Narrative

A Narrative of the Stories told about the Covenant of Sagehollow and its inhabitants.

(Spring) 1190 - The Breakout
The bandits under the command of the covenant heard tale that there was a game of football played in the nearby village of Stratford, this friendly game of football, as was tradition ended in only a few deaths. However due to the property damage that was caused during the game, including vast parts of the village market and the damage to saleable goods, caused the Sheriff of Nottingham; Robert Giscard to deploy solders under the command of his right hand man; Guy of Gisborne, to arrest those who took part in the game for interrupting the tax collection and property of the king.

Guy of Gisborne decided to utilise this moment to make his mark upon Sherwood and the surrounding lands by holding a mass execution of those responsible. Gosborne was given this right as the property damage had interrupted and robbed taxes to be paid to the king, as such was granted under law to conduct executions.

Gisbornes’ men arrested around twenty to thirty people and took them to the village of Lenton to be executed in a public display in five days time. Lenton, approximately a days march from Nottingham, was chosen variety of reasons; firstly being a days march from Nottingham it would dissuade an attempted jail break by the footballers families, secondly they could utilise a jail that Giscard has access too outside of the kings royal demesne.

Not wanting to lets this opportunity for covenfolk pass them bye, The Magi of Sagehollow decided they would subtlety rescue the prisoners within the jail and offer them employment as covenfolk at Sagehollow. The Covenant sent the magi; Arianwen, Ethel, Evelyn and Rian on the rescue mission and they were to be accompanied by the companion Little John and the grogs; Silk, Islwyn and Erik.

Heading off in the morning, the group decided to pass though Sherwood as quickly as possible so that they would have amply time to scope out the jail and do some reconnaissance within the village of Lenton. Walking though the Forrest, they headed towards the village of Lidby, Evelyn wanting to experience new things and meet new people was watched like a hawk by the others and Little John was tasked with making sure that the young and rather naive magna was kept within arms reach at all times.

Reaching the village of Lidby the group noticed that it was a small but rather prosperous village with a converted Mott and Bailey castle serving as a rather nice estate for the current forester-in-fee of the south-eastern part of Sherwood; Sir … who had his own personal retinue, (and one of a larger size than his apparent wealth would have suggested) act as the militia of the village. The group attracted the attention of the men and women of the village; as Arianwen was dressed as a noblewomen, Little John stood many feet above the tallest villager and Evelyn’s great beauty attracted and distracted many of the villagers. The group decided to pass though the village quickly, even though Evelyn wanted to stay and speak to the blacksmith of the village and meet new and interesting people, Little John was forced to pick the small magna up and carry her away from village before she caused a scene.

Heading away from Lidby the group headed towards to the village of Hockendale; a village which can only be described as a point on the map, neither particularly wealthy or poor, with a rather simple manor house nearby for the lord of the village (currently vacant). Again the group caught the attention of the villagers and eagerly pressed onwards towards the village of Ernehale. Ernehale was famed in the area for its bee hives and honey, it was a wealthy part of the kings royal demesne outside of Sherwood Forest however and was known for its production of high quality bee’s wax and mead made from the honey.

Just before arriving at Lenton, the group decided to split up; one group would go into the woods and locate the jail outside of the village and the other would head into the village to investigate and ambush the officers and guards in order to make the collection of the prisoners easier. The first group entering the woods consisted of Arianwen, Evelyn, Rian, Little John and Islwyn, this group attracted too much attention when going though the villages and would have caused issues if the guards had spotted them within the village, especially before and after a jail break.

Heading into the woods, the group took longer than expected to locate the jail, as the area they were walking though was not known to most of the group, in the end thanks to Arianwens Gyrfalcon Heartbeast, Little Johns knowledge of the area and Islwyns knowledge of woodland they managed to locate the jail in a few hours. The jail itself was a large L shaped building with the end of the smaller part of the L making up a stable, the wall along the lower part of the L also lead to an underground section supported by minor earthworks. Thanks to Arianwen scouting out the area in bird form, they discovered that other than the guards stationed at the three entrances (underground, main entrance and stable), there were two separate groups of guards who patrolled in a strange pattern meant to prevent people to guessing their rotation speeds. While Arianwen spied out the jail specifications, the guards noticed her in Gyrfalcon form and set a trap hoping to capture the valuable bird in order to sell to the nobility; as only Earls and Kings could own a Gyrfalcon due to their great worth and prestige.

While watching the jail, the ex-soldiers in the group; Little John and Islwyn, realized from the patrols and guards, that there would be a total of eighteen guards in the jail complex; six currently on guard, six resting off-duty inside and six sleeping for a later shift. With this information, the group returned into the woods and prepared a camp for the evening and then would meet up with the second group the next day. Setting up camp took longer than expected due to Islwyn and Little John trying to one up each other with how to set up a camp, while Rian growing tired of his two servants taking too long, decided to take matters into his own hands and correctly set up the camp himself.

Meanwhile in the village of Lenton; Ethel, Silk and Erik entered the village disguised as a merchant and his retinue (with Ethel using the  ‘Succubus Trick’  in order to turn herself temporarily into a man and act as Silks apprentice). Silk disguised himself as one of his usual disguises “Edward of Southampton” a reputable salt merchant who is currently down on hard times. Heading to the local pub, in order to see if any merchants were present in order to gather information, they ran into “Edwards” old acquaintance; Steve, a del boy-esqe merchant. While harmlessly chatting and gossiping about local news they discovered that Gisborne was preforming the execution to cement his authority after becoming Robert Giscards right hand man and prove that anyone who crossed him would dread the day.

