When Kingdoms Rise and Fall 3

8/12/2019 When Kingdoms Rise and Fall 3

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/when-kingdoms-rise-and-fall-3 1/50

When kingdoms rise and fall…

A Campaign set in and around L’Anguille

The campaign is a set of linked adventures set in and around L’Anguille. Some of the

adventures fit into a strict timeframe, others are more ad hoc. The object of writing the

campaign was primarily to develop a less prerevolutionary doomandgloom settingfor !retonnia, to write something that would bring out some of the comple"ities of the

!retonnia background, something that felt distinctively different to a campaign set in

the #mpire, and hopefully one that encouraged and allowed a more swashbuckling

style of adventuring.

The appended $%s are the ones who played the campaign. A fair degree of latitude

was allowed in allowing players to determine what sort of character they wished to

play. The main way in which & affected this was in ensuring that all $%s spoke

!retonnian and were relatively at home in !retonnia, and in giving the $%s patrons.

This immediately situated them in relation to the powers that be, and reinforced the

impression that they were in fact relative small fry in the grand scheme of things. The patrons & used were'

Sire (erard )alcout *a fairly minor and ineffectual member of the Louisea faction+

(erard is entranced by travel and e"otic tales of faraway lands. e is slightly gullible

and tends to attract academics and sea captains who want an entre into enri’s circle.

e is forever presenting interesting people to enri. This suits enri as these

individuals are almost invariably entertaining, even if they turn out to be charlatans,

and occasionally they are genuinely useful. (erard’s great ambition is to finance an

e"pedition to Lustria.

The -an nder/oeker merchant house *see )arienburg supplement for more details+

This )arienburgbased merchant house are currently in dire financial straits.

The )oon’s 0aughters #cate coven

A 1landres based coven of #cate cultists. $etty, vindictive and malicious, but not

really very powerful.

Alternative patrons of a similar calibre *relatively impotent+ could be found from any

of the major cults or guilds.

The campaign background

L’Anguille is in long term decline, as a direct result of the success of its neighbour

)arienburg, the greatest port in the ld 2orld. )arienburg’s success is due largely to

their historic deal with the elves of 3lthuan, which gives them e"clusive trading rights

for 4ew 2orld goods. The realities of this situation have, over the last couple ofcenturies, sunk in to even the dullest of L’Anguillois minds. owever, noone has had

a clear idea what to do about it. The solution of the 5ings of !retonnia, ceaselessly

advocated, and just as unachievable now as when first conceived, is to anne"

)arienburg. 3nfortunately )arienburg values its independence too much to be easily

persuaded into the 5ingdom, and to attempt to capture it by force risks open war with

both 3lthuan and the #mpire, which even the cra/iest of monarchs have been made to

see is suicidal. )eanwhile, !retonnia has established a few struggling illegal colonies

on the soil of the 4ew 2orld, and a small and precarious trade in 4ew 2orld goods

defies the #lven ban on trade. As the trade is relatively small *barely enough to keep

the colonies alive+, the 5ing officially denies its e"istence, and neither 3lthuan nor

)arienburg challenge this. The occasional sea skirmishes that occur are dismissed by both sides as the actions of pirates rather than privateers.



All this could be about to change. The old 0uc finally died two years ago, and on his

death his eldest son and heir, enri Louiseau, returned to L’Anguille from the

colonies. enri is in his forties, and has spent much of his life at sea, or abroad. e is

an adventurer, impetuous, slightly politically na6ve and idealistic. e is determined to

restore the fortunes of L’Anguille by strengthening the colonies and the 4ew 2orld

trade, and effectively waging a 7uiet *and officially deniable+ war against )arienburgand 3lthuan. n arriving back in L’Anguille, his first action is to use his influence at

court to have !ernard (ranvelle, who he sees as a conservative stick in the mud,

removed from power as governor. e then ditches his house’s traditional allies who

are too hidebound to support the radical changes he needs to make, makes links with

likeminded merchant houses, sea captains, scholars, and the admiralty, and forms a

tenuous alliance with the !lois. enri’s analysis of the reasons behind )arienburg’s

