Arkanum - The Story So Far
Arkanum - The Story So Far
The Beginning
The small group of people shuffled nervously under the scrutiny of the Tribunal Praeco - Oxioun of House Tytalus - and wait to hear why they have been summoned. Most of them have never even met the people they are standing with and all have a slight sense of fear slowly building within them. Around them the other mages that have gathered at the Tribunal watch on in silence. The only sound that can be heard is low wail of the wind passing through the Temple of Mercury. The room on its own is enough to amaze most people, with tall columns streching down either side and a large gilded statue of Mercury sitting at the far end. It is lit by large flaming Olympic bowls, whose light glitters like beams of moonlight on the tiled mosaic floor and walls.
Oxioun stands and begins addressing those gathered before him. "You few have been gathered here for a special task. For some years now a covenant has stood abandoned in the Val du Bosque region of our Tribunal. We wish to re-populate it and you have been chosen for the task. This is a great honor and if you succeed then you will gain much prestige within our order. You will be accompanied by an emissary of this covenant on your journey who will tell you more of you task later." He gestures to a man off to his left. "You must prepare now for time is of the essence. All you need will be provided for you, ready for your departure at dawn tomorrow. Now go and get ready that which you wish to take."
As he finishes speaking it is quite clear that the small group has been dismissed from the tribunal and they file out of the temple and back to their respective rooms to prepare for the coming journey.
As the sun appears over the nearby mountains the next morning the gates of the covenant open and the group starts their descent down the mountain to their new home. There is very little talking for the first few days, but on the penultimate day of travelling the mage who was sent with them, Stephen, finally breaks the silence.
A camp has been made as the last rays of sun disappear behind a hill in the distance and the group gathers around the fire. Dinner is eaten and Stephen steps into the centre of the circle of people. He is a middle aged man with dark hair and eyes, dressed in a plain brown travelling robe. A beard covers the lower part of his face and he has an anxious look on his face. "For those of you who missed the introductions at the Tribunal my name is Stephen and it is my job to lead you to the remains of the old covenant. Before we reach it tomorrow I think it would be best if we introduced ourselves and talked a bit. After all we will be living together soon enough. Once we reach the covenant I will stay and act as a messenger between you and the rest of the order and will mostly stay out of the running of the covenant." He stares around the people watching him, "So which one of you will be first to introduce yourself?"
A man stands from the circle and takes a step forward. He is a very average looking man wearing weather beaten clothes and with brown hair. "Thank you for dinner. Dinner was very good. My name is Bruen. I am basque. I am with Antia. Goodnight." Having concluded his speech, he turns and bows to Antia, and leaves the
gathering.
As Bruen walks off another man stands, a brief look of bemusment upon his face. This is quickly replace by the same look of sadness he has worn since the journey began. He has blue eyes and brown hair that is streaked with white. He open his mouth, then shuts it again. He seems to be thinking about what to say. After about 30 seconds he finally begins to speak. ""As you may not know, I'm Ationamus. I am an Occitan. Glad to be with you. I hope everything will be good in the covenant. When I was young, before my apprenticeship, I lived near Montsegur", His voice changes to a whisper and the look of sadness deepens, "But that is so long ago now". He seems to shake himself and continues normally. "I must warn you that the Occitan people is a proudly one, with honour. They are open to strangers as long as they do not make problems. So, I think we'll have to be discret and hide the fact that we are in the order of Hermes. Do you agree with me ?"
A middle aged man nods in agreement. "Yes, in my travels I have
discovered that it is best to be discreet. 'A secret once given, can never be taken back.'" He smiles, "While I know we were
introduced earlier, I cannot say we have talked much. I am Restu. I am quite comfortable in the local language and travel within the region quite a bit. I look forward to this opportunity and look forward to working with all of you." He looks at the other mages around the fire, waiting expectantly while Ationamus retakes his seat.
The quiet young woman who has been introduced at the beginning of the trip as a member of House Ex Miscellanea has been listening gravely to the other magi's words. Her dark eyes periodically dart in the direction where Bruen left. If the other magi hadn't been told she is a member of the Order, they might overlook her as a servant girl. She is quite pretty, in the typical southern style, and dressed very simply. She gives a slight nod to the group, and her eyes travel to each of them in turn. "My name is Antia," she says in latin, "and I do not speak latin so well. Please excuse my words." She gives an apologetic smile to the second row of people behind the magi: servants, men-at-arms, horse handlers. "Again, my name is Antia. I speak Euskara, my own language, much better. I lived near where we go for many years before. I lived with my aunt. My aunt was a powerful, how do you say? I think you call it witch, but we don't. She was good, she healed people. My people have been waiting for me many years; I learned from the maketo magi. The Hermes magi. Now I come back and heal for them." She shakes her head and looks around again. "Excuse me, I speak too much." She settles back a little, and takes a drink of water.