Meanwhile Ethel started chatting up the local barmaid and realized from the lack of jailers in the pub, that they must be getting their ale from an alternative source. Thanks that the Barmaid (Alice), she discovered that the Jailers came from Nottingham and were not permitted to drink in the local bars during their tenure at the jail. After two weeks another group would arrive to replace them and the first group would head back to Nottingham to continue to serve under Giscard and Gisborne. Erik decided to chat with the Bar’s bouncers and spent the evening drink and gambling with them and gathering similar information to the others. The group then spent the rest of the evening at the pub, speaking with their various guests before retiring into their room for the evening.

While enjoying the evening in the pub, another guest arrived. He was a larger built man with a tonsure and dressed in a monks habit in his mid to late twenties. Quickly acting on the new guests presence, both Silk and Ethel spoke to the man and discovered that his name was Robert or Bob for short and was a Clerk from an Abbey at Derby. He was currently traveling down to Cambridge to deliver some books which had been requested from a patron. Though Silk, they managed to have a look at the books which the man was delivering and discovered that they were a collection of high quality tomes on a variety of subjects, including a good copy of St. Augustine's; ‘City of God’. Realizing this could be advantageous to the covenant they informed him of another collection of scholars who would happily converse and trade books with the abbey; Sagehollow. Speaking further with Bob they discovered that his intended client was a man called; Edward of Milton. Ethel’s knowledge of the Order of Hermes revealed that he was a member of the Order and leader of Scholi Pythagoras Covenant in Cambridge, before spending the remainder evening chatting to him and Steve.

The groups met up the following day outside of Lenton to discuss what they had discovered and started to plan how they would break the prisoners out of the jail. Working out that leading a rabble in the dark at night would only cause issues and possible capture, they decided to act early in the morning just after breakfast. To distract the guards and cause a scene Rian would summon a collection of wild Boars, which would either cause a large enough distraction or would cause the guards to try and hunt them. While Rian would remain nearby to summon more animals or provide further distraction if necessary. Meanwhile Arianwen in Gyrfalcon form would fly above the jail and provide look out and if necessary illusions to create extra distractions if further complications arose. Islwyn, Little John and Silk would remain nearby in the woods for once the prisoners were freed to collect them and to provide military back up if required. Ethel and Evelyn would head towards to eastern most side of the prison which didn't contain any windows that the guards could see though and would in Ethels case teleport inside of the jail and inform the prisoners of their escape, while Evelyn would bend the stone wall apart to create an entrance for them to escape though.

With this plan concocted, Rian summoned a total of five boars and then decided to assist them with making a further mess; by using some rego-herbam to open the door to the jail cellar, and asked the boars if they wanted to eat the supplies within. The alpha boar was also enchanted with  ‘Beast of Outlandish Size’  to make him more powerful and difficult to deal with. This worked with all of the guards distracted and humorously trying to work out how they were going to remove the boars from the cellar without of the guards getting killed, they also sounded their alarm as might have needed back up to deal with pigs. With this distraction, Ethel and Evelyn made their move and got over to the wall where Ethel teleported inside.

Inside the jail, Ethel discovered a large collection of prisoners; all male. Having been advised by the other magi, Ethel was under the appearance of the  ‘Succubus Trick’  and then spoke to the apparent leader of the prisoners; a bloke in his mid twenties who had big belly and seemingly had his nose broken a few times and were told that ‘he and his associates were Mighty Sorcerers’ and friends of Robin Hood and were going to spring them from the jail. At first they seemed hesitant, however realizing that there options were Death by Gisborne or Serving Sorcerers they decided at least for the moment to take the latter. At that point the wall split apart and revealed a smiling innocent looking Evelyn, with her beauty being a great motivator for the prisoners to leave they decided to join and escape.

Meanwhile in the sky, Arianwen discovered that a group of about a dozen horsemen coming from Lenton in the east (the side which contained the hole in the wall) in rather good gear, lead by a man in high quality chain mail and a warhorse and were charging down towards to jail. Logically working out that this would be Gisborne and his Knights, Arianwen conjured an illusion of a group of boars to scare the horses of Gisbornes armed retinue and by the team enough time to complete their mission. This gambit paid off and caused the retinue to be cautious, however the illusion was broken where a knight attempted lance a boar and it went straight though revealing it was an illusion to the cry of  ‘Witchcraft!’ , Gisborne shouted at his men their distraction and stupidity and charged back towards the jail, however Arianwen had been successful in keep them distracted.

The Prisoners followed Evelyn and Ethel back towards to the treeline and started to run off into the woods to hide before the guards at the jail managed to get their act together and deal with the boars. Not long afterwards Gisborne arrived, furious. As he immediately spotted the hole and rode over to the sergeant in-charge of the jail and berated him for his competence, before his discovered a note left on wall pinned by an arrow with a small pouch attached to it. The note stated the following; '' “Here is a payment for crimes these men have committed. Yours, Robin of Loxley – Loyal Servant of the King” '', within the pouch was a single silver piece. Gisborne's enraged shouting could be heard quite far away by Rian who watched the ordeal and managed to overhear what was happening with an amused look.

