Viola's Journal

Viola's diary is one of the more compleate records to survive the campaign. If you ad hers and Idunn's together you get most of the adventures. Although Aidan/Alison is catching then both up. Viola took a short break from the game to allow Richard to join in, so her diary pauses for the spell in Charouse. However, Viola was not idle during that time, as she spent the weeks sorting out her new house and taking her new lover Pyotyr to bed!

Journal Entries - The Adventure Begins, Where Drachen Dare, Crossing the Mountains, The Last Sorcerer, The Mask of El Vago, Tangled Strands, La Selva Fendes, Attack on El Morro, Return to Altamira, The Village of Spirits, Family and Freiberg, Maiden Voyage, The Heart of Matushka, Dining with Dreams

The Adventure Begins

Dear my fellow daughters this diary has had to written about events some time past since current one was burnt by Rilasciare bombers – strange isn’t it that they borrow these things and yet have burnt one of them.

Anyway here goes as best can do from memory and apologies for most of it being written with hindsight.

Altamira, Castille – 9th October 1669
Myself and Axel were “hired” to do body guard duty for a “lady” called Francine Du Pais who we later found out was not entirely honest with us from day one. She later let slip to the father that she had received death threats which she did not tell us at the time “hmm”. Since she has also paid it very little of money promised – and then has the nerve to say “we” aren’t honourable – but I digress ahead.

Oh yes, the father, – this “lady” also hired a Castillian priest called Alejandro something. I apologise to my Castillian sisters but Castillains have such long names it is very difficult to remember them completely (I will have rectify this for reasons I will explain later). It was worked out that we should work shifts to guard this “lady”. The story I heard of what actually happened comes mostly from the father who appears to be honourable so I’ll take him at his word, a Knight of the Rose and Cross burst through the window pursed by some men in black one of which sworded him as he left the Francine’s apartments. When I awoke he was bleeding to death on our carpet but appeared more concerned over the fate of a lady called Clarisse charged to his care. I was concerned that this lady’s life was probably in danger and so I left to investigate what had happened to her. Francine bitched much about abandonment but since I was not on guard duty at the time then I was free to do I saw fit. Axel was protective enough of me to accompany me as I was certainly expecting trouble. We were not wrong the lady Clarisse was being manhandled into a carriage and driven away. Myself and Axel managed to leap onto the coach and take out the ruffians concerned (I know not and care not if they lived or not) although we did fall off the coach while trying to halt it. We found the lady being tended by “Brother Mark” an Objectionist monk not worth the name. To cut a long story short Clarisse asked to see the knight. The gentleman whose name is Philippe was alive but not a condition to travel (to put it mildly – I got the impression it would be several weeks before the man was capable of even standing) so we agreed to accompany her to Freiberg with the book that the knights had charged her to deliver which made both myself and the father uneasy to find out was a Synreth artefact.

Where Drachen Dare

Eisen (various places) – 10th- 20th October 1669
On the road to Freiberg we were attacked by bandits with a canon which we defeated but that son of a dog “Brother Mark” released a potion of some kind that made us unconscious and we awoke in a dungeon. We found that we had been captured by a motherless son of a bitch, who claimed he was an Eisen nobleman who was going to sell us all into slavery. I now wonder what his true intentions in the light of what we found out later. We escaped due to some lockpicks which were concealed on the person of the “lady” Francine. Although we are very much obliged to her unladylike skills with lockpicks you do have wonder what sort of person who is not a member of the daughters or a Kreuzritter knight does go around carrying lock-picks as a matter of course. Anyway I digress we tried to sneak out of the castle but we bungled it a bit. I was impressed by the fact that the Holy Father tried to get Clarisse to give him the book when we found it (Clarisse would not leave without it) although he did insult the lady in the process which was inadvisable. He appears to be a good man but has yet to understand that you often catch more flies with honey than the vinegar. We sent the stables on fire to cause a distraction but then discarded the advantage by trying to confront “Lord” Bastard (sorry about language – have spent too much time with Eisen mercenaries) in order to get Axel’s Panzerhand back. The 50 henchmen he had hid in the walls of the keep soon put paid to that idea. More battles escaping followed during which we all obtained many injuries.

Once at the Knights residence in Freiberg (courtesy of a riverboat trader and part time jenny called Eva) we found out that the book was a copy and that “Brother Mark” had poisoned us. So we had to return to the “Castle Drachen” to obtain some of the poison in order for a Rose and Cross man who used to be a doctor to cure us and to obtain the unholy book. (One thing that puzzles me as the book which turned out to be a copy had large rips in it like a particularly savage animal had attacked it, Clarisse was very upset with Francine for some reason on the boat, so the destruction of the book was probably something to do with Francine)

We were aware something was very badly wrong when on reaching the village the father and Axel found that the entire village had been evacuated possibly forcibly.
When we were able to see into a mound on the hill leading up to a castle we were greeted with the sight of our despicable prince slitting the throat of his peasants and using the blood to fill a Rose shaped object. Since the Explorers society member in Freiberg had informed us that this book along with a ‘Rose’ were stolen from the Explorers society and sometime before. Together they had raised the dead and involved blood and sure enough there was the “monk” with the cursed book. I think we could all guess what he was trying to do it was only a question of what he was trying to raise. The Explorers society man informed us the wanted these things to help understand who to help cure disease. These men are total fools – surely any idiot could tell you that these things are not human and cannot help humans, also how bad are their security arrangements if the Rose could be stolen from under their noses. Anyway I digress, the Knights were honour bound to intervene and blasted their way into the enclosure with a barrel of dynamite they had on their person. The highway henchman of the “lord” had walked away from the scene we assumed in disgust so Axel and myself sought to procure his assistance. More through Axel’s efforts than mine we persuaded him to rescue the peasants as he was concerned for their welfare. Axel wanted to carve up the “lord” who had stolen his Panzerhand and the Holy Father had already taken a shot at the treacherous monk. Axel and I had a deal he could take the lord whilst I took out the monk.

By this stage the nefarious pair had done enough to start their work and I got the shock of my life when a gigantic creature the like of which I have never seen in my life rose from the earth (I was informed later it was a Drachen). It chilled the blood I can tell you but it seemed disorientated and the father told us it would be some time before it gained enough awareness to become dangerous. When I had recovered I attacked the monk along with Father Alejandro. The evil monk turned out to much more skilled with poisons than he was with a blade and since we did not want to kill him until he had told us where the poison he had used on us was I found that my skills were surplus to requirements. I wish that I had joined Axel earlier in fighting the “lord” who turned out to have the constitution of an ox and hurt Axel a good deal. By the time the “lord” had been knocked out or killed (I care not which one we did to him).

The Drachen had recovered enough sense to be causing a good deal of destruction (it had killed several Knights of the Rose and Cross who were attempting to combat it). We had been told that the Rose was the means of commanding this “thing” so I took the rose from the “lord’s” body and attempted to banish it without success. The father by now had his sword under the monk’s chin and was managing to be suitably threatening but the monk seemed to have no idea how to banish the creature and nor did looking through the book (which Francine with great presence of mind had managed to procure in the heat of fighting – she also obtained a wound in the process) seem to help. It was I’m ashamed to say it was Francine who saved the day in the end as she worked out as blood was the fuel for opening the Rose and summoning the creature then removing the blood would close the rose and banish it. She washed it away and we had to run for our lives when the skeleton of the creature fell on top of us.

Luckily the father had managed to get the monk to tell us where the poison was before the skeleton fell on top of him, crushing him to death I presume. Unfortunately although both myself and the father tried, the Knights were insistent upon procuring the items before they would cure us. Since I knew that I had only a matter of days before the poison rendered me incapable of movement I knew that absconding with it to Freiberg (a couple of days journey) would be useless and ultimately achieve nothing. Francine (who insisted very sensibly that the 2 objects together were “too much power” for one man) and I did manage to talk the Knights into the concession that instead of handing both objects to the Explorers Society. The Knights would keep the Rose (ironically considering their name) and the Explorers Society would be given the book and supervised access to the Rose for their “research”. The father was not very happy with this so I’m afraid I told him that I had “friends” who had infiltrated the Explorers Society who would not let it be used for ill, to re-assure him. I will never forget what he said, he told me darkly that he did not want to know anymore and I should be careful what I told him. Retrospectively along with another incident it makes me wonder what the father is involved with. I also feel very guilty for violating the trust of my sisters, although he does seem a good man and has a very obvious dislike of both Synreth artefacts and I was later to discover Porté sorcery.

Since the owner of the castle and had been sworded and crushed by his own Drachen’s skeleton he was very dead (I’m sorry if I do not seem sorry for the spilling of blood but it is impossible to feel sorry for the shedding of the blood of men such as these) this left the ownership of the castle vacant. As Axel was an Eisen nobleman – his Panzerhand was Dracheneisen which is only given to nobles (and the only Eisen in the party) and had vanquished the previous owner he was the obvious choice to become its new owner. It gladdens my heart to know what a good man now owns property perhaps one day it can be used as a safehouse to take Regina. He spoke of giving it to his family but his family can be bargained with.

Crossing the Mountains

Whilst recovering at Axel’s new castle he talked to the Knights who agreed that we would been suitable escorts to talk the lady Clarisse back to Charouse or Crieux. Her family name is Crieux. The “lady” Francine seemed most reluctant to go to Crieux for some reason so we headed for Charouse. We stopped at an inn before crossing the mountains between Eisen and Montaigne – it would prove to be an interesting night.

It started off innocently enough; there were some Castillians drinking the inn who had bought some wine with them as the only wine available at the inn was Montaigne which was not palatable to the Castillians for obviously reasons. Since the father and myself had discussed wine along with the vileness of Synreth artefacts in Freiberg the father seized the opportunity to introduce me to introduce me to Castillian wine along with his new friends. Francine had also meet a compatriot, a Porté sorcerer of some repute called Allain de something or other (I’m not good at remembering names) and was getting friendly with him. The man was extremely rude to his servants and I found myself wondering if I had ever been that bad. The father said something to one of them who was equally rude back.

The man then left and so did the sorcerer’s secretary hot on his heels which made me suspicious enough to follow them. I realised I had no shadowing skills outside the inn but I luckily managed not to be heard by them but unfortunately when they began talking I also remembered that I couldn’t understand a word of Montaigne but from what I could gather the secretary was very annoyed with the rude gentleman but then the secretary said something in old Théan which the other man repeated and the penny dropped that they were probably Rilasciare. They returned to the inn and I returned to the Castillians, perhaps I should have said something but then I had no idea what they had said. Anyway I turned out to have bigger problems - I noticed while I was drinking with the Castillians that there was a Vodacce gentleman looking at me throughout the evening and it was not the friendly look of someone who was looking to buy a compatriot a beer. There was also a strange incident when the father nipped out to check on the horses which was odd since he not usually so concerned about them and the leader of Castillian group followed soon after. I was tempted to follow the Castillian leader but since I have no stealth skills I was not going to push my luck especially if the meeting could have been between two Inquisitors or Kreuzritter, besides I could just being over-suspicious.

I re-count the next incidents with sense of shame and anger that my own stupidity. I should have realised that since the Vodacce gentleman was not regarding me in a friendly manner that he was likely to come looking me in the night so I should have remained strapped up. However it was such a relief to have a room to myself that I unstrapped and sure enough woke from an uneasy sleep to find a knife at my throat. The gentleman having seen me drinking with Castillians was convinced that I was spying on him about some unscrupulous scheme involving Castillians. He then removed the bed clothes and noticed that I was a lady. At this point primal fear of being shipped back to the waiting furnace at Vodacce surfaced, I threatened to scream and he said I wouldn’t dare. You never say that to a Falisci they will dare and so through a mixture of panic and being dared, I screamed. During the brief interval before the father arrived in my room I realised that his primal fears kicked in as well one could almost see the wheels turning in his head, – Vodacce woman equals money, but also equals Strega! As soon as the words fate witch popped into his head he lost his nerve and ran into the night as if Legion himself as on his heels. I feel such a fool that had I conducted myself better I would have been able to find out what his nefarious purpose was without drawing attention to myself and making my companions suspicious. It is one the incidents that is making me consider if it would not be wiser to be honest with them and/or assume a new identity. Luckily I was able to get back into bed before the father entered my room but I found when I speak of the incident (when it was bought up in conversation by others) the father has a suspicious look in his eye, although this could be paranoia.

The Weissburg Mountains, Eisen/ Montaigne border – 20th September
When the new day dawned the mysteries deepened as we found that Francine and the two Rilasciare servants of the sorcerer had vanished. Francine left a note stating that she had business elsewhere. We assumed that the letter was written by her but we found out later we were wrong. Before she “departed” Francine had persuaded the sorcerer Allain to accompany us. Initially none of us thanked her as he turned out to be a pompous, an arrogant boor. As there was not the room for us all in the carriage Axel rode behind it. The father was in the carriage as after last night I decided to learn to speak Montaigne and since it seemed to be a good idea to have a common language to speak to the father without the others understanding us I was teaching him to speak Vodacce. I assume that the father had apologised to Clarisse in the night as the atmosphere between them was friendlier. During the journey we were attacked by Rilasciare agents starting when they exploded the coach, we managed to dispatch them but were all wounded in the process. I am quite proud of the fact that one of them ran away from me while we were fighting and I did not stab him in the back. I am especially glad as the father needed my help; he was very badly injured during the fight. We know that these men were definitely Rilasciare agents as one of them we killed had a tattoo with a bomb with the words Verra Corragio around it. Once it was safe the sorcerer was asked by Axel if there was anything he could do so he used Porté to visit his house and prepare it for us and then come back and take myself and Clarisse to his home. I have to admit that I would not be in a hurry to go through travel through a Porté doorway again I found it a very unnerving experience. I was glad I did it as it enabled me to be treated by a doctor in private although the doctor had the shock of his life.

The reason why Axel and the father did not travel through the doorway is that the father adamantly refused to travel that way and I would not hear of him being left on a bare mountain in a badly injured state alone and without provisions so Axel offered to stay with him. Since Axel is stronger and was less badly wounded this made a good deal of sense, Axel also insisted on me going through the doorway he is rather protective of me. I have the greatest of the respect for the Holy Father’s reasons but it was obvious that we could not leave him there and because of his stubbornness the sorcerer made three journeys instead of two. I remember the man departing with the provisions and the doctor after the doctor had treated myself and Clarisse. Poor Clarisse was in some ways more hurt than any of us, as a swordsman one gets used to being injured but it was a terrible shock to her to be shot. I don’t think the poor lady has ever experienced pain like that before (I hope she never will). I have a swordsman loathing for guns as the dishonourable thing about them is one has no opportunity to depend oneself.

