The Dorvinian Wine Festival: A Simple Twist of Fête

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

Lee and Rachael did not make this session.

Prominent NPCs:

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

Horatio Sforza: Ipolitto's oldest brother.

Comte 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.

Carlos: Spanish, the Comte's only servant

Leo Dorvinian: Head of the Dorvinian family. which is famous for its annual wine festival, held in a different city every year.

Vitale Dorvinian: Young member of the Dorvinian family. The Sforzas made certain to impress him so that he'd use his influence to have this year's wine festival held in Florence.

Nobby: Shapeshifting faerie who married a mortal woman

Mook: A mortal man favored by the faeries, part Grover-the-muppet, part Bab5's Zathros, and part Dustin Hoffman's Rainman. An absent minded kleptomaniac, Mook can also be extremely useful. He has a perfect memory for everything he sees, and he can use pre-prepared magic.

Brother Cedric Longfellow: English monk lending occasional aid to the Sforzas, a Renaissance Sherlock Holmes.

Renier: Charming leader of a group of diabolists. Roggerio used to be one of his followers.

Abdullah: Renier's latest recruit, Jebril's brother. Other diabolists include the archer Antonio and the unaging child Dolce.

The ancient Comte di Ceprano visited the Sforzas. Somewhat of a recluse, he had only now heard that the Dorvinians would be holding their annual wine festival in Florence. He begged the Sforzas not to allow this to happen. Pressed for details, all he would say was that the Dorvinians were a nest of serpents. Roggerio wondered exactly how this made the Dorvinians different from any other noble house. And to what could the Comte be objecting?

Sebastiano told Roggerio to speak to Vitale Dorvinian about the Comte's objection. Vitale paled when the Comte was mentioned and looked distinctly received to hear that he had been vague in his charges against the Dorvinians. He explained that when the Cepranos were exiled from Florence, they clashed with the Dorvinians in Milan. Pressed for details, all Vitale would add was this: The Sforzas should ask the Comte to swear to his charges against the Dorvinians on the cross.

To maintain plausible deniability, Ipolitto went to ask the Comte to do just that, pretending it was his own idea, brash youngster that he was. The Comte held Ipolitto's cross and repeated what he'd said, though his flesh smouldered and burned.

The PCs were taken aback at this twist, the word "vampire" not being known. Roggerio visited the Comte's house next, bearing an apology from Sebastiano for his nephew's behavior and asking when Ipolitto might come and apologize in person. Carlos, the Comte's servant answered the door. He said that the Comte wasn't up to visitors that day, but Ipolitto could come to apologize the next day. Roggerio noticed that Carlos' hand was bandaged.

Ipolitto and his retinue paid a visit the next day. Jebril, previously shocked that the aging Comte was being harassed by Ipolitto, was now surprised that, having apparently proved the Conte was of Eblis, Ipolitto trusted him. Both the Comte and Carlos had a bandaged hand. The Comte reiterated his warnings, adding that the Dorvinians were alchemists, as well as sorcerers. However, the Sforzas had gone to great lengths to get the Dorvinians to hold this year's festival in Florence, and there would be riots if it were canceled. What could one do to protect oneself?

Comte: Don't go.

Sebastiano Sforza decided he would remain at home, indisposed, but it would be suspicious if his entire household were to do so. But everyone tried to get more information.

Roggerio found a traveler who had attended the festival when it had been in another city. He had had a wonderful time and said that, while pickpockets and other criminals might be a problem, the wealthy, such as himself, could afford servants to see them home safely.

Roggerio also sought out Vitale Dorvinian, asking if there were any truth to the rumor that Leo Dorvinian, the family patriarch, had lost his sense of taste and smell. Vitale, clearly terrified of Leo, confirmed this, adding that this information was not meant to become general knowledge, however widespread the rumors might be.

Leo was reputed to be in a perpetual foul temper due to his inability to appreciate what he most loved, good food and drink, and to vent this temper most cruelly on the Dovinian servants. He was also reputed to ask a hapless guest at all of his feasts how the food was. No one had yet come up with an answer he found satisfactory. Ipolitto began thinking of what to say, while Roggerio decided to compose an instrumental piece designed to give one a sense of the feast. After all, he'd once written a piece that called to mind Dorvinian wine being poured into a glass.

The Sforzas continued to be concerned with what was in the various wines. Nobby was asked to send faeries to get samples of every casket of wine intended for the festival. The samples were analyzed, singly and in combination. by the Sforza servants under the direction of Bella and Brother Cedric. Mook's memory proved invaluable in keeping track of the results.

