Game Log

She Lies Unquiet

Game Date: 02/24/06
Angela Donati makes her presence felt.

Gianina said nothing about the moving strand, not realizing the full significance of it. Eventually, Teodora got up from her work to go to the funeral, turned around, and saw it herself. The older strega paled, gasped, and tottered for a moment before collapsing in a faint.

The women's quarters, and soon the house, was a buzz of instant activity. Anna hurried to her mother, although she was also so unnerved by the strands as to not be very useful. When Antonio was informed, he had the family doctor summoned and sent up. But since the old battleship seemed steady - good breathing and pulse, just shocked into a swoon - most of the Donati clan went on to the funeral. Anna stayed with her mother, and Cristoforo stayed to maintain his watch over Anna.

Father Donati had prepared a stirring sermon. He sympathized with the poor and the hard lives they lead on this earth; he praised the countess for her warm care of those who toiled for her. He railed against the violence done to the girl, warming up to a thundering climax on divine retribution.

Why was his brother Tomasso dancing a little jig in the front row?

A small motion had caught Francesca's eye; Ellen was standing on her right, and Tomasso was just past her. Above Tomasso, a spider the size of a chestnut was slowly dropping from the vaulted ceiling. She leaned past the Avalon woman to tap Tomasso on the arm, glancing up to point with her eyes, "Spider."

Gianina's eyes were drawn to the spider as well, but for a different reason: she suddenly noticed a thin but strong Swords strand hovering above Tomasso's head! The strand went right to the spider - something entirely unprecedented in her experience, as such basic animals did not typically form strands at all. She, too, tried to warn him.

Spider? Second damn spider today! Tomasso twisted and looked up; the spider suddenly dropped the remaining distance to the floor. It scuttled toward him, so he stepped on it. This was the disturbance Father Donati marked from the pulpit.

And then everyone in the church, excpet Father Donati, was suddenly overtaken by a visceral rush of guilt and shame. The worst things they'd done or failed to do suddenly loomed large in their memories. Many would later attribute it to the priest's sermon, marvelling at how effective his words on divine justice had been. The reaction was palapble; parishoners shuddered, blushed or paled; a few sat down, suddenly overcome.

The strega in the audience saw something else; for the barest moment, just a few seconds, the mass of strands weaving through the church snapped to something entirely different. The most important strands vanished, replaced by others: mostly red, but with all colors present. Gianina had enough presence of mind to look to her husband, to see how things went with him. Antonio gripped the rail in front of him, white-knuckled. His Rods strand going north was gone, and a twisted blue and red strand took its place - heading up into the air. Gianina looked up - and nearly fainted.

Her Sorte-sight showed her a tangled mass of red and black strands, holding together the vague form of a woman. It pulsed with hatred and death before fading from view, and the normal pattern of threads reasserted themselves throughout the church.

It was time to go. Gianina tried to get Antonio to leave, but he was too distracted to really understand the full measure of her concern. He stood aside to let her out of the pew, signalling Marco (who looked nearly ill and could not raise his eyes to his father's face) to escort her out. All over the church, other Fate Witches were similarly being helped out by husbands, brothers and sons. Outside, she tried to ask a Lachesis about what she saw; she got as far as "red and black strands" when the woman excused herself because "her husband was calling."

The funeral concluded; Father Donati was amazed at how many inqurires he got about confession the next morning. Lady Ellen stayed after to inform him about his mother, to congratulate him on the, er, stirring sermon, and oh yes, to mention that Father Masacci had been discretely badmouthing him. Angelo took this all in stride, resolving to go home to see how Teodora was doing. This would also enable him to leave a side door open so that Pietra could get in to look through Antonio's office for more information on what was going on with the Eisen and all that. It was a good night for it; Antonio had gone straight to his room after Mass and called for a bottle of strong spirits.

