The Heir Not-So-Apparent
GM: Erik Hanson
Players:
Beth Bartley: Liliana Scarpelli: 15 year old Genoese noble seeking to marry into the Sforza family of Florence.
Joshua Kronengold: Ipolitto Sforza, a 12 year old noble
Lisa Padol: Roggerio, a musician and ex-diabolist with an unwanted, but not entirely undeserved, reputation for intrigue, in Ipolitto's service
Lee Painton: Vincent di Giovanni, Venitian nobleman and Necromancer, spying for the Sforza while trying to take over the Florentine criminal underworld.
David Siegel: Jebril, displaced Moorish architect with a talent for geomancy, in the service of the Sforza family.
Matt Stevens: Rafael Marancini, Jewish Cabalist and advisor to Ipolitto.
Rachael Tang: Bella Ziani, midwife and visionary
Prominent NPCs:
Sebastiano Sforza: Ipolitto's uncle, head of the family
Horatio Sforza: Ipolitto's oldest brother.
Benco Di Peruzzi: Head of the di Peruzzi family, which controls the criminal underworld of Florence and hates the Sforzas, as the Sforza family broke their power.
Simon Di Peruzzi: Benco's son, proprietor of the Inn of the Four Winds. 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.
Ciacco the Hog: Ruthless Genoese merchant who wants to marry Liliana. She really doesn't want to marry him.
Conte di Ceprano: Ancient noble whose family was banished from Florence by the Sforzas for reasons no one remembers. Sebastiano granted him permission to return to the city and has been repaid a hundredfold for his mercy.
Carlos: Spanish, the Conte's only servant
Drucella: The Conte's niece, formerly a prisoner of the Dorvinians
Leo Dorvinian: Head of the Dorvinian family. which is famous for its annual wine festival, held in a different city every year.
Duke Ferdinand Coranzon VIII: Spanish noble, raconteur, and gambler.
Quillmaster: Duke Ferdinand's amenuensis, capable of writing down -everything- that happens around him with complete accuracy
The Sforzas learned, too late, that the Dorvinian wine festival, held in a different city each year, served to addict a city's ranking nobles to a particular wine. If victims do not take some of the wine on an almost daily basis, they die. This gave new meaning to the phrase "Men would kill for a sip of Dorvinian wine." Thanks to a combination of luck and a vague, but heartfelt, warning from the Conte di Ceprano, the Sforza household was not addicted. Sebastiano had received a full bottle of the wine from Leo Dorvinian, and began making arrangements to split it evenly among the nobility of Florence, well aware that back-biting, backroom deals, and accusations of unfairness would proliferate.
The Peruzzis were conspicuously absent from the festival, and Roggerio planned to ascertain whether they were lucky or in the know. Liliana decided that she'd better warn Ciacco about the Dorvinians. He was staying at the Inn of the Four Winds, so she went to see him the next day, accompanied by Roggerio, still hung over from the festival.
Ciacco was genuinely concerned about Liliana, but still utterly gross. Worse yet, he was convinced that Liliana's quick warning meant that she cared for him. He questioned her about the Sforza men, and Liliana, the most unromantic PC, could not begin to fake any kind of romantic interest in any of the Sforzas. Delighted, Ciacco commented that, while he might be an acquired taste, there was a lot of him to love.
Roggerio spoke with Simon. Both men are attracted to Bella, so Roggerio pretended to let slip that, while Bella could not make the festival (Rachael having missed that session), she did get a taste of the special wine Leo gave the Sforzas.
Simon (pausing ever so slightly): So, how much of the wine is left?
Roggerio: All of it.
Amazingly enough, Roggerio is on no worse terms with Simon than before. Simon is aware that Roggerio played him skillfully enough to learn that the Peruzzis were actively working with the Dorvinians, but considered Roggerio's information about how much wine was left sufficient payment.
Roggerio and Liliana told Sebastiano what they'd learned. There was some comment about not inflicting the Dorvinians on Ciacco or vice versa that got Liliana and Sebastiano laughing, and made Roggerio moan about loud noises and hangovers. Sebastiano sent him to bed.
Erik wrote the following:
Ok - summarizing things that happened on Monday and Thursday evenings...
