1235, Summer 3

We are in a bit of a clearing in a woody region, not far from the village. There is a grassy mound about 2 yards tall, 3 yards wide and about 5 yards in length. We have discovered that the mound has not been penetrated by animals or shown signs of decay. Our grog Knox has been sent back to the village since he seemed to be terrified of the mound.

Our plan though is to try and get inside.

Maedbh expands her Parma to cover Blane, to protect him in case anything goes wrong when she tries to open the mound. She touches the mound and casts Prying Eyes upon it. Inside she sees shifting coloured lights inside, but nothing distinct.

She then tries to dig a whole through the mound using Perdo spells, but this does nothing.

So Blane, amused by the magi’s lack of ability to achieve a simple task though magic resorts to using a spade. But that refuses to penetrate the earth, and he drops the spade in surprise. It’s like digging into stone. So he tries a wooden stick in case it is protected against metal. That also fails to push into the earth.

I try to take a blade of grass from it, but the grass refuses to break off. I was hoping to be able to use it as an arcane connection to the mound. Since we know it is called the King’s Mound, using its name and a connection would improve the power of our magic against its magic to resist us. But we can’t get an arcane connection to it.

I start to wonder that if it’s so heavily protected, maybe we don’t want to break in. However, I am curious about what’s in there.

Maedbh presses her magic sword against it (which came originally from a similar mound), and the mound opens up like a doorway. Though us magi are interested in going in, Blain stays outside in order to tell our story if things go bad.

Maedbh steps through, I follow holding her hand, and Allistor follows behind me, holding my hand.

We head inside, and there is a shifting mass of lights ahead of us. Under the lights is a small object, about a foot across. It is like a goblet, floating gently beneath the lights. There is a current of air, coming from outside into the shifting lights.

I reach out to touch the lights, and I notice that the strength of the wind increases rapidly the closer my hand gets to the lights. When I am almost touching, there is a gale force wind pushing me inwards, even though at my back the wind is but a gentle breeze.

Now that I am closer, I see that the lights are like shards of glass, spinning around at a high speed. Worried about the wind pulling me in, and the shards being likely to cut me, I pull my hand back.

Allistor throws in a pebble. It strikes one of the shards and vanishes. 

Maedbh thinks the shards are some type of broken regio. Or maybe they are all different regios. 

Looking down under the spinning shards, there are broken bits of wood over the other side. Allistor is able to Unseen Arm the bits of wood and a fragment of silver over to us. It looks like the broken frame of a mirror.

He then tries to grab one of the shards of glass the same way, but when it is pulled out of the swirling mass, it disintegrate into grains of sand. After a while, a breeze starts to blow the sand back towards the goblet.

Looking at the mirror frame, it’s relatively plain but well made. I consider taking it back to the village to get a carpenter to make another one, but Maedbh casts spells to remake it.

We push it into the swirling mass, and strange things begin to happen. It begins to get simultaneously shredded and remade. The swirling pieces seem to be now swirling around the mirror, but don’t come together. Maedbh casts a Rego Vim, and it finally starts to come together. We see glimpses of landscapes, and then it all comes together and the mirror is hanging there showing a perfect reflection of us.

We move the mirror outside, since it is probably valuable and possibly magical.

I pick up the cup… and I have the cup. It is a light bronze cup. Pretty regular but well made, with some Celtic designs on it. With nothing left in here, we head outside and watch as the mound begins to collapse in upon itself.

We take the mirror back to the inn, and leave it with Knox to guard it. Then head to the grotto in the woods where there was the statue of a saint or ancient goddess. She is still there, and the cup fits perfectly in her hands. I place some water in the cup, and things look just right.

The priest who looks after the grotto is here, and is pleased to see the cup, though it has not been here during his time. It looks good though.

We head back to the inn, and that evening we are thanked for finding the cup and returning it. Several people actually come up to us to thank us magi personally, despite our Gift. The general feeling is that the fires will now stop. They are probably right, though maybe not for the reason that they think.

Whilst the others are celebrating at the main inn, I head over to the other tavern to meet up with the group of arsonists. They have recently discovered that their cart blew up, and are feeling somewhat upset. They were hoping to be able to rebuild the house of one of their number with the proceeds, since it is great need of repair.

Though they aren’t all the brightest bunch, they do have a basic level of competence and are looking for work. I suggest to them that my own boss may have work for them if they are interested.

After explaining that my “boss” is a more normal sort of person than the scary group I came in with, they seem interested in the idea. So I take it upon myself to suggest to Jack that he makes use of them. They’ll probably be a useful set of eyes and ears if nothing else, and they aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.

They’ve also seen some weird shit, so might not be too put off if they get involved with the magi.