The Dragon and the Bear Chapter Five: Hermetic Landscape

This page is part of the The Dragon and the Bear: The Novgorod Tribunal Open Content

Origins

The Order of Hermes arrived in the Slavic lands relatively recently, and it owes its presence to a most peculiar benefactor: the Christian Church.

Before the Christian conversion the Volkhvy effectively repulsed the Order. Unlike the hedge wizards of western Europe whom the Order had largely destroyed, the Volkhvy enjoyed the full support of their tribes. They were priests, revered by their people, and well organized. It is true that before the Varangian era no single tribe had great military power, but in the turbulent 9th century neither did the Order of Hermes. Later, around the early 900s, the Order was in a better state, but by then matters were developing beyond them. The Poles were coming slowly together under their legendary leader Piast, while the Russians where firstly under Oleg’s firm hand (and Oleg was a Volkhv), and then Igor’s solid if unpopular rule.

During these years there were expeditions into the Slavic lands. Magi from the Theban and Transylvanian tribunals probed Russia, but what they found discouraged them. Rich faerie sources of vis were plentiful, but the faeries were unusually dangerous and had close links to the Volkhvy. Individually, of course, no Volkhv was a match for a well trained Hermetic magus, at least not on neutral ground. But there were simply too many of them, they were too well organized, and they had considerable mundane backing.

Changing Times

In 942 it seemed that matters might have changed for the better. Prince Igor was dead and Olga was scourging the Drevlianians. She was a Christian and she drove off the Volkhvy. A major expedition was mounted from Byzantium under the leadership of the magus Michael of Amastris, who intended to found a covenant in the Drevlianian lands.

For nearly twenty years Michael and his brethren held on, but he had misread the times. The Drevlianians were hostile, churchmen attached to Olga’s court were suspicious, and the faeries whom Michael had hoped to subdue or deceive were very formidable. Two magi were lost in Arcadia, one was slain by a group of Volkhvy, and another was stoned to death in Kiev.

In 962 Sviatoslav became prince and Michael recognized his time was up. A devout pagan caring only for war, Sviatoslav let his mother’s policies lapse. Volkhvy reappeared in force. Michael evacuated before the inevitable assault could materialize, fleeing back to Constantinople.

The real opportunities only opened up a generation later. In Russia, Vladimir the Saint began a series of forced conversions and mass baptisms in the 990’s, and the wholesale destruction of pagan temples. Meanwhile in Poland the Church got properly organized during the rule of Boleslaw I (around 1000). This triggered a wide spread of conversions and an organized persecution of the pagans. Throughout the Slavic lands the Volkhvy were driven away. Many were slain.

This was the open door the Order had been waiting for. The Slavic princes had betrayed their gods and cast aside their natural source of magical aid. With the Volkhvy dead or in hiding the Order moved in.

The First Settlements

There were three interested tribunals on the borders of the Slavic lands: Rhine, Transylvania, and Thebes. Of the three, Rhine in particular was already experiencing vis shortages and wanted to lay claim to the eastern territories. Expeditions were sent from all three tribunals and for a while it looked as though a real argument was going to blow up between them.

At the same time however, the Order was beginning to experience serious internal turmoil. There were dreadful rumors about diabolism in House Tytalus. The confirmation of these rumors and the subsequent executions rocked the Order; key magi in both the Rhine and Transylvanian Tribunals were among the tainted. Infighting, paranoia, and unwary accusations became commonplace. For a few difficult years a fragile peace endured and then, a little after the millennium had turned, the Schism War erupted.

In the confusion of that time, the natural animosity and distrust between the three eastern tribunals turned to open hatred. Some of the most vicious encounters of the Schism War were fought in the border regions between Hungary, Germany, and Byzantium.

In Poland and Russia things developed very differently. The three new covenants had attracted several Bjornaer magi (especially Grand Silesia, which had been heavily sponsored by the Bjornaer domus magnus at Crintera) as well as magi from the houses of Merinita and Criamon. There were even a few Flambeau and a very few Jerbiton, Mercere and Ex Miscellanea. There was one quaesitor in the region, at Rodnya. This was Patrick of Dunderry (from Hibernia) and he was appalled at the situation. When the order came from his superiors in the Theban tribunal to support their strike against a covenant in the Carpathians he flatly refused and then convened a council meeting among his covenant sodali. He denounced the commands of their sponsors as a betrayal of the Order — visible evidence of diabolical influence — and declared that he would have absolutely no part in any such mad enterprise. Patrick was a Christian, though not a Pious Magus (see Pax Dei), and he felt that in the face of such insanity the only proper response was that dictated by the Christian ethos: to turn the other cheek.

His fellow magi were swayed by Patrick’s passionate rhetoric, even if they wouldn’t endorse his pacific philosophy. They backed his rejection of the commands they’d received.

From Patrick’s initial impulse a new mood swiftly swept through the covenant. Why should they or their recent adversaries in this wild, hard land bother themselves with the atrocities occurring in the West? What need did they have to go trespassing on each others’ property, contending for vis, and trying to assert dominance and lines of jurisdiction? It was near on three hundred miles to Pripet Maior, and more like five hundred to Grand Silesia! Better by far to mind their own business, keep their heads low, and wait things out.

The First Three Covenants

Rodnya: Near the town of that name, on the Dnieper river about eighty miles south of Kiev. Founded by the Theban tribunal in 992.

Pripet Maior: Inside the south-western edge of the Pripet marshes. Founded by the Transylvanian tribunal in 994.

Grand Silesia: In the hill country between the Oder and Warta rivers, about halfway between Poznan and Wroclaw. Founded by the Rhine tribunal in 993

Growth From Chaos

Throughout the autumn of 1006, the three Slavic covenants pursued a quiet policy of reconciliation. The Bjornaer magi among them were particularly keen to avoid any involvement in the Schism War. Already an unpleasant proportion of attacks had focused on House Díedne. The Order was looking for scapegoats, and the non-Latin houses were the obvious targets.

By 1008 the three covenants had formally shed their ties to their sponsors and constituted themselves as the New Slavonic Tribunal.

They could not hope to survive unscathed. Rodnya was the target of attacks both by vengeful Theban magi and hostile Transylvanians. In 1009 Rodnya was abandoned, Patrick leading his fellows north to Novgorod. Grand Silesia was also damaged, and refugees fled to Pripet Maior. With Rodnya destroyed, the magi agreed to found a new covenant in the Novgorod area, choosing a site at the center of the triangle formed by lakes Onega, Beloe, and Ilmen. This meant they were equidistant between three civilized centers (Novgorod, Beloozero, and Ladoga) but comfortably far away from large populations. The covenant was named Three Lakes and as time passed it was to assume a guiding role in the tribunal.

The New Age

For the next forty or so years the new tribunal developed well and its independence was one of the first matters agreed upon at the great conciliatory Grand Tribunal held after the Schism War was over. The Russian civil war of 1015-1019 was harsh, but all the covenants were located in fairly inaccessible places, and Grand Silesia (resettled in 1013), of course, was not involved. Aside from the general turmoil of politics in the ensuing decades and the normal difficulties with Church authorities and interfering nobles, the magi did very well.

In Poland the mid eleventh century saw the terrible civil war and pagan uprising. Grand Silesia tried to stay out of sight during the conflict but there were too many people with grudges against them. Malicious tongues in the Rhine tribunal may have wagged, for when Casimir the Restorer came back to power in 1039, the covenant was targeted and destroyed by crusading anti-pagan knights. The fall of Grand Silesia left the tribunal without representation of any kind in Poland. It was at this time that the Rhine tribunal made its first attempt to “negotiate” a change in the border between itself and the New Slavonic tribunal, an attempt only narrowly defeated at Grand Tribunal. The Slavonic tribunal’s response was to push through a ruling giving their tribunal council formal authority over the settlement of all new covenants in the Slavic lands. This authority has been used several times in the past hundred and fifty years to eject trespassing bands of foreign magi, but it has also slowed the growth of the tribunal, and some now argue that a more generous policy would have been wiser.

Despite the slaughter at Grand Silesia, some magi had escaped and again took refuge at Pripet Maior, but it was not until 1052, when Casimir had driven the Czechs out of Silesia, that the magi could come back to Poland. A covenant was established in the lands between the Vistula and Warta rivers, about fifty miles east of Sieradz, and took the name of a nearby town: Leczyca. It is from this time that the strong links between House Bjornaer and Pripet Maior date. The magi of Grand Silesia had twice been forced to flee there, and now many of them chose to stay.

Meanwhile, the growth of Three Lakes, and its ever increasing involvement in Novgorod city, was drawing the political center of the tribunal northward. In 1053 a change of name was agreed. In a moment of proud affirmation the tribunal discarded the “new” from its name and chose to identify with the bustling independent city on the Volkhov river.

The next real challenge to face the tribunal followed the death of Iaroslav the Wise in 1054. Iaroslav’s death brought on a new civil war, and one of the participants, prince Vseslav, was a Volkhv.

This was potentially deadly. Vseslav’s actions raised the general consciousness, both Church and State, of the practice of illicit magic within Russia. Should the tribunal step in to counter Vseslav? Should they regard him as a rogue hedge wizard and kill him? The fact was that he was a prince of the House of Rurik, and to act against him would be a violation of the Hermetic Code and would draw attention to their presence. But plainly Vseslav was making the war worse than it would otherwise be. Plainly he was a direct threat to the tribunal, but equally plainly to act against him would be contrary to Hermetic principles and a provocative, dangerous action. In the end, the tribunal, meeting in emergency conclave, elected to do nothing.

In due course a temporary stability descended on Russia, when three of Iaroslav’s sons formed a triumvirate. One of their first actions was to lure Vseslav to a peace conference, seize him treacherously, and hurl him into prison. This action backfired badly, for within a year the Cumans had begun pressing hard on Pereyaslavl and the common people were muttering about broken oaths and God’s vengeance on traitors.

Matters did not improve. In 1069 Vseslav was released from prison by rioting Kievans and took control of the city. Again, the tribunal elected to do nothing. Patrick of Dunderry was an old man by now, but still passionate in his advocacy of non-aggression and he managed to keep the tribunal distant from the continuing conflicts. Vseslav’s reign in Kiev was brief. His brother Iziaslav returned and drove him out. Though Vseslav lived till 1101 he never again troubled Russia on a similar scale, but dwelt fairly quietly in Polotsk, dabbling in unpleasant magics and scribing his dangerous knowledge in six massive tomes of black serpent skin.

The Royal Embargo

The tribunal endured, but the promise of the early years seemed constantly to recede. With so much danger and unpredictability on all sides the covenants stayed well hidden. Alliances with noble houses were shunned. Brief contacts inevitably turned into disasters when a situation in which a magus might be of use to a prince developed. After the death of Mstislav the Great in 1132 a ruling was made. All members of the tribunal were strictly enjoined not to reveal themselves to any member of the Royal Russian house. Later this rule was extended to cover the Polish Royals as well.

Amidst so much civil strife, with nomad raids, foreign invasions, and their own restrictive policies, the tribunal grew only slowly. In the year 1220 there are only six covenants in the region.

Mundane difficulties aside, the tribunal at this time has one great and overriding concern. Members of the House of Bjornaer have fallen out among themselves. The question that is bedeviling them is this: Is it or is it not possible to integrate humanity harmoniously into a natural order?

The Harmonist/Wilderist Debate

Right from the beginning the Novgorod tribunal attracted Bjornaer magi. Their domus magnus was at Crintera, in the Rhine tribunal, one of the first places to really feel the pinch of rising mundane population. At Pripet Maior a genuine wilderness was discovered, virtually untouched except for the presence of a few scattered stilt-villages. Rodnya, on the edge of the steppe zone in Russia, had been the haunt of nomads for millennia, while Grand Silesia was in a secluded backwoods valley in hill country, far from even modest towns.

For a century and more, Novgorodian magi have enjoyed the virtually unfettered freedom to rove, explore, and delve in ancient forests, wild hills, and fathomless marshes. Expeditions penetrated to the Urals in the early 1150s and brought back word of seemingly limitless forests, stretching in unbroken grandeur into the uttermost East.

More and more, however, the problem of mundane encroachment has been intruding. What is to be done about the growing presence of human settlement near the Pripet? The marshes are a rich source of iron ore and there are salt basins nearby that are starting to be mined. People are being brought in to drain ground and work the land. Pripet Maior is now the oldest covenant in the tribunal (in 1194 it celebrated its bicentenary), and its reactions to this situation have been severely unimaginative. Extensive raiding has begun in recent years as well as a series of dangerous “hauntings.”

Unfortunately the local nobility are not content to let matters lie. They don’t yet recognize organized magical interference, but believe they are facing the presence of wild beasts or malign faerie influences. Several large scale hunts have been organized. One particular noble, the Boyar Mikhail of Turov, has even talked of summoning harpoonists from distant Norway to destroy the “marsh monsters.” The Church might be brought in if solid evidence of supernatural meddling is unearthed, and Pripet Maior is hardly a cast iron secret in the locality.

Pripet Maior’s age is part of the problem. The founding magi are all long since dead or gone into Final Twilight. One of them, Stolitzya “the Swimmer,” finally lost herself in her heart-beast (a great black-backed turtle) some thirty years ago. Stolitzya is somewhere in the Pripet’s heart, brooding and dangerous. Many of the current magi at Pripet were her apprentices, and are close to Final Twilight themselves, sinking slowly into animal irrationality and senile decay. Is a confrontation inevitable? Pripet Maior could do terrible damage before being dragged down. But there might be fearsome repercussions if evidence were found there pointing to the existence of other Hermetic covenants. However, there are those who believe that an alternative exists.

Several Three Lakes magi reached the Urals in the 1150s. The land delighted them with its wild nature and seemingly infinite span. The local Slavic tribes were quietly pagan, and not disposed to bother the newcomers. In particular, a narrow gorge was discovered above the headwaters of the Kama river, whose walls were dotted with literally hundreds of dry, spacious caves, connected by ledges.

In 1185 the tribunal granted a charter for a new covenant to be founded in the gorge. They were spurred on by the arguments of a newcomer to the tribunal, the young Hungarian maga Malincka Capcek. Malincka had several good arguments for her plans, and being of House Bonisagus gave her a certain weight in discussions. However, as events have shown, she concealed her true motivations from everybody.

In any event, the covenant was quite swiftly settled and soon attracted a number of quite young and unorthodox magi. The covenant was named Thousand Caves, and seemed set for success. However, it has recently emerged that the valley itself is only the center of the covenant organization, for the magi developed very friendly relations with the local people. These tribes live far more simply than the Russian peasants, using relatively little iron in favor of naturally occurring stone and wood, but their concept of the universe, and of their gods, is fully developed. The Bjornaer magi in particular were eager to learn from a people who lived in such harmony with their environment.

Thousand Caves has become the center of a small tribal confederation. While there is a moderate population in the valley itself, there are other confederated groups living outside it. Several large bands of tribesmen drift through the forests hunting, trapping, and employing simple slash and burn agriculture. They use almost no metal, kill nothing unnecessarily, and, guided by the magi and their own Volkhvy, strive to reach a state of true harmony with the world. The Bjornaer magi have had significant success in discovering heart-beasts among these people, and in teaching the principles of Will Over Form, Animal Ken, and similar magics to Gifted members of the tribes. Many suspect that the large number of heart-beasts waiting to be found among these people is due to Thousand Caves’ potent faerie aura.

Going this far was bound to irritate the traditional Bjornaer magi of Pripet Maior, but Malincka has dared to go further. While her consortes busy themselves with the locals, she has engaged in an intense effort to understand and codify Volkhv magic. More, she intends to blend its methods and advantages with those of Hermetic magic. Her goal is to create a unified society, bonded by a common use of magic, by a deep understanding of the natural world, and by a joint philosophy of worship and creation.

These are the two sides of the great debate, both within House Bjornaer and on a wider scale. On the one hand there are the defenders of a static piece of land, jealously guarding what they think is theirs. On the other are a group of magi who have become intertwined with a group of mundanes, trying to lead and teach a new way of life.

