Keeping our end of the bargain


Extract from the journal of Murchad Mac Lorcain

Joyous news! Cecile has been rather ill of late each morning and it appears that she is with child. I will dispatch a messenger to inform Cecile’s family.

September 1st 1225
The season has begun and we have met for our usual council meeting. Several matters were discussed, the arrival of two messengers, one from the Lord Basteille and one a redcap, Vis stocks and financial opportunities.

As part of our charter with the Lord Basteille the covenant must insure that the area is kept free of bandits and that now we must act upon this. It appears that there is a well organised band of bandits operating along a 100 mile stretch of a nearby road. This is a very important route as it is one of the main links to the Alps. By all accounts these accounts have been well orchestrated and never strike in the same spot. It was decided that myself and Wilhelm would head up and expedition to hunt down these bandits and bring them to justice.
The Redcaps message was from a member of house Jerbiton, whose name eludes me at the moment. It appears word of the greatness of our library has spread even amongst some mundanes. A member of the University of Bologna has approached our acquaintance and has made us an interesting proposal. If we allow him access to our library for several seasons than we in turn shall have access to the facilities of the university. Despite the objections of Wilhelm it was decided to grant our scholars request.
The vis stores are to take a bit of a hit. Both Willhelm and Losseloth have requested quite a large quantity of vis for various projects, I believe Willhelm is binding a familiar, I am unsure as to what Lossleloth has planned.
The coffers of the covenant have been quite bare since our occupancy. Despite the income from the mine we have barely been making enough to pay off our debts. As such we discussed some additional sources of revenue. One matter, which I raised with the council, was that the land around the covenant is ideal for growing vines for making wine. With the expertise of Cecile’s family and a little herbam magic we could produce a very fine vintage indeed. The matter was discussed and approved by the council. I have asked Cecile to talk to both her family and Losseloth to iron out the details.

September 2nd 1225
We set out with a turb of grogs and arrived at the site of the last attack in the early afternoon. I set the grogs in a defensive position while Willhelm cast Eyes of the past to see what had transpired on the day of the attack. It is as we feared, the bandits are well armed and well organised and also appear to have an accomplice, a muleskinner we believe may have returned to a nearby town. During this time Luke also carried out some aerial scouting and discovered a potential base of operation, a ruined keep located a short distance from the road. It was decided that we should travel to the town to try to locate this skinner.
After obtaining lodgings in an inn we decided to give the grogs a night off to enjoy the local hospitality. In the meantime the other magus and I sought out the skinner. Although our search was in vain Lucius not only tracked him down but also arranged a meeting under the premise that we were traders looking for workers.

September 3rd 1225
Shortly after noon the skinner arrived. After a brief interrogation the skinner revealed that he and several other skinners were in league with the bandits. When they acquired work with a trading caravan they would go to an inn and leave message with the barkeep who would relay it to the bandits. They would then lead the caravan into an ambush and receive a cut of the loot. We set up a trap for the bandits’ contacts. A message was left with the barkeep by our skinner and while the messenger was leaving the inn we set upon him and incapacitated him. Upon interrogating the messenger he revealed that the base of operations for the group was indeed the ruined keep and that they were a group of mercenary who turned to banditry. When we were satisfied we had extracted all the information from the prisoners we handed them over to the watch. We set off with the aim of assaulting the keep at night.
After recon we discovered that there was a collapsed wall at the rear of the keep. It was decided that I would storm the front of the keep with a small attachment of grogs to do as much damage as possible and create a diversion so as to allow the rest of the magus lead the grogs through the gap in the wall to exploit the flanks. Although I suffered some minor wounds due to arrow fire the plan was executed perfectly. The frontal assault was executed so well that the support role had little trouble in cutting down they remaining bandits. I tended the wounds of the injured and we catalogued the loot. Anything taken in the last raid will be returned to the magistrate and the remainder shall be retained by the covenant.