Having recieved invitations to meet with Gregory of Jerbiton concerning joining his covenant as instructed the Magi Byron of Merenita, Janus of Bonisagus and Lucius of Flambeau met on the road approaching the great town of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.

There they witnessed a strange ceremony, involving a Breton Noblewoman leading a white bull in procession through the streets as a fertility rite, accompanied by the chanting monks of Bury's great abbey. They also met a monk, Alan of Walsingham who bored them with stories of the Interdict and King John's injustice, before moving on to the Sign of the Gryphon, an inn, where they witnessed and were injured in a riot provoked by some fish-wagoneers taking salt fish from the coast to London, who argued that Thomas a Becket was a greater saint than Edmund!

Injured in the resulting marketplace riot they eventually managed to make their way to a house that Gregory had hired in Whiting Street, and there Gregory told them of his plan to recreate the destroyed Covenant of Natura Antiqua.

That night Byron used his magic whistle to fly over the town and try and recover creo vis from the bull which had been used in the rite, but was spotted provoking a second riot, this time looking for faeries.....

Lucius turned and fled, as did Grgory who amazed everyone by the speed with which he ran away. Lucius saw him encounter Black Shuck ahead; the mage and the faerie hound locked eyes for an instant, and then Gregory vanished...

Meanwhile the storm swirled around Janus and Byron, but they remained unscathed, apparently standing in the eye of the 'hurricane'. The figure solidified and dimished in size until it beacame an old man dressed in a tattrered and windblown pale yellow robe, playing a silver flute. He was quite clearly a faerie by his eyes of elaborately cut quartz...

The figure identified himself as The Piper, lord of the Breckland, and asked why they had stolen from him. Janus immediately offered him a pewter trinket from Bury in exchange for the vis, and Byron swore himself to perform a service for the Piper in the future. recognising his affinity with Byron the Piper agreed, and the two mages mde it safely back to Brandon where they met Lucius and heard of Gregory's fate...

Byron sought to find out what fate had befallen Gregory, and used a combination of spells and his natural ability in premonitions to scy what had become of him. The resulting vision saw Gregory acting as if drunk, cavorting around the bed chamber of a monk, stealing the Abbot's mitre and then scaling a tall tower that he recognised from Bury pursued by monks. As the sun rose he vanished, leaving the infuriated monks behind. They set off searching, and found Gregory on the path near where they last saw him, nonplussed and unaware of what had happened to him from the moment he met Black Shuck... did he really cavort around Bury Abbey? No one knows, least of all Gregory...

Soon after dawn the Crimson Cow set off upriver towards the reputedly haunted island. Lucius demonstrated his skill in auram magics to speed the vessel on it's way with favourable winds, and the ship passed a group of monks from Ely Abbey heading down stream who stopped and conversed on friendly terms with Gregory, who obviously knew the Abbot and his clerk, Athanasius.

It was still early in the day when the magi caught their first glimpse of the low mist shrouded isle that was destined to become their new home, but even in that firt glance it was obvious that the eerie isle was haunted, or worse...

As the ship approached it tied up as the sailors feared to land on the forbidding island, which was popularly believed haunted by demons. Gregory had told them that the Covenant whose ruins they were to explore had been founded in 1133 A.D, and destroyed ten years later in 1143 by the army of Geoffrey de Mandeville.

De Mandeville was an outlaw baron who had escaped the justice of King Stephen towards the end of the civil wars by fleeing in to the Fens with his supporters, after it was revealed he was plotting against the throne. He had stumbled on the covenant and his troops had burnt it, slaying all the inhabitants, and their ghosts were said to haunt the spot...

As the magi rowed towards the bleak islet this was easy to believe. The mist prevented them seeing far but it was clear that a wooden stockade, much dilapidated, ringed a large part of the island, while a decayed and much burnt group of ruined cottages marked where the grogs had once lived. The Great Hall and Library roofs could be seen through the mist, and seemed fairly intact, but they too had an almost tangible aura of evil cloaking them...

The party landed and made their way across a promontory which projected on the southeast shore of the island, where the aura of evil did not seem so strong. Before they had progressed far towards the stockade they heard a clattering, and saw a group of hideous skeletons marching towards them through the fog that enshrouded everything. Lucius despatched tham with a blast of fire, but they were immediately attacked again, this time by the huge gnarled and rotting oaks which marched towards them on their centuries old roots, churning up the mud as they came...

It was a close fight but Lucius suceeded in toppling them all, and for minutes the sky was filled with fire as he sent out arcs of fiery ribbons and hurled pilums of fire, and summoned winds to drive back the encircling fog. The trees exploded in to burning fragments as they were despatched, but eventually the party won a brief respite and stopped to rest.

Lucius once more used his fire magics to burn down a section of the stockade, and the party cautiously entered the compound. Ahead they saw three piles of rocks which they realised were the remains of collapsed towers, and to their right stood a long low building that may have once been guest quarters.

Suddenly they saw a figure crossing the courtyard, with black hair and clothed in a red robe, and were horrified to realise that they could see straight through this mage! the ghostly Flambeau unleashed a terrible burst of spectral fire at them, but Lucius Parma held and they survived, though Janus ran off screaming in terror...

The ghostly mage retreated in to the courtyard behind the Great Hall and the Library, so after vainly calling for Janus, Byron and Lucius pushed on, taking up a high position on the right most ruined tower and there Lucius used fire magic to destroy another group of skeletons as they approached...

While Lucius rested Byron explored the pile of rocks, and discovered a narrow way on to the stairs leading down in to the basement of the former tower. He managed to clear just enough space for his tiny form to squeeze in to the subteranean chamber, and cautiously made his way down in to the darkness below...