Salvador returned to the Barozzi Palace; it was a quiet, somber night. He re-established his own equilibrium before heading home to test Cristoforo's improved security. He got up the walls and into the garden easily enough; tossing pebbles against Anna's window summoned Cris before Anna. (Well, of course... Anna was with her mother.) Escape was easily accomplished, except for a little stumble at the end - too eager to be on the ground again, Salvador didn't have quite the grip he needed when he was almost to the cobblestones. His tumble brought the street guards who, seeing only Don Salvador, greeted him politely and reassured him that they were on top of things. He nodded and went up to the roof again - via the stairs this time - just to check with Cristoforo. He did know that Anna was not in her room, didn't he? His older brother gave him a disdainful look - well of course Anna was not in her room, but how would Don Tigran know that, if he came knocking? Besides, Teodora's window was right there. Satisfied that things were better tonight, Salvador retired.

Angelo checked on his mother; she was resting easily, put to sleep by a calming draught from the doctor. Satisfied (if perhaps disappointed), he asked Gianina what had gone on with Tomasso, and why she'd left the church. She explained the spider (GM: I don't recall if she mentioned the strand or not), and Angelo recalled how another spider had gone after his horse earlier in the day. (GM: Also, I don't recall exactly what Gianina told Angelo about why she left the church. Sorry! Email me with details and I'll post it.) Gianina did fill Francesca in on what had happened, wanting to stay in her sister's room that night and vowing not to set foot in Santa Sophia anytime soon.

Angelo went back to wait for Pietra; the girl returned with interesting news. Antonio had a lot of notes pulled from old genealogy charts, it seemed, including Lady Ellen's actual parentage. There had been a Lotta family and they all had, apparently, died out. But that wasn't Ellen's grandfather at all, who had been marked out with an abbreviation that some more searching showed meant "Serrano." Moreover, there was a stack of similar family charts, the final leaves of which were young, marriagable women. Nearly all had a male relative marked as "Unbound" somewhere in their history. One girl's brother had the trait - and Angelo clearly remembered her, because he'd met her and rejected her as a potential wife already. In addition to having Unbound relatives, Pietra's poking found a lot of notes that seemed to indicate some kind of Lorenzo blood in the majority of the families. Angelo was not at all pleased to hear that Antonio had lied to him about Ellen.

There was one more thing to do before bedtime. Angelo took Pietra into the sanctuary of the church and over to the Donati chapel. For a long moment, nothing happened. Then Angelo saw a dark shadow rise up from Angela's tomb. Pietra haltingly described something more detailed, more like what Gianina had seen. Then the shade lifted up both arms and brought them down swiftly; Pietra shrieked and brought her arms up in front of her face. There was a pause, and the ghost gestured again. Pietra looked through her arms, unhurt and now losing some fear. The ghost gestured a third time, and the girl dropped her arms entirely. Excited, Pietra started to say something to Angelo...

When a swarm of spiders formed! A living carpet of the arachnids came boiling out of the chapel. Pietra bolted; Angelo just stood there. Spiders crawled over him but otherwise ignored him; taking a look as they scrambled past, he also saw that they were of fairly harmless varieties. Pietra dashed through one of the sanctuary doors and slammed it behind her; the wave of spiders broke on the door and scattered. The church windows all shook, as if in a heavy wind, as the ghost tilted her head back... and then faded from sight.

Pietra had gone to get Fathers Turri and Sergio; both were clearly humoring her and attributing her fright to nighttime shadows. Father Donati met them before they got to the church proper, clearly fine. Pietra was surprised. The other priests returned to bed, and Angelo calmed his ward down. Eventually, she was able to describe the glowing blue thing, "like a shield" that kept the ghost's whipping strands from harming her...

Soldi, Quartus 8

Teodora awoke the next morning, gasping Angela's name. She regained her composure rapidly, even doubting her own eyes now that the strand was clearly not moving. Anna repeated the tale about restoration work; Gianina reported on the apparition she had seen the previous evening. Teodora immediately wished to go to Santa Sophia. Despite her earlier resolve, Gianina agreed to go with her, not wishing to appear weak before the older woman. Francesca and Salvador (who had also arrived to see how things were going) would go along as well. On the way out, Francesca made a request of Lady Ellen: would the literate Avalon go to the family library and see what she could find on ghosts? Because there was something in the church that might be a ghost. Somewhat skeptical, Ellen agreed.

