Vardian Log #9: Tales of the Vicious Ballerina

Season: Spring, 1200

The Players:

Angus of House Bonisagus			Magus		(Don)
Aquilonius of House Ex. Misc.			Magus		(Shannon)
King Crutalous					Faerie
Captain Itter					Rabbit
Meles of House Criamon				Magus		(Dave)
Randolf the Rake				Rake		(Phillip)
Sophia the Singer				Singer		(Eric)

**
** From the Diary of Aquilonius

Just a few days after Tiro told me of his encounter with the Gnomes, a
messenger arrived at our Covenant, and I decided that it was time to end
my seclusion.  The messenger, who had been brought down to our Covenant by
grogs who had been up in the city, bore a scroll with him.  The scroll had
been given to him by a Captain Itter, who waited for us with a boat at the
docks several miles to the West of Rome.

The note was concise, but it immediatelly piqued my interest.  It simply
said that King Crutalous (A King that was known to none of us) had a magic
item that he wished investigated.  Great rewards were promised.  Always
intrigued by magic items, such as the Little House of Tranquil Dwelling
which I keep in my lab, I was pleased to go.  For similar reasons, Meles
stated his intention to accept the invitation as well.  For reasons known
only to himself, Angus decided to join us as well.  Perhaps he thought
that there would be a chance to destroy something.  Finally, our company
was made five by Randolph and Sophia, two companions who wished to go with
us.  Suspecting that the trip would be long, we borrowed several books
from the Lesser Library, and set off.

Without incident, we arrived at Captain Itter's ship, the Vicious
Ballerina, and set off.  While wiling away the time not spent studying my
books, I discovered that the metal on board the ship was made of some odd
Faerie alloy.  I had suspected that King Crutalous was of the Faerie, and
this was proof of that theory.  The ship's route, however, proved to be
even stranger than this revelation.  Setting out from the port, we had
sailed South, around the boot of Italy, and then Northward.  Four weeks
into our trip, we were still sailing Northward, and had not run aground on
the Southern coast of Germany, as we should have, had we still been
travelling on the Mundane plane.  It was obvious that we had entered the
lands of Faerie.

Finally, a full month into our journey, we arrived at our destination.  It
was a small island, perhaps a day's walk around.  Rising up in the middle
of the island was a large hill, and atop that hill was a large castle.
The castle of King Crutalous.  We wore borne up the hill by a strange
mechanism, and once within, we are brought straight to an audience with
the King.  The king's throne room was quite an impressive place.  In the
middle of it was a huge tree, and the King's throne was carved out of
that.  Later, we would learn that the leaves of the tree were pure Herbam
vis.

And, as we entered, awed by the sight, King Crutalous told us of his
problem.  Some time ago, when the King had controlled a large empire, a
magician had create a large black cauldron, and placed it in his castle.
After that, whenever the King tried to set sail from his castle, he had
always been struck unconcious.  Desiring to reclaim his Kingdom, King
Crutalous set out to deal with the dilemma.

Three times, he had summoned magicians, and they had tried to fix his
problem.  Each time, the magicians had failed.  Proudly, King Crutalous
showed us their bodies, and told us that we would have one year to
solve his problem, and if we were to succeed, we would be rewarded with
leaves from their vis tree.  Failure was to earn us the same fate that it
had the others.

Thus, we set out to investigate the pot, while Randolf and Sophia sat
about and enjoyed the luxuries of the castle.  Very soon, however, we were
all to be distracted by some of the oddities of this realm.  Wherever we
went, for example, several servants were near us, recording our every
action and movement, in scrolls and scrolls of paper.  Several times, we
were served food while within the Faerie realms.  Indeed, they seemed to
be willing to provide anything that we desired, no matter how rare or how
expensive.  But, no matter what the food was, it tasted exactly like
Porridge.  Every day, many events happened.  The King would hunt.  An
execution would occur.  Audiences would be given.  But, every day, the
pattern and the participants were exactly the same.  It seemed that the
five of us were the only ones within the realm with any free will.  An odd
realm indeed.