rise and L’Anguille’s decline is shrewd and accurate. is determination to strengthen

the navy wins him strong friends in the Admiralty and the %ult of )annan. is

willingness to defy convention in a pragmatic desire to achieve results impresses his

allies amongst the bourgeoisie. After two years he has succeeded in installing a puppet

governor and set his plans in motion, now he is almost entirely focused on the 4ew2orld and the development of the navy 8 he thinks his position in L’Anguille is

secure. e is very wrong. &n two years he made more enemies than most people

manage in a lifetime. e has removed !ernard (ranvelle from the governorship, but

(ranvelle remains a highly capable and subtle politician, with fingers in just about

every pie in the city. e has a lifetime’s worth of favours with most guildsmen in the

city and some nobles. The merchant’s guild is in his pocket. &n addition, enri has

alienated some of his family’s traditional allies amongst the nobility, and the clergy

are dominated by traditionalist nobles who dislike his cavalier attitude towards time

honoured custom. e has had no time to develop a spy network of his own and his

trusted agents are all men who are strangers to the city. enri is popular with the

people, who see him as a heroic figure *though such impressions can change 7uickly+,

but aside from that his only advantage is that his many enemies are divided.

5ey groups

The Louiseau

The Louiseau are an ancient noble family, of !reton descent but settled in Armori7ue

for generations, with a long association with the !lois, who they have intermarried

with on several occasions. Traditionally they have developed links with all the major

cults, without especially favouring any. As is common with most !retonnian noble

houses *and especially those in the Sanne/ valley+ they have tended to patronise the

cult of Shallya more than others. Their oldest land holdings are in 1landres, near themouth of the Sanne/, where they are %omtes de l’rival. They also hold some land in

!reton and in Armori7ue. They were made 0ucs of L’Anguille several centuries ago.

Since that time they have developed an association with the sea and the navy, showing

a modest patronage of the cult of )anann. &t has become traditional for the eldest

male to serve in the 4avy. As is common amongst wellconnected and traditional

noble houses, they have been in long term decline for some time, finding that the

income from their considerable land holdings is not sufficient to fund the e"travagant

courtly lifestyle their station demands.

The old 0uc, Armand Louiseau, was particularly unsettled by the rise of the

(ranvelle, and indeed throughout his life he refused to address #douard (ranvelle

*and later his son !ernard+ as %omte unless eti7uette absolutely demanded it *e was,however, meticulous about addressing the %omtess d’#racle and her daughter )arie



by their correct title+. e was, however, a staunch traditionalist in all things, and with

his close friend 9ves $iarette spent a great deal of time bemoaning the rise of the

noblesse du robe but, being unwilling to engage in trade himself did little or nothing

to work against them.

enri, Armand’s oldest son, was destined for a career in the 4avy from birth. is

father even took the unusual step of permitting his son to study navigation at !aronynrich’s college in )arienburg, so determined was he that nothing should stand in

the way of enri’s progress. This decision was to have farreaching conse7uences. At

a formative age, enri was e"posed to the republicanism of )arienburg and all it

stood for. e became unusually egalitarian and pragmatic in his attitudes to social

class and position, concerned to support the right person for the job, not willing to

stand on social nicety, and becoming thoroughly convinced that in order to defeat

)arienburg, !retonnia had to learn from her. &t was while he was in )arienburg that

enri realised how much of )arienburg’s dominance was due to the 4ew 2orld

trade, guaranteed by 3lthuan. e then spent a long time in the 4ew 2orld colonies

and working as a privateer within the rder of St !eren. Lately, however, he has come

to see the limitations of this picking at the edges of 3lthuan dominance. $hilippe, Armand’s bastard son *unacknowledged+, was always meant to be kept out

of the way and was brought up in rival, the Louisea estates in 1landres, where he

could be kept out of the way. 3nfortunately he bore a striking physical resemblance to

enri, who eventually heard of him and tracked him down. $hilippe was a year older

than enri, and Armand steadfastly refused to acknowledge him, as this would

jeopardise enri’s position as his heir. owever, he agreed to grant him status as

gentleman. enri sponsored him for membership of the rder of St !eren, and paid

for a ship for him. $hilippe is devoted to his brother, but resentful of their father. e

tends to be more aggressive and vengeful than his brother, though conceals this

behind a mask of geniality. is years as a privateer have given him an intense hatred

for )arienburg and the Sea #lves.

