Better the Devil You Know

GM: Erik Hanson

Players:

Joshua Kronengold: Ippolito Sforza, a 12 year old noble

Lisa Padol: Roggerio, a musician with a hidden past, in Ippolito's service

Lee Painton: Vincent di Giovanni, Venitian nobleman, spying for the Sforza while trying to take over the Florentine criminal underworld

Matt Stevens: Rafael Marancini, Jewish Cabalist and advisor to Ippolito. (Matt is no longer the only non-Jewish player, and the GM is not Jewish)

Rachael Tang: Bella Ziani, midwife and visionary

Prominent NPCs:

Sebastiano Sforza: Ippolito's uncle, head of the family

Simon di Peruzzi: son of the head of the di Peruzzi family, proprietor of the Inn of the Four Winds. The di Peruzzis control the criminal underworld of Florence and hate the Sforzas. The Inn of the Four Winds is renowned for its refined atmosphere, its selection of fine wines, its foreign guests, and the fact that nothing bad ever happens at the Inn of the Four Winds.

Morenco Belci: Head of the Belci family, attempting to wrest control of the underworld from the Peruzzis with the aid of Diabolists. Unknown to the Sforzas, the Belcis worked for the Peruzzis until their attempted coup.

Renier: A Diabolist, charming, glad to help the Sforzas.

Brother Cedric: English monk with Holmsian powers of deduction, aiding the Sforzas when time permits

Colum MacBride: Scottish companion to Brother Cedric

Ilya Ilyanovich: Russian hero working for the Sforzas

Lucio Terzini: member of the Terzini family which is in debt to the Sforzas

The Sforzas were joining forces with their old enemies, the Peruzzis, to fight the remnants of the Belcis and, more importantly, their mysterious Diabolist allies. As men rallied at the Inn of the Four Winds and Roggerio ran to bring Sebastiano up to date, Vincent implemented a plan so crazy it might work.

Vincent changed into the clothes of one of the dead Belcis, then caught up with the corpse of Morenco Belci, which he'd reanimated. They went to the Belci manor, and the disguised Venetian had no trouble getting in with the apparently ailing Morenco.

The guards were disturbed by Morenco's condition. What would they do if their leader died? Vincent suggested that the brown robed Diabolists were Morenco's only hope. This disturbed the guards even more, and they said that while most of the Diabolists were below, performing a ritual, some were wandering, especially in the library. The guards were more than happy to leave Vincent with the task of getting Diabolist aid to Morenco.

Left to his own devices, Vincent told the corpses littering the halls to rise at midnight and attack anyone who lived. I think this was the player deliberately having his PC make a mistake. Certainly, we all knew that the good guys would get caught in this trap.

Next, Vincent secluded himself with Morenco's corpse. Ignoring whispers in his ears that "they" knew what he was up to, he questioned the spirit of Morenco Belci. This led to a bizarre, macabre scene, one I wish I'd been able to capture on tape. Spirit and necromancer tried to out-bad each other, and it made for some great dialogue.

I suspect there may have been a bit of frustration, in addition to the cool lines, as it sounded like something I've run into before. The players on one side and the GM on the other both want to win the face-off. It doesn't matter whether it's a moral, coolness, or just brute power face-off; both sides want to win, to have it recognized that the characters they control are the tops. It's a tricky situation, being about an intangible.

When I mentioned the gist of what I wrote above, Josh commented that if the GM wants a PC to be touched / horrified / whatever, and nothing produces the desired effect, the GM's next step is to ask the player what will touch / horrify / whatever the PC.

In any case, Morenco's spirit was not well-disposed towards the man who had falsely befriended him and then shot him in the back. Vincent countered that Morenco trusted too easily. He was unimpressed when the spirit acquired fangs and glowing red eyes, having seen far worse during his training. He pressed Morenco for the location of the secret basement.

Morenco explained that he had absolutely no reason to cooperate with Vincent and thus hasten his return to the fires of Hell. I suspect Erik hoped Vincent might respond to the hint of sadness of Morenco's spirit. Vincent, however, was merely annoyed that he had no viable threat to cow the spirit into obedience.

Vincent (sighing): Oh dear.

Morenco: Not quite so glib now, are we?

I think Vincent missed a trick here, though he seems to have picked up on it later: He didn't try the threat of dismissing Morenco back to Hell if his questions weren't answered, combined with the carrot of letting the spirit stay a while if they were. However, Morenco decided that if Vincent sought damnation, he would gladly describe the way to the cellar. It made sense, even though it also might have been the GM's way to get the ball rolling.

Vincent sent the spirit away, then summoned the spirit of Bruno, a Belci guard he'd killed. This one didn't know who killed him, so he was happy to agree to tell Bella where the cellar was. Vincent stressed that the spirit was not to tell Bella who'd given him the message.