The tribunal council of 1214 saw this dispute break into the open. The Thousand Caves magi objected to the brutal suppression of mundanes in the Pripet area, while the Pripet magi yelled accusations of betrayal at the Caves magi, crying out that they had brought human interference into pristine wilderness. It was at this point that Malincka rose to address the tribunal, and, in an hourslong discourse, outlined the manner in which Volkhvy temper faerie auras, stressing the vital participation both of faerie divinities and, crucially, of mundanes. She asserted that it was possible not simply for mundanes to exert magical powers in a Slavic aura, but that working with mundane help, Hermetic magi would one day be able to temper auras — magical auras — to their desires. This, she said, was the final goal of the Thousand Caves covenant: to create an aura that would enable all its inhabitants to share fully in the natural, magical glories of the world.

Many of the assembled magi were outraged, and there were calls for the immediate renunciation of Thousand Caves. The quaesitores were confounded and went into a private conference on the question of exactly how and to what degree Thousand Caves might have violated the Code.

But Thousand Caves also had supporters. Many of the magi had long been fascinated by the phenomenon of Domestic Magic and hurried to quiz Malincka on her discoveries. Here, it seemed to many of them, was a real hope of reconciliation between the Order and the rapidly encroaching mundane world.

When the quaesitores reconvened the meeting it was only for the purpose of immediately dismissing the tribunal. They disbanded the assembly with the brief declaration that Thousand Caves would be examined by an official delegation of quaesitores backed by representatives from all the covenants of the tribunal, but, to be even-handed, so would Pripet Maior.

Finding Heart-beasts

Ars Magica Fourth Edition describes heart-beasts as the sole province of Bjornaer magi. At the covenant of Thousand Caves, however, non-Bjornaer — and even mundanes — also have this manifestation of the inner animal. What is at work here?

In House Bjornaer, magi who take apprentices locate individuals with the full Hermetic Gift who have heart-beasts and coax those animals forth as the apprentice learns magic. But others may have heart-beasts as well: otherwise un-Gifted individuals, individuals with minor Gifts like hedge wizards, and even non-Bjornaer Hermetic magi.

Any character who has an undiscovered heart-beast must have taken the Latent Magical Ability Virtue (ArM4 page 43) at character creation. In order for this heart-beast to emerge, a Bjornaer magus (or other character with the Ability Will Over Form) must help it to the surface. This is a seasonal activity. The “teacher” and “student” must spend a season together doing little else but exploring the inner animal located within the student. At the end of the season, the teacher rolls a stress die + Per + (Animal Ken or Will Over Form, whichever is higher). On a 9+, the student’s heart-beast is found, and the student automatically learns the Ability Will Over Form 1, which can be improved in the future just as other Talents are. On a failure, the season is wasted, though more seasons can be spent at no penalty. On a botch, the storyguide may decide that the heart-beast has been damaged in some way, or some other calamity has arisen. There may be other ways heart-beasts can be found — perhaps through meditation and personal exploration — but any such possibilities are left to the storyguide and troupe. The guidelines presented here should suffice in most situations.

The exact nature of a character’s heart-beast (that is, what sort of animal it is) is up to the storyguide. The storyguide should, after consultation with the player involved, choose an animal whose personality seems to be in tune with the way the character has been roleplayed since he was created. The political ramifications of Bjornaer magi helping non-Bjornaer express their heart-beasts is a subject best left to individual troupes, though this is certainly one of the issues at the heart of the ill will between Pripet Maior and Thousand Caves.

Form of the Avenging Beast

This special Bjornaer spell is used by many of the Bjornaer magi of the Novgorod tribunal, as are enhanced versions. It is not, however, listed in the Ars Magica Fourth Edition rules. For the benefit of those who do not have access to Houses of Hermes, it is repeated here.

Form of the Avenging Beast (MuCo20)

Spell focus: body part from the appropriate animal type (+2)

R: Per, D: Sun, T: Ind

The shape of your heart-beast becomes more powerful and deadly. If you have a battle-worthy heart-beast, you receive +5 on all Attack and Damage rolls and +15 on Soak rolls. If the heartbeast is not battle-worthy, it gains a +3 Attack, +3 Damage, and +10 on Soak. In addition, you receive no penalties from accululated Body or Fatigue levels until you are unconscious, incapacitated, or dead. Your heart-beast becomes more ferocious, more fearsome, and larger, but also slightly distorted. Inert forms like those of trees or rocks become more threatening in appearance, but gain no combat abilities

Delegation and Retribution

The quaesitorial delegation, backed by powerful magi from all the covenants of the tribunal, visited Pripet Maior and Thousand Caves in 1215 and 1216. The delegation found Pripet Maior full of demands, outrage, and contempt. Conversely, at Thousand Caves there was hospitality and a concerted effort to convert the visitors to their philosophy. Regardless, there was no doubt that both covenants stood in violation of various sections of the Code.

However, the verdict of the quaesitores was forestalled, for in the spring of 1217, Pripet Maior suddenly struck at Thousand Caves. Their assault was not declared as a formal Wizards’ War and they had no permission for a Wizards’ March. It was a simple, vicious raid, intended to wreck the enemy mages’ laboratories and kill as many of them as possible. It failed, first because the animals local to Thousand Caves remained staunchly loyal despite the efforts of very powerful Bjornaer magi to sway them, and second because two of the attacking magi suffered Twilights at inopportune moments.

After the raid, the whole question of technical violations of the code was relegated to the back burner. The quaesitores had a far more immediate offense to redress; an attack on a covenant of the tribunal cannot go unpunished. Several times they have called the Pripet Maior magi to judgment, so far without effect.

As the tribunal heads towards the meeting of 1221 these matters remain unresolved. Although Thousand Caves is patently responsible for “meddling in the lives of mundanes,” it is hard to prove that they have endangered the Order by doing so as the mundanes in question are primitive pagans living hundreds of miles from the Christian authorities.

On the other hand, though Pripet Maior is plainly playing with fire, punishing them is close to impossible. Too many of the tribunal’s magi have long-standing links to Pripet, and its political clout and status as the oldest surviving foundation in the tribunal makes it all but immune to censure.

Looming over this internal debate is the forthcoming Grand Tribunal of 1228. What to do? The consequences of this matter being dragged before the whole Order could be horrendous. Rhine is always looking for an opportunity to annex “vacant” Polish lands. The Novgorod tribunal cannot afford a major scandal.

While the formal organization of the tribunal is stymied, the infighting in House Bjornaer is growing worse. The magi of Pripet Maior weren’t slow to rush off to Crintera and describe the Thousand Caves transgressions in the worst possible light, while Thousand Caves magi soon arrived to argue their side of the case. The raid of 1217 notched up the tension level and matters within the house are rumored to be close to eruption. The next Gathering of the Twelve Years is imminent, and is bound to be explosive. Just where judgment will fall in this matter is anybody’s guess.

The Covenants

There are six known covenants in the Novgorod Tribunal. Details are given here for four of them. Two are not described. We assume that one of these two will be your own. The other “missing” covenant should be useful to players who require a particular enemy or ally, or as a covenant pursuing some special goal, or simply to maintain an absence, unexplained and mysterious.

Of course, in your own saga, you are welcome to add covenants past six, or subtract from the number presented here. Although earlier Ars Magica supplements intended for use with the second and third editions have defined exact populations of the various tribunals (both in terms of magi and covenants) you should not let these definitions stifle your saga if you have other ideas.

Three Lakes Covenant

Background

Three Lakes is the guiding light of the tribunal. It is the site of tribunal meetings and the major political heavyweights whose constant efforts shore up Leczyca’s position in Poland and whose resident quaesitores reject Rhine and Transylvanian territorial demands. It supports the tribunal’s Redcap network and is constantly pushing back the boundaries of exploration and trade.

The covenant is situated in a fertile lowland valley surrounded by dense woodlands. The valley walls and some of its floor have been cleared for pasture, but much of it is dominated by a wide, placid lake. Three Lakes itself is a large compound, split into three portions within a functional wooden stockade. The outermost portion is the Trade Yard; this is dominated by warehouses, reindeer stables, and a sled yard. It is occupied by drovers, fisherfolk, trappers, hunters, servants, and common grogs. Above the Trade Yard is the High House, which is on sloping ground leading up the valley wall. This is an ornate manor, dominated by the Great Hall. The mages’ specialist servants, favored grogs, friends, and guests live here. Above the High House is the Keep. This stone bastion sits in a minor pass in the valley wall and houses the treasury, library, and the quarters of the magi.

Three Lakes has considerable flocks as well as fisherfolk and hunters. Bulk food is brought in from local villages and luxuries come from Ladoga or Novgorod. The covenant has its own resident smiths, glassworkers, several scribes, and even an alchemist.

The reindeer herds, sleds, and carts are the heart of the covenant’s principal nonmagical activity. As far as the local people are concerned, Three Lakes is the home of a prosperous trading family, the Beslavichi. The elderly Yury Beslav is family patriarch, while his son Georgi sees to the trading expeditions. Yury and Georgi are in fact father and son, but they are also Jerbiton magi with Gentle Gifts. Through its trading links, the covenant has accumulated significant wealth and developed a wide net of allies in north Russia and the Baltic.

The covenant has a rigid internal hierarchy. There are three grades of magi: Juniors are probationary members who surrender their sigils, have no voice in council, and labor under heavy obligations. Specialists are full members with a voice in all council matters who have decided to relinquish voting rights and administrative tasks in order to dedicate themselves to research. Their only obligations are to teach or contribute to the covenant library one season per year. Seniors are full members who have accepted major administrative responsibility and care for the covenant’s many external obligations in return for which they alone determine policy and have voting rights in council.

This structure, which developed gradually from about 1040-1080, has worked well for almost 150 years. However, in 1212 the covenant celebrated its bicentenary and a special council was held to assess the covenant’s state. The magi were shocked by what they found, for they had failed to notice how long it had been since they had taken in any new blood. The last apprentice was gauntleted at Three Lakes 35 years ago. The last magus to join the covenant was Boris Davidovich, who at 76 is the youngest magus by fifteen years.

The magi realized that their covenant was entering late Autumn. Accordingly, the Senior council voted unanimously to acquire apprentices, and over the next five years four promising youngsters were located. The covenant has assumed a collective responsibility for their training, which is full-time, all year round. Naturally the apprentices are flourishing.

Three Lakes’ strengths are certainly formidable ones. They have a secure mundane position, strong mystical and library resources, a powerful community of magi, and widespread Hermetic respect. On the other hand their obligations are heavy. As many as three magi are routinely absent at any one time, and special obligations — the collection of vis, research, teaching, and now, the Thousand Caves controversy — also sap their strength.

On this last matter Three Lakes is divided. Their magi are simultaneously excited and frightened by the situation. The mystical implications aside, it is politically dangerous. The quaesitorial investigation which Three Lakes mounted in 1215-6 came to no hard decisions and the tribunal meeting of 1221 promises to be a difficult one.

Three Lakes Statistics

Symbol: A golden sunburst at the center of a triangle formed by three blue ovals.

Season: Autumn

Founded: 1012 AD

Members:

Andrei Soitkchin, Guernicus, chief quaesitor of the tribunal, Senior

Pavel Chedyav, Guernicus, Senior

Yury Beslav, Jerbiton, Patriarch of the Beslavichi clan, Senior

Georgi Yurivich, Jerbiton, Yury’s son and heir, Senior

Batiba an Khatiba, Ex Miscellanea, Cuman Shaman, Senior

Zashya Miyovna, Bjornaer (Swan heart-beast), Senior

Susan of Wicklow, Mercere, chief Redcap of the tribunal, Senior

Olga Deiaslavl, Merinita, Specialist

Boris Davidovich, Bjornaer (Bear heart-beast), Zashya’s filius, Specialist

Nicollo Parelli, Verditius, Specialist

Mina Dankovna, apprentice (parens: Yury Beslav)

Ratibor Peslav, apprentice (parens: Zashya Miyovna)

Dankya Yostovna, apprentice (parens: Susan of Wicklow)

Kassim ibn Fadal, apprentice, from Great Bulgar (parens: Olga Deiaslavl)

Site: –1

Access Quality: Minor Clergy Quality (+3)

Access Distances: 40/0/20/20/20 (–3)

Seclusion: Visitors every 3-4 days (–1)

Environment: Average (0)

Buildings: +4

Size: 10 magi, 40 specialists, 100 grogs, 50 herders/drovers/trappers and servants (+5)

Impressive Structures: Great Hall, Stable, and Sled yard (12 total space points) (+1)

Quality: Good throughout (+6)

Repair: Average (0)

Defenses: +2

Site: One approach lake, two approaches flat, one approach uphill (+3)

Elaborate Structure: Keep (0)

Extent: Trade Yard and High House, Basic; Keep, Good (+1)

Repair: Average (0)

Stores: +4

Vis: 300 pawns (An30 Aq30 Au20 Co10 Cr20 He45 Ig20 Im15 In10 Me30 Mu5 Pe10 Re5 Te40 Vi10) (+4)

Supplies: 7,000 silvers per year (+2)

Reputations: Good neighbors (+1) among local peasants, Good neighbors (+1) among local nobles/landowners, Suspicious (–1) among local clergy, Formidable (+2) among Order of Hermes (+3)

Relations: –2

Allies: Leczyca covenant (+7)

Enemies: Novgorod city trade rivals, 1/4 of Leczyca’s enemies, one minor Rhine and one minor Transylvanian covenant (–10)

Contacts: 6 merchants in north Russia and the Baltic (+3)

Improvement: +5

Income: 700 silvers per year (+2)

Vis supply: 50 pawns per year (An5 Aq 8 Au4 Co4 He15 Me4 Te10) (+4)

Inhabitants: 10 magi, 40 specialists, 100 grogs, 50 covenfolk (+12)

Library: +4

Spells: 3000 levels (Widely dispersed among the 50 basic combinations of Form and Technique; specialist areas: InMe, ReMe, MuCo; Aegis: Level 35) (+5)

Hermetic Books: 900 points (Principal Summae: Animál: Level 16, Quality 8; Herbam: Level 18, Quality 8; Intéllego: Level 20, Quality 9; Mentem: Level 23, Quality 9; Rego: Level 19, Quality 10; Other Summae: Average Level 15, Quality 7; Other works: 394 points) (+5)

Mundane Books: 600 points (Principal Summae: Hermetic Law: Level 6, Quality 7; specialist subjects: travelers’ tales, Nordic lore, maps of northlands and Baltic, Russian and Baltic merchant law, historical chronicles of the Russian principalities, and the formal records of the Novgorod tribunal) (+5)

Mystical Attributes: +4

Aura: +4 (+1)

Magical Items: 600 points (+8) (Hermes Portal to Leczyca covenant: 75 points; 10 Sleds with enchanted runners (Veneer of Smooth Riding): 150 points; 20 Enchanted swords/spears for favored grogs (Edge of the Razor): 200 points; The Eye of Magic: The result of a three year collaboration between Nicollo Parelli and Pavel Chedyav. A massive faceted crystal, used for investigating cryptic magics or magical effects, and for detecting magical influences approaching or influencing the covenant: 100 points; 75 additional points)

Laboratories: +1 bonus throughout (+5)

Total Scores: +90, –29

Magi

Andrei Soitkchin

Andrei is the senior quaesitor of the Novgorod tribunal. He is chairman of the Three Lakes council, responsible for monitoring the activities of the magi and ensuring that they are living up to their various responsibilities under Three Lakes’s detailed charter and the Hermetic Code.

As senior quaesitor, Andrei will be primarily responsible for the tribunal’s response to the Thousand Caves situation. A clear judgment might have emerged a few years ago, but was cut off by Pripet Maior’s raid on Thousand Caves. This matter is, or at least should be, a simpler one, and Andrei’s current first priority is to discipline Pripet. This, however, is proving very difficult to do, and the whole matter is currently frozen. Everyone is anticipating a major debate and some hard decisions at the forthcoming tribunal meeting of 1221.

