The Rest of the County

While the city of Toulouse dominates its county, it is not the only inhabited location, nor the only place of importance.

The situation at Tolosa Paratge has long since passed the normal limits imposed upon magi by the Code. Furthermore, both sides are clearly guilty of depriving each other of their magical resources. So far, however, the Quaesitors have not acted. This is due in part to the great respect held for the covenant, but is mainly because no one on either side has so far brought a case. Visitors to Toulouse

are treated with wary respect by both sides, but neither exactly encourage visits, being wrapped up in their own conflicts. When it becomes clear however that a valuable text was borrowed before the conflict started, and is now somewhere at Tolosa Paratge, the characters are sent to fetch it back. Can they help bring peace to the troubled covenant, or will they be drawn into the conflicts?

The towns around Toulouse stand in golden fields of wheat, with rocky sheep pastures dotted with plants on low hills. Many of the towns have emulated Toulouse in casting off feudal duties and electing capitouls to pass laws and run the towns in the interest of the artisans and burghers. There are many small castles dotted around the region, some held by Crusaders, or those loyal to the Crusade, some by southern lords still sheltering Cathars and faidits (knights dispossessed by the crusade, and now landless and lord-less).

Termes

One of the strongest castles taken by de Montfort, the news has arrived that the sons of its defender, Oliver and Bernard of Termes, are returning with their men in the spring of 1220. This is very much in the current pattern of the dispossessed southern lords taking back their former lands either through papal intervention or by military strength. Termes is considered one of the three great castles of the region in terms of the strength of its fortifications, along with Cabaret (Lastours) and Minerve.

Pujol

This small castle and hamlet were home to Carolus St. Tropez, magus of Tolosa Paratge, just three miles from the city. Captured by de Montfort, it was taken back by St. Tropez and handful of men in the summer of 1213. The three crusader knights defending it (who had been burning crops around Toulouse, and perhaps not coincidentally destroying vis sources as well) were taken prisoner, and the rest of the garrison massacred. However, a mob broke into the dungeon in Château Narbonnais where they were being held, mutilated the knights, dragged them behind horses through the streets, and strung up their remains on gallows outside the city walls. St. Tropez believes the knights were controlled by the Gorgiastic Cathar Marc of Toulouse. St. Tropez has since slain Marc in a Wizard's War.

The country south of Albi is notorious for its Cathar sympathies, so much so that the term "Albigensian" was applied to all the heretics, and to the Crusade to exterminate them. The area has many woodlands, and is haunted by the faerie White Ladies known as the Demesoilles. The local vineyards produce an unexceptional, cheap, but palatable wine drunk extensively throughout the whole of the Tribunal, and far beyond.

Albi

A red brick town on the River Tarn, Albi was a traditional stronghold of the Cathars. When the papal legate Alberic of Ostia came here to preach against the heresy, he was met by the inhabitants beating drums, riding donkeys, and jeering and cat calling. However, Saint Bernard did manage to win over many of the inhabitants temporarily, but the heresy remains strong here even though Simon de Montfort established a garrison. The stone cathedral to Saint Cecilia is the most prominent building in the town, though few attend the mass.

Castres

Castres is a fortified city that developed around the Benedictine monastery of St. Benoît, and flanks the rivers Agout and Durenque. The upper stories of houses are built out over the rivers. It is governed by consuls, who surrendered to the crusaders by sending a deputation to Simon de Montfort, and handing over two Cathars, in September 1209. They remain sympathetic to the crusade, and are generally seen as looking to France and the de Montfort family rather than Raimond II Trencavel, the heir of their former Trencavel lieges.

After their capture the two Good Men were tried, and one recanted and asked for mercy. These were to be the first Cathar victims of the crusade, and a discussion ensued. Eventually the assembled clergy decided he should be burned anyway, in case his repentance was not genuine, and that God could judge his soul. Both men were chained to a stake in the market place, and the fire lit, but even as the flames took the Cathar, the iron chains fell from the repentant sinner, who stepped unharmed from the fire, and so was spared.