Next, Vincent prepared a drug that allowed one to hear the voices of the dead. He poured it into a flask of wine, then went to meet the man posted on guard duty outside the house. The man, like most of the surviving Belci, was unhappy about the Diabolists and nervous. Vincent shared the doctored wine with him. The poor guard ran screaming into the night.

However, a man in the brown robes of a Diabolist appeared in the manor's doorway, asking who he was and what he was up to. Vincent claimed to have been looking for the Diabolists. He considered attacking, but a large man in the Belci livery joined them. The robed man said that the Diabolists were around in the upper levels, and Vincent could easily have found one. Was he with the Sforza?

Vincent (gambling that his double dealing is not known): Actually, I'm Vincent di Giovanni.

Brown-robed man: Ah, then you -are- with the Sforza. Excellent! (pushing his hood back, speaking with an English accent, motioning to the uniformed guard) Allow me to introduce my companion, Colum McBride. I am Brother Cedric.

When reading this write up, Erik wrote:

The Cedric / Vincent scene was another face-off, with the GM slowly gaining the upper hand. When Vincent thought he might outwit the "hooded man," he pointed out the lie in each statement. When Vincent thought of overpowering him, a uniformed "Belci" stepped out to join the "diabolist." Backed into a corner, Vincent gave his identity, to which Cedric answered: "Allow me to introduce my comapanion, Colum McBride."

The scene worked well. It was not simply a face off; it was also one of those rare, beautifully timed moments when players were as surprised as the PCs. Brother Cedric wrote a note to Sebastiano Sforza and sent Colum to deliver it. Then, he and Vincent did research in the Belci library, Vincent discreetly pocketing a few interesting volumes.

Meanwhile, in a scene played out before the session, Roggerio brought Sebastiano up to date about the route of Sforza men at the Belci manor, the planned attack, the fact that a rival Diabolist was aiding the Sforza forces, and the fact that he used to be a Diabolist himself. Sebastiano, like his nephew, asked if Roggerio was still a Diabolist. The musician vehemently denied this, but was still surprised that he was believed. Sebastiano said that he was good at reading people and that Roggerio's "No" had sounded quite emphatic.

He warned Roggerio about Renier telling lies. Hearing the hidden lie was the harder path the musician was looking for. Roggerio asked about unspoken truths and was told that these counted as lies.

Colum's presence was announced, and Roggerio vouched for him. Sebastiano read Cedric's note, and told the men to join the Sforza force. First, though, he took a lock of Roggerio's hair and told the musician to bring his lute.

Roggerio: My lute?

Sebastiano: Brother Cedric was quite specific.

Roggerio: My lute?

Sebastiano: Play to your strengths.

Baffled, Roggerio fetched his lute. Sebastiano authorized the use of horses so the two men could join the Sforza force. Erik tells me that the pun on "play" was unintentional.

At the Inn of the Four Winds, Simon di Petzzi reluctantly agreed to let the forces marching against the Belcis borrow his guest's horses, so long as they were not damaged and were returned upon arrival at the Belci manor. Despite Bella's fear of horses, she allowed Renier to persuade her to ride with him. As they rode, Renier described the effect of whispering voices, such as those heard by Vincent and the Sforza men on the first raid.

Outside the Belci manor, Rafael tried to use kabbalistic magic to help Ippolito, but Matt fumbled his roll. Erik ruled that Rafael received a sort of spiritual rebuke for using magic for such trivial purposes. He later decided to rethink botch rules for magic, as Matt seemed to have lousy luck with the dice, cutting into the fun gaming is supposed to be.

Josh blew the top off his roll for Ippolito's oratory skill. His men knew God was with them -- why, the young lord practically glowed with divine light. Several of the men thought to themselves, "So that's why the Sforzas rule Florence."

Roggerio and Colum caught up, having missed the speech. Everyone went inside, only to be attacked by the corpses following Vincent's order. The corpses were hacked to pieces, but sentient flames danced from them, leaping around, trying to set everything on fire.

Vincent wasn't responsible for the fire; that was Satanic magic. The fire spirits could be dealt with like ordinary fire. Water would have been good, but any containers had been used as weapons against the zombies and smashed. Erik was quite fair; I had specified Roggerio was doing this. Folks smothered the fire spirits with drapes while Renier discreetly used his own Satanic magic to banish the ones too nimble to be caught. In view of Rafael's earlier fumble, Erik ruled that the Kabbalist would notice the ease with which the Diabolist dealt with the spirits. Not decide he should change paths or even necessarily be tempted, merely aware.

