A Horse of a Different Color
GM: Erik Hanson
Players:
Joshua Kronengold: Ipolitto Sforza, a 12 year old noble
Lisa Padol: Roggerio, a musician with a hidden past, in Ipolitto'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 Ipolitto. (Matt is no longer the only non-Jewish player, and the GM is not Jewish)
Rachael Tang: Bella Ziani, midwife and visionary
Prominent NPCs:
Horatio Sforza: Ipolitto's oldest brother, Sebastiano's heir
Domenico Sforza: Ipolitto's other older brother, destined for the Church, but has not yet sworn his vows
Pasquale Sforza: Country cousin of the Florentine Sforzas
Renier: A Diabolist, charming, glad to help the Sforzas. Roggerio used to be part of his circle. Still part are Antonio and Cain.
Antonio: A friendly archer who makes arrows in sets of nine. The first 8 hit whatever he aims at. The last hits whatever Satan wants it to.
Cain: A werewolf who can shift any part of his body to that of a wolf.
Pasquale Sforza was holding a hunt at his country estate. It was a hunt for fabulous creatures, like the faerie-touched butterfly he displayed. The area where the greatest number of such creatures was found would be consecrated by the Church representatives.
This disturbed our heroes greatly. Roggerio had promised to aid the Good Folk when he could. Bella feared that if the Church anchored the Good Folk, there would take it out on the local peasantry. Rafael worried about an imbalance between the three forces of Heaven, Hell, and Faerie. I forget why Ipolitto objected to the Church's actions, and I think Vincent was just bored.
In any case, Ipolitto's brothers, Horatio and Domenico, also agreed that the church was wrong in this case. Domenico remained behind, but Horatio went with the group. Roggerio played a song to warn the Good Folk of the Church's intention, and our heroes set out. Rafael was using a telescope, and at odd intervals saw a little man chuckling at him. Suddenly he saw the little man at full-size. This was one of the Good Folk, who appeared to the entire party. A large butterfly net fell on Vincent, who was not impressed.
The faerie said that Roggerio's message had been received and everyone was amused. He eventually agreed to let Vincent out of the net, and something Vincent said convinced Bella that he was a coward. This offended Vincent. I think all of this went over the heads of the other PCs. If I remember correctly, the little man sent some kind of glamour to guide the PCs in the correct direction. The PCs followed, with Horatio, at least until the stampede.
Stampede? Oh yes, for just because strange creatures were being hunted for their wondrousness, that didn't mean an ordinary hunt wasn't going on as well. Someone had stampeded a herd of boars. Chaos ensued.
Vincent managed to kill one boar with his arrows. He then did what Vincent does best: He raised the boar from the dead. The boar, which did not appear to be dead, would prove a good distraction. He decided not to waste his time with the boars, and went to seek the center of the magic.
Horatio slapped Bella's horse and sent it running away from the boars somehow this brought Bella into contact with the Renier's party and I believe somehow she lost her seat on a horse Renier instructed Cain to take care of her. Cain lifted her onto his horse. He responded to her babbling with grunts, nods, and the occasional "You will want to hang on now".
Ipolitto harried one of the boars and instructed the dismounted Roggerio to face this boar with a spear. Roggerio did, aided greatly by Rafael, who cast calming spell to steady the musician. The boar impaled itself on the spear, and Ipolitto helped finish it off.
As Roggerio stared in amazement at what he had done, two more boars headed in their direction. Before they could attack, Antonio fired two of his arrows, using his diabolical skill. The first arrow went through the left eye of the left boar, while the second went through the right eye of the right boar, dropping both animals instantly. In the ensuing conversation and chaos, Roggerio slipped away, having come to the same conclusion that Vincent had. The boars were a distraction, and he had to find the center of magic, without leading the Diabolists there.
Eventually, Bella, Horatio, Ipolitto, and Rafael were reunited. They found a young peasant woman, and politely answered questions. She was, of course, one of the Good Folk in disguise. She gave them directions to the center of the magic.
Vincent and Roggerio had already arrived. The center was a magical spring, and both figured out that all the enchanted animals had drunk from that stream. Roggerio tried to convince his horse to drink from it as well. His idea was that he would tell the church representatives that the stream had in fact been located somewhere other than where it was, using the horse as evidence. The horse, however, had far too much sense to drink from an obviously enchanted stream. Roggerio tried feeding him salt this made the horse thirsty, but he still resisted. Eventually, Roggerio decided he just couldn't do that to his horse.