Still, despite this madness, we set out to understand this pot.  Very
soon, while Meles and I worked, Angus became bored, and went to the top of
the castle, and began destroying huts below.  It was clear that Angus did
not get the reaction that he wanted, for soon, he was back with us,
waiting impatiently.  After several days, we came to the conclusion (based
solely upon guesses, not extensive magical investigations) that the
problem would be solved if we simply moved the pot off of the island.
This conclusion seemed upheld by facts, for the pot itself was made of
iron and thus could not be moved by the faeries themselves.  Thus, they
would not have tried this logical solution.  However, the cauldron was
huge.  It was larger than either Meles or I, and we realized that it would
take a great deal of magic for us to move it up, out of the dungeons were
it was stored.

Everything had gone well until we reached the reached the foot of the
stairs that we needed to lift the pot up.  It had been quite simple to
Perdo the walls away, until we had a large enough area to roll the pot
through.  But, at the stairs, we realized that a greater exertion would
be required, and we all prepared to cast Rego Terram spells, to lift
the pot up the stairs.

And then, I learned that the Criamon saying, "Twilight attracts like"
was indeed true.  For, at the time, I had just recovered mentally from
my Twilight of the previous season.  Still, my arm bled, and still,
the Mundanes avoided me, for my gift had become more blatant.  But,
I had been ready to enter the world again.  And then, as I tried to
use my gift to lift this magical object ahead of me, my powers once
again shifted back upon me, and I was thrown into madness.

My dreams were of the Earth, and when I finally dragged myself up from
this insanity, I seemed to still be obsessed with them.  Since, I have
discovered that this obsession has impacted my attention to the other
magical arts.  For, since that time, I have not been able to concentrate
fully upon Vim, as I once could.

When I awoke, the first thing that I saw was Meles, sweating profusely, as
he continued to push the pot upwards, with his magical skill alone.
Seeing me thrown into a Twilight had drove him on, for he was hoping for a
Twilight of his own.  Idiot Criamon.  He was successful, and Angus and I
had to wait for him to come out of his own delirium before we were finally
able to get the pot the rest of the way up the stairs.  From there, it was
easy to roll the Cauldron down the hill, and load it up on the ship.

When we returned to the Castle, we found that the King had fallen
unconcious, and I realized that my theory had not been entirely true.
However, I no longer cared for these damned Faeries, and, thinking
quickly, explained that it was true that he was now unconcious, but
assured the Faeries that as soon as he left the island, his wits would
return, and his entire empire (except this small island) would be returned
to him.

The King's Son, who was ruling while his father was incapacited, seemed
somewhat hesitant in believing this explanation, but finally, we were able
to convince him, and he gave us four pawns of vis each for our troubles.
Meles also demanded thirty-four Faerie Children, no doubt wishing to
experiment on them, as the rumors in Rome indicate he does to children
there.  Strangely, this request was granted.

As we set out to collect our companions and leave, we soon learned that
Randolph intended to stay for a time.  Apparently, he had been supplied
with an excellent library to study from while we had worked.  I tried to
convince him for a time, worried that he was under an evil influence, but
finally shrugged my shoulders, and returned to the ship.

On the return voyage on the ship, Meles' Faerie Children slowly began to
disappear, and he grew quite suspicious.  Finally, after the last child
had disappeared, Meles realized that Sophia was the cause.  She had been
beguiling the crew men, and convincing them to liberate the children.  In
a fury, Meles took Sophia, and threw her from the ship.  If I had been
around, I could have saved her, but I was not, and she has not been seen
since.

When we arrived back at the port used by Rome, Captain Itter abruptly
turned into a rabbit, which I have kept in my lab since.  Meles won the
right to keep the Cauldron in his lab, although it is jointly owned by
Meles, Angus and myself.  The Vicious Ballerina stills sits out at the
port, and seems to be owned by the Covenant now.  Doubtless, it will be
quite useful in the trading that we do up and down Rome.

**
** From the Diary of Aquilonius
** Fall, 1200

Meles has spent some time investigating the Cauldron, and I was quite
amused by the result.  Apparently, it keeps the King unconcious whenever
it is seperated from him by a body of water.  Meles has dug a moat in his
Lab, and filled it with water.  The Cauldron sits in the middle of the
moat.  It seems, I have been avenged upon the King who caused my last
Twilight, and the world now seems a much more just place.