'Wanted to ensure the cardinals safety, they will buy that.' Elek nods, "Zat is eine gute Idee."
Shouldering the body as he walks out of the crypt toward the lighted street, He turns toward Maud and asks. "Since vee are none from Rome, vould you explain to za guards? You are at least une catholic clergy. Zay vould believe you vould vant to protect za Cardinal."
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As Lucius leaves she stops him, "A prayer for protection first. . "
She bows her head in prayer speaking in latin, "Domine Deus meus, adoro te et amo te in toto corde meo. Gratias ago tibi, quia creatus est a me, quia fecit mihi autem Catholico autem et custodiebat me hodie. Mali feci veniam hodie si bene fecerit, dignaretur accipere. Custodiet me in requiem meam et libera me non accipere a periculo. Sit tua gratia sit semper mecum. amen"
Amen
With a final nod she sets off with the group to deliver the dead body to the guard.
At the guard, "Sir, we need your help, we were attacked by this man, he attempted to assassinate Cardinal Lucius and us as well during the process, we wanted to report his body and the attack to the Vatican Guards. We don't have much information other than this demonic sigil inscribed/branded on his chest,"
As Lucius leaves she stops him, "A prayer for protection first. . "
She bows her head in prayer speaking in latin,
Elek bows his head respectfully as the two Catholics pray.
As they approach the guards, Elek plops the body down in front of the guards, then opens the mans shirt, and shows them the brand, "Um, it frightened me und I vas going to cut it off but za Cardinal told me zat you vould vant to see it."
"Have you seen any sign of the brand appear in the city before?"
Celeste asks the guards.
'Good, perchance the will focus on Celeste's question instead of the partially removed emblem.' Appearing relieved that Celeste has preoccupied the city watch with her question, he smiles and nods, looking from the guards to the witch, "Ya, has vere been other appearances?"
The Guard is visibly shaken that you guys approached in broad daylight with a dead body though he listens to your story and examines the brand, "I'm gonna need to get my superior officer involved though I have seen that symbol once before. . ."
He looks around before continuing, "Look I shouldn't say this but I know you guys were chosen by the Pope to help stop the Apocalypse. . .a few years ago we investigated a few priests for blasphemy and devil-worship though we couldn't find anything solid on them and ended up dropping the investigation. That symbol was one of the signs of their cult. . "
Again looking around, worried someone might be overhearing him say this, "I can't really tell you more, maybe if we get my Superior involved then we can go further, lets head to the guard house and get him,"
He helps you carry the body as you guys head for the guard station.
"Can you remember the names of those priests who were involved in devil worship and which part of the city they were in? Or what they chose to call their cult?" Celeste enquires.
As you guys walk, "Well . . .I really shouldn't talk about this because its still kind of a cold case. . .we were investigating a number of priests and even a few cardinals or so we thought, like I said we were never able to exactly pin anyone down, I'd really rather not say anything until we meet with my superior just in case. .this may be a pretty big break for us, they called themselves the Order of the Nine Angels. "
'Seen the symbol before. I wonder who covered it up. My God, I wonder if they helped cause this apocalypse.' As they walk Elek looks from the guards to the ladies, listening to the guards story. "Mein Gott im Himmel, if zey vere active before za apocalypse is it possible zat zey helped cause zis Hölle?"
"I promise you I will be discreet and not tell what you tell us to everyone. Since it was your investigation, I will even let you have the honor of reporting it to your superior yourself."Celeste reassures the guard."We need all the information we can get help combat the demonic cult."
The guard listens to Celeste while continue to carry the body to the guard house, "No no, I need to get permission from the guard captain before going into any details, let's just hurry and get there quickly,"
He gets a stern look on his face and continues to tromp along, maintaining his silence for the rest of the way.
Approaching the guard house, its a large simple brick building with few windows and even then those windows are more just arrow slits than real windows. Its the most military looking complex you've seen so far in the City.
He bangs on the guard house calling for the captain, the captain comes out quickly and sees him holding a body and a group of heavily armed people with the guard. The captain has a short exchange with the guard and then they quickly usher to you guys to a side yard and drop the body onto a table outside to examine it. He listens to the guards story and yours, then thinks to himself, "Its not a good sign, our investigation a few years ago was inconclusive, this cult wanted to bring about the apocalypse. . .it seems we truly failed the world by not capturing them,"
"I understand."Celeste does not push the guard further as it would be counterproductive.
"That's water under the bridge. Who is it to say that that is the only cult in the city that wanted to bring about the apocalypse? There may have been others."Celeste tries to comfort the captain. 'He is no use if he keeps going on about how he failed the city.' She thinks to herself.
"Nonetheless, the important thing to do now is to look forward, and hopefully if we can root this cult out, the demons will have one less foot hold in the city."Celesye replies.
Elek nods his head in understanding, saying under his breath, "Es scheint, dass die Bastarde erfolgreich waren." Realizing that Celeste is focusing on the here and now, he chimes in "Ya, let us focus on doing vat vee need to do now."
