Game Log

An Engagment with Danger!

Game Date: 02/17/06
Anna's happiness and Prince Mondavi's ambitions color people's opinions.

Teodora was surprised but approved of Gianina's curiosity. The younger woman managed a respectful but not subservient manner that the old witch felt was becoming of her station, so she chatted in a passably amiable fashion. Gianina asked about her late husband Don Vittorio and what sort of a man he was; Teodora seemed to lack strong opinions on the man who'd fathered six children on her. He had been a good provider, and raised his sons into good, strong men - these were his deeds of which she knew and approved. Outside the family, he perhaps had a different reputation - a hard man, a strong man, maybe even a cruel man.

Gianina also asked about Vittorio's other son, her husband Antonio. (And at that point, a message came asking Teodora to join Antonio for a carriage ride.) Why did Teodora continue to support him (not that she was ungrateful for it!). Teodora gave four reasons: first, that her husband had wished it to be so. Second, that Antonio was doing a fine job of improving the family fortunes. Third, that Tomasso's connections were too narrow to achieve his ambitions. And four, that Antonio would have no sons (discounting his bastard) so control of the family would revert to her grandsons. Gianina did not ask more deeply about this oracle, which was perhaps for the best. Teodora then departed for her jaunt with Antonio.

Salvador handed off his finished manuscript to a contact who would route it through several channels before it made it to the publisher's. Then he headed home to check on Anna. She was happy, almost merry - a great lift of mood from the prior night, when she'd been ambivalently reserved. She confided in her brother than Don Tigran had visited her last night by climbing to her windowsill. She was clear that nothing improper happened (past the unauthorized visit) but found it very romantic that he'd come to find her for a private talk. She said that she'd urged him not to repeat his stunt, because he'd get caught eventually. When Salvador recieved the news with less than enthusiasm, she checked his strands and was disappointed to see that he, too, was in conflict with her betrothed. He reassured her that her happiness came first, and that if they were married, he'd put on a good face for his brother-in-law. He also offered his services in planning the wedding to make sure it was everything she wanted, which she gladly accepted.

Salvador promptly took himself to Cristoforo's room, woke his older brother up and smacked him across the face when he opened the door! Groggy and surprised, Cris was still winding up for a comeback blow when Salvador explained that Tigran had been in Anna's room and exactly where the hell had Cristoforo been? That nearly sent Cris out on an ill-advised trip to find and duel Tigran, but Salvador talked him down from that course of action. He promised security would include patrols on the roof as well tonight.

Francesca, meanwhile, left the confessional at Santa Sophia. Marco, across the street at a taverna, rose and came to greet her. But Francesca was not of a mood to go home just yet, what with Antonio and Teodora staring lightning bolts at each other. She suggested that they linger at the taverna, which Marco hestitantly agreed to.

The proprietor was surprised, to say the least, that a lady of stature should visit his establishment for bread, wine and olives. Men found other places to look, quickly - to be caught observing one of their fellows' wives would mean a fistfight, but to ogle one of the Donati women would probably mean a real duel with a much better swordsman.

(The GM offers the following purple prose to make up for the difficulty of properly role-playing the scene at table.)

Marco spent ten or so minutes carefully watching the table, or the wall, or his hands, not even daring to look in Francesca's general direction. He loved that she would do this, go into a taverna and to hell what other people thought of it. She was born a lady, but she had a mind and spoke it as clearly as, well, as the women he'd known growing up, his mother and her friends. He wasn't a scholar or even an orator himself, which just made her command of words more impressive in his eyes. But she was his father's wife and he daren't look at her.

He choked back passion and shame both, finally, and reproached himself. Was he a low man, to stare thus as the table while she talked? More in control now, he looked at her shoulder, then her hair, as they chatted of inconsequential and pleasant things. She turned to reach for wine, and he was able to admire her profile for a second before she turned back. He reddened, not sure if she'd noticed, and had to look away again. Eyes on the table in front of him, he nervously reached out for another olive, something to eat so he wouldn't need to speak.