The Last Sorcerer

Charouse – 21-22nd October
I spent 2 very pleasant days in Charouse in the sorcerer’s house. It was almost a temporary passage back to the privileges of being a lady especially in the mornings, I must confess to enjoying the luxury of lying in a soft bed unbound. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to see such a beautiful city, although I know that it has been built on the hard labour of the less fortunate. I was able to spend some time with Clarisse who was pleasant company if a little tedious on the subject of the Knights of the Rose and Cross. I was tempted to tell her that there are others who do good work in a less ostentatious manner but she’s a good person and I don’t like to upset good people. I must confess to feeling jealous of her to some extent as she has had the opportunity to do anything she wanted in life, a wealthy and indulged younger daughter but enough of my petty jealousies. As I will discuss later I am prepared to be protective of her as I know there is a chance that her world could be and must be shattered in the coming years and such a thought in spite of the jealously, fills me with sorrow. She has always tried to do her best to serve in her own fashion and the thought of real and permanent shadows entering her life is not a pleasant one. When Axel and the father reached me they came with an interesting offer with a small boy beside them representing a real symbol of that. They had been met by an elderly gentleman who wanted them to deliver him a hourglass, they had been given very few details. We had to make contact with some pirates in a city in Rancho Torres of Occupied Castille (the name of the city escapes the memory it was San something or other) who would help us collect a young lady as only she could fetch this item and he assured them it was not Synreth in nature. I must admit to being greatly reassured that the gentleman in question was Eisen and therefore not likely to be the nefarious Caligari. I decided with some help from yourselves that if something deeply unpleasant was going on it would be better to be on the inside of it so to speak and perhaps being able to stop it. The gentleman in concern was by Axel and the father’s accounts extremely wealthy and would probably have been able to hire men to carry out his deads easily.

Rancho Torres, Occupied Castille – 23rd –25th October
We set off for the place to rendezvous with the pirates unfortunately passing through the main Montaigne garrison city en-route. Myself and Axel had to restrain the father at times to prevent him from saying and doing unwise things. It must have been hard for him to pass through what was once his homeland (his family I discovered in the Eisen inn, owned land in Rancho Torres) and see it over-run by Montaigne. The father also had problems in the inn by the docks where we meet the pirates. I think Axel and myself are more adaptable (we also drink beer which helps) and I was able to utilise my acting skills to dispense my own nobility. I talked to a contact of ours, who most embarrassingly was a middle-woman not privy to our secrets and especially not mine as she attempted to seduce me, she informed me that Captain Verdugo (the pirate on whose ship we were sailing) is quite honourable for a pirate and several other details about his expertise as a lover which I do not care to remember.

At Sea – 25th –26th October
We set sail with these men and attacked a ship with our lady on board. The ship also contained Francine who was not very pleased to see us and attempted to shoot us. We got into a fight with her and our lady, who was insistent on defending Francine, who inflicted a nasty sword cut to the father’s side. It turned out that Francine had been captured by a group of Castillian patriots at the inn, presumably not the ones we had been drinking with, and she thought we had something to do with it. I’m sorry to say we had had a suspicion that Francine was involved with the Rilasciare, so I can’t condemn her for her suspicion. She seems to have a particular dislike of pirates. Once we had established the retrospective truths, things calmed down a little but Francine did make a despairing remark to our new companion who is called Eva, implying we would do anything for the coin (which I found very insulting – Theus knows I do my best to do the right thing). She said it in Montaigne forgetting that the father understands Montaigne very well. It sounds like the lady Eva has had hard life living hand to mouth in various countries and was a relative of the gentleman who had hired us. She knew nothing more of our quest than we did, less in fact, but was happy to hear she still had family living. I hope for her sake that this gentleman really is her kinsman. Francine and Eva along with others were being sold into slavery on the ship we attacked. Francine was most insistent on us doing what we could to save the other captives from slavery so myself and Axel met up with Captain Verdugo and attempted to negotiate for the prisoners liberty (the crew of the ship could be sold for slavery it would serve them right for attempted to enslave others). I was right in offering the captain coin but I may the mistake of telling him how much coin I had on me – stupid mistake it was about 100 souls but although it diminished my fund for the liberty of Regina at least it did the trick of liberating the poor souls from being sold into slavery twice.

Avalon/Bryn Bresail – 26th October - ? November
We landed in Avalon in some small boats where Francine abused us to Eva in Montaigne. Apart from Francine’s insults what I remember is how beautiful Avalon was at first sight. I feel very privileged to have seen such a beautiful land. We left the newly liberated captives on the shore and the father gave them some guilder to enable them to go where they chose. We all felt awful leaving them but we could not take them with us, it was too dangerous. Our contact met us (a Jane Killmarvon) and without telling us anymore of our mission apart from the fact it was a Sidhe artefact we were retrieving, transported us to Bryn Bresail (she didn’t even tell us it was Bryn Bresail I only know that from yourselves). Something there (the Unseelie I presume) then started to use our fears against us. I thought my clothing had become undone enough to expose the fact I was not a gentleman, we were attacked by giant spiders (the father is terrified of spiders) and Axel’s hands withered. Something was bothering the “lady” Francine as well as she was even more disagreeable than usual. We reached an ice clearing where the hourglass was, accompanied by a man seated on a throne looking like a ice-sculpture. He asked the lady Eva if she wished to claim the hourglass and hoping to meet a relative of hers she said yes. The “man” then informed us he was Unseelie, bound to guard the item and was none too happy about the fact. He told us as revenge he would be sending “Mr Toad” after us. “Mr Toad” was a fearsome creature resembling the Scatterman I have heard the Eisen talk of but luckily for us someone had told Francine a rhyme about it and she realised that it could not hurt us if we kept our eyes closed. The father’s arachnophobia made this difficult for him to do this but he managed this eventually but he lost a sword in the process. The disconcerting thing about the whole incident (apart from being attacked by Mr Toad which was quite frightening) was that when I was asking the Unseelie if the hourglass was ours he answered me as madam which none of the others seemed to notice thank Theah. When we were confident Mr Toad had left us we opened our eyes and set forth for the place where Jane Killmarvon had asked us to meet her. Our dealings with the Sidhe turned out not to be finished. Along the road to our destination a lady was being attacked by a bunch of ruffians. We were of course honour bound to intervene and dispatched them easily Francine shooting one of them dead and myself dispatching two of them in manner which would not have disgraced Mr Toad. The others fled in terror leaving us with the lady who was understandably very grateful to us. She led us to her home, informed us she was a healer, healed our wounds (I had to explain to her by gestures that I was a lady and did not want to reveal this to my companions) and served us a decent broth which tasted wonderful after our adventures. Someone asked “the healer” about our contact and she said she had heard nothing ill of her. While our host was attending to the father I had a conservation with Axel in Eisen which no one else understands but him about how I had heard rumours about possible trouble in Montaigne and would he help to take Clarisse to the safety of his castle in Eisen should the need arise. He pointed out that the Porte sorcerer had given him a blooded coin to enable him to reach us after we were attacked in the Weissberg mountains and this could be used for the Porte sorcerer to rescue Clarisse if we placed the coin in the Eisen castle. All that remained was to talk to the Porte sorcerer and to place the coin in the castle, ensuring that Axel’s relatives did not interfere with it. I felt easier for having obtained Axel’s co-operation. The strange thing about this incident is that when we awoke in the morning the “healer’s” cottage was not there. All that remained were a beautiful dress in the Avalon style for Francine and a stunning sword, which appeared to have a blade made from glass, for the father to replace the one he had lost. I have to confess to being envious of both them and to being jealous of the way the gentleman reacted to Francine in her new dress. I think we had all forgotten that she is a very attractive woman. I wonder now if the “lady” really was in trouble or if the Seelie were testing us.

When we got to our contact’s house, she checked the item was authentic using glamour magic. There were 2 things that made me uneasy – one was that when we were discussing how we would like to linger in Avalon and enjoy her many beauties some more our contact offered to take Eva alone to see the gentleman (who’s name I’ve just remembered is Stephen) and compensate us for the money he would have given us to return the item. When we refused and said we must do our duty by Stephen the lady looked very disappointed. I wonder if she will try and betray us at some stage and seize the hourglass for herself. The second disturbing factor is that when I meet up with a fellow daughter who could Scry (as discussed with yourselves) I was informed that she could not see the intentions behind this quest as the strands had been manipulated to bring it about, the image in the water was chocked by strands. This raised some suspicious as to if Calagari could be involved in this somehow and in any case what Vodacce sorcery was doing near an Eisen family, were they employing Strega? The manipulation of the strands involved at least explained why I had thought so much of Regina when we meet up with Francine and Eva on the ship (there was no coincidence involved there). It also made me consider if I should bury my fears and find out what is happening in Vodacce. We also discussed my companions and if I should trust them. She said that if they had been fighting at my side I should trust them and if I trusted them with my identity that my own judgement was as reliable an indicator as any sorcery. I am now considering if I should divulge my true identity to my companions as recent events have probably given them enough ammunition for suspicions. I think that I will make tentative approaches to the father first. It is going to a terrible shock to Axel if and when he finds out and I do not entirely trust Francine. I am also considering re-inventing myself as a Castillian lady as I think it might be easier to conceal a nationality than a gender. I will probably have to do it sooner or later as people will at some stage wonder why Roberto is not becoming any more manly or has any facial hair. One problem is that to advert suspicion I would have learn more about Castillian customs and learn a Castillian sword style (probably Aldana) as a Castillian lady fighting in a Vodacce style would arose suspicion. Learning a new swords style alone would take time so the transformation could not be affected overnight. The main problem is that I would have to either to tell my companions the truth or leave them in order to carry this out and I don’t fell particularly safe doing either. Perhaps eventually I will have to trust people or risk being very lonely. I have a lot of food for thought as we travel back to Montaigne to meet up with this Stephen gentleman allegedly from Eisen – let’s see where the strands lead.

San Arrant – June 19th – July 19th
I have to again offer apologies for writing mostly in hindsight. My reasons for this differ from in the beginning of my time in this town, an appalling sense of shame of having let down so many so badly to later on my stay here of having too much to think about or simply being too busy or too tired. Some sections of this diary are also censored in that I know other parties (such as Rilasciare agents will read them – and this relates to information which I do not feel I can disclose to them) I am happy to talk about such things to Senior Daughters if they wish to know about them.

The first section is the most difficult to write as I still have a huge sense of shame about my own conduct. Predictably we were not able to reach St Arrant without Father Alejandro getting into a duel with a Montaigne – this time it was a Lieutenant who was checking the ship – a fatal combination of Montaigne tendency to insult the Castillians and the Father’s inability to take an insult to his compatriots lying down, even if it is obvious he will achieve nothing by it. I would say this will get him into serious trouble one day but I was to find out that it during our stay here that it already has – a spell in prison to be exact, for picking a duel with a bishops honoured guest, who surprise surprise turned out to be Montaigne. The bitch sorcercess Jane Killmarvon – remember her name well for it is one of infamy - used some Glamour magic to prevent the Montaigne being injured, she healed his wounds instantly. I have some sympathy with the Father but perhaps not being the unreserved patriot that he is I have difficulty understanding and sometimes I think one just has to swallow one’s pride for the good of the situation.

Anyway we delivered the accursed item to it’s requesters and then we attempted to explain swordman’s honour to Francine, whilst our employers carried out there nefarious deeds with Eva upstairs. We only investigated in the end because a) they took a long time and b) some Rilasciare agents led by a Musketeer agent called Gerard prompted us too. Francine was right all long we should have destroyed it while we had the chance – the artefact was a booster to the Zerstörung sorcery of the man in general – the Rilasciare believed they had wiped out Zerstörung – they were wrong, if our stay in occupied Castille showed us nothing else it was that nothing that is believed destroyed ever is be it Zerstörung or Fuego sorcerers or Kreuzritter knights (myself and the father who coarse knew about the later already but it was a shock to Axel). It is a shame that Gerard had not known us well enough to tell us earlier but I can not believe that we fiddled while Numa burnt (so to speak), as by the time we got into the room it was too late. We tried to attack the nefarious pair but he rotted several hapless Rilasciare agents whilst she summoned our “old friend” Mr Toad. Eva was turned against her will into a Zerstörung sorcerer and the only consolidation I have in the whole sorry affair is that was me striking the Avalon bitch hard with my sword that prompted her to summon Mr Toad. I even failed in an attempt to persuade Eva to join us - unsurprisingly she had had enough of other people’s agendas especially when presented by bumbling Vodacce idiots. I feel like I failed everyone – Eva, yourselves, Theus, and along with my companions acted as Legions’ agent . I can do nothing to redeem myself is to let you know that there is a powerful Zerstörung sorcerer called Stephen Von Dracon at large along with his catamite a powerful Glamour mage called Jane Killmarvon. The father will almost certainly have tipped off the Kreuzritter to this nefarious pair as well – I can only hope that poor Eva is not in a similar boat, as the Rilasciare debated terminating her unlucky existence and in the end thankfully did not have the heart to. I make a plea to any other Rilasciare agents to do the same, the woman quite frankly is appalled by her new powers and will probably use them sparingly if at all. Besides she has had a hard life and it cannot be easy to learn that having discovered you had family that they are evil.

