Dark Fantasy Role Play

ODMIANY SEKRETNEGO JĘZYKA ZŁODZIEJSKIEGO:

„Stukanka” – prosty alfabet polegający na wystukiwaniu wyrazów (znają go nieliczni złodzieje umiejący czytać i pisać)
„Mazanka” – znaki rysowane, drapane (też dla bardziej wtajemniczonych)
„Miganka” – mowa gestów, znaków dłonią (popularny)
„Gadka” – grypsera właściwa, slang złodziejski (najbardziej znany)

Wiele sformułowań „kamrackiej gadki” jest pochodzenia wiejskiego, to przez element napływowy z prowincji. Inne pochodzą z khazalidu albo są przekręceniem wyrazów z reikspiela.


Robota – ogólne określenie jakiegokolwiek przedsięwzięcia złodziejskiego (włamu, wykopów, orki, itd.)
Dygać – być w drodze na robotę z potrzebnymi zeugami
Zeugi (Cojgi) – sprzęty potrzebne do wykonania konkretnej roboty: (wytrychy, łom, łopata, nóż, worek, peleryna, itp.)
Druty – wytrychy (zeugi na włam)
Wykopki – okradanie zmarłych lub wydobywanie ich ciał
Orka / orać – rzezanie mieszków, doliniarstwo na ulicach
Włam - włamanie do domu i kradzież
Festyn / iść na festyn – podział łupów albo zapłata od pasera
Dziwa – dziewczyna
Przyuważyć – zauważyć, zostać odkrytym
Wydoić – okraść (ogólne)
Kantować – oszukiwać w grze (kości, karty)
Geld – pieniądze (monety)
Zakatrupić / ukatrupić – zamordować, zabić
Rzucić gałą – zbadać, zajrzeć, upewnić się, że jest bezpiecznie na danym terenie
Fant, fanty – ukradziona rzecz
Ziemne fanty – przedmioty wykradzione z grobów
Tachać / taszczyć fanty – nieść łup przy sobie
Smalec / posmarować smalcem – łapówka
Kamrat – przestępca, należący do konfraterni, „swój” człowiek
Kundel – przybłęda, człowiek spoza miasta
Jeleń – upatrzona ofiara do okradzenia, włamania, napadu („wydoić jelenia”)
Smark – gówniarz, młody w fachu
Kapuś – informator straży
Cap – strażnik miejski
Ucapiony / capnięty – złapany / siedzi w więzieniu
Naraić – przygotować plan włamu, kradzieży, itp.
Kosa - nóż
Dziupla – bezpieczne miejsce odpoczynku / snu, melina.
Fach – specjalizacja złodziejska:
Poborca – reketer, ściągacz długów, oprych napadający za pieniądze
Geszefciarz – paser
Kret – hiena cmentarna
Oracz – rzezimieszek
Dziad – żebrak (niezależnie od wieku)
Kocur – doświadczony włamywacz (często przemieszczają się po dachach)
Wróbel – początkujący włamywacz
Czaruś – oszust, naciągacz, hochsztapler

AUTOR: Johan Eriksson
TŁUMACZENIE: J.A. „Heretic“ Hagen

This episode is the introduction of a series of episodes which are intended to form together a longer campaign, a campaign which will make the player’s characters travel through the whole realm in a race with the Darkness to find first an ancient relic which is dangerous if it falls into the hands of the Darkness.

”It was quiet in the small chamber, only the old moribund man’s rattling breath was audible as he lay in his bed, prepared to meet the Lord. The Lord whom he had served all his life. Jamarel watched the old priest Gealio as he lay there, waiting for his death. For almost 80 years Gealio had faithfully served the new-found Church. He had helped to raise the Church which now granted safety to mankind. He had helped to push the Darkness back to the place it had came from. He had been taught by the men who had met the One personally. Great respect and brotherly love spread in Jamarel’s breast as he looked at his friend and mentor. In all of Jamarel’s life Gealio had been there to give him advice and help. But now Gealio had no more advice to give, he was on his way to meet the One. In spite of that the old man showed no sign of fear. Jamarel began to muse if he would be that calm and brave too if his time came to meet the One. He had not come far in his reflections as Gealio began to turn around restless in his bed; it was obvious that it could not last very much longer, Gealio started suddenly to rave in the fever which afflicted his body and drove him towards death’s door-step. Words streamed out of the old man’s throat, words which vaguely painted a picture of the old man’s memories, harassed memories which now leaked out of the old man like air out of a compressed water... Jamarel was shocked by the words coming from the old man’s mouth and it took him some minutes to regain his composure, to grip some pergaments, a writing-feather and to strart to write down the words the old man uttered. The more he wrote the more he was shocked by the horrible memories of the old man who now was raving in the delirium of his agony... ”

Intrigue
The Eye of Darkness is a dark-green crystal, dark-green at the transition to green-black. It is as big as a the clinched fist of an adult man and its surface feels cold and metallic when touched. The crystal was created by the Dark Inheritors when the Darkness invaded the realm for the first time. The crystal fell out of its possessor’s hands during a battle in which he was slain.
After that, the crystal was brought with highest caution to the new-found Church. The marquis ordered the crystal to be destroyed after the Darkness had been driven back beyond the Iron Gate. When they realized that this was impossible they decided that a very orthodox priest named Gealio together with eight Knights Templar should carry the crystal in a safe hide-away in the Pendarens. Gealio and the Knights Templar succeeded with their holy mission hid the crystal deep down in a subterrean cave and the sealed the cave with mortar and demolished stones. Gealio and the Knights Templar were the only ones to know where exactly they had hidden the crystal. And during the rest of their lives they told nobody what they knew; so it was believed.

As Gealio was a very old man lying in agony and retrospected his life in the delirium, he revealed the crystal’s hiding-place. The only monk, Jamarel, who was at his side at that occasion listened to the old man who was his deliring friend and mentor and hardly believed his ears. The old priest had hidden on of the Darkness’ most unholy relics and now, on his dying-bed, disclosed the relic’s hiding-place. Confounded what to do with that knowledge he had received by the old priest he watched Gealio doing his last sigh. Jamarel decided that it was the best if the knowledge of the hiding-place had to preserved in case that the Church sometimes in the future should need to know where the crystal was, but he also feared that the knowledge could fall in the false hands; therefore he wrote down the information in the form of a coded text. The result was a book of poetry, The Marquis’ Wisdom, and the information can be extracted from the diverse poems if one knows exactly in which order the words have to be read.

After finishing his work, Jamarel had the book in his possession during the rest of his life. After his death the book remained for centuries in the monastery in which Jamarel had spent his life. This monastery is situated in the Southeastern Ravarra, in the city of Voromil. The Marquis’ wisdom is still in the monastery and none of the copies has ever left the monastery until lately when it was purchased by Garmion in order to steal the book pretending that his lord had promised to buy the book from the monastery but he was fooled by the abbot. But Garmion is not what he seems to be; instead, he is a Jeselite and collaborates with Refael, a heretic Knight Templar, to find information about the Eye of Darkness and to regain it for the Darkness. Both are acting by command of Marquis Lazarus himself. Garmion has studied the writings of Jamarel about his time with the priest Gealio as his mentor and friend and has found references to and quotations from a book called The Marquis’ Wisdom. By accident he discovered then that in the text there was hidden another text which insinuated something about a hidden unholy relic. But the quotes from The Marquis’ Wisdom were not sufficient to obtain more clues about that, so Garmion was compelled to get the book The Marquis’ Wisdom to learn more about the relic the hidden text referred to. He had achieved no result for Marquis Lazarus who sent him to search more information about the relic and to bring it back to Lazarus if possible.

It did not take a long time for Garmion to find out where Jamarel had lived and worked: in a monastery in the Southeast of Ravarra near the city of Voromil. He tried immediately to gather any information he could find about Jamarel’s book – The Marquis’ Wisdom. Regardless of the methods he applied to get hands on this book he did not succeed in finding a copy of it. He had just arrived in the city, stood in the dark and watched the monastery to figure out a plan that should give him a sure access to the monastery’s library when something notable happened. Standing on the outside of the monastery he watched a man sneaking out with something wrapped in a piece of fabric under his arms. The man’s showed clearly that he could only be the monastery’s abbot who sneaked out that late and as he almost slipped on the slippery ground, Garmion had a quick glance at what was wrapped up in the piece of fabric – a book. That aroused Garmion’s interest and he decided...

The intrigue, continued;
Titus, the moanstery’s abbot
Titus has been the abbot of the St. Gealio monastery for the most time of the 60 years of his life. He always rigidly followed the monastery’s laws of chastity, silence and serious contemplation. He controls the goldmine of the city and the funds for the city guards. But he is tempted more and more by the lechery of the flesh and in certain nights he sneaks out of the monastery to spend his money on one of the loose women which offer themselves for money in the city. It cost him big amounts of money to also buy the women’s silence, money which Titus took from the city guard’s funds. When the monastery was visited recently by the Church’s treasurer who demanded a statement of accounts, Titus panicked since he knew that the money he had spent from the funds of the city guard was missing, what could lead to an investigation in which he would be the main suspect. In his panic he thought of his cousin in the city, Sanaro the learned man, who was delighted by churchly poetry and who often ordered copies of books from the monastery. Sanaro had enough money to replace the losses in the city guard’s funds, therefor Titus decide to do something which contradicted the ethics and the harsh commandments of the monastery. He decided that a book would be less likely missed than the money and a vanished book could always be blamed on the library master or his assistant. Therefore he sneaked into the library of the monastery and picked a book, The Marquis’ Wisdom, of which he knew that Sanaro was interested in. He was aware that he could rely on the fact that Sanaro would not tell anyone how he had acquired the book. Then he contacted Sanaro and sold him the book. Neither Titus nor Sanaro knew that in the night in which they met to settle the affair Titus was pursued by Garmion who had watched the monastery to find out a plan to get into the monastery’s library. As Garmion saw the old abbot leaving the monastery which something that appeared to be a book, he shadowed him to the city. And there he saw which book was handed over to Sanaro the learned man in the dark alley in which Titus and Sanaro executed their doubtful deal, his dark heart was full of joy. But before he could intervene, a patrol of the city guard showed up and both Titus and Sanaro left in a hurry. Garmion could not follow any of them since he had hidden himself in a landing to avoid being detected by the city guard and Titus and Sanaro as well. When the patrol finally left the area and Garmion could abandon his hideaway there was no trace of Titus or Garmion left. After some days Garmion succeeded in identifying the man who had received the book from the abbot and a plan surfed up in his mind.

The characters get involved
The player characters (PCs) have just arrived in the city, how and why they came to Voromil is up to the Narrator. But if they are affiliated with the Church it can be arranged that they have travelled to the city protecting a monk on his way from Ravarra to the monastery. If they have no contacts with the Church they may be hired as guards by a merchant dealing with gold. No matter how they executed the task which brought them to the city and now the are in the small but first-class tavern, the Wild Bear. The guests of the tavern are a mostly merchants and rich craftsmen. Among the guests are also some learned men. It is late and the characters have already payed their rooms and sit downstairs in the guest room drinking some good wine and eating some excellent food. As they are sitting there, an old gnarled man with cane and glass eye approaches them and asks if he may sit together with them sharing a bottle of very good wine. It is Garmion. When they drink of the fine wine Garmion bought he asks them who they are, what they do in Voromil, where they come from and so on. He presents himself as an old librarian who had worked in many of the Church’s libraries during his life and who in the last years has worked for a book collector in Orschild. He has come here trying to buy a book, The Marquis’ Wisdom which his mastered loved to acquire from the monastery but as Garmion arrived there he learned that the abbot had fooled his master and sold the book to one of his – the abbot’s – good friends in the city, Sanaro the learned man. O if Garmion will return without the book his master will suppose that Garmion has sold the book and kept the money. This leaves Garmion with only one alternative: he must get the book no matter what to save himself. He now wonders if the characters are interested to earn a large sum of money (1,000 silver pieces) trying to either persuade the collector to sell the book or, if he refuses, to steal it. He begs them to do it, if not for the money then to save the life of an old man from the wrath of his master. Garmion will try to arouse the characters compassion and conscience to get them to help him.

If the PCs accept, he smiles a little and says that he already has done some investigations to get into the library of Sanaro the learned man in case that he can be persuaded to sell the book to Garmion. An old friend of Garmion’s, Leol – master thief, forger and locksmith – is in town and is probably the one to manufacture a key to the very sturdy lock of the vault which is the collector’s library. The problem is that Leol is under arrest by the city guard because he forged a churchly paper and will be hanged at dawn. If the characters shall have a chance to get into Sanaro’s library they must free Leol and pay him to manufacture a key to the vault since it was Leol who originally made the conceptions for the lock of the vault door. Garmion will be in the tavern waiting for the PCs to come back with the message that either Sanaro will sell the book or that the succeeded in rescuing Leol and stealing the book. If he should sense that things go wrong, he informs Refael and vanishes from the tavern to watch over the characters and if the should get the book he will contact them.