Deeper into the woods, the group stopped and the ex-prisoners wanted to know about who they were going to serve and would this endanger their immortal souls. Silk and Ethel explained that they would serve the “Good” mages of the Order of Hermes, who abided by laws and didn't consort with demons and that magic wasn't inherently evil, much like a hand wielding a sword, the sword itself is not evil if the hand is good. Moderately convinced they came to an agreement with the Magi and they would see how serving them was like after one year and those that wanted to leave and try and make a new life in somewhere else like Lancashire could. The magi agreed to these terms. The leader of the prisoners called himself Eddie and revealed he was a good brawler if they need of him, which was accepted. The Magi promised that the prisoners could keep the profession they had previously if they wanted to, if not they could easily find something they wanted to assist them with and look at training them.

Realizing that heading back though the villages they initially came though with individuals like Evelyn and Little John was foolish, as they were both extremely easy to remember, especially after the jail break and people would be looking for odd occurances, they instead decided to head back ignoring the villages, thanks to Silk and Islwyn they made it back to the covenant before Gisborne's men could organize a proper search due to the boars.

Once they returned, the Magi decided to deal with several other issues pertaining to Sagehollow. The first of this was the Council of Magi; it was decided that council would have three offices that would be filled. The first was Consul; which would run the administration of the Covenant and deal with its hermetic landscape and what issues would arrive from this. The Second was Praetor, who would organize the defense of the covenant, meet with its spymaster and making sure the grogs and other individuals were able to keep the magi and its interests safe. Finally the office of Tribune would not be held by any Magi and would instead he held by an elected Grog and would possess the power of Veto on any legislation put forward by the magi, on the grounds they explain their Veto while using it. This would improve the overall loyalty the grogs had to the mages as their voices would be heard by magi and held some real weight to it. Each of these offices would last for 1 year and would initially be un-elected, with each mage take the roll of of Praetor then immediately taking the role of Consul afterwards, before being allow a four year gap before needing to take over as Praetor once again. Once the initial infancy of the Covenant has been overcome the positions would then become elected by the Magi.

The second issue was that the covenant needed registering with the Mercere house in Coventry; Ethel decided that this was a task for her and would take Silk (who was eyed as being the covenants eventual Spymaster, as he would soon be making ageing rolls) due to his unique set of skills and various disguises. This adventure will be told soon….

(Summer) 1190 - Trip to Coventry
About a week after the Magi had enacted the prison break, Sagehollow heard the rumor though Robins men who learnt that in order to save face on the prisoners escaping, Gisborne spread the rumor prisoners were executed in secret at the jail instead of publicly by Gisborne. This meant that the prisoners were legally dead and as such could no longer return to their previous lives in Nottingham.

However while Gisborne and Giscard had been foiled for the moment, there were more pressing issues which required attention. The most pressing issue was the need for the covenant to be registered with the Red Caps at the Mercere House in Coventry. Essel decided to take this issue upon herself, and along with Silk, Little John, Old Giles, Alfred and Theopania began their preparations to head towards Coventry. Silk realizing that they were would need a legal fiction for travel, so that they would not be suspected as bandits or the-like, decided they should disguise themselves as a merchant party, with Silk acting as the merchant and Essel acting as his apprentice.

Heading into Nottingham on Market Day, Essel, in order to foster a good relationship with the grogs, allowed Giles and Alfred to head towards to the pub to have a couple of drinks, after which Essel and Silk would have sorted out what type of cargo they would be transporting in their disguise. Before heading to the pub, Silk and Theopania disguised Little John as a great gruesome hunchback, so that he would not be recognized from his previous escapades in the local area (One of which involved a group of prisoners disappearing). Heading into the pub to garner some information, they discovered that Robin Hood had not managed to garner a great amount of reputation among the people of Nottingham and Sherwood, as unlike with the great legend he is not providing his money to the poor. The party realized that in order to keep the peasants on side, they would need to assist Robin with rectifying this issue.

After gathering this information, the party decided to start collecting their trading goods and complete a few jobs in the city. Silk deciding the easiest form of commerce in this part of England was wool, decided to take on the persona of Malcolm of Manchester and collected the wool for their travels. While going to complete other tasks, Essel and Silk left Old Giles as a guard for the wagon.

Silk decided to go look for contacts for lab equipment on behalf of the Mages, knowing that several of them were utilizing either missing ingredients or had lacklustre ones, While Theopania would looked for bookmakers or binders to assist with Sagehollows very modest library. Essel meanwhile looked for generic contacts for Sagehollow hoping to find individuals who would be good allies in the future once Sagehollow has more resources, and also started looking for more covenfolk, such as finding individuals like whores who wanted a different line of employment.

Both Essel and Theopania discovered that all the parchment comes from the local abbeys and as such a trade agreement would need to be reached with them. However during this investigation, Giles got distracted from guarding the wagon and decided to go have a few beers in the pub. When Silk passed the area where the wagon should be, he discovered that it had been stolen, cursing and swearing, Silk managed to gather the rest of the party in record time. Deciding to bollock Giles later once they had reclaimed their belongings, they started the pursuit of the thieves. Managing to locate which direction they headed off in thanks to some bribes given to a couple of beggars, they realized that the thieves had left Nottingham and were headed outside of the eastern gate towards Newark.

Quickly following the trail, they eventually located the thieves up ahead on the road between Nottingham and Newark. They were a group of six men, the group was armed with small clubs, five of the group walked around the wagon, with the six driving it towards Newark. The party also noticed a Merchant and his party passing the thieves and heading towards Nottingham, deciding that they didn't want the merchant to assist the thieves encase it looked like the Party were the actual robbers, they decided to hide and allow the merchant to pass before reclaiming their stock.