Andrei Soitkchin, Follower of Guernicus

Characteristics: Int +2, Per +2, Pre +1, Com +1, Str–1, Sta –2, Dex 0, Qik +2

Gender: Male

Age: 122

Size: –1

Confidence: 4

Decrepitude: 1

Afflictions: Rheumatism 3, Weak leg 2

Longevity Potion: Current lab total 69, Current potion bonus 14 (vis boosted)

Twilight Points: 16

Twilight: Longevity potion use 5, Vim score 20+ 4, Positive twilight: increase in Intéllego score 5, Negative twilight: leg damaged 2

Personality Traits: Patient +2, Scrupulous +3, Severe +2

Reputations: Impartial Judge +4, with Order of Hermes; Over-formal +2, with Novgorod magi

Soak: +8

Fatigue: –2

Fatigue levels: OK, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious

Body levels: OK, –1 –3, –5, Incapacitated

Virtues: Quaesitor +1, Magical Affinity: Intéllego +4, Strong-Willed +1, Visual Eidetic Memory +3

Flaws: Creative Block –1, Weak Parma Magica: Music–3, Non-combatant –2, Small Frame –3

Abilities: Area Lore: Novgorod district (Politics) 5, Awareness (Searching) 2, Certámen (Intéllego) 7, Civil and Canon Law (North Russian) 4, Concentration (Reading) 6, Disputatio (Debate) 4, Finesse (Mentem) 4, Folk Ken (Magi) 4, Hermes Lore (History) 6, Hermetic Law (Tribunal procedures) 6, Intrigue (Alliances) 3, Magic Theory (Inventing Spells) 9, Magical Affinity: Intéllego 4, Parma Magica (Mentem) 6, Penetration (Intéllego) 5, Ride (Speed) 3, Scribe Latin (Copying) 5, Scribe Cyrillic (Copying) 4, Speak Latin (Hermetic) 6, Speak Russian (Novgorod dialect) 5

Arts:Cr 12, In 28, Mu 10, Pe 19, Re 26, An 7, Aq 8, Au 9, Co 26, He 9, Ig 12, Im 23, Me 30, Te 10, Vi 22

Equipment: Cloak of silken steel. Andrei is a non-combatant, but has occasionally stumbled into trouble. Nicollo made this cloak for him several decades ago. It is a finely wrought formal robe of dark blue and gray silk, with the virtue that it is as resistant to violence as a suit of supple chain links. It has Load 0 and offers Protection 10.

Spells: Andrei has specialized intensively in InMe, InIm, PeIm, ReCo, ReIm, ReMe, and ReVi. He can be assumed to have mastered all listed formulaics in these areas, and to have created enhanced versions of appropriate truth, lie-detection, and compulsion spells. He has a fair crop of defensive spells too, all of which he has mastered: invisibility, teleporta tion, and mind domination have always been his favorite ways of avoiding trouble.

Pavel Chedyav

Pavel is the junior quaesitor at Three Lakes. He is Andrei’s obvious successor, a fact which gives him visible satisfaction. Pavel is an ingenious magus, and an excellent laboratory worker, but he does not have Andrei’s strong calling for justice. He views the Thousand Caves debate more as an intellectual challenge than a weighty philosophical or legal matter.

Pavel came to Three Lakes about fifty years ago from Leczyca. His political sympathies are more strongly aligned with Polish interests than with Russian. He wants to shape tribunal policy to cause an eventual reunification of the Polish realm and believes that the tribunal would then be sensible to shift its physical location out of Russia. Consequently, though he obeys the tribunal ruling on non-interaction with the Polish and Russian royal houses, he resents it.

Yury Beslav

Yury is the public head of the covenant. He is a traditional Jerbiton magus, involved in district politics, trade arrangements, and patronage of artists. He has played his part for the benefit of the mundane world for so long that it has long since ceased to be an act. Yury was instrumental in formulating the tribunal’s policy about the Russian and Polish royal houses. He himself found it impossible to enter friendships or alliances with royal princes without inevitably being sucked into wider and more dangerous relationships.

Yury’s magic is so strongly tied to social activities that he is actually reliant on the presence of other people to make his magic function. It fails completely in the absence of company. He cannot do laboratory work without a few grogs in attendance, and even when in very secret negotiations he makes sure to have a scribe or two on hand to bolster his magic.

Yury Beslav, Follower of Jerbiton

Characteristics: Int +2, Per +1, Pre +2, Com +2, Str +1, Sta 0, Dex +1, Qik –2

Gender: Male

Age: 117

Size: 0

Confidence: 4

Decrepitude: 1

Afflictions: Balding 0, Rheumatic 3, Poor Eyesight 1

Longevity potion: Current lab total 62, Current potion bonus 13 (vis boosted)

Twilight points: 20

Twilight: Longevity potion use 5, Vim score 20+ 4, Negative twilight: deleterious circumstances worsened from major to total 7, Positive twilight: increased understanding of Mentem 4

Personality Traits: Genial +2, Gregarious +2, Shrewd +4

Reputations: Canny bargainer +4, with local merchants; Venerable patriarch +3, in Novgorod district; Politician +3, in Order of Hermes

Weapon/Attack: Brawl/Dagger +2 Init, +4 Atk, +2 Dfn, +3 Dam; Quarterstaff +7 Init, +8 Atk, +7 Dfn, +7 Dam

Soak: +5

Fatigue: +3

Fatigue levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious

Body levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Incapacitated

Virtues: Gentle Gift +1, Quiet Magic +2, WellTraveled +1, Subtle Magic +2, Temporal Influence +2

Flaws: Deleterious Circumstances (Common/Total: Magic only works when in the presence of two or more people) –4, Incompatible Arts (MuCo) –1, Deep Sleeper –1, Clumsy –2

Abilities: Area Lore: Novgorod Trade Territories (Geography) 3, Area Lore: Novgorod District (Personalities) 5, Artes Liberales (Music) 3, Bargain (Forest products) 5, Brawling (Dodge) 3, Carouse (Games of Chance) 3, Certámen (Mentem) 5, Charm (First Impressions) 3, Civil and Canon Law (North Russian) 4, Concentration (Inventing spells) 3, Disputatio (Teaching) 3, Etiquette (Nobility) 5, Finesse (Mentem) 3, Folk Ken (Townsfolk) 4, Great Weapon (Quarterstaff) 3, Hermes Lore (Politics) 5, Hermetic Law (Mundane relations) 4, Magic Theory (Potions) 10, Parma Magica (Mentem) 6, Penetration (Mentem) 3, Ride (Speed) 3, Scribe Bulgar (Original Composition) 3, Scribe Latin (Original Composition) 6, Scribe Cyrillic (Original Composition) 4, Speak Bulgar (trade vocabulary) 3, Speak Latin (Hermetic) 5, Speak Polish (Leczyca Dialect) 2, Speak Russian (Novgorod dialect) 5, Storytelling (epics) 4, Wagoneering (Rough Terrain) 3

Arts: Cr 19, In 21, Mu 18, Pe 17, Re 22, An 14, Aq 9, Au 11, Co 24, He 16, Ig 19, Im 19, Me 26, Te 14, Vi 21

Equipment: Quarterstaff enchanted with a spell of stony hardness (Load –1.0, Damage +6). Fur Robes enchanted with a spell of strength and resistance (Load –1.0, Protection +5).

Encumbrance: –1

Spells: Yury’s strongest concentrations are in InCo, InIm, InMe, ReCo, ReIm, and ReMe. He can be assumed to have mastered all listed formulaics in these categories. He has decent abilities in all other areas, but is strongly inclined to the subtlest possible use of magic, and abhors flashy destructive spells.

Georgi Yurivich

Georgi is Yury’s son and heir. He was his father’s apprentice, and their magical abilities are highly similar. Over the last thirty years or so, Georgi has taken over the traveling and trading responsibilities. He is often in Ladoga and Novgorod, or on the trade trails in the north country contacting the covenant’s merchant agents, collecting information, making new contacts, and enhancing their network of political informants.

It was Georgi who found and named the Valley of a Thousand Caves over forty years ago and led Malincka Capcek there in 1182. He is now embarrassed by the way events have worked out. Malincka is a friend, but her work is potentially dangerous. As someone who will have to deal with this situation, probably from a position of authority, Georgi is troubled as to what path he should take.

Georgi has to deal with the fact that many mundanes have known him for several decades during which he has not aged ade quately. In order to defuse dangerous speculation Georgi customarily employs enhanced versions of Disguise of the New Visage applied to the whole body. Where this fails to fully convince, he uses MuMe and ReMe spells to deter awkward questions or lines of thought.

Batiba an Khatiba

Batiba is the only non-Hermetic member of Three Lakes. (His magic is of the Shamanic variety described in Appendix I; he has become a member of the Order through the procedures described in Hedge Magic on page 33). He was brought to the covenant about fifty years ago by Georgi Yurivich, who encountered him in the steppe. Batiba is from the Cuman tribe, a pagan who worships his ancestors and the spirits of earth and sky. Batiba has brought a unique perspective to Three Lakes debates, and his stature has been boosted by events at Thousand Caves; the quaesitores turned to him as the resident authority on pagan matters, and he was a pivotal member of the delegation.

Batiba is enthusiastic about the Thousand Caves project. It comes far closer to re-creating a type of society he is familiar with than the traditional structure of the Order of Hermes. He is also eager (to the horror of the quaesitores) to spread word of these events outside the tribunal, especially among his fellow Ex Miscellanea magi. To date they have been able to restrain him, just.

Zashya Miyovna

As senior Bjornaer maga at Three Lakes, Zashya has a certain technical authority over the other Bjornaer magi of the tribunal. The weakness of this authority has been cruelly revealed by recent events. Zashya has a gentle nature and as a member of the delegation she made every effort to reconcile her fellow Bjornaer magi.

Unfortunately, the Thousand Caves magi spent most of their time trying to convert her, while the Pripet Maior magi were threatening or dismissive. Zashya had particular difficulty with Miya Cossuri of Pripet, who is both Zashya’s parens and her mother. Her visit to Crintera in 1218, to complain of Pripet Maior’s actions, was equally futile. The elder Bjornaer magi did agree to summon Pripet Maior to judgment, but made no commitments to force attendance, effectively permitting Pripet to defy them.

Outside of this conflict, Zashya has lived a graceful and romantic life. She has been wooed by many men, both magi and mun danes. It is rumored that in her youth she dallied with a prince of the House of Rurik. But like many of the faerie wives of legend, the call of the wilderness was too strong, and she left him one night, flying from his palace window despite his imploring cries for her return.

This rumor is in fact true, and it greatly complicates Zashya’s position. She secretly bore a child by her prince, a non-Gifted daughter. Her daughter in turn bore a daughter, and even at the birth Zashya knew the child was Gifted. Zashya arranged for her granddaughter to be raised by another Bjornaer magus of Three Lakes (long since dead), and spent most of the next two decades away from the covenant. This child was Nastassia Baramov, now a prominent member of Thousand Caves covenant.

Though Zashya’s relationship with her prince ended before the Royal Embargo, it would still embarrass her dreadfully if revealed. As for how her mother, Miya Cossuri of Pripet, would react to the news that Nastassia Baramov is her great grand daughter . . . it hardly bears thinking.

Zashya Miyovna, Follower of Bjornaer

Characteristics: Int +2, Per +1, Pre +2, Com 0, Str –1, Sta 0, Dex +1, Qik 0

Gender: Female

Age: 119

Size: 0

Confidence: 2

Decrepitude: 0

Longevity potion: Current lab total 61, Current potion bonus 13 (vis boosted)

Afflictions: Shortness of breath 1

Twilight points: 15

Twilight: Longevity potion use 4, Vim score 20+ 4, Positive Twilight: increased understanding: Muto 7

Personality Traits: Gentle +2, Conciliatory +3, Passionate +2

Reputations: Romantic soul +4, in Novgorod tribunal; Great Beauty +4, in Novgorod District

Weapon/Attack: Brawl/Dagger +6 Init, +6 Atk, +6 Dfn, +2 Dam

Soak: +4 Human/Swan (with Cloak of Silken Feathers)

Fatigue: 0

Fatigue levels: Human: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious; Swan: OK, –3, –5, Unconscious

Body levels: Human: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Incapacitated; Swan: OK –3, –5, Incapacitated

Virtues: Follower of Bjornaer +1 (Non-Battleworthy Heart-beast, Hidden Shape, No Familiar, Will Over Form), Magical Affinity: Weather +2, Magical Affinity: Animál +3, Animal Ken +1, Venus’ Blessing +1

Flaws: Dark Secret (bore a child to a prince) –1, Major Magical Deficiency: Perdo –4, Common Fear (Claustrophobic) –2, Cyclic Magic (rough at the dark of the moon) –1

Abilities: Animal Ken 5, Area Lore: Kiev City (Personalities) 2, Area Lore: Novgorod District(Geography) 5, Artes Liberales (Music) 3, Awareness (Alertness) 5, Brawling (Dodge) 4, Certámen (Animál) 6, Charm (Courtly Love) 5, Chirurgy (Bind Wounds) 3, Concentration (Spells) 6, Disputatio (Teaching) 4, Etiquette (Court) 4, Faerie Lore (Water Faeries) 3, Finesse (Grace) 5, Hermes Lore (Politics) 3, Magical Affinity: Animál 6, Magic Affinity: Weather 5, Magic Theory (Potions) 10, Parma Magica (Auram) 6, Penetration (Animál) 5, Play Harp (Solo) 4, Scribe Latin (Illuminating) 5, Scribe Cyrillic (Illuminating) 5, Sing (ballads) 3, Speak Latin (Hermetic) 5, Speak Russian (Novgorod Dialect) 5, Survival (Lakes) 5, Swim (Underwater Maneuvering) 3, Will Over Form 6

Arts Cr 20, In 16, Mu 30, Pe 7, Re 29, An 27, Aq 14, Au 25, Co 28, He 11, Ig 9, Im 12, Me 16, Te 9, Vi 21

Equipment: Cloak of Silken Feathers: A gift from Nicollo Parelli. Zashya often wears this great cloak of snow-white silk. It is embroidered with silken stitching and tiny diamonds which help it to hold stronger enchantments than normal cloth. The cloak confers Protection of +4, and upon command can shapechange into a feather mantle that merges seamlessly with Zashya’s own swan feathers.

Spells: Zashya has chosen to specialize in her two affinity areas, weather and animals. She is extremely powerful in CrAu, CrAn, MuAu, and MuAn, bringing in Aquam and Corpus requisites to broaden her scope slightly. She knows few formulaics out side these areas, though her spontaneous capabilities are decent. If forced into combat, Zashya can produce enhanced versions of most of the combat CrAu spells.

Susan of Wicklow

Of all the current Novgorod magi, Susan has traveled the farthest to claim her place in the tribunal. Her acceptance was assured on two grounds: she is that rare thing, a Gifted Mercere maga, and she is of the lineage of Patrick of Dunderry. Patrick is effectively the patron saint of the tribunal. The line of his Russian students died out about sixty years ago, and the tribunal was glad to welcome a new representative.

Susan is one of the greatest travelers and explorers of the age. She accompanied Sadko the merchant on his great travels in the 1160s and 1170s. Later she was a partner with Georgi Yurivich on his eastern expeditions. From Sweden to Constantinople, she has trekked, ridden, rafted, and, when necessary, flown or swum. Every year she aims to make a complete circuit of the Novgorodian covenants. To help conceal the presence of the Three Lakes/Leczyca Hermes Portal link she does all of this without use of the portal, though of course she can always make a return to Three Lakes via her Leap of Homecoming spell.

Susan is apolitical. She lives for travel, for new horizons, and for the satisfaction she gets in discharging her duty. The Redcaps are her pride — the sinew that binds the Order together — and she has no causes other than to demand the respect that her worthy service deserves.

Olga Deiaslavl

Olga’s fixation on Slavic faeries is allconsuming, and has been getting more so over the years. It is questionable whether her true loyalty lies to the covenant or to the various local faeries. Of all the magi at Three Lakes, she is probably the closest to leaving it, whether by Final Twilight, old age, or the lure of Arcadia.

Olga is famous for her skill as a teacher. Since Three Lakes took on new apprentices, she has spent her mandatory one season of service per year lecturing. However, she is secretive about her spells. Considering her enormous length of tenure, she has made only modest contributions to the Three Lakes grimoire (though her summae and libri quaestionum are the pride of the library).