Benco di Peruzzi arranged to have 3 of the Sforza servants attend a meeting with him. Jebbril received an invitation to meet with Ser Buonarotti Michelangelo, which he instantly accepted. The invitation was a fake, however, and led to his getting conked on the head and brought before the di Peruzzi head. Roggerio simply had his wine drugged as he was enjoying himself at a local tavern. Raphael went to check up on his family and found two large, distinctly non-Jewish men talking with them. Picking up on the clue, he followed them to the meeting place.
The meeting place was a pig farm on the outskirts of the city. The pigs were actually there, and apparently rather hungry. Benco di Peruzzi made his appearance (think of the Fat Man from the Maltese Falcon), and asked if the PCs knew who he was. Raphael was the only one who did, and called him Lord di Peruzzi. When Benco bemusedly pointed out that he was no longer a Lord by the Duke's grace, Raphael bluntly said that he would be happy to address Benco for what he was - a thug, kidnapper, and murderer. Benco attempted to go into what was meant to be an intimidating monologue on the feeding habits of pigs, and how they can be quite handy for disposing of dead bodies, given that a hungry set of pigs can eat the whole of a body and leave nothing behind. (This scene stolen from the movie "Snatch.") The PCs had other ideas, however, and chose to question Benco's knowledge at various intervals. So, the GM cut the monologue short and cut to the offer.
Benco admitted that he has connections to the Dorvinians, which puts him in the interesting position of being able to choose which side he wants to back. He wished to offer his aid to the Sforzas, though Sebastiano would know the price of his help. The PCs thought it would be surrender of the city, though Sebastiano pointed out that it was simply the reinstatement of his title and lands. Vincent was the only one to blatantly argue against such a move, saying that the Peruzzis were not trustworthy. Sebastiano, however, realized that he couldn't afford to put the Peruzzi family solidly in the Dorvinian camp, and so agreed to the bargain. As a side benefit, this allowed the Sforzas to more easily obtain a copy of the formula used to concoct the wine used to addict Florence, so that his followers could get to work in concocting an antidote.
Another comical element developed, quite unexpectedly, after this encounter. Borrowing from a number of movies that involve stereotypically stupid and comical gangster, I mused over the humor involved if the two thugs that escorted Raphael to the meeting took a liking to the impressively intelligent Jew. The two thugs soon became named - Vito and Guido, and have become a new set of contacts for Raphael.
Vito: So - if da pig eats da Jew - does it become kosher?
Raphael: No!
Guido: What if a rabbi were to bless it - would it be kosher den?
Raphael: No! Pigs cannot ever be kosher!
Vito: Well, I'm just wonderin' if a Jew-eatin'-pig would be more Jewish dan a non-Jew-eatin'-pig.
Guido: Hey - if da pig eats da Jew, you can eat da pig, and den see if you feel Jewish!
Vito: No offense to you of course, Mr. Raphael, but dis bein' an intellectual discourse and all, we's is naturally curious.
Shortly afterwards, the Church decided to pay a visit to the Sforza household. It was timed specifically for when Sebastiano would be away politicking with various other nobles in the city, placating them in the face of the Dorvinian wine blackmail. This gave the political arm of the Church the opportunity to interrogate the more impressionable members of the Sforza household without Sebastiano's influence.
The various interrogations tended to feature the same questions in various forms. Did the PCs view themselves as good Christians, or at least appropriately religious individuals? Did they not think that loyalty to the Church was an important thing? Why, then, did they not report the presence of two angels in their very household to anyone in the Church hierarchy? And did Sebastiano, either directly or indirectly, tell them to keep this information from the Church?
The Church representatives were obviously just looking for excuses to railroad the Sforza family, and afterwards announced a bit of "good news" that they had to share with the Sforza family. Sebastiano had a wife who was still alive, but deathly ill, at the time that his youngest nephew, Ipollito, was born. Said wife was also pregnant, and gave birth to a child who was thought to have died. This was not in fact the case, however, for the child was spirited away by the Church and raised under their auspices. The Church gave sufficiently transparent motives for doing so - Sebastiano was now a father, and as the reigning Duke of Florence, his son by birth would stand to inherit the title instead of the eldest nephew, Horatio.