Unfortunately the Merchant and his guards had noticed this and believed the party were planning and ambush and waited. The merchants guards step to the foreground. Silk realizing that the Merchant likely thought they were going to attack them, stepped out and called over to the merchant, after an initial suspicious conversation, Silk informed the merchant they only wanted them to pass, because they were in pursuit of thieves who had stolen a wagon of his merchandise and didn't want to involve the merchant or others on the road (meanwhile Theopania snuck off and continued following the thieves), with Silk still in disguise and the merchant knowing his reputation, he managed to convince the merchant and his guards of their good intentions and allowed them to pass, they merchant also introduced himself as David.

After allowing David to pass, the party quickly caught back up-to the thieves and after observing them, came to the conclusion that the men were drunk and this was simply a drunken scheme they had come up with in the heat of the moment. Not wanting to kill the men if they had to, Essel decided that she would attempt to intimidate them, with Little John (who was armed with a small tree as his gear was on the wagon) and Silk as back up. Calling out to the thieves who stopped and confronted them, Essel put forth a threat. The combination of Essel own frightful demure (a combination of “Aura of Ennobled Presence” and her Piercing Gaze), along with the clearly armed Little John and Silk caused the five thieves to surrender. The sixth thief who was driving the Wagon only had a moment to act before Theopania was beside him, a knife to his throat. Deciding to teach the thieves a lesson, Silk stated they should take all of their clothes and make them walk back into Nottingham naked, Essel disagreed and decided they would only steal a single boot (a suggestion put forth by Alfred), this would make their journey uncomfortable and they would learn their lesson. They also quickly frisked the thieves and reclaimed the items which they had individually stolen from their possessions.

Afterwards, Essel decided the best course of action with Giles was clemency, noting his remorse for his actions. With this brief bit of action sorted, the party decided to continue of their journey towards the town of Newark. To reach Newark they took the ferry over the River Trent; the ferry was a simple raft with a pulley system. Heading into the town proper, Silk and Essel informed the other to be on their best behaviour, as Newark and its Hospital were the headquarters of the Knights Templar in England and they were practically on the doorstep of Sagehollow, this was not an enemy that the covenant could handle, so they needed to keep a very low profile.

For the evening the party stayed at the “Inn of the Red Cross” with their wagon safely secured in a the inn’s barn. Essel decided to keep with her policy of allowing the grogs to enjoy themselves and have another evening of rest and relaxation. Little John and Alfred decided to head towards to bar looking for drinks, Meanwhile Silk and Theopania decided to flirt with each other and play a game of who could steal a single coin from the other while in keeping with the conversation. Giles meanwhile nursed a few beers, deciding to keep on his best behavior after the incident earlier.

The following morning, Essel headed towards to town Church in order to attend Mass. After attending Mass, she noticed Bob the Bookseller (the same Bob she had met a week previous, while Silk was in a different disguise), Bob was speaking with several Templars, who had not only conducted the Mass, but were also present afterwards to speak with others and the local community. One of the Templars Essel spotted was a young, half-arab looking man, this was the individual that was speaking with Bob.

Allowing Bob to finish his conversation, She heartily greeted the young clerk and spoke shop with him, informing him that “his” master was currently at the Inn. Essel, knowing which books the covenant wanted to trade for with the abbey, provided the list of tomes to Bob. Bob stated that he would have the tomes available next season, and that they could meet where they first met in Lenton to trade and any future ones they want to complete could also be done there.

Continuing on their way to Grantham, the party realized they could relax somewhat, as the road was regularly patrolled by Templar recruits, who took a very dim view of banditry in the area, many of the bandits having been impaled on spikes and notes left praying for their immortal souls. Otherwise the journey was rather dull and allowed the party to continue uninterrupted, and by nightfall they had reached the village of Grantham. Once again finding a secure inn to stay at and securing the wagon they headed inside, this particular inn was called “The Weathered Spoon”.

Essel once again decided to reward the grogs with another night off to enjoy themselves. Once again Silk and Theopania decided to amuse themselves by continuing to steal the coin from each other. Eventually growing bored, they decided to stage a fight and pretend to break up and find other individuals to steal from, the person with the highest gains being the winner (this specific round was won by Silk). The party also decided to sell the Wool here in Grantham, so that they might be able to get new merchandise for Coventry, however after speaking with several merchants they discovered they wouldn't even cover the costs of travel and decided to keep the wool for selling at Coventry.

The following morning the party headed on their way to Leicester, knowing that they would not be able to stay at an inn for that evening, they decided to take precautions; They would camp off the road, have watches and Essel would created a ring of darkness around them to disguise any fires needed. Unfortunately on the way to Leicester, the weather turned for the worse and rain started. Even though Silk was skilled at driving the wagon, it eventually became stuck in the mud on the road, causing Little John, Alfred and Giles to push the wagon free. While it took some time, swearing and sweat, they eventually managed to get the wagon free and continue on their route to Leicester. That evening, the party made camp. Alfred cooked the food needed for the evening, Essel created magical defenses, Little John and Giles set up the camp and Silk tended to the animals. Theopania however putting her acting talent to work managed to disguise the fact she was doing any work and managed to get a rather easy evening.

The night passed uneventfully, and with the weather still being foul the following morning, Essel decided to cast “Cloak of the Ducks Feathers” as a spontaneous group spell; succeeding on this, her standing among the grogs improved as they were now dry for the day as the rain continued to pour downwards. By Lunchtime the weather had started to improve and rain stopped, however even with the rain stopping, the road was still a quagmire and difficult to pass though. Luckily, Silk once again came though and managed to keep the wagon on the better drained parts of the road going slightly off the road entirely when necessary. Because of the awful conditions the party decided not to stop of lunch and continued on their way to Leicester. Eventually they came upon a wooded area, in the middle of the road where there was two wagons pulled across it blocking the path, in-front and around the wagon approximately twenty men were position, all armed with small arms and the occasional crossbow. Realizing a possible fight, Essel cast “Wizards Sidestep” and Little John located his pole-axe, the other also prepared for combat.