The Mask of El Vago

Whilst we were all licking our wounds and our sense of failure, something unexpected happened. The local priest in turned out was dying and the Father was summoned to hear his last confession and probably to administer his last rights. His confession, unsurprising was, I gather, not as difficult to hear as those of the pirates. The father looked quite shaken when he had finished hearing them confessing. His death was not entirely unexpected as he was an old man, but it did leave St Laurent without a priest until one could be summoned from Vaticine City to replace him. This led to the Father being requested to stay in St Laurent as an interim (I think that is the correct word) parish priest. Our stay in St Laurent was to continue and it was also to be more eventful than we could have anticipated. It was after the funeral of the old priest that we receive our first inkling of this when a man rushed to see the Father with the terrible news that an ordinary decent peasant family of his acquaintance had disappeared very suddenly. We decided to investigate their abandoned home at daybreak (the man told us in the late evening – when the light had already faded.) By the way I’m not sure how significant this is but Francine seemed very moved by the funeral of the old priest which seemed strange for a hard-nosed Montaigne noble. We had a very long chat about ourselves on the way to investigate this family’s disappearance. I confessed that I had left home at a young age (although I added 2 years to the actual age for the sake of consistency) and confessed to fighting for Castille with Axel. Francine stated that she was spying for Montaigne in Altamira and there was some suggestion that her family may not be very wealthy. She is also 25 years old which is strange that a woman as attractive as she is and as noble as she claims to be is not married. The real revelations came about the Father, the poor man turns out to have lost most of his family to the swords of Montaigne invaders and, what especially shocked the poor man who was leading his to the disappeared family home, has been imprisoned for illegal duelling. It turned out he fought a duel with a Montaigne gentleman to the death, who happened to be the honoured guest of an important Castillian bishop. He had only just been released from prison when he met us.
When it reached this unfortunate family’s home it was obvious from the fresh horse tracks that they had been adducted and the disarray of their evening meal seemed to indicate that it had been very sudden and possibly quite violent. Someone I can’t remember who, found a list which included their family name, the name of another family who had disappeared and the name of a third family who had not. It was obvious that this third family where now in danger of being abducted as well. Francine had formed a bond with Gerard the – it has to said – very handsome and dashing member of the Rilasciare and musketeers. She was keen on enlisting his aid from the start. After the Von Dracon incident I was dubious about involving the musketeers as I thought that they were possibly abductees. I escorted to her to the musketeers barracks as her chaperone. It was during a conversation with Gerard that Francine went very pale and seemed quiet and distracted from the rest of the evening. I think it was the strange reaction of Francine combined with Father’s black clothes that he was wearing for the evening vigil at this endangered family’s house (I’m sorry I can’t remember their name – Galteriz? Or something) that recalled something I’d seen on the boat in Eisen on the way to Freiberg when I was trying without success to avoid looking on the Father naked. He was I remember quite clearly wearing a black cross around his neck – now I know that it is not just Kreuzritter who wear black crosses but this combined with his slightly odd behaviour at the inn on the Eisen border and his utter refusal to go through a Porte doorway leads to the conclusion that he probably is. He was also very vocal against sorcery in argument that we had about the fate of the lady Eva.
I realise that I have jumped ahead in my narrative we had after much discussion decided that we needed to wait at the house where the next family due to be abducted lived and then attempt to rescue them when their abductors arrive, hopefully this would also lead us to discover the identity of their abductors. We were all dressed in black with dark lanterns. The second way in which I have run ahead is that I forgot to mention about Axel. Axel was not with us when we utterly failed with lady Eva. He had noticed an old friend on the quayside at St Laurent and left us suddenly to join him. He re-joined us after our search of the abducted family’s house at some time in the afternoon, I remember he was there when the father talked to the threatened family to see if they knew anything that might help us, they didn’t .We also made the decision not to tell anyone in the family about their potential fate.

We waited patiently; I failed to hide myself properly, which prompted my decision to learn spying arts. Then another group also in black turned up. Myself and Axel were asleep but awoke to the sound of the Father and Gerard arguing. It was whilst they were arguing that we noticed that the family were being kidnapped by Inquisitors. We then charged into the fray with the musketeers. Then we heard horses and suddenly there appeared El Vago and his followers. The rescue was successful and Axel actually got pursue the Inquisitors with Los Vagos, although they escaped thankfully without the family. The puzzle still remained of why the Inquisition had come for this family and the others – although the Inquisition are evil they believe they do good and usually only persecute those they consider to be heretically (usually hapless Objectionists or members of the Invisible College). These families were simple people too busy working to hold “heretic” opinions, they seemed also model Vaticine hard working and local without questions to the church, turning up regularly on Sunday to pray to Theus, as much as their busy but quiet lives allowed.

The musketeers offered to guard the family who were understandably very shaken and so we went home. There was a fracas between Gerard and the father which didn’t come to anything, thankfully and everyone went back to the vicarage. There was a strange atmosphere in the vicarage that night. Francine was obviously deeply unsettled by something and asked to stay in the vicarage rather than at her lodgings. She also stated that had he not been so rude to Gerard she would have formerly confessed what was bothering her conscience. Axel was unsettled too and requested that I accompany him to his lodgings; I was staying at the vicarage, which I immediately acquiesced too. He was looking for answers ( I am not sure the next sections ought to be general knowledge) – his friend and himself had been a mercenary organisation with a man who at first seemed to be a decent man but over time asked his troop to do increasing evil things culminating in a raid on a church. The group where intercepted by a group of Kreuzritter knights and it turned out the leader of the Mercenaries had mutated into a sort of insect creature. The Kreuzritter killed everyone there who looked conscious stating that no one must be allowed to know that they were still around. Axel and his friend were spared as they looked unconscious but Axel’s friend was concerned that the Kreuzritter had discovered he was there and were now looking for him. He turned out to be right, Axel discovered the man was dead but strangely there were no marks on his body. He had been stabbed with a weapon that left no marks. He was confused as he thought the black crosses had been wiped out at Tannen years ago. I am not sure I did the right thing – but I told him to truth about the Kreuzritter (that they were not dead and did not like to people to know) with the conditions that he told no one else and did not question how I knew. I also told him that the father was a Kreuzritter as I thought he had the right to know, again I’m not sure it was the right thing to do, as it has made him very cagey of the father. I tried to impress upon him without telling him why that the Kreuzritter were good people fighting for a good cause (I think I did say something about the evil Syrneth) but understandably since they had killed his friend and would obvious kill him if they knew what he knew, he did not really believe this.

I talked about this to agents in St Arrant and was edgy for a couple of days. It was wishing to get the father to trust me should it be needed – i.e. that he discovered what I knew that about the Kreuzritter , that I decided to confess to him who I really was partly to show him I trusted him with the most personal secret and partly in the hope that he would trust me. It was not easy to convince him of the truth and to say he was a little shocked was an understatement, but I felt it had to be to done and it would turn out to be useful later. Then came the feast of Los Borrachos at the governor’s house to which we were all invited. Oh Theus!!! – I don’t think I have ever been drunker in my life, I vaguely remember the start of the evening and the wonderful atmosphere in the streets with everyone drinking and dancing but from the time we entered the Government’s Hacienda the memories start to become hazy. It was partly due to the fact there is a tradition of getting 16 year old boys in Castille as drunk as possible on and the fact that I was passing as a 16 year old boy at the time, effectively meant the locals had carte blanche to funnel wine down my throat. I awoke in the most undignified positions possible (well as undignified as it gets without all San Arrant discovering that I was not who I purportedly to be), I am not going to divulge exact details here although I may for personal amusement of some fellow daughters if they wish. More distressing was that a kind servant who also served a very effective concoction as a hangover cure also informed us that Axel had been pursuing the kidnapping inquisitors during the night and had been captured by them. We followed the man to where Axel disappeared from and discovered a large mine with the Inquisitors acting as guards and several peasants being used as slave labour. Axel through his own cunning had managed to slip his chains. Los Vagos were there to help free the slaves and El Vago was fighting the Captain of the Musketeers who was leading the Inquisition guards which was a little strange when I think about it. With the masked Inquisitionist and the masked members of El Vago fighting each other it was little like being at some bizarre masquerade ball with duelling, or that could be the fact I had I was feeling distinctly strange from the night before. The captain of the guards managed to wound El Vago quite badly and the father with some assistance from myself managed to wound him quite badly in return. It would prove to be significant that no one is sure who killed him as the father struck a blade through his treacherous heart and the same time that he was decapitated by Axel. I would have assisted them except the sun in my eyes made me feel quite ill at that moment. This is how we came to be members of El Vago or some of us did. Los Vagos carried the wounded El Vago to their hide-out and the man offered membership to us. It was a then and there decision – and I decided to join them on the basis that Los Vagos seem to be working in Castille towards the same ends that the Daughters are trying to achieve Théah-wide, they are very anti-Inquisition and I am happy to strike any blow I can against the Inquisition. The most interesting thing about this is that all of us except the father which was something that Los Vagos themselves found incomprehensible that the only person not to join a society dedicated to the defence of the Vaticine church and Castille was the Castillian priest. His reasons for not joining where simply “I cannot” and they were highly suspicious of this, for myself it merely adds weight to my suspicion that he is a Kreuzritter and felt he could not serve 2 master so to speak. As you have probably deducted from this the most surprising acceptance came from Francine, a Montaigne noble lady is a very strange person to be a member of Los Vagos but there it is. Francine appears to be a very complicated woman and just when you believe that you know her she surprises you and nothing about her is straight forward or easy to understand. In fact I was shortly to come to view her in a whole new light. It started innocently enough both Francine and myself wanted long, hot baths after the day we had had, whilst Axel and the father assisted in helping the peasants home. I had my bath first and then Francine wanted me to bring her magical dress from the inn room where she was staying to the vicarage where she was bathing so she could put it on after her bath. I’m afraid human frailty being what it was I could not resist the temptation to try on the dress and it must have picked up on my desire to wear a dress again and it became a dress in the Vodacce style, which left me with a lot of explaining to do when I finally got the dress to Francine. I tried to reason that it must have changed into a Vodacce dress on contact with me carrying it which she did not believe. It was only when I caught sight of myself in the mirror that I realised why. The problem was that I also dressed my hair when I was trying on the dress and in my panic over the dress I had forgotten about the hair. Realising I was not going to be able to talk my way out of this I settled on a quid-pro-quo exchange of secrets – knowing that the Rilasciare read these journals I am not going to divulge what she said although I am happy to reveal these to any Daughters Agent on an individual basis. She was amazing sympathetic to my situation and even expressed admiration for what I had managed to achieve, which truly touched me.

Adara and Reis with the introduction of Fionn and Bjarne- The day was not done with surprises yet as later in the day we found Axel sitting in the tavern talking to a very attractive Vodacce lady, a knight of the Rose and Cross called Adara, she was understandably was not very friendly towards a Vodacce “boy” and the ironic thing was that although the father who I taught to speak Vodacce leapt to my defence when she informed me in Vodacce that I could disregard any notion of taking me back to Vodacce, I understood completely how she felt. It was very odd listening to her sentiments and knowing that the last person in Théah she could ever fear was myself, even though I was annoyed that she was shamelessly flirting with Axel who insulted Francine to impress her. I would have liked to reveal who I really was to her and have a conversation with her as I felt that none could understand her as well as myself. Her story made me see the Knights of the Rose and Cross in a new light too, as it turned out she had joined them because they saved her life when she was left for dead by her father. I think that perhaps Théah needs all the help she can get for all from the hands who can help her and that bar the Explorers all of the secret societies help Théah in their own ways – even the Knights, even though they have got too close to our truths, they are still in their own way trying to make a difference and even we can’t be everywhere and through no fault of our own we were not there for this woman when she needed help.

There are probably better accounts of terrible attack of Reis in San Arrant from our agents there. We met him briefly, it was enough, and you could just feel the presence of pure evil around him, like being in the presence of Legion himself. We were not brave but I feel no shame in this, in the case of Reis it is definitely in a case of those who run away, or our case looked very scared and stupid, live to fight another day. Luckily for us Reis was more interested in locating a woman named Bonnie something, who is the only person to have ever faced him and lived. The poor girl, I hope he never finds her. Francine meet an old “friend” called Finn O’Connell (who was the man who was guarding her when he disappeared in Altamira) and we meet his friend Bjorn, a Vesten sorcerer. Again the accounts of the bloody slaughter Reis inflicted on the waterside inn probably exist from the resident daughters at San Arrant. We saw the aftermath, which was one of the revolting sights I have ever seen. It was too much for my already delicate stomach and Francine who is usually so strong, passed out with shock. The father showed great inner strength by insisting on administering the last rites to the remains of people that were left. Again my joy at seeing that the resident daughter had survived is probably documented by her. I will not dwell on this subject it is too depressing and disturbing. There was talk of making the inn a monument to those who were killed by Reis and I hope that this has been carried out. It was fortuitous we were able to contribute to this, which again is another story which starts thus:

Tangled Strands Part One

Returning to the inn were we staying we noticed a man enter the bar with another attractive Vodacce woman. Another man then returned the bar where he talked to and was angrily spurned by the first man. A member of the musketeers then entered the bar with a wanted poster for a notorious bandit who created resembled the second man. Intrigued and seeing a chance to make some serious coin for a worth case, we first checked with Los Vagos that this man was a genuine bandit and not merely someone who the Inquisition or the Montaigne wanted to destroy and who was not a member of Los Vagos. As far as Los Vagos knew he was genuine bandit. We then decided to track down the first man and his Vodacce girlfriend and find out what they knew. I stayed out the way in case like Adara, she was not inclined to be friendly towards a Vodacce “man”. Eventually with some hiccups including Axel demolishing a door (long story) my friends managed to obtain their story. It turns out that the man, Ramon was a former member of the bandit group when it was lead by a character known as (El Lobo) the wolf, he had been captured and then met Helena, his girlfriend a former Courtesan, and had become a reformed character, mainly we suspect under her influence. He was not interested in the money for the reward for the new leader of the bandit group (who’s nickname escapes me) but he did want the bandits eliminated. He needed help to do so and naturally we offered to help him so that night we mounted a raid on the bandit headquarters which Ramon as a former member showed us. There were some mishaps on the way including a pit trap on the road leading to the hide-out and the fathers sneak ahead which turned out to involve surprise, surprise a fight with a very burly guard. When we all walked into the hideout when were faced with a line of pistols aimed at us, the sensible people such as Bjorn, Francine, Ramon and Helena got out of the way, whilst the foolhardy which included myself, Finn and Axel barrelled into the guns. Myself and Finn were ripped apart by the gunfire whilst Axel had a barely a scratch on him. The fact that Axel took such punishment unscathed unsettled our opponents but not as much as the explosive prepared by Francine and thrown into the room by myself after her throw had fallen short. The bandit leader agreed to a one on one duel with a swordsman if the swordsman lost then him and his group would walk free and if the swordsman won they would surrender. Luckily for us the swordsman who was the last badly injured and who took the challenge was Axel who although the bandit was an excellent and probably a master swordsman, managed to grab his sword with his panzerhand and then beat the man into submission with his broadsword. I unfortunately I heard most about this from accounts from other party members as did not witness most of the fight as I was having my numerous wounds healed by Bjorn who turned out to be a surgeon of some skill. I had to reveal my secret to Bjorn who was not surprised unlike Francine and the father, as he had seen women passing as men on ships. From what I have seen of ships this does not surprise me. Bjorn is a surprising man for a Vesten, very intelligent and perspective, an intellectual in fact with many interesting tales about his people, including the origin of runes, which were scales which fell from a mighty, he believes Synreth beast, each of the runes was picked up by a mighty warrior which became a characteristic of the rune. It enabled them to defeat the monster but the powers invested in the men from the runes drove them insane, the warrior “living rune” for example became a butcher of many men. Anyway I digress, it was Bjorn who suggested when we delivered the bandits into the hands of the governor that most of the booty that we recovered be donated towards a memorial to those who had died at the hands of Reis. He have some interesting theories about Porte doorways too which I will divulge later.