This region is the far north of the County of Toulouse. It is filled with low ranges of hills and woodlands and known for its sheep, more in keeping with the French landscape than the lands to the south. The area produces fine quality wool, and is prosperous, but the heretics are very strong here.

Lavaur

This small Trencavel town on the River Agout holds a cathedral dedicated to St. Alan of Lavaur, but is best known as the "citadel of Satan," being an infamous hotbed of the Cathar heresy. The Bishop of Clairvaux unsuccessfully besieged it in 1181, but in 1211 when the crusaders arrived it appeared impregnable. The town was flanked by high earthen ramparts and walls in a horseshoe, with the rear of the town nestled against a great rocky cliff. A number of faidits had taken refuge here, and the garrison was commanded by Aimery of Montreal and his sister Na Geralda (Guirauda), an educated woman who presided over a convent for female believers, and was a patron of troubadours and scholars. After a six week siege the city fell; Aimery was hanged, but the gallows fell under his armor's weight and his throat was cut with the rest of the defending knights. His sister fared no better, being handed over to the common soldiery, and after much abuse she was hurled naked down a well and rocks dropped on her till she died. This act shocked and sickened even some of the crusaders. It did not prevent the burning of three or four hundred self-confessed Cathars on a great pyre in a meadow outside the city, where they went willingly to their fate. A number of knights of the Count of Toulouse were discovered within the walls, and his treachery in sending his men to defend Lavaur while also provisioning de Montfort was revealed, finally turning the crusaders irrevocably against him.

Lavaur is today a crusader stronghold,

held by Gui de Lucy. The meadow where the Cathars were burned has become a field of ashes, where no grass or wild flowers grow, and the atrocity has led to the growth of an Infernal aura of strength 6.

The city of Cahors is notorious for its moneylenders, whose usury has brought condemnation from the Church. The Jewish quarter houses some of these great moneylenders, but by no means all. Twenty years ago, at the insistence of the Church, Toulouse outlawed the mortgage and loan agreements that had been common in the region for centuries, and Cahors has taken over as the place to go to raise money fast. The towns around Cahors are primarily dedicated to the production of the superb local "black wine" (actually a deep red), which is exported all over Mythic Europe. Vineyards can be found on almost every south facing slope, and many are surmounted by castles.

Montcuq and Lolmie

A stronghold of Catharism, the town of Montcuq has a small castle that fell to de Montfort in the summer of 1212, and was then granted to Count Raimond's brother Baudouin who had joined the crusaders, against his kin. Baudouin was captured at the nearby Château Lolmie in 1214 when his men betrayed him to two of Raimond's knights; he was abducted naked from his bedchamber and taken swiftly, slung on horseback, to Montcuq, which had returned to the Toulousain cause. He was hanged for treason as his brother watched approvingly a few days later at Montauban.

Morlhon le Haut

The Morlhon family had a history of crusading in the Holy Land, and it was while on crusade that Odo de Morlhon had a vision that told him to build a religious establishment dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre. On his return he did so, founding the monastery now under the rule of Cluny at the nearby town of Villeneuve. Despite this the crusaders, on taking the castle, made the lord a faidit, and his titles are still held by the de Montfort family. When the crusaders captured the castle and town in 1214 they found seven Waldensians, and although the Waldensians were not to be declared heretics until the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 the papal legate had all seven burned in the market place anyway. Orthodoxy was no protection during the crusade, as the Lord of Morlhon found when he was dispossessed by the agents of the Church his family had served so faithfully. Pons de Morlhon has become a companion of the

Lavaur is still haunted by a well known ghost, that of the beautiful and learned noblewoman Na Geralda who was murdered by the crusaders. Her spirit can manifest physically, and is dressed in fashionable noble dress, with no obvious signs of the trauma that led to her horrific death. She attempts to seduce suitable candidates into a fin amor, only revealing her ghostly state some way into the courtship, and then pleading with her lover to give her bones a proper burial. None so far have dared, and if refused she appears as a hideous mutilated corpse showing the horrible scars of her murder, and terrifies her unfaithful lover. The crusaders are aware that the death of Na Geralda was an atrocity, and wish her bones and memory to remain undisturbed so any who do try to lay the ghost to rest face the anger of Gui de Lucy and his men. The crusaders can not see the ghost (no one is sure why) and they do not believe the stories.