The results, while fascinating to Cedric, were relatively harmless. However, one faerie had not returned, and there were no samples of 5 of the wines, although the Sforzas knew which wines they were.

Jebril and Rafael determined not to drink any of the wines. Horatio, Liliana, Ipolitto, and Roggerio decided to avoid the five mystery wines. Horatio and Liliana could get away with a larger degree of abstinence than most, due to their reputations for temperance. Ipolitto decided to keep a sponge in his sleeve. I forget whether Roggerio did this as well.

Liliana did divination using cat's cradle figures. Erik used tarot symbolism to represent the figures, as we knew more about the tarot. Horatio got the Tower and was warned to watch out for the pride that goeth before a fall. I don't recall what card he used for Ipolitto, but he was told that he should attempt to keep his passions in check or they would be his undoing.

Ipolitto: If at any time you notice that I am in danger of following my passions, please inform me.

Rafael: With pleasure, my lord.

Roggerio got the Devil and was told to beware lest he become the slave of his appetites. Both the caution and the symbolism were appropriate.

On the eve of the festival, Roggerio carried a wine glass with a piece of wood in it. Nobby had enchanted the wood so that it would point to the missing faerie. Roggerio discovered that the faerie was down in the wine cellars. Of course, before he learned this, he had to partake of a glass or two of Dorvinian wine. He told one of the servers that he wanted to moderate his appetite sufficiently to enjoy the entire range of wines served throughout the festival. He was assured that this would not be a problem, which intrigued him. He also was greeted by many who wanted a word with or a tune from the well known musician favored by the rulers of Florence. It therefore took him some time to traverse the floor.

Ipolitto too had to speak to many, especially nobles of his own age. Wanting to stay sober, he suggested that, rather than try to see who could drink most or fastest, as his peers urged, they try a tasting contest, which, not at all coincidentally, played to Ipolitto's strengths, as he is perceptive, passionate, and picky.

Ipolitto eventually slipped away from the high table to join Roggerio. Meanwhile, Jebril and Rafael sat in one of the commoner's areas, conspicuously not drinking. One of the revelers grabbed Rafael's kipot, putting it on his own head. Jebril used his magic to make the ground shake, causing the reveler to trip. The kipot was retrieved. We started humming the theme music from The Odd Couple.

Jebril joined Ipolitto and Roggerio, and the three slipped into the cellars. Erik called for a stealth roll. Ipolitto and Jebril were fine, but the somewhat inebriated Roggerio was spotted by servers. Brazening it out, he bowed gallantly, stepping out of the servers' way and motioning for them to pass him. The servers did a double take, but decided that it was more important to get the food and drink out on schedule to avoid angering Leo Dorvinian than to worry about one genially inebriated guest wandering slightly out of bounds. Fortunately, I rolled better for the next stealth check, made further into the cellars, and the guards swore at a passing cat.

By now, Ipolitto, Jebril, and Roggerio were in the Dorvinian alchemical labs. The Dorvinians had the faerie in a small jar and were bleeding it slowly to see what the alchemical and/or alcoholic possibilities of faerie wine were. Ipolitto took the jar back to the festival, giving it to Rafael, who brought it to Nobby at the Sforza home.

Roggerio and Jebril continued into the cellars, finding a locked door. Jebril used his power to force the door open. Inside, a woman was being bled, much as the faerie had been. Roggerio untied her and told Jebril to get a cup of her blood for analysis. Jebril was disgusted, but did so. The woman whispered that she was the niece of the Comte di Ceprano.

Jebril's brother, Abdullah, stepped out of the shadows. Abdullah was, among other things a useful GM tool to tidy up the explanation of why folks could just waltz into the Dorvinian laboratory. Abdullah had disabled any physical or magical traps or wards that the PCs hadn't. How was he able to do this? His own gift from Satan, still unknown to the PCs, was immunity from all magic. Stealth, melting into shadows, and so on were all things he could do on his own. Why was he there? He had taken something from the labs for the diabolists, declining to say what.

He now offered to return the woman to her uncle without being seen. He promised to share credit to Roggerio and Jebril. Roggerio insisted on coming as well, saying that he had sworn a sacred vow. This was true: He'd long since promised the Virgin Mary that he would never refuse to aid a woman in distress. Jebril grudgingly told his brother that they were in his debt. Roggerio wished Jebril hadn't said that, but as Ipolitto pointed out later, the debt existed whether or not it were formally acknowledged.

