Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)

Of Devils and Priests

25 Apr 2014

In the morning, as the crew prepared the Gleaming Endeavor to cast off from Craine’s river docks, Brother Mendel took some time to cast Detect Foes over the the ship; he detected a fluctuating, mild sense of hostility within the spell’s coverage area, and informed the others, including Captain Finn, of his findings. It was decided to wait until after the ship was under way, and then perform a thorough search of the ship, top to bottom, stem to stern, opening every crate or container in the hold, to make sure they hadn’t picked up a stowaway assassin or somesuch. Everyone helped in the search, but they discovered nothing but rats in then hold. Later, Brother Mendel attempted the spell again, and sensed that the “hostility” was still present. With no better ideas what to do about it, they decided to simply remain alert, and make sure nobody stood their watch alone.

Three days passed, and the ship arrived at Raphael without incident; the Heroes would have pressed on for Bannock, but Brother Mendel had some letters he was tasked to deliver to the Archbishop’s offices there, so they put to port for the day to stretch their legs while the church business was seen to. Brother Mendel went straight for the massive cathedral, and was seen by the Archbishop’s clerk, to hand over the letters. When he asked what further duties the church would require of him, it turned out there was a matter he might be able to help with, and he was given audience to speak to the Archbishop of Raphael himself. The Archbishop explained that he had need of Brother Mendel’s companions, fighting men, as there had been a rash of murders under the last two full moons, the third of which would be this night. None had lain eyes on the murderer save for shadows, though rumors persisted that the cathedral’s gargoyles had come to life. Brother Mendel assured the Archbishop that his friends would come to his aid once told of the matter. And so it was.

As there was plenty of time before sunset, the Heroes came ashore into the walled town about the cathedral to search the grounds for clues; the Archbishop saw to it they had access to whatever they might need to discover the truth. It was reported to them that there were a total of five souls murdered, two on the first full moon, and three on the second; the Heroes were taken to the places where the poor unfortunates were found, horribly savaged, all high on the roofs surrounding the cathedral—the victims’ identities and stations revealed no clues as to why they had been so targeted. One of the priests, Father Julian, while examining the gargoyles for signs they had left their perches after the last incident, found one to be chipped as if by the strike of a sword; Gabriel climbed out at Magnifico’s request to see it for himself, and thought the damage to be as the priest had said. Meanwhile, Gestlin dug through the mountain of written records in the church’s archive, but found no similar events such as had been described. As the evening drew close, the Heroes had no better plan than to patrol the grounds that night and dare whatever-it-was to come at them; Rainald requested and was granted some horses, to speed their reaction time should someone cry out at a distance.

As night fell, Rainald, Gestlin and Brother Mendel patrolled the street around the cathedral on horseback, while Magnifico (Primus and Secundus at his side), Merasiël, Dane and Gabriel moved around atop the cathedral’s lower-tier roof (the level nearest to the gargoyles). They kept watch for many long hours under the light of the moon (bright enough that even night-blind Brother Mendel wasn’t terribly inconvenienced by the darkness). Some time into the patrol, a commotion was heard at the West end of the grounds that turned out to be a drunk couple leaving the local tavern; they were shooed on their way, for their safety, and the patrol was resumed.

Suddenly, those on the ground heard a heavy, wet thump behind them, and turned to find the mangled body of an unknown fellow in the middle of the street some distance away from them. They quickly looked up into the dark sky from whence the victim appeared to have fallen, and Brother Mendel barely saw a moving, shadowy shape pass overhead, and called out a warning to the others. As the Heroes dismounted and ran over to see who it was that had fallen, the shadow-creature flew down like a bolt of lightning, landing on the street some paces ahead of them; now in full view, they could see the creature’s wings and horns, and believed it some manner of demon, and were afraid. It beckoned without words, daring them to attack, and Rainald strode boldly forward, unafraid, and cast his spear at the demon, striking it in the shoulder; though wounded, it pulled the spear out of its body to wield it. As Rainald continued to advance, Brother Mendel followed behind him, and began casting a Banishment spell. Meanwhile, those on the roof of the cathedral raced over to the edge to see the creature, and were also afraid, though Gabriel and Dane found themselves on the wrong side of the building, and had to climb over, and so were delayed. Magnifico, flanked by his dragons, called out to taunt the demon, to draw it to him—he succeeded, and the demon flew up to the roof, and attacked, striking Primus with Rainald’s spear. Merasiël threw a knife and struck the demon in the ribs, but the knife could not penetrate his thick hide. Magnifico threw himself atop Secundus and urged the dragon to leap off the roof, flying down straightaway to the street, as the wounded Primus followed; the demon, even faster, pursued them downward. The demon was met there by Rainald, Brother Mendel, and the now-recovered Gestlin, and the creature suffered blows from Rainald, nips from the dragons, and lightning from Gestlin, while Brother Mendel continued his casting to banish it. Injured, it disengaged from the melée to fly up to the nearby roofs and attack a lone man there, surely vulnerable—it was Gabriel, who plunged his family blade (now named Misericordia) between the creature’s fourth and fifth ribs. At the same time, Dane, now with a clear shot, decorated the demon’s back with arrows, while another bolt of lightning from Gestlin struck him, and the creature fell to its knees, all but finished. Gabriel could just hear a man’s trembling voice come from the demon crying for mercy; though his bloodlust was checked, Gabriel did not trust that this was no trick, and so struck the demon again, and the creature fell from the roof, to the street below, even as the dragons caught up to the roof, as did Rainald, under Gestlin’s Air Walking spell. As the Heroes gathered round in wonder, they saw the demon transform back into a man, at once suffering all the wounds the demon had taken, and the man died.

The Heroes told the thing to the Archbishop, and he recognized the man, one of his priests. He was thankful for the Heroes’ aid, and offered them beds at the inn. He would have them stay for a day or two as they researched what the priest had done, but they declined with regrets, that they might make haste for Bannock.

Notes

• Gabriel took some time on the ship to “ritually name” his sword (the Named Possession Perk, PU2:19); the casters had been cross-training each other on various spells, but Gabriel and Merasiël started doing some martial cross-training as well. Also, the GM allowed Mendel to retroactively cast a regeneration spell on Magnifico to get rid of his hunchback, which usually takes a month or so to complete; the required time will have elapsed when Magnifico’s player has the points to buy off the Disadvantage, at which point it will “officially” be gone, though he has been slowly straightening over the course of the journey thus far
• Brother Mendel’s Duty to the Church hadn’t been specifically featured before in this or the previous campaign, but as the ship approached Raphael and we were deciding whether or not to stop, the GM went ahead and rolled it; success was determined to mean he had some letters to deliver
• The stop was un-planned, but the GM decided to make the best use of it by pulling out GURPS Locations: St. George’s Cathedral
• Magnifico riding the dragon was a bit of a surprise—hadn’t been tried before—which led to a long period of deliberation about whether or not it was possible, at what Encumbrance level, etc., and required some post-game research; now that it’s been settled, we can likely expect to see it occur more in the future
• The demon certainly had the potential to do harm to the Party, but we got pretty lucky; in the end, Primus’ was the only injury suffered