Cahors Black is not just a very fine wine; a few flasks, when properly made, contain a potent source of Spell-like vis (see Realms of Power: Magic, page 121). A moneylender who runs the risk of being ruined by an unwise loan to a local noble offers the wine, which he has realized has extraordinary properties, to any person who can enforce his mortgage agreement and recover his money, or payments from the noble. The noble lives in Toulouse, and claims that the payment agreement is illegal (as it now is in that city) and that the debt is canceled. In 1201 existing agreements were honored as the law abolished them, but this agreement was made after mortgages were made illegal. It may take a ruling of the capitouls or the bishop to resolve — is even this special vis really worth it?

The garrison at Lolmie saved their own lives by delivering Baudouin to the crusaders. With his dying breath he cursed his brother's bones to lie unburied forever, and cursed all the traitors of Lolmie to early graves. Many of the men have since died, in what appear to be inexplicable accidents, and the remainder are terrified and come to the covenant seeking help in lifting Baudouin's curse. Victims of the curse suffer an additional four botch dice until they seek forgiveness.

The curse is as a unique Invocation/ Cursing effect of level 60, powered by the dying man's fury at the betrayal and terrible curse and his death agonies. The Range is special, and effects those who had sworn fealty to Baudouin and subsequently betrayed him, the Duration is until the sin of treachery is confessed and forgiven, and the Target is Group plus an additional magnitude to effect all thirty members of the garrison. (Base 5, +4 as Communion, +4 as Forsaken, +2 Group; see Realms of Power: the Divine Revised Edition, pages 50 and 68, and Realms of Power: the Infernal, page 103) Whether the curse effect is actually Divine or Infernal is best decided by the storyguide.

Near Castle Puivert lies a tranquil lake. On the shore is a rock shaped like a throne, where the chatelaines of the castle were often serenaded by troubadour visitors. On Midsummer's night, if an original composition is sung in praise of a lady's beauty while she sits upon the throne, the lock of her hair she grants the troubadour contains four pawns of Rego vis. However the local faerie lady of the lake is known to become jealous of such attentions, and sometimes floods the site, the waves stealing away the lady, her handmaidens, and the troubadour to an underwater regio where they are all forced to serve the faerie of the lake. When Lambert de Thury and his men return home one midsummer from a late hunt, they find the castle strangely empty, with no sign of his wife and staff. Can the characters solve the mystery, and get Lady de Thury back?

Ostal des Exiles covenant (see later), and is counseled by the angry ghosts of the seven Waldensian martyrs.

Montauban

Here Baudouin, Raimond's brother, was hanged for his treason from a walnut tree outside the city walls, while Raimond and the Count of Foix watched. The Knights Templar maintain a commandery at Villedieu-du-Temple, not far away, where Baudouin was buried, his body cut down from the gallows by a Templar knight. The Templars remain largely neutral in the struggles, but their sympathies lie with the crusaders.

Puivert

Castle Puivert stands in a verdant valley on a low hill in heavily wooded country. The site of a famous meeting of the Cathars in 1170, it is renowned for both its heresy and its warm welcome and generosity to troubadours. Formerly the possession of Bernard of Congost, it fell to de Montfort in 1210 and is now ruled by the crusader Lambert de Thury.

Bruniquel

Count Raimond was planning to destroy the castle here when he realized it was impossible to defend it against de Montfort, and was dissuaded by his brother Badouin, who took over the garrison. Badouin had, however, already defected to the Crusade, and promptly surrendered the castle. This act of treachery was to cost him his life when he was captured by Raimond.

Puilaurens

This is the site of a powerful castle, held by the King of Aragon since 1162 and a safe haven for faidits and Cathars fleeing persecution. As an Aragonese fief, the crusaders may not attack it.