Roggerio asked after the diabolists as Abdullah led him and the woman to the Comte's house and rain started to fall. When he said he shouldn't be asking, Abdullah said that there was nothing wrong with this. These were Roggerio's friends and he clearly cared about them. He promised to deliver Roggerio's greetings to them all, especially Antonio, to whom Roggerio sent his warmest regards. Roggerio mentioned that he had written a song for Dolce and would like her to hear it. Abdullah told him to play it in his room, with the window open, on the night of the full moon.

By now, they had reached the home of the Comte di Ceprano. Carlos answered the door and brought the Comte's niece inside, telling the two men to wait. He returned shortly, informing them that the Comte would be delighted to thank them the next day. Abdullah melted into the shadows while Roggerio made his way back to the festival, sheltering his lute against the rain.

Jebril brought the blood to the Sforza home where it was discovered to have unholy properties. Jebril decided to remain behind while Rafael returned to the festival. He arrived at the same time as Roggerio.

Erik reminded us that it was raining. Beth was the first of us to realize that Erik was saying that the festival was indoors. How were the two gentlemen to explain their soggy state?

Roggerio shook himself off and grinned at the startled majordomo.

Roggerio: She was worth it!

Majordomo (looking at Rafael): Was she also worth it?

Roggerio (to Rafael): How is your father?

Alas, the musician failed his attempt to live up to his reputation of Master of Intrigue. He failed to convey to Rafael that his question was meant to give Rafael an excuse for wet clothes. Rafael gave him a blank look.

Meanwhile, Ipolitto, having returned to the high table, was asked the Dread Question by Leo Dorvinian.

Leo: How is the food?

Ipolitto: Better than I expected.

This was enough to silence Leo on the subject, though he remained unsatisfied.

A hapless servant accidentally spilled wine on Leo Dorvinian. Leo decreed that the man should henceforth be in charge of watering plants, an unexpected show of mercy that made the servant pass out with relief while everyone laughed.

Roggerio took his place at the low end of the high table, where he ate, drank, and composed music. The more he ate, the more he was able to drink. This had to do with drugs in the food, which included amphetamines, particularly in the case of sugared fruit where the sugar was cocaine. Ipolitto put some away in a pouch for later.

This came from a Ravenloft campaign Erik played in years ago, and he pointed out an interesting side effect: the amphetamines wear off before the alcohol, resulting in a very hard crash the morning after. Erik took Leo's Question from the same campaign. Someone actually gave a satisfactory answer to the question of how the food tasted: Exactly as it should.

Rafael continued to abstain from the feast and opened his senses to search for any taint of the unholy in food or drink. He found none. Roggerio successfully abstained from the first three untested wines, but I decided that he was sufficiently inebriated that he did drink the fourth. Ipolitto used his sponge, while Liliana and Horatio were openly moderate enough that they could abstain from the four wines without drawing undue attention.

At last, the fifth unanalyzed wine, the final wine of the evening, was brought out. This was served exclusively to guests at the high table, i.e., the attending nobility and ranking clergy of Florence, as well as favored servants such as Roggerio.

Ipolitto used his sponge yet again, and Horatio openly abstained. Rafael abstained from this as he had from the rest of the feast. Jebril wasn't there. Roggerio, forgetting, raised the glass and actually had the wine on his lips when Leo said something about it being a rare vintage. This reminded Roggerio of the faerie and the woman in the cellar. Brought to his senses, he put the wine down.

Beth said that Liliana would take a small sip and hope that this would be too little to cause ill effects. We later retconned this. Liliana started to take a sip. She was, however, briefly possessed by her grandmother's spirit, who usually haunts her in less overt ways. The possessed Liliana immediately put the wine down, untasted. The grandmother, Erik decided, had spent the evening talking with various fellow spirits and had just learned the secret of the Dorvinian dessert wine.

This too was a nod to the Ravenloft game, as well as an Evil GM (TM) twist. The dessert wine had what Erik referred to as the Harkonnen poison. One sip is enough to cause addiction, and once addicted, the poison kills you if you stop taking it. This lent a new meaning to the well known saying: Men would kill for a sip of Dorvinia wine.

The Sforzas learned all of this after the festival, when Cedric completed his analysis. Leo Dorvinian had been kind enough to give the Sforzas an entire bottle of the dessert wine. And Erik was amused to note the shift in the PCs' attitudes from "Great guys, those Dorvinians" to "The Dorvinians have to be taken down." Dorvinina delanda est.

Erik hadn't planned to force the question of who was addicted either way. As Lee and Rachael were not present, it seemed logical to decide that Bella was helping Cedric and did not attend the festival, while Vincent and his brother heeded the Comte's warning, passed on to them by the Sforzas.