He did however, have a discussion with Vincent. For some time, all of the PCs had known, in character, that Vincent was a necromancer. Lee knew that we all knew out of character, but thought that only Bella knew in character. It struck me as potentially unfair that Lee did not realize that we all knew in character as well, so I wanted to find an excuse for Roggerio to let it slip. However, I did not want this to be in a context where it would bite Vincent. Since the two men were alone, this was the perfect opportunity.
Once Vincent understood Roggerio's none too subtle hints, he warned Roggerio to be careful. This was actually not a threat, but a general warning. He liked Roggerio. Roggerio, while he finds the idea of necromancy disgusting, also finds himself fascinated with Vincent, despite himself.
Vincent: how did you know?
Roggerio: Please, I -am- a master of intrigue.
The rest of the group caught up with them. On hearing that Roggerio's horse would not drink from the stream, the young woman stroked the horse's nose. It drank, and turned a bright purple, inspiring Rachael to come up with the title for this scenario.
Bella decided to drink as well. Her hair turned into feathers. Horatio was horrified, and said that this proved that the church was right to want to exorcise the place. It was only with great difficulty that he was talked out of this position. What convinced him was not talk of God's will, but the fact that the Satanists wanted the ground consecrated. Our heroes asked the old woman if they could take some water from the well. She said they might, so long as they did not plan to use against the Good Folk. Everyone except Horatio took some. Bella covered her head so that her hair could not be seen. The group bid the old woman a polite farewell, and positioned themselves in a grove far off from the one when they found the stream. They proceeded out of there, Roggerio at the head, leading the horse. He announced the group's success in finding the heart of the magic, citing his horse as proof.
The church officials were convinced. Theoretically, that should have been the end of that. However, our heroes noticed that not only was Renier not at all distressed, but he also had a bag. Something inside that bag was wiggling.
Our heroes feared the worst. Vincent and Roggerio rode up to Renier, Cain, and Antonio. Roggerio tried to distract the Satanists by apologizing for not having thanked Antonio earlier for saving his life. As Antonio assured Roggerio that there were no hard feelings -- why, Roggerio had clearly been in a state of shock -- Vincent attempted to cut through the bag. Alas, Cain instantly detected the silver dagger, and whatever was in the bag was, by now, also in some kind of chains. As part of the distraction, Roggerio tried to pretend to be drinking from a skin filled with faerie water. Unfortunately he swallowed a good mouthful, and grew a wolf's tail. Our Heroes beat a hasty retreat.
The faerie woman approached Rafael, and expressed her concern. Someone had stolen one of the Good Folk themselves. Rafael used his mystical senses, and saw that the little man they had met earlier was chained in the clearing at ground zero of where the exorcism would be performed. Our Heroes decided that something needed to be done.
After some consultation, they came up with a plan. Roggerio would attempt to distract the priests performing the exorcisms while Ipolitto and Rafael's would rescue the faerie men. Bella convinced Domenico to switch the priest's holy water with the water from the faeries' spring.
As the exorcism began, Roggerio threw himself at the foot of the bishop and cardinal performing the exorcism. He shouted that he was bewitched twitching his new horse's tail as proof. Renier smirked. The priests were indeed convinced and tried to hasten the exorcism. Confusing things further, Vincent's undead boar chose that moment to reappear.
Random NPC: Shoot it again! It's bound to drop any moment!
Ipolitto and Rafael were able to rescue the Good Folk man in the confusion. The priests made Ruggerio's tail fade away. Then, the bishop, an extremely holy man, poured the faerie water, which he thought was holy water, on the ground. Rafael and Renier were the only ones who knew what happened next.
Satanists and Cabalist both saw an angel above the bishop's head. The angel was furious when the fake holy water was poured, and struck the bishop with lightning. All everyone else saw, was the bishop falling over. They believed, and Roggerio believed as well, that the old holy man had tried to channel too much power for his frail body.
This is an idea borrowed from Hellblazer. The angel didn't care why the ritual went wrong, simply that it went wrong. This was something that would bother Roggerio when he found out about it. In the meantime, Rafael went over to Renier and cursed him. Renier said that he had been cursed before, and bore it willingly in service to his Lord.
Erik was concerned that he had railroaded the plot, since he had intended Renier to score that part of a victory which he had scored. I said he had actually lucked out. He had not forced the PCs to do anything, and the reason the villains were successful was that the PCs had been too clever for their own good. Bella's extra twist on the plan was what had really caused the Satanists to win their victory. As for their goals? This proved to be even more complex than the PCs originally anticipated.
On the bright side, the man they had been sent to impress, Vitale Dorvinian, was impressed and delighted by all the antics, and vowed to use all his influence to get his family to hold the famed Dorvinian wine fest in Florence.