How to use Garmion and Refael in the episode
Garmion is a very mighty person in his true shape but he does everything he can to conceil what he really is. The PCs should not have a chance to get an idea about his true nature until the end of the episode nor should they have a chance to slay neither Garmion nor Refael. Garmion has sent Refael to the city to keep ears and eyes open, to gather information about what is going on. He will call Refael when the characters return with the book. When Refael has payed the persons who worked „reliably“ for his cause, he will report all information he heard about strangers, Sanaro and the monastery in the city. For that he has a group of about ten informants who report to him. Refael spends the day close to the city gate sitting in a tavern, drinking wine and listening to what people say.
In the night he sleeps in the new tavern. Refael has also hired a group of doubtful characters who have the mission to rove in the city in his whereabouts looking for trouble and coming for help if he calls them. Garmion and Refael will use these henchmen when the PCs have got the book. See The End. The henchmen are well paid and clever enough not to be detected. See The End for more information about Refaels’s henchmen.

The town of Voromil
The town of Voromil is a small mining town situated in the mighty Pendarens in the Southeast of Ravarra. The whole town is built at the leg of a mountain slope and is very often called the town of stairs because all the stairs which hoist up and along the mountain’s leg to make it possible to move in the town.
The town buildings stand on a strong and burly rock ground to ensure that they do not bend but stand erect. The majority of the buildings have been made of stone, not of wood. Carved into the mountain, above the town, lies the monastery which incorporates the town’s spiritual leadership. The abbot of the monastery is partially responsible for the town to the Church and takes care of such tasks as the payment of the city guard and responsibility for the iron mine which is the biggest source of income for the town. The rest of the town falls under the responsibility of the council that consists of the richest merchants and the leaders of the guilds in the town. The nightlife is far from what the dignitaries of the Church could accept. Pretty many miners come into the town to entertain themselves and to spend the money they have earned digging gold from the mine for the Church.

Important places in the town:
• The town hall
• The monastery
• The church
• The house of Sanaro the learned man
• The quarters of the city guard

Important places outside the town:
• The gold mine

Gossip on the streets
• It is said that a person forged a document of the Church and got into the monastery where he according to the papers he should have fetched a goldened icon. But the monastery’s abbot was suspicious and called the monastery’s Knights Templar who arrested the man and examined the documents carefully. It turned out that the documents were forged and now the man is in jail close to the city quarters. Apparently he will be hung at dawn for forgery (True, the gossip is about Leol).
• It is whispered in shadowy circles that a man from the monastery visits women regularly at night and has paid a big sum for their silence. But the man has been seen by other persons and now the man faces the scandal which must follow. (True, this is the abbot. One of the women did not maintain her promise and revealed that one of her „clients“ is a high positioned man inside the Church.)
• It is said that the monks in the monastery keep a big share of the gold form the mine out of their accounting, then the greedy monks melt the gold and cast it to bullions which they hide deep in the mountains where the monastery is situated. (False, the monks surely take a part of the gold but not more than what they demand for their work.)
• The treasurer of the Church has arrived in the monastery to examine their statement of accounts (true).
• The priest of the town’s church digs up the recent buried corpses in the night and steals their valuables (false).
• The priest of the town’s church has buried a large amount of gold in the churchyard, probably he took it away from the monastery but how, nobody knows (false).

The town hall
The town hall is built of red stone, lovely ornamented with exquisite frescos of red stone and placed right in the center of the town. In the biggest and most beautiful room the town council gathers each month to discuss the affairs of the town. In the building hosts also a large number of scribes who note the daily administration of the state.

The church
The church is run by three monks and a priest. Close to the small church is a churchyard with flowerbeds and beautiful oaks which give the churchyard a peaceful mood during the day. The church is richly decorated with icons covered with leaf gold which are a gift from the monastery. The priest of the church is named Uramiel.

The gold mine
The gold mine is half a day’s march to the North away from the town. It was discovered 50 years ago and since then it became the biggest source of income for the town. The profit from the mine is not big but enough to feed the town. The mining area is well protected by 200 churchly soldiers which are stationed there. Additional 400 men work there mining the ore and producing the gold bullions which feed the town Voromil. It happens quite frequently that the miners go to Voromil in their spare-time and spend their earned money for wine, women and music. The security around the mine is almost extreme and the soldiers search each person which leaves the area so that no gold can be smuggled outside.

The monastery
The order of St. Gealio and St. Gealio
Gealio accomplished a lot of things during his life. After having been on a “voyage to explore and clean his soul after the fight with the Darkness” he returned to the life in a monastery. Gradually he settled down in a small monastery in what is now the Southeastern Ravarra. In his first year in the monastery he wrote a lot of books about herbs and their application.
These books were widely spread and today almost every learned person with the knowledge of the use and production of healing drugs knows about his work. His books are found in almost every monastery’s library. At that time Gealio was 50 years old and had spent the biggest part of his spare-time studying herbs and writing his knowledge down in books. Moreover, he spent a lot of time in the library to increase his vast knowledge. During a such visit in the library a catastrophe happened. It was night and Gealio had remained alone in the library much longer than permitted, reading a book. The day after he was to give a lesson about healing herbs. That was not uncommon. But this time something was uncommon. Marquis Amenus’ nephew Aejonus had visited the monastery to participate in Gealio’s lesson. That was a big honour and as Gealio knew that Aejonus was well-educated in the art of using herbs and drugs for healing he wanted to discuss some issues with him after the lesson would be finished. Therefore he studied carefully in the library if he could find facts to back up the theory he wanted to discuss with Aejonus. As he sat there in the library suddenly the world began to tremble as an earthquake struck the area. After several minutes the buildings began to collapse, everyone, including the monks, fled from their houses. After twenty more minutes the trembling stopped and almost no building was still standing. The monks started immediately to help the people in the small town close to the monastery. They began to help the aggrieved and began to look for survivors in the collapsed houses. After two hours the searchers found Aejonus who had been hit by a beam and buried in one of the now ruined buildings of the monastery. Aejonus was almost dead. Then Gealio executed a minor miracle for which he became famous afterwards. He sat and pledged close to the dying Aejonus as Gealio’s tears converted to blood. And then he held Aejonus’ head with his left hand while he prayed, bleeding from his eyes, and the wounds of the young Aejonus began miraculously to disappear. Directly after Aejonus was completely healed while Gealio collapsed, his eyes as badly wounded as Aejonus had been before. The people who were present were shocked and baffled about what they had seen. One feared for Gealio’s life because he had obviously taken life-threatening damage. But after three days in bed, when the people believed that he would die, Gealio was fully healed. After that incident the rumour of the mysterious healer spread like a wildfire and that strengthened the belief in the people he met. Soon he started preaching and attracted each time more people. All people in his vicinity felt piece of mind and a tranquility which they did not experience when they were not close to him. Step by step he became incredibly popular but Gealio humbly decided to give again lessons in healing. He got the Church’s permission to found a new order, the order of Gealio. Gealio realized his plans and soon decided for what purpose to dedicate the first monastery of his new order. (He did not want followers who sought out his knowledge, wisdom or holiness.) He decided to dig the monastery out of the mountain above the old monastery in which he had previously lived and served the One. During the following years the monastery grew slowly but surely in the mountain. Down below, people started to gather in a small town. Among the monks who joined the order of Gealio were many of the best learned men of the Church. Thus the new-founded order became a rich source of knowledge. The main purpose of the monastery was to record the knowledge. To write books, to copy books and more. Till he was 60 years old, Gealio was very active as teacher and preacher. But as he felt the fall of age he retired and limited himself to the most important tasks which he had as the abbot of the new order. A few years after he had retired form preaching and teaching the people’s interest in the order started to fade. In the monastery one proceeded to conserve the knowledge and to write books for the Church. But all activity which Gealio had engaged in, lessons of healing and herbs, healing of diseases and wounds, decreased. As Gealio died at the age of 82, the order of Gealio had become just an order out of many. Many people forgot the monk who had healed a next of kin of one of the Church’s holy leaders. The Church nevertheless remembered his deed and proclaimed him saint, a shining example of the churchly love and faith. Thereafter the name of the order changed to Order of St. Gealio.

The monks
The monks in the monastery belong to the Order of St. Gealio, an order that is devoted to record the teachings of the One and to copy already existing writings and to golden icons for the reckoning of the Church. The monks in the monastery follow a strict discipline and aspire a life in silence, austere contemplation and chastity. Laughter is not tolerated and consequently one never sees a monk expressing happiness. They do their work very earnestly and copy the texts without the slightest deviation from the original texts.
The texts are often lovely illustrated; therefore the monastery’s services are highly asked for in Ravarra.
Thanks to the fact that the gold mine is the biggest source of income for the town, the monks have a good supply of gold which they use to golden icons and books. The overseer of the monastery is abbot Titus. See Intrigue and the description below.

Important persons in the monastery:
• Titus – abbot
• Ilmar – master librarian
• Sianus – treasurer
• Lamaris – master of supplies
• Hominus – highest Knight Templar.
• Romentlios – the treasurer of the Church visiting the monastery to examine the monatery’s bilances.

The monastery
The monastery has been built into the mountain above the town. Originally it was built into old caves by the monks who built the castle. But with time one they started to dig deeper into the mountain and now the monastery has a lot of rooms and corridors within the mountain. Small cracks and windows in the mountainside light the rooms and corridors which are situated entirely within the mountain. The windows are five meters deep and 30 x 30 cm wide. The monastery disposes of a very large library for the monks to execute their task. Because of the big library and the monk’s work with gold the Church has installed twenty Knights Templar there in order to protect the monastery and its treasures. The monastery depends on the town to acquire what the monks need for their simple life. Therefore each merchant, craftsman and peasant has to pay the monastery each month a tenth of what the earn or cultivate. The money thus earned is spent for the material which is needed to do the work, food, clothing and so on. A small part of the money is used for the city guard upholds law and order in the town. The monastery has three entrances. The main portal is mostly used by visitors and big transports of goods in and out of the monastery. The main portal can be shut with two large bronze doors and is generally closed at night. The two other entrances are small metal doors at the side of the mountain in which the monastery is buried. One of the two doors leads to the kitchen; this is the one Titus uses to leave the monastery at night. The other leads to the food storeroom; here the comestibles are brought into the monastery.

Important places in the monastery:
• library
• dining-room and kitchen
• storeroom
• gold workshop
• stone-mason’s workshop
• Church
• carpenter’s workshop

Titus, the monastery’s abbot
Titus
STR 9 MEN 12
PHY 10 PER 10
AGL 9 CHA 13

Learning 3
Theology 2
History 1
Awareness 2
Communication 3
Persuade 2
Movement 2
Sneak 2
Thief 1
Hide 2
Equipment:Black clothes and gown, golden necklace with the One’s rose.

Titus has been the abbot of the St. Gealio Order for the most part of the 60 years of his life. He always followed strictly the monastery’s commandments of chastity, silence and stern contemplation. He is responsible for the book-keeping of the towns’s gold mine and the fund for the city guard. But subsequently the old abbot has been tempted more and more by the lust of the flesh and in some nights he sneaks out of the monastery to spend money on one of the prostitutes in town. See Intrigue for more information. If someone could discover Titus’ nightly excursions he will either try to bribe him to keep his silence or flee form Ravarra to Orschild and hide to escape his punishment. Nevertheless, he will always be haunted by the knowledge that someone knows about his horrible sin, something which drive him mad or towards the Darkness. In that case Titus may return in the future to take revenge on the characters because the reveiled his secret and therefore, according to him, destroyed his life.

To spy out Titus
If the characters decide to investigate the rumour that someone from the monastery sneaks out at night and watch the monastery at night they will see at one or two o’ clock in the night a man hurrying out of one of the two minor metal doors in the monastery’s mountain wall (the one leading to the kitchen). He locks the metal door behind him and rushes past the fountain outside the monastery and to the town. If the PCs succeed shadowing him they can follow him to the house in which he meets a woman who is obviously a whore. The man pays the woman from a big and heavy purse and then they disappear in the house, the man looking anxiously around before he disappears behind the house’s door. At that moment the PCs can get a short glance at his face. After approximately three hours the man gets out of the house and sneaks hastily back to the monastery disappearing through the same door through which he left. See the description of Titus for what happens if he is discovered.

