by Kevin Hassall
The knight had a great fear of death. He employed wise women and leeches (physicians), diviners and monks - anyone who might prolong his life, or advise him on how to stay safe from harm. At last, however, even this was not enough. One winter's night as he knelt in prayer, he spoke a dark oath, swearing that he would give his whole family if only it would prolong his own life.
"You have four children and a fair wife." said the voice from the doorway. "For their five lives you shall have five lifetimes more - five times forty years. But you must take your sword, recite over it the words that I shall speak, and slay them yourself with that very blade...."
And so the knight took his sword and, having spoken the dark words, slew his wife and three of his children. One child, however, awoke during the slaughter, and made good his escape.
Burning the manor to the ground, the knight fled, but his chaplain pursued him. On the moor above the burning building the enraged priest caught up with the knight, and demanded an explanation. The knight gloated. He would live for centuries, he said. He told the priest of his oath, and of the dark prayer which he had spoken over the sword. The priest, outraged, cursed the knight. He told him that, for so long as men recalled his name and the evil deeds which he had done, God would see that he rued his foul pact. And with those words, the knight no longer stood upon the moor but, where he had been, there was a standing stone, about the size of a man.
The priest picked up the sword from the foot of the stone, and buried it beneath the parish church. In later life he wrote down the matter of the murder, omitting the demonic details which he entrusted only to his own private journal, presenting the document to be preserved by a local monastery. His own journal he ordered to be walled up in the church when he died.
But nothing lasts forever. Men forgot about the knight, and only the document remained to preserve the knight's name. The monastery itself fell upon hard times (needed money, was raided, etc. as appropriate), and so many of its texts fell into the hands of a Hermetic Covenant.
And so, nearly 160 years later, the covenant's assistant/apprentice librarian is repairing a book, replacing the cover. For the new cover he takes some ragged old parchments (some old accounts, and this old story about a murder which could not possibly interest anyone any more) and pastes the together for board - destroys them.
The next morning the Knight's Stone - the standing stone up on the moor - has gone.
The magi will be vaguely interested in the disappearance of the stone, but should not be able to discern anything. (Someone should remember that in local legend it relates to a knight who was turned to stone for murdering his family, and they should remember an old text in the library... and they should find the assistant librarian having just finished repairing a book....)
The knight (being a warlike soul with nothing better to do) raises a small company of bandits. They start to trouble travellers (perhaps including an unarmed Companion out on covenant business) demanding money, and one night they break into the church and dig up part of the floor (i.e. to recover the sword). Covenant grogs may be roped into the local officials' attempts to quash such banditry, but no magi should be involved yet.
The knight, realising that his elongated life is nearly up (four times 40 years is 160 years), seeks the descendant of his one escaped child, whom he intends to slay in order to get his last 40 extra years of life (which is why he stole the sword). Since the male line of his family all have a tell-tale birthmark, the bandits start asking after people with that mark - and this may be, at the storyguide's discretion, a companion, a grog, or an innocent local. An attempt will be made to seize or kill the knight's last descendant and if this isn't someone in the Covenant then the locals ask the magi for help. The magi should certainly get involved at this point. An explanation of much of what is going on can be found in the book hidden in the church (normal church records tell of it's burial there), but an angel watches over it, since it includes the words of the knight's demonic prayer, and will only allow those of sound motive to have access to it: the book might also speculate that the forces of hell are keeping the knight alive for the length of the "pact" - but that, since his sword was "enchanted" to slay his own family, it should also dispatch him. (In other words, in game terms, the knight regenerates one body level per few seconds - and has a big magic resistance - but cannot heal damage from his own sword.)
If the magi do not deal with knight, then his bandit gang grows. He starts to demand "gifts" (food, weapons, money) from local nobles and landowners (including the covenant) and if he managed to slay his descendant he is near-invulnerable (except to his sword and to huge magics) for the next 40 years. If he doesn't manage to kill his descendant, then he starts ageing again (and loses his regenerative abilities etc.) in about a year (assume a physical age of about 50) - which makes him less of a long-term threat.