What he touched was not an olive.

Her hand, cool and smooth like ivory, was under his. Startled, he looked up - and she was looking back. He heard her breath catch; her dark eyes were wide but not angry. Not angry at all; those bright and beautiful eyes were -

They both pulled back at the same time. Francesca turned to take up her glass; Marco hailed the propietor. Yes, yes it was time to be getting home, wasn't it? Yes, of course it was. Yes. Of course.

Father Donati closed the confessional and, hearing from Pietra that his mother had been seen leaving the house, took himself there to speak with Gianina. (Pietra also offered some advice on Don Tigran, the marriage and the Great Game - if this was about getting even with Salvador, surely there would be something else that could be offered to Tigran that would be acceptable? He'd proved that he could marry Anna if he wanted, after all.) He arrived just as Francesca and Marco returned, with Salvador about to leave and Gianina coming down the stairs to talk to her returning sister. Into this doorway gathering sauntered Don Tigran - on business, today; was Don Antonio about? Hearing that he was not - and shrugging off Salvador's implied accusations - he left word that he had been by and went off to the Palazzo Barozzi. Francesca went upstairs; Marco watched her go with a certain painful longing. The good priest and his brother exchanged a few words with veiled references that the unobtrustive Fate Witch hovering at the foot of the stairs marked for later thought; then Father Donati asked to have a few words with her.

Alone, he dumped the double-talk and proceeded with shocking honesty. His ward was a literate strega who needed training in her sorcery. If Lady Donati would assist, he would either see to her own education in writing, or else offer her absolution from her sorcerous sins. (The last bit was, perhaps, not so honest.) More than a little stunned, Gianina agreed to help the girl, but did not name a price.

Before leaving for his lunch appointment, the father asked if Donna Gabrielle was about. She was, but had to be brief. She would need to see him where she did her work, to explain the procedure to him before they actually did anything. She also couldn't guarantee the results, if the potion would make other people Unbound or maybe do something else. When he asked for a philter to aid memory, she shrugged and said that she didn't usually do things like that, or even know if they could be done, but would think it over. He should arrange further meeting through his brother.

Francesca had meanwhile found Anna, to see what she thought about the upcoming marriage. The girl bubbled happily as she had to Salvador. When pressed about Tigran's reputation, she reluctantly acknowledged that he had many lovers, but, well... he was a man, and that's the sort of thing men do, isn't it? Besides, she thought that as she became a better witch, she'd be better able to keep his affections. Francesca wished her luck and happiness and left for her room, now uncertain if breaking up the engagement was the best thing after all. Anna seemed happy.

Gianina burst in, full of news. Despite having been sworn to secrecy, she confided everything Angelo had told her to Francesca. There was some confusion at first - Francesca assumed that the girl knew how to read Sorte spreads, so what was the problem? - but when it was clear that she knew how to read-read, she got much more interested. "Learn and then teach me!" she urged. She was aghast to hear that Gianina was considering this life-threatening training for free and practically commanded her sister to get something out of the deal.

As they talked, they heard voices in the hall - some woman coming to visit Lady Ellen? It didn't concern them, so they went back to talking until word came that their husband was returning. Very concerned about what had happened in the carriage with the Lachesis strega, they hurried out of the room. Hurrying out the other way was Father Giulia Masacci, apparently Ellen's visitor.

Antonio came up, already upset. Why was a Masacci woman, even the priest, in his house? Ellen explained that she'd come to offer congratulations on her engagement as well as some spiritual counseling and what may have been warnings, but the Avalon paid those little heed as they seemed to her quite baseless. Gianina quietly checked her husband's strands - his main ones all seemed unstretched. Francesca watched Teodora, noticing that the usually commanding older woman was moving uncertainly toward her room.

