Black Beast of the Weld

Date: Summer 1191

Characters

• Godwyn
• Thomas the Poacher

Synopsis

Godwyn thought he was all set. He had a comfortable cave with a magical aura, a basic laboratory, even his own grog. What he wanted next was a Talisman. Assuming the form of his heartbeast carried with it a major inconvenience: his clothes don't transform along with him. Godwyn wanted to enchant a set of clothes and then attune the suit as his Talisman, so it would by mystically linked to himself and would change form along with him. To do that, he needed raw vis.

The tome he "acquired" from a monastery the previous winter spoke of a forest called "the Weld" in south-west England as a magical place. So, he and Thomas set out in search of it. Once again, they got lost, but Godwyn was coming to accept this as an inherent feature of any long-distance travel.

Eventually they found a large, dark, and (to most medieval people) forbidding forest. They figured this must be the place. Godwyn and Thomas set up camp and set about their chosen trade of poaching. They were looking for a large, magical animal whose hide might be tanned and made into one or more garments.

After a few days, they picked up the trail of an unusually large boar. The trail led them into a nasty bog. On the far side, a delicious smell wafted from a pear tree, from which hung only a few pieces of large, golden fruit. Approaching the tree, Godwyn found all the pears were out of easy reach but he was able to retrieve one with a spontaneous Rego Herbam spell. Sure enough, it contained raw Muto vis.

The tree, however, was not unguarded: the great, black boar whose trail they had been following promptly made an appearance. Since this was supposed to have been simply a scouting foray to find the beast's lair, Godwyn and Thomas were armed only with bows and their woodsmen's knives -- not with the long, heavy spears typically used for hunting wild boar. The beast snorted and pawed the earth. Godwyn and Thomas had only a few seconds to prepare for its charge.

On the spur of the moment, Godwyn decided to risk engaging the boar in single combat with his dagger. This was not quite as suicidal as it sounds: his spell Ward Against Claw and Fang could protect him from the boar's tusks -- if it overcame the beast's Magic Might. Thomas took a position behind Godwyn and to his left, and released a single arrow at the boar as it charged.

The results of the charge were spectacular. Thomas's arrow went wide. The boar's tusks missed Godwyn, though whether this was because of the spell or because Godwyn wisely sidestepped at the last second, it was difficult to tell. The boar's magic, however, overcame Godwyn's Parma Magica: he was filled with a supernatural fear and fled in a panic. Thomas, alone with only a bow against the boar, opted for the better part of valor and climbed a tree.

The spell of fear lasted until sunset, after which a much chagrined Godwyn returned to the camp to find Thomas alive and well. The two hatched a plan to slay the boar. At first light, they returned to the bog and rigged a deadfall. Using the pilfered pear as bait, Godwyn lured the boar away from its tree and toward the trap. Then, hastily, he set the pear under the deadfall and cast Rise of the Feathery Body to ascend into a tree. The boar took the bait, and Thomas's expert deadfall broke the beast's back. An arrow from point-blank range finished it off. Godwyn and Thomas had some difficulty hauling the boar's huge carcass back to their hunting camp. Skinning the beast took a long time as well, but at least they had a chance to feast on pork after the work was done.

The boar's tusks each contained a pawn of Animal vis. Godwyn decided to sell one of them for ready cash, since poaching was time-consuming work and was starting to interfere with his laboratory activities. He sold a tusk to John the Redcap in Worcester for seven pounds of silver -- enough to support Godwyn and Thomas for several years. Once he realized just how valuable raw vis was to magi, Godwyn decided to embark on a new career as a professional vis hunter. Of course, most of the vis sources in Britain are probably claimed by a covenant. This doesn't bother Godwyn too much though: after all, it's just another form of poaching.