Montgey

This village no longer exists, being just an ashen field. The inhabitants were hanged for their part in the murder of a party of crusaders nearby in 1211. As the crusaders marched to join the siege of Lavaur, the Count of Foix fell upon them with a party of knights and the villagers, and no mercy was shown. Some six hundred crusaders were slaughtered by the peasants. In return, de Montfort showed no mercy to the villagers when he had finished with Lavaur. Both the village site and the wood where the original massacre happened have developed Infernal auras of strength 6, and dark things are seen scurrying through the trees at night. Within the haunted woods here stood the Tremere covenant of Lariander, destroyed by the crusaders in the reprisals.

The district around Carcassonne was historically part of the Trencavel domains, and they ruled from the city. Endless warring with the counts of Toulouse has resulted in a landscape littered with castles. This is a hilly land, with forests of oak and beech, and the villages grow grain or vineyards depending upon the soil. Many pilgrims pass east through the region, en route to Santiago de Compostella in Iberia.

Carcassonne

Held by the Trencavel dynasty, Carcassonne is a major city that does not always pay fealty to its rulers. In 1107 and from 1120–1124 the Trencavels were expelled following riots and urban unrest, and the city has a reputation as ungovernable. Nevertheless, the citizens remained loyal to the viscount of Béziers, Raimond-Rogier Trencavel, who was taken prisoner during negotiations (and while under a supposed safeconduct) during the siege of 1209, when the crusaders arrived at the city. Raimond-Rogier died of dysentery or poison — none can say which — in the dungeons of his own castle amid rumors of romantic betrayal; his son, Raimond II Trencavel, was dispossessed of his lands by Simon de Montfort who held the city till his death. It is still in the hands of the crusaders, though young Raimond II, now 17, is attempting to reassert his rights to the title.

The Cité de Carcassonne is in 1220 defended by a Visigothic single city wall, added to earlier Roman fortifications, and a stone castle built in the eleventh century. (If your saga follows history, the French kings in 1240 build the mighty fortress city known today.) During the time of Charlemagne, it was ably defended by Lady Carcas, whose husband had been the Saracen commander of the city. Ringed by armies, the inhabitants starving, she ordered that the last of the grain should be fed to the final pig, and it should be fired over the walls at the attackers. When the unfortunate animal landed and burst, the grain spilled out. Seeing this the besieging commander ordered an immediate withdrawal; what was the point of laying siege to a city so well provisioned they fed grain to the pigs? Hence the city is named Carcassonne, after the ingenious lady.

The siege of 1209 ended when a severe drought dried up the water supplies and Raimond Trencavel was taken by treach-

against them.

Almost all the population were expelled following the fall of the city, but most families soon returned and the city that served as the crusaders' base of operations has prospered, while resentment at the northern usurpers remains high. With so many knights quartered here resistance, however, would be futile.

The Cathedral of St. Nazaire

The cathedral holds the tomb of the city's conqueror, Simon de Montfort. It is in the Romanesque style, though some of the crusaders are considering renovating it as a Gothic church. The cathedral is beset with the problems facing the diocese — the northern lords prefer clergy who have come with them on the crusade over the local churchmen, resulting in many clergy losing their positions and siding with the Trencavel claimant. The bishop, Gui de Vaux-de-Cernay, was appointed in 1212 to replace Bishop Bernard Raimond de Roquefort, who was dismissed for his sympathy with the Cathars (who included his mother and brother), but Bernard still claims the diocese and contests the legality of Gui's appointment.

Auriac

This is the site of ancient, long abandoned gold mines. Stories of strange creatures lurking in the ancient tunnels frighten locals. Nuggets of gold can still be found in the ancient shafts, but the supernatural horrors that must be defeated to recover them may outweigh the value of the Terram vis that can be recovered. Within the mines a Faerie aura of 4 is home to follets, stonethrowing fae who delight in collapsing tunnels upon intruders. Looking like the goblins of the north, they live in a feudal society under two rival counts, one in each of the mines, and fight a grim war with each other.

