Ghosts of Old

Reports of the Harts Council in York, 1104.

This is my report on the proceedings of the council. I include here only those issues with which I was involved. I have tried to set down everything that I can remember, but if there are any gaps then I apologise. If any have any queries relating to these issues then they may contact me privately and I will try to assist.

1. Bellette and the Ritual Effect

When Lord Percival returned from (as I later found out) the mission to the Fenlands, he brought with him a woman. She was shorter than I, with dark hair, a foxfur stole, and an unearthly air. Percival introduced the lady to me and asked me to talk to her and “find out her story”. I did so, and found her conversation fairly pleasant if a little confusing.

What came forth out of discussions with the lady – held by myself, the Lady Glycell, High Mage Jasmine Daisybreeze, Deputy High Mage Osric Karlennon and Lord Edward Falcon amongst others – was that she was a created being who had always been bound to serve a series of masters (four in total). The latest of these was The Mistress, a Fae ancestor of the Fenlands (originally from the Cymrijan marshes). Bellette had been sent to us to ensure that we made good on our promise to attempt to return Faith to The Mistress.

Bellette could not tell us what kind of being she was, so Glycell looked at the lady’s pattern in some way which I did not entirely understand – suffice to say that it seemed to involve a lot of massaging – and revealed that the Lady was some form of “Demonic Herald” and that she was strongly linked to the element of Air.

The longer Bellette stayed with us, the weaker her binding seemed to grow as her Mistress’ attentions turned elsewhere. She was able to tell us more, including the fact that she had taken part in the blood ritual which we had reactivated by killing Wingol in the circle. In fact she was the ritualist and had been holding the dagger. While the binding was upon her she could not tell us much as her memories of her actions whilst under different bindings were very shaky – however, if we freed her, she might be able to tell us more. It was from her that we learned that the circle had been created as a weapon by members of the elder races (Aldeyork and his cronies) to defeat the empire of man.

The circle itself was not a weapon, but the blood ritual conducted here (and presumably in all the circles linked to it?) had enabled the linking up of all the ritual circles in Northern Albion (including the Wellspring) – as depicted on the map on the altar stone. One could conduct a ritual in one circle on the network and it would be as if you had conducted the same ritual in all the circles it was linked to (those which showed green on the map). Furthermore, these circles could be closed, sealed or activated from the York circle.

This is the ritual effect which was/is currently in place. It makes the possession of York vital to Albion’s security unless we can find a way to reverse the ritual. At the same time, however, it may give us an advantage if we wish to use it.

Bellette wanted us to free her from her binding and make it impossible for her to be bound again. She admitted that she could give us no promise of her future conduct, but asked that we would judge her by those actions she took once free, not the things she had done whilst bound to another’s will. I took pains to assure her that Albion law would not hold her responsible for acts committed against her own will whilst bound, as the bound demon is controlled as surely as the possessed individual and the controller is liable for the action in the same way.

On Saturday we broached the subject with Lord Protector Sagramor, but he was unsure of whether we should conduct the ritual or not as we could not guarantee what the consequences would be. As Jasmine, Glycell and I made preparations and rounded up contributors, Sagramor asked me what I would do, and I answered as honestly as I could. My answer was that we had been ignoring the premises of Albion for too long, and the Albion does not tolerate slavery. Whatever the consequences might be, I felt we had a duty to help this woman who was enslaved and asking for our help.

This seemed to convince him and Jasmine and I continued assisting Glycell with finding contributors. After a very brief preparation – being unable to conduct a full rehearsal in case the Mistress should hear of it, and also therefore unable to consult Bellette – we went to the ritual circle. A discussion then ensued as we realised we had nothing to power the ritual, and Bellette suggested that we should use blood as that was what this particular circle was powered by.

After more discussion, necessarily rushed as we were running out of time, we each agreed to give a small amount of our own blood to power the ritual. My own opinion on this was that we had to do the ritual, and that the small sacrifice from each of us was a symbolic gesture only and one which people have been using for thousands of years. To sacrifice a life would have been wrong, but for each of us to give a little of ourselves to ensure the lady’s freedom was not.

I have since heard idle chatter referring to this ritual as “blood ritual”. It was not. Using blood in a ritual does not make it a “blood ritual” – when we use that phrase we generally mean a ritual where people or animals are killed as sacrifices and their blood given up as an offering. In this case, we were using a very small amount of the blood of willing individuals to power the oaths we were going to make within the circle. That is the best way I can explain it.

The ritual went on then, with Aethelwyn of the Kindred of Sing leading and the Lady Glycell assisting her and holding the circle seal. Bellette warned Aethelwyn that when she took in the power of the circle she would feel an amazing surge of power, as the power of all the circles linked to this one would be open to her; fortunately, Aethelwyn was able to keep control of herself and did an admirable job. Contributing were myself, Jasmine Daisybreeze, Frederick of the TPB, Lord Edward Falcon, Earl Julian Charenten, Baron Holly, Samuel Croft of the House de Gales, and Lord Marcus Charenten – I think that was all.