The (ranvelle

The (ranvelle are the noblesse du robe par e"cellence. #douard (ranvelle was the

wealthiest merchant in L’Anguille, without a drop of noble blood in his veins. An

ambitious man, he had no chance of achieving his ambitions without a noble title. So

he bought one, buying up the d’#racle lands, and marrying his son, !ernard to )arie,

the last %omtesse d’#racle, and effectively bailing her family out of penury. The

(ranvelle are looked at with disdain and suspicion by the traditional noble families,

who see them as a threat. $erhaps in response to this, !ernard (ranvelle has sought to

be completely uncontroversial in his politics and conduct. e interferes little in themajor politics of state, generally supporting 5ing or %ardinal as appropriate,

following the past of least resistance. is own political views are traditional, and

despite being a living e"ample of the way in which birth does not define destiny, he

tends to support the status 7uo, playing great attention to eti7uette and the social

niceties of the nobility. Alongside all this fawning deference and apparent lack of

ambition, however, !ernard has been gradually e"tending his power and influence.

is sons, all able public administrators and servants of the state, have entered key

posts in the kingdom. is second son, $ierre, is the most high profile of these, being

the )inister of 1inance on the State %ouncil. is eldest son, #douard, is governor of

St Lou, and wellplaced to be appointed to a more significant post if one becomes

available. is third son, Antoine, is apparently a senior civil servant, but in reality isan influential member of the %hambre 4oire. &n addition to this, and so secretly that



noone outside of !ernard and his sons is aware of it, the (ranvelle have made a

highly significant tactical alliance with :an van der 5uypers, the )arienburg

merchant prince. This potentially treasonous alliance is based on a mutual antipathy

for enri Louiseau and a determination to see him fall from grace.

The (ranvelle have many enemies and few open allies, but they are here to stay, and

prepared to play a long game in their rise to power. They are already wealthier thanmost noble houses in !retonnia, and are becoming more influential. !ernard looks

forward to the day when a (ranvelle will be $rime )inister, and, who knows, maybe

even 5ing. &t won’t happen in his lifetime, or even his children’s, but maybe his

grandchildren’s;

The Artois

The Artois are a league of allied traditionalist noble houses in #astern 1landres. They

are the descendants of the great marcher clans, who have guarded the border with the

#mpire for centuries, living in their gloomy castles in the #astern )arshes, long

accustomed to being on the fringes of the political scene. &solationist and

conservative, they have looked with dismay at the rise of the merchant classes within1landres, and the decline of those noble houses who have sold out to the merchants as

a means of staving off financial ruin. The (ranvelle and the Louiseau are their

confirmed enemies, standing for all that they despise, but their greatest foe is the

%ardinal, who has mobilised large numbers of the 1landres nobility to support him.

The Artois are lead by %omte $aul d’Artois, from his stronghold in the small border

town of Artois, midway between rbec and -iers. The other significant families are

the de oc7uigny, the Thierot of %hateau Angiens, and the (audesse of %hateau rlu.

The <ieau", !arons of rbec, are sympathetic, but have ancient ties to the

0umorieu". The nobles are on the whole staunch )yrmidians, and this is certainly

true of the main families, though there are a few followers of the Lady or 3lric

amongst them. As traditionalists, they tend to despise the merchant classes, but have

come to accept that they need the help of some of the lower orders in order to function

as an effective political faction. 2ithin 1landres, they have a highly effective spy

network, masterminded by the spymaster $ierre 0uclois. This primarily functions to

watch the activities of their rivals, especially 0umorieu", but they have had

considerable success in 7uietly shifting the allegiance of 1landres nobility away from

the %ardinal. The other major success they have had is in 7uietly forging an alliance

with the powerful de Semblancy faction, masters of the south of !retonnia, whose

interests coincide with their own. They have few long term goals as yet, beyond doing

what they can to frustrate the e"pansion of merchants, )arienburgers, and lower class

riff raff.