Steeling himself, "You're right, we must keep our heads in the hear and now, this is a pretty big break," He gathers you guys around, "I will have to trust you because with it being in such short supply we may be the last humans left alive and if we tear ourselves apart then the Demon's have really won."
He drops the body in the dirt by the guard house and waves you guys to follow him inside. He brings you into his cramped and paper filled office. He digs through a couple of stacks, opens and riffles through a desk drawer until he finds a binder of papers. "What we learned is that this organization is known as the Order of the Nine Angels or Nine Angels, we believe there are nine agents that were working toward bringing about the apocalypse. That they'd infiltrated the hierarchy of the Catholic church or perhaps indoctrinated someone in the hierarchy that helped protect them from us,"
He pauses before continuing "The fact that you may have killed one of their principle agents is pretty impressive and if you've attracted their attention they must believe you have a serious shot at uncovering things or saving humanity. Their core belief is that by working with Lucifer to bring forth the apocalypse then he would reward them with immortality as generals in his armys of Hell." He pounds the table with his fist, "We honestly have no idea who that dead man is you killed, we hit a dead end pretty quickly, we were investigating one Cardinal Piccolominni but his closeness to the Pope protected him from really anything we could, he was our primary lead. We had captured on of their agents, after exhausting interrogation he uttered a single word: Piccolominni, when he said this, he must have triggered a curse because he instantly caught fire and burned until not even his ashes were left."
'So all of this could have been avoided except for the bureaucracy of the catholic church, it seems...criminal.' Elek looks from Celeste then to Maude and back to the Captain. Taking a deep breath he asks. "so vy don't vee drag das verdammte Piccolominni down here to you, und vee see how many names he spews out bevore he explodes also, ya."
'Nine Angels bringing about the Apocalypse. Have I heard of them before?' Celeste thinks to herself as she plumbs her mind for knowledge.
"Not a belief I'd subject myself to, even if I'd trust demons to keep their word, which I wouldn't."Celeste answers the Captain flatly. "Probably their souls were devoured by some demons as their reward in the end."
"See? I knew Cardinal Piccolomi was a mole all along."Celeste is rather smug about the fact. "And putting him under arrest would have been a good idea."
"And who was it who was saying oh he might just be a power-hungry priest?" Celeste looks pointedly at Elek, perhaps taking a little too much delight in rubbing his nose in about the fact.
Celeste sighs in exasperation at Elek's suggestion. "You're missing the entire point. We do NOT want him to explode. We want him to spill a long happy tale on all his co-conspirators."
"That is, unless you'd like to experiment to see if the explosion would only harm the victim and not his interrogators,"Celeste notes clinically. "If you should wish to conduct such an experiment, don't expect me to be anywhere in the vicinity."
"Captain," She inclines her head towards the captain respectfully. "The information you have given us will save many lives. We are most grateful for your aid. Now we are sure of the traitor within, we can move to extract him."
"Unfortunately we may require another favor of you. Would you be willing to testify on what you have gleaned on your interrogation so that we may bring evidence of his treachery in a court of law?"
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Frowning, Maud holds up a hand, asking Celeste to slow down, "Celeste, we have no way of knowing if he was truly implicating Piccolominni or trying to frame him, any evidence we have is circumstantial,"
She paces back and forth, "so far all we have is that Piccolominni does seem to be Lucius' main rival and a stronger candidate for Pope when it comes to that time, we have a letter that was signed by a mysterious benefacter "P" but it sounds like Lucius wasn't able to conclude if it was written by Piccolominni. What if he is innocent,"
"When an agent of a demonic cult threw out his name during interrogation before spontaneously combusting from a curse?" Celeste stares at Maud in disbelief. "The evidence is right in front of you! Are you blind?"
'Boy does she like the sound of her own voice. Is that a witch thing or just a, oh never mind.' Elek rolls his eyes at Celeste's bragging, he then looks from Celeste to Maud and back to the captain of the guard. "Dying after muttering va Kardinals name does sound like und curse to me."
Shrugging, Anyvay I vouldn't mind dragging za Kardinal here und find out was er weiß ...um I mean, vat he knows."
'Does she not know what happened in Bohemia?' Elek looks at the floor, 'He is une Catholic Cardinal, zere is none not guilty of innocent blood."
he looks back up, "Guilty of zis crime or no, he is clearly za enemy of Lucius our ally und needs to be removed."
Shrugging, "However za method to remove him is clearly a matter zat vould need some planning."
"I don't know." Celeste admits. "At least we know he's a mole."
"My first idea was to get him arrested and trialed by law. We are not going to fight out way past his guards."
"Captain," She addresses the guard captain. "When you captured the agent of the Nine Angels, did you manage to get any books or pieces of handwriting from him? Also, which part of the city did you last hear of their activity?" Celeste asks the guard captain.
The guard captain ruffles his mustache and straightens it, "We tried bringing him in for questioning but our attempts were denied, with him being so close to his Holiness our only option was to either take him by force or explore other options. Sadly those other options never panned out, we do still have the apartment the Agent was staying in still under lockdown, its been weeks and we weren't able to find anything, if you guys want to take a look though. . ."