Visiting Sanaro the learned man
Sanaro the learned man
STR 7 MEN 15
PHY 11 PER 13
AGL 12 CHA 16

Learning 3
History 2
Theology 1
Awareness 2
Close combat 2
Communication 3
movement 2
Equipment: Plain gray clothing and gray gown. Big long oak cane which he uses to support his old body.

Sanaro is a quiet old man who prefers to walk through the town, chat with the people, tell histories and read churchly poetry for those who are willing to listen. If he is not roving in town he spends most of the time in his library which is situated in a vault under his house, reading one of the books he has collected for himself. Sanaro is very well-known in town as a sage and his private book collection is almost legendary.
He is also the cousin of the monastery’s abbot, Titus, and therefore has an advantage when it comes to lend or buy books at certain occasion from the monastery. He is zealous book collector and tries to get a collection of the oldest churchly tomes he can get; preferably churchly poetry which delights him very much. As he was able to buy The Marquis’ Wisdom he was full of joy but at the same time uneasy because he knew that meant that his cousin must be in trouble since he had broken the holy commandments of the monastery. But he decided that he did best to keep silence and help Titus buying the book.

Sanaros discovery:
While studying the poetry in The Marquis’ Wisdom he discovered the hidden text and wrote it down on a pergament which is hidden in his sleeping-room. He is very concerned about the hidden content of the book and relizes that it could mean a lot of bad things if someone finds out that he has discovered a heretical text about unholy relics.

Inquiry about The Marquis’ Wisdom
Sanaro will deny any knowledge about The Marquis’ Wisdom. And no-one can make him admit that he has it nor convince him to sell it, especially as he is aware how he got the book and what is hidden in it. He is very anxious that someone could have seen him in the night when he bought the book and he begins to sweat notably if someone asks him about the book. But no-one can make him confess. The only option for the characters is to try to break in his library.

Sanaro’s house
Sanaro’s house is situated in the vicinity of the monastery, surrounded by a big wall and a beautiful garden. Within the wall six guards patrol the garden at night. The main building is a beautiful stone house with three floors. His library is in a very large burglar-proof vault in the cellar. The vault’s door is protected by an iron door with a very complicated lock (DL -15) and only Sanaro has the key for it. The lock can be opened with the key Leol made, if the characters ask him. Searching the library takes 60 minutes for two persons. A successful Search roll with DL -4 means the book is found in half of the time.

Breaking in
It can be a very demanding task to break in the vault which is Sanaro’s library and it is up to the Narrator to adapt the difficulty level depending on the knowledge levels of the characters and their number. Anyhow, the theft of the book should be done without any violence. If there is an outbreak of violence and it is detected the city guard will be called as fast as possible. The characters also risk in that case to be hunted in the town which can make it almost impossible to solve the adventure. If the characters succeed in sneaking behind the guards patrolling around the house at night and to get into the house there will be three guards, each one patrolling one floor. Sanaro himself has moved his sleeping-room to the library because he does not like to be separated for long from his dearest property. If the PCs succeed in stealing the book (which will be much easier if the have freed Leol and got the key from him) without using violence or being detected the theft will not be reported to the guards, but if the characters confront Sanaro again, he will become very suspicious about them. If they are surprised during the theft but succeed to escape without using violence Sanaro will actively search for them in the town to offer them 6,500 silver pieces for giving back the book, revealing for whom they stole it and keeping silence about the affair. If the characters have any ties with the Church, he will instead admit what he has found, tell all what he knows about the affair and what he has found out. He gives them the book if they can give him pardon for his sins and save him from the wrath of the One and the Inquisition.

The quarters of the city guard
The city guard’s quarters are situated at the side of the monastery and consist of a group of five plain stone buildings in which the guards live. A bigger stone building aside the five main buildings serves as prison and has bars at the windows; it is guarded by two guards during the day. In the most comfortable building lives the officer of the guard who has his nicely equipped office there. The common guards live either in their houses in the town or in the remaining four houses when they are on duty. Normally a city guard is on duty four days a week. In between the houses is a gallow which is designed to execute prisoners which have committed severe crimes and thus have been sentenced to death.

Leol – master thief, counterfeint and locksmith
Leol
STR 10 MEN 13
PHY 10 PER 13
AGL 14 CHA 10

Craftsmanship 5
Key crafting 2
Locksmithry 2
Learning 1
Churchly documents 2
Theology 1
Awareness 2
Detect danger 2
Close combat 2
Dagger 2
Communication 3
Bluff 2
Bargain 2
Movement 2
Sneak 2
Thief 4
Lockpicking 3
Hide 2
Equipment:
Black clothes. Key on chain around the neck.

In his life Leol has been busy with stealing, forgery and even „honest“ work as locksmith, the only profession he ever was skilled in. He has manufactured locks for a lot of important persons in the town.
He is thirty years old, of normal height and has brown hair. He is constantly planning genial ¬– at least according to himself – coups to become rich. His latest idea was to forge churchly documents which should have given him access to the gold manufactory of the monastery where he – according to the papers – should have fetched a gildened icon to take it to Ravarra. The problem was only that Hominus, the highest Knight Templar in the monastery, was suspicious and gave the papers an extra look. In a very short time Leol was sentenced to hang for falsificating churchly papers and now he waits in his prison cell, working on an escape plan. Leol knows Garmion since he was a little chap because Leol's grandfather was a priest and took him to the library in which Garmion worked accidentally. Garmion use the opportunity to tell Leol fantastic stories. By mentioning Garmion’s name the PCs can assure themselves Leol’s help.

Freeing Leol:
Freeing Leol is not an easy task. It takes a very good plan from the player’s side and you as Narrator should not permit a good plan to fail. The prison is guarded by two guards all the time and there is another guard inside who controls the prisoners and hands out bread and water. Leol is imprisoned in one of the four cells in the prison’s cellar.

To get Leol’ s help:
If the character manage to free Leol and to convince him to help them (by naming Garmion or paying him) he asks them to follow him through the town. After twenty minutes of walking Leol stops at a house, produces key and opens the door. The whole floor is empty. Leol opens a hatch in the floor and climbs into the cellar. In the cellar is his workshop where he produces keys, picklocks and more. He needs four hours to produce a key for the characters. When he is ready, he thanks them another time for their help, asks them to greet Garmion (if they have named him). However he asks them never to seek him up anymore nor to come to this house. When the characters have left the building, Leol escapes from the town.


Conclusion
If the PCs have got the book the following things can happen:

Sanaro has not revealed his discovery
In this case the characters have no idea of the hidden text in The Marquis’ Wisdom. Probably they go to the Wild Boar to hand over the book. When the characters show up and tell Garmion they have the book he says: „Very well that you were successful with your endeavour but you understand that it is the best if we handle this affair discreetly. Besides, I have to get the money from the secure place where I stored it to pay you for your admirable exploit. Let’s meet in the stable behind the tavern after darkfall. I’ll wait with the money; till then , be cautious. May the One guide your steps till we meet again.“
After that he goes upstairs via the stairs in the tavern. As soon as the PCs are gone Garmion visits Refael who calls his hired henchmen. When the PCs come to the stable after nightfall the stable doors are open and there is light in the stable. An oil lamp is standing on the ground and when the PCs come in they hear Garmion’s voice from the floor above (a ladder is going up there): „I am up here. The ostler came so I have hidden here. Get up!“ The characters cannot se where Garmion is but the fact that someone has left an oil lamp on the floor and then went away should make them suspicious. If they do not get up Garmion will eventually come down from above complaining about his old knees.
He carries a leather bag over his should which emits the sound of coins. He exchanges it for the book and pays the characters their 1,000 silver pieces. The Garmion disappears through the door. When the characters leave the stable they see Garmion disappear behind a corner of the house and hear him laugh scornfully; the laughter which echoes between the houses. Directly afterwards Refaels henchmen accompanied by Refael himself and Garmion ride out of the town rapidly. The henchmen have been ordered not to leave anyone behind alive and have been payed 2,000 silver pieces for that task. The only thing which can stop them from executing their orders is if the PC pay them more than 2,000 silver pieces or if they succeed to disable half of the henchmen. In that case, the remaining henchmen will flee. There should be at least two more henchmen in the group which Refael hired than the PC are in number.

The PC try to sell back the book to Sanaro:
Should they for whatever reason try to blackmail Sanaro for the return of the book Garmion will know that very soon because of Refael's informers. In that case he will take horrible revenge on the characters. He will send Refaels henchmen after them (see above) while he and Refael attack the PC in order to take the book away from them. They leave the killing of the PC to the henchmen. As soon as Garmion or Refael have got their hands on the book they will both flee. Neither Refael nor Garmion will interfere in a possibly dangerous fight: their task is way too important, and will attack from safe distance – Refael with a light crossbow and Garmion with the help of sorcery. Garmion will shout to the characters that he will save their lifes if they toss him the book. If the PC do as ordered he takes the book and flees together with Refael whilst the henchmen attack the characters.

Sanaro reveals his discovery in The Marquis' Wisdom:
If that happens Garmion and Refael together with their henchmen visit the characters or whoever has the book and try to take it away with force (see above). That is a method that they do not prefer since it will attract attention but their mission is of utmost importance. They must succeed.

Refaels henchmen
STR 10 MEN 13
PHY 10 PER 13
AGL 14 CHA 10

Movement 3
Sneak 2
Awareness 2
Detect danger 2
Close combat 2
Cudgel 2
Communication 3
Bluff 2
Thief 4
Hide 2
Equipment:
Ordinary clothes, 2,000 silver pieces in total

What happens then?
The PC have discovered Titus nightly excursions:
Titus will regard the charcters as the persons who have destroyed his life for all times. He will try to take revenge if he has the possibility in the future. However, at the moment he must flee from the town and the monastery.

Sanaro has not revealed the hidden text in The Marquis' Wisdom:
The day after the characters fought in one way or the other with Refael, Garmion and their henchmen and eventually lost the book to them, Sanaro hears about that incident and decides that he must take the burden off his soul which his discovery has put on him. He contacts the PC and asks them to meet him in his house, all possible "misunderstandings" that might have occurred are forgotten. He has to tell them something very important.

The PC fight Garmion and Refael and force them to flee without the book:
In that case Garmion will get mad; he will go to Sanaro to threaten him and try to find out if he knows about the hidden text. Sanaro will give in and hand out the copy he has made of the text. Garmion then slays him. The characters will learn that Sanaro has been killed by a mysterious stranger.

Other:
This episode may end in many ways; anyhow, the PCs understand the Garmion is not what he pretended to be; additionally the learn that there is a hidden text in The Marquis' Wisdom. Garmion and Refael have to escape with either the book or Sanaro's copy of the text.
Non-player-characters (NPCs)

Garmion, learned man (Jeselite)
Garmion,58 years old , appears as a man whose body has been worn by his work as librarian in the service of the Church. He is about 1.75 meters tall (5’ 9’’), slim with white hair, white beard and moustache, conspicous features over which lies a wrinkled, pergament-like skin. His gray eyes are sunken into his eye-sockets and his lips are thin and slightly chapy. He often wears a gray gown and because of his crooked gnarled back he uses an oak cane which is as old and gnarled as he himself. His behaviour is dispassionate, polite and friendly. The only occasion in which he shows excitement is when he finds new books which he has not read yet. Garmion is, however, not what he seems to be; his doubt in the world has made that his soul has been devoured by the Darkness and that his body became possessed by a Jeselite. His prime motive is to find books and knowledge which can help the Darkness to discover unholy relics that have disappeared so that they can be used in the Darkness’ fight against the Church. Garmion only assumes his demonic shape if his life is directly threatened. But mostly he tries to use his astuteness to get out of difficult situations. Garmion collaborates with Rafael, an heretic Knight Templar, in a misson given by Lazarus to find one of the Darkness’ most powerful relics, the Eye of Darkness.

Garmion (human shape)
STR PHY AGL PER MEN CHAR
8 9 12 16 18 18

Reaction:14
Initiative (Close Combat): 15
Initiative (Magic): 19

Area of Know. KL AR Spec. KL AR
Learning 3 20 Theology 5 30
History 5 30
Close Combat 1 9 1-Club 1 12
Missile Weapon 0 4
Communication 3 20 Bargain 3 26
Bluff 5 30
Movement 2 12
Awareness 3 18
Magic 1 14

Garmion (Jeselite)
STR PHY AGL PER MEN CHAR
25 23 17 16 28 7

Reaction:17
Initiative (Close Combat): 20
Initiative (Magic): 34

Area of Know. KL AR Spec. KL AR
Learning 3 20 Theology 5 30
History 5 30
Close Combat 3 19 1-Club 1 21
Missile Weapon 0 4
Communication 3 9 Bargain 3 11
Bluff 5 15
Persuade 5 15
Movement 2 12
Awareness 3 18 Detect Danger 2 22
Magic 6 36 Fire 3 46
Kinetic Energy 3 46
Organic matter 3 46
Dead matter 3 46

Nature (both forms) :-48
(Dark Soul, can feel the presence of persons with a nature of 25+, can convert persons to the Darkness)
Equipment: clothes, cane (club DAM 6 AV 10), leather-covered book, glass eye.

