1230, Winter

A short session of Ars Magica this week, mostly because I was feeling great and wasn’t capable of doing any complicated thinking. Mostly, we finished off Autumn and got to the list of rumours at the end of Winter. This gave us a chance to discuss what we wanted to do next, in order to provide our GM some hints about what to prepare for.

Pisciculus ex Criamon – 1230, Winter

I spend most of the winter studying our new book on the art of Mentem. Part way through the season, my sleep was interrupted by a small earthquake which was followed by the sound of scurrying and scratching from outside my door. By the time I was up and outside, everything was quiet.

Towards the end of the year, we heard a number of rumours about what was going on.

• The war between the Lidless and the Throne continues in the north. Neither side has made much progress, but skirmishes and raids aplenty have occurred. Lord Goulis and his new personal guard stand as a bulwark between the ravening madmen of the lidless and the peaceful southern lands. Each time an army of lidless are cut down another horde arises. But the fire-wreathed forms of Lord Goulis and his guard drives them back time and again.  Travellers are warned to avoid inland areas in the north and to stick to coastal areas, as the lidless seem mostly to inhabit the interior and are focussed on attacking the King’s army which is encamped near Inverness.
• Rats! Lots of rats! On the darkest night, the earth shook and from the mouth of the cave system beneath Druid’s Dale there did issue forth a veritable torrent of rats! Big rats, little rats, in-between rats, black and brown rats, every kind of rat imaginable scurried from the depths under the covenant, through the corridors and rooms, squeaking and nibbling outside the mages’ sanctums and the coven-folks’ dwellings and eventually disappearing through the covenant gates as an undulating furry carpet receding into the night.
• Troubling news of a strange fog has reached the covenant. Rumours from the far northern coast speak of a strange fog, encountered even during fine sunny days. Travellers entering the fog are risking their minds and bodies, with poor wretches being found later as: withered corpses; raving madmen; physically changed and twisted; or simply dead with their faces contorted in terror. Witnesses say the fog sometimes moves against the wind, and seems to grow tendrils that stretch towards people nearing its boundaries as if to beckon them in.
• The 1231 Tribunal of Loch Leglean will be held this summer at Loch Leglean covenant. Weighty issues to be discussed are: allegations of magical interference in the continuing conflict in the north of Scotland; allegations against Horsingas covenant by the Stonehenge Tribunal; a report on supernatural involvement in persons suffering unnatural ageing effects by Maga Múireann Maedbh ní Saerbhreathach of Druid’s Dale covenant.

We have decided that we want to investigate what caused the sudden plague of rats. Not only could there be something dangerous happening beneath our covenant, but depending on where the rats fled to, it might cause political problems for us if local villages were overrun.