The %hivalric rder of St !eren

St !eren is a fairly minor Saint of )anann, an early !retonnian e"plorer who, if his

tale can be believed, was one of the first to see 3lthuann. e is fairly obscure, and

only appealed to by those who are undertaking voyages into the unknown. The

chivalric order was founded a couple of centuries ago by a group of nobles of 4orse

ancestry in St Lou. They were sea captains and e"plorers. The order was fairly sincere

in its devotion to )anann, but really e"isted primarily to give seagoing nobles an

e"cuse to get together and tell old sea stories over a wine.

The order grew slightly, establishing chapter houses in L’Anguille and !ordeleu",

but remained fairly small and innocuous. This changed about forty years ago, with therise to prominence of the )ar7uis <eynaud Troufet de Sice. <eynaud was a naval



commander, and saw the rder as an opportunity. As far as <eynaud was concerned,

the main enemy of !retonnia by sea was )arienburg, and her ally 3lthuann. e was

canny enough to realise that the 5ing would never commit to open war, but thought it

was likely that he might authorise privateers. <eynaud reformed the order to become

a company of privateers. stensibly it remains what it has always been, and

membership is still restricted to those of noble birth, but all knights of the order arenow licensed privateers. The license has been held so long that the current king may

not even know about it. <eynaud Troufet is now (rand )aster of an order that has

chapter houses in all major !retonnian ports, and safe houses in a number of other

ld 2orld ports.

<eynaud’s prot=g= is enri Louiseau, who is currently )aster of the L’Anguille

chapter of the order.

The %hambre 4oire

The %hambre, the dreaded secret police and spy network of !retonnia, are both

influential and powerful, directly controlled by no single faction. Their loyalty is to

the crown, and they are therefore careful to maintain an independence from control byany of the main political figures at court. They report *theoretically+ to the 5ing

directly. &n practice, such reports are given to either the %ardinal, the secretary of state

for foreign affairs, or the secretary of state at dispatches. 1ou7uet, the secretary at

dispatches, although nominally a member of the de Semblancy faction, is remarkably

inefficient, and his involvement has therefore not been significant. owever, the

%hambre has become at the highest level a battleground between 0umoriou" and de

1rejus of the Amboise. This struggle suits the %hambre, as it enables it to remain free

of control by either faction by playing them off against each other. The sacrifice it has

made for this form of independence, however, is to let both men deeper into the

workings of the %hambre than they would prefer. !oth <oyal %ouncillors use the

%hambre to gain intelligence on political opponents, and on the occasions where they

are united in opposition to another faction, the %hambre has little option but to do

their will. n a local level, however, the %hambre tends to set its own priorities

Overview of the campaign

The campaign follows the fall and rise of enri Louiseau, carefully engineered by

!ernard (ranvelle. The $%s innocently play a key role in securing his downfall,

though as time goes on they begin to realise that Louiseau is an admirable man who is

devoted to his people. They are then left to attempt to repair the damage they have

caused and remove the selfserving (ranvelle from power. The first part of the

campaign 8 0escent 8 marks the period in which the (ranvelle steadily undermine the position of 0uc enri until he falls from grace. The affair of the 4aval Academy is his

one moment of triumph, largely because the (ranvelle do not actively oppose it. This

period is set broadly in the years from summer >?@> to autumn >?@. 1all B $erdition

marks the period in which the 0uc loses his position and is e"iled. This period is set

broadly in the years from autumn >?@ to spring >?@?. Ascent marks the period in

which the 0uc regains his position, and inflicts his revenge on those who conspired

against him. This period is set broadly during the years >?@? to >?@C. The span of the

campaign is therefore around five years, between the fourth and ninth year of the

reign of 5ing %harles &&&. #ach section has set adventures, that carry the main story

arc, and a number of optional adventures, that are designed to give a little colour,

open up some different areas of !retonnia, and to develop the $%s. &t is entirelyappropriate to adapt these or insert new ones to make them more appropriate to the



$%s currently in the party. There are also a number of adventures marked

DintermissionE these are designed to be run by a separate group of $%s, and fill in

aspects of the background for the players that their $%s would not be privy to.

