presents...
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In Vestini lands, the locals know about the mountains. The eastern mountains, forbidden by Church decree - for there may be passes within them that lead to the heretic Cresent Empire - also hide the last surviving remnants of the cursed Bianco family. Vestini noblemen, when they come of age, often brave those mountains to seek out a Bianco or else a Serrano, continuing a crusade called in 1175. Which is why the bright Bianco have gone somewhere else.
Legion's Prophet details an enclave of Legion worshippers on Mondavi Island. They believe that Lorenzo Island didn't disappear - it sunk. And, with Legion's aid, they intend to raise it up, signalling a new era of evil in Theah.
They are entirely incorrect about Lorenzo Island. That won't stop them from perpetrating atrocities in pursuit of that goal, though, and they make a fine excuse to send your PCs into the Vodacce catacombs. Additionally, if you are interested in running the events on Caligari Island detailed in "Montaigne Revolution," this adventure can be used to foreshadow that. (Spoilers for those events follow.)
The cult numbers some twenty to thirty individuals under the sway of Mateo Bianco. Of those, about a third are strega, mostly Half-Blooded bastards. There is at least one Lachesis, a noblewoman of Prince Mondavi's court. The rest are men that Mateo found useful and lured in with promises of wealth and power.
Mateo formed the nucleus of his cult five years ago. He initially catered to the nobility, offering supposed favors from Legion in exchange for cash. His Black Masses could allegedely bring good fortune to the petitioner, bad fortune to an enemy, alter Court strands, and perform other feats of influence beyond what the strega could. Whether through magic, skill, suggestion, or happenstance, some of the "favors" paid off enough that he found a patron in Donna Violetta Mondretti and, eventually, her husband Don Giuseppe as well.
Two years ago, a particularly blackhearted merchant captain of Mateo's acquaintance offered him a remarkable find - a Highlander girl who had fits and visions. He thought Mateo might find a way to use those to further gull his clientele. Mateo promptly bought her and learned enough Avalonian to make sense of her ranting. When her visions returned again and again to the terrors of a sinking Vodacce island, Mateo came to believe that infernal Providence had brought her to him.
He declared the girl to be his Oracle, giving tongue to a clear message from Legion. The island of her visions must be none other than Lorenzo Island. Rather than pull it outside of reality, Queen Marietta somehow submerged it beneath the sea with her Sorte. All that the right strega need to do is find the right strands, pull hard enough, and surely the island will return to the surface! And this, in turn, will herald some awesome gains for Legion's faithful. Mateo occassionally speculates on what the island will hold for them, fanciful visions of undead or demonic servants set to combat the Fourth Prophet.
The Oracle's visions are vivid and consistent. Those who doubt Mateo are invited to "test" her during her fits, to see if they can interrupt them or otherwise show that she is faking them. To date, nothing has stopped or altered her pronouncements. She was instrumental in building Mateo's up from a peddler of dark magic to the leader of a cult with long-term goals and aims. Her continued presence is beneficial, but the cult has sufficient members to be self-sustaining at this point.
The enclave doesn't have any strega nearly as powerful as Queen Marietta; they don't even have an Atropos among them. This is only a minor obstacle, of course. Mateo, and a handful of his followers who also understand Avalonian, listen carefully to the Oracle's words during her fits, seeking to uncover directives from Legion. Unsurprisingly, Mateo has uncovered a series of revelations in her words that form a continuing outline of tasks for Legion's faithful to accomplish. When these tasks are completed, Legion will reveal fully to them what they must do to raise the island. The tasks are of a typically infernal nature - priests to be disgraced, victims to be sacrificed, officials to entrap and blackmail.
The cult gathers at least once a week, near midnight on Voltadi. All the members save Mateo preserve their anonymity with masks, hoods, or heavy veils. Mateo knows them all, and some of them know a few others in the group. Mateo leads them in a Black Mass, a perversion of the standard Vaticine rite. He espouses his own view of the hierarchy among Legion's faithful. Strega, Legion's daughters and handmaidens, are clearly given power over lesser men and women. They should, as sorcerors, rule over non-sorcerous mortals - except, of course, the Unbound. This peculiar distinction - which, unsurprisingly, Mateo shares - is a mark of Legion's highest favor. Legion protects the Unbound from even their (Legion's) own handmaidens, because the Unbound are meant to rule over the strega as the strega rule over others.
In addition to reinforcing this core theology of the cult, if the Oracle has spoken during the week, her statements are shared. If Legion has revealed another task to Mateo, he informs the faithful and assigns people to carry it out. Those who have performed tasks for their Dark Lord are rewarded. In addition to a boost in their status within the group, women have the privilege of sharing Mateo's bed. Men, making up the bulk of the group and its lowest-status members, are allowed one or more nights with a strega of Mateo's choosing.
They have formed an unholy chapel deep within the catacombs of Mondavi Island. It consists at least of one large room for worship; the Oracle's cage is kept there as well. There are also side chambers which can serve either to house cultists or sacrificial victims. While most of the cultists maintain lives aboveground, some find it necessary to disappear from time to time, and there is always someone on hand to listen for any word from the Oracle. Additionally, new recruits are kept in the catacombs while Mateo indoctrinates them.
Mateo Bianco is the organizing force behind the cult. Darkly handsome, Mateo exudes at all times a confidence and charisma that draws people to him. He understands how to give and withold approval and how to use isolation and group pressure to enforce obedience in his flock.