The Mask of El Vago, Part Two

I should perhaps spare the details about what happened at the Captain of Musketeers funeral they are not important and just cruel to relating to the father. Suffice to say his skills with weapons were honed at the expense of skills as a priest. In fairness though the previous day had been very stressful and cannot be an easy experience conducting the funeral rites for a man that you have murdered, even if he was a bastard. Anyway after persuading the father not to leave town as fast as his horse would carry him we went back to the Hacienda for a kind of wake for his piece of horseshit (the captain I mean and not the father). The governor and the bishop suddenly left the room together and myself and Finn tailed them to see if we could find out what they were discussing and if it related to the mine worked on by enforced peasant labour. It did the words we overheard seemed to indicate that someone had backed out of deal that they had made together and the words “you had better make sure it’s there”. This was intriguing and doubly so when the governor not aware he had been overheard invited us to dinner. We did have fears that he would try to poison us but he told us the bishop was involved in a plan to give money to the Montaigne in return for arms for Inquisition, he thought that the Bishop had gone too far and wanted to recover the gold to use for the sake of the townspeople (or at least that’s what he said). So myself and the Father went to the Inquisition fortress to scout for the gold, my Father on the excuse he had gone to confess, my excuse was that I was thinking of joining the priesthood. We failed although I managed to smuggle in an incendiary device for Francine. Things then switched to Plan B. Axel, who was driving myself and the father, rode back into the fortress claiming that we had been attacked and most of us carried off by Los Vagos. He managed to get about 20 Inquisitors to follow him, as far as I remember. Myself, Finn and the father would then throw ropes over the walls and stealthily climb into the fortress and Francine would then blow things up just outside the fortress and create distraction - in a different manner to the way she usually does. I got in with no problems but I am not sure why the Father and Finn were found out on the walls, it might have been something to do with the repeated and nosy failure of someone (not sure who) to throw a grappling hook over the wall. The stables and the walls exploded nosily on cue and Los Vagos entered the fray. Actually I am sure the explosions were supposed to happen after we had found the gold, the signal was to be a pistol shot, but the discovery of Finn and the Father on the walls meant that the pistol shot went off before we discovered the gold and so did the explosions. It helped me sneak into the Hacienda undetected though. We (myself, the Father and Finn) searched the Hacienda and found nothing and eventually found the gold in a passageway under the stairs of the chapel, the eventually took in a fight with a very large and strong man who turned out to be very hard to injure and hurt the trio of myself, the Father and Finn quite a lot but collapsed like a paper bag the moment we hit him. We were able to ride the gold out through a tunnel in the ground, which emerged beyond the Inquisition fortress walls. It turned out as well that Francine and Axel had been caught aiding Los Vagos members to escape from the fortress by the Inquisition and were about to sent to the chambers when Gerard barged in and stated we were immune from the Inquisition “hospitality”. Axel apparently in a move of wonderful chutzpah asked the Bishop to bless him. I wish I had been there to see her face. Anyway I digress we arrived at the vicarage to the sight of the new priest seeing myself and the Father arrived looking very badly wounded with an unconscious Finn in a cart full of gold. I think we felt for the poor man at the time whom we felt would be questioning why he had come here and what the Abyss was happening. Axel went to see the Governor that night and found out we had been double crossed by him and I think most of us suspected it before we entered the fortress but we had to take the gold, merely because the Inquisition held it. Anyway we knew the Bishop was implicated in this before the Governor said anything because Los Vagos had had a little “talk” with a man seen at the mines who had also apparently been conspicuously avoiding the Bishop during the Los Borrachos festivities at the Governors Hacienda. They found out she had hired a group of ruffians to impersonate Inquisitors to kidnap the peasants. Anyway, the Governor - it turns out the Governor had arranged for the whole scheme involving the gold to buy himself a little independent kingdom from the Montaigne. He had only needed us to kidnap it for us because the Bishop became annoyed when he wanted to pay the Montaigne before investigating the murder of her lover – the Captain of Musketeers. Axel apparently threatened to kill him seriously but was told that if he did the Montaigne would find a worse Governor to take his place and that apart from kidnapping some of them to work in his mine, he had treated the townsfolk and peasants well. It was looking like disturbingly he had us over a barrel and we had yet again being used as pawns in someone else’s game.

The next two days blur into each other a little with the passage of time but I will try to narrate as faithfully as I can. We were told to deliver the gold to the governor’s house in the evening and had a word with our new friends who believed it would be for the best to find out as much as we could about the nature of the deal the governor and the bishop had struck with the Montaigne before acting. During the coarse who this evening I decided to confront Axel about the fact he had being rather cold towards me since my drunken evening during “Los Borrachos”. It transpired I had been slightly over-friendly towards him and confessed feelings I should not have done. It was at this point that I decided to confess who I really was to him. It was very difficult and it was only the intervention of others including Francine confirming it that managed to convince him, although I think he is still in denial. I am not going to dwell on this personal and upsetting matter too long. Axel in a state of shock went to a tavern with the men and the father managed to getting into a fight with some lightning guards whilst attempting to talk to his sweetheart, the governors adopted daughter who was the daughter of the original Castillian governor. Anyway we arrived for dinner at the mansion and it turned out we were there to witness the treaty, which was that an unspecified governor would now rule San Arrant instead of the Montaigne. The lady Anne (or should I say princess as she is the daughter of the Emperor Leon.) du Montaigne was present and she was most interested to learn that the gold to be paid for the deal was obtained from the land, therefore technically Montaigne anyway, so that the Montaigne were been paid with gold they already owned but not interested enough to stop the deal. We were surprised to see the Bishop there and tried to re-create the conflict between her and the governor by bringing up the matter of her lovers murderous but alas the governor dropped Axel and Alejandro’s names and she signed. The only reassuring factor was the old priest hinted that it would be best to sign the treaty and it was becoming clear he knew more about the situation that the people present. It was because of this that the father signed the treaty, in fairness though it was in Montaigne and only his and Francine’s Montaigne was good enough to understand the treaty.

It was after we had left the governor’s hacienda and returned to the vicarage that the “priest” revealed who he really was, that is the old Castillian governor and that he allowed the treaty to be signed in order to usurp the present governor and therefore regain possession of his own land. (He had intercepted the real replacement priest on the road from Vaticine City). It was a good plan and one we could wholehearted participate in along with our new friends. Myself and Axel on our way to tell “Los Vagos” encountered someone else at the inn. I am not sure how infamous the lady Lucrezia is so I will provide the background I know. She was once a famously beautiful courtesan I think in the Lucani lands until whilst fighting for her life against a jealous Strega it was discovered she had Sorte, which is a very serious crime for a courtesan. It is rumoured that during her escape she slashed her lovers strands one at a time, a horrible fate, she was probably insane by this point. I can confirm she definitely is now and probably extremely powerful. The bar when we entered it was silent and when myself and Axel tried to leave she ordered us not to and to come to her. I know enough not to disobey a fate witch and Axel I think had enough instinct to know it was a bad idea too. Amidst her rants against me for being lucky not to have Sorte and her accurate reading of strands between me and Axel, she told us 2 very important things, the first was that she knew Finn and had some scheme for him and secondly that she had come here because of Gerard who would take a decision soon that would have far-reaching consequences. She would turn up later at the vicarage and order us to the hacienda with the Castillian former governor. The father tried to argue with her and I did my best to stop him. Finn was very shaken when we told him of her re-appearance and showed us a bracelet he had been given which had 4 stones in it, 2 of which had turned black. These stones represented his possible fates and during our stay I think another one turned black. He said he had met her in Altamira where she told him to perform a number of tasks which understandably he had. Anyway we went to the present governor’s house fighting the Inquisitors as we went, it was at this point that Bjarne returned (he had been absent when we attacked the Inquisition fortress) with a large number of pirates whom he managed to persuade to attack the Inquisitors and the hacienda (apparently they had lost a Synreth artefact and he told them into was in the hacienda). In the courtyard of the governor’s hacienda it was chaos, with Inquisitors, guards, pirates and Los Vagos members all fighting each other and the black clad figure of Lucrezia walking calmly through the middle, watching Gerard with any man foolish enough to attack her dropping dead at her feet having had his strands severed.

Gerard blocked our way into the Hacienda and tried to prevent us from obtaining access to his uncle, the governor out of family loyalty until Francine and myself managed to persuade him to stand aside through appealing to his sense of what was right above his sense of family. He even made a speech to the Musketeers to attack the Inquisitors. The former Governor and ourselves went to confront the now installed Governor (I wish I could remember names it would make this narrative much less confusing). The occupying governors guards turned out to be skilled and before they were dispatched in the end by Axel, myself and the Father we in as poor a state as Finn (who was still recovering at the vicarage). The Castillian former governor had faired no better against the Montaigne usurper and was equally badly injured. The Montaigne then held a knife to his wards throat threatening the Castillian with the termination of his daughter’s life if he did not co-operate and let him leave. It was at this point that the man made the mistake of walking onto the balcony where he was attacked by several pirates summoned by Bjorn’s cry of “it’s in here” and Francine’s well-aimed pistol shot. Time and severe injury has made my memory hazy but I think the man fell from the balcony as his nefarious life terminated. The girl, Elena was uninjured.

San Arrant – Vaticine City
The former Castilian governor was now the new governor of San Arrant. The Inquisition were sufficiently weakened or bargained with by the new governor so that we had a few days grace to say our goodbyes, to those who mattered before they would start hunting us. We were sensible enough not push our fortune in staying longer than that and knew it was time to leave San Arrant. Francine said goodbye to Gerard, Alejandro said goodbye to Elena and those of us who had joined Los Vagos took a letter for their contacts in Vaticine City, we were headed next as Alejandro wished to see his sister, a bishop and it was on the way to Altamira where Francine and Finn seemed interested in re-visiting.

Tangled Strands, Part Two

However, fate or circumstances has its own ways and on the road to Vaticine City, we met a very distressed Helena riding towards San Arrant to find us. It turned out that her and Ramon had lead an attack against the Montaigne but that Ramon had been captured and was due to executed in a neighbouring city to San Arrant the next day. We of course agreed to help her rescue him and sent off for this city. We had to bride the guards to enter the city which Finn supplied. The plan was to stir up the crowd and create enough chaos so that we could make our way towards Ramon and free him. To some degree it worked Bjorn proved to be a skilled actor, creating a convincing performance of a mad man and I think that one stage he shouted “fear my mighty Vesten magic” to great effect he certainly managed to distract a few guards to restrain him, Francine blew up some barrels and myself and the father crept towards the scaffold. We were also helped by the appearance of El Vago, which both stirred up local feeling against the Montaigne and occupied several of the guards. The only disadvantage in this scenario was myself and the father had to fight the executioner and the captain of the guards. I managed to hold my own against the executioner who I would not have liked to have had to kill as he was very skilled in the use of his axe and extremely strong but the captain of the guards was an excellent swordsman and I fear the father only survived because the man wanted to humiliate the father by cutting his belt before he killed him. The father of coarse wanted to kill the man and had to be dragged from the scene by myself before he got himself killed and he was in a foul mood for hours after the incident. There was one very interesting dimension to the whole incident which I mentioned to our agents in Vaticine City, which was as well the assistance of El Vago we had another ally, an El Fuego Adentro sorceress. She was dressed in filthy rags from what I remember but her face borne a slight resemblance to the father’s which was strange as I thought the present Castilian nobility had completely replaced the odd nobility of sorcerers and had not interbred with them. I of course said nothing of this to the father but although the others had not noticed the girl’s face (I saw girl and not woman as she appeared to be very young) they had noticed her and her powers, as she had blocked the exit of our pursuers with a set of flame and had also being using her powers to move Francine’s created flame around in the square. We then embarked on a dangerous discussion to have in front of the father about how categories of people we had believed had been exterminated were still in existence, I told Axel to shut up about this but I think doing that may have draw the father’s attention to the conversion unnecessarily. Another piece of loose talk was exhibited by Francine who called me by my real name accidentally in front of Ramon and Helena. Luckily it was Ramon and Helena and it enabled me to talk to Helena about her experiences in Vodacce, it turned out she was more capable swordswoman than a courtesan and so was given assignments of security rather than seduction making it easy for her to escape Vodacce.

La Selva Fendes

I am not sure how much I can say about our adventures in the forest between occupied and unoccupied Castille, except to say that there is a trap there created with some sort of glamour and urge daughters to avoid the area. I can say nothing of how we escaped at all as it would jeopardize the escape of others. The one thing I can say is that one of the illusions practiced up to me in the cage made me seriously consider not for the first time if travelling dressed as the opposite gender is not without severe complications. We also met a Strega called Fiora Bernoulli who informed me during my enquires that a Regina Falisci was married to a Villanova, news which concerns me greatly, could agents in Vodacce attempt to find out if this is true, if it is indeed my sister and what is the reputation of her husband if it is? Unfortunately the lady had to leave for her family in Vodacce, she had been a diplomatic mission for the Bernoulli, which had finished and was returning home when we met her. Ramon and Helena parted from us after we had cleared the forest too, which was definitely for the best considering what happened there.