I will not detail the exact ritual, but note here that Bellette, as promised, stabilised the ritual circle for us before we began. We destroyed the name of Bellette which had been given her by the Mistress and allowed her to take back her true name of Thalidrion. We swore that neither we, nor our own ancestors, would bind her, and that no others would be able to do so. Though the demon’s growing glee throughout the ritual did somewhat unsettle me, I comforted myself with the knowledge that we had not made her indestructible – merely freed her from slavery and prevented her from being enslaved again.

Thalidrion informed me after the ritual that we had in fact broken four bindings – three she had not known about. These included the binding of the Mistress and the original one of Aldeyork. It seems that it is possible for demons not to know that they are bound, and even for their masters not to know that they have other bindings upon them.

There are bound to be questions about whether we should have conducted the ritual or not, given the events following it – I was not directly involved in these so I cannot comment on them, but it was suggested that it may have been Thalidrion who helped the Big Four escape. I must state for the record though that it is my opinion that if we cannot stand by our own principles, by our own laws, then we are not Albion and we have no right to the land and the people whom we serve.

I believe Thalidrion dealt more or less honestly with us and we with her. We will let her future actions decide how we deal with her in future as a free individual.

2. Thefts, possessions and beguilements

During the Friday night and Saturday morning a number of possessions and beguilements took place. The first pair to mention are Nanny Ogg and Corax who possessed the bodies of Lady Glycell and Lord Percival. They would not leave until we promised to send a mission the following day to find Nanny Ogg’s diary which Corax had apparently hidden (but this is covered below).

The second series are different and more worrying. A number of Harts – I do not know exactly how many, but I know Percy Percy du Montagne and Lord Percival were both affected – there were others. These people were being beguiled to kill Harts, by whom we are unsure but it is possible that they may have been outside the hall at one point. The specific reference to “Harts” suggests a modern, likely Empire source rather than the older threats we were dealing with over the course of the weekend.

It is regrettable that it seems at least two people died as a result of these beguilements, and it my opinion that we should be more wary of this threat in future. A friend who is beguiled is the best kind of assassin – we need to know who did this so that we can beware of them in future.

A number of thefts took place over the weekend. I am particularly embarrassed that I believe my own notebook may have been stolen, but fortunately it was not until Saturday that it was mislaid and I had not updated it; it was also a fresh one and so had no extra information within it.

More importantly perhaps, a raft of documents which had been purchased at some personal expense by Lord Percival, Percy Percy and Eborus, were stolen it seems on Saturday. These documents had been purchased from one Alcion, former headmaster of the library and school at York, who was trying to fund the rebuilding of the library. (It might be nice if we could assist him in some way – I will look into it.) Many of us perused the documents on Friday night and they were returned to Lord Percival’s quarters for safekeeping. In the morning, Lady Katerina asked to see them and they were handed to her – I saw her poring over them with Zac Charenten and Corvus Hroc at one point. In the morning they had not been returned and they were declared missing – along with the dagger which powered Mad Bill’s device.

We cannot allow this to go on, with possibly sensitive items falling into Empire hands. It is certain that the dagger was stolen by a Lion Knight and it seems likely that the documents took a similar route; how someone got close enough to me to steal a notebook from my pocket is uncertain but we must face the possibility that there are Empire agents amongst us.

Of the documents, there were a lot of philosophical and magical treatise, and information on the whole of Erdreja. Of particular interest to the Empire however I would guess would be the copy of Elspeth’s journal which reveals that Jasper is the illegitimate son of Elias Karlennon and therefore his daughter is a possible claimant to the throne; and the story of King Ceffrun and the Sword of Ages which relates to Cornwall.

I suggest that we immediately check on the status of Jasper’s daughter and make sure that she is safe.

3. Mad Bill’s device

At the council the relevance of Lady Katerina’s map was finally uncovered. A device was found which would, it seemed, allow transportation between any two points on the map. The device had a slot for a dagger – that which we found and subsequently lost. I missed the majority of this, but I was given the opportunity to peruse the information we had, in the form of several letters written by Shah Lee, along with Croft and Lord Marcus Charenten.

There are five points marked on the map, and these relate to York, Bristol, Stretton, Londinium and Exeter. We believe there may be a sixth device which Mad Bill never uncovered, possibly at Fryston, as the circles seem to pair up and one is missing. The nature of the transportation is unclear but it may be powered from the ritual circles somehow, and it dates from before the Empire.

All the angles and distances are marked on the map. Basically the transportation relies on triangulation and a number of equations are required – the example given in Shah Lee’s letter was that of travelling to York. The equations revealed that the key circle – that which gives the equation the closest value to 1 – is Exeter. The implication is that it does not matter where you are travelling from, only the destination and the key circle.

I believe Croft has more notes on this but I will follow it up with further study myself and would suggest that others do the same, and we compare notes when we are next together. If the Empire now have the means of controlling this device we must expect them to use it and we will have to be prepared for this, including discovering the location of all the other devices and possibly guarding or monitoring them.

As a possible amendment to Cawd’s comments in his report, it seems likely that only one dagger is required to operate all of the devices and that the dagger travels with you – unfortunately we have no means to test this theory. I do not believe – although I am not sure – that Shah Lee’s letters were stolen from us, so it is possible that the Empire only have the dagger and not the full means or understanding to operate the device.