Deciding to be sporting, the party continued forward like there was no problem to let the bandits make their “Your Money or Your Life!” threat. Alfred also spotted that there were no further bandits in the wood nearby, as Essel, Little John and Giles step forward to greet the Bandits. Meanwhile Silk, Theopania and Alfred would hold back and guard the wagon and also prepare for an engagement if required. Essel cast “Aura of Ennobled Presence” upon herself and begins to banter with the Bandits who requested that they would have to handover half of their good and all the change they had on them in return of passing, Essel made a counter offer that they surrender and give us everything they owned. The Bandits scoffed at this, so with Little John stepping forth to protect Essel from Archer fire, Essel cast “Topple the Brutish Band” and threw half of them on the right hand side into the wagons, this also knocked the crossbowman down. Essel once again made her threat, and terrified the group ran, leaving some of their friends behind.

While most who were knocked down by Essel escaped; the Crossbowman was still slightly in shock and was unable to pull himself together before the party was upon him, and another man had taken a nasty head wound and was unconscious. Little John quickly confiscated the Crossbow, and they pulled the guy who had taken the nasty head injury out of the mud so he wouldn't drown. The party quickly moved the wagons out of the path and to prevent similar issues from arising in the future, they removed the wheels from the wagons to use as firewood (and to greatly annoy the bandits) with Little Johns pole-axe. As Silk passed, he decided to have one final piece of fun and put the hand of the guy who had taken the head injury and put it on the mans crotch, as to place him in a compromising position, chuckling to himself as they continued to Leicester.

The journey towards Leicester continued fairly uneventfully, until Silk spotted a small group of figures in the woods off to the side. The group seemingly consisted of two people in heavy cloaks, deciding to be friendly Silk called out to them. Discovering that the two were Women, and that they were heading towards Leicester they decided to tag along encase of further problems like the Bandits further up the road (Silk realized that they only stated they were going to Leicester due to the fact the Party was). Theopania meanwhile also noticed that the pair were wearing Nuns habits, after a bit of word play from Silk and Theopania, they decided to disguise the two young women who we’re called Arianne (the talkative and smaller of the two) and Caitlyn (the silent and larger of the two).

Having arrived at Leicester unimpeded (minus a few times the wagon needed to be removed from the mud), they headed towards a local inn to spend the evening. Once at the inn the party had another night off, Silk spotted an old acquaintance of one of his other disguises (Edward of London) a money broker called Joseph the Jew. Joseph almost spotted Silk though his disguise, however due to being a master spy, Silk managed to get away with his current disguise. Essel meanwhile managed to speak with both Arianne and Caitlyn and listened to their backstory; they were on the run from their Nunnery as both were not suited to the lifestyle of a Nun. Seeing an opportunity for more covenfolk (especially female covenfolk) offered them employment at the covenant, something the young women said they would consider.

Elsewhere in the pub, Silk and Theopania decided to organize a huge pub fight, so that they could either make money or steal it. Going into separate disguises, organized a fight between Old Giles and Little John. A combination of Leadership and Guile won out and they attracted a huge crowd for the event, and swayed the crowd to put a large bet on Little John, as due to his monstrous size, he would likely win the fight. Meanwhile Silk and Theopania placed all their money on Old Giles (a veteran brawler), Old Giles, wiped the floor with the Ex-Varangian and the evil minded pair managed to make a good amount of winnings from the fight. During this time Alfred spent the evening chatting up the local Barmaid, he was successful in this endeavour and retreated away to spend the evening ploughing the young women

The following morning the party arrived at Coventry, decided to deal with all of their business in one go, they sent Theopania over to the Mercere House to announce that Essel of Bonisagus would be arriving shortly. And the others would deal with the wool which they had purchased in Nottingham, Sadly the wool didn't turn a great profit, but it didn't lose any money either, so managed to accomplish its task of being a good disguise for Essel’s travel.

After selling the wool, the party headed for the Mercere House, the Mercere House took the form of a lovely farming estate and a manor house. Outside of the estate by the stables were several very fine horses, clearly bearing the distinction of the Templars, meaning that they were currently visiting the Mercere House. Arriving at the door they are met by Percy the Red Cap, along with his bodyguard another giants blooded individual. While dealing with the issue of the covenants registry, Essel asked that as Sagehollow was built on the ruins of another Covenant could they please have the report which showed what Vis Sources and other resources were utilised by the previous covenant. Percy quickly realized and informed Essel that the only Covenants which were lost previously were Diedne covenants during the Schism War. This documentation would also be difficult to locate as the Mercere House in England was torched by the Diedne during the War, however copies of the previous covenants holdings might be found at Durenmar and Harco. Essel being from Durenmar decided she would send a message to her Parens asking for this information to be sent over to her.

Percy also revealed that about sixty-five to seventy years ago there was a Tytalus Magus who who lived in Sherwood, and had even registered his Sanctum in the woods nearby the covenant. However no-one has heard from him in a very long time, and his mail was being re-directed to a magna at Cad Gadu, unfortunately this magna died a short while ago in a laboratory accident. The name of the Magus was Regulus, and Percy recommended they have a look into his whereabouts, he also recommended that they head towards Cad Gadu and look to see what mail was collected by his deceased friend Mara.

