Letters, we got your letters

To: Goliard Tremeris
Blackthorn, Britannia

From: Laetitia Guernici
Mons Electi, Gallia Transalpina

Greetings Auntie,

What happened between you and father? I wish i could be more subtle in making my inquiry, but frankly I am gobsmacked. The two of you have always been thick as thieves.

I have birthed two lovely children just last week, a boy and a girl. They are both healthy and hale. The girl looks just like me and her grandmother, and the boy takes after his father. I hope you will come meet them.

Love,
Seren

To: Laetitia Guernici
Mons Electi, Gallia Transalpina

From: Goliard Tremeris
Blackthorn, Britannia

Dearest Seren,

Maris suggested it in a friendly letter that was anything but. She indicated she had Poena's support in offering her suggestion, and knowing her she does, but I have no idea how or why. Failure to follow the suggestion would've been a risk I'm not willing to take, given the political instability in Britanniae. I am trusting my House sodales that they are taking steps in the best interest of the House. I'm not privy to the details, as of yet, nor prepared to stand against either of them. I'll probably have to wait for a summons from Poena, an invitation from Maris, or The Council meeting in two years.

Maris is incredibly skilled politically and has marginalized me in my own Tribunal. That bitch will pay.

Yours,
Goliard

((Has Fiona not received a reply to the letter she wrote her mater the summer of '21?))

I thought I was missing a letter somewhere. I'll get to it.

To: Goliard Tremeris
Blackthorn, Britannia

From: Laetitia Guernici
Mons Electi, Gallia Transalpina

Dear Auntie,

Maris is heavy-handed and craves power, but she is right to distrust Guernicus. Father's show of paternal affection was always false; I was only a means to an end for him. I believe the regard he has shown for you is equally contrived.

Maris may have prevented you from learning this, but Apollodorus of Jerbiton turns out to be none other than Xenophon Tremeris. He is currently missing, and I believe Maris suspects my father of foul play in the matter; I share these suspicions.

Maris co-opted Elain last spring. While his loyalty was always to you first, he had always served me faithfully. Turns out that loyalty is no match for riches and wenches; he is Maris' pet now. She has finally deigned to return him to me, but he is not the same man he once was.

I should like to see you supplant her authority within the House, but limiting the influence Iudicium has over Domus Tremeris will do more good than harm. If he had any loyalty to you or to Blackthorn, he would have gone to Nigrasaxa.

Please let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Yours faithfully,
Seren

It takes a long time for Fiona to receive this letter, it arrives in the summer of 1222 while Fiona is away. It was not delivered by a redcap, but by a special courier of giant descent and a man who guards her. When they arrived, he requested Hermetic hospitality for he and his charge, on behalf of Marós mater of Fiona, Daughters of Circe.

Fiona,
I apologize for the length between your last letter and this one, I'm presuming that none of the others I wrote made it through. The roads near the Causeway became unsafe, and Redcaps stopped coming. My efforts to send messages by other means were hampered. I have escaped from the causeway and have decided to make my way to Insula Canaria, your former covenant. It is my hope that I can be a bridge between giants and small folk there, here it appears all is lost, and as you know our arts are not sufficient for sustained conflict, but do well for subterfuge and delay. Please write to me at Insula Canara. I hope you are doing well, and this letter finds you in good health.

The courier is my apprentice, while I have opened her Arts, I find myself uncertain that I would be able to complete her training. I send her to you in furtherance of continuing our tradition, if you do not respond to this letter, I will come collect her. Her name is Sheelagh and her voice is true to her name as is her maidenhood.

Marós

P.S. I've seen no other evidence of giants knowing Parma Magica, or having such strong resistance, but there have been a lot of giants. I have a feeling much of this information is not getting out of Hibernia.

((sent in early Winter 1222, as soon as Ulrich is able to get it sent.))

To: Rose, discipula Maris, scholae Tremendi

From: Ulrich, discipulus Ra'am, scolae Bonisagi

My dear beautiful Rose,

I have safely arrived at Phoenix. Traveling with Tria was a little frightening, but I doubt that we were in any real danger. I find myself wondering if it would be possible, someday, to travel in a manner similar to how Tria does, but between forests or trees instead of caves.