4. The Maiden

On Saturday night a number of ladies started feeling slightly strange, including myself. I cannot speak for the others, but I know I had a feeling that something was going to happen. I heard Lady Katerina mentioning a similar feeling to someone and we realised that it was the majority of the women present who were affected; having been checked for any signs of poison, disease, or any beguilement it was found that some of us (myself included) had traces of a faint ancestral possession, relating to the Maiden.

Soon the Maiden herself possessed the body of PeeDee, one of the Seelie Court, and she told us that she had come to choose a new representative (following Bethany’s sad mental breakdown after the Empire’s ritual at the Gathering of Nations). She would set us a number of tasks to complete, and we would be competing against an Empire contingent for the honour.

The threat of the Empire gaining partial control of the Mother, and the further risks in terms of legitimising the Empire’s claim on Albion, gave us additional impetus and we followed PeeDee into the woods. There we faced several encounters which used all of our skills; first two fights with strange, growling beasts; then two men fleeing from beastmen who claimed they had broken the laws, a complaint which Lady Katerina (as the ranking noble present) successfully adjudicated; and finally a man in the road telling riddles. We failed to guess the first one, and they became more and more ridiculous (along the lines of, “If Sagramor wears purple socks, what colour is his wife?); finally Lady Katerina responded with, “If an idiot stands in the road talking rubbish to a group of ladies in the rain, what happens to the idiot?”. The man disappeared and we returned to the Hall.

The Maiden spoke again through one of us and said that we had to choose a candidate. We found none immediately willing to stand forward, and Deirdre Karlennon then asked me if I would step forward and I replied that I would if necessary, for Albion’s sake. The discussion thus progressing to those who would stand if it was necessary, three candidates were found; myself, Sofia Gregory of the Ordo Hwyt Draga and Captain Eclipse of the Company of the Blackened Staff. We called all the women present in the hall to vote, and it was I who was chosen.

The Maiden spoke again, this time through Lady Branwen de Gales. She said that she had not yet chosen; the Imperial candidate was a Lion Knight who bore a resemblance to Reann, our own High Incantor. I realised then that I could not fight her, as there was too much at stake. Instead, we gathered all together and stood at the Shrine. I took up a sword and shield, and swore that I would defend Albion and her people, and that I had the support of all the ladies present (each of us with a hand on the others). Someone passed me Excalibur and I held it aloft as I made my promise.

What happened next is a bit of a blur – I saw a set of scales, myself in one side, and my side was lowest. I knew then that we had won, and I knelt at the Shrine again to give thanks to the Maiden and to Puck for lending me to his sister while she needed me.

5. Nanny Ogg’s diary

Nanny Ogg possessed the body of Lady Glycell on Friday night as detailed above. She returned on Saturday morning in something of a hurry to go to Exeter and find her diary. Eborus was in charge of the mission and managed to put a group together, although not quickly enough for Nanny Ogg who had in the meantime transported us all to Stretton and back to prove how much of a hurry she was in (she had overheard Lord Percival asking everyone not to transport to a circle which was red on the altarstone map unless it was an absolute emergency).

We went to Exeter then and were greeted by soldiers of the 8th legion guarding the ritual circle. They let us through as long as we left two of our comrades – of their choosing, in this case Eborus and Earl Julian Charenten – with them, and we took one of their soldiers (“John”, I believe he was called, a curiously non-Imperial name) with us as evidence of our permission to travel, charged with his protection.

It took Nanny Ogg a while to remember where she was going. The first thing we met on the way was a group of peasants charging a tax for use of the bridge. I believe Quinn resolved the issue, but I’m not sure whether he used money or just the fact that we had Imperial permission to travel.

Next we encountered a young girl of about 12. She was very worried about “the children”, and the fact that they were hungry and possibly sick. Apparently they were orphans and were hiding in the woods, scared. Interestingly, she seemed more scared of Imperial troops than of us. Myfanwy of the Brecbras promised the girl that she and the children could have food and hospitality at her house nearby, if they could get there.

Something strange happened here and I am not sure what it was. I do know that the conversation with the girl was strange; she kept repeating herself and at one point she said, “It’s a done deal. I will hold you to that” or something along those lines, and she spoke in a totally different voice and with a totally different manner.

The little dip where the girl was standing was not far from Nanny Ogg’s final destination, a nearby tree. Unfortunately her diary was nowhere to be found – I think it was at this point that Lady Glycell returned to herself and Nanny Ogg left us, but I suspect that her story is not yet finished and I wonder at the significance of the book.

We now saw the approach of Imperial troops, who informed us that they were our honour guard as we were carrying weapons. Fortunately we managed to get rid of them – in part thanks to the presence of the Imperial soldier we had with us (I assume here that he was a soldier, although in fact he had no uniform.)

We started back, aware that we would be receiving more Imperial pressure to be gone the longer we tarried. We found that two of “the children” had returned to the girl in the wood, and we checked them for disease and poison and healed them, although they seemed largely fine. We asked them if they had seen the book but they answered that they had not – Jasmine did suggest that she thought they might have it, and be hiding it, but to me it seems unlikely that these two stories are connected and I think that the girl may be more significant than we think. She may even be ancestrally possessed.

