Each season of advancement is described in character by the magus, as if he was writing his journal. Gorianus doesn’t actually write a diary, but this is much like he would do. Notes translating this into game statistics will be included at the end of each season.
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1223 AD, Spring Season
“After gathering my tools, clothing and few personal items into the cart that was provided by my pater’s covenant, I have taken to the roads of the Kingdom (of Poland). Travelling proves a little more difficult than I remember, as my mule is headstrong and the roads themselves badly maintained. But I am learning to take care of the mule, at least.”
“The first three villages that I visited did not require much of my services. They already had access to a blacksmith from neighbouring villages, so had on small work for me. Nonetheless, they were warm enough in their welcome.”
“The fourth village was a different matter. Going farther upcountry brought me to a place sadly in need of my skills. I spent the rest of spring there, fixing a host of farming tools, hinges, and such. The villagers were quite happy about this, since it made planting season easier. I did not make much coin, for they did not have much, but was paid in what little food they had, as well as shelter for me and my mule.”
“One woman had a lingering sickness. I told her I would pray with her for her recovery, and did what I could to strengthen her health with magic. By the time I left the village, she seemed to be doing better.”
Exposure: 2 xp in Animal Handling
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1223 AD, Summer Season
“Travelling ever further upcountry provided me with another village where I could practice my craft. This one had a nearby mine and already had a blacksmith, but he could not keep up with all the work. He agreed to take me on as a helper for the season. This proved quite fruitful to my skills as a smith.”
“There was an orphan girl there named Maria. Her mother had died the year previous and now her father in a recent mine accident. She has no relatives in the area, so she was begging for food and almost starving, the poor thing. So I took her in. At 7, she doesn’t eat much.”
“The villagers are decent folk, though. When they learned I was taking care of Maria, they got much friendlier and open with me. I spent a few nights drinking dark beer with the men, listening to stories. The women have been good to me too, letting me purchase food for me and Maria, or cooking for us.”
“One of the stories I heard is about a mineshaft that was abandoned some years ago because miners kept getting disoriented in it. I went to investigate, but the shaft looked to dangerous for me to go into, it was very unstable. However, some unusual flowers growing near the entrance caught my attention. Their roots proved to have some bulbs growing on them that contain a little Herbam vis, so I gathered as much as I could, but also left enough that they could multiply. This proved to be worth 2 pawns. When I came back in the area later during the summer, another patch of the flowers did not contain any vis. I went back to the original site but they showed no raw vis there either, so this may be a seasonal source. The dried roots have retained their potency.”
Training: 6 xp * 1.5 (Training Source Quality of 8, not full-time training) in Craft: Blacksmith
Items obtained:
- 2 pawns of Herbam (root nodules of mountain flowers)
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1223 AD, Autumn Season
“Maria and I have travelled on to another village now. She is getting less scrawny and she sometimes smiles at my jokes. After a season spent at a mining village I wanted to get back to growing things. And harvest time means a lot of tools to be sharpened and repaired for farmers. So down-country we went, but eastward.”
“We found another village that was happy to have us. It is far larger than the villages I grew up in, with an inn and a separate tavern. They also have a smith there, but with so many farms scattered around, having someone like me who could make the rounds to make small repairs was welcomed. I also helped the local smith when he had larger jobs or simply making nails for him. A boring job, but nails are always needed. And he taught me some new things.”
“One of the wenches working at the tavern was quite friendly with me, and she thought Maria is cute. Anna was surprised when I told her the girl isn’t mine. It was clear that she had no intention of leaving her village, but when I left we were still friends. I may come back around here.”
“While making the rounds around the farms, I learned that something was digging holes in the fields at night. The farmers were puzzled, so a few of them decided to stay up one night to see if they could catch whatever was doing this. After putting Maria to bed, I joined with them, curious as well. We saw nothing, but heard grumbling noises coming from the fields. Whenever we would close with the noises, it would move off and start elsewhere.”
“The next night I came back alone, after giving myself the eyes of a cat. What I discovered was what looked like a small stunted man, no more than 2 feet tall, digging with a large wooden spade. He was grumbling as he dug. He jumped when I asked him what he was looking for. Since I had no light source, he had not seen me approach.”
“The faerie (for that was surely what it was) told me that he had buried a cockatrice egg so it would be safe, but that the marker he had put on top of it had been removed. So now he couldn’t find it anymore. If it hatched before he found it, the cockatrice would die and poison the field. All the while the stunted man was grumbling, and he grumbled even more when he asked me for my help. The egg looked just like a rock to humans, from his tale. So I asked him if he could bring me a feather from the cockatrice that had laid the egg. We bargained a bit as to the price of my help, and struck a deal. He said he would the feather the next night.”