There are wild rumors about some of her accomplishments. She is said to have solved the riddle of the faerie manipulation of time, is rumored to have mastered the faerie abilities to erase fatigue, and, it is also rumored, has found ways to siphon Faerie Might from friendly faeries for her own use. Though she lectures generously on points of Faerie Lore and Etiquette, no-one has ever been able to get a firm answer from Olga on the deeper questions of Faerie Magic. Malincka Capcek came to Three Lakes about ten years ago and had several long discussions with Olga, but apparently to no useful end. Olga is altogether dismissive of the Thousand Caves project.

Nicollo Parelli

Nicollo came to Three lakes nearly seventy five years ago at the request of the covenant council, who felt a need for the services of a Verditius magus. He is comfortable at Three Lakes, and treasures its stability and security. He also likes his pleasures, and has grown quite fat after three quarters of a century of good living.

Nonetheless, Nicollo is a more formidable spirit than many people appreciate. He has almost never been tested in violence or politics, but he has watched recent events with great concern and is beginning to feel obliged to take a stand and speak out. He is deeply fascinated by the Thousand Caves experiment, for he has long felt Hermetic magic to be a limiting factor on his creativity. At the same time as he feels drawn to this great experiment he feels a sentimental sympathy for his old companions of the Roman tribunal, and believes there is some justice in the complaints of the vis-hungry western tribunals.

Nicollo, of course, is widely famed for his ingenious laboratory work. He is also somewhat admired for his social adeptness. He is so easygoing and pleasant that even self-righteous, arrogant magi like Pavel Chedyav have been lured into acting as laboratory assistants on Nicollo’s more difficult projects.

Boris Davidovich

Boris is the youngest of the magi at Three Lakes, a Specialist dedicated to a unique project.

Boris believes that animals, much like people, have legends and folklore: tales that may reveal the wisdom of the ages before man, even perhaps the secrets of the age of Creation. He has traveled in Arcadia in attempts to speak to legendary beast lords, and has quested in the wilderland for magical animals, especially Griffins, Chimeras, Pegasi, and Unicorns.

Unlike Olga Deiaslavl, Boris is very open about the progress of his researches and takes great pains scrupulously recording his new spells and investigations. If more people made use of the Animál parts of the Three Lakes library his work might be widely known.

Boris’s views on Thousand Caves are not known. His focus on his own work is so tight that he barely seems aware of much else in the world. He actually declined Zashya’s invitation to accompany her on the delegation, though he did, reluctantly, accompany and support her at Crintera. This is thin comfort considering that he is her filius.

Boris is physically the most startling of the Three Lakes magi. He is enormous in stature and covered from head to foot in a dense, wiry mat of brown hair. This is the result of a bad Twilight over twenty years back, which has locked his human physical appearance much closer than normal to his bear heart-beast.

Thousand Caves Covenant

Thousand Caves covenant occupies a small portion of the Valley of a Thousand Caves, a long, twisting gorge that runs down from the western face of the Ural mountains. At the mouth of the gorge is a great rearing massif, the Earth Crown, watchpost of the covenant, below which is the main settlement.

The heart of the covenant is the Great Cavern, a cathedral-sized cave with a towering arched entryway. This is adjoined by the mages’ private caves and laboratories. The Great Cavern is the only fortified portion of the covenant, its entrance having a rough stone wall and gate. Approximately fifty other adjacent caves are actually inhabited, and they depend on inaccessibility for defense. They are accessible either by precarious ledges, by rope ladders, or not at all unless you can fly. At this time almost thirty members of the covenant have avian heartbeasts. Another thirty or so have other animal heart-beasts. Needless to say, it was a surprise to the Bjornaer to discover this many people with heart-beast tendencies, and the foremost speculation is that Thousand Caves’ strong Slavic faerie aura (of +6) has had some sort of “quickening” effect on the locals.

The covenant has a very unsophisticated lifestyle. The valley bottom is farmed; there are flocks, hunting, and fishing. The level of technology is late iron-age; a decent quality “modern” sword is a great prize here. The need for parchment, glassware, and inks always places the covenant in debt. However, the magi have considerable sway in this region. Thousand Caves is the acknowledged leader of the local clan, and several of the magi spend a good deal of their time roving amid the camps and semi-permanent villages in the surrounding countryside. In addition, the magi have broadened and intensified the normal pagan Slavic relationships with the local animals and faeries. Thus, despite its lack of formal defenses, the covenant is ringed by allies and friends.

Thousand Caves’ mystical status is very complex. The magi have admitted Volkhvy as members (affiliating them to House Ex Miscellanea) and are teaching them Hermetic techniques. They have also accepted Malincka’s reasoning that tempering an aura will require three vital elements: an Hermetic equivalent to the Volkhv Great Ritual, the willing participation of a large group of mundanes, and a mighty faerie “divinity” to “bless” the procedure. Malincka is hard at work on the first requirement. The second will come in time with Thousand Caves’ large population. The last is the most difficult, and the simple, practical aim of the Thousand Caves magi is to come up with a god. They hope to entice a great faerie to assume this role; indeed they hope to bring the influence of Hermes himself back to the world. For thirty years they have worked to this end, preaching to the local communities, teaching Hermes’ mythology, creating new festivals, teaching rituals of worship, and spreading arcane lore to promote their “new” cult.

To date there are some small signs of a positive nature. The local Volkhvy have proved capable of mastering Hermetic magic. There is nothing in it that denies their faith in their gods, though they have not managed to blend Hermetic and Volkhv techniques. The Volkhvy can use either, but only separately. On the other hand, Malincka Capcek has achieved some blended effects, and the magi have recently begun to get hints that their efforts to “tune” the local magical aura may be paying off. Sudden surges of magical energy have been experienced, as well as ecstatic, visionary dreams. Lastly, it seems that there may now be one person who can truly bridge the gap between the two traditions. A young girl, Stenya Vassanovna has proven herself Gifted, and claims that she can talk to “Lord Hermes.” She is preaching his cult with remarkable ersuasiveness. If she is telling the truth then perhaps one day she will be the first priestess of a newly revived Hermetic religion.

Of course, the chief difficulties with all this research lie in the fact that the powers of the Volkhvy come from the aerie realm, while Hermetic magi draw on magical powers. The thrust of Malincka’s research is to figure out some way that the techniques of the Volkhvy, aided by the existence of pagan believers, can be made to affect magical auras in the same way they affect faerie auras. Clearly much research into faerie, magical energy, and the strange power of mass mundane worship is needed.

It is assumed by the magi of Thousand Caves that their patron, Hermes, is of the magical realm rather than the faerie (after all,their magic is based largely on the power of the Cult of Hermes — how could there be any other explanation!). One fear at Thousand Caves, however, is that they will wind up simply attracting the attention of demons.

Since declaring their successes at the 1214 tribunal, Thousand Caves has been striving to convert the tribunal to their point of view. They are keen to expand their numbers. Much research into faerie, magical energy, faith, and belief is needed. The philosophical questions are almost as complex as the magical ones, and Malincka urgently wants competent collaborators. In fact, you might consider these needs of Thousand Caves when you’re getting ready to start your own saga — new player magi would be heartily welcomed at Thousand Caves, especially if they are interested in research in these areas.

Thousand Caves in Your Saga

The speculative researches of Malincka and her colleagues at Thousand Caves clearly have the potential to turn some of the cherished cornerstones of Hermetic Magic Theory on their ear. While some storyguides and troupes may embrace this possibility, others may be concerned for their sagas’ continuity.

Because of this, the eventual success or failure of Malincka’s research has been left undefined in this book. A number of possibilities for using Thousand Caves in your saga are discussed below. As a final note, the new spells developed by Malincka Capcek (see page 125), especially those that manipulate auras, might be affected by what you decide with regard to the truth of Thousand Caves. Depending on your outlook, you may want to modify them.

1) Malincka succeeds, and this sparks a gradual reconciliation and assimilation between Hermetic and Volkhv magic-users in the Novgorod tribunal with farreaching consequences in Hermetic politics and Slavic culture.

2) Malincka succeeds, but the rest of the Order is not pleased by the return of Hermes, who turns out to have his own agenda. Quaesitorial wrath or wider political intrigue might lead to the Renunciation of Malincka, Thousand Caves, or even her allies in other parts of the Novgorod Tribunal.

3) Malincka succeeds only partially, most likely because although her analysis of auras seems promising she has poor assistance on the faerie side of the equation. A stalling in her work could lead to an ambiguous situation in which she continues to struggle politically and magically to complete her work while the tribunal splits into opposing camps around her.

4) Malincka fails because she arouses the Slavic gods against either her presumption or against the revived antiquity Hermes who springs up in their midst.

5) Malincka fails because a demon cunningly assumes the role of the great faerie she hopes to lure into becoming the Hermetic god and either leads the whole community into diabolism or is discovered and flees after discrediting her work (and certainly bringing about her Renunciation).

6) Malincka fails because Mongol shamans discover her work and regard it as dangerous. They target her and her covenant for destruction (any time after 1223).

7) Malincka fails because there is some subtle factor in Volkhv Ritual that simply defies Hermetic analysis; at the end of the day it is a religion, not just a system of magic, and remains forever beyond the ken of Hermetic Magic Theory.

Thousand Caves Statistics

Symbol: A labyrinth

Season: Summer

Founded: 1185

Members:

Malincka Capcek: Bonisagus

Nastassia Baramov “the Firebird”: Bjornaer (Eagle heartbeast)

Rehamchi Danichev: Volkhv, Ex Miscellanea

Lelya Danichev: Volkhv, Ex Miscellanea

Basyl Karrimichi: Merinita

Otto Rattstein: Bjornaer (Lynx heart-beast)

Yakim ibn Rassur: Flambeau

Narina Cheminov: Bjornaer (Horse heart-beast)

Site: –1

Access Quality: Average Peasant (0)

Access Distances: 20/40/20/20/0/ (–1)

Seclusion: Visitors every 2-3 days (–2)

Environment: Good, mountain gorge, sheltered, and wellwatered (+2)

Buildings: +1

Size: 8 magi, 10 specialists, 200 covenfolk (+4)

Impressive Structures: Great Cavern (10 total space points) (0)

Quality: Average to poor (4 points of space are poor) (–2)

Repair: Two points of space good, two points of space poor (0)

Defenses: –2

Site: Inaccessible from cliff foot, overlook from cliff top (unique situation, only two directions of approach) (+2)

Elaborate Structure: The Earth Crown (watchpost) (0)

Extent: Seven points of space have poor defenses, Great Cavern is well defended (+1)

Repair: Great Cavern defenses in good repair (+1)

Stores: –1

Vis: 150 pawns (An25 Aq20 Au15 Co10 He20 Im15 In5 Me5 Te20 Vi15) (+1)

Supplies: Average (0)

Reputations: Formidable and Benevolent (+2) among local villages, Radical (–3) among Novgorod covenants (–6)

Relations: +4

Allies: Local villages +5, Faeries +5, Animals +3 (+13)

Enemies: Pripet Maior (–3)

Contacts: None (0)

Improvement: +3

Income: 700 silvers debt (–2)

Vis Supply: (An10 Aq5 Au6 Co5 He7 Im5 In5 Me5 Te6 Vi6) (+6)

Inhabitants: 8 magi, 0 specialists, 175 tribesfolk (+5)

Library: –2

Spells: 1200 levels (Specialist areas: CrVi, InVi, MuVi; Malincka’s spells; Nastassia’s shapechange spell; Nastassia and Yakim’s CrIg spells; Basyl’s faerie related CrIm and ReIm spells; Aegis: Level 35) (–1)

Hermetic Books: 360 points (Summae Level 5, Quality 5 in all areas; remaining 135 points principally specialist tractatus) (–1)

Mundane Books: 180 points (Principal Summae: Legend Lore (Slavic) Level 8, Quality 6; Legend Lore (Greek) Level 5, Quality 5; Magic Theory Level 7, Quality 5; special subjects: Volkhv Ritual technique, folklore, and magic) (–3)

Mystical Attributes: +3

Aura: Slavic Faerie +6 (+6) Magical Items: 75 points (Cloak of Feathers: 35 points, 2 Fire Javelins (as Pilum of Fire): 40 points) (+1)

Laboratories: Six laboratories –1, one laboratory +2 (–3, +2)

Total Scores: +48, –35

Magi

Malincka Capcek

Malincka is the ideological leader of the covenant. She achieved her key insight into the nature of Volkhv magic almost thirty-five years ago, in a Twilight experience while observing a Great Ritual. The Twilight gaveMalincka a gut feeling for what was going on.

Four hundred years of failed Hermetic attempts to manipulate and create auras suddenly came clear to her; no such magic, with its necesarily enormous power demands yet requirement for intricate control, can succeed in the hands of a single wizard. It requires the interaction of magical ritual, a fount of faerie power, and (so she believes) the channelling effect of mundane human participants. She believes that she understands how Volkhv pathetic to the practice of both magical systems.

• To broaden the Volkhv Disciplines into a wider-ranging, more flexible system, akin to Hermetic Forms and Techniques, as well as developing quick “Formulaic” techniques for them.

• To find out what exactly allows Slavs to work Domestic Magic, and to use that force to allow mundanes in a Hermetic covenant to achieve similar effects and attain heart-beasts.

Though Malincka believes she knows what happens in a Volkhv Great Ritual, in order to control it she must first understand how it happens. Therefore she has been creating ever more powerful InVi spells. Simultaneously, she is pursuing methods of creating and manipulating auras using a blend of Hermetic and Volkhv methods. She has also encouraged her community to pursue more direct methods. The revived cult of Hermes was her idea though she has played relatively little part in promoting it. Her reasoning is that while a great faerie power isnecessary to the aura tempering process, Hermetic magi must not use a Slavic deity, for this will merely lead to a situation where they are locked into Volkhv techniques and results. She needs a new god, one willing to work with and through a Hermetic system, and able to help raise and temper a Hermetic magic aura. She speculates that a great faerie will be willing to assume this role, for though she does not know what benefit faerie gods derive from human worship, she believes they must derive some real and tangible increase in power from such attention.

However, Malincka is not a fool. She slaves at her InVi, MuVi, and CrVi spells because she knows that the new religion is dangerously uncontrolled. If she cannot understand and control the magical energies that create the Slavic aura then who knows what fearsome end might result.

Malincka Capcek, Follower of Bonisagus

Characteristics: Int +4, Per +2, Pre –1, Com +1, Str –1, Sta 0, Dex +2, Qik +1

Gender: Female

Age: 70

Size: –1

Confidence: 4

Decrepitude: 0

Afflictions: Liver spots 0, Stiff hips 1

Longevity potion: Current lab total 51, Current potion bonus –10

Twilight points: 12

Twilights: Longevity potion use 2, Vim score 15+ 3, Positive Twilight: Increase in Vim score 3, Positive Twilight: Insight into Volkhv Magic 4

Personality Traits: Compassionate +2, Impetuous +2, Proud +1

Reputations: Follower of Bonisagus +3, with Order of Hermes; Radical +4, with Novgorodian Magi

Weapon/Attack: Dagger Init +5, Atk +5, Dfn +5, Dam +2

Soak: –1

Fatigue: +2 Fatigue levels: OK, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious

Body levels: OK, –1, –3, –5, Incapacitated

Virtues: Hermetic Prestige +1, Magical Affinity (Vim) +3, Higher Purpose (Unify Order of Hermes and mundanes) +1, Magic Sensitivity +1, Great Characteristic (Intelligence) +2

Flaws: Small Frame –3, Major Magical Deficiency (Perdo) –4, Driving Goal (Invent a blended theory of Volkhv and Hermetic magic) –1

Abilities: Area Lore: Hungary (Budapest) 3, Area Lore: Urals (Kama River) 3, Awareness (Searching) 3, Brawling (Dagger) 2, Certámen (Intéllego) 4,Concentration (Lab work) 4, Faerie Lore (Slavic) 4, Finesse (Vim) 3, Hermes Lore (History) 3, Legend Lore (Slavic Gods) 2, Magic Affinity with Vim 6, Magic Sensitivity 4, Magic Theory (Inventing Spells) 8, Parma Magica (Ignem) 5, Penetration (Intéllego) 2, Scribe Latin (Original Composition) 5, Scribe Cyrillic (Original Composition) 3, Speak Latin (Hermetic) 4, Speak Hungarian (Buda District) 4, Speak Russian (Novgorod Dialect) 4

Arts: Cr 14, In 19, Mu 11, Pe 5, Re 11, An 8, Aq 6, Au 5, Co 15, He 6, Ig 7, Im 10, Me 17, Te 6, Vi 18

Spells:

Shiver of the Lycanthrope (InAn 10)

Tongue of the Beasts (InAn 20)

The Immaculate Beast (MuAn 15)

Soothe the Ferocious Bear (ReAn 5)

Voice of the Lake (InAq 25)

Ward Against Faeries of the Water (ReAq 15)

Whispering Winds (InAu 15)

Eyes of the Bat (InAu 25)

Gentle Touch of the Purified Body (CrCo 15)

Sight of the True Form (InCo 20)

The Inexorable Search (InCo 20)

Hunt for the Wild Herb (InHe 15)

Pilum of Fire (CrIg 20)

Eyes of the Past (InIm 20)

Wizard’s Side-step (ReIm 10)

Peering into the Mortal Mind (InMe 30)

Emotion of Reversed Intentions (MuMe 20)

Charge the Magical Circle (CrVi 25)

Read the Magic Sphere (InVi 35)

Plumb the Magical Scent (InVi[Me] 20)

Air of Friendly Magic (MuVi 30

Malincka’s Spells

The last four spells listed in Malincka’s statistic insert are the fruits of three decades of spell design effort. These are only the most recent versions of her relatively successful spells. Malincka usually experiments in her struggle to get away from Hermetic methods, and has had several spectacular failures.