Bram

A small walled town that held out for three days against de Montfort's forces. The priest of nearby Montreal, who had, after that village's capture, betrayed the crusaders, was brought here and defrocked by the Bishop of Carcassonne, Gui de Vauxde-Cernay. The priest was then mutilated, dragged behind a horse through the streets, and hanged by the crusaders for his treachery. The defenders of Bram, one hundred in number, fared little better. Their eyes were gouged out, their ears, noses, and lips were cut off, and then they were freed. One man was allowed to retain an eye to lead the macabre procession of the horribly disfigured to Cabaret as a warning to others who might resist the crusaders. It is still possible to meet some of the horribly disfigured survivors, and some serve as grogs at Ostal des Exiles. The atrocity has led to a level 3 Infernal aura that still endures in the marketplace, where violence and acts of vengeance are now commonplace.

Lastours

Known for its firm support of the Cathar heresy, and the wealth of the iron mines nearby, Lastours is most famed for the three great stone towers (small castles) that guard the area. They are perched a few miles apart on a precipitous ridge above the Gresillon valley. Quertinheux stands on a rock lower in the valley, Fleur Epine on the highest point of the rocky slopes, and Cabaret castle on an outcrop, surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs and the River Orbiel. All are believed to be impregnable, and the crusaders were forced to retreat in winter 1210 when Bouchard de Marly, a kinsman of de Montfort, was taken prisoner and spent sixteen months chained in the dungeons. In 1211 Pierre-Roger de Cabaret was forced to surrender the castles, and de Marly freed, but de Cabaret, a well known supporter of the Cathars, and an exceptionally generous host to troubadours, was not captured. He continues to seek restoration of his lands and the fortifications, and may achieve this now the crusade has faltered.

At Fleur Epine, Jourdain de Cabaret, Lord of Pennautier and Pierre-Roger's brother, held court. His wife, Auda, was a famous beauty, and her daughters may well have inherited their mother's looks and cruelty to the hapless lovers who became entranced by her. Known as Na Loba, the She-Wolf, she may have suffered from the Curse of Venus, or Venus' Blessing, or some darker secret. The famous troubadour Pierre Vidal dressed in a wolf-skin and crept up to the castle to sing to the She-Wolf — sadly his romantic gesture went wrong when he was savaged by a peasant's mastiff who mistook him for an actual wolf. The now elderly Auda and her bewitching daughters are in exile, waiting for the de Cabaret family to be restored to their lands.

The lords of Lastours were firm supporters of the Trencavel, but Na Loba was blamed for the betrayal in 1209 of Raimond-Rogier Trencavel, Viscount of Carcassonne, that led to his imprisonment and death. She reputedly tried to seduce him but his attention was focused on her eldest daughter. She arranged his safe passage to the negotiations with de Montfort, but then withdrew her guards and allowed her liege lord to be captured for his rejection of her advances. He died in a dungeon, reportedly poisoned by de Montfort's men, one of the many victims of Na Loba's jealousy.

The castle at Cabaret is one of the three strongest fortifications of the region.

On the feast of Saint Nazarius (June 12th) a great service is held in the cathedral. Before the sacrament is administered, a suddenly troubled Bishop Gui calls out to the congregation that he is a usurper, and demands that Bishop Raimond be brought to officiate, handing him his mitre and vestments. Immediately after the Mass, Gui is bundled away by the crusaders and taken to the castle. At sunset he announces that he was bewitched and accuses Bishop Raimond of sorcery. Raimond flees and his friends call upon the characters to investigate and save him. Can they establish the truth?

While they await the return of Cabaret, Na Loba's three daughters still have a strong claim to the three castles of Lastours. Having effectively been freed of their Trencavel overlords, the daughters do not wait passively for husbands and suitors, but instead use their dark charms and seductive allure to attempt to entrap good husbands. Only the stupidest of peasants believes the whispered stories that they are really werewolves. Anyone voicing the story soon vanishes, victim of the undoubted vindictiveness of the three heiresses and of Na Loba, who is still a formidable politician and mistress of intrigue. They are currently traveling around the country, seeking powerful allies to reclaim their birthright.

It is said the garrison soldiers buried alive at Puisserguier still try to claw their way to the surface, and at night their corpses can be heard scratching at the loose earth and rock that holds them down. If they were to emerge they would undoubtedly seek vengeance upon the living. Soon they will emerge, unless a way is found to bury them deeper, or to put their spirits at peace. The moat has a strength 4 Infernal aura.

