1237, Winter 2
In this session of Ars Magica, we are still at the covenant of Horsingas which has been destroyed by an earthquake. The magi and inhabitants are mostly dead, which leaves the covenant open to plunder. At one point, we as players get distracted with a discussion about teleportation magic. We also had a discussion about using magic to find bodies. There don’t seem to be any examples of spells to locate bodies that can’t be seen, or which we don’t already have an arcane connection to.
So despite the flexibility of the magic system, there isn’t really an Intellego Corpus way of finding all bodies within a certain area. Which I think is deliberate
Pisciculus ex Criamon – Winter, 1237
We are at Horsingas covenant, investigating what happened to the magi here. We need to do something about the bodies that we are digging up. Giving them a Christian burial is important for magi. Not entirely because anyone cares about their immortal souls. But once the right holy rituals are done, their spirits can not be summoned, meaning all their secrets die with them.
I do want to find the bodies of the mundanes, so that I can question them about what happened. The area is dusty, so I need to wear a mask to help my breathing. Eventually though, I find a couple of bodies, and get them up to the top with a bit of Rego Corpus.
The first body that I summon the spirit of turns out to be one of the servants – Liam. As far as he can remember, something bad happened. Everything shook, and then it went dark. Asking about whether there were any guests, he said that some had come over for Christmas. He thought one of them was a relative of Sir Edwin. The others were his servants.
The guest had come up from the south, and was talking to Sir Edwin about fighting to stave off Norman ideals and culture (Horsingas are very pro-Saxon, even though the battle that decided it all was sometime back in the 11th century).
I ask Liam if he has any messages that he wants to pass on, and he gives me a message to give to his sister in a local town.
The second is Marjary. She describes the visitor as some rabble rouser from down south who had some information about some negotiations between the Kings. Apparently they were talking about a deal that Sir Edwin wasn’t keen on. Something to do with Northumbria. And something about a Wedding, but she doesn’t know who for. There was one guest, and a couple of his servants. She is rather curt and looking forward to being able to do some cleaning up in the afterlife.
Over the next few days, we continue to try and find bodies. My sodalis are also searching for any stuff that may no longer have an official owner. I don’t feel too comfortable about this, especially since not all the magi are actually dead. A couple of them are simply almost dead.
Magi from other covenants begin to turn up, and not just from Fire Heart. From Burham covenant comes Quaesitor Trutina ex Guernicus. After a discussion with her, she says that we’re not actually breaking the Code by raiding the covenant. It still doesn’t feel right though. Though some magi offer help, most of the rest leave once they find out what has happened.
As we find more bodies, and ask more questions, we find out that the Kings of Scotland and England are planning to make peace over some large issues that had been dividing them.
Some further days later, and Allistor comes across a sealed room with a body inside. Inside the body is a dagger.
The room is roughly 3 yards on a side. It is quite intact compared to the rest of the covenant. There are some barrels in the corner of the room, some of them were moved, since there are marks on the floor where they were previously. The floor of which had been moved before the destruction. The floor of the room has strange rippling patterns in it. As if it was fluid at one point, then hardened back when the fluidity stopped.
The ripples seem to be centred on the body, which appears to be that of a servant. Both hands of the body are firmly gripping the handle of the dagger – as if they either stabbed themselves, or were trying to stop someone else from stabbing them.
Maedbh finds that there are traces of powerful faerie magic in the room, specifically on the handle of the dagger. The sigil of the magic is that of cold. It all seems similar to what we’ve found at the stone circles, but for some reason this was done in a covenant.
Allistor tries to remove the blade from the corpse using magic. There is a bit of resistance, but the blade comes free. The blade itself seems to stone, not metal. There are some inscriptions on the stone, animals and other Pictish like symbols. The blade has no blood on it, which is unusual given that it is in a body.
We take the body out of the room and move it outside. Whilst doing so, we notice that they have a ring, with the carving of an otter on it. There is some discolouration around the eyes and throat, and a strange smell.
I caste Whispers on the Black Gate, but not spirit answers. Whatever soul that the person had, has been consumed, and it doesn’t look like it’s received a Christian burial.
I wake Liam again, and check to see if they had a history of being vanishing around the end of the year. He doesn’t think so, but is able to tell us where the nearby graveyard is. The owner of the ring was Devlin, a servant who tended to travel. He was last known to be near Inner Lein, about three miles from Fire Heart.
There are areas where strange things happened during the Earthquake, which seemed to be on a line. Allistor thinks there might be a line of power or something which things were running through. These might require investigation.
Over the course of our searches, we find four books and nine pawns of vis. If they had large stores, then they were destroyed in the event that destroyed the covenant. There was a nice suite of armour as well, and two strong magical items plus a weaker one. One of the stronger items is a bone wand.
It seems that we’ve found everything that is to be found here.
