Year 6
Spring
I am going to travel back to the Rhine. I should, honestly, never have left. So it is time to charter a ship, and begin to travel back across the world. I hate travelling, and I feel like I should make some sort of item to make it more convenient, quicker and cheaper. However, the list of things I wish to enchant is getting longer and longer, but these labs I hire are usually so disappointing that I find myself waiting again. I must eventually find myself a covenant, where I can build a lab and specialise it to my own needs. So, I travel to the shore, hire a boat back to Lubeck, which is fortunately enough of a common destination to make it much easier, and then take myself down river.
I am heading to Triamore, as it is close to the where I am, close to the river and has a reputation of being thoroughly welcoming to visitors, and in need of new members. Perhaps here I will find a home in which I am comfortable, so I have sent a letter ahead of me and been accepted, but they have asked I bring a book which I can contribute to their library in exchange for my time in the covenant. As such I am in negotiation to buy a book from my current hosts to give away when I arrive.
The boat is uncomfortable, and unsurprisingly neither the crew not the other passengers really want to speak to me. I settle down and read an honestly solid tractatus that I purchased from my previous hosts. Now I am reading it, I can see why they were charging a surcharge to part with it. Still, I am cooped up below deck, so I might as well do what I can. I now am the proud owner, albeit briefly, of “the four realms, six interactions”.
Read quality 10 tractatus on magic theory while travelling on boats.
Gain 10+5 magic theory xp
Gain a quality 10 tractatus on magic theory
Lose 1 pawn of perdo vis and 2 pawns of animal vis as a quick sale
Summer
I have arrived in Triamore, and they have been extremely welcoming to me. Almost suspiciously so, but I am certainly not going to complain. I have asked for my right as a peregenetor, and they have accepted. In lieu of usual payment in vis, I have offered to pay with the book I recently purchased. It was at best a fleeting part of my life, but I have learned its lessons, so the loss is minimal.
I was greeted by the most interesting magus I believe I have ever met, Remi, follower of Jerbiton. He seems to be a polymath that is at least a journeyman of nearly every area I have imagined. I wonder how he finds time to learn magic! The only area where we ended up in a fierce debate was on the matter of the Faerie realm. He seems to despise the faerie for being faerie, and was visibly disappointed when he found out that I was part faeirie and had a faerie friend. Thinking back on it, it seems like this is a position of the Jerbiton house as a whole.
I notice, however, that the actual leader of the covenant is not speaking much to me. I suspect there is a chance that she has put the most interesting member of the covenant in my path to make me feel more welcome. I must confess, it is working.
But enough of my charming companion, I have work to attend to. A lifetime of work to attend to! I think it is time to use the famously excellent library here. I am entirely tired of being in danger whenever I go seeking for new lore. So I want to be able to enchant an item to cast something akin to the pilium of fire. I know I have survived thus far by sending arrows at my foes, but that will not be sufficient if I face a real opponent. However, as potent as the ignem art is in fighting foes, I know literally nothing of the art at all. Fortunately, the covenant has a primer on the art of ignem, and I have been able to convince Sicero to allow me access for this season. So, I am settling down with “the fundaments of ignition” a function but slightly uninspiring primer on ignem. While this is happening, I am negotiating to use some books for next year, where I can learn from more than a simple primer. The covenant is asking what I am provided to provide for exchange, and I have come to the conclusion that I think I could write a book on behalf of the covenant.
Read a primer on ignem l5, q15
Autumn
Remi has asked something of me and whilst I would normally be loathe to accept a duty given to my hosts after I had paid them for my presence, but since it is something that I would benefit from, and they have asked me in such a kindly tone. I know I should probably resist more, but the covenant has a tutor they have teach some basic latin and literacy for their custos. Remi claims that they can find the time for him to teach me to teach. I suspect there is some ulterior motives in this, in that I suspect I am going to be asked to teach some members of the covenant later. This may be a way of paying for my time here though, so it could help with my current vis poverty. On this matter, the covenant has said the cost for this tuition would be a pawn of vis, but that they would generously hold this in abeyance against future earnings.
The tutor is a man named Samuel, and it appears he has been cast out of the general community of scholars because he is a heretic. I must confess, when he explained the nature of his disagreement with the church I found it extremely difficult to parse out the differences from his position and heterodoxy. It was, however enough for him to have to flee the prince-archbishopric of Cologne.
Still, while he tried to convince me of the importance of the divisibility of Christ’s physical body and his divine soul, and how his ability to weep separates the two, I was a little baffled. Fortunately, I was eventually able to get him to the topic of how to teach. Since he had intended to make a living teaching Latin to the sons of aristocracy and the like, it is an area has had some talent and experience in.