Montlaur

The villagers here bravely besieged the garrison left by de Montfort in the castle. He returned, and hanged all he could capture. Their ghosts can still be seen in the woods, a terrifying sight. The village was burned to the ground, and the sight of the atrocity now has an Infernal aura of 4.

Hautpoul

A powerful Visigothic fortress built upon a seemingly impregnable rocky crag, the castle fell to de Montfort in 1212 after four days of siege. Many of the defenders escaped in a dense fog which suddenly sprang up during the assault. The castle was destroyed, the settlement burnt, and the place is now an eerie ruin haunted by bats, with a ramshackle collection of wooden huts nearby housing the few survivors. An Infernal aura of strength 3 still settles upon the place, and eerie fogs blanket it.

Saissac

This castle was once a Cathar stronghold famous for the generosity it offered troubadours, but it was taken after the fall of Carcassonne and was granted to de Montfort's loyal friend Bouchard de Marly. He still holds the castle, resisting the claims of the dispossessed heirs. It is very likely that the heirs of Saissac will seek assistance in reclaiming their birthright, and they are certainly open to new ideas and may even welcome a new Hermetic covenant based within the citadel.

Puisserguier

When a prominent northern knight slew a local lord who had joined the crusade in a quarrel, de Montfort decided that justice must prevail, and by the customary punishment of the south had the murderer buried alive, despite the protests of his fellow crusaders. It was not enough. Unsatisfied, the murdered southerner's nephew changed sides, and burned the castle of Puisserguier he had been entrusted with, having the garrison of fifty northern soldiers thrown in the dry moat then buried alive under rocks. The two knights were taken to Minerve, where they were blinded, their noses, lips and ears were cut off, and they were then turned out, one falling into a latrine and drowning, one reaching Carcassonne.

Castelnaudry

Castelnaudry is a weak castle, and for this reason de Montfort went here in 1211, trying to draw Count Raymond

After the battle Savary de Mauleon, seneschal of Poitou and leader of a troupe of mercenary crossbowmen who had been hired by Raimond, kidnapped Raimond's son as he was still owed money for his services. The money was paid and the boy returned.

The battle was a disaster for the southerners, but did provoke a widespread revolt against the crusaders after Raymond claimed de Montfort had been killed in the fighting. De Montfort lived however, and suppressed the revolt with much brutality.

Fanjeaux

Fanjeaux is a hilltop town with a small castle, and was the center of Dominic's campaign of preaching against the Cathars while he lived here from 1206 to 1215. Dominic founded the nunnery of St. Marie in the village Prouille just below the town as a refuge for women converted from Catharism and young women seeking a Church vocation. Dominic's personal sanctity was respected even by the Cathars, all the more so after he drove off a demon here that appeared as an immense cat with flaming eyes and a long, prehensile tongue. Whether this corrupted beast (Realms of Power: the Infernal, page 77) will ever return is unknown, but it may still lurk in the region. When the crusaders came here in 1209 the inhabitants fled, and now no one dares shelter Cathars within the town, once a stronghold of the heresy. Indeed Cathars approaching the town are met with violence and threats, and swiftly denounced to the Church and crusaders. Yet

strangely many Perfecti do return to Fanjeaux, risking arrest and execution: what are they seeking to recover?

Alairac

This was originally a powerful Visigothic fortress, but de Montfont took the mountaintop castle here in the teeth of a howling gale. No mercy was offered to the defenders. Today its shattered ruins are home only to bandits, and the eerie sound of the almost constant gale that whistles through its shattered towers. The captured defenders were hurled off the battlements and over the precipice to their death on the rocks thousands of feet below, where their ghosts seek burial for their shattered bones. An Infernal aura of strength 4 covers the bat-haunted ruins.

Castle d'Aguilar

A castle stands here upon a great dome of rock, with six huge strong towers. De Montfort and his crusaders chose to pass it by, and the magnificent fortress continues to dominate the area, sheltering faidits and heretics. Here, deep in the caverns under the rocky hill, hide a small covenant of the dispossessed magi from covenants destroyed in the fighting. This is the House of the Exiles, the newest of the Provençal covenants.