Attack on El Morro

Vaticine City –
Again our stay in Vaticine City started innocently enough. The father went to see his sister and Francine again strangely for a native of a non-religious nation was very keen to go to church and appeared from a Vaticine mass looking very serene. My primary concerns were to make contacts with agents, I was not able to find our agents in Vaticine City immediately and so concentrated on the Los Vagos agents who invited all our party to dinner. The father was seeing his sister and Bjorn was studying at the university but the Los Vagos members attended along with Finn. We had a pleasant meal and discussed news from San Arrant (the Los Vagos agent in San Arrant was a relative of the agent in Vaticine City) then we told Finn to leave so we could discuss business. Axel accompanied Finn to keep him company. Myself and Francine presented the letter we had received in San Arrant and we talked about the Admiral Orduno who’s story I am sure is familiar but I will recount it for the sake of posterity. The man had been condemned to death by the Inquisition for refusing to fire on a former Eisen captain in the Montaigne fleet who had originally agreed to betray his crew to the Inquisition but then changed his mind and fired the money the Inquisition had given him out of a cannon. I think this account is correct, please amend it if it is not. It turns out that a servant of Orduno’s treacherous wife was trying to obtain an audience with El Vago. El Vago was happy to oblige but he needed some steel backing him up just in case the meeting turned out to be a trap. The Los Vagos agents would arrange a meeting at very short notice so that there would not be time to inform interested Inquisitors. We all attended the meeting including Bjorn, Finn and the father, although many of us were hidden in the trees around the meeting spot. It turned out that Orduno’s wife had confessed against Orduno at his own request and there was a plan afoot to rescue him. The rescuers wished to have the co-operation of El Vago as they believed that less of the guards at El Morro (where the Admiral was being held) would fight to prevent the Admiral from being rescued if El Vago was present. We were to depart immediately for El Morro which we did and those of us who were in hiding revealed ourselves or rather our presence was announced by El Vago and we departed. We were lead to a ship that was captained by the very same Eisen captain who was the reason why the Admiral Orduno was in such danger. It was quite touching that this man obviously felt a deep sense of obligation towards the Admiral. It was night when the meeting had taken place and night when we departed and so the plan was for us to get some sleep before we arrived El Morro at which point we would be told the plan. I think it was during this period that Finn told us he had received a visit from a friend of Lucrezia who had come with a poem that said – something about someone coming to plead with the smiling mask (aka. El Vago) and that we were to follow someone (it was not clear if it was to be the Eisen Captain or El Vago) to the fortress but not into the Abyss. Anyway morning arrived and we were told the plan. The ship would pass by El Morro but keep moving in order for it not to ripped apart by the guns. As soon as the ships guns were in range of El Morro a coin blooded by one of the ship’s Porte sorcerers (a man named Le Beau if my memory serves me well) would be fired into the main square where Orduno was due to executed and we would along with El Vago go through the doorway created and emerge in the square, rescue Orduno and then go back through another Porte doorway onto the ship with the Admiral. The father was extremely reluctant to do this but agreed to co-operate for the sake of Orduno and because his only other option was to remain on the ship which aside from the fact that the ship was being fired on constantly was full of Porte sorcerers. We came in range of the guns of El Morro long before El Morro was in range of our guns and so were able to watch the Porte sorcerers catching cannon balls with Porte holes. We also had to dodge the cannon balls that did make it past the sorcerers. All of us entered the doorway except of Francine who did not believe she possessed any skills that would be useful to us in the fray. It was likely to be too close quarters to utilise her firearms skills. We arrived in the square El Vago urging the guards present to fight against the Inquisitors which seemed to turn a significant amount of people against the Inquisitors. Finn set about rescuing the Admiral and myself, Bjorn and Axel fought the guards that remained loyal to the Inquisition along with El Vago. The Inquisitors turned out not to be the only ones who wanted to hurt El Vago, a woman shone a light into El Vago’s eyes and Axel had his opponent stabbed in the back by a man who was determined to get to El Vago. Axel managed to hold him off by gripping his sword with his panzerhand but managed to hold him off El Vago when he broke away from him. I also noticed that woman with her mirror and I will remember her face well. (Viola will give a description of her in as much detail as she can remember) I would advise people to keep an eye out for her and not to trust her. By this time we had rescued the Admiral and went back through the Porte doorway.

The Eisen captain said that he had a plan for what to do once we had rescued the Admiral which he would tell us when it was about to come operable. Some members of his crew were saying that the ship would not make to the sea and he told them out to worry as he had other plans. We were to find out what they were now. I imagine all of Théah will eventually know by now. We turned into a narrow tributary of the river we were on where we confronted by the largest Porte hole I had ever seen and several Porte sorcerers holding it open. It was at this point Finn remembered his riddle and shouted out to us not to enter the Abyss. Most of us including El Vago jumped ship but Francine tried to persuade Le Beau not to go through the hole and the father tried to persuade the crew to let him take Orduno when these attempts proved unsuccessful he attacked the Eisen captain to get him to release the Admiral and I think it was one of the Porte sorcerers that made his hand disappear into a Porte hole. The father gave up at this point and jumped the ship which was fast disappearing into the Porte gateway. I also remember one of the sorcerers stating he couldn’t hold it anymore and a giant claw ripping him apart from the inside. The ship with Admiral Orduno on board disappeared into the hole and I was left wondering if the fate we had left the Admiral too was worse than the one that he would have been given by the Inquisition. The whole incident left me feeling very hollow as a result.

There was much discussion about the nature of Porté doorways after we left the ship and what people had been told by the “beings” (whom I become increasingly convinced are Synreth) when they were in the Porte tunnel. The most interesting were Finn, whom the beings cursed for being one of the people who held them in bondage, (does Viola know Finn has Sidhe blood?) and Bjorn who on the way back through the doorway could see the glow the rune he had carved during the battle. Since Bjorn believes that the runes were originally scales from a Syrneth monster possibly related to Eisen Drachen, it poses some interesting questions anyway. It is also significant the beings recognised me from the last time I went through a Porte tunnel, they actually said “we remember you.”.

The Inquisition Send Off - When we returned to Vaticine City we talked to Los Vagos and I finally managed to report to yourselves and relate information about the Fuego sorcerer and the Porte doorway that I have told you. Alejandro’s sister the bishop had also invited us all to dine with her and so we did. We found out that doubt about Verdugo and the Inquisition is not confined to those outside the Vaticine church, she expressed the opinion that Verdugo and the Inquisition were too powerful and did not temper their mission with mercy. We talked of many things including Mr Toad but the evening did not end on a happy note as Francine talked of Elena and the father said something along the lines that it was not a serious relationship which his sister told great offence at and virtually ordered him to go back to his lodgings. It was one of those comments on his part, which did not come out as he intended. The father’s relationship with his sister seems a bit strained at the moment generally and he would have liked to talk to her at greater length on another day but we were not to get the opportunity. I awoke the next day to the sound of Axel pounding on my door telling me to move as the Inquisition had arrived at our lodgings. I can’t remember if I heard them read out all our names or if I just assumed they had come for us and got dressed quickly. I managed to dress myself quickly and climb onto the roof of the inn and leap to the roof of the next building with ease. From there I definitely saw the father and Finn leap downwards from the building and head for the stables and I might have seen Axel leap downwards to. What I definitely saw was more upsetting it was Francine dangling from her room’s window sill with an Inquisitor towering over her and several others clustered beneath her. I managed to throw a roof slate at the group below which persuaded some of them to investigate from where the slate had come from but she was still badly surrounded. The man (who seemed to a captain) above her was aiming a gun at her head and I was preparing to try and throw a slate at him (which would have been difficult without hitting her) when she managed to disarm herself at this point Axel rode to her rescue and was able to drop out the back of his horse which she managed with some considerable style. Finn was also having problems as he managed to mount his horse the wrong way and get his foot tangled in the stirrups. The father managed to mount his horse and ride him to safety. Having seen that Francine was no longer in danger I followed the father and Finn along the rooftops until I was able to climb down away from the Inquisitors eyes. Both myself and the father decided that a change of clothes and identities we in order so we change into the clothes that Francine had bought for us in San Arrant (in his case a smart suit, in mine a dress) on the outskirts of Vaticine City and headed for the nearest inn. Francine had bought me a dress in San Arrant on the reasoning that since the whole group knew my secret (Finn had overheard in the chaos surrounding my confession to Axel) that I should start dressing as one, it seems now as a good time to do this. The father also believed he would be less identifiable if was not dressed as a priest. We decided to become Violante and Pedro du Mar and if anyone thought I looked too Vodacce then the story was our father was Vodacce and I took after father whilst “Pedro” resembled our Castillian mother. Before he left the city the father did debate trying to explain to his sister why he was trouble with the Inquisition but even he decided that it would too risky as the Inquisition would almost certainly be waiting for him at his sisters in case he returned there. It distressed him most severely that his sister had now heard of his trouble with the Inquisition. I must remind him at some point she is by no means uncritical of them herself and may well understand. When they first turned up I did wonder if I had been my unwise enthusiastic agreement with her opinions on Verdugo that had betrayed us, if she had in fact just being testing us but I think it most likely to be something to do with Bishop Bitch back in San Arrant. Bjorn had been staying at a different inn but Axel and Francine had sent him a message stating that we had moved on to the next destination so hopefully we shall see him soon. My dress did not get worn for long once I discovered that it takes greater riding skill than I possess to ride side-saddle and riding as a gentleman is just undignified in a dress so I have taken to dressing in my old clothes but without the jacket and unbound. I intend

Viola's Letter to her sister Regina (sent on the journey to Altamira)

My dearest Regina,

I am not sure if you will manage to find someone to read this to you but I hope so and I have to try to speak to you. I met with a person of your acquaintance on the road who said you had spoken about me as if I was already deceased. I am not sure if you were speaking in such a manner in order to protect me but I cannot bear to think there is even a possibility than you genuinely believe this. I am very much alive and in excellent health as if your eight-legged namesake. If you were lying to protect me I am genuinely touched but do not worry about this letter falling into the wrong hands as my skills as a swordswoman grow I can assure you I have every intention being able to meet whoever comes after me. I also possess a growing circle of friends who I am sure will do all they can to assist me, one of which has a vested interest in my freedom as I know secrets about him which will bode ill for him if I am captured. I am also aware enough of the risk of what I do to give no names of people I have met and you may have noticed that I have not stated my current whereabouts nor where I intend to travel to next.

The other reason for writing to you is to let you know how much I miss both you and mama. There has not been a day since we parted when you have not been in my thoughts. I am not unhappy with my life and I have travelled to many interesting places in Theah including Vaticine City which is remarkably beautiful and have even visited the fey lands of Avalon, although the fairy folks we met were of the malevolent kind. Fear not - I live with no ill-effects to tell the tale. Do not let yourself be convinced that there is nothing worth seeing outside of Vodacce and I can assure you there is and there is as much kindness in Théah as there is malevolence.

I am heartily sorry that I have not written to you sooner and I promise I will write again. I hope you are well and that you can find some comfort in the letter.

All the love in the world

Your dearest

Viola

Return to Altamira

Altamira –
It did not take long to find trouble here. On the first day I was investigating Soldano swords schools to join when I discovered a fight between 2 groups of swordsmen, one group dressed in ordinary clothes and one group dressed in black. The group in black had appeared to be prevailing and the group in black were fighting an older gentleman it was at this point that myself and Axel felt compelled to intervene on behalf of the older gentleman. We managed to conquer the group in black and then talked to the older gentleman who turned out to be a Soldano master and the group in black were a rogue swords school group (I think Soldano) and their master a man of some means had been expelled from the Guild as a result of improper conduct which had been reported by the gentleman we had just met. There had been a resulting feud which we had just witnessed one of the many incidents. The gentleman offered to teach me the Soldano style and Axel how to use a fencing weapon. He also offered Axel a free grading as a member of the Swordsman Guild. I am keen to learn Soldano as I think if I am passing at the moment and intend to pass again as Castilian girl then I ought to learn a Castilian sword style, eventually I would like to become a Grand Master so that my Ambrogia sword skills are not wasted but this is for the distant future. Anyway I also had a word with our agents in-between Soldano lessens and I intend to visit our contact with a safe house at a later date. Trying to find information about Regina and failing has made me realise that I may have to visit Vodacce soon and find out what has happened to her for myself.

Altamira – 7th -9th Sepitimus
Oh Theus – I am both relieved and distressed to have to recount the events of the past two days which I would count as the worst of my life so far. You will have bear with the pessimistic nature of it as I don’t feel full of joy at the moment and I am asking myself some hard questions. I was almost tempted not to write but both feel I need to alleviate some the noise in my head and because I know what happened the last time I did not feel like writing (the business with Stephen von Dracon – curse his foul hide) when it took me a full month to begin writing again.

Two days ago which seems an age ago in some happier era we were all sitting in café and then something strange happened. Fionn and Francine were staring at each other in a strange manner and were suddenly very cagey around each other. Axel seemed to be less awkward around me and I suddenly felt more fearless and less willing to take rot from people. It may have been something to do with a strange vision Bjarne had with a Vesten woman urging him to go east. I feel disloyal saying this but I think it had some bearing on what eventually happened, the Father was in a foul mood. He had been before we met up in the café and was obviously much the worse for wear from drinking heavily the night before. What was ominous was that he had been away from the city for a few days before he arrived back in Altamira and started drinking. I think but I am not sure that he was told that something would happen to us as a result of what he told his “friends” and this contributed to his mood. I think I suspected this at the time and it influenced by behaviour later. Theus, this is hard to write, he kept muttering about losing everything. Anyway we got to talking about the fencing master myself and Axel had met and his problems with his rival in Altamira. The group’s rather surly reaction to this – what is this to do with us, profoundly irritated me and to cut a long story short (and I am not in the mood for long stories) we (me and Axel) offered to introduce the others to this man in order to prove he was of good character.

When we arrived at the fencing school it was worryingly quiet and there was a piece of black cloth caught in one of the mirrors which someone (Bjarne or Francine) spotted was a concealed door. Me, Axel and Bjarne went upstairs to the fencing master’s main office and we found a student who was badly injured who told us how the door was opened downstairs. After much farting around we all got inside the secret passageway followed it through to the road leading out to the east out of Altamira. We had found signs of fight and someone bleeding a lot inside the passageway, Axel managed to work out that someone had broken a training sword to give themselves a sharp edge to fight with, probably our noble swordmaster. Through some skilful bribery of the local surgeon someone managed to find out that the students of bad swords school had taken the good man to a local monastery. At this point I departed post-haste to rescue him and the others apart from Francine followed. I think she had this idea of sneaking up the monastery (anyway it matters not).

We arrived at the monastery, everyone else apart from me and Axel went up to the door and we had a look around the back. Axel saw through the window of the refectory it was full of soldiers and told me to get into the monastery by the front door at which did. Barrelling into the refectory in time to see that Fionn and Bjarne had already engaged the enemy, although Bjarne was chocking as if poisoned I am still not sure what happened to him. Combat and capture of the men followed and then intimidation in an attempt to find out what had happened followed by Fionn fighting of them bare handed (a matter of honour on both sides – long story). Myself and Axel searched the monks cells for the kidnapped swords master and found a very angry abbot asking us what in Theus name were we doing and when we leaving. I wish heartily I had been more reasonable and actually talked to him properly about the fact we were looking for a kidnapped man but I got offended by his high-handed tone and the fact he was calling us thieves when he was taking coin from the bad swordmaster without questioning if he was a man of honour or not. Actually he never stopped being sanctimonious but I suppose faced with a screaming ghoul his reaction was reasonable.