While this is going on, I am spending some of my evenings writing so that when the redcaps arrive, I can start to look for paying work as a verditious. My magical power is growing to the point where I am not ashamed to offer my services as an enchanter, and it would mean I could afford to pay for the access to the master’s library or other services.
Gain 15 xp in teaching from a teacher.
Winter
It is time to attend again upon the spider court. I prepared myself to travel to the entry port, which is going to be moving through the deep forests of the Rhine. I am lead, again, by Spinnerbienne who seems to know the path at all times. I would be more suspicious of this, but I suppose the spider knowing the way to the spider court does make sense.
The arrival to the spider court is more impressive the second time. Partly this is because, as Spinnerbienne informed me entirely too late, because it is hosted in a different, larger, regio this time. Apparently this is part of the travelling courts of the spiders. The spider queen and wiollow-covered-in-webs have learned from the mortal monarchs around them to progress their court around the land that they are controlling, as is the want of the fae queen. It does mean, that I am welcomed to an entirely new location. There is a ritual here, of different sizes and splendour of courts. I am told my first meeting was a relatively small one, and that the power and grandeur wax and wane over the years of meeting.
The court this time is under the boughs of an enormous tree. The tree was awakened, but did not speak during the court. Despite this it was to be always addressed as a high and honoured noble. This was particularly strange, as I am not sure if it was the queen’s sense of etiquette as she apes the ways of human courts or the pride of the tree itself which demanded this. However, upon arriving, I was introduced officially to my “host” and then the spell to turn me into a spider was woven over me once more. This time at least it required the lowering of my parma magica, so some progress at least.
Having been transformed into my spider “self”, I find I am at least more able to handle the strange form this time. However, I have apparently gained some extra significance in the spider court, which means I must be able to claim a title of some sort. I understand now why Heinrich has claimed he is a baron of the spider court. It seems that the court likes to give humans titles, probably in an attempt to gain some sort of sustenance. In a moment’s notice, I asked for the title of Weaver. That seems to have gone down well, as weaver is an important part of the lore of spiders, so I chose well. Before I could take the part, however, I was required to prove that I deserved the title.
So, in an example of history repeating itself, I was set to weave something against a fae. Sometimes I worry that I am under some sort of curse that these things seem to happen to me. Then I remember that the story of a weaver is to be challenged in weaving. With a heavy heart, it was time to take to the weaving again. I found that I was able to weave something of greater beauty than approximately half of the weavers of the court. Losing to a fae is a humiliation that I am not happy with, but it did at least gain me the title of Journeyman Weaver of the court of spiders. I was adorned with a whsp of intricately woven spider web that I could immediately tell was laden with vis and then proclaimed to the court.
Once I had found my place in the court, Spinnerbienne was overjoyed. Apparently, this is what he has been “training” me for, for all these years and he has gained some status by my close association. He is now urging me to learn that I may gain a rank of master in later courts. I am happy to have so delighted my friend and tolerate his claims that I learned all I know from him, though I suspect my Pater would be less than happy to have seen me nod and agree. Indeed though it prickled my pride I managed to largely stop myself correcting the small faerie who has been my companion.
He did prove his use and loyalty again by managing my introduction to many different spiders, both faerie and magical in the court. Of particular interest is another weaver of the court who is a magical spider. She is one of the intelligent creatures, who spoke to me at length of her plans and ambitions for her time in the court. I was surprised to find a beast of virtue with such schemes, but it seems the influence of the queen has gathered many unusual creatures.
Over my time in the court I found myself spending more and more time with this creature, who assures me she has a name, just she is unwilling to give it to a magician without knowing me better. This small distrust aside, I find her fascinating. She is sly and ambitious and seems to be interested in my ambitions and plans for my life as a magus. She was especially interested when I spoke about how my family were seeking to find immortality, and I may have revealed more than I intended.
It is flattering to have someone so willing to listen to one’s own dreams, I confess, so I was more than willing to seek out her company at court and Her, Spinnerbienne and I formed a trio for much of the winter. When the time of the court was coming to an end, she asked if she could accompany me to experience the life of a magus I had described, and to see what I was like when I was returned to my natural form. I agreed, being loathe to end a friendship which I had so recently made. Eventually, I took my leave of the court, having negotiated its intricacies for another five years.
Low adventure xp = 5xp faerie sympathy “weaver” 0->1
Gain a magical animal who is suitable to be a familiar
Gain 3 warping for the transformation into a spider power
Gain 2 creo vis and 1 animal vis in the tokens of the court
Year summary
Lost 3 pawns of vis
gained a q10 summa on magic theory
lost a q10 summa on magic theory
Gained 15 xp in teaching taking it from 0->2
Gained 5 xp in faerie sympathy "weaving" 0->1
Gained 2 pawns creo 1 pawn animal vis
Gained a familiar grade magic creature spider companion
Gain 15 xp in ignem, taking it from 0->5