Charge the Magical Circle (CrVi 25)

R: Touch , D: Sun, T: Circle, Ritual

This spell creates magical auras by mingled Hermetic and Volkhv means. It uses Hermetic methods, but includes sacred Volkhv dance patterns and sung invocations to some of the Slavic gods. The effect of Charge the Magical Circle to raise a small, circular, magical aura. The power rating of the circle depends on how much vis is used above and beyond the normal Hermetic ritual requirements. Using one extra pawn of vis creates an aura of +1 strength, using three additional pawns of vis creates and aura of +2, using six pawns gives +3, and so on, with higher auras requiring pyramidally summed amounts of vis. (Using no extra vis results in a “magical” aura of +0 — effectively worthless.)

The blend of techniques used in this spell has not been fully successful by any stretch of the imagination. First, the spell is always cast with six botch dice. Second, the effects described above apply only if the spell is cast in an area without any prior aura. Charge the Magical Circle has a highly unstable character, and it reacts with extreme and unpredictable fluctuations if cast in areas where auras already exist. In such cases the spell automatically fails and the normal number of botch dice plus a number of botch dice equal to the level of the local aura (whatever sort it is) must be rolled. Needless to say, the first experiment of this sort turned out horribly. Finally, there are often other side effects depending on other local circumstances. On one alarming occasion a fellow magus inadvertently brought some Herbam vis to the edge of the circle. The spell absorbed the vis, its aura increased to +10, and a gateway to a forest region of the Spirit Lands spontaneously opened, with near-fatal consequences.

Malincka has concluded that a successful aura-generating technique is of no use without proper control, which is apparently impossible unless mundanes are integrated into the spell.

Air of Friendly Magic (MuVi 30)

R: Per, D: Sun, T: Group/Room, Ritual

This spell uses a blend of Volkhv and Hermetic techniques to change small areas of faerie aura into magical ones. The spell works on faerie auras with a rating of 6 or less. Casting does not affect the level of the aura, simply its type.

Air of Friendly Magic requires six mundane assistants who perform ritualized Hermetic gestures and Volkhv chants. As she expected, Malincka found that the addition of mundane helpers somehow had a stabilizing effect on the spell, but she is not yet sure why. As with Charge the Magical Circle, the Volkhv and Hermetic techniques did not mesh smoothly in this spell, and it is always cast with three extra botch dice. In addition, any spell cast within the converted aura has two extra botch dice. Furthermore, the spell does not achieve a very clean change. Though a magical aura does develop, so that any magus receives a full spellcasting bonus, the aura is faerie tainted. Many reliable spells display fay characteristics, and botches almost inevitably cause bizarre faerie manifestations.

Read the Magic Sphere (InVi 35)

R: Per, D: Conc, T: Ind

Read the Magic Sphere is Malincka’s most recent aura investigating spell, created eight years ago. The magus casts this effect on himself and it enhances his perception of supernatural energies, enabling him to clearly perceive any type of aura. The principal sense used in this perception is sight, though tactile and audible manifestations are also experienced. Usually the magus can perceive the aura to the limit of his unimpeded view, and may walk through it (while maintaining concentration) to trace out its limits.

The magus automatically perceives the nature of an aura (magical, Divine, faerie, or Infernal). He is then permitted a Perception roll to determine further information: the strength of the aura to a maximum of 7 (on 9+), the direction to its center (on 12+), and its age (on 15+). A magus with the Magic Sensitivity Virtue gains this information automatically, and a +5 bonus to his normal level of Sensitivity. Such a magus may make a Perception roll adding his Sensitivity score to answer the following questions: What is the current state of the aura — stable, decaying, or growing? (12+), What is its source? (15+), Was there another aura here previously? (15+) How long ago? (18+) Of what kind? (18+), and Of what strength? (21+). At the storyguide’s discretion exceptionally high perception rolls (24+) may reveal further information if any is available.

Plumb the Magical Scent (InVi[Me] 20)

R: Per, D: Mom, T: Group

This spell was Malincka’s first attempt to examine the interaction between a Great Ritual and the minds of the pagan worshippers who participate in it. It allows a magus to detect whether a human mind is being influenced by magic. A Per + Magic Sensitivity stress roll of 9+ allows the caster to discern further details of any influence. The spell is effective, but not very precise, and its fleeting duration makes it a clumsy tool.

Further Information

All these spells are in the covenant grimoire, and in the library as tractatus:

• Vim (Quality 5): Charge the Magical Circle

• Intéllego (Quality 7): Read the Magic Sphere

• Intéllego (Quality 5): Plumb the Magical Scent

• Vim (Quality 6): Air of Friendly Magic

At the present Malincka is furiously at work on her next spell. This will be a development of Read the Magic Sphere but with aspects of Plumb the Magical Scent. It will be of magnitude 11, with a Mentem requisite and a Range of Touch. This new combination should allow Malincka to cast the spell on other magi, to allow the affected magi to perceive an aura with considerable precision, and to allow them to perceive the way peoples’ minds interact with the aura.

With this tool she hopes to reach a better understanding of auras, to understand how they are changed by Great Rituals, and also, crucially, to persuade other magi of the accuracy of her theories. Malincka’s Lab Total in this combination is a formidable 69 (including Intelligence, aura, Magic Theory, Magic Sensitivity, Vim Affinity, Vim/Mentem scores, Intéllego score, points for her last InVi/Me spell, good laboratory). Even so, though she has a year, she must still experiment to have any hope of completing it before the next tribunal. But with it she believes her understanding of auras will be perfected, her theories will be vindicated, the tribunal will swing behind her, and she will be able to take the next step: devising a Hermetic spell to match the Volkhv Great Ritual.

Nastassia Baramov

Nastassia is Malincka’s second-in-command, and supplies the force of character necessary to support Malincka’s rather abstract vision. Nastassia is an oddity for a Bjornaer maga. She has a powerful leaning toward Ignem magic, which shows up in several of her abilities, and her personality. In fact, aside from her strong commitment to Malincka’s goals, Nastassia has one overriding obsession, the Firebird.

Since childhood, this legendary beast has dominated Nastassia’s imagination. She has traveled widely in search of its lore, and regards it as her mascot. Magically, Nastassia has devoted her abilities to crafting spells that will allow her to alter her Eagle heart-beast closer and closer to the Firebird. Of all the Hermetic magi at Thousand Caves, Nastassia is the most serious about worship of Hermes. She is also devoted to Khors, as sun god and protector of the Firebird. Additionally, she has been at the forefront in searching out heart-beasts among the local tribesfolk. In recent years Nastassia has taken Yakim as her lover, learning more Ignem techniques from him, while working to ferret out his heart-beast. She is certain that he has one, but it is “deeply buried,” and thus far has proven elusive.

Nastassia Baramov, Follower of Bjornaer

Characteristics: Int +1, Per +1, Pre +2, Com 0, Str +1, Sta +1, Dex +1, Qik 0

Gender: Female

Age: 54

Size: 0

Confidence: 3

Longevity potion: Current lab total 40 (vis boosted), Current potion bonus –8

Twilight points: 4

Twilight: Longevity potion use (2), Vim score 10+ (2)

Personality Traits: Brave +3, Determined +2, Overbearing +2

Reputations: Radical +2, in Novgorod tribunal; Radical +4, in House Bjornaer; Intemperate +1, in Order of Hermes

Weapon/Attack: Brawl Init +2, +3 Atk, +3 Dfn, +1 Dam; Normal Eagle/Talon +7 Init, +6 Atk, -1 Dfn, +4 Dam; Avenging Beast Eagle +7 Init, +11 Atk, -1 Dfn, +9 Dam; Firebird Eagle +7 Init, +11 Atk, -1 Dfn, +12 Dam

Soak: 0 (as Human/Normal Eagle), 15 (as Avenging Beast/Firebird)

Fatigue: 0

Fatigue levels: Human: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious; Eagle or Avenging Eagle: OK, –5, Unconscious; Firebird: OK, –3, –5, Unconscious

Body levels: Human: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Incapacitated; Eagle or Avenging Eagle: OK, –5, Incapacitated; Firebird: OK –3, –5, Incapacitated

Virtues: Follower of Bjornaer +2 (Battleworthy Heartbeast, Hidden Shape, No Familiar, Will Over Form), Magical Affinity (Birds) +2, Animal Ken +1, Inspirational +1

Flaws: Fury (Abuse of animals) –3, Major Magical Deficiency (Aquam) –2, Obsession (The Firebird) –1

Abilities: Animal Handling (Falconry) 4, Animal Ken 3, Area Lore (Suzdal) 2, Area Lore (Urals) 3, Awareness (Alertness) 3, Brawling (Dodge) 3, Certámen (Ignem) 3, Concentration (Spells) 2, Finesse (Precision) 2, Hermes Lore (Politics) 3, Leadership (Obedience) 3, Legend Lore (Beasts) 3, Magic Affinity: Birds 4, Magic Theory (Invent Spells) 6, Parma Magica (Ignem) 3, Penetration (Ignem) 2, Scribe Latin (Copying) 4, Scribe Cyrillic (Copying) 3, Speak Latin (Hermetic) 5, Speak Russian (Suzdal Dialect) 4, Survival (Mountains) 3, Will Over Form 3

Arts: Cr 5, In 11, Mu 15, Pe 5, Re 8, An 16, Aq 6, Au 14, Co 16, He 8, Ig 15, Im 7, Me 5, Te 7, Vi 10

Spells:

Full Health of Beast and Bird (CrAn 25)

Soothe Pains of the Beast (CrAn 20)

Tongue of the Beasts (InAn 20)

Tongue of the Birds — extended range version (InAn 30)

The Immaculate Beast (MuAn 15)

Soothe the Ferocious Bear (ReAn 5)

The Gentle Beast (ReAn 20)

Eyes of the Bat (InAu 25)

Preternatural Growth and Shrinking (MuCo 20)

Shape of the Woodland Prowler (MuCo 25)

Form of the Avenging Beast (MuCo 20)

Echo of the Firebird (MuCo[AnAuIg] 40)

Rise of the Feathery Body (ReCo 5)

Lamp Without Flame (CrIg 10)

Pilum of Fire (CrIg 20)

Prison of Flames (MuIg 15)

Trapping the Fire (MuIg 25)

Echo of the Firebird

This is the latest version of Nastassia’s personal heart-beast altering spell.

Echo of the Firebird MuCo[AnAuIg]40)

R: Per, D: Sun, T: Ind

This spell alters any avian heart-beast towards an idealized Firebird form. The heart-beast gains 1 point in Size, its Attacks and Damage increase by +5 and +8 respectively, and its Soak increases by +15. Wounds and fatigue suffered inflict no penalty until unconsciousness, incapacitation, or death. The appearance of the heart-beast becomes near-perfect. Feathers, talons, and beak assume a supernatural, ruddy-golden gleam and in flight appear to trail wisps of flame. The form radiates heat; anyone standing within 3 paces can feel a billow of warmth while touching it with a naked hand is like touching a torch flame. This spell is not cumulative with Form of the Avenging Beast

Rehamchi Danichev

Rehamchi is the local senior Volkhv. As far as he is concerned he is teaching the Hermetic magi the truth about the world, and how to worship it properly. He therefore privately regards himself as the leader of the community. Certainly he is the one who conducts all the rituals and celebrations, except for the new ones, which Nastassia leads. He has a tolerant sense of amusement for the overall project. The idea of finding a new god is rather foolish, really, and the gods themselves will tend to be more amused than offended by such mortal silliness.

This basic difference of opinion aside, Rehamchi gets on well with the magi and has learned enough Latin and Hermetic Magic Theory to qualify as an Ex Miscellanea magus. Two things, however, do reach him deeply. For one, it was Nastassia who discerned the fact that he had a Swallow heartbeast and taught him how to release it. He was puzzled as to how a “Latin witch” could manage to see such a thing in him. Secondly there is the young girl, Stennya. She has been preaching the coming of Hermes for about two years now, and he is beginning to believe that she is having a genuine revelation. For now he is content to teach his companions and await developments. Perhaps, though, he may eventually seek guidance through a major Prophecy.

Rehamchi Danichev, Magus Ex Miscellanea

Characteristics: Int +2, Per +1, Pre +1, Com 0, Str 0,

Sta +1, Dex 0, Qik +1

Gender: Male

Age: 71

Size: 0

Pagan Conviction: 6

Principal God: Khors

Discipline Bonuses: Sun Magic +5, Spirit Touch +3, Great Ritual +3, Shapeshift to golden horse +3, Earth Magic –5

Afflictions: Bad teeth 2, Limp 1, Short breath 0

Longevity potion: Current lab total 21, Current potion bonus 5 (vis boosted)

Twilight points: 3

Twilight: Longevity potion use (2), Vim score 5+ (1)

Personality Traits: Wry +2, Patient +3

Reputations: Holy +2, in Thousand Caves covenant; Hedge Wizard +2, in Novgorod Tribunal

Weapon/Attack: Dagger Init +5, Atk +4, Dfn +6, Da, +3; Shortspear/Roundshield Init +7, Atk +5,. Dfn +9, Dam +5

Soak: +2

Fatigue: +4

Fatigue levels: Human: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious; Swallow: OK, Unconscious

Body levels: Human: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Incapacitated; Swallow: OK, Incapacitated

Virtues: Volkhv +2, Emerged Latent Magical Ability: Swallow heart-beast +2, Cyclic Magic (+3 peak at noon) +2, Herbalism +1, Second Sight +1

Flaws: Cyclic Magic (–3 trough at midnight) –2, Susceptibility to Divine Power –4, Slow Caster –2

Abilities: Area Lore: Urals (Kama River) 5, Awareness (Alertness) 4, Brawling (Dagger) 3, Chirurgy (Wounds) 5, Clan History (Ancestors) 5, Climb (Trees) 2, Concentration (Spells) 4, Faerie Lore (Faerie Lords) 7, Finesse (Precision) 2, Herbalism 4, Hermes Lore (Politics) 2, Hunt (Tracks) 3, Magic Theory (Inventing Spells) 3, Parma Magica (Animál) 2, Penetration (Animál) 1, Scribe Latin (Copying) 2, Second Sight 4, Shield and Weapon (Shortspear and Round Shield) 3, Sing (Solo) 5, Theology: Slavic 5 (Gods of the Kama River region), Legend Lore 6 (Slavic), Speak Latin (Hermetic) 3, Speak Russian (Ural Dialect) 5, Stealth (Wilderness) 3, Survival (Hill Country) 4

Arts: Cr 6, In 7, Mu 4, Pe 2, Re 5, An 4, Aq 1, Au 5, Co 6, He 6, Ig 4, Im 4, Me 1, Te 2, Vi 5

Volkhv Disciplines: Spirit Touch 6, Healing 7, Shapeshift 6, Weatherworking 9, Animal Magic 8, Remove Curse 10, Prophecy 7, Sun Magic 11, Earth Magic 6

Volkhv Magic Resistance: Rehamchi receives the greatest bonus of his Volkhv Magic Resistance or Hermetic Magic Resistance based on his Parma Magica, not the sum of both.Basic: 6 +/–3 (from Cyclic Magic). In Communion: 6 +/–3 + aura (general); 6 +/–3 + aura + Communion Total (against fire, heat, and Ignem)

Equipment: Shortspear, Roundshield, Hauberk Fur

Encumbrance: –1

Spells:

Shiver of the Lycanthrope (InAn 10)

Soothe the Ferocious Bear (ReAn 5)

Whispering Winds (InAu 15)

Gentle Touch of the Purified Body (CrCo 15)

Hunt for the Wild Herb (InHe 15)

Wizard’s Side-step (ReIm 10

Lelya Danichev

Lelya is Rehamchi’s daughter. As she was brought up among Hermetic magi her grasp of Hermetic methods is much firmer than her father’s, and she is more genuinely enthusiastic about Malincka’s project. She is Stennya’s step-mother and keen to see the girl’s powers develop. Lelya is impatient to assert herself within the Order of Hermes. She intends to attend the next tribunal meeting, and wants to enter a motion condemning the existing attitude of Hermetic magi towards Volkhvy in general. She is also intent upon extracting some revenge for the Pripet raid, and has been practicing certámen diligently over the last three years with the rather foolish notion of forcing a formal apology

Yakim ibn Rassur

Born in Great Bulgar, Yakim was sold to Greek merchants at an early age and taken to Constantinople. There he was recognized as Gifted by one of the most notoriously vicious old Flambeau magi of the Theban tribunal. Yakim bears the marks of his master’s cruelty in the form of welts and scars across his back. After passing his gauntlet he fled Constantinople, vowing never to return. For a year or so he rode with the Cuman tribesmen, returning to Great Bulgar in 1203. There he had the good fortune to fall in with the great Muslim scholar Haroun Hashemi, with whom Yakim spent six years learning Theology, Medicine, and Philosophy. He also experienced a profound change of personality, regaining his youthful enthusiasm. He still returns to Great Bulgar at least once a year.