Refael, heretic Knight Templar
Refael is a Heretic Knight Templar of the Order of Derak, known for its brutality and courage as well, and he is firmly loyal to his order and the fallen marquis Lazarus. He is a Knight Templar of the eighth grade and has been sent out with a special mission by Lazarus. His mission is to find and bring back with Garmion’s help the unholy relic known as the Eye Of Darkness, so that the Darkness can use it in the battle against the Church. Refael has fallen totally for the Darkness and found it a cause worth fighting for, a cause a believes in with all of his heart. To crush the Church totally and put the realm under the Darkness’ iron heel is what he longs for and he wants to see the day when he and his brethren will battle the churchly armies openly.. Refael is a cold and reckless man. He enjoys to have power over others and is a full-bore sadist. Hen uses the means which are necessary to get what he wants, but he is careful not to attract attention. He is full of despise for the Church and the teachings of the One, but pretends to be a Knight Templar of the Order of the Burning Star or a knight who has lost the lord whom he served, depending which fits best into the part of the realm in which he is at that moment. He is dispassionate, reckless and calculating when he executes his dark mission.

Refael
STR PHY AGL PER MEN CHA
20 18 15 12 10 16

Reaction: 14
Initiative (Close combat): 19

Area of Knowl. KL AR Spec. KL AR
Learning 3 12 Theology 2 16
Heraldic 3 18
Close Combat 5 21 1-Sw 6 33
Missile Weapon 4 14
Communication 3 18 Etiquette 3 24
Bluff 5 28
Movement 4 19 Ride 4 27
Awareness 3 14 Search 2 18
Scrutinize 3 20

Natur:-18
(Can feel the presence of persons with a Nature of 25+)
Equipment: Full armour (plate) AV 12,Light helmet AV 8,Bastard sword DAM 9 AV 17, Knight’s shield AV 20 RP –7.

Objects
The Marquis’ Wisdom (book)
The Marquis’ Wisdom is a collection of poetry praising the first marquis. It is a very old leather-bound book written by the monk Jamarel who was the disciple and protegé of the priest Gealio. Very few copies have been made of this book and none of them has ever left the monastery. These days only one copy of the book still exists, although there is a quotation in Jamarels second book which also refers to The Marquis’ Wisdom. This quotation from the book together with the reference to it is the only hint which can guide one to the knlwledge that the book contains.
Gealio was also the one who founded the monk order of St. Gealio. After The Marquis’ Wisdom Jamarel wrote a lot of books about the time he spent together with Gealio and these books are quite famous among the persons who know about the history of the order. If one knows what one has to read in The Marquis’ Wisdom, one gets knowledge of the words which priest Gealio uttered in his dying-bed and which will reveal the place where Gealio, by the marquis’ order, hid the Eye of Darkness. To read the hidden text in the book one has to read every fifth word on every fifth page through the whole book. This words constitute the words which Gealio said on his dying-bed and will give the hint how to find the place where the Eye of Darkness is hidden.


The concealed text reads:

”Such a heavy burden. Eagles circle above us, looking for their prey. Two weeks we have been marching now, Dorban bears the heaviest burden ….the eye puts his dark influence on our minds….each day passes by, the legs are entirely heavy, totally tired to march on… Below us is are the clouds, the mist, and the beautiful mountains below us... The sun burns, its fire reddens our skin... …in spite of that we are horribly cold …how can our skin burn when it is so cold?….has the One left us ?…..the light so strong that it blinds us... the eyes ache constanlty and none of us has very much eyesight left… the Darkness falls heavily on us………………………………………Blood in the snow, Dorban lies dead in a deep ravine …his blood stains the white snow and rocks down there…Vilbur was fast enough to save the unholy eye …we MUST succeed with our mission ….the Darkness is not to use it against us once more……………….So hungry, so warm, so cold, so hungry….have we come here to die? Before we have completed our mission?………………………………..
If we only had a little wine to cool to cool the heat with, to warm the legs and to quench the thirst ………Jonaz was lucky today, he killed a big bird of unknown kind with his sling. At last something to eat. That was my last meal…….
I can hardly see the hand before my very eyes, the skin is covered with blisters and chappy. That must be the influence of the eye which affects our bodies. The malicious influence affects the immaculate………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….It is night, we sneak out of the small village, before dawn we must reach the Pendarens………Resna's bishop has sent his best Knights Templar to help us executing the mission the marquis have given us ………………may the One be with us …………………………….So cold, I have grown thin…………………Blood in the snow……..Jonaz lies dead….
Lorvim the traitor, what a luck that Vilbur's blade fell him, no-one will ever know.......
IT WHISPERS TO ME! UNSPEAKABLE THINGS; UNNATURAL THINGS; AGAINST THE ONE’S WILL! MAKE IT STOP; MAKE IT STOP……………………………………………………….Morning……………
Somewhere echoes a churchbell………………………………..behind us, a group of strangers….They want to get back the dark eye ….this must not happen…..Vilbur, Morgan try to get around them while I give them cover with the bow ……
Difficult to dig, there are only snow and stones, almost not enough to cover Morgan’s body ripped asunder …………………..
PAIN! An unutterable pain pesters my body… Only the pain keeps me awake fto continue my wandering …………how long have we wandered? Days? Weeks ? Months? Vilbur marches on in spite of the wound in his side……Has the One forgotten us?…………………………A mountain with two summits, the midday’s sun rests between the tops….. A SIGN! THE ONE HAS NOT FORGOTTEN US!………………………. We approach the double tops………………….dark, so dark, sso warm, I’m not able to proceed, the snow warms so nicely, so tired …must only rest for an hour until…………… WHERE AM I?………….Vilbur rests at my side …… an elf …What is he doing here? ……………………………………Vilbur finally awake………Storalko says he is a Salem elf… wonder what that means. ...In any case he has saved our lives and accompanies us. …..wonder if we can trust him……………….immediately after Vilbur met him we have hidden the eye…………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
So deep in the Pendarens, I do not believe that a living soul has put his foot here before …..Storalko falls.
………..Finally up at the pair of tops…………somekind of a cave yonder the shadows………………..
Vilbur looks down along the steep behind the elf’s body…..well….then we do not have to worry that he will tell anything…
So dark in the cave, even after such a long time in the blinding light….without Storalko’s herbs we had never made it here.
……So many corridors…………………….Where are we?…………………… INCREDIBLE! So BEAUTIFUL!!…………..
…………What a peace…..This must be here where the One wanted us to go to………….the Eye will be safe here ………..Vilbur’s blade succeeds cutting off one of the beautiful crystals …………… We will never move that stone block ………………………… At last outside………………………Who are that men below the mountain……so many of them……………………………………….FOOD! O so delectable….What a friendly people…. almost a sin to abandon something so spiteful near their winter camp…… welll …what they do not know will not harm them…… Interesting, it seems these people folk spends all of their lives up here……………………….
I shouldn’t have eaten that much, now it would be easier to walk……… Poor Vilbur ……But no-one must know what we have hidden. Wonder what will happen to me when I come back to report... Will I come back? WHAT IF I DIE HERE?……………………………………………………………………….
O you shining One. Give me your blessing. Guide my steps so that I will soon come home…………………….
O you One!…..Morgan was not buried deep enough….I believe I must vomit …crows have feed on his body……………… the memories of what the Eye Of Darkness showed me… .what if it was the truth …..but that cannot be.
Must flog the sinful thoughts out of my body………………………………………………………………………
The snow feels good on my flagged back……………………………..the path is narrow; careful not to fall like Dorban……………………. Do not see his body…. Anyone or anything has removed the remains of him…………..
Perhaps his body is covered by the newly fallen snow ………..to tired to pray …….must go on...
So tired …….the snow so deep……….. everything is misty….starts to get warmer………how long will the clouds last?………
At least warmer ……the melting snow flows along the mountainside….the water is drinkable…………….How long since since I prayed to the One?…I am not to neglect my duties……………must go home, must tell…
At last! A village………………………………………….food and wine strengthen me, but mitt my mind is haunted by memories ….. somewhere in the back of my head I hear the whispering of the dark eye …..if it tells the truth?
Does the One not exist? NO! This is an unholy thing that I feel. I KNOW the One exists. How could otherwise the marquis assert that he came to them……………………………………………Finally at home hemma
Feels hard that no-one will ever know about the brave men who saved the world from something so terrible….It will be nice to go back to the monastery life…The marquis’ wisdom is infinite, their goodness and holiness only exceeded by the One’s ……………………………………………………………………………………”

AUTOR: Joachim A. "Heretic" Hagen

An outline for a Gemini adventure for heretics

The fallen bishop Ignatio leans back in his chair and looks carefully at the persons standing in front of his desk. He puts his fingertips together and senses their curiosity, their anticipation. Then he begins to speak.
„Perhaps you wonder why you were ordered to come here. The fact is that each of you has caught the attention of his superiors. You seem to be very reliable, promising persons, and we are constantly looking for new talents.“ Ignatio smiles thinly. „I think the time has come that you are given more responsibility and a chance to prove yourselves. Therefore I have decided to give you a very important mission. You are to recover a very valuable book and to bring it to me. How you accomplish it, that’s totally up to you.“
He bends forward, his look becoming intense.
„You’ll find the book I’m talking about in the library of the Magnius tower of the cathedral in Ravarra.“ A short pause. „For those of you who don’t know, that’s the headquarters of the Inquisition.“ His smile shows no warmth. „And failure is not an option.“

Dark Shadows is an outline for an adventure designed exclusively for heretics. If you do not have heretics in your group regularly, some people nevertheless may welcome the chance to play a servant of the Darkness for a while. However, this is everything but easy.
I call Dark Shadows an outline because it has no real intrigue and you, the Narrator, will have to improvise a lot. Dark Shadows will provide you with some information, so to say the cornerstones of the adventure, but in the end the course of action will depend entirely on the players.
Dark Shadows takes place in Ravarra, the capital of the province of Ravarra. As there is no detailed information in the Gemini rulebook and the supplement The Church is not available yet, I had to use my own imagination describing Ravarra, the cathedral and the Inquisition’s headquarters. If you want to rely exclusively on information officially approved by Cell Entertainment, do not play Dark Shadows.


The introduction

The player characters (PCs) are ordered to meet with Ignatio in Neremeth, the capital of Marodak, who gives them their mission. (You may read as well the text in italics at the beginning of the script.) Of course, the PCs will have some questions about the object they are meant to steal.

Janius Strepitus

Janius Strepitus was a very skilful magician who successfully managed to avoid being discovered by the Church or the Sovereigns because he was very discreet. In consequence, he lived long enough to learn a lot about the use of magic and invented very interesting spells which he recorded in his spellbook. He was constantly travelling through the provinces, trying to find more and more information about magic in monasteries’ and castles’ libraries.
During the last decade of his life, Janius Strepitus settled down in Luceria and lived as a hermit. He had one disciple whom he revealed the beauty of magic. This disciple, Julian, inherited his master’s spellbook as Janius Strepitus died, almost fifty years before the Iron Gate was opened by Malachdrim. As his master before him, Julian travelled the provinces, but unlike his master he also spread the teachings of the Darkness and was finally caught by the agents of the Inquisition, sentenced to death for heresy and sorcery, and burnt at the stake. This was about thirty years ago.
(Ignatius has put together the story bit by bit; probably he will not reveal it to the PCs; if they are caught, they cannot reveal anything.)

The spellbook

This is the object Ignatio is after. Again, he might not tell that it is a spellbook, but give the PCs a short description.
The book has a size of about 13 by 20 centimetres. The books’ cover is of deep brown leather showing an stamped eye on the front. On the first page there are written the following words: You will learn the truth, and the truth shall set you free. [Ignatius does not know that the book is closed by a latch with a tiny lock (DL-6). He also does not know but suspects that the book is very likely a powerful Dark Relic. Indeed it is, with a nature of -17 (cf. Gemini rulebook p.184).]
Ignatius has reason to believe that the book is stored in the library within the Inquisition’s headquarters, so he sends the PCs to steal it. Probably, he will not inform them about the true nature of the book; if they fail or are caught they can tell only very little. If the PCs bring him the book, he will share his knowledge with them. (Of course, you as the Narrator may want to inform your players from the very beginning on; that is up to you. I prefer to leave a shadow of doubt.)

