[u][center]Beginning of Spring: 1221[/center][/u]
A full three months before departure, they send a letter through one of the teamsters to Triamore of the visit between Winter and Spring.
And so, Gotvinus grabs Gregory and Dobbins as his shield grogs, and travel to Triamore. Half a pound of silver covers their expenses pretty well, and within 5 days, they arrive with Gotvinus quite tired because of his lack of any Ride ranks. Upon arrival, they are quickly greeted by Morris the Steward. As Morris arranging the stay, he's about give Gotvinus access to the private quarters and lab designated for magus guests when he's interrupted by Tabanus, who cites the very particular rules that access to the magus room/lab suites and the associated Aegis invitation require said guest to make the Oath of the Covenant as if he were a visiting Pererinatores. Gotvinus finds this too onerous and accepts the lodgings of a regular guest (communal guest room and all) and accepts the lack of magic under the covenant's Aegis.
After they situate themselves, it's dinner-time in the hall of Triamore. Daria has chosen not come down, but Sicero and Remi are making themselves friendly to the visiting magus while Dobbins throws around a Carouse of 12 at the grog table. Gregory spies an extremely large black wolf with burning red eyes outside, staring into the castle and accompanied by a pack of mundane-looking wolves nearby. When he brings up the issue with sergeant-at-arms Froese, he's told they're going to look for Gigot (sergeant of the gate) to have him investigate.
After dinner, Remi gives Gotvinus a tour of the covenant, with an emphasis on their high quality library. As a sign of both apology for Tabanus's behavior and goodwill toward a visiting neighbor, they give him a copy of Reason over the Passions [Mentem L12/Q10]. Later, Sicero plays a game of chess, and gets beaten by Gotvinus. Sleep is then performed by everyone.
The next morning, Sicero and Gotvinus discuss business, mainly Gotvinus wishing to speak with Daria for assistance in obtaining better trained grogs. Sicero offers to essentially pull a favor to get an audience with Daria that evening, on the condition that Gotvinus beats him in certamen. If Gotvinus loses, he must vote in favor of what he calls the Lotharingian Tribunal.
The two meet outside of the castle to perform the certamen (since the Aegis still restricts Gotvinus), and much of the covenfolk join outside to watch. Dobbins starts taking bets and acting as a bookie, throwing down a Carouse of 13. Thanks to a well placed use of Guile vs Folk Ken, Gotvinus manages to trick Sicero to choose Intellego as the technique of the certamen. On Gotvinus's choice, he chooses Mentem, gets veto'd, and chooses Imaginem; both of which are at 0 for Sicero. The eldritch mists form between them, their astral forms diving through in what can be best described as submarine warfare. Gotvinus wins thoroughly.
While everyone waits the four hours for Sicero to come to, Dobbins tallies everything and walks away with £1.5 from the betting pools, and Gregory has a talk with Gigot; who had disappeared early in the dinner last night and never came back. He manages to read him sufficiently well to tell that while Gigot says he only found tracks, he's hiding something out of a strong sense of self-preservation. Gotvinus talks up Richildis and manages to find out she's the well known philosopher and poet, Effugio. He mentally files this away as potential information to take advantage of in the future.
After Gregory relays the suspicious behavior on th epart of Gigot, Gotvinus does a casual casting of Peering into the Mortal Mind to get a better idea, and learns that the black wolf spoke to Gigot last night with a warning that it knows what he is. Gigot is a wolf transformed into a human by a defeated enemy of the covenant, and is terrified of Remi and the rest of Triamore learning of his dark secret and possibly removing the enchantment that gave him a mind. This black wolf seems to be of infernal nature, but Gotvinus plays it safe and doesn't alarm anyone.
Later that night, he meets with Daria, who is impressed with his credentials and success at certamen. He brings up his covenant's sorely strained lack of defenses, and asks for assistance in obtaining such. Daria tells him that there is a covenant in Transylvania that can provide him such, the Black Cloaks, an order of amber-eyed mundanes trained from a young age to be guardians of Hermetic Magi; not unlike the Unsullied from George Martin's novels, though not quite as severe as to make them eunuchs. Daria, while not personally interested in such a show of force, recommends their quality when purchased in small numbers and agrees to set up correspondence between the Covenant of Andresina and the masters of the Black Cloaks; their standard rate being 6 pawns of vis per soldier to own essentially as a slave.
With that, everyone leaves amicably and things continue onward. Tune in next time, where Joseph explores the forest where Juniper discovered a magic aura at rating 3.
[u]Endpoint: Start of Summer 1221 AD[/u]
GotvinusAdventure 10xp (3 Intellego, 2 Magic Theory, 5 IntrigueCovenant
Coffers £122