As the chaos subsided, Bella saw the spirit of Bruno running towards her. He told her where the secret lab was. Bella was startled by this uncharacteristic behavior, as most spirits of the departed are more reserved.

Bella: Why are you telling me this?

Bruno: I was told to.

Bella: By whom?

Bruno: Not Vincent di Giovanni.

Bella: Not Vincent?

Bruno: Definitely not Vincent!

Bella: Then who?

Bruno: Perhaps one of the men in brown robes. Yes, one of them!

Bella also heard the whispering voices Renier had warned about. Her response was a startled "What? Who said that? Don't trust whom?" At this point, Erik decided the voices weren't really working and dropped them. Rachael later explained that neither player nor PC had a clue what was going on.

I thought at first he should have used them on Roggerio, who hadn't been warned. On second thought, it occurred to me that I'd had plenty of limelight that session, and it made more sense to use them on NPCs, such as thc troops or Colum, who also hadn't been warned. This might have given Matt something to do with Rafael. Nevertheless, on third thought, dropping them might have been for the best, as we were trying to break at a specific time and the situation was already complicated.

In any case, the group entered the library where they found Vincent and the brown robed Brother Cedric. Bella decided he must have sent the spirit. Bruno was quick to agree.

Cedric and Vincent had completed their research, and the priest explained that the Diabolists were summoning an excrement demon. If you've seen Dogna, yes, this is where Erik stole it from. Cedric explained that Roggerio was to play his lute to stir emotions and manipulate events. Confused, Roggerio began improvising a filthy, in more senses than one, ballad, on his confessor's orders.

Bella: I wonder if Brother Cedric can make holy water.

Roggerio put the obvious scatalogical intepretation on this and wove it into the song as everyone headed down to the secret lab.

Roggerio played, using his music to help Ilya when his sword was knocked out of his hands. I think Vincent shot arrows at Diabolists while Renier neutralized their protective magic. Some of Diabolists shot jets of fire at them.

Bella and Roggerio (simultaneously): Renier!

Renier was just fine; he'd used his magic to shield himself. Vincent was somewhat singed and very annoyed.

Ippolito enchanted an arrow, set it on fire, and shot it into the demon, continuing the PCs' use of the period equivalent of molotov cocktails. Rafael had little to do. He has a taboo / passionate distaste for uncleanliness, and he was in a pit of filth. Erik's interpretation of the earlier botch was meant to minimize how hosed the character was, but, given the earlier rebuke, Matt wasn't sure Rafael would risk more magic. This left the PC's other strength, investigation, which was somewhat moot now. Any ideas what a PC could do that would be fun for the player?

I had a couple of ideas while writing this, none of which occured to me at the time, nor do I think they would have had I been gming. There could have been someone to rescue whom only Rafael noticed. Some of the troops could have started freaking out, needing Rafael to calm them. Josh came up with the idea of a threat, either magical or mundane, that Rafael spotted. The GM would control timing and perception so that only Rafael was aware of the situation and able to act.

Eventually, the demon was dispatched by Ilya's sword, which may or may not have been tainted by the experience. Brother Cedric whacked the head Diabolist over the head with a book and unmasked him. He proved to be Lucio Terzini, who had a grudge against the Sforzas.

Lucio had asked for more time for his family to make their next payment on a debt. Extra time hnd not been granted. The Sforzas set up a deal where Vincent bought land from the Terzinis, ensuring the family could make the payment. Lucio considered this an insult, forcing his family to sell land.

Lucio was turned over to the Church. Roggerio wondered why he'd been able to influence events with music. Cedric asked where he'd got the lute.

Roggerio: In a castle two days' ride from the south gate.

Ippolito: There is no castle two days' ride from the south gate.

Roggerio: This cannot be. Is this like one of your notes that do not exist?

Everyone realized the castle was a faery castle. Roggerio began to understand cryptic comments made by one of the Good Folk he'd met at a wedding. Renier began to understand more about Roggerio. This was an odd mistake on the part of Brother Cedric, who knew who Renier was. Actually, it was a mistake on Erik's part, but then, he had a lot of details to keep track of. I suggested that Cedric deliberately allowed Renier to learn about this, perhaps to throw him offtrack and delay his learning about another odd experience Roggerio had.

After the session, Josh pointed out that Roggerio had been using extremely powerful magic, more powerful than the other PCs used. I noted that all I'd asked for when creating the character was the ability to sway emotions with music. As Josh said, I hadn't paid the points for anything more.

Something similar happened over time in the Altclair campaign, leading to a situation where my PC had more power than the GM was comfortable with. On close examination, some of the PC's abilities were things I hadn't asked for or paid for, and things I didn't consider essential to the character. We pruned these away and otherwise trimmed the PC's abilities to manageable size.