There was little more we could do at this point though, and so we returned to the Exeter circle to travel back to York. This time we met no brigands at the bridge. Our Imperial guest gave a report of our conduct to his superior, in which he was very supportive of us. Interestingly enough, he mentioned the brigands at the bridge and his superior responded that “they were probably rebels, still trying to fund their revolution”. Have we made contact with any rebellious factions in Cornwall, and if they exist should we not do so?

Unfortunately, to my mind, Deirdre Karlennon (I think it was – it might have been Jasmine) mentioned to the Imperial troops as we left that we had met some children in the wood and that they might need aid. So now the Empire know they are there, and they know that we were looking for the diary – we might want to act on both these issues before they have a chance to.

Finally, we received back Earl Julian Charenten and Eborus who had been enjoying the Imperial hospitality. They assured us that they had been very well treated, and so all together we left Exeter for York. We arrived in the circle to find a mess of confused Harts and were greeted by the news that Albertus had been rescued and Sagramor taken.

6. The Rede

The first I knew of this mission was when Osric Karlennon approached me asking for those born of Albion to go on a mission for an ancestor of the Vermillion Elves, the Rede. Osric suggested that we would go and do a quest for the ancestor and then he would somehow restore some of the power which had been stolen from our ancestors (specifically I think the Mother) by the Empire’s ritual.

This seemed a bit unclear, and Lord William Hulce in particular showed some reservations, but we went anyway. We were transported into a wooded area; it was very dark and cold. The first thing I remember was hearing a strange, deep voice in my head which said something like, “You must kill the others. Only the strongest survive. Only the strongest can be my champion.” This I felt was rather false advertising, especially as I was only equipped with a shield and my healing powers.

I hid for a while but was spotted and attacked – I later found out, by one of the other Harts (I think he might be called Raymus?). The only thing I remember is that he had a large blunt weapon. Believe me, that was memorable.

After a little while I heard Lord William calling everyone to get together and by the time I had got there (having to heal one of my legs on the way as it was bleeding quite severely), most of us had come together. We discussed the situation and William suggested that we take each other on in honourable combat. We then found some elves who were less open to the idea, but they gave in and took on two of our people one by one. They were defeated and vanished.

Well we agreed that we would each be knocked unconscious until only one remained. I was one of the first down so I didn’t see what happened next (although I should mention that I still have a bump on my head, thank you Lord Percival for that) but I later found out that Straif was the one left standing. However, the ancestor harmed her repeatedly, telling her to kill us all, until eventually she was ejected.

After a while the rest of us came round. We had only about twenty minutes left to complete the quest. We tried to stand strong, and refuse to kill each other, but the ancestor simply harmed us, repeatedly. Again, I went down quite soon (something to do with invoking the name of the Maiden – repeatedly – in the Rede’s realm, I think) and was unaware of what happened afterwards.

What I am informed happened is that everyone was being repeatedly wounded by the ancestor, who was talking to people and trying to convince them to kill everyone else – talking of treachery and jealousy and such like. Time was running short and the ancestor was repeatedly threatening to kill all of us and destroy our patterns until eventually Percival made a bargain with him that the rest of us would be returned unharmed if he killed us all and became the Rede’s champion.

I know that this hurt Percival a great deal but that he believed it was the only way to save us. I am sure that he would not have insulted the Hunter (of whom he is one of the Chosen) otherwise. However, the Rede also told him that Albertus Hroc has a permanent sanctuary and is unkillable – but that the champion of the Rede would be able to cut through this sanctuary. Thus did Percival promise to serve the Rede until this purpose had been fulfilled.

I was very relieved to see Percival’s return, a little time after we had been returned, all seriously wounded, to the Hall. However, others (again, Lord William Hulce in particular) were very angry that he had “given in” to the ancestor and not stood his ground. For my part I understand, but cannot agree with this; I think that Percival did what had to be done, in the service of Albion and her people.

A few further notes – the Rede seems to be a previous version of the Hunter. We have our Hunter, Mother and Puck; before this we have Nethras, Sithras(?) and presumably another Hunter version, and before this we have the Rede and his brethren. He is also known as the Green Man. He is very primeval to our eyes and we must watch Lord Percival (my apologies sir, but it must be said) for any outward changes or signs of the ancestor’s influence.