Antonio excused himself. Gianina followed, bringing a tray of food and trying to comfort him. He waved her off, indicating an assortment of paperwork and musty books on his desk - he had a lot to do. He had a servant send out runners to collect his brothers, and was disturbed to hear that only Cristoforo could be found...

The other four had met in town for lunch in a rented room. Tomasso was late, having been thrown from his horse and injured when a pet spider jumped on it and startled it. The brothers decided that now was the time to act. Teodora would have to be sent away, and then something would have to happen to Antonio. Father Angelo's underworld contacts seemed like a good place to start - there could be a party thrown after Don Tigran's departure, and they could try and arrange things so that Don Antonio would be on his way to Zola's, late at night, and with no or insufficient guards. A simple robbery and murder, with an unfortunately high-profile victim.

Returning, they found their notes from Don Antonio and turned their feet to Palazzo Donati. Antonio gathered them into a room and presented some startling information.

Many people that the Eisen camped in Mondavi lands were an unsubtle threat from Seiger - "feed us, or else we'll just take the food and burn the towns." And the cowardly Prince, of course, fed them. But, Antonio had asked himself, if he really wanted to threaten Mondavi, how would he deploy the troops? The family logistician wasn't a military strategist, but it seemed like there ought to be lots of troops around the mainland captial of Agitatzione, oughtn't there? And in other places that threatened Mondavi's livelihood.

But that's not where most of the troops were. Sure, some of them were where you'd expect them to be. But more of them were near the borders, or rivers - as if they were to be ready to move out at a moment's notice. Move out - into other princes' domains.

Today, he'd taken Teodora out to Le Tende and asked her to look for Coins strands between some of the men there and the absent Prince. It was hard for her - she did not know Mondavi's strands that well - but she exerted herself and lo, the strands were there. Might that just reflect that they were finding employment in Mondavi's lands? Perhaps... but Antonio looked again at the chart he'd drawn showing approximate troop locations, and thought that perhaps not.

This was why he'd proposed Anna for Tigran. To do such a thing to her, to marry into a weak and timid prince's family - no, that would be unwise. But to marry into a family that might, by the next year, be kings of Vodacce? For that, he thought the match should be made.

Angelo instantly proposed that they should try to marry her closer to the trunk of the tree, to one of Mondavi's sons. Antonio, clearly eager to patch things up, admitted that he'd seized upon Tigran's unexpected appearance in town an an opportunity, and acted quickly. If a better match could be made, well, that would be better! Furthermore, Tigran had already offered him an insult, which offered a way out of the engagement. Most of the brothers looked puzzled, but Antonio declined to explain. A trip to Mondavi Island was proposed and accepted, and everyone but Angelo sent on their way.

The insult, as it happened, was Tigran's implied threat toward Ellen. She had spoken to Antonio about it that morning, and he had dug up the family tree he had used to track down her family. It showed that her grandfather was the last member of the Lotta family, a Villanova line that was wiped out in conflicts with the Caligaris when their family vendetta was new. The last of his line, Lotta fled to far Avalon for safety. As an Unbound, there were no strands for enemy strega to follow. The locals there apparently corrupted good Vodacce "Lotta" into one of their own words, "Locke," and there was the answer.

Francesca, meanwhile, remembered that she had to tell Gianina about what had happened that morning, with Marco and the olives and the eyes and everything! There was a lot of squealing, but Gianina was also more than a little worried. She broke out her Sorte deck and dealed a spread for Francesca, which seemed to indicate all sorts of forbidden love and resulting dishonor. Rather than taking this warning to mean that she should bury her feelings for Marco, Francesca thought she just had to be a bit more careful and think things through a bit more. Like for instance, she should learn Montaigne from Gabrielle, so if they had to run away to there, she'd be able to speak the language!

Composing themselves, they moved back out into the common area of the women's quarters, where Teodora was sitting quietly. Moving around her, Gianina had to stop to be sure she was seeing things right.

Teodora's most important strand - the Cups that went into Santa Sophia and that had for two years pointed to the church like an arrow - was moving.

Continue to next game.