.
What was worse was that the Imagonem magics of the fountain had not died.
Rather, they had moved with the water, and had thus covered my whole
Covenant.  Everything was in confusion, so much that I could not even see
the water that I knew was there without constant Perdo Imagonem spells.

When I finally reached the Council Room, I found many of the younger magi
there already, deeply confused, and arguing with phantoms.  After I
dispelled the illusions, I explained the whole story to them.  Then, I
pulled from the Covenant Vis supplies, and gave a large amount of Vim Vis
to Angus.  I charged him to lead an expedition to Germany, through
Guiseppe's portal, to gain the plant that we desperately needed to save
our Covenant from flooding.  Arridere, Flamma, Marlon, Muris, Tolas,
Turbitor, and even our associate member, Nicholi all went to aid him.

I then rounded up the rest of the magi, several of who were lost in the
Imagonem, and we began to move the Covenant supplies to drier lands.  Only
Demoror ignored my call for aid, dealing with the problem by sealing the
waters away from his lab.  But then, I can excuse him for that, for he was
in the middle of working on his familiar.

Now that our books and papers are safe, we wait.  I have told Chavin,
Hadrian and Taron all of the details of Parins.  I expect that we will
have to track him down soon, and destroy him, before he destroys our
Covenant.  Now, we simply wait.  I would have gone myself to the Black
Forest, if I were not afraid that the Covenant needed to be warded, lest
Parins returned, in this moment of weakness.  I shall not have what I have
worked on for decades be destroyed.

**
** From the Secret Diary of Tolas

After Certus explained the situation, everything was a blur.  Flamma was
insisting that I should come along, for the whole Covenant was at stake,
and I could think of no reason not to.  The next thing I knew, I had
stepped through the Hermes Portal that had been hidden under Guiseppe's
Tower.

As we regrouped, we took in our surroundings.  All about us, the trees of
The Black Forest rose.  Behind us, stood the Hermes Portal, and the
protections of home.  In front of us, there was a path.  It beckoned to us
in an almost sinister fashion.  I was turning to Flamma, suggesting that
maybe we should just move to that Sardinian Covenant at once, when the
first attack came.

It was Quippe that screamed out, shouting that he felt like he was being
frozen.  As I carefully backed away, the other magi burst into action.
Angus turned invisible, quite prudently, while Marlon and Flamma both
screwed up spells.  Seconds later, we all saw a bolt of pure darkness arch
out from the woods.  Quippe shivered violently for a second, and then fell
down, dead.

Quite paranoid, we waited for a few seconds for the next attack to come.
But, there was nothing.  It seemed that whatever had killed Quippe had
fled.  So, we began to make plans.  After Flamma consoled Quippe's
mongoose, Hebria, for a few minutes, she turned to the grogs, and gave
them each wards against cold.

When she moved to give Nicholi one, the second attack occured.  For just a
few minutes, Nicholi's Parma was down, but somehow, the beast in the woods
knew the significance of that.  Another bolt of darkness arched from the
woods, striking Nicholi.  This time, however, we were prepared.  As
Nicholi ducked for cover, Angus cast a truly impressive Perdo Herbam.  In
a huge swath, the trees simply disappeared, and suddenly, we could see our
attacker.  It was a goblin, all green and gnarled, scarcely four feet
tall.  For but a second we saw him, and then he was gone, moving away at a
truly astounding speed.  He was gone before we could even blink.

I must say that by that time, I had decided that the faeries of that wood
were simply great people.  Certainly, the goblin had killed my personal
grog, but such are easy enough to come by.  Faeries such as the one we had
seen, however, were not.  The goblin that attacked us had shown such a
level of deviousness that I would almost of thought him human.  Truly,
worthy to be a Tremere.  My opinions of those Faeries only increased as I
saw more of them.

About halfway through that day, as we trekked along the too convienent
path that had led from the Portal, we heard a great howl. It came from the
woods to our right.  Then we heard something huge bearing down upon us.
When that bear burst out at us, we were sure that another attack had come.
I was most definitely moving to the rear of the party.  Angus tried to
kill it, with The Curse of the Desert, while Turbator threw pilums of
flame at it.  Then, Flamma surrounded it with a wall of stone.  We knew
something was wrong, when, seconds later, "Perdo Terram" was shouted from
within the ring of stone.

Later, we would discover that we had accidentally attacked Hans of
Bjornaer, a magus from Crintera.  Apparently, the faeries had led him our
way, to cause further problems for us, and he had wandered within range of
Angus' sword, Truth.  When Truth's spells hit the Bjornaer, he had assumed
he was being attacked, and so the whole misunderstanding occured.