Having thus dealt with this, I decided it would be good to be proactive in the face of warning signs that a similar situation was building. I told Erik he really didn't want to be giving Roggerio so much power for me to play with. He agreed and thanked me, and came up with a retcon.

Roggerio's lute was enchanted. When he played, following Cedric's instructions, the lute contacted any fae spirits in the area and conveyed Roggerio's request. This meant that even though everything he tried to do worked this time, there was no guarantee that it would work again.

Meanwhile, Ippolito started to ask Renier to leave Florence, but was cut off by Roggerio. He apologized for the interruption, but said he was charged to invite Renier to meet with Sebastiano Sforza. Ippolito quickly shut his mouth so as not to catch feet.

While the meeting between Renier and Sebastiano was private, Bella asked a spirit to listen in and update the PCs. Essentially, Renier pointed out that either man could destroy the other, and he promised not to harm the city or seek out Bella.

As the PCs were ushered in, Renier took his leave, bidding Roggerio a warm farewell, saying he'd tell his fellow Diabolists, who were also in town, how well their old friend Roggerio had done for himself. Roggerio said "Ah" a lot, in varying tones of perplexedness.

Renier left and Sebastiano proceeded to chew everyone out. He forbade Bella to see Renier. Surprised, but loyal, she promised she would not seek him out, but no more than that.

Sebastiano told Vincent that he knew Vincent was trying to play both sides against the middle. He warned Vincent to keep him fully up to date about whom Vincent was speaking to and threatened to kick him out of Florence if he tried to play the Sforzas for fools. Vincent didn't show it, but he was shaken, and the thought in his mind was, "He knows!"

Sebastiano chewed Roggerio out for not mentioning he used to be a Diabolist, and asked what else he hadn't mentioned.

Roggerio: Do visions of the Virgin Mary count?

Being informed that it did, he elaborated. Roggerio hadn't quite considered the occasional human sacrifice he'd performed for the Diabolists real until a drugged victim woke before being despatched. After the ceremony was over, he ran until he found a church, then prayed to the Virgin Mary for forgiveness. She appeared, told him to give up his evil ways, and never refuse to help a woman in need.

Sebastiano: I have never seen a man so battled over by the forces of Heaven and Hell, and neither side gaining an inch!

After that, Roggerio wandered for some months until he came to the non-existent castle where he got his lute in return for, ah, labors performed on behalf of the lady of the castle. He swore on his hope of salvation that he hadn't known castle, lady, and lute were fae.

Sebastiano reminded Rafael that he was supposed to advise Ippolito. Did Rafael really think it was wise for the 12 year old to walk into a lair of Diabolists? Rafael apologized.

Sebastiano asked Ippolito why he thought it was a good idea to risk life and soul.

Ippolito: It worked.

Roggerio pointed out that the entire city would remember that the youngest Sforza had personally risked himself to protect the people from demons and Diabolists.

Sebastiano pointed out that by allowing Renier to help at the Belci manor, Ippolito also gave him the opportunity to find out enough about Sebastiano's household to force the Sforza to allow him to stay in Florence.

Roggerio: Perhaps you should dismiss me from your service.

Sebastiano: No, you're too valuable. And if I dismissed all my...questionable servants, that would also start talk and look bad.

Ippolito asked what he meant. How could this Renier blackmail Sebastiano into letting him stay?

Roggerio: Look at us. An ex-Diabolist. A woman who hears voices and has visions. And a Jew.

Bella: Everyone knows about Rafael.

Roggerio: It is all these things together. And then there is the Sforza magic.

Sebastiano: There speaks the master of intrigue.

Roggerio: Aargh! I am not a master of intrigue!

Regardless, his analysis was correct, and Ippolito had made an error of judgement. On top of this, he had broken into Sebastiano's private library and practiced a new spell, unsupervised.

Ippolito: Oh right, that.

(Josh actually said that before the session and forgot to say it during, but it should have been a game quote.)

Sebastiano said that as he clearly did not have enough time to supervise young Ippolito properly, he'd call home Horatio, Ippolito's eldest brother, to do the job. Ippolito hated this idea.

Horatio did not hate his brother, nor vice versa, but there was a strong streak of mutual jealousy, Horatio being the heir, while Ippolito was clearly Sebastiano's favorite. The middle brother would soon take priestly vows, and Bella and Roggerio realized that it was vital that Horatio not consider Ippolito a rival. Roggerio had decided to write a song about Ippolito's bravery in leading the night's attack. He now decided to tweak the song so that the refrain made it clear that the younger brother acted out of loyalty to the elder, and protected his brother's city out of pure loyalty. Sebastiano approved, but said to leave Renier out of the song. This wouldn't fool Horatio, but it would make sure the people of Florence got the right idea.