Myself and Axel ran into the father who had searched the bell tower without success and we entered the church. He searched the confessional and whilst myself and Axel had caught the attention of more of the evil bastard swordteacher’s students holding guns. By the time we had been shot and they had been sworded another of this bastards little pets caught our attention he had a gun to the fathers head and demanded we drop our weapons or he would shoot. Axel tried to stall him believing he was bluffing and I saw it as an opportunity to get the father to call his “friends” of us. I know this was stupid and it was irresponsible to bargain with a man’s life like this but he had been so unpleasant all day and I have a real fear of being taken prisoner. Nothing excuses my behaviour I know, I think Axel hesitated because he knew that this man’s “friends” had killed his friends and would as likely as not kill him and I am to blame for that too – I didn’t have to tell Axel what I knew about the father. We dropped our weapons but it was too late I’m not sure what happened but there seemed to a scuffle between the man and the father, the gun went off and we saw him drop. I ran for the Bjarne and by the time I came back the murdering bastard with the gun had been decapitated by Axel. Alejandro was not dead but he was very badly wounded and only through the will of Theus was he still alive. He had received a large head wound and I can’t think about it know without feeling sick and guilty.

I stayed with the father as Bjarne after binding his wounds said he should not be moved, Bjarne and Fionn rode off to find Bjarne’s vision woman in the East who believed might be able to save the father, while Axel found a passageway under the altar and eventually recovered our goodly swordmaster who had been left to starve for a bit at the bottom of the well. I forgot to mention the evil swordmaster wanted to fight a duel with the good swordmaster as a re-match of a duel their fathers had had. The good swordmaster refused to fight because he would not re-live old scores – the evil swordmasters plan was to kidnap a good swordmaster, starve him for a bit and then force him to fight the accursed duel.

Once Axel had rescued the good swordsman we were sitting in the chapel wondering what to do, the angry abbot came upon us again. His anger took a different direction when he heard the good swordmaster’s story and he was rounded on the evil swordmaster’s students – he was told apparently by the evil swordmaster that he would be leaving something at the monastery but did not realise this was another person and was not impressed to find this out, we misjudged him – he did have principals after all. I feel guilty about this but considering my experiences with “Brother Mark” and some of the Vodacce “holiness” not to mention the Inquisition – I think I can be partially forgiven for not having a high opinion of clerics. Bjarne returned with Fionn at this point – he had met his vision woman who was not helpful towards Alejandro’s fate. The abbot then offered his services to look after the father and we left him to the care of the monks and the mercy of Theus. The abbot also informed the town of the evil swordmasters action and he is now under arrest but some of his students got back into Altamira to warn him about us and he has now fled – so we have yet another person out there hunting us – come to think of it, this may be who attacked us – but I think not.

A fraught evening followed when a purPortédly Eisen (he looked far too dark skinned to be an Eisen) man turned up to defend Bjarne and ask for news about the Syrneth artefact. It turns out that unbeknown to us all – Bjarne is a member of the Explorers Society and had taken the very same artefact that the pirates had “lost” and were looking for in San Arrant. When I made it clear I was not impressed with this, he replied with the irrefutable counter-argument it was better he had it then Caligari for whom it was originally intended. So to finish off a perfect day I was now being involved in Explorer’s Society business. Francine was upset to hear about the father’s fate and wanted to pray for him. I must admit I wanted to pray as well and it worked out for the best when she expressed a wish to visit him at the monastery and I was able to escort her there to make sure she arrived there and back safely. I had no great wish to hear Explorer’s tales.

We arrived back and I decided to search the father’s room in order to see if he wrote a diary like me and if it contained any information on what he had told the Kreuzritter or even what he knew. I turned up an awkward half-written letter to Elena which made me feel even guiltier and reminded me that someone needs to inform her of what has happened. Coming out the father’s room I passed Francine’s room where I could hear her crying and when I knocked at her door I was told in no uncertain terms to go away. I would find out why moments later when I ran into Fionn who informed us he was leaving for Freiberg and muttering something about “an evil twin” and “stolen money”. The “Eisen” man then opened his door and I was about to go for a glass of wine with him when I hear a shout from Fionn coming from Axel’s room. When I asked what was wrong Fionn shouted out the word assassin my heart sank and I rushed to the room in time to see Fionn and the assassin crash through the window. I saw Fionn manage to land on top the man and hit him before he ran away. I jumped out the window to follow them and ran after Fionn who was in pursuit of him but unfortunately Fionn was not able to keep up with the man. Francine asked to know what the business was about but as I suspect it was Kreuzritter I told her sincerely she was better off not knowing. She did not take this kindly and no amount of instance on my part would convince her I had her best interests at heart but no matter what she says I will not tell her, I will not get someone else I care about almost killed through my own stupidity.

The Village of Spirits

The next morning bought the joyous news that yet another Explorer had come to join the party and this man was a sarcastic bastard to really cap it off. Fiora was also there too and he immediately launched into a diatribe about stolen books at her. He really should know better than to insult a Sorte Strega. Seeing Fiora again was bitter sweet, she sort of recognised me but not quite but then I just had to tell that Roberto (who I was dressed as last time) was got by the Inquisition which I then had to retract when she had hoped to hear better news to pass on to my sister. Francine tried to get her to talk about what she knew of her sister to her, bless her but Fiora was adamant that she would only talk to Roberto. I am almost temped to tell her who I really am but as I so want some news but I wonder if it’s worth getting myself endangered over, after all I still have to survive long enough to be able to help her if she needs me. It turns out that Fiora’s protectors had disappeared and should have been back but were not. So since we were all interested in leaving Altamira it was agreed that she would travel with us into Eisen. This did not please the “Eisen” bodyguard Reinhard who is very uneasy around her. I am unsure what to make of Reinhard, he seems pleasant enough and has been very comforting at times, but claims to be a peasant and proud of it and then takes command (I will explain later), he claims to be Eisen but is dark like a Castillian or a Vodacce. Fiora was saying something about him and his strands too which I didn’t catch but there is things about him which are odd.

Eisen – 10th Septimus –
So far there are strange things afoot here. We were told the Vodacce answering the description of Fiora’s protectors had headed to a big wedding between the offspring of the majors in two villages in Hainzl (one had wood, the other metal). One of the villages was in the woods which we managed to miss and the other one which we found was beyond the woods. When we arrived we saw a commotion happening which myself and Reinhard rode ahead to investigate and Reinhard (the peasant?) puts on a commanding presence and asks what is going on. It turns out an Avalon Explorer’s Society member turns up with some the major’s daughter’s (the same one due to be married) clothing, knowing things only she knows and covered with blood. He is arrested for her murder and the townspeople want him torn limb from limb hence the commotion. The major had gone to talk to him. This was weird I am not the greatest supPortér of the Explorers (who knows what the truth is?) but then they seem to be honourable within their own rules and are not in the habit of murdering people (at least not deliberately).

It was about to get stranger, when Reinhard went to talk to the man just now, he seemed not to remember the past few days but seemed perfectly normal apart from his amnesia. The mayor had the other hand hit the captain of the guards over the head and was last seen riding towards his future son-in-laws village with some of his daughter’s clothing like a madman. I think it was Reinhard who suspects we might be dealing with an evil that jumps and I think the girl’s clothing might be something to with this. Professor Nikita Explorer the sarcastic of coarse ridicules this but then he is good at that. He only seems to like this accursed big dog that travels with him. It is now late and I am not tired. I am seriously considering talking to Francine as if nothing else to check someone has written to Alejandro’s sister and to talk to her about writing to Elena as the awful news might be better being re-counted by a woman that Elena knew and was friendly with. It might make me feel better because at the moment I just feel that I am bumbling through Théah getting people hurt. The only thing that makes me care about my own fate is knowing I have to be there for Regina if she needs me and possibly for Axel too, although I have not done a great job in protecting him so far either.

This next section of the diary is again written in retrospect as I have not found much time for writing over the past few days so the account of what has happened is a bit jumbled as I am writing from memory in my present location around the 25th of Septimus. I am also finding it difficult to remember dates as I am at sea at present and I am not a good sailor at best of times.

Francine said she would write to Elena at some point when I talked to her at some time. I think we chased after the major into the forest immediately, in fact I’m sure we did as Reinhard ending up trailing a man who had lost a good deal of money to him playing cards. Thanks to Reinhard’s tracking skills we were able to locate the major and some bandits in a clearing (Francine found a piece of the girl’s clothing on the branches of a tree). There was a fight with the bandits and then Francine became “possessed” and rode anyway. I think it was Fiora who found her because she had a conversation with someone who said the spirit of the major’s daughter was sleeping and wished to be gone from the area and on no account wanted people to go to the village where she had come from as an evil spirit was wanting to trap people and had released her for this purpose. The spirit then awoke and Francine moved towards Axel. I was having this being possess Axel whatever it’s motives where so I threatened it and trying to pommel strike Francine with my sword which she then opened a Porté hole in front of making my hand disappear into it. Since everyone in our party saw this I feel I can in good faith divulge she is a Porté sorcerer – although obviously this should be edited from any accounts given to the Rilasciare. I think she touched Axel and everyone seemed to return to normal and collective paranoia who had been really possessed ensuing. I seem to remember touching someone’s possibly Axel or Reinhard’s hand to show them I believed they hadn’t been possessed.

Francine rode away from the rest of us in a foul mood whilst we all retired to the inn back in the village from where we had come from. I think it was while Fiora was looking people to try and see if their strands told her where the spirit of the major’s daughter had gone to that she say something around me. I think it was something like the image of “Roberto” superimposed on me. She then started asking questions about “Violante’s” background and although I did my best to answer the questions convincingly I think she could tell that I was lying. Oh yes, while I remember the man who had lost money to Reinhard had also being possessed by a priest’s spirit who used an Eisen word referring to a long lost spirit that had become trapped and someone sacrificed self and soul to save. Francine was in the prison with the Avalon gentleman I can’t remember when we found out this out but she had gone there to escape from the group paranoia, oh yes I remember now we found that out during the night as Fiora was extremely relieved when we told her it was later and she had got ready for bed and was sitting with her veil off. She got some admiring glances from the gentleman. Fiora was annoyed that we had failed to keep an eye on Francine accusing us of abandoning her, she is quite protective towards her. I remember we met up with Francine the next day in a wide, public clearing but anyway from the villagers. She wanted someone she could see us all and she told us what the Major’s daughter’s (her name was Sigrid) had told us about her spirit being released to bring other’s to the village in the forest but this should not happen as it was a trap for whoever went.

I think it was at this point we went to talk to the Avalon prisoner again. Fiora read his strongest strand which was to a sailor friend of his – also Avalon, which was probably not useful to the situation. Fiora also read the Captain of the Guards strands for the second time she had done it before. The first time she had a read that his strongest was a cups strand to a lady that was fraying. This time she managed to decipher it was to Sigrid and it had gone. I can’t remember how this came out but it turned out that he was in love was Sigrid who had had to marry the major of the other village’s son for political reasons. The captain had put the lady out of his heart as she was lost to him. I digress – we all decided that reluctantly the only way to resolve the situation was to travel to the other village even though we knew we were riding into a supernatural trap which we might not be able to escape from. I think it was that if we didn’t the situation at present would remain and sooner or later someone would be compelled to visit the other village and at least we were prepared for danger. I think Fiora wished to find out what had happened to her kinfolk. We were told the major that people were not to travel to the other village and I think we told them why.

Then we departed – it was en-route I had a few significant conversations, it was the knowledge that I might not make it out of this trap that prompted me to take a few risks. I asked Francine to look out for my sister and she said whom should I speak and I didn’t think I could risk divulging secrets about yourselves to an outsider. Francine also stated that the loss of Fionn had made her realise that you only get a limited window of opportunity to speak to people about how you feel about them and I should tell my feelings to Axel. I did as discreetly as I could and got the only I love you as a friend bollocks back before the coward rode away. This and other incidents are making me realised that if I require romance in my life I may have to bite the bullet and face the possibility that I may have to look for it in someone else or maybe have to do without it altogether which is a painful but honest admission to myself. The thought of never seeing Regina again also made me realise that I had to know what there was to know of her at whatever cost so I decided I needed to be honest with Fiora. I approached it in a round about way but asking if Fiora would divulge to the whereabouts of a runaway. I am not good at being subtle as she deciphered my meaning quickly. The news she had is not good – Regina is married to a Villanova and Fiora has not seen her in months even at the places where you usually see other Strega. She also told me that the last time they had met Regina had spoken about me in the way one usually talks about a person who is dead. She may have speaking in that way in order for people not to be suspicious and ask questions that would send others after me or she may believe that I am dead but the risk that the latter was true had prompted me to write her the letter than was sent from Freiberg. I may be foolish to trust Fiora but she seemed as relieved to make a friend outside of Vodacce as I was to have one within it. She has said she will try to find out what she can about Regina. I feel guilty that I have not returned to Vodacce to rescue Regina before now and I know that I must return as soon as I feel I can and must bend most of my will to doing so.

I have a plan to become a grandmaster swordswoman and will start by learning the swords school Gallegos as soon as I feel able to. I need a Castillian swords school in case I need to be “Violante” again (I am back to being “Roberto” for reasons I will explain later) and I feel it will be easier to combine with swords school with Ambrogia than the others as it only requires the use of one sword and unlike Aldana does not require me to learn courtier skills I do not possess. It is also a less widely known style than Aldana which less people will know its weaknesses which may be useful if Father Alejandro recovers and understandably wants me dead. I think the reason why I am more aware of my mortality is that seeing the father almost die has made me realise I may die any day and have a limited period of time to accomplish what I wish to.

Whilst I was talking to Fiora, Reinhard spotted some sort of Syrneth thing that tipped us off we were getting close to the village. I think Fiora felt that we can gone through a sort of barrier when we got close to the village and she could also see there were “lights” dancing around us and between our strands. She said that they didn’t look evil but they were threatening to move amongst our strands and they thought that this “magic” of whatever sort it was could travel to our loved ones made us realise we had to confront what was causing it. We travelled into the village, had food and drink at the inn. The village initially looked so normal which I think made us more suspicious. Fiora had heard of tales that sometimes spirits get one to ingest food or drink to put one under enchantments so she ordered something very Vodacce to see if they could reproduce it perfectly. They couldn’t which made less suspicious that the inn was an illusion. The villagers seemed to be under the illusion that everything was normal but the bride and groom had departed on honeymoon. I remember Fiora managed to find out where her compatriots might be and myself and Professor Nikita the Sarcastic went to the route where they might I think Bjarne and Axel were with us. We found the men in two separate huts which were woodcutter’s huts. They were both in a deep sleep I think they looked like they’d been poisoned and I think Bjarne examined them. Nikita found a page of a book on each of them which was totally blank which was very odd.