The contact person

Ignatius informs the PCs about an agent of the Darkness in Ravarra. It is the merchant Markus Kent who has contact with a lot of people via his business and therefore hears a lot of things each day. He also has contacts with the underworld, just in case the PCs need special goods (weapons, lockpicks, poisons, a faked Inquisitors’ robe etc.; but don’t tell this the players from the very beginning on. If some of the players should come up with the need of that stuff, Markus could remark that he could be helpful with that. Again, it’s up to the Narrator if Markus pays for the PCs or not; although being a successful merchant, the money Markus disposes of is not unlimited. Cf. the list of non-player characters at the end of the script.)

Here ends the information the PCs get at the beginning of the adventure. Now they have to plan their journey.


Ravarra

Ravarra is the capital of the province of the same name and the place of the final battle between the armies of the Marquis and the Darkness after the Iron Gate had been raised. Ravarra is a heavily fortified city with four city gates which will be opened at dawn and closed at nightfall. The gates are locked (DL -9) and barred. The key will be kept in the city guard’s office in the relevant quarter. At daytime, each door is flanked by two city guards (equiv. to soldier). On the city walls patrol guards as well; there are huge barracks for soldiers and Knights Templar in Ravarra.
As the river Monesora runs through Ravarra, the city has a port for merchant boats. The openings in the city wall will be closed at night with solid iron gratings (that are raised and lowered with a winch) and watched by the city guard at daytime. At night, patrols will check the gratings every hour.
Ravarra is divided in several quarters, each on has an own bailiff who commands the city guards. The central quarter (and best patrolled quarter) is the clerical quarter around the cathedral.


The buildings

The cathedral in Ravarra
The cathedral is an impressive building with five naves and four towers. It is built in East-West-direction with the entrance in the West. The cathedral is 150 meters long, the Western front is 50 meters wide (including the towers); the two towers guarding the Western front are 130 m, the two ones in the East 50 m high. (The cathedral is similar to a Gothic cathedral of our world.) The exterior shows rich adornments.
The cathedral is literally the centre of Ravarra; it is surrounded by a huge square; nearby are clerical and governmental buildings. In the Cathedral resides Marquis Herodias, ruler of Ravarra and head of the feared Inquisition.
The breathtaking interior of the cathedral is extremely rich decorated with leaf gold , icons and other adornments glorify the One and the deeds of his Marquis and other holy persons.
Mass is held three times daily, at 9 a.m., noon and 6 p.m. In the vestry one can find clerical equipment, i.e. some copies of NOMEN or robes of priests and altar boys (just in case the characters want to steal one). The vestry is open (but empty) during the masses, before and after the mass the clerics meet here for the preparations. On other times, the vestry’s door is locked (DL 0).
The cathedral’s main entrance in the West is constantly guarded by two Knights Templar in full armor. The guards change every three hours. At night, one of the guards patrols around the Church every half an hour; it takes him about 15 to 20 minutes to walk around the cathedral. The space before the entrance will be lit by torches, the light has a range of ca.
15 m.

The Magnius tower

If one is facing the big portal in the West, the Magnius tower is to the left. (Climb DL-3 AGL/STR since it is quite high.) It is 16 m wide, 16 m long and 130 m high. In the top of the towers are the Church bells. The tower can be accessed through an entrance gate, made of solid oak and pointing to the North. It has two locks with DL -4 each. Only Marquis Herodias himself and the Grand Inquisitors have keys to the door; but there is also the keymaster Arnulf, who opens the door in the morning at 7 o’clock and locks it in the evening at 6 p.m. Arnulf lives in a house not too far from the cathedral. A description is given later.
If one enters the tower, he will find himself in an entrance hall. In the background is a spiral staircase leading upward to the inquisitor’s offices and downward to the prison cells, the interrogation rooms and the torture chamber. Two Knights Templar guard the entrance hall. Behind a desk sits the receptionist, usually a monk or a inquisitor’s apprentice, who watches the entering persons and asks them what they want, especially if they do not belong to the employees of the Inquisition. Persons that cannot give a good reason for the visit will be asked to leave immediately and, if necessary, removed.
The tower has about 30 floors. On each floor a corridor leads to the inquisitor’s offices, archives, conference rooms and so on. As a guideline, there may be 3 to four rooms on each floor. The library starts on the 12th floor.
At night, an elder soldier (40 years) will be in the tower as a night-watchmen. He begins his service in the evening and enters shortly before the gate is locked. Although his duty is to patrol through the floors, he prefers to sit somewhere and sleep. Until now, his rest has never been interrupted . If the PC enter the tower making noise, e.g. breaking a door or smashing a window, an awareness roll should be made. If it is successful, the guard awakens and begins to control the floors.

The Inquisition’s library

The Magnius tower contains a vast library full of forbidden scriptures (cf. Gemini p.51, The cathedral in Ravarra). It is placed in the middle of the tower and spans three floors. If one opens the richly decorated glass windows portraying the deeds of holy men, one can look on the cathedral (on the side where the tower is connected with the cathedral) or over the cathedral place and the roofs of the city.
The library can only be accessed via the lowest of the three floors and has only one door. Behind the door, a librarian asks each visitor to sign the book of visitors with name and title. Another librarian on the other side of the entrance is responsible to take note of the persons who borrow books from the library (and the book’s titles, of course).
There are five librarians, all are monks. As a rule of thumb, there is a librarian on each floor - except the room with the entrance, where are two. The librarians - except the receptionist - are always busy to bring back books someone has left on the reading desks, order the books in the shelves¬¬, etc. The head of the library is Georgius Borges, who has the keys to the library door and to the spellbook room. The only other person who can open these doors is the key master of the Magnius tower.

The spellbook chamber

The ground floor of the library contains innumerous books and manuscripts of theological content (history of the Church, religious reflections, etc.) On the second and third floor are the heretical scriptures, and on the third floor, behind a massive oak door with two sturdy locks (both DL -7) is the chamber with the spellbooks, among these the spellbook of Janius Strepitus the characters are looking for. For a normal search DL +3, as the PCs know what they are looking for (at night, there are additional DL as one has to use artificial light with limits the range of one’s perception. Searching the entire chamber carefully will take about 30 minutes, a high effect on the Search roll will reduce the time (see the chapter about Actions in Gemini). The spellbook chamber has a window.
Only inquisitors are authorised to enter the spellbook-room.


Georgius Borges’ house/Arnulf’s house

Both houses are located in the central quarter of Ravarra, which surrounds the cathedral. Here live mostly priests and other servants of the Church. The description for Borges’ and Arnulf’s house is identical, although both are in different places.
The house is a building with two floors (door of the house DL -2). Borgius lives alone, whereas Arnulf is married. Both NPCs put their key ring in the locker of their sleeping rooms, which are on the 1st floor.

Possible Solutions

The central questions are these: How to get into the Magnius tower, how to find the book (as the characters do not know exactly where it is) and how to get out of the city. There is no ideal solution and the game master has to be prepared to improvise. Nevertheless, there are some possibilities:

The PCs watch the cathedral over a while and find out when the guards change, when they patrol around the cathedral, etc.

How to get rid of the cathedral guards
• A possible solution would be to prepare a nightly ambush for the patrolling guard at the East side of the cathedral as this will not be heard by his companion (the cathedral is 150 long). Then the PCs can take out the remaining Knight Templar.
• The PCs could ambush the guard’s relieve (for best at night), put their clothes on and relieve the actual Templar guards. Then they would have three hours to get into the tower and get the book.

How to get into the tower (at night)
• lockpick the door between two Knight Templar patrols
• open the door with magic (it may be necessary to give the portal a certain resistance against magic if the PCs proceed to easily; in the end, the cathedral is a holy building inhabited and visited by holy men during centuries, so it may have acquired a certain holiness ¬- just a thought)
• climb the tower and smash a window (could be heard by the guards)
• steal the keys from Arnulf and/or Borgius. The PCs do not know about Borgius or Arnulf, but the might find out that Arnulf has a key when they watch the tower and see him opening or closing the door with his key; then they have to shadow him on his way home.

How to get into the tower (at day)
• bluff the receptionist with a good story
• present a falsificated document (requires craftsmanship and learning to know churchly seals, etc. Markus could know a forger; a good forger has craftsmanship KL 3 and AGL 14. The effect determines the DL a the person to recognise that the document is falsificated; awareness roll. The cost of this has to be determined by the game master, and it should be not too cheap.). What kind of document it is ¬ the PCs may use their imagination; it could be, for example, the request of an dignitary of the Church to borrow him certain books, etc.
• Disguise as a priest or inquisitor (works best when wearing a priest’s or inquisitor’s robe; there could, for example, be at least one tailor in the city who makes clerical clothes. The PCs could steal one of it or bribe the tailor. In case of doubt, Markus could get them one via his underworld contacts, but that would cost more.).


And so on. A violent intent to attack the cathedral guards openly, break the doors to tower and library and steal the book would be very risky, since sounds are very good audible at night. Smashing an oak door or prolonged fighting will wake up some people, who might alarm the city guards.
If the PCs sneak their way into the tower and steal the book without leaving traces, they can leave Ravarra calmly the next day.
As already said, this adventure is an outline. The game master may modify and add things as he needs it. For a powerful magician it might be too easy to get into the tower, in this case the GM has to come up with some difficulties.


If you have some questions about this adventure or you want to tell me your experience playing it, please mail me: hagen@riegg.com

No-player-characters (NPCs)
Markus Kent, merchant
STR 10 AGL 12 PHY 10 PER 12 MEN 14 CHR 15
REA 12 INI 9
Movement 6/18/36 m
flesh wound/light wound/serious wound 1-2/5-7/8-10

Learning 2 (CS 14) Heraldry (CS 16)
Communication 3 (CS 17) Bargain 2 (CS 21), Convince (CS 19)
Movement 2 (CS 12) Drive cart (CS 14)
Awareness 2 (CS 12) Scrutinize, Evaluate (CS 14)
Thief 0 (CS 9) Underworld contacts 2 (CS 14)
Craftsmanship 1 (CS 9) Carpentry (CS 12)

Wealth: (2D20)x10 SP

Markus Kent is an average succesful merchant who lives in the merchant quarter in Ravarra. The PCs may stay here until there missionis fulfilled, if they want to. Markus Kent has lived in Ravarra almost all of his life, therefore he can provide the characters with information about local customs, etc. He has taken over the merchant business from his retired father. Years ago, Markus Kent was a trader in the service of his father and travelled a lot to buy and sell goods. On his journeys, he finally knew about the teachings of the Darkness and fell to its promises. As a merchant, Markus is in contact with many people and, therefore, gets a lot of information.


Georgius Borges/Arnulf/monk
STR 9 AGL 11 PHY 10 PER 12 MEN 13 CHR 10
REA 12 INI 8
Movement 6/17/33 m
flesh wound/light wound/serious wound 1-2/3-6/7-9

Learning 2 (CS 13) Theology (CS 15)
Communication 2 (CS 10)
Awareness 2 (CS 12)

Due to his job as librarian, Georgius Borges has a learning of level 4 (CS 17).