Phoenix is different from Mons Electi and from Le Maison, and it looks like I will have a set routine for some time to come. I am learning from Ra'am from Sunday to Friday, and resting from sundown Friday to dawn Sunday, with breaks for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Ra'am has told me about the ghosts and the grapevines that inhabit here, and the templars who live nearby. (Ulrich elaborates on what he's been told.) I suspect that there is much about the covenant's history that they have yet to tell me, but I'm sure that I will be told soon enough.

There are several people here, and everyone seems very polite. Ra'am and his whole family are quite nice. I think his daughter is his apprentice, but she's advanced enough that she's working unsupervised, which gives him more time to train me. It sounds like he's going to try to take my ability to cast Herbam magic without words or gestures and find a way to let me to that with all my magic.

I miss you, and I think about you all the time. I don't know if Maris is going to be in Iberia, or if she will be bringing or sending you here, but I hope so. I would very much like to see you again and spend more time with you.

Ulrich

((received in late winter Adjusted your parens, you are Ra'am's apprentice, he did say that in conversation.))

To: Ulrich, discipulus Ra'am, scolae Bonisagi

From: Rose, discipula Maris, scholae Tremendi ((this right, shouldn't it be Tremeris?))

My darling Ulrich,

I am glad you had arrived safely. I had heard about Tria's ability to transit caves with regios within them. My understanding of this ability is that it is innate and not learnable. She and Maris have discussed it for many years, in some ways it is superior to Leap of Homecoming, in that she can go almost anywhere, and never requires an Arcane Connection, you're familiar with those, right? She can also take people with her, while Leap of Homecoming doesn't allow for that, and must be reinvented or learned, and causes the recipients of the spell to warp a bit.

Ra'am, I'm told is a good teacher, not quite as good as Apollodorus was, based on what I've overheard between Tria and Maris in the past. I'm not sure he can teach you how to be completely silent or subtle with all magic, that's quite challenging, but I would guess based on what you're telling me, I think he's teaching you how to master spells as you learn them, and also including many shortcut techniques for adding mastery abilities more easily later on. This is a wonderful ability, and you are truly lucky. Ra'am must be a better teacher than I thought, given you're already numerous Hermetic gifts I'd observed.

I miss you, too. Maris's duties are to manage the Tremere in Stonehenge, Normandy, Hibernia and Loch Leglean. There is another exacrh who covers Iberia and Provencal, so we will never be able to see each other until we are both magi in our own right. Even then, I will have the demands and obligations to my House to meet, so meetings will be few and far between.

Love,
Rose

To: Laetitia,

My dearest Laetitia. I am truly sorry, not just for my stupidity, but in the end I am just a sorry individual. How long had you lectured me about my naiveity, how many times had you found something I did so bafflingly stupid? Odds are more times than I am fully aware of. I have lived a life of privilege and faerie tale; a knight who casts spells, a wizard with the mindset of a cavalier. Yet it is an ideal that even the knights I emulate do not live nor most even strive for. I left our gates open, I invited killers into our home, and you into my heart.

When I came to Mons Electi, my goal was to stand atop the battlements and protect it and all who dwelled within. My failure is as monumental as my ego...no perhaps not as monumental as that, in retrospect. Apollodorus lies slain, I have an entire House desiring to kill us, who have probably only held back because they realize how small a threat I truly am. Our defenses lie in shambles and I still have not taken the proper steps, and I almost worked to elect an ally of the assassins as Primus of my House. It might have been better if I just offered our enemies the keys. My stupidity and pride has been their unwitting ally all along.

I don't deserve another chance. I don't deserve to have you read this letter after what I said, after the betrayal of trust I gave to you. But please give me a chance to say how sorry I am, to beg forgiveness, to prove the depths of my sorrow since you left because of my stupidity. I will be coming to wherever this letter may found you, there will I grovel within earshot that I might at least try to make ammends for my gross act of betrayal. Please have a suitable spot for me to do this, perhaps the pasture? The well? Maybe the gong chute. We need you back. I need you back. Please have your choicest words, your sharpest criticisms waiting for me, I deserve all and far more. What I don't deserve is a chance, though I beg you nonetheless to give me one. Please Laetitia, give me this chance.

