The Arrival

Session 6 Event Log

Date

December 6th, 1999

Storyguide

Chris Womack

Logger

Jason Newquist

IC Time

Summer, 1221: Virgo 16

Location

The road to the north of Segobriga.
The city of Segobriga.

Event Summary

After waking from a strange vision of a Roman ruin, the magi undertake to enter their city, and perform an initial exploration. Afterward, a celebratory meal is held.

The Session

Magi PCs: Angeles, Arcturus, Bodor, Electus, Julius and Mateo.

Grog PCs: Various.

PCs played by the SG: Bodor.

NPCs: A band of the baron's men.

Retcon:  The magi have not yet set foot in the city.  It is the day that we awaken intending to deal with the barron’s men.  The past two sessions never happened.  The magi – just those with the Gift – wake up, and our night’s sleep was disturbed.  You remember having had a vision, having explored the city, exploring a ruin, untouched for hundreds of years.  You compare notes, and every magi had a similar dream, though not identical…  Very odd, all this is.  Almost a vision, it seemed.  Inexplicable.  The dream fades quickly.  (Additionally, Electus’ exploration of the city on Virgo 15 is retconned.)

Virgo 16, 1221

The magi agree to wait a few hours, until the baron’s men pass along the road.  At mid-morning, a troupe of men pass – it is clearly the men of the baron who were camped outside the city.  Angeles counts them, and confirms that they are all present.  A few diameters later, the group moves on.

The group moves south along the main road, approaching the north side of the city.  They move up the city.  We see a gate, and a city wall.  Out to the left, we see a theater.  To the right, an amphitheater.  Both are impressive structures, both are built into the hillside.  The city walls are a good 15 feet tall.  Everything seems to be in good repair.  It is not a ruin, by the shadow of our dreams.

The magic aura outside the city walls, 25 feet away from the gate, on the road, by Angeles determination, is +1.  There are no other auras present, detectable with spells.  Right at the gate, on the outside, the magical aura is +3.  This information is shared.

The gate is closed.  It is in the Roman style, newer than 800 years.  Stout reinforced wood.  On each door, a symbol of the Order is emblazoned, just over eye level.  There is no opening mechanism on the outside.  The doors are hinged to open outwards.

Arcturus floats up above the gates.  He sees a city.  He floats over the wall.  He sees that the gate is barred by a thick wooden beam.  Arcturus relieves the beam, and opens the doors via magic.

A mangy looking dog appears before the gates open, and is frightened by Arcturus, and wanders off.

Justin and Mateo enter, followed by the others.  The city is weathered, un-kept for a number of years.  Some buildings have collapsed roofs, and so forth.  All have sound structures.

Each magus takes a shield grog, and we take a scribe.

The group approaches the center of the city.  It is dilapidated.  The aura is +5, and tapers off at 30 feet into the air.  The roads are paved with flagstones, the center of the city is a plaza.

Angeles sees the entire city when he floats.  He sees a number of large public structures.  One quarter of the city is bereft of structures, probably used as a quarry, now used for pasture or fields.  The city itself seems to have been restored to its former glory, but then has seen several years of disuse.

Angeles floats and performs a vis survey.  Results will be provided offline. 

The plan is to split the magi into groups, so search the three structured quarters, with Carbo exploring the pastures (SE).  Here, too, is the cemetery.

Arcturus and Justin form a group, exploring the NE quarter.  They discover a forum, which is an open space, a square, with the markets on one side, and the baths on the other.  Many of the stalls have been boarded shut, some have been broken into, and so forth.  There is an aqueduct overhead.  There is a basilica nearby, passed on the way to the market – the term is used in the Roman sense.  It is domed, has very thick walls.  It is small, just as this is a small Roman city.  There are various other buildings.  This is a commercial district.  Everywhere the buildings are in disrepair, some have been ravaged by the elements, and so forth.

