``No Rest for the Innocent''

This is an outline of the events of Joe Franecki's campaign, run in Chicago, Illinois from 1996-1997. Players: Chris Lehrich, Mark Kobrak, Cullen Grace, John Kim, and Liz Henry.

Summary: The PC's were senior apprentices of Bonisagus, who was suddenly killed in the year of our Lord 767, with his tower collapsing shortly thereafter. The apprentices were threatened in turn by numerous sources, causing them to seek shelter first in the Vatican, and then in the wilderness of Crete where they founded their own covenant. Eventually they tracked down the mystery of the killer, who turned out to be a Deidne magus using infernal magic to come from the future to kill the founders of the Order.

The Year of Our Lord 767

Fall: Harald, messenger to the magus Bonisagus, goes to the home of magus Criamon in Greece to pick up a letter, which he returns to Bonisagus with.

Dec 21: The Opening Scene. The apprentices of the master magus Bonisagus are called to his chambers only to find a smear on the floor and his dragon familiar Verithrax enraged, claiming that he is dead. Soon the tower begins to collapse -- they only manage to grab a handful of things before it collapses. Along the way they briefly see the dead body of Bonisagus' senior apprentice and wife, Trianoma.

Dec 22: The apprentices head for a neighboring magus, Bjornaer, but are attacked along the way by the maddened dragon who confusedly claims that they are responsible for Bonisagus' death.

Dec 23: Taking shelter with Bjornaer, the apprentices then help in springing a trap for the dragon Verithrax. With the apprentices acting as (protected) bait, Bjornaer then magically controls the dragon into submission. They then proceed to the ruins of Bonisagus' tower, where Bjornaer threatens to kill them if they reveal what he has done.
The apprentices are protected by another associate of Bonisagus, named Guernicus. The party decline to join him, however, due to his carnal designs upon Idelle. The party decide to head to Rome as a safe haven from magi.

The Year of Our Lord 768

Late Winter: The party is forced to seek shelter from a terrible snowstorm, during which they are attacked by representatives of local faeries of the Winter Rhone. Idelle is kidnapped by them. To rescue her, the others are forced to negotiate an agreement between the Winter and the River.
As they leave, they are mystically transported down the length of the Rhone to the Mediterranean.

Spring: The party travel to Rome by boat, along the way rescuing a sculptor, Pietro, who is tossed overboard. They soon discover that he has demon-tainted tools and that one of his apprentices may be to blame (namely Stephan, with the other two being Marcus and Lawrence). As the voyage draws to a close, they protect a scapegoat (Dmitri) from being blamed, and they privately reveal to Pietro the danger that the tools and Stephan represent.
They begin staying at an apartment in Rome. To communicate what has happened, the party send out letters to such magi that they know of via Bonisagus' messenger Harald. In these letters, they reveal what Bjornaer did and what happened to Bonisagus. Harald personally delivers the letter to the magus Criamon in Greece and returns with the pre-written letter by early June.

Summer: To further their protection, the party move into the Vatican as pilgrims, trusting the Dominion of the Church to protect them from evil magic (warned of by Criamon in his letter).

October 5: Trouble begins in the Vatican as Harald wakes up hungry and hears of wolfish troubles in the night. Over the next few days a series of events which vaguely point at the party occur: first, a swarm of rats in a church, and then a hawk carrying a snake outside their window (which they try to attack, causing only harm to the building).

October 7: The party leave the Vatican, heading north along the road. Over the next few days, they get the feeling of being watched, and try to slip off under cover of a storm.

October 13: The party returns to the road. They attempt to capture a hawk which has been following them, and are ambushed by what turn out to be students of Bjornaer. The party defeat their attackers, killing one magus (Ursus) and three grogs, and capturing two other magi and five grogs. The captured magi, Olivia and ???, are questioned and eventually made to forget what occurred for one year by magic.

November 2: The party leave Italy by boat, heading for Crete to set up a permanent home for themselves in the distant wilderness.

Winter: The party travel to the center of Crete from the Western edge. There they establish the beginnings of a home on a mountainside in the Cretan wilderness, by a spring. Hastily we put together Longevity potions for Nikos and Grigori.
Over the next few months, Grigori spends his time by himself in a fishing village learning the language but avoiding contact. Idelle and Harald are more social in the villages and in the city of Irakleon -- making trustworthy contacts and trying to establish a reputation as harmless, educated hermits. Nikos works at mundanely constructing a wood-and-stone structure to live in, which Sigurd and Olivia assisted.

The Year of Our Lord 769

Spring & Summer: The group extracts vis while Grigori invents a more powerful version of "Aegis of the Hearth" to protect our new covenant from magical assault or divination.
Other events include the mysterious appearance near the covenant of a child who seems to be the apprentice of a folk magician a weeks travel away to the west. Also, a magical beast seems to have killed itself on our property.

Fall: Idelle, Sigurd, and Olivia travel to the folk magician to the west. There they find that he is plagued by snakes which have begun appearing in a hole beneath his house.
Later, Sigurd explores one of the caves near our covenant, and after some misadventures with a dangerous Fey river, finds a woman who invites him and his fellows to meet. The others go to talk with her and in return for information about themselves, she grants various boons.