Very Truly Yours,
Alexei Von Kroitsau, the greatest Fool in the Order (you know me, if I am to be anything, I will strive to be the best at it)

((sent the day after Fiona returns from Magic and finds Sheelagh.))

Dearest mater,

Thank you for sending Sheelagh to me, and out of harm's way. I hope that your misgivings are greatly exaggerated, but better safe than sorry in these trying times.

It seems that chaos reigns supreme in many places. I will do my best to stem the tide and give Sheelagh the best education that I can. I only hope that I do even half as well as you did; if I can, Sheelagh will be a credit to the order.

Your faithful student,

Fiona

((sent to Angus mac Ossian a couple of weeks after her return))

Dear cousin,

I have received a letter from Marós, the woman who taught me to be a maga. She is moving to my old home in Insula Canaria, and hopes to be a bridge between giants and the small folk there, much as I am trying to do here. I would appreciate it if you could check on her to make sure that she arrived safely and that she is doing well, and to help her in her task as much as able.

Love

Deredere

((Sent in 1223, the Summer, shortly after a mysterious wind carried off Mufarjj))

Fiona,

How much do you know of my Founder Flambeau? Odds are, not much. My Founder was known as a great warrior and his especial enemy was the Moorish Sorcerers and their magic and infernal spirit servants. His whole purpose in joining the Order was the hope of forging the Order into an army to attack the Sahirs and wipe them out.

I bring this up as ironically enough, we now have Sahirs in our Order, in your own House. I of course hold no anger towards them or your House, in fact I find the irony both amusing and gratifying. Flambeau in his later years grew old very quickly, and before he died he went off one morn and never returned. Some legends say that he went out one last time to meet the Sahirs in glorious battle, a battle that he lost but at great cost to the sorcerers. Another tale is that he had forgotten his anger and went to spend his days in contemplation of the Lord Christ at a monastery as he was a staunch Christian. I find this tale quite pleasing and it brings me hope when the cold sets into my bones and eyesight strains on the page.

The last tale was that he went to meet the Sahirs, not in battle but to forge a peace, and foster forgiveness towards each other. Those that believe this tale claim either that he was still betrayed by the Sahirs and others say that he was somewhat successful, and what little time he had left was spent forging a path for the Sahirs to meet in peace with the Order in later years.

It’s this last tale that concerns me. My father owed a debt, a debt to an ancient being in the sands of the East while he was on Crusade. And in his haste and folly promised me. This creature has followed me since my birth and later when my father gave me to the Covenant that Tristan dwelled in. His great power and their Aegis protected me. But now it has come back. It will not stop until it has me, and I will not put this Covenant in jeopardy for this inherited debt I owe.

I set forth now to find this creature, I don’t know yet its name. I will bring only a few grogs with me, mainly to enhance my skill, but not enough to weaken the Covenant.

I tell you this, because you are the one who has been here with me the longest. We have not been great friends, on our first meet with you I made a joke and later accused you of cowardice. But you know the stakes very well and I feel and our length of time here and your duty to this Covenant have made us closer than the others.

Should I not return, show this letter to whoever you need to and enter my Sanctum and take what out of it you can to distribute what you will. Helmut can help you in this and he’ll understand once he has seen the letter. You are the executor of my estate, please have Helmut pen a letter to send to my Pater and my Primus of my fate should I not return.

It has been a privilege my Sodale. I wish you and the Covenant the best of fortune.

Alexei Von Kroitsau ex Flambeau, MIlites
‘Though I do not wish it Oh Lord, Thou hast placed the sword in my Hand, and as thou wills it, I shall wield it with all my strength. The Blood of Christ washes away my sins.’

PS: That is one of my favorite prayers, I learned it from a sergeant that served Tristan. I have faith that it is true and it is how I strive to live my life.

Cousin,

She has arrived and is being well received. They have some interesting new magi and magae who have joined the covenant. The herd is growing in size and everything else has been fine. Not much else to say. Take care, Deredere.