A dark haired woman with hazel eyes and creamy skin, dressed in high quality but serviceable travelling garb steps up to the fire. She appears to be in her mid-20's, comely in shape, and about 5'-6" tall. Her bearing is proud, but approachable. "My name is Gabrielle of House Jerbiton. I am from Brittany. Occasionally I work for the lady of Acquitane, where I spent my youth studying the gentle arts at her court in Poitou. I married, had a son, and lost both son and husband. Since I passed the gauntlet five years ago I have settled with no covenant, until now, if you will have me." She quietly takes her seat and carries on eating the last remnants of her dinner
Next, a scruffy looking man jumps up and starts talking. "You are magi. You are mortals. I am Xathras. I am of House Verditius. These rings on all my fingers are casting tools. This is wrong casting tool. Never use this." He points to the middle finger of his left hand. "People say I am a hairy, pug-nosed, incomprehensible son-of-a-Goblin. I am. People, specifically my master, said I cast loose, warped, badly formed spells. I do. People say many bad things about Xathras. Xathras has had a hard life, will probably have a hard death. At least there is symmetry. Fortunately, Xathras is more than lab accident who refers to himself in third person. Caesar did refer to himself in the third person, not that he was lab accident, but I do more. Not that I do more than Caesar...never mind. I am a lab rat. Not literally, Xathras is an alchemist, an inventive genius in the laboratory. He, I mean I, know many spells and cast them cautiously. My Goblin blood has its advantages too. Did I mention I am a people person ? Oh, I am also from somewhere: Greece. My master rescued me from a misunderstanding about exorcism when I was 12. Xathras likes icons more than Orthodox clergy as result. When I passed my gauntlet, he put me on the first ship to Marseilles. Wasn't that generous of him? Now I am here with you. Let us make covenant that lets us all study and work on our strengths and weaknesses. Mine, the strengths I mean, are the techniques Creo and Intellego and the forms Mentem, Corpus and Aquam. I am particularly good at making potions and items with these things. Is there more food ?" He wanders over to the fire, picks the cooking pot, returns to his seat and begins eating the leftovers of the stew.
Not too hesitantly, the matronly woman dressed in the long travelling cloak pipes up in nonvulgar Latin: "My, haven't we the menagerie. I do hope we haven't frightened your young man off; we are such petite gamain after all, aren't we?" Through this little speech she has constantly been playing with her hands and
attempting to maintain eye contact with everyone, as if coaxing more to come forth. "I do hope we have a firm foundation to work with. Creature comforts are nice too", she jiggles around about and giggles, "but the walls still have to provide us with our space." And lastly, aside to all with eyes to Ationamus: "Those who don't see our nature won't ask about our nature. But if we can find confidantes and potential allies in the local populace, then by the sky above and the ground below, we should let them their will in the matter too." With a nod of her head she sits back down.
Antia frowns at Sister Moon's words, most of which roll past
uncomprehended. She latches on to the the first part, the bit she did understand clearly. Shaking her head, she corrects: "No, Bruen is not frightened by anything. He is my protector, he is standing guard. Also, there are too many words here." She retreats a little further away from the fire, among the serving
folks.
Through this a large man in the circle has been staring at the ground, seemingly playing with something. After a few people have gone before him he looks up and stands. He is a huge young man, powerfully built with hands large enough to reach around a normal man's throat. He is dressed in brown trousers with black mudcaked boots. His shirt is also brown and inordinate amounts of hair peek beneath it. His beard and hair are black and only slightly combed. He walks over to the fire,replaces his empty bowl and then turns to return to his place. As he turns a rogue elbow catches the small pile of bowls by the fire and they collapse with a crash. Red-faced the young man returns to his seat. "My name is Benedict and I come from Sicily", he say. Obviously he is having difficulty with the local tongue for he then switches to Latin. "I am a newly appointed Mage specializing in Rego and Corporem. For those who do not understand Latin that is Movement and Body." Suddenly he stops, stunned by the stupidity of that last sentence being said in Latin. Stuttering, he feels himself losing control of the situation and hastily adds in the local language "I can move people around". He then quickly sits back down.