In 1209, Yakim met Malincka, and was sufficiently intrigued to visit Thousand Caves. He joined the covenant in 1211 and fit in well. For a Flambeau magus he is surprisingly outgoing and genial. His philosophical expertise has made him Malincka’s main theoretical partner.

Basyl Karrimichi

Basyl is the least useful of all the Thousand Caves magi for Malincka’s purposes. His basic mindset is frivolous. He is a prankster, and can seldom pass up the opportunity for witty play or practical jokes. Even his attitude to faerie is light-hearted. He has many friends there, but persistently refuses to get involved in serious research or study. There is only one aspect of Basyl’s character which can force him into a more serious mood: his tendency to have prophetic visions. Basyl’s visions are very intense, and leave him exhausted. They tend to strike either at the peak of his powers or at the trough (his magic cycles over a considerable range each season). It is Basyl who has, over the last five years or so, begun to reportvisions of “the coming of Hermes,” but so baroque and twisted is the content of his visions that noone has succeeded in making sense of them.

Narina Cheminov

Narina was stolen at the age of 6 by her parens, a very elderly Bjornaer magus, who lived the last twenty five years of his life as a virtual hermit in the Urals, with only Narina and a few equally elderly servants as compan ions. When she was 15 he began teaching her in a thoroughly Bjornaer tradition. Her understanding of Hermetic magic is eccentric, and she is very poor with certain common Hermetic abilities (Penetration, Finesse, and Certámen). This is balanced by powerful animal-related and wilderness skills, as well as Healing abilities.

Narina’s time at the covenant has been hard as she makes the difficult adjustment to communal life. She is now beginning to develop a fuller suite of normal abilities (she could not read Latin when she arrived ten years ago). She is the friend of all local animals, and much more attuned to the natural life around her than is Nastassia. Narina, of all the Thousand Caves magi, actively hates Pripet Maior most intensely. The attack of 1217 severely disturbed the local animals, an offense for which she will never forgive them.

Otto Rattstein

Otto is an enigma. He is an elderly Bjornaer magus, once of considerable standing at Crintera. He arrived at Thousand Caves a little over ten years ago and petitioned for entry. Malincka was already considering whether to make her revelation at the 1214 tribunal, or to wait until 1221. Otto’s arrival hinted that her work had already become known, and increased the pressure on her to publicly admit the nature of her researches. The magi suspected him of being a spy, but were ultimately constrained to admit him.

Otto has maintained a considerable degree of mystery. He has become fully involved with the community of the covenant, spending much of his time in the camps and scattered villages, but not in Malincka’s research, or in the missionary work of the other magi. At the 1214 tribunal he stood up with Malincka and insisted that she receive a full hearing when the Pripet Maior magi tried to shout her down, though he made no actual endorsement of her work. In the attack of 1217 he was pivotal in defending the Great Cavern against the last assault of the raiders, and drove off Casimi Ljech just as this powerful magus was preparing to kill Nastassia. But he refused to go to Crintera to lay charges before the elders. Otto’s intentions, his mission (if he has one), and his beliefs remain obscure. He defends his companions vigorously and stands up for their rights under the Hermetic Code, but refuses to take punitive action against fellow Bjornaer magi.

Pripet Maior Covenant

Pripet Maior is located on a medium sized island about twenty miles inside the south edge of the Great Pripet Marsh. There is one easy access, a narrow pathway leading in from the south. The final approach is barred by a wide deep-water channel, which the inhabitants cross by calling up an enchanted causeway. The magi have long since incorporated the causeway enchantment into their aegis spell, and it will respond to any of the covenfolk, as well as to anyone who has been formally invited into the aegis. The island was once a marvelous, baroque celebration of natural life. In their youth the Pripet magi seized on living forces, especially plants, to create habitations for themselves. Reed palaces, living tree houses, mossy swards and dells, glorious flower arbors: the quality of the work was exceptional and though upkeep faded long ago a hint of former glories is still apparent.

Pripet was never a well-supplied covenant. Foodstuffs came from the marsh as did extraordinary vis harvests. Other materials had to be brought in. Nowadays, when the magi or covenfolk need something, they steal it. Vis harvests too have dwindled, not because the marsh was over-exploited, but because the magi can no longer make the effort.

Pripet’s relationships have decayed. Local swamp animals and faeries now avoid the covenant, wary of its irrational, violent inhabitants. Peasants on the swamp edge fear and hate the magi. Many of their misfortunes, especially those of the trappers, iron-dredgers, and fisherfolk are indeed Pripet’s fault. This matter has now come to the attention of the Boyar Mikhail of Turov. He intends to dig canals to the Pripet river and drain the land for pasture. He also intends to deal firmly with any opposition.

The magi themselves range from “old and feeble, but still rational” to “consumed by raging animal impulses, one step from Final Twilight.” There hasn’t been an apprentice at Pripet in almost 85 years, nor a new member in over 70. They have exhausted their scholarly, investigative spirits, and even their curiosity. Their vast accumulation of lore, experience, and power is now reserved for the single purpose of defending their home. Inthe last twenty years the only significant external action they have attempted was their abortive assault on Thousand Caves.

Pripet is no longer the site of tribunal meetings. Rather than tolerate trespassers in their marsh they gladly ceded the privilege to Three Lakes over 40 years ago. Nonetheless they retain a vestigial sense of Hermetic rights, and three or four of them routinely attend tribunal meetings.

Pripet’s status in House Bjornaer is still high. In their Autumn period (about 1110-1165) they were second only to Crintera in influence, while in 1147, Roslav Lavickovich was summoned to Crintera to become Primus of Bjornaer, a position he held for almost 30 years. Crintera would still aid Pripet in a crisis. Then again, because of the relationship that exists between Miya Cossuri of Pripet and Zashya Miyovna, and a sense of tribunal solidarity, Three Lakes remains an occasional supporter, routinely pressing Pripet to reenter the mainstream of tribunal affairs.

Pripet Maior Statistics

Symbol: A house on stilts above a reed bed

Season: Late Winter

Founded: 993 AD

Members:

Yellina Ozwry: Bjornaer (Otter heart-beast)

Vlachs von Hasstein: Bjornaer (Osprey heart-beast)

Casimi Ljech: Bjornaer (Water Ox heart-beast)

Miya Cossuri: Bjornaer (Heron heart-beast)

Lev Deniki: Bjornaer (Serpent heart-beast)

Stolitzya “the Swimmer:” Bjornaer (Black-Backed Turtle heart-beast)

Site: 0

Access Quality: Average Peasant (0)

Access Distances: 60/0/0/20/20 (–1)

Seclusion: Visitors every 4 months (+4)

Environment: Insect-plagued, feverish, and dank (–3)

Buildings: +1

Size: 10 magi, 20 specialists, 50 grogs (+2)

Impressive Structures: None (7 total space points) (–1)

Quality: Mostly good, isolated patches excellent (+4)

Repair: Uniformly bad (–3)

Defenses: –3

Site: One approach narrow but passable, three approaches difficult (+6)

Elaborate Structure: None (–1)

Extent: Five points of space are completely undefended; Two points of space, representing scattered strong points, have basic defense (–5)

Repair: Bad (–7)

Stores: +2

Vis: 400 pawns (An40 Aq50 Au10 Co10 Cr45 He5 Ig10 Im10 In15 Me15 Mu45 Pe25 Re10 Te40 Vi25) (+6)

Supplies: 3,500 silvers debt (–1)

Reputations: Venerable (+2) in Novgorod Tribunal and House Bjornaer, Decaying (–1) in Order of Hermes, Evil (–3) among local peasants (–1)

Relations: –4

Allies: Crintera (+10)

Enemies: Thousand Caves Covenant, Local nobles and peasants (–20)

Contacts: None (0)

Improvement: –2

Income: 350 debt (–1)

Vis Supply: 30 pawns per year (An3 Aq7 Cr5 He7 Mu5 Te3) (0)

Inhabitants: 5 magi, 10 specialists, 25 grogs (–3)

Library: –2

Spells: 1200 levels (–1) Specialist Areas: MuCo (multiple requisites); CrAu, MuAu, ReAu (weatherworking); CrHe, MuHe, ReHe (plants); Aegis: Level 40 (the aegis is not always performed promptly — if it is neglected the causeway sticks in an up or down position)

Hermetic Books: 360 points (–1) Principal Summae: Animál: Level 28, Quality 11; Corpus: Level 24, Quality 9; Herbam: Level 20, Quality 10; Muto: Level 27, Quality 12; All other categories average Level 4, Quality 3 — low level due to neglect and dampness

Mundane Books: 120 points (–3) Mostly natural philosophies and Artes Liberales. There are over 100 books, all spoiled by neglect and dampness.

Mystical Attributes: +2

Aura: +6 (+6)

Magical Items: 150 points (+2) Chalice of pure water: 60 points, 2 Feather Cloaks: 70 points, a swamp skimmer boat: 40 points

Laboratories: Six laboratories at a –1 penalty (–3)

Total Scores: +46, –61

Magi

Yellina Ozwry

Yellina is the current leader of Pripet Maior. This doesn’t mean that she has any effective authority over the other magi, but that she has the lowest Dementia rating, and is thus the most lucid and controlled.

Her principle point of confusion about the world is her steadily strengthening conviction that her parens, Roslav Lavickovich, who was once head of Pripet and Primus of House Bjornaer, is alive. She no longer recalls that he died almost fifty years ago, and has a rock-solid, altogether unfounded belief that he still watches over the covenant’s affairs from distant Crintera.

Yellina has gone completely deaf in the last five years, but can still communicate with individual people thanks to a minor InCo spell, which helps her clearly decipher peoples’ lip movements.

Though she is largely rational, Yellina’s principles and politics are stubbornly conservative-Bjornaer. She might refrain from direct physical confrontations herself, but she sees nothing wrong with attacking mundanes, and views the Thousand Caves project as a hideous treachery.

Nowadays Yellina is rather cautious with her magic. She is close to Final Twilight, and gained the Chaotic Magic Flaw in her last Twilight. The situation is not helped by her Dementia, which acts as a negative factor in spontaneous spell rolls, and would count against her in controlling a Twilight.

Yellina Ozwry, Follower of Bjornaer

Characteristics: Int +3, Per +1, Str –1, Sta 0, Pre –1, Com 0, Dex +1, Qik +1

Gender: Female

Age: 139

Size: 0

Confidence: 3

Decrepitude: 3

Afflictions: Limp 3, Going blind 3, Going deaf 6, Dementia 2, Long term memory loss 4

Longevity potion: Current lab total 72, Current potion bonus –14

Twilight points: 21

Twilight: Longevity potion use (6), Vim score 20+ (4), Positive twilight: increased understanding in Animál (2), Negative twilight: gained Clumsy Magic Flaw (3), Negative twilight: Clumsy Magic Flaw replaced by Chaotic Magic Flaw (6)

Personality Traits: Otter +5, Secretive +3, Wary +3, Protective +3

Reputations: Senile +2, in Novgorod tribunal; Respected +2, in House Bjornaer

Weapon/Attack Init +5, Atk +6, Dfn +11, Dam +4

Soak: Human 0, Otter +2

Fatigue: Human +4, Otter 0

Fatigue levels: Human: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious; Otter: OK, –3, Unconscious

Body levels: Human: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Incapacitated; Otter: OK, –3, Incapacitated

Virtues: Follower of Bjornaer +2 (Battleworthy Heartbeast, Hidden Shape, No Familiar, Will Over Form), Special circumstances (Swimming) +1, Animal Ken +1, Herbalism +1, Quiet Magic +2 Flaws: Reclusive –1, Chaotic Magic –4, Blatant Gift–1, Delusion (Parens still alive) –1

Abilities: Animal Ken 6, Area Lore: Pripet (Geography) 6, Artes Liberales (Astronomy) 4, Awareness (Keeping Watch) 4, Brawling (Dodge) 4, Certámen (Aquam) 6, Boating (Fishing) 5, Concentration (Spells) 5, Faerie Lore (Marsh faeries) 4, Finesse (Precision) 5, Herbalism (Antidotes) 7, Hermetic Lore (Politics) 6, Hermetic Law (Tribunal procedures) 4, Intrigue (Alliances) 5, Lectio (Tractatus) 6, Magic Theory (potions) 11, Parma Magica (Aquam) 6, Penetration (Aquam) 5, Scribe Latin (Copying) 5, Scribe Cyrillic (Copying) 4, Speak Latin (Hermetic) 5, Speak Russian (Turov Dialect) 5, Stealth (Natural areas) 5, Survival (Marsh) 5, Swim (Underwater maneuvering) 6, Will OverForm 6

Arts: Cr 19, In 22, Mu 32, Pe 17, Re 26, An 34, Aq 27, Au 16, Co 29, He 24, Ig 12, Im 13, Me 15, Te 14, Vi 21

Spells: Yellina knows all the listed Animál spells, as well as all the listed MuCo, InCo, MuHe, and MuAq spells. Her other formulaics are too numerous to list. Assume that if her basic Technique + Form exceeds a given spell by at least ten levels, then she knows the Formulaic, excepting level 10 and lower spells, which she casts spontaneously.

Vlachs von Hasstein

Vlachs came into Russia from Bavaria almost a century ago. He joined Pripet shortly after gauntleting at Crintera, when the Russian covenant was just reaching the peak of its strength. Now, however, his short-term memory is failing. The past he remembers well, but not the present, and a dozen times a day he suffers a terrible shock as he looks about him at a covenant “suddenly” fallen into ruins, which can trigger dangerous con vulsive fits.

Vlachs is a vigilant, aggressive sentinel, patrolling widely in his Osprey heart-beast. He uses this form under an Avenging Beast spell, or alternately various dangerous weather spells, to attack interlopers. He is also a thief, flitting down on distant towns, finding substances that the covenant needs, shrinking them by magic, and bearing them off with triumphant shrieks.

Vlachs has been seriously emotionally wounded by the loss of his Gentle Gift in a bad Twilight. He never had the Animal Ken Talent, and now finds himself disturbing the animals which he loves and strives to protect. This is a key part of his Dementia, and bad experiences of this sort can stir up the worst in his nature.

