Chapter 6a A time of Wolves

Krispin inclines his head. [color=red]I would be inclined to take this man back to Ad Fons immediately for a proper burial, but there are bodies still out there. I fear carrying him right now could only be a detriment to us.

He pauses, and speaks quietly to himself. [color=red]He is beyond pain now, anyway.

Though Krispin’s tracking ability has got them as far as it can, it may be that Justus’ supernatural nose can do more. I presume the group continues to search for more bodies, keeping on the lookout for anything unusual.

[color=red]Krispin we take care of the fallen later. We search and destroy those who did it first. If we can find them… At least we try to find the fallen comrades of this unfortunate man. Justus tries to follow any other tracks he can find may they be scented or not.

Justus and Krispin are able to follow the original blood trail they where following , there they find one of the covenant grogs Klaus he has several wolf bites and is bleeding but he does not look to be mortally injured . He has his back to a tree and his sword in his hand .
The sword is covered in blood and has a few tufts of white fur attached to the gore.
He looks most releived to see you
[color=red]Thank the gods you are here, I thought the wolves would be back for me. I wounded their leader and they all ran off but I thought they would get their courage back soon

(Krispin beleives that he has a Heavy wound )

Shortly Mariella and her party rejoins Krispin and Justus .
[color=red]We found the other missing grog he was killed by Wolves or so his wounds suggest.

[color=red]My soldaes, we have an arcane connection here. Does anyone of you have a spell we could use? At least we should carry it back to the covenant along with our fallen. I have a few ideas… Krispin could you take care of this wounded man? We should think of a good reward for him as he has probably given us the tools to solve this horrible incident.

Unless anyone has a better idea Justus tries to open up a first magnitude opening the intangible tunnel towards the owner of the blood. (Re 6, Vi 14, Sta 0, Aura 3, Vivid gestures and loud voice 2, dice, penetration 4 and an arcane connection)

[color=green]Mariella
[color=red]While I have no suitable Arcane connection range spell, given a day I can fix the arcane connection or future use

[color=blue]Are you casting the spell immediatly or returning to the covenant first?
Also who if anyone is telling the families of the dead what happened or are you leaving that to the commander of the guard?

The spell casting wait until we are back. Justus visit the families personally.

The journey back to the covenant is not particualrly quick due to the snow and having to move the Injured and dead men.
Once back at the covenant Krispin busies himself tending the wounded , all three should be fine with care you have two men with medium wounds and one with a heavy wound but they should not be life threatening. Oddly all three seem to have raised proportions of the Sanguinery humours to the others although not so much as to make them ill.
Mariella goes to review the covenant's security and guards.
Justus goes to meet with the families of the two dead guards, it turns out the man killed by the wolves was unmarried and so that taks if fairly easy.
Krueger the man found drained of his humours is married with a young daughter. His wife Brunhild is suprised that one of the mages has come to speak with her, she does not seem greatly upset by the death of her husband possibly explained by the bruises on her face and those on her daughter. It seems to Justus that the daughter may well possess the gift although it is hard to tell this in a child of five without a more careful study.

[color=red]Brunhild I must say this… It seems to me that perhaps your daughter possess the gift. If I would be allowed I could determine if she can be trained as a maga of the Order. I can’t make any promises but I would like to investigate.

I am sorry to bring such an matter up at a time like this but if I am right then your daughter are intended for great powers and great responsibilities. If your husband death has put you and your daughter in financial difficulties then I shall speak to my soldaes and we see what can be done.

[color=red]He may have been a mean drunk but without him we are indeed going to need help to keep us fed. If you think Helga here can go on to be one of the nobles here well it can only be good for her. None of the other kids will paly with her and her Father never liked her.

She pauses before she continues
[color=red]In a way though we're lucky he didn;t come back after last night , He was drunk and mean as usual and lost his temper when Helga wouldn't stop crying and started to thrash her , I was right scared until one of them women from you tower stopped him . Right scary thing she was dressed all in black she said somethign right quite to her and he stopped hitting Helga and left never came back before he went out wood gathering .

[color=red]I shall speak with my soldaes. There has not been any widows until now so we does not have any rules or regulation on how to support widows as there has been non. However I wish to take your daughter with me and start investigating her or at least come here and conduct my investigation. I think it where Mariella that visited you the last night. If your daughter has the gift then she will be given a place in the Latin school and then be taken as my apprentice. However this is not certain. I return again in the morning.

Justus returns to the covenant and continues with his spell casting.

Justus is unnable to open an intangible tunnel as the spell cannot connect , he beleives this indiactes the wolf is within a regio.

By this Time Mariella has returned from checking the defences, Krispin has treated the wounded and is satisfied that they will recover , Milo is also there although Ardeth has yet to leave her lab she is apparently in the middle of a delicate procedure.

Once the wounded are better, Krispin questions them as thoroughly as he can.

[color=red]Tell me more about this wolf. How did he come upon you? Did you do anything unusual? Were you challenged or spoken to? If there was anything unusual please, share it with me. We will get to the bottom of this.

