Story

January 20th (03/26/2021)
Odea, Marcus, and their retinues arrive in Sibiu, the last goodly sized city in the eastern half of Hungary where they are met by Salim al-Waziri, and introduced to the famed Redcap, Caspar the Subtle. Later, they meet Gerlach and his companion, Gregorios, as well as some of the covenfolk who will be accompanying them to Râșnov. The Redcap also informs them that he expects at least two more magi to join them, and a host of other covenfolk, but that they should continue on to Râșnov without them, as he doesn't know when they'll arrive.

Caspar briefly explains that he couldn't reach Râșnov for many weeks due to an unusually intense winter storm, and when he did, he found it empty of anyone but Marco Vampa. Vampa himself would not address the disappearance of the covenfolk, changing the topic whenever it was brought up.

After an overnight stay in the manor house in Sibiu, they proceed to Râșnov with a caravan of supplies and covenfolk. Later, they learn that the house in Sibiu is actually owned by the covenant, and tended by staff paid through the end of the year.

January 23rd (04/11/2021)
Meanwhile, in Sibiu, Nadia, Theodore, and their retinue arrive in Sibiu, where they meet Vasile Inna, the Ambassador Plenipotentiary from the Moonlit Court of High King Dragan, and her pet boy, Petros, an odd, feral teenager who runs around on all fours and carries a boar tusk. Inna acts as if she ought to be the center of attention, but is quickly diverted by Caspar, who is there to meet the new arrivals.

February 2nd (03/26/2021)
After two weeks of journeying, the first group arrive in Râșnov's hamlet. There, they meet Marcus the innkeep and his family, as well as his brother, Radu. Caspar had previously suggested they not be fooled by Radu's enormous size and ugliness, but that he was essentially a sweet person with the mind of a child. In addition, they spied a waifish young woman watching from a farm across the way, only to have her called in by someone in the farm's home. It seems not everyone in Râșnov is as friendly to the magi as Marcus.

Marcus informs them of several locals -- the hermit, Doina, who lives in the northwest and is said to be a healer; the other townsfolk, all cousins of his; the Teutonic Knights, who are building fortifications in both nearby Brașov and at an armed camp called Dietrichstein, to the southwest; and the "forest people," barbarians who live in a valley somewhere to the southeast, and keep to themselves. Their leader is a man named Duraz.

They stay overnight in the inn, and then proceed with their caravan to Râșnov the next day.

February 3rd (03/26/2021)
After a treacherous climb up on the untended, partially frozen path to the covenant, they arrive to find the main gate thrown open.

Marco Vampa soon emerges to meet them. The archmage is friendly, but two things stand out: his refusal to address the disappearances, and that his one eye seems to move of its own accord, more frantically the more the topic of the disappearance in raised. Later, the magi notice that Vampa's upset also seems to raise the temperature in the immediate vicinity, as well as cause heat sources like candles to burn hotter, faster, and brighter.

The covenant itself is in disarray. The outer walls are slowly crumbling, and clearly haven't been maintained in years. The main manor house, where the magi live and work, is in relatively repair, but is missing windows and showing some signs of rot. The houses of the covenfolk are another matter -- they are completely demolished. A quick inspection suggests they were already falling apart, and were finally destroyed by some cataclysmic event, possibly the winter storm that cut Râșnov off from the rest of the world. The labs other than Vampa's, however, all appear to be spotlessly clean and utterly devoid of personalized content.

Vampa insists on feeding everyone, and the magi discover he is an extraordinarily skilled chef. He also gives the players a tour of the covenant, informing them that the deep well at the center is the source of the covenant's magical aura. The labs are built around it on the first floor. There are eight. Gerlach claims a lab with a square tower and a window view of the valley to the west, while Odea claims a round tower with the same view.

The magi inspect a silver bell that wasn't visible from the outside of the covenant, nestled above the main gate in the guard tower. They cannot discern its purpose, but while they're inspecting it, they spy a dirty young woman, nearly invisible in her concealment down to the side of the path, watching them intently. By the time they go to investigate, she's disappeared.

Meanwhile, Vampa emerges after lunch and with a wave of his hand, pulls logs from the woodpile to form into stands for bonfires, then lights them with a dismissive gesture. His power as an archmage is evident.

Odea takes her brother and Felix to check around the woods for any clues. They find no trace of the woman, but they do find a massive blackened patch of grass, and a burnt scrap of parchment reading, "Bonisagus lied! L-" Casting a spell, Odea learns that the ashes are all of burnt books, and that at least one of them was written by a middle-aged man with a pointed, salt-and-pepper beard.