“The next night, he was back with the feather. Using spontaneous magic and the cockatrice feather as an arcane connection, I was able to pace the field until we found the egg. As a price for my help, he let me keep the cockatrice feather, and would bring me the shells of the egg once the egg is hatched. He fulfilled his part of the bargain and brought me the shell before I left the village with Maria.”
Note: The spell used to locate the cockatrice egg was based on Probe for Pure Silvers (InTe 4). The cockatrice feather was not really used as an arcane connection, but to provide a reference to the smell of the cockatrice’s egg.
Training: 6 xp *1.5 (Training Source Quality of 9, but not full-time training) in Craft: Blacksmith
Items obtained:
- Cockatrice egg shells: proved to contain 2 pawns of Terram vis (Gorianus didn’t know this, he simply took a chance that they would be valuable)
- Cockatrice feather: no obvious magical properties, although it might provide some Form and Material modifiers for a magic item
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1223 AD, Winter Season
“Winter on the road did not appeal to me, and I had Maria to think about. So I headed back to the covenant where Brictius sometimes live. I made some efforts to shelter my protégé from the worst of the weirdness by having her stay at the nearby village with a good family.”
“I bargained for the use of a laboratory and access to the library against 1 pawn of my newly acquired Herbam vis. I also traded the information about the Herbam flowers against future access to covenant resources for 2 more seasons, provided some raw vis could be harvested from them.”
“I spent most of the winter learning more about Intellego, as the covenant had a very good beginner Summa on the subject.”
Books: Summa with Quality 12 and Level 5, so 12 xp added
Summary of the year:
- 32 xp from exposure, training and reading (including 6 from Affinity)
- 0 warping points
Items owned at the end of the year:
- 1 pawn of Herbam vis (flower root nodules)
- 2 pawns of Terram vis (cockatrice egg shells)
- Cockatrice feather w/no obvious properties (may have Form and Material bonus)
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1224 AD, Spring Season
“Maria has decided to remain with the family where she stayed over the winter. I am happy for her, and for them. They are good people. I will miss her smile, but I should see her again when I come back to the covenant.”
“I made my way back to more villages, this time heading towards the coast. While travelling, I was lucky enough to see a small herd of wisent grazing in the plain. These are impressive animals! I had heard of them but never seen any with my own eyes. I wonder if there is a Bjornaer in the Tribunal with a wisent heart-beast.”
“There are fewer villages in need of my services here. I spent almost as many days on the road as I did at the forge. A few people were in need of help, and I did what little I could. My mule got to work quite a bit this season. I was a bit grumpy about that. I should probably find it a name. I’m thinking of Biala, for she has a white forehead.”
“I finally stopped in a bigger town and offered to help a farrier named Siemion in exchange for a place to sleep and food for me and Biala. Another man who could not keep up with the work he had. He spent much of his time preparing horses and mules for merchants who travel from the coast to the Southern parts of the kingdom. He taught me quite a bit as I was helping him shoe the horses and take care of the animals. He and his family were much healthier by the time I left town, but I don’t think they noticed. The family garden looked good, too.”
“One morning late in the season, I found a young boy sleeping in the hay loft. His face was all swollen up from being beat. When I woke him up, he looked afraid and in pain. I shared my breakfast with him and cleaned him up. He was bruised all over, old and recent ones alike, and it looked like a couple of his ribs were cracked. I tended to him as well as I could, mumbling a Purification spell to make sure they would heal properly. His name is Tobiasz and he’s 11. He’d been living with his uncle, a farmer, since his parents died during the winter. But the man had a mean streak and beat the boy often.”
“Two days later, the man showed up at the stable and tried to take the boy back. He flew in a rage when the boy tried to resist, and started hitting him. I punched the man hard; broke his nose, I think. He went away, making threats.”
“The next morning before dawn, the boy, Biela and I were on the road.”
Training: 4 xp in Animal Handling (only half the season actually spent training)
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1224 AD, Summer Season
“Heading for the coast was not a good idea, and we needed to put some distance between Tobiasz and his uncle. There is also much less work along the coast for me, although at least it looks like the common peoples’ lives are a bit easier. Tobiasz’ bruises are fading slowly.”