'We should tell this to the Cardinal, then decide how were to proceed.' Elek looks from the captain to his accomplices, then he answers. "I believe zat vould be beneficial, Captain. If you vould give us za address vee shall go inspect it."
After the captain gives them the address, Elek clicks his heals together and nods in a quick salute, "Auf Wiedersehen Kapitän."
Waiting till they are out of hearing distance, Elek asks Celeste "Do you think zat your magic vill be able to tell us zomesing?"
Then looking at Maud, 'Vee should meet za cardinal und zeen proceed to za address, ya?"
"Yes we would like to inspect the place." Celeste answers the Captain. "Could you also volunteer to testify on your interrogation results if we found further evidence of Piccolomi's wrong doing? It may be your testimony that tilts the court trial in our favor, so we can bring him to justice."Celeste urges the captain.
Celeste stretches out her magical senses.
"We shall see, Elek. It has been quite some time. Furthermore sensing evil may actually be more useful on this occasion."
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Lucius is waiting in a tiny shack at the edge of the Vatican walls. When the rest of the group comes into sight he rises, tucks away his rosary, and comes out to meet you.
"How did it go? I hope the guards were co-operative at least. Rodrigo and I have plan now - although how it plays out will be a very different matter." As he speaks Lucius has been leading you along the circuit of the walls, eventually arriving at the tunnel the group used before - but by a rather circuitous route.
The captain gives a few orders back at the guard house before leaving to lead you guys to the apartment where they found the conspirator a few weeks ago. He merely grunts at Celeste's request, "Hmgh, we'll see what happens. Here is the address, there are two guards stationed there watching the place, just tell them I sent you. Captain Stefano sent you,"
The three of you guys head out and regroup with Lucius.
"Fair enough." Celeste answers.
Celeste tells Lucius about the Nine angels cult and how an agent of theirs split the beans on Cardinal Piccolomi. She also informs him of the address they received from the guard captain and starts heading off in that direction.
Elek resists the urge to interrupt Celeste as she gives her version of the story. He then takes point heading toward the apartment, keeping a keen eye out to make sure there is no one suspicious, he asks Lucius. "Vy don't you speak to za guards, zay vill respond better to a fellow Roman."
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"Very well." Lucius agrees. Straightening his cassock he walks across the street and hails the guards on duty outside. "A blessing upon you gentlemen. I have been speaking to Captain Stefano about his investigation and I am bringing my own man," he gestures to Elek, "to examine the scene. In these troubled times the Pope wants to ensure the safety of the city and I am working with the Guard on this. Kindly stand aside and allow my man and his assistant inside."
Lucius stays outside, conversing with the guards if they allow it and gently pumping them for information.
'Maud is right, we should take a look before we return to Rome.' Nodding his head in agreement with Maud, he follows the Cardinal to the guards. When Lucius introduces him he clicks his heals together and bows slightly.
As he begins to carefully search the rooms, Elek turns to Celeste and asks, Is zere any vitchcr...er spells zat you may use to help us?"
Celeste scans the place with her magical senses.
The guards lower their flamberges and open the doorway for you, "You won't find much, we searched it high and low,"
Stepping inside you guys find a rather nicely furnished apartment though it looks like a tornado recently blew through the place. You notice there are weapon marks and significant signs of struggle all over the place.
Elek and Celeste spend their time searching the room looking for anything out of the ordinary. Celeste with her magical aura scanning seems to pick something up behind one of the walls.
As Elek examines it he notices that it looks like the wall might have been patched up and repainted, like perhaps someone is hiding something behind the section of wall.
Lucius makes small talk with the guards while he waits, "Yeah it'd be nice to finally resolve this case, been standing here for a few weeks for no reason, getting pretty boring,"
"Over there - there's something..." Celeste points to the wall in question.
"Do you think we could bust down the wall without getting the guards too angry?"
She's right, this wall has been patched and repainted.' Elek moves to the wall, looking at it carefully, "You are Correct, it has been patched und painted."
Hearing Celeste's question he smiles drawing out his dagger, "It is easier to apologize zan to ask for permission, ya." He then starts using the dagger to gently breakaway the new plaster.
As he pries away the plaster he tells Celeste, "Vould you go get za Cardinal und Maud, I vould like for zem to see vatever zis is before ve tell za guards about it."
"Lucius, Maud, we might have found something. Come over." She points her finger at both Lucius and Maud, to deliver the message.
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"My man has found something gentlemen." Lucius informs the guards, "Please let us in so that we might consider this new evidence."
Assuming that the guards do not try and stop him he will enter the building. If they want to come too that's fine, an agent of the law as a witness is probably a good thing.
With a little bit of work you are able use a broken table leg to break through the wall and reveal a small cubby beyond with a journal, a dagger that has a ruby encrusted in the hilt that is marked with the sigil of Order of Nine Angels and a small bag of coins(100 platinum coins).