Inquisitor
STR 10 AGL 12 PHY 12 PER 14 MEN 17 CHR 14
REA 13 INI 13
Movement 6/18/36 m
flesh wound/light wound/serious wound 1-2/3-5/6-11

Learning 3 (CS 19) Theology 2 (CS 23)
Communication 3 (CS 16) Bluff, Interrogate, Convince (CS 18)
Movement 2 (CS 13) Ride (CS 15)
Close Combat 2 (CS 12)
Awareness 2 (CS 14) Search (CS 16)


Knight Templar
STR 14 AGL 13 PHY 14 PER 12 MEN 14 CHR 12
REA 13 INI 17
Movement 7/21/39 m
flesh wound/light wound/serious wound 1-3/4-6/7-13

Learning 1 (CS 11) Theology 2 (CS 16)
Communication 2 (CS 12)
Movement 2 (CS 13) Ride (CS 15)
Close Combat 4 (CS 17)
Missile Weapons 2 (CS 13)

Equipment:
Broadsword DAM 6 AV 13
Dagger DAM 2 AV 10
Chainmail AV 6
Chainm. Hood AV 5
Knight’s Shield AV 20 RP 8
Horse

City guard/body guard/soldier
STR 11 AGL 11 PHY 12 PER 10 MEN 10 CHR 8
REA 11 INI 11
Movement 6/17/33 m
flesh wound/light wound/serious wound 1-2/3-5/5-11
Communication 1 (CS 6)
Movement 2 (CS 11)
Close Combat 2 (CS 11)
Awareness 2 (CS 10)

Equipment:
Broad Sword DAM 6 AV 13
Studded Leather AV 3
Iron Cross Hood AV 3
Buckler AV 12 RP 2


Experience report
I played this adventure with three characters: a human hunter, a dwarfen Dark Knight Templar ( a defector) and a Malachdrim elf who was a powerful magician. Due to the nature of this adventure, the Narrator should severly limit the number of elves as they are easy to recognise and quite uncommon, which means that they will attract unnecessary attention. As it was quite clear to me that the characters would have no problems to get into the tower because of the magician, I decided to pay more attention to their journey (which I totally neglected in the outline; again, it is up to you to add episodes as you wish).
The PC had the following plan: they would travel through Orschild and reaching the Ravarrian border they would pretend to be a priest plus his guard (the dwarf); as a proof they carried a priest’s robe with them, taken from an imprisoned priest in Neremeth who had no need of his clothes anymore. The elf would cross the border alone under the pretext of being a learned man who wanted to increase his knowledge.
The group entered Orschild near Obserum; although their baggage was searched, the guard did not find the concealed priest’s robe (failed search roll). On their way through the country, the PCs were attacked by a group of three brigands armed with primitve weapons (quarterstaff, longspear etc.). The magician handled this situation masterfully by casting „Erosion“ and the dwarf killed them eventually.
Finally the PC reached Ravarra at dusk and spend the night in an inn; the next day they contacted Markus Kent. Then they visited the cathedral, seeking for weak points. The elf took a room in the Black Raven Inn facing the cathedral (an improvisation) and watched the cathedral till he knew the pattern in the changing of the guards.
In the following night, the three entered the Magnius tower with magic (Erosion), searched the floors till they found the library, stole the book and walked out. The next day they left Ravarra without problems, heading for new adventures.
This is a short summary with the most important points of what happened. It took the players about three hours to get to Neremeth (some did not have a horse, so I made it a small problem for them how to get a means of transport), to meet with Ignatio and to plan their strategy. About one hour was spent for the journey, two hours for the stay in Ravarra and the preparations and half an hour for the execution of the theft.
Without the magician, it would have been much more difficult to succeed. On the other hand, if you plan an adventure for the forces of Darkness, you cannot exclude magicians.

Feel free to add episodes and incidents to the story; you might as well make the story an adventure of its own or include „The Hour Of Twilight“ here

AUTORZY: Magnus Sjöström i Johan Sjöberg
TŁUMACZENIE NA ANGIELSKI:J. A. „Heretic“ Hagen

Pod linkiem niżej znajdziecie TŁUMACZENIE przygody na polski autorstwa Savariana. Polecam:
http://geminirpg.blogspot.com/2012/01/zelazna-maska.html

In the north of Aretas, high in the mountains, lies “Baron Matteus Academy for the studies of artistic design.” It is a boarding school for the children of the noble families of the province. Here they are educated some years in etiquette, court dancing, poetry and music which they will need to fit well into their adult lives. Baron Matteus himself is the head of the academy and has a an eye on it that everything is going well in this distinguished school. He is aided by ten masters, each unequalled in their relevant topic, and at the academy live fifteen to twenty pupils. The academy was originally a fortress to watch over the Wolf Pass, a deep ravine running through the mountains, but in later days there was no need of a fortification like that, and now it has been transformed into the mentioned academy.
The academy has five guardians which act more as additional caretakers and hunters than as warriors. They are increasingly accustomed to their quiet life and have more or less left their swords on the shelves. These soldier do not think that there are some busy days ahead.
The Baron himself is a widower since a many good year after his wife died by falling in the Wolf Pass. The Baron has never come over that and has spent a good deal of time for himself, weeping.
On the other side of the Wolf Pass is a monastery which is inhabited by a small number of monks. The monks are quite orthodox and deem that the people within the academy’s walls are sinful and disgraceful as well as happy-go-lucky. The Baron and his employees deem that the monks are a bunch of boring and insane fanatics who do not understand by what means people entertain themselves. Both groups are not more that a stone’s throw apart; the baron’s distinguished academy and the monk’s dark monastery, and although both accommodations are more or less in the same place, they could be situated as well in different worlds.
Indeed, the monastery is situated in Sein, a region loyal to the church, while the academy is placed in Aretas, a province ruled by the sovereigns, with the Wolf Pass as border between the two countries.


Background

In the so quiet and wonderful academy there is a secret which threatens to ruin all who live there. It is an ancient truth that baron Mattheus’ wife, Minerva, died by falling into the Wolf’s Pass a lot of years before, but that is nothing else than a well-guarded lie. She fell indeed downhill and her body was half ruined, but she survived.
During her recovery it became nevertheless clear that she would not come out of the affair without severe consequences; her one leg was highly deformed after the tube-bones had been shattered by her fall and her face was deeply scarred. That was the hardest thing for her.

She was very worried about it, as she always had been known for her enormous beauty. Now she did not go outside anymore for not having to watch herself in a mirror, and she became more and more confused. The Baron, who was still adoring his wife, understood that she was on the way to lose her sanity. She did not want to meet anyone and she did not take a walk through the surroundings as she had done before either. The only thing she did was sitting in her chamber in the attic and reading poetry praising her beauty, poetry that the baron wrote for the since her first encounter.

The more time was going by, the worse get it, and at last it was exclusively baron Mattheus and the servant Eza who met the baroness. It was now that the baroness started to wander around in the castle at night, and it was now that she was searching for a way to regain her beauty. She spent hours for hours in the castle’s library and found there at last a book that revealed her a way to get her face back again: a book that was telling about the black magic.
The book she stumbled over was a simple diary that once belonged to Baron Mattheus’ ancestor, Ommnus. Baron Ommnus had disappeared without a trace on beautiful day in spring, several generations before baron Mattheus and his wife arrived at this place, but as she was reading this text it was as if all the actions of the story had happened just a couple of days before.

In the diary Ommnus wrote about a woman in the region who had been accused of being a witch. That woman was arrested by the baron’s guards, brought to the castle and thrown into a cell. Baron Ommnus was curious about the woman who sat in the little cell, especially as he was not at all able to believe that she was indeed an witch; she was beautiful and young, polite and talkative and had the most charming laughter one was able to fancy. The baron was not able to comprehend by what means a few people could mistrust that woman and take her for a witch, so one day was he compelled to ask her.

The witch only glanced at him and asked: “How old do I seem to be?”. And the baron answered: “About twenty, but do not one day over twenty”. The witch answered with a well-sounding laughter and asked “And don’t you consider me beautiful? ” at which the baron confessed that indeed it was so. The witch gave him a fiery glance, then she said “And I tell you, my dear baron, that I am older than your late mother. This is the magic that I was accused for, this is the gift I have made use of. It is not because of the simple people’s fear that I am sitting here, but because of their envy. ”
And it was at that moment that Baron Ommnus understood what he had before him. By a long interrogation of the woman it turned out that she had a collection of scrolls in which she had noted all the spells that she knew, and shortly after he had definitely become aware of that, he had the intention to find them and to learn their secrets. Because so was the Darkness, to arouse lure for power and egoism in the people and make them believe that they possess the force to use that power without having to pay with their souls. A conviction that never was true, for when one falls to the Darkness in one’s mind then one’s soul will follow soon.
The Baroness continued to read feverishly the diary that described how the baron finally found the scrolls after a long search in the small cabin of the witch. The diary gave a direct description how he studied the spells that the witch had noted, and how he increasingly looked at that new tool as a blessing. At last he became one of the Darkness’ servants, and stayed it till he finally was discovered. In the last chapter of the diary baron Ommnus told how he had hidden the scrolls under the floor in the library. The baroness spent a clear night to break open the dark parquet floor before she found at last what she searched for. The yellowish and brittle scrolls had fallen to dark pieces and almost broke under her touch, but they contained everything that the baroness wanted to know. Now she would restore her face!
In the following years things started to happen in the castle. The crew that watched the castled was superfluous and sent away, and the majority of the elder servants died in their beds. Almost no-one remained who knew that the baroness survived the fall downhill, apart from her husband Matches and the faithful servant Eza. These two were the only ones to know that the baroness lived in the solitary attic. The Baroness searched the mysteries which were noted in the scrolls, but she could not find a spell that could help her at that time. For a short while she was able to let her face become what it once had been (by using the aspect Affect Organic Materia) but after an hour disappeared the beauty and only the scarred surface remained. She became more and more inconsolable, and it did not help that the baron declared his affection for her, she would be beautiful forever!
Baron Matteus had eventually the idea to start his academy, mainly because he began to lose his sanity in the empty castle and needed people around him. Shortly after that he decided for himself to carry out the idea, he asked his wife about the case and found to his astonishment that she was happy about his idea, but she would not tell him why. Ten years have gone by since then and now the things have begun to really go wrong.

The Baroness asked her husband not to reveal that she lived until the day on which she could show herself again to the people and the baron vowed it. When he gave the vow he had still no idea about what his wife had in mind, but slowly and surely it began to dawn on him that his wife was attempting to cultivate the forbidden magic so that she could regain her former beauty. He has never been a man of the Church but Mattheus realizes nevertheless that it is absolutely necessarily that it does not become known that his wife uses those powers. Additionally because the monastery lies at other side of the Wolf Pass as a constant reminder of what could happen if it became known what happens within the castle’s walls.
Evil at the attic
The Baroness has now eventually lost her sanity completely and she is on a good way to lose the contact with her human aspect and to arise till she becomes something that is not longer human. She has spied at the pupils and especial at the young women who live there using the secret passages that exist in all castle walls. She has began to be apprehended by an awful jealousy of their beautiful faces, so young and unspoiled, and bitterness has washed above her: “Why shall they have such a perfect face when my own one is so disfigured?”

For a time then she talked that way along with her faithful servant Eza about this new-found animosity, and the old woman agreed totally with her. So they began to plan things that were so cruel and inhumane and impossible to be executed by a sane mind. Eza went to a nearby village and got a smith there to craft a mask of iron.
The iron mask was equipped with screws and constrains and by tightening them one made that the mask tightened. The mask had no holes for the eyes and there was no opening for the mouth either. Only the nose was left out as so that one could breath. Eza took these mask back to the attic and there the two women continued to plan their next step.
Short time after they got hold on the first mask, the first girl disappeared. One black night one of the academy’s girls got out of her bed in order to go to the lavatory. She never saw anyone again but the two women who carried her up to the empty attic, where they put the iron mask above her face. Now, as the Baroness had that young and beautiful girl in her power she was not able to control herself. The mask was actually intended to disfigure, but in the baroness‘ mad hands it could also kill. She tightened the clamps so hard that the girl‘s head cracked, and the two women left the body lying at the attic’s floor. Eza calmed down the Baroness who after the incident became afraid that she could be exposed as the murderer, now that no-one in the castle with exception of the baron himself knew that she still was alive. Together they flung the body over the edge of the cliff and down to the Wolf Pass. A terrible accident, or suicide, so it would it be called.
Then Eza talked into the baroness if that maybe that this was what she needed for the incantation to give her back her face forever: sacrifices. Maybe the Baroness could “steal” the face of any of the girls at the academy, and having no luck at the first intend meant just to try it again...
Behind the scenes - Intrigue
Now the day for the annual masquerade of the academy has come, and all are gratifying themselves to get the opportunity to disguise and to dance at night. Baron Matteus has subsequently struggled with his conscience that tells him that after all the girl did not suffer an accident, but that she was killed by his wife instead. But he still adores her deeply and regardless what she has done, he does not want to lose her. Besides, he has begun to wonder if Eza does not have her fingers in the pie; the old woman that has been at their service since they arrived in the district. Finally, he fears the monks who live in the monastery. Has fears that one day they will come secretly into his castle to take Minerva with them to burn her at the stake. Although the monks formally have no power about his side of the pass there is plenty of folks in the surrounding villages that would not hesitate to come them to help if it came out that the baron‘s wife had something to do with the dark art. In short, so begins Baron Matteus to lose his composure.