Essel also utilised this moment to advise the Percy to send out a message to all the other Covenants in England, that Essel would be taking on the Position of the Spring Tenens in the tribunal and would be regularly visiting the other covenants. Percy agreed, and he would send out messengers to advise the tribunal of this. He also stated he would be sending a Red Cap back to Sagehollow to get information on its location and gather other important information about the site and its occupants.

After the conversation with Percy, Percy advised Essel that there was a guest at the House who wanted to speak to her personally. Leading Essel into another room, they met with a young women in her early twenties. She introduced herself as Fredegisa of Guernicus, one of the Junior Quaesitors of the Tribunal. Fredegisa advised Essel that if they were going to break prisoners out of a jail with a hole in a wall, it might be a good idea to close the wall up afterwards, she also refused to provide how she came about this information. Essel saw no reason to lie to the Quasetor's face, especially as one of the most recognizable participants (little John) and one of the freed prisoners (Old Giles) were in the same room!.Essel also hoped to prevent further investigation which could have revealed the covenant's links with Robin hood and the source of the covenant's income. Fredegisa was also a mage Essel hopes to help in the rebuilding of the tribunal (being a reformist) and didn't want to start the relationship with a lie. Fredegisa then went on to explain that she would expect more discretion from the covenant in the future and that she might have a suitable way for the Covenant to deal with another issue in recompense, the issue however was highly delicate.

Fredegisa explained to Essel that a group of Templar's had arrived at the Mercere house looking to purchase magic items, she also explained that it looked the Templar's were window shopping and probably didn't know what kind of items they wanted, this was likely part of a greater scheme or plan, but the order didn't want the Templar's as potential foes, and as Sagehollow has a Verditius Mage, it would be in their interests to create a deal with the Templar's. Her reasoning for this was because Sagehollow’s Verditius magi was young and freshly gauntleted, the items that the Templar's would request could not be exceedingly powerful, as might be the case with an older Verditius magi.

Fredegisa suggests that Essel convince her fellow covenant magna to be on side for this task, and it would not only be useful for the Tribunal, with the Templar's on side, but could also be beneficial for Sagehollow and the Verditius magna personally. Essel agreed, certain she could convince the quirky Evelyn to take on the task.

Leading Essel to another room, Fredegisa introduced Essel and her group to the Templar's, before promptly leaving, although likely keeping an ear on the conversation by mundane means. The Templar's were lead by a half-arab man called Ser Balian; The same man who was talking to Bob back in Newark, he also had a scholarly looking individual of Mediterranean decent alongside him, who was advising the Templar in Greek. Little John managed to catch a portion of the conversation, before the Scholar recognized him as a Varangian previously in service to the Roman Emperor.

Ser Balian greeted Essel and began discussions over the magic items that he wanted to commission. Ser Balian was surprised when Essel explained that the item would be created by a female Armour-smith, however kept his thoughts to himself. Essel only knowing moderately what Evelyn could accomplish at her currently skill level, explained what kind of items the Templars could order, and informed them that these items by the laws of the Order of Hermes would be quite expensive and would have to be staggered to keep within laws of the Order. Ser Balian agreed to these terms and stated price would not be an issue, nor would the cost of the materials to make the item. Eventually the two came to the conclusion that two items were to be created, the first a helmet that would allow the person wearing it to breath underwater. The second a suit of chain-mail that would allow the wearer to be fireproof.

Essel, unsure on the necessary timescales that Evelyn would require to make these items, stated that the first item would be created by Winter this year the second by Autumn the next year. Ser Balian agreed to these terms. Essel however would now need to buy several pawns of Vis in order to allow Evelyn to create these items; the vis needed would be one pawn of Auram Vis (that Evelyn could study), five pawns of either Creo or Auram vis and five pawns of either Rego or Ignem, along with specific supplies necessary to create the item via shape and material bonuses.

Before leaving the Mercer house, Essel wrote 3 letters, one to be left for Fabian the redcap when he returns, written in cipher asking for books on Area lore Stonehenge tribunal (politics) and/or Order of Hermes Lore (one every year)as per the Blackmail story hook. The second in Trianoma cipher to the Shadow tower (Trianoma tower) at Durenmar asking for information about the former Diedne covenent. And the third to the same place naming Ser Balian and his associate 'a person of interest' in her capacity as the Spring tenens.

With these issues accomplished, the party headed back towards Sagehollow with Rufus the Red Cap as a companion.

(Spring) 1190 - Hunting Down the Vis
About ten days after Essel left for the Mercere House in Coventry, the young Maga returned with a Red Cap named Rufus in tow. Upon his return, Little John was provided a letter bearing the seal of the Roman Emperors court, upon reading the letter, the giant man, packed his belonging and informed the magi, that he had been summoned by the Roman Emperor for an important undertaking, it might be several years before they see him again; however if they required assistance while in Constantinopolis, he would gladly help them. Knowing that the Magi needed to be informed of what she had learned in Coventry, Essel summoned the remaining magi to a tent at Sagehollow and began a Council meeting. The individuals in attendance were; Arianwen, Edric, Essel, Evelyn, Rian and Tribune Ellie.