Returning to the covenant, the players inspect the basement, where the covenant has a small smithy, stores of food and materials, stores of raw vis, and a treasure room with considerable amounts of coinage, precious metals, and gems.

All but Gerlach investigate the library, where they find a suspicious lack of books, though still impressive. Odea compares the handwriting in the books to the burnt parchment, and discerns that the parchment was written by Flavius Magnus, a wizard of Tremere who is one of the missing covenfolk. Gerlach returns with Gregorios to give his report on the state of the covenant's buildings, defenses, and enchanted utilities.

After a fabulous dinner made by Vampa, they watch him go outside, replenish the fires as he did earlier, and then amuse the younger covenfolk with displays of magic. Gerlach decides to take a wagon and a retinue of warriors and go to Brașov and buy construction materials to repair the damaged covenant.

As he travels down the trail, a pair of eyes reflect the setting sun from the darkness of the woods. The owner of the eyes says, "One of them is leaving. We should take them now." But another figure in the darkness demurs, saying they will be patient.

February 4th (04/23/2021)
A mysterious man with a nasty burn scar the left side of his head visits the hermit, Doina, who is tending to a young girl. Doina mentions that the girl had maggots in her vomit, which surprises the man.

February 5th (04/11/2021 and 04/23/2021)
Odea decides to take her brother and scout out the forest for clues, and Verlach is off in Brasov to buy supplies, leaving Marcus alone with Vampa. The weather turns vile all over southeastern Transylvania, with freezing rain, then hail, and finally pellets of ice dropping from the sky.

At the covenant, Vampa emerges from his lab long enough to order the covenfolk down to the inn in the hamlet, leaving a skeleton crew to guard the covenant itself. As they pass to the inn, the farmer across the way emerges, spouting something about how he has truck with the magi, and that this place is cursed -- he demands that they ask Marcus the innkeep about his brother, Radu, and their mother's death.

On the road, the second group of arrivals has a long and cold journey to the hamlet, where they decide to press on to the covenant. As they do, they see a waif of a young woman at the farm across from the inn, who is once called in by her father. They press on to the covenant, with it being slow going due to the weather. On their way up, they spy a feral-looking woman in a tree across the ravine, and choose to pursue her. Theodore transforms first into a bear, and then into a larger, idealized form of a bear, and he crashes through the underbrush, following Petros, who turns into a boar and takes off after the woman. She has dropped from her tree upon being spotted.

They arrive to find her gone, and the tree in which she sat surrounded by rope traps, one of which has poor Petros dangling from it in his boar form. He resumes his human shape, and they continue on to the covenant after determining that the woman was headed southeast into the forest towards where the mysterious forest people live.

Shortly after, the second group arrives at the covenant, where they are met by Marcus, who explains the situation.

Vampa emerges from his lab to welcome the newcomers, and arrange for them all to have a nice, warm meal. After the meal, they realize they can house all the arrivals in the spare rooms and on the floors, so the newcomers stay the night.

Meanwhile, Odea, Argus, Felix, Louise, and Corcann head to explore the forest. Leaving the covenant in the morning, they come across the twins, Ihrin and Alin, who have just snared some rabbits. Ihrin shows great interest in the disparate origins of the characters, while Alin is more guarded. He warns them against going to the southeast, because that is where the "forest people" live, and they are not friendly to visitors.

Nevertheless, they push onwards through the miserable, cold rain, and eventually spend the night in a cave some distance east of the covenant. On the way, they take note of the lack of large prey animals in the area such as deer, and the extraordinarily large number of wolf tracks. They estimate that there are 30-50 wolves in the region, a huge number for animals that usually range in smaller groups over a large area.

February 6th (04/11/2021)
On the morning of February 6th, Caspar arrives, clearly in a hurry. He informs the magi that Desislav Dumi, a representative of Bulgarian hedge wizards looking to join the Order, is arriving that same day to conclude several years of negotiations with Vampa. The magi hurry to make preparations, including Vampa, whose eyes focus in the same direction as he delivers orders to receive the Bulgarian wizard.

A few hours later, the venerable Dumi arrives with a half-dozen fierce Bulgar warriors as his guard. Dumi proves to be pleasant, and Vampa is surprisingly normal when meeting his old adversary. A dinner is held after everyone is settled, with Vampa becoming incensed as Dumi asks him about the covenant's seemingly empty status. Vampa retires to his chambers after Dumi deftly settles him down.