Still, even when the Bjornaer spoke Latin words of Magic, the other magi
weren't bright enough to stop attacking.  Turbator threw several Pilums of
Flame at him, while Arridere made more and more walls of stone.  Finally,
the Bjornaer, desperate for his life, managed to cast the Leap of
Homecoming, burning considerable vis in the process, as we would learn
later.  When we got back to the Covenant, Quaesitors eventually came to
Angus to discuss the incident.  Apparently, he was fined some vis, to
repay the Bjornaer, and given a most stern warning.  I'll have to explain
to Angus sometime that if he's going to attack Hermetic magi, he'd best
make sure that they're quite dead when he's done.  I know he understood
that before I came to the Covenant.  I wonder what happened to him.

Some of the other magi were a bit upset about the fight too, and so they
all sat around and argued about it for a while, like the fools tend to do.
Finally, we set out again, marching a bit more before finally calling it a
night.

That night, the harassment against us did not let up.  First a Black
Unicorn showed up.  It was heading towards Flamma until she popped into
her Little House of Tranquil Dwelling.  Then, it headed off again.  I was
just dying to take a shot at it, because I knew that it had to have a lot
of vis in it.  I would have too, if I hadn't thought that Flamma might see
what I did.

Later that night, another goblin showed up.  Fortunately, it was not as
effective as the first.  It fired some arrows, and made some pretty mists,
and then fled.


Quite tired, we set off the next morning, worried about continued attacks
and wondering if we would ever find Alondra's house.  Suddenly, we came
upon a little girl in the road.  She introduced herself as Mary Ann.
After we chatted with her for a while, we learned that she was Alondra's
niece.  I wanted to kidnap her, and hold her for ransom.  Unfortunately,
the other magi would have nothing to do with it.  Instead, they were nice
to her.  It made me quite ill.

Finally, we set off again.  It seemed that we had walked but a short ways,
when we came to the House of the Alondra.  It was easy to recognise as the
dwelling of an Unseelie Faerie, for the entire House was made out of Human
Skin.  In the back, there was a beautiful garden, which surely housed the
herbs that we needed.  The garden was surrounded by a fence of bones.

As we approached the House, Alondra came out.  She was a most beautiful
women, as all Faeries are.  As I waited for the fireworks to begin, I
quietly edged behind Flamma.  Instead, the magi talked with the Fay.

At first, Alondra insisted that we could not have the herbs that we
needed.  After a bit of diplomacy, she finally offered to give us the
herbs in exchange for one of us serving her for a hundred years.  I was
pleased that the matter could be dealt with so easily.  I turned to
Nicholi, the newest fool Jerbiton, and quickly shouted Certamen.
Unfortunately, Flamma showed that damned fool compassion, and insisted
that I not Certamen Nicholi.

Instead, we began to argue about various grogs that we could give her.
But, the other magi weren't willing to sacrifice a useless grog to save
our whole Covenant.  So, our discussion moved on, and the other magi began
to discuss various powerful magic items that they could give her.  I
couldn't believe what I was hearing.

I must admit, that in the end, Angus and the other magi proved to be some
of the worst negotiaters in all the world.  At first, Alondra had asked
for a hundred years service.  In the end, we provided her with over a
hundred and twenty.  First, Flamma gave her Grandmother Gray, who would
serve Alondra for a hundred years (I don't even want to think about what
Alondra might do with Grandmother Gray).  Then, Durus, Gotho and Nevill
each offered to serve for seven years as well.  Still, we did get the
herbs when our sorry negotiations were done.  I don't really think we're
ever going to see those grogs or that ghost again, though.

On the way back to the portal, no more attacks came.  Clearly, they had
been sent by Alondra to discourage us, and now that we had reached an
agreement with her, she no longer needed to do so.

When we returned to Italy, travelling once more through the Hermes Portal,
Taron was there to meet us.  He quickly took the Herb from us, and cast
the ritual that he had learned.  The flow of water soon ended, and our
began to return to normal.

Still, one bit of idiocy marks the end of this tale.  When Flamma got back
to The Tomb, she was still quite worried over that little mongoose.  The
critter was quite morose it seems.  So, Flamma paid Domita a good amount
of vis to invent a spell to fix it.  Now, the creature is happy again,
having forgotten all about Quippe (It has attached itself to our daughter
instead).  I can not believe that Flamma would burn vis on something so
useless.

**
** From the Accounts of Tractare
** Fall, 1213

It seems that Certus' revelations about Guiseppe were just what the
Covenant needed.  The damned peace between the Bonisagus and the Jerbiton
has finally broken.  Now, I may once more move my Tremere forward, to gain
even more power in the Tomb.

**
** From the Journals of Certus

Parins has gone into hiding.  At the least, I have been able to turn up no
trace of him in the last season.  Still, we are now warned, due to his
anger at Guiseppe's Tower.  Eventually, we shall see him again, and then,
we shall be ready, and Parins shall be crushed.  Sansaron was weak, where
we are strong.  We shall not fall to his manipulations.