The first order of business decided upon by Essel was to inform the covenant that they were now registered with Mercere House and future letters and mail would be delivered accordingly, She then went on to explain her meeting with the Quaesitor Fredegisa, and how Sagehollows had been caught meddling with the Mundanes, while this wasn't an official reprimand, it was a simple conversation about if they intended to meddle with the local Mundanes, at-least have the common sense to remove any evidence (such as holes in walls) from the scene of the crime. This immediately was capitalised on by Edric, who raised the issue of how she knew of the Covenants activities; suggestions of possible scrying, a spy among the new grogs or possibly even Theopania being a spy (as Fredegisa is from Schola Pythag, as was the young grog).

Essel then mentioned that in exchange for this issue being dropped, the covenant would have to deal with another issue that Fredegisa had; namely the Templars looking for magic items. Essel immediately volunteered Evelyn for this job, much to the young maga surprise and protest. In the end however Evelyn agreed to make the items for the Templars and would even generously give all of the funds made from their creation to help Sagehollows problematic funding issues. However she would need someone to act as a Venditor for her, and she would also like to meet the individuals who had requested the items from her (much to Essel’s horror).

With that immediate issue resolved, the mages turned to some of the other pending issues that needed resolving; Firstly Essel brought forth an idea she had formulated while on her journey to Coventry; She mentioned that several working ladies of somewhat ill employment had expressed an interest in leaving their pimps and would very much like alternative employment, the other mages agreed with this sentiment and agreed that in this issue, leaving none of the future covenfolks employers alive would be the best possible avenue as this would prevent witnesses and would also prevent any future retaliation from the pimps.

Edric brought forth the second agenda; Sagehollow required more income sources, the run in with Fredegisa had made it apparent that Sagehollow had gotten very lucky with the Quaesitor not learning about their primary income source, it was universally agreed upon by the magi, that removing the bandits as an income source was a very high priority and would require a serious look at in the next few seasons. Edric suggested that the covenant look into Usury as a possible income source, this idea however was pushed back on by both Essel and Evelyn, both of whom didn't want to endanger their immortal souls by committing Usury. Edric did however suggest that rather than interest being charged (which was the sin), that they instead lend the money with resources and services to be charged instead in-case of late payments. This still hadn't garnered great support, however it was an avenue of pursuit that the mages agreed to look into.

The next item brought forth was by Evelyn, who advised that Sagehollow desperately required Vis sources. Not only for the covenants ‘’Aegis of the Hearth’’ which would expire in Winter, but also for Evelyn to create magic items for Sagehollow. Evelyn suggested that Edric look into this matter, as he possessed the greatest skill in Intellego of any of the magi present. Edric reluctantly agreed, and stated that once the council was over, he would gather a team of grogs and start trying to locate some Vis sources. To assist Edric, Evelyn stated that Robin had previously mentioned of an old Roman temple located in a glade to the south west.

Following on from this conversation, Essel mentioned that the Red Caps in Coventry, informed her that there was another Hermetic Mage located very close by. A Tytalus Magus by the name of Regulus, had registered his sanctum in a patch of Forrest to the north of the Covenant approximately sixty-five to seventy years ago. While he hadn't registered any Vis Sources, it would be a good idea to locate him (or what remains of him) and possibly negotiate deals for Vis with him. The Red Caps also mentioned that he has having all of his mail re-directed to Cad Gadu; to a maga named Mara, who had recently perished in a laboratory accident. Rian was volunteered to head this investigation into the Tytalus mage, and would be locating the woods that the mage at set his sanctum within shortly.

Edric building upon what Evelyn had been told by Robin, stated that the covenant should possibly look to investigate Newstead Abbey, Evelyn suggested that because Sagehollow was collecting the books procured by Bob in Lenton during the summer, it would be a very easy detour to investigate the Abbey while on that journey to collect the books, the other magi agreed and would advise the grog team sent to collect the books to also investigate the Abbey on the way.

The next agenda to be discussed by the magi, was covenant duties to be undertaken by the Mages. The mages all agreed that they would spend the summer writing books for the covenant; Edric would write a tractatus on Magic Theory, Essel a tractatus on Rego, Rian a tractatus on Creo and Arianwen a tractatus on Parma Magica. These would also be written in the Summer, this would allow Haeddi (a failed apprentice from Durenmar) who was gifted with the art of figurine magic to create some wax figures to boost some of those writing books so that they are of a higher quality, Haeddi would also be writing a tractatus on magic theory in the summer. This would mean that each mages had spend a season on Covenant Duties. Evelyn however would be creating the magic items for the Templars as her duties to the covenant and would be spending three seasons on this as opposed to the single season the other mages were doing.

The final agenda was who would be voted into the two covenant offices; Praetor and Consul (this part of the story will be added later, as two players were missing. This will be updated once the voting has taken place).

With the Council of Mages concluded, Edric decided to complete his promise to the other mages and locate some Vis Sources nearby the covenant. To this end, he gathered the grogs; Thorfinn, Byrne and Osanna to protect him as he journeyed into the wilderness. With the grogs gathered, Edric decided to capitalize on the advice that Robin had provided Evelyn and head towards the south west looking for the a possible vis site. Edric easily cast a spontaneous spell to allow him to sense nearby vis, and was able to hear three possible sites nearby while at Sagehollow, with the closest to the south west (as Robin had suggested). Heading south west, the party took one of the many hidden paths known by the covenant towards Newstead Abbey. Edric could hear the humming of the Vis from towards a large section of woods.

The woods before them was rather dense and overgrown, huge walls of brambles, nettles and fallen trees marred their route. Deciding to try and find an easier way though the woods, Edric ordered that they travel around the woods looking for a good entrance that was easier to traverse. Spending a few hours looking around the edge woods (during this time the spell was dropped, as Edric noticed the sound was coming from towards the centre of the woods) they managed to locate a possible path; an old animal track on the southern edge of the woods which was heavily overgrown, but somewhat more traversable than the other parts of the woods.