The covenfolk come and clear away the empty bowls and begin to settle down for the night. During this Stephen steps forward. "I think it may be an idea to follow the example of our friends over there and turn in for the night. If we get going again early tomorrow morning we should reach the manor before dark. So if you will excuse me." He bows towards the women and heads off to his bedroll just under the cover of the trees. Benedict stands as Stephen begins to turn. "Excuse me sir, but how did this covenant we are headed toward become abandoned?"
"One hopes that the First Cause of that abandonment wasn't the asking of the one previous," Sister Moon with says telling rare humour and wth fire-light playing on her pupils. More soberly, she adds,"The previous covenant need not have the same problems as we will, nor we theirs, our companionship willing." Benedict smiles at the good sister, "I am certainly willing to do my utmost to make this venture work. But I am concerned, I have never been this way before and have never formed a new 'how do
you say it, oh yes' covenant before. I would rather know about
troubles I will face then have nightmares about imaginary ones."
Stephen stops and turns slowly back towards the group around the fire. "I had hoped to wait until we reach the covenant to discuss this but we may as well do so now." He retakes his seat and stares deeply into the fire.
"All we know is that some time ago we recieved a message from this covenant saying that they had started excavating into Mount Tierne. We got a few progress reports over the next couple of months and then nothing. Some months went by and we sent a messenger to find out what was happening. He never returned, nor did the other three that we sent. Finally an apprentice mage from the covenant was found wandering around injured and dying. Before he passed on he told us that they had found something which they couldn't handle and everyone in the covenant was killed. He spoke of the mountain in flames and the hordes of hell coming from the ground. He told of the torture and depravities that the members
of the covenant had experienced. He managed to escape by detonating a magic item the covenant had and by sheer luck was thrown clear of danager. Apparently after this the covenant was empty of everything except the bodies of his companions. Soon after he died by cutting open his own throat after disecting himself and the doctor caring for him.
Stephen stops and the there is complete silence around the camp, even the animals have quieted. "We have been sent to find out what happened and rebuild the covenant. To put it bluntly, we are considered expendable by the order, which I hope to prove otherwise." He stands again and slowly walks out of the comforting heat of the fire to bed.
Xathras waits a few moments after Stephen's summary and then shakes his hirsute head back and forth slowly and says: "Perhaps the minds of local peasants or travelers hold memories of what happened to covenfolk and magi. Perhaps some covenfolk still live ? Perhaps Xathras can learn something of this accursed mountain before we go there to be sacrificed like sheep by our friends and masters at the Order of Hermes."
After Stephen finishes talking Ationamus stands up and walks from paces across the camp, whispering to himself. When Xathras stops speaking, he stops moving and tells the others : "You say that there was horde of hell other there, I've known that there
was a lot of satanists in this region, may be the covenant found a direct access to the hell or something like that? However, we may go and find what happened because I may assure you that if the devil may enter our world, it's our duty to destroy him and to remove the access. We may not allow any devil of any kind to be able to enter our world, whatever it may cost us. Don't forget it when you are in front of a hell's servant, it's better to die with the deamon that to have flee behind them." After that, Ationamus moves to the limit of the light made by the fire, and
sits down. A faint sound of crying can be heard coming from him
Antia, who had started walking away from the fire to prepare her
bedding, stops in her tracks and turns around, staring at where Stephen went with disbelief. Slowly, she starts walking back towards the Magi. She shakes her head with an expression of horror. "My parens only told me I was being sent because this covenent was close to my home clan, why did he not tell me the truth? Why did he LIE to me? He should have told me of the danger to my clan! I would have come anyway." She turns away, hugging herself.
A slight but steady shudder at the mere mention of torture, Sister Moon sits quietly throughout the rest of Stephen's harrowing tale while alternating looking at the people, Stephen, and the surrounding area, as if while unsure of what to look at, she is still restless with energy as a result. At the end of it, she looks to each mage, both in mute pain and to show
that her resolve to the order and the others has not diminished in the least from this. She walks slowly and carefully to Ationamus' back and puts her hands on his shoulders, but says nothing.
After a while everybody drifts to their beds, including Ationamus and Sister Moon. When everybody is asleep Bruen creeps back into the camp and beds down next to Antia. Whithin a short time all that is heard in the camp is the sounds of the night and, now and again, the quiet whistling of the person on watch.
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