Genevieve Astolat

	Cawd’s comments from the Parliament: I'll be brief for now. I'm not up on all the details myself as I was late arriving and unable to venture beyond the hall. This isn't in any particular order. While clearly this can be spread to your people, public discussion of much of it may be dangerous to Albion. Additions are welcome, even if you wish them to be just for my information and not to be spread further. Some paperwork was bought, coming from a previous library in the area. It was subsequently stolen. Wingol, the beast from Marchwood was destroyed in what sounds like a well-planned manner. However in hindsight killing things in ritual circles isn’t always a good idea. The blue crystal maker is dead. We seem to have a pact now with a basiliskkin. We will need to stop him and his kind petrifying people though. Eclipse knows more, and tells me that not all of the kin are basiliskkin, although all are beastkin. Diogenes was one. A new shield maiden has been selected – Genevieve Astolat. This had to be done at some speed as the Empire were also angling for it (now that the Mother must treat each equally). A falsely warranted archaeological dig was found and disrupted (a poisoned fake royal warrant…). Several items are held. As a matter of interest, similar digs are taking place all over Cornwall, all in places with local legends of Arthur. The items were a dagger, leather cloak, sword and a belt (magical according to Jasmine). A tunnel was found leading to a secret transporting device, one node of Mad Bill's network (remember Katerina’s map? That seems to be the key). We have the method of activating one keystone, which will allow arrival near Exeter. Two daggers were found of similar form, although one is now lost (believed to have been seen on an Imperial Lion Knight). It is believed that there is a location missing from the map. Anyone who wishes to help work this out, see Katerina for more details. Some suspected Imperial agents were apprehended near Sherburn. A paper found nearby indicates that the Empire, and probably Lion Knights, have a strong interest in a dig near Glastonbury Tor, and no longer feel needed in Sherburn, where a covered agent is. Then names Amandus and Marius Rufus (or similar) should be noted as sender/recipient. I translated this paper, and think v'Ar has it. The Glastonbury dig is being conducted by priests of the Architect, of whom I know nothing. I would like to know more of these people. Suggestions are that they are pro-progress and civilisation, and anti-wild places. Percival adds that the Tor at Glastonbury was where Arthur’s court first met and the Round Table was convened. Some of the demons and 2/4 demonologists of the Covenant have been destroyed. These demonologists now control Elf's rest circle, and are repeatedly binding demons into trees/ents. These ents are corrupting the forest. Straif is very worried over this, as her tree is within the forest. Some Longnose goblins from Caledonia were horribly mistreated in the hall by persons unknown. I expect further trouble over this, although mostly vocal not violent. Albertus Hroc was extracted by a force of Eagle Knights and four Imperial Battlemages. Sagramor and one other were also taken but immediately returned. Hollowtooth Skathen have an army they can lend us apparently. Also the Two Rivers branch were beset by the now drilled goblin horde - equal to an Auxilia nowadays. A window presented itself to deal with the Eagle Knight Black Orc commander on the Sunday. This was done, and he was killed. However the 50ish Ghost Black Orcs prevented an orderly retreat for all, and a large number scattered into the woods. A few are unaccounted for. There was a Lion Knight present, the hall having been apparently staked out by one of their agents all weekend. Reports suggested that the Black Orcs marched away and that the goblins fell to infighting, before being beaten by Albione forces. The ritual circle that reactivated seems to have been the site of an ancient ritual targeted at the Empire of Man. A bound demon was freed, she being one of those who took part in the ritual. The ritual was a blood ritual, and Wingol's death in the circle (after it had annihilated the York Battalion), activated the circle. Wingol had apaprently been once a healer who had fled from the ritual. It appeared to be linking up all of Albion's circles, together with one in Caledonia and maybe others. These were linked by transport and blood (apparently). Eventually it was realised that the remaining four ritualists were bound into the stones and would free themselves: - an elder werewolf Vermilion Elf called AlderYork or maybe Ealdereorc (the one the Vermilion elves dislike so much, and why they want York renamed) - a greater Fire demon - an unliving necromancer of some sort - a demonologist When they came out, they all escaped, quite possibly with the agreement of some present. Not a great success. Over the course of the weekend, the linking up allowed all circles to be deactivated, and individual reactivation as desired. v’Ar points out that a lot of this information came only from the bound demon, and may therefore be highly unreliable. Vermilion Elves turned up and talked a number into going to their ancestor, the Rede (I think). Those who went had to kill each other to prove themselves worthy. Straif subdued everyone and then shouted at the ancestor, only to be harmed and ejected. The others were then put down by Percival, who is now the champion of the Rede, and not very happy about it. Percival adds that the Rede’s power is largely vested in Albertus Hroc, and that this may be of assistance in finding a way to kill him.Something I need to think more on, as I have talked to these people. Tom the mad mage and Wingol's friend was kidnapped by Two Rivers people. An attempt to free him was foiled by fire demons attacking the circle at York. Deaths known of are Drakaeus Charenten the Skathen Tongue and a member of the TPB, at the hands of beguiled/controlled Harts (something was controlling minds, but apparently with some form of charm as Percival reports that the orders given broke the charm). It seems unlikely that this was due to the werewolf, as that should not have known of the Harts. Also Baron James Falcon, killed in the ritual circle, apparently having arrived at the same time as fire demons.Morvais (a Forester I think) in the tunnels to Mad Bill's device.   Stretton circle guard (Order of the Crone/Nethras subsect) have been weakened by a goblinoid attack. Unknown exactly what by, but tracks were left and then apparently expertly covered. A request for aid on Friday was apparently met with "sort it out yourself" - the messengers were subsequently killed. Who made this comment is unknown, so it may have been an Imperial agent or a beguiled person. However we cannot afford to have this happen again, to further turn the people against us. Also some strange attacks, stone lizards only affected by enchanted sharp weapons (normal sharp weaponry shattered on contact). A shambling mound. A swarm of flies spreading disease, paralysis and poison. All creatures killed in the area immediately arose as zombies (probable effect of the circle). Glycell and Percival were possessed by Corax and Nanny Ogg, being forced to arrange a quest to seek out a hidden diary (NO's diary, hidden by C). Julian and Eborus stood surety with the VIII at Exeter, while the diary was sought but not found. However the attempt was apparently enough to quell the control, but the diary remains a mystery to be obtained. It has been suggested that the people need to be aware that the north of Albion is now secure, The dead from Dunwich avenged, that action was taken when the opportunity arose, and that aid was sent as soon as it could be. This information needs to be made public. v’Ar reports that the copper spiral Skaven were beguiling people to speak against the hollow tooth clan. Possibly this caused the charms on our people. I also found a note about Flatlander ancestors showing up. As far as I was aware, the followers of the Twins (I think these are the ancestors) who were prominent within the Harts died some years ago.     Cawd Henriksen

Blackened Staff Letters

Written by Thenni, Editted by Eclipse.