In the solitary attic the baroness and Eza have designed a heinous plan. They will snatch the five most beautiful girls of the academy and blemish them with the iron mask. During this terrible act the baroness will cast an incantation that will give her what she desires the most: everlasting beauty. During the latest weeks the two women were sneaking around and ruminated in the shadows with the purpose to find the most beautiful girls. All that will happen the in night of the masquerade, which is also the anniversary of the opening of the Iron Gate.
The truth
What will happen when the baroness completes her ritual is not what she expects. She has for a long time been on the way into the Darkness‘ abyss and by her madness and obsession she has she fallen even deeper than what is possible for a human being. What the baroness prefers most of all is not what she believes by herself, beauty, but rather revenge. Deep inside she deems that the young girls should not be allowed to be beautiful while she by herself is disfigured, and she enjoys the idea that soon she will make them as repelling as she is by herself.

Everything is kept under surveillance by a faithful servant of the Darkness, related in direct descending direction with the witch about whom Baron Ommnus wrote in his diary. The witch survived the prison cell because the baron set her free in exchange for her secrets, and it was her who at last killed him.

The Baroness‘ “arising” is kept under surveillance by that woman who guided her along the way that will transform her in a creature of the Darkness, a Jeselite. The characters who come to the academy escorting the daughter and the son of an old friend, young lady Rolinda and youngster esquire Dios, will have the chance to see what is going on. Maybe they are also able to prevent the baroness‘ transformation and perhaps they can care for that the witch Eza will not cause problems in the future, but that will require that they first of all survive the night...

The monks on the other side of the gorge are completely unaware of all that, with an exception. In the monastery’s cellar sits an ancient and haggard monk who all days whittles at a wooden cross. In the monk‘s cellar there are thousands of crosses stuck into the soil and in the middle of them sits the ancient monk. That monk feels that there is a great evil in the castle facing the monastery, but he has not acted before now that he has anticipated what will come happen. For the first time in many years he steps out of his cellar and out into the monastery garden.
Course of action and overview
16.00 People are preparing themselves for the evening celebration checking their costumes and washing themselves in the bath cottage in the castle court. The characters meet Rolinda as she is coming from the bath cottage. She explains that she will disguise as a fox. At the same time comes her brother, Dios, to the characters. He already wears his dress: a scarecrow costume. Rolinda is one of the five girls the baroness has chosen to “donate” their faces. Her brother will be found dead later this evening.

17.30 The characters chase a mouse that has seized a feather which is to fit in one of their dresses. The mouse slips into a hole in the wall. The characters now have the chance to go after if they realize that the hole leads to an adjacent room, a chamber that always is locked because it is the Baroness‘ old bedroom. In that chamber are several portraits of the Baroness, and even a number of mirrors but they all have been shattered. That can encourage the characters to try to find out more about this affair. If they decide to ask the Baron about it he becomes quite angry about the fact that they were in his wife‘s old bedroom.

20.30 Now begins the annual tradition: a hide-and-seek. The tradition says that they who succeed to stay hidden for the longest time wins a horse, so all disperse eagerly all over the academy. One is hiding in pairs, and one seeks in group. The tradition says when the last person is found, the masks will be dropped, and thereafter one will have a late supper before going to bed. During the play disappear the five girls and the characters find the dead Dios without head, still dressed in his scarecrow costume. If the characters choose to run for help, the body disappears, and the characters have to accept that they were mistaken. At that moments missing people disturb no-one, several times in previous years people have hidden and then were afraid in the night. Everyone thinks that the whole thing was a joke. All except the baron.

23.55 The demasking takes place in the upper-case hall and at the same moment everyone hears the monk ringing his bell. The people rush to see what happens and go up to the tower to see better. Into the monastery garden comes a crowd with the monks that are led by an ancient and haggard man. He has the wooden cross in his one hand and one can see that it has a pointed end. He goes up to the belfry and starts to deliver a mass.
Meanwhile the Baron is rushing to the attic and confronts both women just as they are putting the mask over the it first girl‘s face. As the baron sees that he casts himself her over his wife, crying and yelling with fury. Eza sneak up to him and stabs him in the back with a dagger. In the turmoil one of the girls breaks free and rushes to the staircase, but she stumbles, falls and breaks her neck. After that the baroness is shocked realising that she now lacks a girl, and that they must get another one. Their glance falls at one of the characters (if a there is a woman in the group) and decides that she is the perfect substitute.
00.20 The monks at the monastery garden are holding a mass that shows traces that mainly remind of an exorcism. The haggard figure with the wooden cross shows stigmata which appear in form of blood streaming out of his mouth, eyes and ears. He hollers loudly that the Darkness is coming. At the same time as that happens, the Baroness sneaks through one of the many secret passages and appears behind the female character (alternatively).
From there she uses magic (Summon Noise, Affect Noise) to call her with Rolinda‘s voice. She tries to sound as if she calls from a far hall and tries to get the character to follow her.
If more than one of the characters follow the voice, they come to the conclusion to the attic where Eza is waiting at the door. Together with the Baroness she starts an attack with the aim to get hands at the young woman. The two witches attack with united forces to destroy the characters with ease, but they have not counted with the ancient monk on the other side of the Wolf Pass. Just then when he becomes aware of the dark end for the characters he calls the One with a loud and clear voice that can be heard all over the place, and throws himself over his wooden cross. At that moment of self-sacrifice (which follows the rules for stigmata) the witches lose their magic powers for one hour and that is the moment for the characters to fight back.
During the fight Eza tries to escape through one of the many hidden doors and her aim is the place where it all began several generations before; her cabin in the forest.

01.30 If Eza manages to escape, she flees to her cabin in the forest. Maybe the characters try to follow her and let the soldiers pursue her. Regardless of that, the body of the Baroness disappears without a trace and the last thing one sees of her is how a pale figure wanders through the Wolf Pass and into the forest.
Description of places that take place in the adventure

The Academy
Baron Matteus‘ castle is nowadays an academy that is dedicated to art, dance, music and etiquette. Everything is monitored by ten teachers who all are competent within their fields of knowledge. Briefly said, the castle is built with four floors, and there is even an attic and a cellar. The big main-building is surrounded by a courtyard with stable, two bathing cabins, a barracks for the soldiers and a fountain. A description of the castle‘s main building is given below, floor for floor:

The cellar
In the cellar there is not much of interest. It has three big storerooms and a number of lesser ones, and also ten prison cells. These have not been used for a very long time. A little rotten straw and a good deal of mice are there. On stock are food and beverages, gear and even some weaponry, among other javelins and bows. They are in a deplorable state.

1st Floor
The first floor contains a large hall that is adorned with a large number of portraits of the former barons who governed this region. A gigantic carpet of the red fabric along with golden brocade covers the whole floor. From here, doors lead to the remaining rooms on this floor: the dining-hall, the ball-room and the trophy room.
The dining-hall has a high ceiling and the walls are painted with impressive figures dedicated to all sorts of warrior activities. A broad staircase leads up to a stage at the second floor. Three big long tables stand side at side in the room and at the short end of the central table stands the Baron‘s throne-like oak-chair with silver fittings. A giant fireplace covers the northern wall totally; and there is a door leading to the kitchen.

The ball-room is precisely that what is sounds like: a large hall along with polished marble-floor with the purpose to hold balls or something similar there. After the Baron converted the castle in an academy a small stage was added for performances and poetry readings.
There is also a big door here leading to the toilet and there are stairs going up to the second floor. In the panel behind the western wall is a hidden door leading directly to the hidden staircase. These occult staircase goes all the way up to the attic. To find the hidden opening is difficult and all attribute rolls to discover it have a DL -6 modification.

The trophy room is filled with the heads of wild boars, bearskins, deer antlers and similar. A giant hunting javelin hangs between the large windows which are looking out on the backside of the courtyard. One can sense a dim fragrance of moth balls in the air. A large table is situated in the middle of the room and around it stand six chairs made of black wood. In a corner of the room a staircase leads down to the cellar.

2nd Floor
Going up the two large stairs in the dining-hall one comes up to a stage which runs around the whole dining-hall like a gallery. From here, one has an excellent view about all that happens down below. From these stage four doors lead further into the academy, one door in each cardinal point. The Western one leads to the library, the Northern one to the corridor that contains the teacher‘s room whilst the two remaining doors lead to the pupil‘s corridors.
The library is a large and dark chamber along with massive bookshelves which bend under the pressure of all the books in this room. The floor is made up of dark parquet, and there are four large and massive armchairs in the corners. A chandelier is hanging from the ceiling, made of moulded iron. From here, stairs lead to the dancing-hall.
The teacher‘s chambers are spacious and luxuriously equipped with smooth fleeces and big beds bolding with downbolsters. Most of them have an own fireplace in the wall.

The pupil’s rooms are sparsely equipped with two beds in every room, a wardrobe and a board with a waterbowl for washing. If one wants to wash more than just the face, one may use the bath cottage in the courtyard. Two persons are always living in each of the rooms, and, of course, there is no mixing between the sexes.

In the corridor is also the toilet where one can do his necessities. It is simple and smells slightly. At the end of every corridor stairs go up to the third floor.

On this floor there is also a chamber that remains always locked, and that is placed in the teachers corridor. This room lies wall to wall with the chamber of the characters which will cause an incident later that evening. That chamber is the old sleeping room of the Baroness, and it is full of paintings and mirrors. All mirrors have been crushed and the paintings are scoured but it is nevertheless possible to recognize that the pictures show a very beautiful young woman along with dark hair and pale skin. A black bed is covered with dust which lies like a blanket above the floor. If someone looks down one can see tracks in the dust, tracks that come from somebody who walked with bare feet across the floor not long ago. These are the footprints of the Baroness who every now and then visits this room on her nightly excursions.

3rd Floor
On this floor live the servants and soldiers when they are off-duty. They have big bleak
chambers and simple furniture, but in a whole it is quite good (originally this was designed for fifty soldiers, thereof the big space of the rooms). On this floor people eat and wash their clothes; a special windlass lifts water from the courtyard up to the washroom. Currently thirteen servants are working in the castle, including Eza.

4th Floor
On this floor lives baron Mattheus. There are three bigger chambers on this floor.
The sleeping-room is overfilled with black bearskins and massive wooden furniture. Above the large fireplace hangs a giant portrait of the Baron and his wife which shows her in her younger days. That portrait is the only one left undamaged and it is the baron‘s dearest baron dearest possession. A giant axe hangs above the bed, rust-stained but still with a sharp edge. That is the baron‘s own two-handed axe but a lot of time has passed since he used it the last time.
In the baron‘s working chamber is besides a writing-table also a smaller arrangements of seats around a table made of red beech wood. Also in the room are a big book-shelf and a wine barrel. A mirror hangs over the door and many silver candlesticks are attached to the wall. A red carpet covers the floor. Additionally the Baron collects life-sized marble statues, and twenty „men“ are spread across the giant room.
The living-room is the Baron’s habitual place to be. He often sits at the large windows that looks to the Wolf’s Pass and is lost in his dreams. One of the walls hangs a tapestry in black and gold with a motif of the days when the Baron ruled in a more warrior-like way than today. A set with silver chalices rests on a small oak table that is place in front of the rooms fireplace.
From here a staircase leads up to the attic, half concealed by the tapestry. This is nevertheless not the staircase the Baroness is used to take; she prefers to go down through the secret stairs in the castle walls. The door is unlocked but creaks terribly.

The attic
At the wind there are a lot of clutter and other things. Everything from furniture which are out of use to worn-out clothing is stored here.
Big wooden beams run across the rooftop. On the far side of the attic is the door that leads to the room which the baroness chose to be her haven. These door is always locked when the baroness is out for one of her excursions and the only ones who have the key are Eza or the baroness. In spite of that that it is not too difficult to get through the door since it is thin and rotten. The decay is advanced so far that it takes only little weight to burst through.

In the Baroness‘ chamber paper covers the whole floor and the smell of lovely perfume and dirty clothes fills the air. A chair and a desk stand closely to the only window of the room. On the desk lays baron Ommnus‘ diary, almost well-thumbed. The tattered paper on the floor are the poems that baron Matteus wrote to her since their first meetings. They praise her beauty and her delicious manner. In the nook stands a bed with iron framework and above it lays a thick plaid. On the bed there is also the scroll that contains the witches formulae.

The secret passages
Through the castle lead innumerable secret passages. The Narrator is free to put them in place where he/she considers it to be convenient.

The monastery
This building will only be described very shortly in that adventure since it will hardly be necessary to examine it. The most important details will be given here nevertheless.
The monastery is built of dark stone and has two floors. From the roof rises the little belfry. Twenty monks live in the deserted monastery and they have principally no contact with the academy. One monk is a little special and this is the one who sits in the cellar in an own chamber and who manufactures crosses of wood at day and night. He sits surrounded by thousands of crosses which he gives a tip and sticks them into the ground.
All the other monks look at him with awe, for it seems that he is very close to the One. This man has the gift to feel the presence of the Darkness in the castle and he has an idea of what will happen. At the end of the adventure he sacrifices his life to the One and in combination with that act of self-sacrifice the Darkness looses for a few moments the possibility to support his henchmen. That makes it possible for the characters to capture the two witches who caused so much misery. Nevertheless, this will not stop the Baroness to transform into a Jeselite but it can prevent that she disfigures the five women for life.
The Course of Action
Below follow again the various incidents, but now the description is more detailed.