At the bottom of the stairs he found what was obviously a storeroom, piled high with ancient supplies and barrels, with a number of interesting looking bits of laboratory glassware stacked against one wall. Everything was covered in dust and draped in cobwebs, but Byron's attention was particularly taken with a brass mirror which bore faerie style engravings and despite it's corrosion appeared to a fine work of craftsmanship.

Byron moved through the storeroom and down the decayed passage that led towards the second tower, when he saw the red gleam of a rats eyes in the darkness ahead. This unnerved him, but not as much as the discovery that the second room had a large black coffin resting on a stone slab in it's centre, and the remains of black candles and diabolic symbols scattered around the room. Trusting that discretion was the better part of valour he decided to report back to Lucius, when suddenly he heard the clink of armour and the rat transormed into a Norman-style knight, complete with black armour and broadsword...

Byron fled back through the corridor and up the stairs, while the finger strode heavily after him, and emerged from the hole by Lucius like a frightened rabbit, pausing only to call to Lucius to run before fleeing back to the landing point. When Lucius arrived it became clear that Janus had fled the island taking the rowboat with him!

After resting and seeing that the figure was not emerging from the underground chambers Byron and Lucius discussed what to do, Byron took off and flew to the ship with his magic whistle, and persuaded Janus to return to the island with the rowboat. Reunited the party then set about exploring the ruined guesthouse, with Lucius despatching a few more animated skeletons as they fought through the debris.

While in the Guestrooms the party suddenly saw a rat again, and before Byron could cry out a warning it turned in to the figure of the Knight and attacked them, smashing Janus in to a wall and attempting to strike Lucius. Lucius tried to throw a pilum of fire at it but the spell fizzled, and then the figure spoke...

It did not identify itself, but the party decided it was probably de Mandeville. It stated that it would kill them unless they cooperated, and that all it required from them was passage off the island in a boat after nightfall. If they did not comply it would kill them all.

There was no time for further negotiations as the party fled, and took terrible injuries beating off the attacks of the fiend. As Lucius threw fire spells at the horror he realised it did not like light, so they ran outside in to the mists, and Lucius fired the guesthouse block burning the derelict structure to the ground.

None of them doubted that the horror had returned in to rat form and escaped underground however. It was decided that they must evacuate immediately, so gathering Gregory who had been left bemused by the events of the day they set off immediately back to to the ship, fighting a retreat against more skeletons...

The ship sailed on past Littleport and at Gregory's insistance took the party to Ely, where the monks of the Cathedral bound their wounds and the magi spent three weeks recovering and planning. Feelings were running high against Gregory, especially as it was felt that not only had he led them in to danger unprepared but that he had not exposed himself to his fair share of the risks.

After the worst of their wounds had healed the magi took the Scarlet Cow and returned via Brandon to Bury st Edmunds, where they hid up for the rest of the season in the house in Whiting Street, maintaing a low profile as they slowly recovered.

Autumn 1213

After the events of the Summer it was decided to wait until all wounds had healed before returning to confront the ghosts and horror of the island. While Lucius and Janus were recovering from there wounds Byron quizzed Gregory about where he had gained his knowledge of the lost Covenant, and Gregory revealed he had purchased a book in Paris which purported to be a journal of Uffius, leader of the earlier covenant, which detailed the vis sources and history of the covenant until the eve of it's downfall. Byron examined the book and took notes on the vis sources claimed by the covenant.

Gregory's plan was to reestablish the covenant and then reveal it's existence at the 1215 Stonehenge Tribunal, establishing rights to former vis sources and continued existence by the very fact that the covenant had already existed before and was simply being revived...

One of the vis sources spoken of in the book was a rich source of vis to be found at an ancient flint mine named Grimes Graves near Brandon. It was decided that the magi would visit it on the appropriate night on their way back to the covenant. Uffius' book warned of great danger, so they prepared carefully...

The trip to Grimes Graves was with Thomas and the cart via Brandon, and was only interupted by another failed attempt by the bandits who were once more easily scared away. On arrival in Brandon they made discrete enquiries about their destination and found that the villagers were terrified of the locale, believing it haunted in some way, and saying that people who strayed near it after dark were never seen again.

Nonetheless they managed to hire three local men to accompany them, and taking rope and a large wicker basket made their way across the fields and in to a dark faerie wood, deep within which lay the entrances to the pits...

On arriving at the pit it was decided that Byron would fly down while Lucius was lowered down in the basket by the three men and Janus. In fact these two safely reached the bottom - it was Janus who was attacked from behind and pitched head first down the mine shaft. As he fell he screamed a spell but the strange magical energies of the place overwhelmed him and he passed in to twilight, only being saved from death on the rocks at the bottom by Lucius' magical intervention...

Vis was indeed found in the tunnels, but so were a number of malignant dwarven faeries who attacked with flint axes and almost killed Janus, who took a greivous head wound. Byron carried him out, and as they fled Lucius fell behind...

The last to climb up was Lucius, and by the time he was preparing to leave the earth rumbled as some might beast moved down the passages towards him...

As he ascended the rope the great serpentine head appeared, and the jaws snapped at him. He just managed to leap clear as a huge gout of flame hurtled syward from the pit: Lucius swears an immense dragon lies deep within the ancient mines, and is in no hurry to return, vis or not!

The villagers had already fled so the magi returned to Brandon, where they camped the night and in the morning armed with their newly acquired vis and three heads of the dwarves (later discovered to contain terram vis) they met up with the crew of the Crimsom Cow in the morning and set off to continue trying to clear out the covenant...

Lucius takes up the story now...