Angus

(Sent to Cygna by way of Phoenix shortly after the attack on Mons Electi, so it gets to her late in Gallus Florensis, to explain the time delay. Preferably, this would be sent in the hands of a trusted grog, and not via the RedCaps)

(Written in Theraphosa's scratchy scrawl. It should be obvious to Cygna that the choice of authors indicates this is an issue of political security, as V is usually focused on physical threats.)
Cygna,

Something has come up here in Mons Electi which requires your penetrative insight. Could you come visit for a season or four?

Theraphosa

(Written sometime in 1222, but a properly researched reply might take a few seasons.)

(On my phone, so keeping this terse and color free.)

Vanastium
Andru
(full formal header used by V, but I can't look up the info)

In the hopes of thwarting the intentions of those who laid this burden upon us, we have envision a grand setting for the Normandy Tribunal of 1227. To that end, we seek books on Roman architecture, particularly Bibricate itself. Does your esteemed library hold anything that might serve our needs?

Viscaria Lynchis, in service to Mons Electi, and its founders

(Attached is another note, dictated by Theraphosa to ur scribe. It appears to be a discussion of her observations on the game of chess, and the value of bein able to percieve the board from all sides. Thera is using Intrigue to couch her offer subtly, but the gist of her offer should be clear to Andru -- "Can I help you watch the board?"

(Composed by Theraphosa, shortly after arriving at the campaign, who actually pays attention to hermetic lineages and not just silver. The scribe who transcribed this may have balked initially at signing it with Viscaria's name, but V read it , said "Huh. I hadn't realized," and then signed the thing herself)

To Prospero of Le Maison d'Levier,

Sire, I do not believe we have met, but long have I resided with your filius, and much I have learned about you from him, and the books you kindly lent him.

I have undertaken a grand commission on behalf of Mons Electi, to aid them in their newfound responsibilities in 1227. Would you be willing to grace a newphew with the insight e of your own experiences?

Viscaria Lynchis ab Phoenix ab Iberia

(OOC: I only just realized this connection but Thera would have known since the Tribunal)

((Can't believe I totally missed this letter until yesterday.

So...we're looking at Fall/Winter of 1222, then? Which is right about where we are in the Albion saga. She's doing her Longevity Ritual that Winter, but if that's when she gets the letter, and it feels like it's important, she will put aside her duties for the spring and just show up. I can say that she would be pretty dejected about the way things are going there, and can very easily be persuaded to either stay at Mons Electi or return to Phoenix, since things seem to be going well there. And this way, I can just use the same character sheet, and just advance her for here separately.))

(And where she goes, Hiems will follow, too happy to leave Albion and Liliana's ways. Notwhistanding Things That Never Happened and Shall Not Be Spoken Of)

(Written in 1223 sent to Provencal Tribunal)

To Dorea ex Mercere, salve,

I do not know if you remember me as I passed through your Covenant as a senior apprentice. I was delivering a message for Juliotte and presented myself to you before leaving.

I am writing to invite you to Mons Electi in the summer of 1227. Mons Electi is hosting the Normandy Tribunal and there will be a large gathering of our brothers and sisters for the Mercere Fair. I would like to have as many of the Gifted Mercere come as well. Many of us have not gathered together as happens to often with our House. We could meet in friendship and perhaps plan on doing things for the greater good of House Mercere.

If you can make it please let me know and we can discussion transportation.

Your Friend,

Korvin ex Mercere

(sent 1223)
((Celestina ex Mercere, is a senior Redcap in the Greater Alps Tribunal))

Dear Celestina,

It has been a long time since we have dallied at Harco. Your duties must keep you very busy for you have not found time to visit me in Mons Electi. While it does not have some of the grand mountains in which we used to walk it does have some nice orchards in which we could have a picnic like we used to. If you could find time to visit I might have a good business opportunity for someone of your talents.

In four years hence, Mons Electi is hosting the Normandy Tribunal. The grand discussion will be about the Lotharingian Tribunal so it will be exceptionally crowded as many have a vested interest one way or another. I have the abilities to look after my friends to get them prime spots at the Mercere fair. It could be profitable in more ways than just lucre.

Come and visit me in the summer and we can renew our old relationship and perhaps start a new one.

Love
Korvin