16.00 The characters are totally busy to take their costumes to their room, the costumes have been brought from a tailor in the wider surroundings. The characters have all dresses which are inspired by birds: hawk, crow, vulture, swan and owl. These are costumes with feathers who are fixed on dresses of velvet. They have various bird masks made of wood painted in bird colours. On their way up the magnificent stairs from the dining-room they meet one of the most charming girls of the academy, Rolinda, and her brother Dios.
The characters know them both very well. Dios is already wearing his dress at, he will disguise himself as scarecrow with a bag bun around his head with only one hole for the eyes. In the conversation it comes out that Rolinda will disguise herself as a fox, and she shows a mask made of a real foxhead. After this they part and the characters go to their room.

17.30 The characters are about to finish their masking as they hear a squeaking and a little mouse appears dash above floor along with a dark feather in the mouth. It flees into a gap in the wall and into an adjacent chamber. That chamber is the baroness‘ old sleeping-room but the characters do not have the slightest idea of that. The feather that has been stolen should have been placed at the top of the crow’s head and without it the crow will give a bald impression. With a little reasoning the characters may realize that room in which the mouse must have disappeared the mouse took can be reached through the teacher’s corridor. If they choose to go to that room they encounter during their walk many persons which are hassling clothes back and forth disguised as all possible animals.
Having reached the baroness’ bedroom they find the door locked, but the lock is so simply constructed that principally any key would fit. It is also possible to get in balancing on the ledge which runs around the outside of the castle, twenty centimetres wide, until one comes to the window that looks into the room. This window is seized by a hook from the inside and if one does not want to crush the window one can pick it loose with the help of any small object.

The inside of the baroness’ chamber is, as already said before, dusty and an enormous mess. The mouse that one was going after lies in its little house which it has built in the tattered mattress. When the characters have looked around a little bit and have checked the paintings they hear a load voice yelling behind them: „What the heck are you doing here? The hell! OUT!“ It is the baron by himself, wearing a bear‘s costume of real bearskin to the honour of the day. He is completely enraged about the character’s trick and pants fiercely.
Whatever the characters say, he leads them rudely out of the room. The baron enters the room by himself and shuts the door again loudly. One of the servants who has observed the whole incident mutters „that it is not convenient to tell about the wife“ but if the characters ask what he means with that he demonstrates that it is obviously convenient in spite of all. The servant can tell that the baron‘s wife was very beautiful but that she fell into the Wolf Pass many years ago. The baron has never got over that loss and he chose to lock his wife’s bedroom, so that the memories of her should remained untouched. One of the servants who has observed the whole incident mutters „that it is not convenient to tell about the wife“ but if the characters ask what he means with that he demonstrates that it is obviously convenient in spite of all. The servant can tell that the baron‘s wife was very beautiful but that she fell into the Wolf Pass many years ago. The baron has never got over that loss and he chose to lock his wife’s bedroom, so that the memories of her should remained untouched.
After that, the servant speaks about things which are totally uninteresting for the characters; that he has breeded pigs down there in the village, that the old Hans is surely striken by pneumonia, that the servants would need new shoes and so on endlessly if no-one stops him.

If the characters talk about what they just have heard with someone else, many of the servants are able to tell the same thing. All believe that the Baroness is dead and they also believe that she haunts the castle at night. Some say that they have seen her wandering through the corridors and disappearing into the walls without leaving a trace. Others say they have seen her looking through the window in the library. All their observation is sincere, but of course she is not a ghost and her mysterious disappearing into the walls comes from all the secret passages that she uses and which run through all the castle.

18.30 The dinner begins in the dining-hall. The table literally bends under all the fine food: for choice pork, grilled quails, filled lamb meat, frizzled sweet potatoes, fried trouts and cold deer. Everything is dished on the three long desks and at this especial meal even the servants eat at the same tables. Among the dresses that call attention is of course Rolinda’s fox costume, but also costumes of jokers, jesters, princes, knights and diverse monsters. Everything takes place under the large chandelier which emanates a warm light allover the hall. In the fireplace burns a warm fire and the wine flows in streams. During the meal the baron gives his thanks for the year gone by and there is no anger left about the character’s venture.

During the meal Dios talks with one of the characters about the monks who live in the monastery on the other side of the pass. He says that some nights before he saw a monk standing at the monastery roof with a huge amount of wooden crosses in the arms. The man seemed to be haggard and weak, because he tottered in a strange way. Dios looked at the man for a few minutes but then went away and laid down again and when the morning arrived he was gone. During this conversation the persons who sit around the characters begin to tell about the girl who was found at the bottom of the gorge with cracked skull and it is said that she was found with a wooden cross near her body. That is indeed true, the monk laid down a cross near the body as a sort of blessing, but the characters do not interpret it as such a gesture, they will believe that the monk killed the girl.
After the meal the dance begins, and this take place, of course, in the dancing-hall. Some of the pupils stand together with the teachers for music on the little stage. No further incidents happen during the dance.

20.30 The hide-and-seek. In accordance with the tradition of the academy the hide-and seek will be played, and the one who succeeds to stay hidden for the longest time will win a stately horse. To give every youngster the possibility to win the horse the Baron chooses the characters as the seekers. They may stay in the dining-hall waiting a quarter of an hour before they start to seek their pals. What happens during the play has been told before, but below is a number of incidents which you as Narrator may throw in whatever order you choose. The discovery of the hidden ones starts fast and the ones who have been found go down to the dining-hall for a residual portion of the game. The baron himself does not participate in the game, instead he is sitting at a desk and plays a game of chess with himself.
In the dark library someone has extinguished all light, and it is pitch dark. In the darkness one can hear movements which come out of the exterior walls If one takes a luminary one can see that the room is empty but one finds a big spot of wax on the floor, which is still soft.
However one searches, one does not find a candle the wax could be from.
Deep inside the castle, in one of the corridors, there are audible sounds from the lavatory, and if one opens the door, fifteen persons who all have hidden in there rush out.

In the trophy-room Dios in his scarecrow costumes sits hidden behind a stuffed wild boar. When the characters speak to him, he will not answer. When they touch him he falls down with a unhealthy bump and his head rolls like a ball over the floor. If the characters have sufficient presence of mind to stay in the room and examine the corpse they find that in spite of the decapitated corpse there is no trace of blood. The wound has been burned with such a heat that the blood has coagulated. There is an explanation for all that: Dios and Rolinda sat down in the trophy-room and waited, but in the same moment Eza and the baroness came in through the secret door in the wall. Eza conjured the aspect Fire and laid it on the edge of the axe which she used to cut off Dios’ head. Rolinda’s scream was not heard because the baroness used her magic to suppress the sound in the room (Affect Sound). Afterwards they took Rosalinda with them up the attic. They would have also taken the corpse with them but then the characters came in the room and they closed the secret door rapidly. If the characters do not leave the room without staying at the copse they leave the copse behind until they find a possibility to do remove it unseen. If it becomes necessary they will use magic to lure the characters out of the room, for example with the aspect Sound.
The reactions about the character’s discovery are described in the summary.
In one of the corridors the characters may see a woman in red clothes who just goes round the corner. If they follow her, they do not find a trace of her, she seems to have disappeared into thin air. In reality she entered one of the secret passages. If the characters look for it they can find it but that demands a successful roll with Difficulty Level -6.

The characters see a rat wedge in through the open door directly followed by a strangled scream. When they enter the room they see a girl masked as jester twiddle out off the chest of drawers where she hid under. She looks up and sees that she has been discovered. She explains cheerfully that she is afraid of rats and that it ran directly over her hand. She remains in the room brushing her clothes. When the characters leave the room they hear some seconds later a slamming sound from within and when they come back into the room they see a dead rat lying right on the floor, trampled to death. There is not a trace of the girl but a small mirror that stood by the dresser has fallen to the floor. The girl’s name is Linnea and she is one of the five chosen ones. The baroness opened a door in the wall and hit the girl unconscious. Then she stepped on the rat and saw her reflection in the mirror. She became furious, as usual, about what she saw and threw it to the ground. Then she used the aspect Time to be able to act quickly and to disappear through the secret door again before the characters entered the room. It is exactly as difficult as before to find the door but if one finds it, it leads into one of the tunnels that run through the castle’s thick walls.

In one of the rooms which the characters enter there is a weak smell of perfume in the air. In the room sits Eza, doing embroideries. The old the woman is not recognizable under her masquerade but the characters sense again that she is one of the servants in the house. Eza looks at them in the same way a predatory bird looks at his prey. If the characters choose to talk with her they will not get anything but a short answer. Should the characters watch her discreetly they may see how she gets up from her chair and goes to a closet in the room. Then she enters the closet and opens a door in the wall through which she disappears. The secret door locks from the inside and is very sturdy.

23.55 A bell rings in the dining-hall and all which have not been discovered before come out of their covers. All except the five girls and Dios. If the characters enter screaming out that strange things are still happening, they are met with the attitude that these are pure fantasies or that they try to frighten the people. In the same moment the monastery bell rings and a loud voice is audible. The people are rushing curiously to know what is going on and crowd into the watchtower straight above the castle’s court. From there one can see the apparent ceremony of the monks and one can distinguish a monk standing on the roof with a big wooden cross in the hand. During that turmoil the baron rushes to the attic where he will be killed.

00.20 After one of the girl’s death (cf. the summary above) the baroness attempts to attract the female beauty among the characters (if there is one, otherwise she will choose the most handsome man). If her friends follow her, that will not disturb the baroness, she knows that her power can handle them easily.
The characters will probably use the baron’s staircase, if they have not found the secret staircase. Having reached the attic they have to stand two rounds of combat before they can hear from the outside the monk’s voice yelling. The monk gives his life to the One and gives the characters the upper hand. Without their powers, the two women are less danegerous by far, additionally they are very starteled. What the characters see when they come up to the attic is terrible. On the ground lies four girls, the hands bound on their backs, with gags, and one of them (Rolinda) has a bizarre metal construction on her face. A lot of cranks and compulsions stand out from the mask. Eza awaits the characters standing on a roof-tree and she attacks them from there.
Disregarding how the fight ends, the baroness’ body disappears without a trace and one can see a pale figure wander away through the Wolf Pass.
If everything fails
The worst thing that can happen is that the characters become victimes of the baroness and Eza. In that case the ritual can be completed and the evil which causes that action awakes the Jeselite which has slumbered for a long time in the crazy baroness. Furthermore, a faithful henchmen of the Darkness has been raised to posession and a part of the struggle has been lost. In that case the baroness takes over the academy after her deceased husband whom she will blame to have been a wife abuser and barbarian, and Darkness will dwell there, teaching the noble children to turn their view to Merodak, against freedom, justice and power.
Characters
All characters are described briefly, and only their most outstanding attributes are mentioned. All other attribute have the average value 10.

Baron Matteus
Baron is a big man with along with a boisterous fashion. He has curly hair and a curly beard. He is in his fourties. The baron is frequently dressed in black velvet, but for the evening he is disguised as a bear.
STR 14
CHAR 13
AGL 6

Eza
Eza is the absolute stereotype of a witch with her white hair by an the witch along with sits hair in a knot under a huckle. She has a crooked nose and steel-grey eyes. She walks slightly bent speaks with a little raspy voice. little rasp accord. Under this facade she is quite fast and her powers are no fun.
STR 8
AGL 13
MEN 14
Magic +6
Close Combat +2

Baroness Minerva
The Baroness is disfigured. She limps strongly, and her face is gnarled and scarred. She wears clothes of dark velvet and smells of perfume. She is also quite demented.
STR 7
AGL 5
MEN 14
Magic +4

Some names for the servants/pupils in the castle are given below. Be prepared to improvize their special characteristics. All servants seem to be useless if their special duty is not concerned, the pupils have more or less the same capacities as the characters.

Frederic Udolf
Minna Tannvar
Badur Batvina
Evea Yrme
Nilla Ibrim
Haugt Haldon


Translator’s note: „Iron mask“ is in my eyes a very good adventure and I did my very best to translate it as accurate as possible, in spite of my very limited knowledge of Swedish. In case of doubt, I always tried to get the meaning even if I did not understand each and every word. Therefore I assume the full responsibility for any misunderstanding or bad expression.