The PCs were allowed to help me fill in the holes in the plan, as the GM only had a basic idea of a plot complication that he wanted to throw in (an undisclosed heir), and wanted help to make sure how such a plot would actually be feasible. It was agreed that the heir had to be raised at least somewhere in Italy for a good portion of his life, though (by GM fiat) the Church had decided that in the current climate they had removed the heir to a secluded area in Spain. There were still difficulties, of course - servants would have known what was going on, and the Church would have had to secure the silence of a fair number of servants. However, using their influence, they would have made sure that all servants connected to the event were bought off, and then either transferred or permanently retired from the Sforza household. Sebastiano is able at least to keep tabs on his servants (keeping personal effects of theirs to maintain a link), and after digging them up and engaging in sorcery, determined that one such servant was currently in Spain.
Now - in a bit of inspiration (it just hit me), I have determined the first ingredient that you need to obtain [for an antidote to the Dorvinian poison -LP] through various calculations. You will need to get the feather of a griffin. It is rumored that such beasts may be found in some areas of Spain, and there happens to be an expert on quills who may just know about obtaining them - namely, the Quillmaster, in the employ of Duke Ferdinand Coranzon VIII. This neatly coincides with the desire to travel to Spain to seek out the heir. (Who will turn out to be residing in a secluded area within Duke Coranzon's lands, as the Church has found him to be surprisingly good at keeping peace and order - particularly given the tumult in Spain right now.) The trip to Spain will still be by way of Genoa, however, since Lilliana wishes to make a visit to her family.
In the meantime, Roggerio also had a command performance before Leo Dorvinian, to see if he could instill the same sensation of tasting the feast through the magic of his song. It did not go as planned, however, and resulted in an enraged Leo Dorvinian throwing out Roggerio on his ear, and threatening to turn his lute into kindling should he ever insult the Dorvinian house with such ill-picked tunes again. Roggerio was quite bewildered, and reported to his lord. The presumption arrived at by the players was that the song simply did not work, as opposed to working too well, which hit a sore spot with Leo.
Finally, there was a meeting between Roggerio and Ippolito, and the Conte di Ceprano and his niece, Drucella. Drucella is based strongly off of Drusilla from Buffy, and hence has the entertaining "Oh Crap" effect on the players, who have active imaginations. Drucella, like Drusilla, is very bewitching and has begun to spark Ipollito's curiosity as to the nature of men and women. Drucella was very polite and brought them to the Conte's private sitting room, where he was looking out upon the streets of Florence from a window. Due to the time of day, sunlight was not coming in the window that he had open.
The Conte was greatly weakened and listless. His hand was no longer bandaged, but the perceptive Ipollito noted that he was no longer wearing his bloodstone ring. This triggered another memory, which was very painful, though not as bad as a Cordelia vision. This brought back his memory of Carlos being ambushed, and Carlos's wearing the Conte's ring and losing it to Leo.
Roggerio further related his unpleasant performance before Leo, wondering aloud why his song had as negative an effect as it did. The Conte replied that Leo was cursed. When pressed for details, he explained that when a man loses his sense of taste and smell, it is a physical failure of the body. When Leo Dorvinian loses his sense of taste and smell, it is a self-inflicted curse. All magicks, he explained, exact a toll upon those who use them. The toll may not be immediate, but it is there, and is greater and more terrible as the nature of the gift increases. Leo's folly was in seeking immortality, and his price was to lose that which made his life most worth living. His mad quest for power, the Conte explained, was but a paltry attempt to replace that which he cannot have. Indeed, the Conte spoke from experience, referring to the burns that he takes from touching the cross. Such terrible curses, he explained when questioned by Ipollito and Roggerio, can not be undone in the course of one's own life. They must be paid off, which is what the Conte has sought to do by trying to live out his final days in tranquillity in Florence. Unfortunately, that has not been allowed to pass.
The Conte said that honor demanded that he seek out his servant, Carlos, and rescue him from the Dorvinians. It was suggested that Sebastiano could divine his location if he had some personal effect of Carlos, and so Drucella was quickly abled to produce a blood-soaked rag that Carlos had used to bind his hand before. The Conte, in his farewell, said that he would try to be discreet in liberating his manservant, but it would undoubtedly get ugly, and he apologized in advance to Sebastiano.
Sebastiano, in the subsequent conversation with Ipollito and Roggerio, said that he would nevertheless side with honor in this regard, and allow the Conte to go about reclaiming his servant in his own way.