Before he acquired his Oracle, Mateo was not a very sincere minion of Legion. He knew of his family's dark heritage and had been raised to know some of the appropriate rites, but considered it rubbish. A born showman, he sold his "Black Masses" and magic to whomever would buy without believing in it himself for a minute.
In his new operation, he is the Prophet of Legion interpreting the words of the Oracle. At first, this was just another con for Mateo. But the Oracle's clearly supernatural visions, combined with more power than Mateo's ever held in his life, have made him into a believer.
Mateo prefers to use his silver tongue and natural charm to get what he wants or to get out of trouble. He is a skilled liar and is perfectly capable of feigning any reaction that he thinks might assist him. If there looks to be violence, he has no qualms about sacrificing some of the lower-ranked members of the cult to cover his escape.
Mateo Bianco, Villain. Brawn 2, Finesse 2, Wits 4, Resolve 3, Panache 5.
The Oracle (Una MacIntyre) is kept in a four-foot tall cage in the main gathering area. Her eyes are so pale as to be almost colorless, and they now dominate her thin, gaunt face. Una is afflicted by visions - an unlucky sign among the MacIntyre, who keep to the Old Ways but mistrust the Sidhe, as Highlanders do. An exceptionally unscrupulous Vodacce trader bought her outright from her supertitious family when she was 15 and resold her to Mateo.
The Highlander girl is in a bad state. She is malnourished, maltreated, weak, and tormented by violent visions that come more and more frequently. She tries her best to do what Mateo asks only because he rewards her with food ("offerings to the Oracle") afterward. Since coming to Vodacce, the sinking island has become her most frequent vision, but Una can foretell other events at the GM's option.
Una MacIntyre, Henchman. Brawn 0 (2), Finesse 1 (2), Wits 2 (3), Resolve 3 (4), Panache 1 (2). (Una's stats at full health are shown in parenthesis; her years in the cage underground have weakened her mind and body.)
Donna Violetta Mondretti is a Lachesis strega and the senior witch of the group. She is not a very powerful strega and first came to know Mateo when she needed to improve her husband's fortunes at court but was unable to do so herself. She was entirely taken in by the charlatan, and their cloak-and-dagger meetings added an addictive drama to her life. Mateo didn't even have to try to seduce her.
After he got his Oracle and started changing his line of patter, Violetta was one of his first converts. Getting her husband into the cult took a little more doing - Don Giuseppe predictably resisted an arrangement that gave his wife authority over him, and gave another man authority over his wife. But he was not an especially strong-willed man, and Mateo's infernal charm and a few "proofs" of his power eventually wore him down and won him over.
Violetta is Mateo's eyes and ears in Mondavi's court at Chiarisa. She serves him absolutely loyally and devotedly and revels in her position as second-in-command of the cult. As a poor strega with a lackluster husband, she was never an important figure in court. But when Lorenzo Island rises again, she will be a queen commanding Legion's army - and then she'll show them all.
Violetta Mondretti, Villain. Brawn 2, Finesse 3, Wits 3, Resolve 2, Panache 2
Legion's Prophet and his followers can be used simply as a "Villain of the evening." In the course of following one of "Legion's dictates," they kidnap someone or something the PCs will want to rescue. Clues (or Sorte strands) lead to the catacombs. A retro dungeon crawl, complete with crypt ghouls and traps, can lead to a final encounter with Mateo and his minions in their dark chapel. In this case, you may want to ignore Mateo's Recurring Arcana.
For a game set in the Vodacce Islands, the PCs can encounter members of the cult in any strata of society. A friendly strega NPC from court may begin acting strangely as she is drawn into the cult, or a secretly Half-Blooded jenny might come to the PCs for help with the strange Unbound man who is threatening to turn her over to the authorities.
Once the PCs have run afoul of Mateo and his minions, they can keep returning, doing whatever dastardly thing the GM needs to have done. Mateo is mentally very flexible and adaptable: even if the PCs free Una MacIntyre or destroy his cult, he'll reinvent himself yet again and return to haunt them. With his Oracle gone, he may have to abandon his dreams of raising Lorenzo Island (or else seek out Beatrice Caligari, who is rumored to be as powerful as Queen Marietta herself). But he's likely to cling to the idea that he's a Chosen of Legion now.
If your campaign may involve the sinking of Caligari Island, this game offers some clear foreshadowing. Una MacIntyre, if rescued, will require some time and care to heal from the trauma of the past two years. However, if the PCs are compassionate enough to do so (or otherwise provide for Una), she may warm up to them enough to discuss her visions. Anyone making a moderately difficult History check (TN 25) will realize that the buildings she sees on the island, or the clothing worn by the people she sees drowning, is not from the eleventh century - it's modern! The History check is only TN 20 for anyone from the Vodacce islands, and anyone from Reinascienza or Caligari Island can get a straight Wits check, TN 20, to recognize their home in her description.
Mateo will take a definite interest in any PCs he hears about who are Unbound or competent Fate Witches. Donna Violetta keeps him informed of visitors to the prince's court; some of his other faithful keep their eyes and ears open elsewhere. He will seek to kidnap and indoctrinate Unbound PCs into his theology (although he will surely invent a reason why, of the two Unbound, it is Mateo who should be in charge). Those who refuse will be meat for the crypt ghouls. He takes a more sedate view of noble strega, having Donna Violetta sound them out. If they seem like they would be sympathetic and useful to the cause, they are recruited. He frequently attempts to threaten or cajole any "secret" strega (bastard Half-Blooded daughters hiding their Sorte) he notices reacting to his lack of strands into joining him.
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