Dumi proceeds to inquire as to Vampa's state of mind, attempting to be subtle. Nadia takes his as manipulation, and responds with fury, knocking Dumi down with a gust of hot wind. Dumi responds by erecting a wall of stone to stop her next attack, and Theodore bearhugs her off the ground. Marcus elects to knock her senseless as she raves with fury.

Marcus then admits everything that's happened to Dumi. The old wizard takes it in stride, and suggests they conclude the embassage early. Despite everything, he seems to find the experience more amusing, though there is an undertone of sharp curiousity about the seeming weakness of Vampa.

Later that evening, Nadia goes to Vampa to admit what she's done, and to receive his judgement. Vampa is extremely kind, mentioning that he has also lost his temper in his day, and that he would work with her to bring it under control.

Meanwhile, Odea and her party spend the day travelling south from the cave. As evening falls, they notice shapes moving around them in the woods. Odea casts a surprisingly powerful spell to project a soft light around them, and at the edge of it on the path in front of them is a massive wolf, a third again the size of the biggest wolf any of them has ever seen. It growls and advances on them. As it does, a wolf comes out of the woods from behind them and tries to take a bite out of Felix.

Argus responds with lightning speed and clips the wolf's head with an arrow, while Felix swings his polearm and also barely hits it.

The group then decides to slowly retreat while keeping the light spell active. Out of the forest, more and more wolves join the leader, until there are about 20 of them pushing the group to the north. After 3+ hours of slow progress, the wolves stop, the bubble of light leaving them behind, their eyes reflected in the illumination, then winking out like candles, until only the leader's eyes are seen. The leader's eyes then disappear.

The group makes it back to the cave, where they spend the night once more. Just as they're readying for sleep, they spy a wolf on the opposite side of the ravine, outlined in the setting moon. It lets out one long, low howl, and then disappears. They have been warned.

February 7th (04/11/2021 & 04/23/2021)
The next morning, Dumi and his cohort depart the covenant for home, with Vampa, Marcus, and Theodore seeing them off. At this point, the foul weather has finally broken. A few hours later, a group from the covenant is preparing to travel to the inn to bring everybody back, when there is a sudden, violent earthquake.

They quickly travel down the pass to the hamlet, only to find the corpses of Desislav Dumi and his retinue, torn to pieces. Dumi himself is surrounded by shards of stone drawn forth from the earth, evidently having made a herculean effort to save himself, to no avail.

Our heroes are left wondering who murdered the Bulgarians, and what price their friends back home will exact when they find out.

Meanwhile, Odea and her group make their way back to the covenant, arriving late in the afternoon. There, they encounter Theodore and Aleksi. Theodore examined the bodies of Dumi and his company, and determined they were attacked by wolves. Shifting into bear form, he decides to try to track them. The tracks lead easterly and veer slightly to the south.

Theodore elects to give up the search, and Odea shares what happened to them with him. They head back to the covenant, arriving in the early evening. As they climb the path back to the covenant, they see a small hole with light in the side of the hole, a rhythmic tapping noise, and a deep voice singing in German.

"Ich bin ein Zwerg,

Und ich grabe ein Loch,

Grabl grabl loch, grabl grabl loch!"

Louise translates:

"I am a dwarf,

And I'm digging a hole.

Diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole."

They call into the tunnel. The light, evidently from a lamp, goes out, and a voice calls out, "Der ist nicht ein Zwerg hier!" (There is no dwarf here!) They attempt to confront the digging interloper, only to have him collapse the tunnel.

Leaving this oddity behind, they return to the covenant.

Earlier that day, Vampa was told by Nadia what had happened. While distressed, he took command and ordered her to bring the bodies of the men and horses back and leave them in the cold room in the manor. He also ordered her to burn out the blood-encrusted ground, and said he'd later incinerate the remains. He confided that they would basically refuse to admit Dumi and his party had ever arrived, so as to avoid a possible war with the Bulgarian earth shamans.

February 8th (04/23/2021)
Doina is in her hut, tending to the sick child. She hears a flapping outside, and emerges from her hut to see three large crows of a kind never found in this area. She realizes they are translucent. As soon as she notices that, they transform into women -- a young woman with red hair, a mature woman with black hair, and an old woman with grey hair. They are the Morrigan -- Macha, Badb, and Nemain.

As soon as they transform, they cry out, in turn, "Battle!" "War!" "Murder!"

Then, speaking as one, they tell Doina to warn some group with a name the players do not recognize to leave their daughter alone.

Doina then wakes up with a start in her bed.