“After we heard of some brigands harassing travellers, so we eventually hooked up with some merchants going south, who had a couple of armed men as guards. They were friendly enough, and were happy that I was with them, since it made maintaining their wagons, tools and weapons much easier. We got protection in exchange for that, and the guards taught me how to better handle a staff. My father had trained me some when I was young, but my skill was still limited. I had enough money left to feed both Tobiasz and I, not to mention Biala. I began showing Tobiasz how to take care of Biala, and he helped me greatly there, since so much of my time was spent learning how to defend myself.”
“We parted way with the merchants late in the season, when we reached a village that was dearly in need of my services. Their blacksmith here died three winters ago, and his smithy is now abandoned. The people are very poor here, and a lot of them are sick.”
Teaching: 5 xp in Great Weapon (used an average of Com +1 and Teaching 1, with a single student; total Quality is 11, but teaching was only part-time)
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1224 AD, Autumn Season
“We remained at the village. I have spent some time training Tobiasz to help me as a blacksmith, but he also cleaned up the small garden behind the smithy’s house. It took some effort making the house habitable again and the smithy functional. The boy is quite good with plants.”
“The villagers were grateful to me for staying, providing me with food in trade for my services. Winter was difficult for many of them, but I visited the sick and it may have helped some. There was only one who died over the winter. I also used some minor magic to prevent decay in their stores of grain. This took some time, as I was limited to some low-level spontaneous magic and had to remain unnoticed.”
“While exploring the surrounding area, I found a local source of vis in the nearby forest. It looks unclaimed and I was able to gather 2 pawns of Creo vis, from a tree that weeps a kind of amber-like substance. The trouble was that this attracted swarms of bees, even during the winter, and they seem to feed on the substance. No mundane can approach the area, for they would be stung to death by the bees, but a simple Rego Animal spell allows me to approach. I was careful to store the amber in such a way that its smell would be blocked, in a sealed jar.”
Exposure: 2 xp in Bargain
Items obtained:
- 2 pawns of Creo vis
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1224 AD, Winter Season
“I went back to the forest for more Creo vis. I was also able to gather some honey from my expeditions in the forest, by following some of the bees. I gave some to the villagers, particularly those who were sick, but also stored a fairly good store of it. I may be able to trade it at some point.”
“I’ve now learned from the villagers that they are afraid of the nearby forest, for they say strange things happen there. With the bee swarms I found there, I can understand their reluctance to go much deeper than its fringe to gather wood.”
“Since arriving here, I have wondered why this village was so poor, for the land looks fertile enough. The people do not seem lazy, though maybe a bit depressed. They also seem rather… indifferent to their plight and unwilling to improve their lot. As I got to know them better, they told be that things had been better in the past.”
“Amongst their tales of the past, one caught my attention for it sounded familiar. Some years ago, a group of strangers had come through. They claimed to be hunters of dangerous beasts headed into the forest in search of game. They never came back to the village, and apparently no one in the other villages ever saw them either.”
“So I decided to explore the forest some more. Whenever I had time, I would spend a day there. I figured that if something dangerous came after me, I could always run or climb a tree. The place was a bit gloomy and depressing.”
“I eventually found their remains and the creature that they’d trapped in a clearing deep into the woods. A stag, caught in an iron cage at the bottom of a pit. The skeletons of the men were scattered around the clearing. I can only speculate that the stag killed them before stumbling into the trap they had prepared.”
“The animal was in poor shape. It was a wonder that it was alive at all after such a long time. The cage has rusted, and part of the pit had collapsed into the cage, so its legs and rump were buried. Its eyes were dull and there were sores on its side, where rocks and the bars of the cage had rubbed it raw. It had a single antler left on its head. But even in its pitiful state, the beast’s proud bearing was apparent.”
“It took me many days before I was able to get it out. At first, whenever I approached, it would try to attack me, but soon fell back in its funk. The iron of the cage itself seemed impervious to my magic, and any way to open the cage had long been rusted shut. First I dug out the cage, and then I used my tools to grind a few of the bars away. After a while, the stag stopped trying attack me and I saw hope in its eyes. I also found out how it was still alive. Small animals were bringing it pieces of the amber-like substance from the tree.”
“When it was finally free, it made its stumbling way deeper into the forest. I saw it once or twice since, and each time it looked healthier. The forest was also less gloomy, and the villagers seem to be livelier.”
“I searched through the dirt inside the cage and found the stag’s second antler. I left the cage and the bars there, even though it was a lot of iron, for the metal felt repellent to me.”
[Note: It was the magical stag that, due to its situation, was casting a pall of depression in the forest and the village. No mundane would have had the emotional energy to get to this place, but Gorianus is Carefree so he was able to ignore it better than most, even if the effect was able to get though his Parma Magica. He dug the cage out using a shovel crafted to make moving the dirt easier (ReTe, Move earth in a natural fashion, Base 1, +1 Touch, +2 Sun), but had to cut the bars using a simple file because they resisted magic.]