Talking with the patients Krispin is able to piece together an account of exactly what happened. Four Grogs (1 Dead, 1 Seriously wounded , 1 moderate wound) and 6 male covenfolk(1 dead , 1 moderately wounded) went out to gather wood during a period of calm weather after a week of heavy snowfall, while they where heading out and gathering the wood the heard a number of wolf howls but largely ignored them even though some seemed close as wolves don’t attack large parties of armed men. Then when they where heading back to the covenant a sudden gust of wind and flurry of snow struck (this weather effect was not noticed at the covenant so it was very localised) and then a large number of wolves attacked coming from behind the snow front. The estimates of numbers vary wildly of up to 20 , but krispin thinks it more likely half a dozen lead by a large white wolf. During the fighting 2 wolves where killed and three of the men got separated from the main group Krispin thinks they panicked and ran , this may have been induced by magic. Of those three , two died including the Grog drained of his humours and the last one was found by Justus and Krispin badly wounded after fighting off the white wolf and wounding it. What is unusual is that the casualties where most severe among the more heavily equipped and better trained grogs.

[color=red]Soldaes I have also discovered a few things. First off all I have found a girl in the household of one of the slain, she seems to have the gift and if so I wish to claim her as an apprentice. I am not yet a master but I will over the next years try to speed my advancement towards that status.

Second I have discovered a strange entity that seems dormant in the guard that fought of the white wolf. I don’t know what it is but it is some form of spirit.

Third, we need to make arrangements for widows of fallen guards. The mother of my perhaps future apprentice is falling into poverty. We need to establish some form of support system or charity for the needing. Any ideas on any of these subject on how to handle them?

Oh, and by the way the white wolf where not possible to target for my spell that I tried to cast through our arcane connection.

[color=red]I am all for charity when necessary, Justus, but I think it would be better to employ people than to give them handouts, provided they are able to work.

I fear that I do not know much about spirits or wolves. It seems to me that we should investigate further. Have you tried banishing the spirit? I would, but the Art of Perdo is not my forte.

[color=red]We can see too that some for of support are being made. I look if there is a position for the woman to work here at the covenant. I have tried to comprehend the spirits magic but I where unable to do so. So at the time I am with out a clue. We don’t know what hides within that body but we know that it is strong enough to pierce our aegis, or at least the possession made it able to slip through. I can do Perdo but I am doubtful that my spontaneous magic could do much to harm the spirit and I am not sure that Perdo is the way to go at first. Perhaps we shall try to communicate with it. For starters we should walk back to the grog and speak to him. Let him tell what really happened. Perhaps the white wolf is a spirit creature that possessed him when he hurt it to much.

[color=green]Mariella
[color=red]Depending on the magnitude of the spirit I may be able to employ sufficient Perdo to destroy it .

[color=blue]Justus can now tell that within the Aegis the spirit is completely possessed , while it is still present it is effectively incapable of action.
It is most certainly a magical spirit rather than from another realm.
From his interview with the grog Klaus Krispin is certain that Klaus remembers the wounded White wolf turning and running into the forest. There was also some sign of a blood trail leading away from where Klaus was found
The spirit is of the 2nd Magnitude so Mariella can most probably destory it with spontaneous Perdo Vim
Also to be clear Justus's attempt to open an intangible tunnel was prevented as the Wolf was within a regio

Justus frowns his forehead. [color=red]Mariella… do you have the magical skills necessary to speak to this spirit? Though I appreciate the skills needed to destroy the spirit, if the spirit needs destroying. But how do we know that it is a foe? Oh wait, how about this… Perhaps we could try to use ceremonial magic to speak to it. I have an idea. We gather some props if we have them, can’t remember really but there should be something somewhere. Creo mentem should allow us to send words to it. I think that a first magnitude spell should allow us to send the message “[color=red]speak with us”.

If no one stops Justus he will begin his casting attempt.

[color=blue]
(Base level 3 (form words in the mind of another) + 1 touch, total level 4, Creo 6 Mentem 5, Stamina 0 Aura 3 Artes liberates 1 Philosophiae 2 Props ? gestures and voice 2 and dice; total 17 + ? + dice)

[color=green]Mariella
[color=red]Perdo is what I do best I expect you could do a better job of speaking with the spirit

Krispin is able to keep the Grog Klaus calm as Justus performs his magical ceremony which is succesfully completed although there is no response from the spirit.

However while observing this process and casting his spell Justus does notice one unnusual thing he failed to notice earlier. Some of the blood from the injured man is on Krispin's robes and it appears to be magical containing a similar essence to that of the spirit possessing the Grog, like that spirit its magic is damped to almost nothing by the strength of the Aegis .

[color=red]Krispin, that bloodstain on your robe does seem to emit the traces of a similar spirit. Change into new robes and we take your robe outside the aegis and see what happens. Mariella I wish that you follow us and stay within the Aegis with Krispin. I walk with the robes outside and we take it from there. If the spirit proves to be hostile then we shall strike against all traces of it.