Prologue: The Monastery on the Mountain

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The game continued straight from where we left off, The morning after the dinner. While Duckworth handled all the hassle and preparations for departure, Veronica informed her parents that she and Richard would be staying in Meori’s monastery for a time. Veronica also talked to Vanessa and her uncle Eustace. Then the journey for the Monastery of St. Horace began.

On the way they passed the time by asking father Gotmund about the monastery and its history. According to Gotmund the monastery is young, only 50 years or so, but the building it is housed in is much older. It used to be the family home of a local minor house called Thornton. The last living baron donated the manor and the fief to the Order and then joined them as an elderly apprentice and lived out his days in the monastery. The monastery consists of several buildings; the manor itself, the library, the chapel and rookery. All of the buildings have several levels.

They ask more questions from Gotmund, like have there been any suspicious visitors, how many exits there are to the monastery, could it be possible that one of the inhabitants is doing it. Who has the keys to the library etc. Then Gotmund describes the occurrences he experienced to them. He heard creaking and clanking and footsteps but he never found any footprints. The library is filled with a substantial amount of dust, so there should have been some signs, but there were none. Gotmund describes the library as a multileveled building, that has labyrinthine corridors and shelves as well as stacks fo books that make corridors. At first Gotmund thought that somebody had been hiding in the library but he never found anybody. He has not told the abbot or anyone else about the oddities, because he is afraid that it might mean an investigation into the monastery and accusations of heresy. Gotmund also tells them that there is no known blueprint of the building but there are family chronicles from the old barony.

There is also speculation that somebody might want to hurt father Gotmund or the Escatonic Order by causing suspicious disturbances. Father Gotmund also mentions that he cannot be entirely sure that all the noises that he has heard are connected to the strange occurrences. Gotmund appears to be a little spooked by the whole ordeal. According to Gotmund there aren’t any books missing but since the whole library has not been completely catalogued

The rest of the trip is passed in awkward attempt to get to know Cut and speculation of Meori and Cut’s relationship. Veronica is sure that Cut is her lover but Richard does not believe her. Veronica also shows Richard the letter sir Brendon left her and they speculate on his intentions. They also speculate more about the suspicious relationship between Meori and Cut.

The rest of the day is spent in travelling to the monastery, which is on the top of a steep mountain. They need to use donkeys and walk the rest of the way and they finally arrive at the monastery very late at night. They all go to sleep in the sleeping hall and Meori performs her ritual. The idea is that she will get a prophetic dream and get more information that way. She does indeed get a dream. She is walking in the library but leaves no footprints. She looks into a mirror and sees that she has big, round, green eys and they have a glowing greenish light. They are definetly not human. Meori wakes up with a start just in time for morning prayer.

Then it is time for breakfast and catching up with the locals for Meori. Her friends and acquaintances are glad to see her and want to know how she has been. They are curious about the pilgrims and some of them sneak peeks at them often. The inhabitants of the monastery are from all walks of life, both men and women. Sister Gabriella is curious and sends sharp looks in Meori’s direction. Gabriella is anxious for Meori to confess her sins to her, but is thwarted when Meori tells her that Gotmund is her confessor.

After breakfast Veronica and Richard ask their servants to ask discreet questions from the servants at the monastery, because more often than not the servants know exactly what is going on. Cut leaves the dining hall to poke around on his own. Gotmund’s new apprentice Anthony takes Meori, Veronica and Richard to the library to investigate the strange occurrences. Anthony looks a little guilty, but Meori does not quite manage to find out why. He shows them where the strange occurrences have happened. Everybody looks around the place where Anthony heard the disturbances, but only Meorui manages to notice that there is something odd about how the books have been arranged. The book that drew her notice was the annals of the monastery and she begins to study it. Veronica notices that the dust has been disturbed but she does not find anything.

Meanwhile Cut goes to the smithy to dig up information. He also draws a sketchy map of the grounds of the monastery and old manor. Cut looks for signs of technology but he does not really notice anything out of the ordinary in the grounds. He goes to the smithy to look for tech and does find some, but it is rather general and not very high tech. He strikes up a conversation with the smith, who has made a vow of silence, but Cut does most of the talking. He offers his services as a mechanic to the smith and ends up fixing a fridge. Then he finds out that there is electricity in the smithy. It comes from the roof where they have a small windmill.

Then he goes to the rookery to speak to the blind monk, who takes care of the ravens. He asks the monk about the crypts and he tells Cut that they are larger than the chapel, so they probably extend under the whole grounds. Cut gets to know the monk a little better and he finds out that he lost his eyes in the wars between the Escatonic Order and Mother Church. He also tells Cut that he heard a story of a loving couple committing suicide and searching for each other in the halls of the manor. He also tells Cut another story about a builder who is buried under the building who haunts the monastery. The monk has not witnessed anything strange there himself. He did notice something strange in the library about a month ago and he promises to tell Cut abut it later. Cut continues to look for signs of technology and finds remains of solar panels of the roof.

While Cut is gathering information on the grounds, Meori is pouring over three books she borrowed from the library. The annals of the monastery, the accounts of the monastery and the chronicle of the monastery. She studies them but does not find anything important. She does know one thing though; somebody is embezzling the monastery’s money. She does find out that there are secret passageways in the foundations of the manor.

Richard and Meori both try to find clues from the books that they took from the library, Richard reads the chronicles of the old barony, but does not manage to find anything. Veronica looks around the grounds to see if she can find some tracks or signs of movement in places where people usually don’t go, but comes up empty handed. When they gather together for dinner, they exchange information and catch up. Things get awkward when Cut and Vetonica start to squabble. Veronica gets upset and Cut leaves to check out the crypts. Veronica complains to Meori about Cut and then they return to the dining hall. While in the crypts Cut gets lost, but on the bright side, he does find the secret passageways. This is where the game ended.

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