Then we went to a watchtower and heard that Reinhard was speaking to a woman’s voice in there as night was falling. We passed a stage in the middle of the village which wasn’t there before as night was falling. I remember the voice saying something about a man coming who was destined to kiss her or something like that and as Professor Sarcastic was coming up the stairs first I decided that it was not a good idea the first person this lady met was a gentleman. I think I had the story through Reinhard that the lady or more likely an apparition of the lady (which claimed to be Sigrid) had appeared at nightfall along the floor of the tower Reinhard was sitting on which had been little more than a ledge before. I leapt in front of him successfully and the “lady” was disappointed but seemed determined to be hugged.

We all managed to escape without physical contact with her as I remembered that a part of the Avalon’s story had involved a tower and contact with this “woman”. I remember now that Francine who had been with Reinhard had gone as had Fiora – this turned out to be significant as they had been able to help us escape by escaping the stage and playing and singing. Fiora plays the violin and Francine sings well, a lot of the account of what happened comes from them. It turned out we were now on a stage. We found a trapdoor down to a Syrneth ruin but either Nikita or Reinhard had activated a switch which bought it crashing around our heads – it turned out to be a set too. We saw a bridge in the distance and made for that but not before passing a sword in a stone which Reinhard pulled out to what I think we could hear where cheers. Each of us was tested with a nightmare vision before we could cross the bridge I saw that Axel’s involved by chased by Kreuzritter in the mist and he killed an effigy of mine in the mist, another factor that makes me feel our romantic opportunities may be limited. I remember my test well too, I was about to get married to Axel before someone told me he had managed to get Regina killed so if could claim an inheritance. I was about to kill him when I realised if I hurried I could save her and got to her just in time for her to die in my arms. Then the illusion faded and I was in a different landscape with a castle in the distance alongside Axel, and possibly others.

Eventually we were all there and a Sidhe knight approached us informing us that the castle ahead belonged to McEachern who were holding an item which sounded like Professor Sarcastic’s missing book. The others were in favour of going to the castle and making a deal with McEachern to get the book back I went along to make sure they did not in effect make a deal against the Sidhe whilst Fiora stayed talking to the Sidhe knight. The McEachern talked a good deal who rubbish about forcibly enlightening the villagers in the Eisen village and tried to protect the book that a man was reading from. I had a dreadful argument with Reinhard who was going to shoot one the invading Sidhe to see how it reacted you can’t believe these bloody Explorers sometimes can you? They’ll do anything just for idle curiosity.

When we had finished the Sidhe had re-claimed the book and Fiora had assigned custody of the book as she couldn’t read it logically it is safer in her hands. Apparently Professor Sarcastic had a shot at the invading Sidhe anyway he said the bolt of his crossbow didn’t affect the being which apparently looked like a goblin. The Sidhe informed us they had diverted us to this location (which turned out to be the Highland Marches) from the Eisen village and that the book was something to do with a storyteller who was so convincing that his tales turned into reality. Anyway Fiora put the book in a bag making sure she had all the pages attached inside it and sewed up the bag and we returned to the Eisen village which had returned to normal including Fiora’s companions which we had returned to the inn. Oh yes – Fiora stated or someone wrote that they all lived happily ever after which appeared on the last page of the book. One last thing we were discovered Fiora’s compatriots in the village before when they were unconscious we also found the priest who said he had been realised by the beings and had managed to get Sigrid released in order to bring others back to the village and he was ashamed with his deal with Legion which he had done to give Sigrid some freedom I think. The beings then ripped him apart. Anyway we made back to the original village we had come from we were attacked by bandits again and I had a horse killed from under me.

We found out Fiora had a strange tattoo on her body as a result of her clothes being ripped in the struggle, it seems she is somehow bonded to the group. Fiora also said something to Reinhard about her having seen something about him that he would wish to be kept secret when he went over the bridge, which made me wonder his identity again. She departed from us the next morning but it she has business in Charouse so we will probably meet her there. I don’t know what happened between her and Reinhard in the night but she seemed to be a foul mood with him. I almost pity the man if he has earned her wrath.

Outside the village we came upon our old friend Eve in her riverboat who was happy to take us to a town called Hafen where we could catch a boat to Crieux provided we stopped in Freiberg overnight so she could conduct some business.

Family and Freiburg

We arrived in Freiberg and I immediately sought out yourselves and learned of the party the next day held by Handmaiden Probst on behalf of Eisenfurst Trague (although I think we all know it was very little to do with him – and everything to do with trying to hold the city together in her part). As luck would have it we all received an invitation from Axel’s father who had located him in the city. I tried to impress upon Axel’s father than Axel had done much good in Théah since he left Freiberg but I think I gilded the lily in a little too much in that regard. He also had a duel with “Reinhard” which he lost.

In the haste to impress father and son I had dressed up to the best of my ability and placed Regina in my hair which turned out to be a costly error as “Reinhard” noticed this and was most eager all night to discuss this. As regards the task assigned to me to find a patron for the lady sculptress Bianco, is that her real name by the way I never did ask, because if is not I find it strange she has chosen to assume a name of infamy. I talked to the Vendel businessmen present but they were unwilling to sponsor a Vodacce although they would consider it to curry favour with Frau Probst.

I had a word with Axel’s sisters and one of them was willing to talk to Axel’s father. I am not sure how this will progress as Axel’s father seems more interested in warfare (the man was rather a bore in the subject of military tactics) than in art but at least I managed to interest Axel’s sisters. The same sister made a derogatory remark about Francine who having spent the whole evening avoiding an elderly Eisen gentlemen known as ‘Lord Drachenheim’ who was rather leering after her then went home with this gentleman. People present at that party it would interesting to learn more about are the explosion in a fashion factory, (perhaps he should be approached to sponsor our sculptress) and an elderly gentlemen who was convinced the Wars of the Cross were still occurring.

Anyway I went back to Axel’s family home and during the night was confronted by “Reinhard” who spotting the spider in the hair and a slip of the tongue of Axel’s who introduced me to his father as Roberto Falisci and then corrected it to Viola had worked out I who I really was. I concluded from this that he was probably Vodacce and managed to find out his real name was Pietro Villanova and he was on a leave of absence from the Great Game, what worries me is he chooses to return to it. I am hoping this information will only be used if he crosses someone personally as to unveil him gratuitously would imperil me since he now knows who I am. I am still not sure what to make of this man, he wish to take a break from the great game shows some degree of wanting to be honest but sometimes he does things that show he has a ruthless streak and he is a Villanova. Only a fool ever completely trusts a Villanova. In a way though I think we feel a connection that we are both refugees from our homeland and both travelling under false identities, I think part of the reason he told who he really is and that it gave him a sense of relief to talk to someone else about who he really is, which possibly I am projecting my own feelings onto, but I don’t believe so. We have been conversing in Vodacce, partly as fellow compatriots and partly to make Axel jealous which doesn’t seem to be working.

Maiden Voyage

Hafen –
Our stay in Hafen was short but eventful. Axel and Bjarne were involved in and apparently started a tavern owner brawl for reasons I still do not understand and myself and Reinhard had to pay to bail them out with the tavern owner. I also have to confess that whilst delivering the letters for yourselves to the safehouse, I had to ask directions from Reinhard who came with me along with Francine. Both seem suspicious and were asking questions, especially Francine. So I’m afraid you have to watch your backs. I am dreadfully sorry about this. The reason why we are in this probably literary accursed ship is that whilst on the quayside, we were approached by a desperate man chased by a crowd and whilst we were deciding whether to help him a device of some sort was throw at him. I divided towards the man to help and can conclude by the fact my memories of the next few hours are hazy and I had to lie down in the middle of the day and by the fact the man did not awake for several days whilst on board the ship that it was a some sort of chemical substance to induce sleep. “Reinhard” realised we were both outnumbered and I was in no condition to fight that we had better let these men take the man prisoner. I think “Reinhard” was told he was a suspected murderer. Reinhard then accepted a job on behalf of all us to guard him and since the captain did not trust women. I am back as Roberto again.

The Albers, travelling between Hafen and Crieux -
The sooner I am in Montaigne the better. I have only just stopped feeling sea-sick and the men aboard ship are all rude and seem to regard making fun of a “young boy” as sport. Apparently I am touchy in their eyes and they never tire of reminding me of the fact. Grrr. Axel is due to fight another man on board as a bet I am torn between the traditional Falisci love of a bet and the fact Axel may be hurt.

Yet again I am writing retrospectively from but I feel like I’ve not really had much time to write recently and am taking advantage of my recent sabbatical to catch up on some diary writing. This is written very retroactively but it’s been so long since I wasn’t preoccupied with worrying, nor feeling ill (from either the sea or wounds sustained). Luckily some of the events detailed will be covered by the accounts of Alison Smith who is a much more diligent diarist than I am.

Things got worse on the Albers in fact bad enough to put me off ever wanting to board another ship in my life. The fight between Axel and the Eisen man Ox went ahead as planned Axel lost but put up a good fight, the details are irrelevant so I will not bore you with them here. What was of more significance is that the next day the captain was found dead in very mysterious circumstances and I think a black ship was seen. We boarded the ship and against my advice Pietro/Reinhard broke into a section containing the dead bodies of most of the crew. According to the captain’s diary which we also found the crew had conducted a mutiny against the captain and he had locked the crew in the hold to starve believing that they had gone insane. Their ship like ours had been mysteriously becalmed. We were then attacked by the same ship once we had disentangled ourselves from it which was manned by zombies with our dead captain at the helm. The prisoner were guarding turned out to be Vesten he gave us a sob story about having being set up by the Montaigne and the Vendel which turned out to be false but sounded convincing at the time and told us he could help defeat the zombies as a ship he had been on before had being attacked by them.

Apparently the Vesten rune for Strength and fire repelled them. I am not sure in retrospect if he wasn’t lying about that as well as they didn’t seem to have that much of an effect. Anyway the zombie ship attacked again and some of the crew had been turning into zombies in the meantime. So we defended but during the attack the whole crew were turned into zombies except us. Axel banished the army by cutting off our captain’s head and throwing it into the sea but this created a vortex into the Abyss (or at least I assumed in was the Abyss as it was a blackish-green vortex with ominous green mist coming from it). We all escaped by either jumping from the ship before it was sucked into the vortex or by lowering the remaining lifeboat and rowing away from it. The other lifeboat had gone which we later found out had been taken by the Vesten prisoner. He may have escaped on his own but he was probably helped by Bjarne (whom I do not blame the man’s story was convincing and he understandably had sympathy for a fellow Vesten, I was tempted to help the man myself). Pietro had gone into the bows of the ship to retrieve his Villanova crested fencing sword but luckily had managed to get out of the ship before it sank

We were rescued from the lifeboat which was too damaged to be rowed anywhere. We were not in good shape when rescued but what was interesting is that it was an Explorers Society Ship “The Discovery” that rescued us, it would turn out to be prophetic name. They looked kindly on us as Pietro was wearing his pin – and the saga I learnt there has been passed onto our headquarters in Crieux but it bears repeating. The lady who was in charge of the ship had had to mutiny against her captain a Guy McCormick who had decided to work with Khered Din and had almost taken the ship for Khered Din’s benefit against the will of the crew. What was interesting is that both Khered Din and Guy McCormick had become obsessed with finding some six switches located around Théah and turning them on. There had been a young lady of mysterious origins on McCormack’s crew who was abducted by Khered Din and McCormack as Khered Din had an obsession with her being vital to the mission. Four of these switches have been found and activated so far. I will come back to the point later but there is a reason to believe that this is connected to the bracelet the lady Lucrezia imposed upon Fionn O’Connell which also had six gems in it but more of this later.

Dining with Dreams

Crieux –
The first thing that happened in Crieux is that Pietro decided to stop lying about who he really was. He realised when he thought his Villanova crested fencing sword was about to sucked into the Abyss and risked his life and immortal soul to retrieve it from the bow of the ship that his family heritage was worth something to him and told the entire company who he really was. Francine also told Clarisse who we encountered in a loyal tavern who I really was, she said she couldn’t be bothered with the charade anymore. I was now Violante again having shed the Roberto disguise in the lifeboat and was enjoying the privilege of being female again having had a long bath as soon as we were on dry land. I was annoyed with her at the time but in retrospect I am relieved not to have to pretend anymore. I had a conversation with Clarisse later that evening and she presented by her with her family’s puzzle sword. I am not sure I deserve such an honour but she was most insistent, saying she believed I find better use for it than herself. The longer I know Clarisse Allias du Crieux the more I am convinced that she is a person of much integrity. Bjarne decided to depart with the Explorer’s Ship which had rescued us and go search of the switches and rescue this kidnapped girl. Axel started training with the Knights of the Rose and Cross and we re-encountered Fiora. It was wonderful to see her again and we would have the pleasure of her company for some time.

We were invited to dine with a mysterious Castillian nobleman in his house a small distance outside Crieux and spent a pleasant evening in his company (Fiora was particularly impressed by the musicians). The nobleman said he was looking for a missing illegitimate daughter as his wife who was Vodacce had been cursed by fate magic and could not have children. Another set of lies as it turns out, I think I will make it my resolution not to trust people so easily. I spent the night talking to Francine. Axel returned to the Knights and we set about finding this young lady for this gentleman. It turned out she was friendly with a man named Pierre Couchant who was a member of the Explorers Society. I can’t remember how we discovered where she lived but when we went around there I could see why she spent so spent so much time with Mr Cochart her grandfather was a drunken bastard and her mother was working as a Jenny. We went into her room and found the mother ripped apart by a vicious animal.

We talked to Mr Cochart and found out that there was another book that made things come true similar to the one in Hainzl. In fact I think Francine found a piece of jewellery that was possessed by the spirit of the priest in Hainzl who said not to trust the Castillian guy. I think we went to see Cochart and found the girl, who was called Anna, in his house and he hold us about there being a second book similar to the one in Fiora’s possession which also made things in it happen in really life he was disturbed that she had been reading from this book. He was of the opinion that this book was highly dangerous and I think he was highly concerned when at a later date it went missing. He actually seemed very sensible for a member of the Explorer’s society. I remember that later in the evening there was an attack by some fantastic looking creatures in the inn where we were staying. For some reason me and Axel were fighting monsters in a stable probably because we had heard that someone imitating Fiora had managed to take her book from her quarters we she was not there. The illusion was convincing enough to fool the men who were “accompanying” her on behalf of her bastard of a father, a couple of goons called Gianni and Umberto.