Mateo and Electus explore the NW quarter.  Here there are a number of villas.  There has been a fire here.  Many buildings are habitable.  There were half a dozen.  One burned to the ground, off to the one side, taking out some smaller domiciles.  No sanctum markers on the exteriors.  One is quite large, has two stories, and is quite austere.  It has been looted:  tattered curtains, etc.  A mosaic on the floor remains, however.  There are two sanctum markers, with closed doors, one on each floor.  On one door, Electus knocks.  He hears a fluttering noise behind it.  This was on the second story.  On the first story, the sanctum is marked also with a squiggly mark.  This one has a cellar, but is small, containing moldering foodstuffs.

Outside, there are windows, some opening into the sancta.  Electus floats up and sees that those rooms too have been ransacked.

The other villas are all roughly the same size as one another, roughly half the size of the largest villa. 

They choose one at random.  This one has a small forge as one of its outbuildings, which has a small anvil.  Electus selects a small pair of pliers, a random tool, and pockets it.  Mateo investigates the villa itself.  There is a sanctum marker on a door was ajar – the room looks like a whirlwind was set loose here.  Shards of broken glass, pottery, scraps of parchment, twisted metal, etc.  The building is in good shape, though.  There was a small cellar.

The next villa is in slightly worse shape than the others.  Part of its roof’s exterior tiling has been damage, resulting in some leakage.  There is a sanctum marker.

The next villa is intact, in the best repair of any that have been seen.  It does not look kept up, but it seems to have been subjected to less wear.  The villa’s primary dwelling structure’s door is fastened, and the main door is scarred, as if by cut damage. Electus floats up and checks out the courtyard.  All those doors are locked, too, and windows fastened.  Electus teleports inside a window.

None of these buildings have any furnishings to denote personality or whatnot.

Once inside, he feels an effect slam against his parma, and something tugs at the very structure of his physical being!  It was clearly Corpus.  Inside, it is very dim.  He is in the kitchen.  There is a uniform layer of undisturbed dust.  There is ash in the hearth.  Electus floats around.  There is no infernal aura.  The magic aura is +5.  He leaves the kitchen, enters a dining area, seating half a dozen.  He floats further, into an austere sort of day room.  There is a couch here.  There are spells affixed to each of the entrances and exits of the building – doors and windows.  There’s at one point in the structure there’s a door with a sanctum marker on it.  There were footprints in the dust, multiple sets, from the main door to the sanctum marker.  How fresh they are is uncertain.  The door to the sanctum screams that it has spells upon it.  Electus finds a couple stray, straggly gray hairs.   He teleports back outside.

The final villa is in better repair than the others, save the last.  The door to the main structure is closed, and fastened.  Electus casts a spell, ReMe, commanding whoever is inside to open the door.  Someone appears and opens the door a crack, and screams, “Go away!”  The door does not open again.  To further questions, “You should speak with Remandus!  He is gone!”  He says, “I am Romero!”  The sound of something heavy being dragged toward the door.  This exchange occurred in Castilian.

The site of the burned villa.  It is clear that the fire was large and powerful – the foundation is evident, but the building is an empty shell.  The outbuildings are gone.  The area in which it stands is not close to the others, nor are their trees, and this is fortunate for the fire would have otherwise spread.

There are trees in the quarter, but they are withered, as if they were once well-watered, but are cared for no longer.  There is sufficient rainfall for them to live, but not enough for them to thrive.

The SW quarter is explored by Angeles and Bodor.  This quarter contains modest domiciles: small and simple structures.  It looks like this was a quarter given over to the turb.  A random structure was looted, nothing of substance or value remains.   Another two places were chosen randomly by Angeles for investigation.

One which looks inhabited – and it is.  No sanctum marker.  The door is opened, and an old man is seen cowering in the corner.  A long beard, straggly white hair, dressed in rags, no teeth.  Angeles asks, after Aura of Rightful Authority,  his name.  “I am Pietro,” he says in Castilian.  What is your occupation?  “Shepherd.  Sh-sh-sheep sh-sh-sh-shepherd.”  How long have you been here?  “All my life.”  How old are you?  “I will see my sixtieth winter soon, God-willing.”  His Castilian is very common.  Is there anyone else living with you?  “No.”  But it is obvious he is lying.  Angeles threatens him, and repeats the question.  He nods meekly, and indicates that his granddaughter lives with him, and that he lied to protect her.  Angeles asks who else lives in the city.  Pietro thinks.  “There’s Romero, the (autocrat).”  The old man was a shepherd on behalf of the magi.  Angeles asks him outside so that he might conduct a more efficient form of interview.  Pietro obliges, but sees Angeles’ face!  The man slumps, clearly the victim of an invasion of vile humours as a result of the horror, but Angeles saves him from the brink of death at a touch...