Eclipse ran around talking to the whole world, as she usually does,

I’d stopped to talk to Wyvern on the way into camp, as I was surprised to see him there. He’d apparently brought some information into camp about a few things he’d discovered on his travels including demons in the greenwood and being a member of the Hunters was recruiting people to sort it out. As Phoenix had asked me to look into it the year before, and I had seen the results of the last trip into the greenwood, I made sure that numbers were doubled and that we had some heavily armoured people.

and I got persuaded (very easily) to go kill some Covenant demons in the Greenwood. We appeared in the circle, scaring the ritual circle guards (all the Albione ritual circle guards seem to spend a lot of their lives being bored lately, and not expecting people to arrive, is that good or bad?). We told them we were going to go and fight some demons (which I'd have presumed they might have noticed beforehand) then trundled off into the woods. Assorted demons promptly appeared from all around, and conveniently died when we hit them repeatedly. We proceeded along a path, got ourselves briefly stuck in a valley, then realised that taking Kayleen had been a bad idea, as he promptly got controlled.
So. Knocked Kayleen out, went back to the ritual circle, sent him back to York, and started again. Oh. Having already killed one demonologist who we found lying dead in the ritual circle, with his throat cut. Someone froze him and sent him back to York with the unconscious Kayleen and Osric/Deidre who were going to tell everyone what was going on. Waited for Osric and Deidre to come back, William Hulce sat in the rain, looking heroic.
Went back into forest. Got to same bit again, found many demons, who had presumably been alerted by the noises of us killing everything we saw. They called upon the name of Roxanne then attacked us. We killed them, with not exactly maximum efficiency. Then they walked back in again (or at least demons looking really similar) and very efficiently decimated us. In some desperation, I flung myself at a demon to try and kill it, and suspect I was beaten unconscious. By some luckiest of chances, I awoke to find a healer leaning over me, and more than I had originally believed possible, healed. At this point, dDrazzin took the decision that we were going to leave, right then. I thoroughly admire him for seeing when the story demanded either our lucky escape or our endings. So we retreated, and returned back to York. The second transport wave waited for Percival (who had decided to stay) as long as possible, but reported that the forest came alive around them and they had no choice but to flee.

My recommendation at this time was to go back the next day, with everyone we had there and hopefully solve the problem once and for all. It now looks like they will have time to either move or reinforce their positions.

true but I suppose it was either that, or a lot of angry basilisk kin wanting to kill us…

anyway...

Percival stayed behind to retrieve KSD, but this of course whilst brave was not as suicidal as it sounded, because he had an item which allowed him to teleport. So I suspect his flourish and hoity attitude when he returned with the item in hand was a touch undeserved. Had all of us tried to do that, a good number more Harts would now be dead. However, whilst he was there, he saw (or claimed to have seen) what was happening in the clearing next to the one from which we had to retreat. A demonologist was busily binding demonic
patterns into Ents, and then sending the Ents out, one north, one south, one east, one west, spreading throughout the Greenwood.
I have no idea at all why they are doing this, if they are just trying to make the noble families not marry or have babies with commoners, foreigners or other races.

So we arrived back at York, and loitered. Council happened, and was approximately as boring as last year, except this time we got actual seats, rather than being left to sleep under a tree. Someone explained Strong Ones (one of those things that possessed the Matriach at Iver). Some elves turned up and complained about the whole York thing. I slept for most of the rest of it, Eclipse may have been listening but I think she was dozing too.

I can’t remember much else at the time, but I think it was a run down of the events that had happened. Deidre put me forward as Sheriff of Winchester so that I would have official authority to deal with a number of matters in the Duchy that I had already been working on.

My plaits mostly dried by the end of it all, then Sagramor went back somewhere safe and left us all to face the fairly dangerous ritual circle.

About this time, v’Ar came back with a coded document that had been recovered from a village just outside Sherburn. I had just settled now to work on the document when I had the feeling that something was about to happen to the women in the camp. As I looked round to see if I could spot the potential danger, I noticed that Sophia was doing the same thing. After checking up on people, I noticed that both Thenni and Torvell had disappeared, Mat said that they’d both gone off to look at some tunnels, that I’d been interested in going to have a look at. Someone else said they’d wandered off towards the ritual circle.
By then the feeling that something was going to happen got stronger and worry kicked in. As it turns out Torvell had gone off to look at tunnels, but Thenni was down by the fire.