Casimi Ljech

Casimi is the most blatantly dangerous of the Pripet Maior magi. In his human form he is a big, blustery, aggressive Pole. His heart beast form, a water ox, has many of the same characteristics, but so complete is Casimi’s identification with his heart-beast that once in this form there is almost no capacity for rational thought left. Over time, Casimi has been losing control of his body and he is subject to sudden shifts from human to animal and vice versa. He may remain locked in one of the animal forms he has mastered for an indefinite period. In addition his memory loss has been eroding his conscious control of his magic.

Dementia aside, Casimi is now so old, and laboring under so much Decrepitude, that his longevity potion almost always fails. It did so three years ago, and he no longer has the wits to re-brew it. He is now aging continuously and his likely lifespan is no more than a few years. All of this pales beside his near-terminal Twilight state. Casimi’s next Twilight will be his last, and his previous Twilights have twisted his magic into such a state that his control of it is precarious. All of this is irrelevant to his actions, as he is so demented that he does not recognize his danger.

Casimi led the Pripet Maior assault on Thousand Caves in 1217, and came very close to killing Nastassia Baramov. So far there has been no effective attempt to punish him. He ignores summons to quaesitorial judgment at Three Lakes and likewise ignores queries and summons from Crintera. In effect, he is ungovernable. Nowadays, he spends almost all his time prowling in the swamp in oxen form, terrorizing villagers and battling the more ferocious swamp beasts and faeries. He retains his Parma Magica, as well as his Form bonuses to resisting damage and magic. In addition, a Twilight while casting Form of the Avenging Beast made the effects of that spell permanent. This combination renders him terribly dangerous, as he is highly magic resistant and physically very powerful.

Miya Cossuri

At 153, Miya is by one year the oldest of the magi in the Novgorod tribunal. Her mind is sounder than Casimi Ljech’s, who is barely 11 months younger, but her body is failing. Miya’s home is a massive reed palace of sculpted ledges, domes, and towers. It is the soundest building on the island; Miya seldom leaves it, and spends most of her waning powers on its upkeep. The palace is a menagerie, though none of the animals there are imprisoned. There are thousands of water-fowl nesting here, beaver and otter, snakes and lizards, and water-deer. All of them co-exist amicably under the influence of Miya’s crowning achievement: an exceptionally powerful ReAn spell which produces an irresistible pacifistic urge in any animal inside the walls. The only hole in the spell relates to Miya herself. On the one hand it doesn’t affect her directly, and she retains a formidable arsenal of magics. On the other, the animals know she is their benefactress. Their many generations of life in the covenant have rendered them more intelligent and larger than normal animals; they will defend her.

Miya’s home is, by default, the place where visiting Redcaps and emissaries are most likely to meet a cordial welcome. Miya herself is a sweet, incredibly ancient lady, lacking malice, but with little understanding of the world that now surrounds her beloved marsh and animals.

Lev Deniki

Unlike Vlachs and Casimi, Lev Deniki appears to be a pleasant, restrained man. He is rational in conversation and apparently moderate in his views. This, however, is a mask. Lev is unquestionably the most deadly of the three. His heart-beast is a water serpent, and he epitomizes the characteristics of stealth, subtlety, and lethal venom. Lev meets and talks with any visitors to the covenant. If he decides they are danger ous, he ambushes them as they leave the swamp, for he is quite mad. Lev has become afflicted by a mounting paranoia. The world exists for him only in shades of threat and danger. Nowhere is safe. Lev’s fears are consuming, and at base he is a coward. Strong initial resistance to his attack will cause him to flee, and if cornered or trapped, he can easily be intimidated.

Stolitzya “The Swimmer”

The last member of Pripet Maior covenant is Stolitzya. This near-legendary Bjornaer maga went into Final Twilight over forty years ago, permanently assuming her heart-beast shape, a great black-backed turtle augmented with formidable Muto spells, and imbued with magical energy from a century and a half of longevity potion use.

The Pripet Maior magi believe Stolitzya is still alive, living in the heart of the swamp, its de facto queen. The last independent sighting was about fifteen years ago, when Susan of Wicklow claims to have spotted Stolitzya, her shell so huge it resembled a submerged island, her massive head and encrusted beak big as a house. Susan of Wicklow is not generally known for flights of irresponsible imagination, but whether Stolitzya truly does survive within the swamp is a question each troupe should answer for itself.

Stolitzya “The Swimmer”

Characteristics: Cun +5, Per +2, Str +7, Sta +3, Pre +4, Com –5, Dex –3, Qik –3

Magic Might: 45

Gender: Female

Age: Approximately 200

Size: +4

Personality Traits: Lazy +4, Irritable +2

Reputations: Monster (+3) among local peasants, Dead (+2) in Novgorod tribunal, Legendary (+2) in House Bjornaer

Weapon/Attack:

Bite Init +3, Atk +20, Dfn +5, Dam 30*

Ram Init +9, Atk +25, Dfn +8, Dam +45**

Sudden surface Init +12, Atk +15, Dfn +15, Dam +40***

• Anyone of size 0 or lower who suffers as much as Body level of damage (after Soaking) must roll against Size at ease factor 6+. The ease factor increases by +1 for each extra Body level of damage beyond the first one. Failure indicates that the character has been swallowed. Swallowed characters spend one round in Stolitzya’s throat, where they suffer no damage but are so disoriented they can do nothing unless they roll a stress die + Int of 9+. Stolitzya has swallowed a great many stones and rocks to help grind up food. Anyone entering her stomach takes +30 damage each round. Stolitzya’s internal Soak is 12 in her throat and 20 in her stomach.

• • Given 100 feet of clear, straight water, Stolitzya may attempt to ram individuals, groups, sections of river bank, or even small islands (many of which are infirm or floating). Even if a river bank or island proves strong enough to endure her assault without collapsing, her charge builds up a powerful bow wave which can swamp anyone nearby (effect as Mighty Torrent of Water).

• • • Given enough depth to submerge, Stolitzya may suddenly surface beneath an enemy. From this position she is exceptionally hard to hurt, as she offers no vulnerable spot to her attacker. This attack can shatter a boat, tear a small (floating) island apart, or overturn a medium sized one.

Soak: +35

Fatigue: +5

Fatigue levels: OK, 0/0, –1/–1, –3/–3, –5/–5, Unc.

Body levels: OK, 0/0, –1/–1, –3/–3, –5/–5, Inc.

Arts: Stolitzya’s final Art scores are listed only for resistance purposes. She no longer casts magic by Hermetic means. Cr 24, In 29, Mu 37, Pe 26, Re 29, An 34, Aq 30, Au 16, Co 33, He 24, Ig 6, Im 13, Me 19, Te 26, Vi 31

Powers:

Man into Sprat, MuCo35, 1 point: Turns any one man at a range up to Far into a fish of about size –3. Penetration is 30.

Steel Shell, MuAn40, 3 points: As a last ditch defense, if Stolitzya is hard pressed, she turns her shell into a gleaming, steely dome, increasing her Soak by 15. At the same time she ducks her head inside her shell, covering it with her immense, horny forelimbs. If possible she will also let herself sink into deep water.

Dominion of the Swamp, ReHe(Aq)40, 5 points: Whips vegetation and water within 300 yards into a maelstrom of violence that does +5 damage to all those caught within it who fail to roll 6+ on a stress die + Dex + (Swim or Athletics depending on location). It makes movement difficult as well — a similar roll is required to do anything other than maintain position and aspect. Duration is Diameter.

Speech, ReAn5, 1 point: Stolitzya can, at will, still speak human languages. Her attention, however, is hard to engage.

Leczyca Covenant

Leczyca covenant sits atop a ridge in gentle hill country. Rough ground renders the east and west approaches difficult and the southern one rather tedious. There is an easy ascent to the north along the track which leads to Leczyca town. The covenant is an impressive, well-built castle, with a large outer bailey, stable-yard, and tilting run. Of all the Novgorodian covenants, Leczyca is most at odds with the older tri bunals. Its powerful turb is principally geared to harrying bands of Rhine interlopers. They are perpetually ready for siege, and have stood off more than one Wizards’ War. Their merchant contacts bring them information about road conditions and troop movements as well as the opportunity to fund merchant ventures.

Leczyca’s outlook is strongly flavored by the general Polish attitude toward the Germans. The Germans are the Enemy, eaten up by envy, resentment, and guilt. Was it Leczyca who betrayed the Order of Hermes in the Schism War? No! It was the Germans! Is it Leczyca who has abused and impoverished their local vis resources? No! It is the Germans! And yet, it is the German covenants who accuse innocent Leczyca of treachery and abandonment! Having a strong external enemy helps keep Leczyca’s very argumentative magi basically united. The roots of the dispute between Leczyca and the Rhine covenants is ancient and complex. Leczyca inherited all the resentment the Rhine tribunal felt when Grand Silesia aban doned them, as well as offering a tempting target for vis-starved covenants. The center of these frictions is Durenmar, domus magna of House Bonisagus. For their own reasons, the other two Rhine domus magnae have reached a concord with the Novgorod tri bunal (Crintera, for instance, is too proud of Pripet Maior, while Irencillia is just not very good at holding grudges). But Durenmar, home of House Bonisagus, heir to the authority of the Founders, has never gotten over its sense of Polish treachery. They are joined in this by some of the younger covenants of the Rhine, and no Grand Tribunal goes by without a motion being moved by Durenmar for a reassessment of the eastern Rhine border.

Three Lakes, however, recognizes that Poland is their first line of defense against western encroachment. Accordingly there is a Hermes Portal link between Leczyca and Three Lakes, and Three Lakes magi visit Leczyca on a regular basis.Of all the Novgorodian covenants, Leczyca is most indifferent to the Thousand Caves controversy. Yes, it is technically interesting, but not important. They are also most resentful of the proscription against consorting with royalty. They have a powerful fellow feeling for the Polish nobility, and 30 years ago were found guilty of serious infringements of the proscription. They paid a heavy vis fine for providing Silesian nobles with magically acquired information about German raids.

Leczyca Statistics

Symbol: A quill, point upright, with a sword’s hilt

Season: Autumn

Founded: 1052 AD

Members:

Stanis Chechenko: Jerbiton

Kasina Popovich: Merinita

Frania Popovich: Tremere

Tomaszi Klimowicz: Verditius

Ruprecht de Solange: Tremere

Sanya Tianowicz: Bjornaer (Badger heart-beast)

Barchek Ocowski: Mercere

Site: +1

Access Quality: Minor Clergy (+3)

Access Distances: 20/40/20/0/20 (–2)

Seclusion: Visitors every 2 weeks (+1)

Environment: Hill country (0)

Buildings: +3

Size: 8 magi, 20 specialists, 150 grogs (+3)

Impressive Structures: Tilting and training yard, stud facilities and stables (10 total space points) (+1)

Quality: Barracks, tilting yard, and stables are Good quality (+5)

Repair: Average throughout (0)

Defenses: +6

Site: One approach average, one approach slightly difficult, two approaches difficult (+5)

Elaborate defensive structures: Gatehouse, watchtower, and keep (+2)

Extent: Concentric defensive walls (+13)

Repair: Gatehouse and keep in Good repair (+2)

Stores: –2

Vis: 200 pawns (An5 Aq10 Au10 Co15 Cr10 He15 Ig15 Im5 In20 Me15 Mu5 Pe20 Re20 Te25 Vi10) (+2)

Supplies: 3,500 silvers surplus (+1)

Reputations: Treacherous (–3) among Rhine Tribunal (–6)

Relations: –3

Allies: Three Lakes Covenant 12 weeks per year (+12)

Enemies: Durenmar 2 weeks per year, minor Rhine covenants (–22)

Contacts: Four merchants (+2)

Improvement: +4

Income: 700 silvers per year surplus (+2)

Vis Supply: 60 pawns per year (Au4 Co6 He6 Ig6 In6 Me6 Pe8 Re8 Te10) (+6)

Inhabitants: 7 magi, 20 specialists, 100 grogs, 50 covenfolk (+5)

Library: +3

Spells: 2700 levels (+4) Strongly concentrated in destructive and defensive magics. Specialist Areas: CrAu, CrIg, PeMe, MuMe, PeCo, MuCo, ReTe, PeTe. Aegis: Level 30

Hermetic Books: 720 points (+4) Principal Summae: Creo Level 17, Quality 6; Auram: Level 19, Quality 9; Ignem: Level 16, Quality 7; Mentem: Level 20, Quality 10; Perdo: Level 21, Quality 8; Terram: Level 18, Quality 8. Other summae cover all remaining Arts at an average of Level 12 and Quality 6. Remaining 154 points: tractatus and libri quaestionum relating to magi specialties.

Mundane Books: 300 points (0) Principal Summae: Civil and Canon Law: Level 8, Quality 7. Specialist Subjects: Polish chronicles and Papal rulings on German/Polish disputes.

Mystical Attributes: +3

Aura: +4 (+1)

Magical Items: 300 levels (+4) Hermes Portal link to Three Lakes: 75 points, 20 enchanted swords/lances (Edge of the Razor): 200 points, 25 excess points at storyguide discretion.

Laboratories: Five laboratories average: 0, two laboratories at plus two bonus: (+3)

Total Scores: +82, –30

Magi

Stanis Chechenko

Stanis is the public leader of Leczyca,much like Yury Beslav at Three Lakes. He isa Jerbiton magus who has no difficulties dealing with mundanes, and tends to appreciatethe finer points of aristocratic society. Here the similarities end. Yury Beslav has significant authority at Three Lakes. Stanis is nothing more than one among a group of argumentative equals, and has frequently been embarrassed by their failure to back him in his negotiations. The Tremere magi in particular are forever sniping at his heels, challenging his authority and trying to cement theirown local treaties.

Stanis’s major concerns are with keeping Leczyca’s lines of communication and influence strong. He is often seen at the courts of minor local nobles, though he at least seems to obey the tribunal’s ruling regarding royalty. He also guides Leczyca’s investments in merchant ventures. Mundane relations aside, Stanis would like to be a major political player in the Order. He is constantly engaged in correspondence and maneuverings to undermine Rhine influence. How effective his politicking has been is a matter of opinion. There are those who believe that Leczyca’s continued independence stems more from stout walls, a strong Aegis, and a devoted, efficient turb than any other reasons.

Stanis Chechenko, Follower of Jerbiton

Characteristics: Int +3, Per 0, Pre +1, Com +1, Str 0, Sta –1, Dex 0, Qik 0

Gender: Male

Age: 101

Size: 0

Confidence: 3

Decrepitude: 0

Afflictions: Stooped back 1, Rheumatism 1, Fretful bouts 2

Longevity potion: Current lab total 56, Current potion bonus 12 (vis boosting)

Twilight points: 17

Twilight: Longevity potion use (4), Vim score 15+ (3), Positive twilight: increased understanding: Rego (6), Negative twilight: minor Creo deficiency became major (4)

Personality Traits: Manipulative +2, Argumentative +3, Stubborn +2

Reputations: Skilled Lutist +4, with Polish nobles; Political hack +2, in Order of Hermes

Weapon/Attack:

Brawl (dagger) Init +4, Atk +3, Dfn +4, Dam +6*

Lance Init +8, Atk +9, Dfn +4, Dam +6

Longsword/Roundshield Init +5, Atk +5, Dfn +10, Dam +6*

• See Equipment, below

Soak: +7

Fatigue: +2 Longsword/Roundshield

Fatigue levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious

Body levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Incapacitated

Virtues: Gentle Gift +1, Deft Art (Rego) +1, Busybody +1, Social Contacts (Nobility) +1, Free Expression +1, Patron: Count of Leczyca +2

Flaws: Major Magical Deficiency (Creo) –4, Faerie Enmity –1, Common Fear (Cats) –2

Abilities: Animal Handling (Horses) 3, Area Lore: Leczyca (Politics) 5, Area Lore: Sieradz (Politics) 3, Area Lore: Silesia (Politics) 4, Artes Liberales (Rhetoric) 3, Brawling (Dagger) 3, Certámen (Rego) 7, Charm (Being Witty) 3, Civil and Canon Law (Papal laws) 5, Concentration (Lab work) 3, Disputatio (Debate) 4, Etiquette (Nobility) 5, Finesse (Grace) 5, Folk Ken (Nobles) 5, Hermes Lore (Politics) 5, Hermetic Law (Wizards’ Marches) 4, Intrigue (Plotting) 3, Longshaft Weapons (Lance) 4, Magic Theory (Potions) 8, Parma Magica (Rego) 6, Penetration (Rego) 4, Play Lute (Solo) 5, Ride (Battle) 4, Scribe Latin (Original Composition) 5, Shield and Weapon (Longsword and Roundshield) 4, Speak Latin (Hermetic) 5, Speak Polish (Leczycan Dialect) 5, Speak Russian (Novgorod Dialect) 2, Theology (Biblical Knowledge) 3

Arts: Cr 12, In 19, Mu 14, Pe 27, Re 29, An 10, Aq 5, Au 9, Co 21, He 8, Ig 11, Im 9, Me 22, Te 9, Vi 18

Equipment: Lance, longsword, and dagger are all enchanted with an enhanced version of The Razor’s Edge that gives them Damage +6. Shield and half chain mail are enchanted with subtle ReTe spells to reduce weight: Load is 0 and –2.0, respectively.