Ipolitto, Rafael, and Jebril were clearly safe. Roggerio was a borderline case, but Erik figured that he was safe, not having actually drank any of the wine. We therefore agreed on the retcon for Liliana, it seeming unnecessary to single her out alone for poisoning. I doubt Erik would have objected if Beth wanted Liliana to have been poisoned, but I think it's best that she's not. First, the PC was being reasonably paranoid, and most of the time, that should count for something. Second, the long term consequences, particularly the political backlash for something essentially unstoppable, would have been severe, as Liliana was under Sforza protection. Erik commented that it was a tricky call figuring out how much to leak while still playing the Dorvinians intelligently and how much to hit us with the consequences of not discovering information that was quite difficult to learn. As it was, I think he slanted things just enough to keep the game from getting darker than we wanted.

Meanwhile, after the final toast, Carlos entered the building. Ipolitto and Liliana noticed he was wearing the signet ring of the Comte. Roggerio hastily, if belatedly, informed Ipolitto of the rescue of the Comte's niece.

Leo Dorvinian told Carlos that he thought there was an understanding between the Dorvinians and the Cepranos. Carlos said that had just ended. Leo apologized to his guests, but asked them to leave so he could attend to less pleasant business.

Roggerio played the piece he had just written both to encourage the guests to drift out and to catch Leo's attention. Leo was distracted, but heard about it later. Ipolitto decided that he simply must know what passed between Carlos and Leo Dorvinian, so he looked for a bribable servant. His plan was to use magic to take on the servant's form while sending the servant to sanctuary / new employment with the Sforzas. The servant nervously asked if Ipolitto could protect him from the Dorvinians and accepted his assurances, making a hasty exit.

By now, the guests had all left. Carlos mentioned the Comte's niece, and Leo said that he'd gutten what he needed from her. Then, he had hidden archers shoot Carlos with crossbow bolts. Carlos fell, but did not die. Leo pulled the Comte's signet ring from Carlos' hand, and his men dragged the hapless servant off.

This should have been Ipolitto's cue to leave, but Leo told his "servant" to follow him. Perhaps magic alerted him, or perhaps Ipolitto didn't have the right body language. I'm guessing the latter.

Leo led Ipolitto to a private room and poured 2 glasses of wine.

Leo: No doubt you were disturbed by what you saw.

Ipolitto: A little, my lord.

Leo (handing him a glass of wine): Drink this. It will calm you and steady.

Ipolitto took the glass and tried to pour the wine down his sleeve onto the sponge. Leo grabbed his arm. Ipolitto dropped the glass, spilling the wine. Leo shoved the second glass at Ipolitto while Ipolitto pulled his dagger and tried to cut Leo, aiming for the throat. The blade connected, but Leo didn't seem to notice.

Leo: Drink.

Ipolitto (dropping the magical disguise): I don't think so.

Unfortunately, Ipolitto opened his mouth to speak, and Leo forced the wine down his throat. Everything went black, and we agreed that this was a good place to break.

This was a dramatic final scene, but it had the problem of being focused on one player for far longer than it took to read or write the scene. This was more of a problem than it would normally be because it was the last scene. We couldn't leave till it was finished, but there was no pay off per se for waiting. Yet, Josh was not dragging things out; it was important for him to communicate precisely what Ipolitto was doing.

The scene did raise the question of why Leo did not take advantage of the opportunity to addict Ipolitto to the dessert wine. We decide that Horatio, missing his brother and charged with looking after him, would arrive after Leo had drugged Ipolitto with the wine to blur his memories, but before Leo could do more, Horatio found them. Leo didn't want to attempt to take on both Sforza brothers. Horatio pretended to believe that his precocious little brother, having had too much to drink, wandered into the private areas and passed out. He apologized to Leo and took custody of the unconscious Ipolitto.

Erik asked if Ipolitto's sister, Francesca, should arrive, chattering about how nice the Dorvinians had been to her on her trip, and turning out to have been addicted. The consensus was that she should not.

This was an interesting discussion because if he had just sprung an addicted Francesa on us, I do not know how much we would have actually complained. I still it was right not to do so, largely because of the mood we signed on for. Francesca being drugged would mean that even the best precautions are largely irrelevant. This may be the in the real world, but I prefer my games a little gentler in that regard.

Beth suggested the Dorvinians send home an unaddicted Francesca as a message of what they could have done. This led to a flurry of suggestions and counter-suggestions, and to an acknowledgment that, while Erik's decision to check with us was probably correct, there comes a point where the GM needs to cut off discussion, politely and firmly, and make a decision.