Entering the woods, their initial approached was easy for most of the part. Edric however has some issues with traversing the path (mostly due to his size and girth), this lead to him almost headbutting a tree due to slipping on some mud. While his walking stick was broken, he managed to escape from this without injury. Continuing though the woods, and having several more troublesome paths, they managed to make good progress without too many issues. On the journey the party located several tracks of what seems to be a huge dog or wolf, the creature was far larger than it should have been and caused the group to be on guard in-case the creature was nearby, however Osanna had determined that the tracks were at least several days old, so there should be no immediate threat. This continued until Bryne deciding to take an alternative route from the others over an obstacles managed to fall though a floor of brambles and nettles into a Brooke running though the woods. The brambles and nettles scratched delicate areas of his anatomy and caused some discomfort, unfortunately the brambles also locked into the straps on Byrne’s armour and caused him to get stuck in the bramble floor.

Thorfinn, anchoring himself down managed; with Byrne’s assistance, to pull Byrne out of the bramble floor and Osanna got to work with making poultice out of Doc Leaves to alleviate Byrne’s injuries. Meanwhile Edric kept watch on the situation alongside Thorfinn once he had extracted Byrne from the brambles. While the poultice was being applied to Bryne, Thorfinn noticed movement in the trees about twenty metres away from where Thorfinn stood. In the woods was a huge black dog, its fur as black as night and eyes as crimson as blood. Evidently cautious, he alerted Edric and the others subtly. It became apparent on a short inspection that the hound was clearly intelligent and watched the party curiously for a few moments before heading further into the woods towards the south east.

Breathing a sigh of relief, the party continued on their journey though the thick overgrown path, spending the next several houses making slow progress. Finally the party reached a glade within the centre of the woods, the glade had a deep green colour too it and several large boulders were staggered around glade. The thickness of the canopy was so intense it was almost impossible to see the sky, and the green light shining though the trees was intensified by the vast volumes of wet slippery moss covering the floor.

Working into the glade following the noise that Edric could hear after recasting the spell. They discovered two upright columns. The columns clearly of Roman design were followed by further columns which had collapsed, several small walls could be seen alongside the reminiscence of a roof, two large boulders also blocked an area which lead into an underground section. The area was clearly the Roman ruins which Robin had mentioned, quickly searching around the area before looking into the underground section, they discovered a collection of partial damaged inscriptions, which read; VE//US //ENET//IX. Studying the inscriptions Edric came to the conclusion that the temple was dedicated to the Roman Goddess; Venus Genetrix, also known as Venus the Mother.

After re-casting the spell, Edric realized that the sound he was hearing, was in the underground section of the temple. Knowing that they would be without light sources, the party created several torches and proceeded into the bowls of the earth. Inside the temple they saw that the place was completely overgrown with moss and other vegetation, a small amount of light was at the far end of the temple, however vines and other flora made it almost impossible to see the other side. Taking their time, the party headed towards the southern wall of the temple (which was easier to traverse, due to two collapsed columns – the roof being held up thanks to pressure and plant-life), seeing that on the walls there were several torch sconces, Thorfinn light one of the spare torches and placed it within one, so that if the party did fall over, they would still have a light source. By this point they could see what the light at the other end of the temple was illuminating. Upon a raised Altar was a skeletal body, both of the skeletons hand was grasped around an iron dagger which had been plunged into their ribcage. Edrics spell (which had been re-cast) showed that the vis source was on the body; specifically the dagger.

Heading over to the skeleton to investigate further, Thorfinns leg was grabbed by a skeletal hand. Several other skeletons began to reveal themselves from the moss around the temple, all armed with Pilums and Gladius’s. The Skeletons having the jump on the party managed to inflict some minor injuries to Thorfinn, however, other than causing Osanna to drop her shield (due to a pilum sticking inside it), the group managed to deal with the attackers with a combination of heavy handed violence and magic. With there foes defeated and minor medical treatment applied to Thorfinn, Edric and the others approached the Skeleton upon the Altar. While this Skeleton had not moved, the party decided to be cautious in case it did, while Edric examined the body. Using magic, Edric discovered that a crystal coating the dagger inside the ribcage of the skeleton was the vis from the Vis Source. Edric also realised that from how the body was position and the unusually strong aura present in the temple, that the body was likely that of the temples High Priestess, who had committed ritual suicide to strengthen the temples power during the heathen purges of the Roman Empire (this story was very similar to the sacrifice of Trianoma at the founding of the Order).

After carefully collecting the Vis from the dagger, Edric cast ‘’Sense the Nature of Vis’’ to determine what Vis Source the Covenant now had, and discovered from its Silvery glow, that they now had a Vim Vis Source, Edric also released that he had foolishly forgotten to bring a known quantity of Vis to see how much the Vis source provided. Meanwhile the rest of the party gathered up the Pilums and Gladius’s from the skeletons and searched the rest of the temple, during their searched they located several stone tablets inscribed onto a clay-like substance. Edric quickly looking over the tablets realized that they were magical in nature, however were also encrypted and would need to be decoded before they could be utilized. He did however realize that they were likely rituals, however they were not like those utilized by the Mercurians (which made sense, as the temple was too Venus). Realizing that they would need to return to the Covenant, the group packed up what resources they managed to collect and headed back though the woods returning to Sagehollow. (the rest of the Adventure will be updated after play)