Encumbrance: –2

Spells: Stanis is a narrow specialist. He has chosen the combinations of Rego and Perdo with Corpus and Mentem as his fields of expertise, and tends towards politically useful spells of influence and battlefield spells of physical destruction. In these areas, he has Mastered all the listed formulaics.

Kasina and Frania Popovich

Kasina and Frania are halves of a unique pair who form a unit with remarkable qualities. Gifted siblings are rare, Gifted twins even rarer, and magic in such closely related people tends to express itself in unpredictable fashions. Kasina and Frania are a perfect example of this rule. On the one hand their styles of magic are completely opposite. Kasina is a Merinita maga. Her magic is wild, powerfully spontaneous, and unorthodox. Formulaic magic is very difficult for her. Frania is a Tremere maga. She is incapable of spontaneous magic. However, the two sisters share a common Flaw and a common Virtue. At 100 paces apart, their magic has normal potency. When separated by more than 100 paces, their magic wanes in strength. If they reduce their separation below 100, their powers wax. (The intensity is approximately 1 point on spell totals per 20 paces, to a maximum bonus and penalty of + or – 5; treat this as an unusual Virtue/Flaw combination similar to Cyclic Magic). The deep, mysterious bond of their magic is not yet fully understood. For instance, the sisters have had simultaneous Twilight experiences at identical levels of intensity. What this might mean, and how it might one day affect them, is unknown.

Of the two sisters, Kasina is the better known. She is flamboyant, fey, and a wicked practical joker. Advancing age has not diminished her ability to outrage more staid magi; she has been vocal in her applause for the Thousand Caves project. Kasina’s two true interests are Faerie and her sister, for their fundamental affection is unshakable. Frania is her twin’s emotional, philosophical, and magical opposite. She is reserved, dignified, and forthright. She is a Tremere maga with a powerful respect for hierarchy, rules, and careful planning. Frania is politically committed to the basic philosophies of the Leczycan covenant (for which Kasina could not give a fig). She supports Stanis in his various maneuvers, except when she is actively trying to usurp his position. Simultaneously, she tries to keep her fellow Tremere magus, Ruprecht de Solange, under control, and bring some order and efficiency to the covenant.

Frania’s interests and abilities diverge sharply from her sister’s. She is a student of human law and knowledge; Kasina is obsessed with weird and unnatural lore. She is a closequarters fighter (when necessary); Kasina favors the bow. She cares for what she can see, feel, hear or taste; Kasina hankers for the mysterious and intangible. Note that as a mature Tremere maga, Frania has long since reclaimed her sigil from her parens.

Tomaszi Klimowicz

Tomaszi, at 133, is the eldest of the Leczyca magi, and likes to make this seniority the basis of his own claims to authority though he is not truly politically ambitious. His interests lie in his craft as an artisan and enchanter of physical objects. He is principally responsible for the armaments of his fellow magi and the covenant’s grogs, as well as being one of the magi who originally invoked the Hermes Portal between Leczyca and Three Lakes. In his youth he crafted ornaments and sigils of authority for the Polish royal house itself; he wept for a week when the Order came to reclaim his work and destroy all memory of it in the courts of Silesia and Krakow.

Tomaszi has grown irritable in his old age, and his long years in the laboratory have deformed him. But his pleasure in creation is undimmed, as is his skill. He still travels to Italy every few years to compete in the contests at Verdi.

Ruprecht de Solange

Ruprecht is the babe of the covenant at a mere 69 years of age. He came to Poland from France about forty years ago seeking a suitable arena in which he might harden his will and be tested. Ruprecht comes from noble stock, and idealizes the warrior knight as the epitome of civilization and honor. He is the leader of Leczyca’s turb.

Despite the pleasure he takes in the constant friction and struggle at Leczyca, Ruprecht has been growing steadily more annoyed at his inability to impose order and control on the covenant. The necessary first step in this process is to defeat Frania Popovich in certámen; so far he has been unsuccessful.

Ruprecht reclaimed his sigil about fifteen years ago, and hence lacks the mandatory No Sigil Flaw. He has recently taken an apprentice, Janek (the only one currently at the covenant, since Kasina and Frania both released their last apprentices two years ago).

Sanya Tianowicz

Sanya is the only Bjornaer maga at Leczyca. Her presence in the covenant owes a good deal to the wider political situation. Though there is no formal alliance between Leczyca and Crintera, the Leczycan magi feel much more secure about Crintera’s support if there is at least one Bjornaer magus in residence. Sanya seems oblivious to this aspect of affairs. She came to Leczyca fifty years ago, “recommended” by the elders at Crintera, and has proven a considerable asset to the covenant. She is a stable personality, steadfast in combat, loyal, and resolute. Sanya’s heartbeast is a badger, and she demonstrates all of a badger’s proverbial toughness in defense of her home. This aside, she does not align regularly with any of the factions or individuals at Leczyca; her interests lie with the local animals, and to some degree, with the covenant’s large herd of horses.

Barchek Ocowski

Barchek is the only member of House Mercere in the Novgorod Tribunal aside from Susan of Wicklow. Unlike her, he is not a Gifted magus, and relies for his magical abilities on an array of devices which have been created for him by the Leczycan magi. Unlike Susan, his normal routes are towards the west. He visits several Rhine covenants each year (carrying challenges or rebukes), several Transylvanian covenants (especially the ones located in the northern Carpathian mountains), and at least once a year he visits the Roman tribunal, carrying messages to Verdi and legal complaints to Magvillus.

Barchek is a lean, spry man with an engaging sense of humor and an iron stamina. He comes from peasant stock and is adept at blending almost seamlessly into the stream of travelers and villagers through which he must pass.

Yannes Kolski

The last widely known magus of the Novgorod tribunal is Yannes Kolski, also known as the Mad Magus of the East. Yannes was a Criamon magi of Leczyca, a master of the Enigma. All his life, Yannes had been prone to prophetic visions and numerous but minor Twilights which yielded profound insights into the Enigma and the world. In 1206, at the age of 113, Yannes suffered an overwhelming and very lengthy Twilight. Yannes was actively in Twilight and prophesying for at least two weeks. The Leczycan magi made careful notes of his behavior and his pronunciations. This vast morass of inscrutable, elliptical, apocalyptic material, the “Yannes Discourse,” is kept at Leczyca. Some of it is in verse, some in what seems to be cipher, and some in languages which Yannes was not thought to have known. Then there are the parts where the scribes could only write “screaming.”

By and large the Discourse is regarded as just another Criamon oddity. One passage, however, has passed into general knowledge (this key portion of the Yannes Discourse is given in the opening to Chapter 6).

Yannes was never seen to work magic again after his great Twilight, but he recovered enough to talk, and to walk haltingly. Over the next ten years he visited every covenant in the tribunal, and some outside it, as well as Cuman encampments. Wherever he went, Yannes would recite the one particular part of his vision, accompanied by convulsions, fits of weeping, and lunatic howling. In 1214, the Novgorod Tribunal quaesitores were asked to consider whether Yannes had in fact passed into Final Twilight. Some magi felt that Yannes was bringing the Order into disrepute, and that his “animated cadaver” should be restrained. The question was still under consideration when Yannes vanished, in 1216, after a severely disruptive visit to Thousand Caves. The Thousand Caves magi did their best to chaperone him back towards Three Lakes, but lost him not far from the city of Vladimir-in-Suzdalia.

Yannes Kolski, Follower of Criamon

Characteristics: Int +4, Per +3, Pre –2, Com –4, Str 0, Sta 0, Dex +1, Qik +2

Gender: Male

Age: 127

Size: 0

Confidence: 0

Decrepitude: 4

Longevity potion: Current lab total 61, Current potion bonus None

Afflictions: Dementia 3, Limp 3, Difficulty Speaking 2, Difficulty Understanding Speech 4, Epilepsy 3

Twilight points: 23 Twilight: Longevity potion use (5), Vim score 20+ (4), Negative twilight: gained Unpredictable Magic Flaw and Painful Magic Flaw (7), Positive twilight: experience points in Enigmatic Wisdom (2), Positive twilight: experience points in Certámen (1), Positive twilight: increased understanding: Mentem (2), Positive twilight: experience points in Enigmatic Wisdom (2)

Personality Traits: Lunatic +6, Inscrutable +6

Reputations: Mad 4, in Order of Hermes; Passed into Final Twilight 2, in Novgorod tribunal

Weapon/Attack: Brawl/Dagger Init +7, Atk +7, Dfn +4, Dam +3

Soak: 0

Fatigue: +3 Dagger

Fatigue levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious

Body levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Incapacitated

Virtues: Great Intelligence +2, Knack with Enigma +3, Visions +2

Flaws: Poor Communication –2, Sense of Doom –3, Unpredictable Magic –4, Painful Magic –3, Blatant Gift –1

Abilities: Area Lore: Leczyca (Politics) 5, Area Lore: Silesia (Politics) 3, Artes Liberales (Geometry) 6, Awareness (Alertness) 5, Brawling (Dagger) 2, Certámen (Mentem) 4, Civil and Canon Law (Polish) 6, Concentration (Spells) 6, Disputatio (Debate) 6, Enigmatic Wisdom 7, Finesse (Grace) 6, Hermes Lore (History) 6, Hermetic Law (Political Intrigue) 3, Magic Theory (Inventing Spells) 9, Occult Lore (Demons) 4, Parma Magica (Mentem) 7, Penetration (Mentem) 6, Philosophiae (Metaphysics) 7, Ride (Speed) 4, Scribe Latin (Original Composition) 6, Speak Latin (Hermetic) 5, Speak Polish (Leczycan dialect) 5, Theology (Biblical Knowledge) 4, Visions 8

Arts: Cr 17, In 22, Mu 23, Pe 16, Re 17, An 17, Aq 14, Au 16, Co 22, He 16, Ig 18, Im 21, Me 24, Te 15, Vi 22

Encumbrance: 0

Spells: Yannes was an adept at Intéllego and Muto combinations with Corpus, Imáginem, Mentem, and Vim. If you allow him to use magic at all, he can be considered to have mastered all listed Formulaics in these categories. His listed Flaws make magic difficult, but not impossible for him. At your discretion you may wish to make his magic totally non-functional, or perhaps completely uncontrollable.

MALINCKA’S JOURNEY, PART 6

The screams had stopped echoing from the canyon walls. Malincka sighed with relief. Of all the wretched, useless, distracting things to happen, a visit from Yannes Kolski was surely the worst possibility. Three weeks of disruptions, of harassment, and of barely restrained violence . . . and the screaming.

The canyon could be beautiful at night, with the stars gleaming in the narrow sky, the wind playing amid the trees and gardens. Not tonight.

“We’ve found him.” Lisheya was one of their best scouts, the heart-beast of a linnet. She made her change in mid-air, dropping down to the ground as a human. “Will you come? He’s in a bad way.”

It wasn’t far, less than a mile. Yannes had found a mud wallow, shaded by some old willows. He was lying on the ground as she came up, half covered in mud, stirring feebly under the attentions of four men, two of whom were binding up his left arm. “He’s gone hurt hisself,” one of them growled.

“Is it bad?”

“Na, ifn he’d only stop his cussed jerking about!”

She held the man’s eyes for a few moments. Long enough to make him flush and look away. She had insisted that Yannes be shown every courtesy. It was a nuisance, but with the delegation due to arrive in less than a month, necessary. “Clean him,” she ordered, then stood back while the men worked. Eventually they were done. Once released, Yannes flopped over onto his side and lay, breathing in deep gasps.

“Yannes.” She took care not to stand too close to him. He sometimes lashed out, and he smelled bad. “Yannes Kolski. It’s Malincka Capcek. Capcek of the Thousand Caves? Do you remember me? You are at the Thousand Caves, Master Yannes. The Valley of a Thousand Caves. . . .”

When he began to speak she felt, for the briefest moment, a spark of hope; perhaps this time . . . but no. It was only the usual weary monologue.

His voice was rusty, and quiet. Whatever passion this vision had once stirred in him was long since gone. “I stood upon the slopes of the mountains. Around the curve of the world I looked, into the east. Across a thousand leagues I sent my gaze and every blade of grass, every leaf on every tree, each speck of sand on every beach was clear and fine and sharp to my eyes. I saw the lands of the Muslims, Baghdad of the many domes and the golden spires of Samarkand. I saw the mighty cities of far Cathay, the kingdoms the Kin and the Sung.

“I looked into the East and there I saw a wall. High and long and hard, and it warded the Kingdoms of Cathay from the lands of the north. For the north was cold and cruel, a place of wild beasts and spirits who walked on feet of bone with the faces of men and the hearts of dogs.

“I saw in the north that a serpent was born, small and soft and alone on the fells. Swiftly it grew and its scales turned black, armoring its back like plates of steel. From its jaw sprouted fangs and its eyes let drop tears of fire. And when the serpent was grown to a mighty size it turned its gaze to the south and went there, ashes in its wake, and it bore upon the wall of Cathay and broke it down and went among the people of those lands. And its breath was poison that rose in a great cloud and its eyes let fall rivers of fire that the cities went up in smoke and burning and the streets were alight like the floor of hell and the wailing of the people rose to a mute heaven.

“And the serpent stayed not in the lands of Cathay but turned now to the west, to the lands of the Muslims. Its scales were like shields, and its eyes like beacons and it put forth from its body limbs and claws and scoured the land with them as it went.

“And it went into the lands of the Muslims and took with it fire and pestilence and death. Samarkand was burning and fair Baghdad.

“I looked into the east and it seemed to me that the world was afire. And as I gazed upon the serpent its head rose up. It saw me and it knew me. I heard a roaring that shook the world and a blackness gathered around the beast into which no light would shine. And the serpent came towards the west, the darkness growing all around.

“I saw the serpent reach the mountains, I felt the terrible heat of its breath, and the shaking of the earth beneath its weight. Never knew I such a fear as in that moment, as it towered above me, above the mountain peaks.

“I flew. I flew up, a dove. I flew up, past the maw of the serpent, into the light of Heaven. I flew up and awoke and knew no more.”

She had heard it before of course. Even Thousand Caves’ slender library had a copy.

She turned to the waiting men. “You will be pleased to know that Master Yannes is leaving in the morning.” They were, in fact, very pleased. “We will, of course, be providing him an escort.” The good humor abruptly failed. “I will be going myself, but it will take a dozen men or so to ensure he is properly cared for.” She smiled humorlessly. Eventually she extracted a sour agreement, then brought Yannes back to the cliff face herself, levitating him gently. Lisheya came with her, more intrigued than anything.

“I’d never heard him speak his piece before,” she finally admitted, as they were ascending the slope toward the Great Cavern gates. They went on another dozen steps. “What . . . well, what does it mean?”

“Mean?” Malincka shrugged. “My dear, it doesn’t mean anything at all.”

Attribution Based on the material for Ars Magica, ©1993-2024, licensed by Trident, Inc. d/b/a Atlas Games®, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license 4.0 ("CC-BY-SA 4.0"). Ars Magica Open License Logo ©2024 Trident, Inc. The Ars Magica Open License Logo, Ars Magica, and Mythic Europe are trademarks of Trident, Inc., and are used with permission. Order of Hermes, Tremere, Doissetep, and Grimgroth are trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB and are used with permission.