I started to freeze, so I went and spent some time standing by the fire by the circle with dDrazzin. Nothing tried to murder us, which was for the best, as we would have thrown burning brands at them.
I'd mostly dried in billows of steam when Eclipse sent Russell down to collect me. Apparently something was affecting all the women in the hall so she wanted me there…despite the fact that down by the fire I was absolutely fine….So I wandered up there to find every single woman looking edgy. Which was alright until a clearly arrogant Albione ancestor, aka the Mother, decided to drag me into her plans too, and made me want to go and join in on some quest.
Now, given who was going, I would have gone anyway undercover as a `woman' to take care of them but having the impression forced on me that I cared was really annoying. Almost as annoying as the fact that I seemed to be surrounded by healers who couldn't fight. I don't understand at all, half the fun of being a healer is that you can tell when you've killed something, and when you need to hit it more. Anyway. Myself – half my healing, usual hitting instruments; Georgiana – completely flat after the Greenwood jaunt;

Katerina –who was good to be around as she had a huge shield, a huge sword and acted like a grown-up;
Eclipse and Torvell, who ended up ripping things apart and growling a lot and Sofia, who again was quite fun to be around as she was being capable.

Plus a few others.

We wandered off into the woods, with no real idea where we were going except for the fact that it felt like `that' way. Told the men to stop following us as there wasn't much point – I have an enduring image of Russell standing framed in the shadows, looking after us.

Encountered a black figure, who talked to the blonde fairy for a bit – the blonde fairy who muttered something about quests but she'd forgotten the details…always helpful.

Carried on, got attacked by various things which Eclipse and Torvell ran around after, ripping up. All I know is that they aren’t normally like that, and I resent the idea that they were being controlled as much as I was.

I remember that we were being pointed at something by figures in the dark, and I remember going to see what it was that they were scared of, and after that it’s a bit of a blur, until Thenni shouting at me finally broke my concentration of the hunt and the kill.

Eventually we managed to get through to them a bit, the attacks stopped, and we carried on. Then we ran into four or five trolls who seemed to think they had mastered the heights of witty repartee with their dinner. So we hit them, and I suspect I have some sort of knack with killing trolls – or I was in an exceptionally bad mood by that point – because I was murdering them most efficiently. True, one of them did beat me into the floor and it was quite painful, but I think I killed his friend better.

Once they were all dead, we fixed our armour (at least those of us who wore armour did) and carried on. Oh, and I borrowed Eclipse's mace as she wasn't in the mood to wield it, and I had a sneaking suspicion that I'd REALLY be able to hurt anything else we needed to fight…

Unfortunately all we found was a druid of the Maiden, who asked lots of bad riddles, and fended off Torvell's incessant offers to rut with him. Eventually Katerina threatened him through riddle so he disappeared. We got about 10 paces before some mortals who'd been killing female animals and breaking treaties, came running past, chased by beastkin. Katerina was very official about it all, had a trial, passed a judgement, and we kept walking. Then before I could manage to kill anything else we were back in York. Bit of a shame really.

I'm going to gloss over the whole `chosing the new Maiden avatar' thing, suffice it to say that Genevieve, the elf who publishes the Albion Herald, was chosen.

It was a case of the Harts having to choose an avatar or the empire would have gained her. We were following in the footsteps of that female lion knight most of the way through that quest. 

By this point, I'd lost all the benefit of standing by the fire and was again cold and wet. The servants managed to produce some food, despite the battles raging occasionally outside, so I huddled down in the hall and ate.
Russell made it even better by lending me a big green cloak – Georgiana's dog is really very lovely. Eventually Eclipse managed to bully some food out of the servants as well, and we loitered inside for a while, trying to warm up.
 
The only other thing I remember from that night was the incessant rumours about the circle. Apparently it was going to go horribly wrong, 4 horrible things that had taken part in the original ritual were going to come out of it, and we were all going to die fighting them, the sun for us would never rise on tomorrow. Etc.

So the evening wasn't cheerful, plus it was still raining. Osric was still looking determinedly cheerful. I think his weekend had got even worse when various people had ended up in the realm of some nasty ancestor who had said one of the group had to kill all the rest, and Percival took him up on the offer. I do not think hacking into Osric first made him a lot of friends that day.

Martin arrived, and didn't try to kill me for saying I wasn't going to marry his little brother. Bleys arrived, wearing a coat that was completely unsuitable for the weather. Some Healers guild people wandered in, trying to borrow things for some Gogul killing fun.

Oh, and Stonegrazer, whose eyes you should not look too closely into, turned up, saying that he wanted everyone to come and help arrest/murder Dr.Watson. After some bickering and stressfulness we agreed to go the next day, if any of us survived the Circle of Doom incident. This wasn't blind cowardice, we were really low on all the magics there are by that point.

Stonegrazer and his people had managed to track the doctor down to a place in Sherburn, while they could have dealt with it themselves, it would have meant we would have broken our part in the treaty. I was all ready to deal with them there and then, but everyone was getting ready for the attack from the ritual circle. In the end it was decided that we would take everyone and deal with the matter the next morning and Stonegrazer hung around to help us that night. Must say it seemed a very short fight, as I got paralysed towards the beginning and by the time I was un-paralysed the fight was over. It did seem that the major things we needed to kill had disappeared into the woods around the circle and people had just let them go. 

