1235, Spring
We finish off the events of Aberfeldy from last session in our Ars Magica campaign, and then move on to the rest of the year, which is mostly spent reading and researching magic.
I do put my companion Jack to work trying to track down the merchant who was behind the strange fires, but he otherwise spends time helping to train the grogs and look after his family.
My plans for Pisciculus is for her to try the second step on her path along the Mystery Cult of House Criamon. She needs to spend a season insane, imagining friends and enemies, and wandering the world in search of clarity and enlightenment. She’ll need to take a Vow at the end of this, but also gains supernatural sight abilities.
Pisciculus ex Criamon – Winter, 1235
After the previous excitement at Aberfeldy, we decide to try and find any local stone circles. Allistor flies up on his flying staff, and eventually spots one about four miles away. We head along the road to it, and find that it does have a bit of a faerie aura.
There are holes in the stones, similar to those we have seen previously where people were chained to the stones and sacrificed. Maedbh detects the remnants of quite powerful magic lingering here. There is some dried blood in the holes, and I determine that it is human blood.
Maedbh tries to track down the bloodline of the blood sample, but isn’t able to do so due to the small size of the sample. I try finding out where the owner was born, and fail. The spell works, but provides no information. Further spells seem to have the same problem – they succeed, but find nothing.
Finding another nearby stone circle, there are again holes in the stone. There is no sign of blood in these holes though.
Once again we are out of ideas about what to do. Something is going on, but we’re just chasing our tails and not finding anything that points to what is causing the earthquakes. We are always too late, and by the time we arrive there’s nothing left for us to look at. We need another plan.
We head back to the covenant.
Pisciculus ex Criamon – Spring, Summer, Autumn 1235
Time is spent reading books and studying. I invent a new spell – The Protesting Adversary Held Still. It’s designed to take advantage of my ability to modify a formulaic spell when casting it, so that I can make it a group spell – affecting more than one person at once. Improving my Rego and Corpus take up the rest of the year.
Winter 1236 – Rumours
- This year’s earthquake is not particularly violent, but does go on for quite a while. The gentle shaking of the ground is complemented by the swaying of buildings, movement of furniture and the odd object falling off shelves or walls. Many comment after the event that everything seems brighter and fresher somehow which may account for the particularly vivid dreams that most seem to experience over the next few nights.
- A number of travellers have gone missing in the area between Kinnell and Loch Awe. There are garbled reports of strange wide groove-like tracks in the ground being found near deserted camps or abandoned carts.
- The villagers of Aberfeldy, still rebuilding from the aftermath of last year’s earthquake and a confrontation between malign fae and a group of mysterious learned travellers, are perplexed and worried over the nightly delivery of a fish to each of their homes. While this may seem trivial or even welcome, there are worries that a local beast may have an interest in ‘fattening up’ the remaining villagers as a terrifying wolf-man has been spotted in the area.
- Large numbers of soldiers have been wintering in major towns across Southern Scotland. They are expected to soon be marching to Galloway, where rebels under the command of Tomas mac Ailein and Giles Ruadh have proclaimed the independence of Galloway from the Kingdom of Scotland.
- Peculiar weather is being reported over the mountainous regions of the country. Low-lying mist covers most hillsides, and forms an unusually low cloud-base over many valleys. While such mists are not unusual, so many of them are, and they are strangely persistent. Even high winds seem to have little effect on the mists. Only the sunniest of days seem to have any effect, and given that this is Scotland, in Winter, most of the mists still remain.
- Shortages of some staple items are being reported in major towns in southern Scotland. While not at worrying levels, prices have gone up particularly for building materials. The cause is rumoured to be the recently returned Lord Goulis, who is apparently embarking on a building spree. One ‘wit’ has joked that Lord Goulis is planning to rebuild Hadrian’s wall!
- Stories of strange aerial phenomena are being reported from the far north, variously described as swarms of large birds, or crescent shaped clouds moving with the points leading. Wise folk have taken to sheltering indoors until these have passed. One man claims to have been travelling alone when a crescent shaped cloud moved towards him. He was then assailed from all sides by a nightmarish shifting melange of ghostly figures, and awoke later miles away from his last location. Most sensible folk think he merely had too much to drink, as otherwise he wouldn’t have woken up at all.