Adventure: 5 xp in Awareness and 5 xp in Survival
Items obtained:
- An antler of the Gostynin Stag, which contains 3 pawns of Animal vis
- 2 pawns of Creo vis
- 2 pints of honey
Summary of the year:
- 21 xp from exposure, training, teaching and an adventure
- 2 warping points (from botches over the year, as most spells were cast in non-stressful situations)
Items owned at the end of the year:
- 4 pawns of Creo vis (amber-like fragrant substance from a tree)
- 3 pawns of Animal vis (an antler from the Gostynin Stag)
- 1 pawn of Herbam vis (flower root nodules)
- 2 pawns of Terram vis (cockatrice egg shells)
- Cockatrice feather w/no obvious properties (may have Form and Material bonus)
- 4 pints of honey
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1225 AD, Spring Season
“We will remain some time longer at the village, which is called Gostynin. It is not a large place, with only about a dozen families. Most of them are farmers. The people here have been cheering up since I freed the stag.”
“One of the local girls has visited me often lately. She offered to darn my clothes and cook for me in exchange for fixing her dad’s scythe. Her name is Ania. I am unsure of my feelings about her, but Tobiasz has made fun of us both. The boy, by the way, works hard but is not really a blacksmith at heart. He has more talent in the garden. I’ve talked to some of the farmers about teaching him. There is plenty of land to farm here.”
“The merchants I travelled with last year passed through the village. I bartered the honey I collected for iron stock, since what I had was almost completely depleted. I also sold some of the things I had made. Between that and the bartering I have done with the villagers, I’ve been doing a lot of haggling. Biala is growing fat lack of exercise.”
Exposure: 2 xp * 1.5 in Craft: Blacksmithing
Items obtained:
- 2 more pawns of Creo vis
- 2 pints of honey
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1225 AD, Summer Season
“Ania wants me to marry her. She says she does not care that I am a wizard, or if we move away from here. She is a sweet woman, and says she will keep my secrets. Others in the village suspect what I am, she says, but don’t know for sure.”
“So we were married in June at the neighbouring village’s church.”
“I think I need to get back to Brictius’ covenant for next season. Some more studying time would help a lot. I want my skills in Corpus to be better, in case more people get sick next winter.”
Exposure: 2 xp * 1.5 in Craft: Blacksmithing
Items obtained:
- 2 more pawns of Creo vis
- 2 pints of honey
---
1225 AD, Autumn Season
“I have travelled back to the covenant, leaving at the end of summer so I could get a full season’s worth of studying. Ania came with me, but I left Tobiasz at the village. Ania’s father said he would take care of him in my absence. She marvelled at so many sights! She had never travelled beyond the neighbouring villages, so the smallest things grabbed her attention.”
“The source of Herbam vis I told them about last year turned out to be small but renewable, so the covenant held true to their word and provided access to the library and a lab. I studied Corpus from the library.”
“Brictius was not there when we arrived, but turned up at the end of the season to congratulate us. He had a gift for me, he said. He’d found a treatise on metalworking while he was travelling, and arranged for a copy for me. Knowing how much he might need it, I gave him two pawns of Creo and asked him that if he found other books on things that might interest me, I would certainly appreciate it. I told him where we lived, so he could come visit us in the spring.”
“He also mentioned that there was a new covenant forming in the south of the Tribunal, in Crimea. He suggested that it might be a good idea for me to travel there and see if I could put my skills to use closer to a covenant. I told him I would think about it.”
“I also sold the covenant one pawn of Creo vis, in case I need money for travelling, and exchanged two more pawns of Creo for four pawns of Vim vis.”
Reading: 10 xp in Corpus
Items obtained:
- Tractatus on Craft: Blacksmithing, Quality 10 (Techniques for shaping and forming iron)
- 4 pawns of Vim vis (purchased with 2 pawns of Creo)
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1225 AD, Winter Season
“We have travelled back to Gostynin, leaving in early winter but still arriving before there was snow on the ground. Tobiasz was happy to see us. I noticed that he had grown a little taller and a little stronger in such a short time. Harvest was now over, and he seemed happy.”
“Over the winter, I eagerly read and applied the knowledge contained in the book Brictius had given me. It meant I got less only a little work done, but I was still able to catch up a little on the work that had accumulated in my absence.”
