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Your Majesty, I have heard only outlandish rumors... That they are somehow allied with both the evil turquoise dragon Grossevapour and the good copper dragon Kupferflügel, and introduced the two dragons... Which first began fighting, and then, um...mated... The infamous wizard Rumplestiltskin has apparently taken an interest in the company's potential for mayhem... He might be behind the assassination of Cardinal Beaufort...
I do not know, so I am assembling a team of inquisitors to sail to England and investigate this murder of one of our cardinals. I came to inform the Holy Father and receive his blessing, but it seems I must act without it.
My Duke D'Medici, I'm afraid we receive the news late. It happened shortly after the Feast of Saint Valentine, when the terrible dragon holocausts in Paris, Constantinople, here in Rome, and in the capital of Norway took place... Almost seven moons ago...
As Sir Alphonse Veritas, Alfonso the Magnanimous and the Duke of Florence do their best to quell the fear of the Roman throng, Cardinal D'Sforza emerges from the crowd with a sober expression on his face. He looks around at the mob and then looks for Pope Eugenius in vain. Turning to Duke of Florence, he inquires about the holy father and Duke D'Medici informs the cardinal of the situation, causing his face to darken and fall. May God have mercy on us all... I bring more bad news, I'm afraid. Over in England, the rogue company of adventurers now calling themselves the Company of the Beryllium Dragon has assassinated Cardinal Beaufort at Westminster Abbey, apparently with the English crown's blessing! It is like the martyrdom of Saint Thomas A'Beckett all over again! Those English dukes must be reigned in!
When not teaching Autumn, she'll talk to the various High priests and clergy about her mysterious Tattoos and what they mean. The following evening, Sunday the 27th, the Daughter of the Dragon consults another high priest in the city of Rome, Cardinal D'Sforza... Italian: Let me have a look, Your Highness... Don't be bashful, I'm a man of the cloth... Cardinal D'Sforza, as an Inquisitor of the Catholic Church, has found it useful to learn a variety of diverse languages in order to root out heresy. He has studied Enochian, and can read the characters tattooed on the Wallachian princess... This says, "Sacred Slayer of El Shaddai"... El Shaddai is one of the sacred names of God the Father... And this one on your other arm says, "Chosen Reaper of the Seraphim"... I am without a clue regarding the significance of this dragon over your, um, breast... or this fanged bat on your back... or this lion on your leg... or this scorpion on the other leg... Who knows? You have no memory of receiving them, eh? Very mysterious, my princess...
Cardinal D’Sforza warmly embraces Toshio as well, whispering discreetly into his ear: Please pass on this message to your friend the Ogon Fox: The courageous and faithful service you and your companions render for Mother Church shall be handsomely rewarded. Thank you for your continued heroics on behalf of the Church of Rome!
Cardinal D’Sforza is in attendance, sipping red wine from a silver chalice...
I’m afraid this might be a case where we must fight fire with fire, my friend. If you have white magicians in your company who can use their own divinations to detect the scrying attempts of the enemy... It may prove a useful course of action, though I am reticent to lead you into dealings with wizards and warlocks... Too close to our Enemy’s arts do these conjurers and soothsayers meddle...
At last report, the Lucky Fools had sent most of these villains to Hell, where they belong... But as Christ raised His friend Lazarus from the tomb, so also do the favored darlings of the Devil seem to return from death...
Cardinal Sforza describes what is known of the diabolical Hounds of Hell...
