This thread is for in character letters and other documents published to give people notice of Things That Are Going On. Mostly for StoryGuide use but Player Characters might also want to tell their versions of how their saga Really Went Down.
To begin with a letter about events before the Saga begins:
Julia of Jerbiton, Maga unto her filius Antoninus of Jerbiton, Greeting.
My son, I hope that this reaches you in advance of the waves of gossip the Redcaps spread all across the lands the Order has colonised. No matter how that may be and no matter what you may have heard Voluntas has not fallen, nor is likely to.
However we have suffered three grave blows and must rally our forces and retrench a little, And also recruit, but more of that anon.
The first blow that fell on us came last autumn. Phessallia of Merinita had been persuaded by her allies among the court of the Winter Faerie to stand by the Queen of Winter at the ritual combat between her nobles and the army of the Queen of Summer. As was inevitable the Winter was defeated and the Winter Fae driven from the world… But when autumn came Phessalla did not return with the victory of Winter. Indeed the Fae nobles did not admit that there had ever been such a person as Phessallia who fought beside them. What has happened to her is unclear but we fear the worst.
The second blow came the day of the Winter Equinox, the day set for us to renew the covenant’s Aegis of the Hearth. We gathered in the courtyard at the appointed hour but no sign was seen of Desiderius the Necromancer. We went to the door of his Sanctum and pounded on it to no response. We sent his apprentice into the sanctum to fetch his master. He went down the corridor, (which we all knew Desiderius had trapped against all but himself and his apprentice, leaving the outer door open and turned the corner at the end. A moment later there was a cry and Florian the Apprentice came back into sight. As we watched blue-grey pustules were spouting on the lad’s face and he said that his master was dead in some laboratory accident and that he had not long. At his urging we sealed the door and listened as the lad’s cries grew more feeble.
We have not yet opened the door nor will we till we are sure that the place is safe.
We managed to raise the Aegis but more by good luck than judgement lacking two of our members to cast Wizard’s Communion and spent a fair bit of our stock of vis too to augment the casting.
The last blow was less dramatic. One morning we awoke to discover that Kirist of Flambeau, our young gallant incendiary, had packed up in the night and left us. He had written a note and not had the courage to give it to us saying that he was going to take up another covenant on ‘a generous offer’.
Thus are we brought to less than half our former strength in the course of a few months.
Still, we remain wealthy, well connected and possessed of a fine library. All things which should attract hopeful newly gauntleted magi like flies to honey. We have sent out discrete feelers for new candidates for our fellowship and have found the resources to complete our plan for a third tower to stand where the turb now practices their archery. If new made magi are not the equals of the experienced sodales we have lost (experienced other than young Kirist, that is) then let quantity stand in place of quality and youthful zeal compensate for the lost of aged cunning.
As to whether our sorrows are the result of someone’s direct action… I cannot yet say. Seeing enemies everywhere is more the habit of Tremere or Tytalus. But the prudent intriguer will always ask ‘qui bono’.
And yes, the obvious answer is Blackthorn.
Write to your aged parens soon and tell me more of your time among the pagans and heretics of Novgorod. I hope you are bringing manners and grace to them whether they desire it or not.
Juliia.
Thus does your storyguide provide for continuity without the PCs being overtopped by their seniors and for a couple of early mysteries to be ignored or investigated.