Oh, and Finn asked if I'd help cast some glamour over Straif's tree to keep it safe from aforementioned rampaging corrupted Ents. This never actually happened though.

So. Eventually we all trooped out into the rain (I say all, I suspect some people had gone to hide in bed) to die by the ritual circle. To my surprise, we didn't. Although apparently we let the 4 nasty things walk away, but I can't criticise, I wouldn't know what they looked like.

That done, I went to bed. I'd shouted at some healers, stopped Eclipse from dying, and fixed some armour, and concluded that I'd rather get some sleep. Was briefly perturbed by Osric giggling about having ultimate power over ritual circles, and trying to convince Glycell to let him turn it back on half an hour early. Had horrible image of him commiting suicide in an Albion-wide ritual circle disaster. Although I think he's probably too conscientious to do that.

Son of what’s his name skathen turned up with a plan to go kill the goblins at Two Rivers, before they turned into a fully organised bunch of Axillia under the control of the Black Orcs. It seemed that there would be a small window in which they could transport into Two Rivers and resolve the matter. At this point I think Covenant Killing that had been pencilled in for the next day was put on hold and plans where made. Not long after this I headed off to get some sleep as I had told Stonegrazer we’d head off fairly early the next morning.

Sunday. Walked up to the meeting hall to find Osric having a terribly bright conversation with a member of the Covenant. Said member of the Covenant was accompanied by four (presumably corrupted) tree ents, and wanted various heads on plates. It was far too early in the morning, so I left him to it, at least secure in the knowledge that now they weren't likely to kill either him or me.
Found Eclipse inside, and told her what was outside. Harts are very bad at mornings as everyone kept chatting for another few minutes before apparently randomly deciding to go outside to have a look.

I never did actually get out side to see what was going on

Then Stonegrazer turned up, and we went off to kill, er I mean arrest
Dr Watson. Of course everyone faffed around at the ritual circle. Both ends. The ritual circle guard again looked highly surprised when we all turned up in the circle, including one really funny one who I suspect was half asleep against a tree, and nearly contorted herself backwards trying to grab her spear and stand to attention in less than a second.

Once everyone had transported in and started off down the path to Dr Watson’s house. I suddenly realised that I should warn the guards in case the Doctor could teleport out. Any way it turned out that they knew him and he’d got the ritual circle booked for that night. They agreed to hold him should he appear.

That was my idea ... anyway...

Basically a long walk happened, interspersed with fights with different controlled creatures. Oh, and one regenerating bear which I found thanks to Eclipse, and got everyone to help kill. Someone said that checking to see if things were dead was probably an abuse of the powers from the plane of life, but I am entirely unconvinced, it's just practical.

Walking and walking and then creatures, some human, dying on the floor, holding blue crystals.

It seems that the Doctor had been experimenting on Humans and not having too much success as most of the ones we met seemed zombie like, although a couple were about to put on brief burst of speed when close to people they were attacking.

Killed all of them as their patterns were broken, bar one who was fixable

I am not convinced that they were all un-saveable, but the healer who provided me the information that their patterns were strange and he couldn’t do anything about it. He then put them out of their misery.

Branwen however was able to save one, and brought him around to consciousness. He was very weak, hadn’t seen the sun for a long time, had been somewhere surrounded by wolves.

• Master Water took (transported )that one back to the circle and then on to York.
  

While we were looking at the bodies there was some more fighting. I got up to the house where Stonegrazer was worrying about v’Ar who had been beaten up quite badly and was in the process of being fixed up as I went past him, to find that Dr Watson had run off. One quick tracking expedition later around the back of a few building to find that he and someone else had teleported out. I hoped that the Guards at the circle were more on their toes than they had been when we arrived.

Carried on, more fighting, someone found a box somewhere, then Eclipse and v'Ar opened it without killing themselves.

Everyone else finished the fighting made sure nothing was lurking in the bushes and headed back to the circle.

Anyway the gist is, everyone else went back to York, we stayed to finish chasing up what was left of the whole situation. It took a while, so once we were done we assumed everyone else would have gone home by then, so we came back to Marchwood.

I stayed behind to deal with the matter of 4 prisoners that were being held by villagers, just out side Sherburn, that v’Ar had been nagging me about the previous night. Couldn’t get much more information out of them than v’Ar and co had got the previous night. Tried Martin’s Lion Knight test, which came out negative on all 4.

I wasn’t convinced that it would work and to be honest I hadn’t expected all the prisoners were still there if any of them were lion kights. I’d have expected a Lion knight to have beguiled their way out of there a lot sooner.

So Straif having given me permission to deal with them as I saw fit, I decided to let them go. The Local Militia will keep an eye on them for a bit, just in case.

Finally got back to the circle to find out that Dr Watson had run into Dargon, tried to attack him and had met a couple of mage bolts and a shiving. His companion had snuck off during the fight, We sent v’Ar and his companion back to York and we set off to track the person in question.
 
Only to find of course that they went to fight the Empire, apparently did what they wanted but then got forced into a position where they were running for their lives through the woods. There seems to be a theme here – Dunwich Vale etc.