Into this unholy sanctuary came a band of blackguards in the service of the Church of Lucifer. They were led by an undead horror, a death knight named Sir Mathias Wallace, formerly a Scottish knight who was cursed by God to roam the Earth as a monster after his death for torturing and murdering scores of young maidens at his castle in the Highlands. Sir Mathias wore a suit of midnight blue full plate armor, with a red dragon rampant emblazoned on the breastplate in carnelian, and bore a claymore with jeweled golden hilt and cross bars, and a pitted, oily blade, as black as a moonless night, which constantly secreted a corrosive acid. A scarlet cloak hung from the spiked shoulder pauldrons of his demonic armor. Behind the death knight came a wart-riddled, green-skinned half-orc with blood-red irises on yellow eyes, iron- capped tusks jutting from the corners of his broad, toothy mouth, slightly pointed ears, and coarse black hair, clad in dark leather armor studded with bronze spikes, and carrying a Chinese repeating crossbow in his clawed hands. This was the nefarious assassin known as Adder, feared throughout Europe and the Middle East for his ruthless and inventive methods of executing his targets. With Adder came a statuesque Italian woman with long brown hair worn in an elaborate braid bedecked with pearls and opals, clad in a dark green gown, with a belt of silver medallions inlaid with garnets around her waist, from which depended several pouches of odd-smelling herbs, powders, and other arcane spell components. In her slender hands, she held a magic broom on which she could fly. This was Striga Lucrezia, a daughter of House Sforza who had been disowned and banished for her mastery of witchcraft and her tendency to become possessed by demons. It was said that she rendered the fat of kidnapped infants into an elixir that enabled her to fly on her magic broom to the summit of Brocken Peak in the Harz Mountains on Walpurgis Night, the thirtieth of April, the night when witches and warlocks from all over Europe gathered to consort with the Devil. Behind the Italian witch and the half- orc assassin came a horned, bat-winged, devilish beast with a hide like gray stone—the infamous gargoyle Render. Once one of those gargoyles which had stood guard atop Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the evil spell placed upon him and his fellows by the late Necromancer Pierre had not been lifted with the death of that villain at the hands of the Lucky Fools a few months ago. Render reveled in slaughter and mayhem, and refused to return to his post as guardian of the faithful at Notre Dame, instead becoming a monster feared by the people of Paris. Towering several feet above the others came the snorting beast known as Ailouroeidis, a Minotaur descended from the monster of the labyrinth on the isle of Crete, which the Greek hero Theseus slew thousands of years ago. Like it's mythic ancestor, Ailouroeidis the Minotaur was a savage, bloodthirsty brute that craved human flesh. It wore an oversized shirt of chainmail over its furry hide, and its great hooves were shod with iron. In its burly hands it gripped a giant axe. Last came the French werewolf, Garrett Du Bois, a tall, rangy, swarthy man, garbed as a hunter in green and brown leather, and armed with longsword, longbow, and quiver of arrows. Garrett was responsible for many murders throughout the French countryside over the past five years, and had proved very elusive to the gangs of fearful and enraged hunters that had tried to bring an end to his bloody killing spree. These six villains were the Devil’s hit men.
I am ashamed to say that this evil we are fighting has infected my own family... My sister, Lucrezia, has fallen into the hands of the Deceiver, and practices witchcraft on behalf of the heretical Church of Lucifer. She has been disowned from the House of Sforza, and excommunicated, of course... Now she is a member of a terrible order called the Hounds of Hell... She goes about doing evil with this nefarious band, which includes a minotaur of Crete, a renegade gargoyle that once guarded the Cathedral of Notre Dame, a Scottish graveknight who murdered his wives in horrible fashion, and the werewolf Garret Du Bois from the woodlands of France... She has fornicated with demons and devils on Harz Peak in the German mountains on Walpurgisnacht! She is a lost soul, my sister... and I fear the evil she may do with her wicked company, the Hounds of Hell! It was they who raided the cathedral in the Duchy of Savoy and stole the Shroud of Turin, to give as a tribute to the fire dragon Wormwood! Thankfully, the Lucky Fools were able to recover the Shroud and return it to the Duke of Savoy a few years ago...
Around noon on the 2nd of January, the day after the adventurers spent the night at Cardinal D’Borja’s palazzo, Lucius receives a visit from his colleague, Cardinal D’Sforza... Good day, Cardinal D’Borja, and may the peace of Christ be always with you! I have come to you today because I have received a most troubling warning from our Holy Father, Pope Eugenius... It seems that you and your companions have discovered evidence that our enemy, the heretical and satanic Church of Lucifer, plots to strike against both of our houses on the feast of Saint Valentine... I am told that we are both engaged in a similar mission to root out heretics and enemies of Holy Mother Church... May we speak in confidence, Cardinal D’Borja? I have information that is of a sensitive nature... |