“I also discussed moving south with Ania and Tobiasz. The boy looked torn between following us or staying with Ania’s father, who had no son. The boy will remain, I suspect. Ania told me she’d follow me anywhere.”
Reading: 10 xp * 1.5 in Craft: Blacksmith
Items obtained:
- 2 more pawns of Creo vis
- 2 pints of honey
Summary of the year:
- 31 xp from exposure and reading
- 1 warping points (only a single botch over the year, as most spells were cast in non-stressful situations)
Items owned at the end of the year:
- 7 pawns of Creo vis (amber-like fragrant substance from a tree)
- 3 pawns of Animal vis (an antler from the Gostynin Stag)
- 1 pawn of Herbam vis (flower root nodules)
- 2 pawns of Terram vis (cockatrice egg shells)
- Tractatus on Craft: Blacksmithing, Quality 10 (Techniques for shaping and forming iron) – has been read
- Cockatrice feather w/no obvious properties (may have Form and Material bonus)
- 2 pints of honey
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1226 AD, Spring Season
“It is decided, Ania and I will travel south to this new covenant Brictius talked about. Apparently it will be a place from which other magi will explore the region, so my limited skills can probably be of some use. If not, I am sure some village nearby will need a blacksmith. I must admit that, even though I like the simple life in the village, I often miss the more bustling atmosphere of a covenant. It also has resources that can help grow my abilities, allowing me to do more to help the ordinary folks.”
“So, after the initial spring tasks were completed, I travelled to Płock, a sizeable town a few days northeast of Gostynin. The purpose of my trip there was twofold. First was learning about merchants that come through town on their way to Kievan Rus. The results of my inquiries were mixed. There is a lot of trade moving up and down the river, including trade goods from Kiev. But we would need to travel upriver a lot before we could hope to link with merchants travelling over the Carpathian Mountains.”
“The second reason was to try and find a young man willing to take over as a blacksmith for Gostynin. Again, I faced failure, for none of the advanced apprentices or journeymen were willing to leave town for a place in a small village.”
“When I came back to the village, I puzzled with those two problems for some time while doing my usual work. Answers came my way in the form of Brictius a month into spring, when he came to visit us. He had guessed at my intentions to provide a replacement smith, and had scouted some towns along to way to visit. He’d found a young man looking forward to a place of his own and willing to move to Gostynin.”
“Brictius stayed two weeks, doing carpentry work for the villagers and talking with me and my family. I took him with me when I went to harvest some more honey and vis in the forest. He’ll be able to put those resources to good use once I am gone. He gave me more information on how to get to this covenant in Crimea.”
“I also mode some further preparations for our departure, packing what little we owned and saying our goodbyes to friends in the village. Tobiasz was torn, but decided to stay here with Ania’s father instead of travelling with us.”
Exposure: 2 xp in Bargain
Items obtained:
- 2 more pawns of Creo vis
- 2 pints of honey
---
1226 AD, Summer Season
“We are on the road. From Płock we arranged passage upriver by boat to Jazdów and beyond, until we left the river to make our way to Galicia. We were able to travel with merchants on the way to the Odessa on the Black Sea. It was a large group, for protection, so my craft was in some demand during the trip. It is a long trip, so we traded my smaller cart for a larger wagon, large enough to sleep in and install canvas over when the weather was bad.”
“I befriended some of our travelling companions and they told us about the local customs and the towns we would travel through. This helped pass the time between villages and towns. It took us two months to reach Odessa. From there we booked passage on a ship going east along the coast, until we came to a village where we could make our way to the covenant.”
“The more we were going south, the more we heard people speaking Turkish. So every time I could, I asked our traveling companions, both the merchants and fellow travellers on the ship, to teach us the language. I am sure it will be useful where we are going.”
“It was the end of the season when we got to the estuary of the Lower Bug, where the covenant is. We picked up a young friend in Odessa. His name is Oleg, I believe. It is hard to be sure, for he is mute. He also has a twisted leg, but he is a sweet boy and very helpful.”
Teaching: 5 xp in Language: Turkish
Items owned at the end of the year:
- 9 pawns of Creo vim (amber-like fragrant substance from a tree)
- 3 pawns of Animal vis (an antler from the Gostynin Stag)
- 1 pawn of Herbam vis (flower root nodules)
- 2 pawns of Terram vis (cockatrice egg shells)
- 4 pawns of Vim vis (distilled vis)
- Tractatus on Craft: Blacksmithing, Quality 10 (Techniques for shaping and forming iron) – has been read
- Cockatrice feather w/no obvious properties (may have Form and Material bonus)
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