Anyway I digress a strange procession was taking place in the street with dead looking people or people behaving in a strange manner and we managed to trace the source of this disturbance back to the mansion. Axel seemed to become possessed by something and charged into the lake at the house thinking there was a beast in it probably under the influence of this accursed book. I tried to stop Axel’s foolishness before realising the futility of the situation and assisting the rest of our party in fighting in a room where this “Castillian man” and “his wife” were. I seem to remember fighting lots of creatures created by a bloated man at an organ playing at an organ with the book stolen from Fiora on the organ and eventually climbing up the organ and returning the book to the care of Fiora with the aid of one other member of the party.

The spell was broken but Axel still insisted on returning to the lake at the mansion house the next day in the hope of retrieving a lance he had stolen with a supernatural creature in the parade the night before that he had been welding and he had lost in the lake. The only thing he found was a rusty pipe and so the “lance” was probably an illusion created by the book. I don’t know what possessed Axel as such an item had it existed would have been cursed. Anyway Philip Cochart adopted Anna who the “Castillian man” wished to kidnap as she was important to his nefarious purposes with the book and Cochart voiced the opinion that the book should be kept safe away from people and its contents not known about. Like I said he seemed very sensible for an Explorer.

The Heart of Matushka

After the strange business with the strange books a few days passed uneventfully. Fiora and Pietro (who were obviously attracted to each other as they had both asked after each other with me and asked if each had mentioned the other) had a few intimate dinners together and Axel seemed to become increasingly fond of the lady Eponine. Then Daddy Bernoulli wrote a letter which his goons read to Fiora, it disclosed who Pietro was married and had a small daughter both of which he’d abandoned in Vodacce. Fiora was understandably very upset about this as she felt that she’d been treated really like a courtesan, that she had been courted by a man who could give her no respectable future. I must admit to feeling very torn as from his point of view he was in love with her, which he was and felt it was unfair that he was denied the opportunity of being with woman he loved because he was forced to marry a woman he didn’t love for reasons of family politics and who had actually broken his strands. I felt for both them and I think alienated her by trying to be a friend to him as the man seemed to be devastated and have no one he could talk to. I did not condone his behaviour and tried to explain to him why she was so angry at him but I could not make him understand, like all Vodacce men he only sees things from his own point of view.

We were asked by Cochart to attend a dinner with some “friends” of his. I think the real reason was partially they wanted to some different “colourful” characters to gossip about and partially Cochart found these people irritating and difficult but had to deal with them because of explorer business and wanted some friendly faces around him. He is quite a shy man and may have found socialising difficult in general. The evening passed with Pietro being very unhappy, Fiora socialising and cutting him dead and Axel under the influence of Eponine have dressed up in the full Montaigne gentlemanly frippery. The man looked quite ridiculous and I think it was at this stage that I realised that he had fallen in love with Eponine, spelling the end of any dreams I may have had in fact direction. I think maybe that’s why I identified with Fiora and Pietro, my dreams died as theirs did.

I forgot to mention in the intervening days between the dinner party and the madness of the mansion, a young woman Vendel woman named Idunn Laars joined us. She, I think originally hired Axel and Alejandro as bodyguards. It was then that we discovered the Vesten man on the “Albers” sob story was not quite true as the lady Idunn was seeking this man and was most disturbed to find out that we could not confirm his demise. It turned out he had slaughtered a cousin of hers and his family with little provocation for the deed except they were Vendel. She was offering to pay us if we could find out what had happened to him. I remember her being very upset when there was an attack on the inn and a group of people claiming to be Rilasciare tried to abduct me because I had given some coin to some beggars in town, they believed me to a be a character known as “la belle femme”, a person known for charity to the poor, this turned out to be Eponine acting on behalf of Francine and Clarisse.

Anyway I digress, it was during the dinner party we were attending that an item called the “Heart of Matushka” was stolen from outside the Explorer’s Society. Pietro was told about this and journeyed to the site only to get involved with in a confrontation with a Pyeryem sorcerer who it turned out was also trying to find out who the real thief was. We found out this when him, his ally Pyotyr and some impressively burly wrestlers attacked us as from Pietro’s appearance at the Explorers Society they had came to the mistaken but understandable conclusion that we had something to do with its theft. It was a misunderstanding we eventually managed to clear up when we were attacked by people who did have something to do with its disappearance. We made contact with an underworld character Jacques de Ecureil said that a number of people had approached him about this object – Fiora did her best intimidating Strega Sorte act which seems to work very well, most people are terrified of fate witches.

We were set up when a messenger apparently from the same man told us to meet and follow a jenny – someone apparently intercepted the message and the bitch led us into a trap were we were set upon a gang of thugs who tried to kill us (you will have heard about this as the bitch was working in the same jenny house that was our chapterhouse in Crieux and there is probably an account of how she was dismissed from there – the girl is still at large – I did not have the heart to kill her nor the evidence to turn her into the Musketeers – her name is probably in their accounts I’m afraid I can’t remember it now) . We were saved a young girl who had been badly scarred by the white plague and whom the low life of the area were frightened of because of her appearance.

We (joined by Pyotyr who had also been following us and now realised we were not the villains of the piece) went back to where she lived which was in shockingly poor lodgings more suited to an animal than a human being. She served us a meagre meal it was not of good quality but we all expressive of gratitude as it was all the poor girl had and we felt both a gratitude for the way in which she helped us and the wretchedness of her. Idunn tried to ‘accidentally’ leave behind a large amount of money which was kind of her but not wise. The girl may have been poor but she was extremely proud which is not a condemnation of her when you have nothing it is somehow worse to be dependent on the charity of others. Some of us including myself managed to give her some money on the pretence of it being for the meal. It turned out that we could help her with something even more important. Her father had been imprisoned on an island for some petty act of theft to feed the family and if we could manage to free him then she would show us where we could find the heart of Matushka.

We decided that diplomacy would a better way to rescue the man than trying to force our way into what looked to be a fairly impregnable fortress we also had our position with the Allias de Crieux family to consider. We all liked them and did not want to convert them into yet more people who dislike us. We worded a letter to the Duke Allias de Crieux explaining that a dying girl (as she was dying) wished her father to be release and that she promised to aid us, Francine delivered this to Eponine by Porté and it did the trick. The Duke wrote back with a pardon the man was released and his grateful daughter showed us a passageway to the house were the Heart of Matushka was. We found a number of “musketeers”, probably impostors and there was a girl upstairs who had been killed and drained of her blood (it should be a warning sign to these Explorers that Syrneth devises always seem to need blood to activate them like a species of horrible monsters from dark fairytales).

The lady’s husband was also dead in the house apparently hanged. The lady had gone to some party that the de Crieux family was holding – a sort of coming up party for young ladies and gentlemen to introduce themselves to society, we managed to get ourselves into the party as escorts for some of the guests and I was a boy again as the hurried preparations I made for the ball meant that I looked it a boy anyway. I called myself Alejandro in tribute to the Father. We tried to warn Clarisse about what this woman was up to which turned out to be taking the “Heart of Matushka” to the party in the form of a surprise statue. We had since found out by then, probably from Cochart that the Heart of Matushka was a metallic, heart shaped object with the ability to manipulate emotions of those around them. Anyway inside the party I manage to get to the statue using some subterfuge, unfortunately the heart started working and the musketeers and everyone present fell under the influence of the evil bitch Vivienne and was attacking us, even trying to point out to the Duke his daughter was kidnapped by her was useless. However Idunn’s Vesten bodyguard - Bron (who had been beholden to her as the result of a debt of honour he owed her family) produced some of what Bjarne would call “mighty Vesten magic” and scattered the statue enabling the Pyeryem sorcerer Ilya to carry it away restoring normality.

I am just reminded of Bron now while I write about him – a thoroughly decent man who’s wife had been killed by the Vendel and was thinking about searching for his lost daughter. He was a quiet man but even Idunn gained some respect for him in the end and she gave him his liberty was a reward for helping us retrieve the ‘Heart of Matushka’ and as a gesture of sympathy for the man – a nice thing for her to do. The device then went back to the monastery where it had been stolen from, apparently an individual called Koshi was involved in recruiting both the Pyeryem sorcerer, Pyotyr and the two wrestlers and according to Pyotyr is probably hundreds of years old, no knows what he is and he is not be trifled with.

As another aside – the men who stole the item returned to Ussura we found whilst trying to catch up with them in Avalon so they are probably faced the not very tender mercy of Koshi – I also but not quite pity them. Oh yes – Avalon important for the next events. We went through a Porté gateway into Carleon following a lead to find the men who had stolen the “Heart of Matushka” this is before we were set up by evil jenny bitch and evil Viscountess bitch. Instead we found a lead for the nasty Vesten man who had indeed escaped from “The Albers” and we managed to chase his ship and capture him although not without a fight. In Carleon I discovered the joys of Avalon wine during our brief say there and Fiora seems to have utterly obliterated on a dark alcoholic liquid called Gull Ness which I must try if I am ever in Avalon again. I had to listen to Eponine babble on and on about how fun it must be to go on adventures and Axel and Axel – she’s a sweet girl but I did want to strangle her by the end of that evening. Oh yes, and on the way through the Porté gateway the entities within, almost certainly Syrneth almost persuaded Pietro to open his eyes – if you going to commit suicide not the way to do it. I spent some time trying to cheer up the poor man which of course did my friendship with Fiora no good whatsoever. I really hate divided loyalties.

Anyway the Vesten villain was captured or we foolishly thought that was the end of it. I think Idunn was attacked in her sleep which fortunately she woke up and pulled guns with her attackers by ruffians before the trial of this never do well but I can’t remember if Axel was attacked before or after the trial. Anyway at the trial the man had written the words “not guilty” on his head in blood and was attempting some more “mighty Vesten magic” to hypnotise the judge into letting him off the hock. Idunn begged of me to do something so I pretended to faint (luckily dressed as a girl by now) and knock an inkpoint at him and so covering the mark. I succeeded in blotting out the “not” part of “not guilty” and the man was condemned but we were still being attacked. Axel managed to capture one of the men and tie him up in the lady Clarisse’s kitchen cellar which during the interrogations he destroyed a beam of loosening the man’s tongue and earning us the ire of Clarisse (minor fortunately) but eventually we noticed all the men going to do us harm where being paid exactly the same amount of coin and we managed to trace it back to the Vesten villain’s hapless lawyer whom had been given a document that the villain had put hypnotic words getting the lawyer to go out and hire various scum and villainy to send us to Theus. The poor man was doing this in a hypnotic trace and had no memory of hiring these guys.

Fiora I think left us either at this point or possibly after the ‘Heart of Matushka’ had been returned, with a brief note. I’m not sure if we realised she’d gone to Charouse nor if the first inkling we had she was there is when the others saw her there.

Not much of note happened after that in Crieux – there was a trick the servants played on this getting us to retrieve various hard to obtain items on the pretence that they were birthday presents for Eponine to get back at Axel for destroying the kitchen cellar which resulted in myself getting very drunk trying to identify a bottle of plum wine in a wine shop and Pyotyr being dragged up a horse in pursuit of a travelling flower seller with lilies. Pietro left for the Explorers in Charouse shortly after Fiora did. We were joined by Alejandro who was now wearing the bracelet which Fionn had been last time we saw him, it turns out that when Alejandro recovered and found Lucrezia waiting by his bedside. She told him to find us in Crieux and when he refused to do her binding she slaughtered the entire monastery to persuade him, unsurprisingly it worked. He seemed to think his survival was due to the will of Theus but I’m not convinced that it doesn’t have more to do with the will of Lucrezia. He also stated that he had discussions with “Die Kreuzritter” and bargained for them to leave me and Axel alone. I am not sure if this really happened, if it mystically or if they were just fever dreams but we have not had any attacks on Axel from them since Altamira so something probably happens. Axel still doesn’t believe this and continues to mistrust the father in particular and “Die Kreuzritter” in general. We discovered whilst in the house outside Charouse that he was at that stage completely panicked by the sound of gun fire not beyond understanding given his experiences.

Fiora before she left confided that her father had been applying pressure on her to copy the book we obtained in the Eisen forest and I received some of that pressure in the form of a letter threatening both myself and Regina. It was the threats to Regina which really pissed me off. I don’t mind threats to me as I can fight my corner if I have too but threatening Regina was below the belt. Daddy Bernoulli considers us all to be a bad influence on his daughter, probably because we show her there’s life outside of claptrap forced down her throat by the church and him. I quite detest the man – I used to think the Bernoulli were all decent before I encountered him as they have a reputation as one of the gentler Vodacce families – I should have remember that no Vodacce man is anything other than a scheming bastard.

I’m not sure if desperately relevant to the fate of Théah to know how we acquired the house on the outskirts of Charouse. I found a cryptic note in the hilt of a dagger I had bought to replace the family crested one I gave to Axel, who had started his Knights of the Rose and Cross training in Crieux and need a dagger to learn “Desaix”. We had an argument and he didn’t seem to think I valued him much so I gave him the dagger to prove otherwise this contained a series of clues to finding the treasure within the house and little research yielded the name of the family which had owned it and where their old house was. During our search of the house which was rumoured to be haunted – we found the ‘ghost’ to be the last surviving member of the family who was in a wretched almost feral state, and completely insane. He died of a heart attack in the night after we captured him which made deciding how to deal with him easier. I felt extremely sorry for him but I hope he is with Theus now. We decided to claim it since the ancestral claimant was dead (and had he lived he was in no condition to look after it as was obvious by the state of disrepair it was in). There was money in the house, each of us took a share from what was left after money was put aside to mend the house and hire servants to look after it. I decided to stay on and sent the work needed to hire people to fix the house and hire people to look after it (I was planning to learn the Gallegos sword school and took this opportunity to learn from a master whom I hired in Charouse) and I was accompanied by Pyotyr for this period which lasted for about a month. I intended to update my journal then but my sword studies and preparations for the house left me quite tired at the end of each day and I was also little bit cagey about writing a journal entry with Pyotyr around. I’m fairly convinced he can’t read Vodacce but he can speak a lot of languages, including Vodacce, so it was better to be safe than sorry.