Teodora made her way to her daughter's tomb and knelt, with some difficulty, to pray. No angry spirits rose up to attack her, though, and while there were more spiders about than were usual, they minded their own business. Salvador made his way to the confessional to let his brother know that they were all there; Father Donati practically bolted out, possibly expecting to see Angela extracting a bloody revenge on their mother. But all was quiet, and he knelt next to her by the tomb. She noticed him but didn't yet speak, ever unsure of what to say to her Unbound son. He finally broke the silence, asking after her health. She told him what she had seen even as she doubted it with her next breath; Angelo, on the other hand, was quite sure that she'd seen what she thought she saw. He asked her about strega ghosts, and she mentioned the legends of the Unravelled, but admitted that to her, they were more story than fact. Fontaine, in Vestini lands, would be the place to go. If angry ghosts were real anywhere in Vodacce, they would be real in Fontaine. He helped her to her feet and the Donati party made to go.

A man who had been kneeling nearby in prayer got up too, clearly following them. Angelo hurried on after, catching up as Francesca turned to see what the fellow wanted. They all recognized Sero, the lead musician from the Santa Sophia feast, who had "happened to overhear" their problems and knew that Theus had sent him here to Monfalcone to help. He was apparently some kind of occultist, claiming to occassionally fight ghosts. Well, at least an Unravelled had killed his father. They asked him what could be done; he asked in turn to know about the ghost and why she was angry. Everyone looked to Teodora, who gravely repeated the Official Family Version of events. Sero was clearly unconvinced that he had the full story - many people died from illness, after all, and they didn't usually become ghosts - but was too polite to say so. Obviously, something must have changed recently to awaken the ghost, and Tigran's presence at the funeral the night before seemed to most there to be likely. Teodora had named him as the cause of Angela's fever, and as far as everyone besides Father Donati knew, the first supernatural manifestation had been during the funeral. Salvador invited Sero to stay at the Donati home, which he gladly accepted. He departed to collect his belongings, and the Donatis continued homeward.

Speaking of the devil, Tigran was leaving Antonio's office as they were arriving. Antonio was shaking his head, saying that his brother-in-law would not be pleased with the news; Tigran sharply reminded him that his first duty was to his prince, not his brother-in-law. He left; Anna drifted out of Antonio's office as well and headed upstairs. Teodora, eyes narrowed and scowling behind her veil, fell in behind her daughter. Francesca went to go see what Ellen might have found; Tomasso appeared to talk to Angelo; Gianina followed her husband back into his office to apologize for her absense. Salvador caught Antonio's attention for just a moment, to explain that Sero would be showing up - Antonio was fine with having a guest in the house, but what was this stuff about something at the church?

Gianina undertook to explain as Salvador departed. Antonio was too distracted to be properly furious with her for not being there when Tigran had arrived. He looked haggard and was obviously somewhat hung over. She explained what had happened and why she'd left the funeral the night before and why she'd urged him to leave as well. He actually apologized for not heeding her warning; a light was dawning in Antonio's eyes, as well as a sort of stunned horror. He asked if they thought they knew who the ghost had been; when Gianina told him, "Angela," he almost appeared to expect the answer. Still, he sunk heavily into his chair and stared silently at nothing. Gianina started to say something when he cut her off: "Get the hell out of here." Which she did, immediately.

Tomasso walked Angelo and Gabrielle to the downtown. Going behind an apothecary's shop, Gabrielle unlocked a small and dingy door that opened up to a stairwell going down. The basement was where she did her alchemical work.

She explained the ritual, which would require at least a day's worth of ritual abstemption from gluttony and "other sins." There was a ceremonial bath, some prayers to be said, and a bloodletting to be performed with a golden bowl etched with alchemical and astrological symbols. The results, further, were uncertain and not guaranteed to be what they were hoping for. Her main experience, she said, was making cordials derived from her father's Porte-tainted blood. She had notes on how to work with strega blood and what the results ought to be, but had never figured out how to best approach Anna or Gianina about donating a sample to work with. She had written to a correspondent, she said, asking for help with working with Angelo's sample, but was still waiting for a reply. A date for the bloodletting was set.

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