Tying up loose ends
An extract from the journals of Murchad MacLorcain
September 15th
Myself and my fellow mages have left several matters unattended. We decided to call a council to debate the following isssues.
1) repairs on the breach
2) what to do with regard to Mistridge and the problem at the mill
3) exploring Tracus labs, destroying the grave guardians and finding the cause of the rising dead
4) finding the sender of the statue
The walls have been in need of repair since our occupancy. It was felt that this situation needed to be rectified and since repayments on the loan were going well and the covenant had some spare silver work was to begin. They should take be complete by the spring.
The issue of what to do about the Mill had yet to be put to bed. Some of my fellow magus wish to take more radical action but knowing our opponents somewhat better than they i assured them that any action we took would be futile and might risk a wizards march. While i could hold my own against any of the magi from Mistridge i do not believe my covenmates could. It was decided that it would be best to deal with the matter at tribunal.
It appeared that we were finally free of disturbances and that we could finally explore the lab of Tracsus. However before study could begin the two grave guardians would have to be eliminated. No easy task even for one skilled such as I. I have reduced them to ash on several occasions however the problem is that they must be killed in a specific way in order to stop them regenerating. I devised a plan of attack. I would enter and bombard the creatures with various fire magics to weaken them and then incase them in ice for study on site or in a lab. The plan went well up until the beasts fled by entering the walls. After casting a spontanuous intelligo terram i could see the creatures burrowing through the ground. This position was clearly unsuitable as we could be attacked from any side. As such i took an item from the lab, knowing the guardians would pursue me, and returned to the surface. Once there we managed to incapacitate them as planned despite that fool Willhelm entering twilight. Upon studying the notes in the lab we found that the creatures can only be killed by removing their hearts and driving an iron stake through them. Upon remving their hearts we found that each could be harvested for 5 pawns of vis, adaquate compensation for the inconvience caused. A full inventory was made of Tracsus equipment and texts, one of which included an explaination for the corpses rising every winter and a possible way in which the vis could be harvested to prevent this. This has also opened up another lab for a magus. We shall decide at our next council meetin whether to allow someone to occupy this lab or to leave it as a guest lab.
Luke has spent this past season studying the boobytrap left at our doorstep. It appears to have several enchantments and was made by Verderis of Criamon some time ago. To my knowledge he was involved in some controversy near his end and was possibly marched against. I seem to recall that Grimgoth of Mistridge was a covenmate of Verderis at the time. I have written a letter to him asking for aid in tracking the history of this item. I believe that this could lead us to the shadowflame. It appears that while my fellow magus and I were under the effects of the spell a man with the garb of a member of the shadowflame searched the library. Luckily he came away empty handed. It does appear however that we now have an early warning system should the shadoflame return. The lady Ella has been having visions of sickly flames circling the covenent. When our intruder was spotted she had seen one of the sickly flames stop circling and enter the covenent. She feels confident that she can warn us if the flames should draw closer.
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