presents...
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The Sword of St. Pierre
Game Date: 07/28/06
Elsa located the Donati in Reinascienza. Although Renato hadn't used his proper name, a few questions established that the Knight had indeed sent her to take his place. Tall, strong, and businesslike, Elsa found that she fit in best with the carriage driver and footman, who they picked back up in Estivo della Verde. Their job meant that they were fairly well-traveled and had seen a lot, and appreciated a steady sword no matter what hand was wielding it. Luigi, the valet, apparently felt it was his duty to warm the Eisen up and flirted with tenacity, even in the face of constant rejections and occassional threats to his well-being. Maria, the maid, was a little uncertain of what to make of the woman warrior and maintained an attitude of awe that lasted just about to Numa. En route, Elsa wanted to know just what her charges were capable of. Could they defend themselves at all? Father Donati professed that Theus was his shield, which just got an eyeroll and a huff from Elsa. Gianina produced her knife. "Let's see what you've got," Elsa said. "But last time, I killed a man with it," Gianina replied, apparently afraid she might take out her new bodyguard in a similar fashion. Elsa shook her head and just beckoned. Verdammt, the little strega was quick! Something about the skirts made it harder to see when she was getting ready to lunge forward, and her attack almost caught Elsa off-guard. She parried - just. "Not bad," she said blandly. "We can work on that." They arrived in Numa on Julius 9. The friends of the family who hosted the Donati in Numa were horrified and saddened to hear of the tragic deaths of two people so young and so beloved by their family. In an effort to take Angelo and Gianina's minds off of things, their hosts arranged for a lovely walk through Numa's Hanging Gardens. All manner of carefully tended plants bloomed in rich profusion here at the height of summer. The pathway twisted and turned, revealing little tableaus carefully constructed around a fountain or a Numan statue. Finally, they stopped for a rest at an open-air taverna, sipping wine and watching a pair of dwarf deer, nearly tame, browsing nearby. And then a pair of lions leapt down from one the terraces and killed the deer. The locals started running away - this was not normal. The Donati started to back away carefully, and Elsa drew her bow and started calmly firing arrows at the cats. She hit one, which paused, snarling. The other bounded after a tempting target - small and a little too slow to move: Pietra. Its claws raked her back. Father Donati promptly doubled around, putting himself between Pietra and the cat. Its mate, too dim to realize where the arrow had come from, joined in this new hunt. It clawed Angelo, which stopped Pietra's retreat. She came back around with her own knife and carved a gash in its haunch. The Eisen mercenary calmly continued to draw and fire. Her first target dropped with her second arrow. A third arrow took the remaining lion cleanly through the chest. It pitched over, yowling and thrashing for a moment before becoming still. Their host returned, apologizing profusely. He had of course had to see to the safety of his own wife first. Angelo waved it off, saying that he'd done a marvelous job of distracting them from their troubles. Back at the host's home, Angelo stitched up Pietra and the host summoned a doctor to see to Angelo's wound. The Eisen cleaned and repaired her arrows. Dinner was sedate. After dinner, a messenger arrived from the Numan Library. Father Tancredo, an old teacher of Angelo's from the seminary, had heard of his arrival in town. As it happened, he could really, really use the assistance of his old pupil. Tancredo was the supervisor in charge of the third floor of the Numan Library. A well-appointed reading room took up the front third of the floor; the rest of it was the stacks of books. Along the left wall in the reading room section, there was a curtain tented around a twenty-foot square piece of floor. Father Donati seemed to recall something about a shrine inside the library, but it was Elsa who knew all about it, chapter and verse. St. Pierre, one of the Witnesses of the First Prophet, had died defending himself here against Imperial guards with a sword he'd taken from the wall. The sword was enshrined here, just where Pierre had taken it down. Father Tancredo limped to greet them. He was older, in his mid-sixties, but still powerfully built. However, he was on crutches with a cast around his leg. He leaned into Angelo in lieu of a manly embrace and was introduced to Lady Donati and Donna Pietra. Finally, he explained why they were here, simply by taking them over to the curtained area. The shrine, he said, was closed for yearly maintenance - the sword needed cleaned and oiled annually, or else it would corrode. The staff took the opportunity to scrub any soot from devotional candles off the walls, clean the gilded altar, and so on. He drew back the curtain a small amount to usher them in. Inside was the small altar, ornamented with a relief carving of St. Pierre holding the sword covered in hammered gold. Large candles stood to either side, and a rack stood ready to accept smaller, devotional candles. On the wall was a fresco, again depicting St. Pierre in his final moments, fighting the legionnaires. The sword itself was not shown, but brackets were mounted so that the real thing could be set on the wall in the right place to appear in Pierre's hand. But the sword wasn't in those brackets! Continue to next game.
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