In the distance, sheep bleat.  Meanwhile, Angeles sucks out the man's mind, focusing on his experience with the previous magi...  Pietro never directly interacted with them.  He only knows through hindsight which day – a single day – it was that the magi disappeared.  He recalls that the covenfolk and turb were thrown into a turmoil because the magi were just gone, all at once.  That was 10 years ago.  Shortly after, the order in the community vanished.  The autocrat, Romero, went mad the same day as the vanishing.  Most of the covenfolk just up and left shortly thereafter.  He has a granddaughter who remains with him who tends the sheep.

Angeles prides the man on his loyalty and constancy.  Angeles gets directions to Romero’s house so that he might have an "interview" with this mad autocrat.

Down the road, a commotion.  Bodor has his hands full with a flailing, shrieking woman, demanding that the men not accost her grandfather.  Angeles approaches, and at a glance at the dark-robed magus, she faints.  Bodor carries her into the old man’s shack.  The grand-daughter is about 20 years old.

From Pietro’s memory, there are impressions of other people who he fears – many are ex-grogs, who still use the city as their hive of scum and villainy.  There are maybe a dozen.  They are of a variety that Angeles would likely hang – they are not particularly disciplined or useful, or so he initially seems to believe from his impressions.  They are not expected to return to the city for a few weeks, if they hold to their pattern.

Bodor and Angeles then quickly investigate another shack, and it is obviously run-down and uninhabitable.  This is not unusual, since many of these buildings in this quarter were never renovated.  Many were restored, though, the renovators razing one building (leaving a vacant plot), to restore three others in this quarter.

Bodor and Angeles proceed on.  Bodor suggests looking at the sheep, to gauge what resource they might be for the covenant.  Angeles agrees.  The old man and his granddaughter have a small herd of  perhaps 20 sheep.  They are somewhat scrawny.  Not all were sheered this year, either because there was no need for the wool, or the time was unavailable, or both.  The animals seem to have subsisted on the rough grass around the hills of the city, for there is no particularly good pastureland.  Their meat would likely be tough.

When Angeles took a sky survey, he noticed a quarry.  He and Bodor go to investigate that now.  As they pass through the center of town, they meet up with Julius and Arcturus.  Angeles shares certain pertinent information with them.  They agree to bring the grogs into the center or town at once.  Bodor opts to remain and oversee the camp.

Angeles investigates the quarry, directly south of the city.  The  magic aura here is +1.  The stone that is quarried here is lapis specularis, a crystal chalk used to make windows.  Angeles tests, and find that there are no magics of levels higher than 20 in operation here.  This is an open pit quarry.  It’s not large.  The mining operation here certainly pre-dates the magi’s involvement, possibly also the Roman.

Julius and Arcturus examine the buildings around the plaza, looking for short-term habitability and things of interest.  In the NW corner, there is a civic building, a curia, which is smaller than the basilica.  SE, there is nothing.  NW, there’s not really a building there.  The curia has been ransacked, but it is certainly sound.  The public buildings were all very well-built.  There are a couple other buildings suitable for short-term use, as well.

Scattered around the city, in all quarters, there are cisterns.

(Defensibility and exits and so forth will be supplied offline.)

The camp has been created, utilizing the plaza and some of the buildings.  Everyone gathers at sundown, at camp, evening having fallen.

Over dinner to the other magi, Electus recounts his frightening story in the villa.  They recount those who still remain: the mad autocrat, the old shepherd, and his granddaughter.  And the footprints in the dust.

Angeles recommends that each of these be re-integrated into the community, that they would be useful.  Arcturus agrees.

The evening is celebrated with dancing and music.  Electus dances, as does Inez.  Angeles does not.

End.