Descent

*A nice ride in the country, eads you lose, The affair of the 4aval Academy, Thecase of the 7uestionable saint

Adventure ! A nice ride in the countr"

4ote' This adventure was written originally as a possible freestanding adventure,

which would give a rather more swashbuckling adventure e"perience than is typical

for 21<$. &t operates on two levels, on the first level it has fairly stereotypical good

guys and bad guys, which encourages the $%s to act heroically. &f the adventure is

being used as a oneoff, this level can be maintained and the deeper level dropped.

owever, if this is being used as the beginning of the campaign the second level is

highly significant.

Level #"nopsis!

The $%s are approached by a damsel in distress. er father is being wrongly

imprisoned by the governor on trumpedup charges of treason. The charges rest

entirely on the testimony of an apparent %hambre 4oire agent. owever, the $%s

discover that this agent is phoney, and being used by the 0uc to remove a supporter of

!ernard (ranvelle from a position of power in the )erchant’s (uild. Aided by the

%hambre 4oire and !ernard (ranvelle, the $%s travel to meet the %ardinal and get a

pardon for the accused before he is e"ecuted. They avoid the 0uc’s evil henchman

and return in time to dramatically stop the trial. The 0uc’s evil scheme is foiled andthe merchant is freed.

Level $ #"nopsis!

!ernard (ranvelle, acting through a third party, hires a woman to pass herself off as

a %hambre 4oire agent and convince the 0uc that a merchant opposed to him is a

traitor. The 0uc has the man arrested. (ranvelle makes plans to have the case collapse

dramatically in court. The $%s begin to investigate the arrest and approach (ranvelle

for aid. e is careful to remain in the background, but does all he can to help them,

presenting the 0uc in a very black way in the process. e also tips off the %hambre

4oire that the $%s are looking to e"pose the phoney agent. The $%s travel to meet the

%ardinal, who is sympathetic, as it serves his interests to be able to slap Louiseaudown a bit. They are trailed by a rather inept agent of the 0uc, who is desperately

trying to figure out what they’re up to. At the trial, the phoney agent is kidnapped by

the %hambre 4oire, and the governor is e"posed as a weak fool.

$ierrick Arguesse is an independent L’Anguillois merchant but with a close

affiliation to the (ranvelle. e is generally wellliked, never spectacularly successful,

but highly respectable. e is the favoured candidate for the post of 5eeper of Ledgers

at the )erchant’s (uild. This is a position of some responsibility, and the holder of

the post can be crucial in determining the politics of the guild as a whole. e has

recently been accused of treasonously conspiring with the de 5uypers to sell the land

owned by the )erchant’s (uild to )arienburg. This plays into popular fears about thegrowing economic power of )arienburg, and has inflamed local anti)arienburg



sentiment. The accusation came from an agent of the %hambre 4oire identified only

as D)adame <ougeE. The governor has had him arrested, detained in the lighthouse,

and his property confiscated by the crown. This last is unlikely to stand, as the

)erchant’s (uild is arguing that they should hold it in trust for him until he is brought

to trial. This is in turn interpreted by the governor as )arienburginspired

republicanism, and is being resisted strongly. )eanwhile #ustache $romet, amerchant with close connections to the Louiseau, is being put forward as a candidate

for 5eeper of the Ledgers. A date for the trial has not yet been set.

4ote' &t’s best to keep the time table fairly fle"ible. 9ou should work towards a

dramatic clima" with the $%s racing to get to the %ardinal and back in time. &t’s

probably best to withhold the date of the trial until you have some idea how fast

they’re moving. &f they act more slowly than you anticipate, you can always fudge

things by saying the trial lasts several days.

The damsel in distress

The $%s are approached by %lemence Arguesse, who begs them for help. She isliving on the street, as she has been kicked out of her house, and noone wants to

publicly associate with the family of a traitor. She wants to clear her father’s name

and have him freed, and is absolutely convinced of his innocence, though she knows

ne"t to nothing about his business dealings, and little about the case against him. $lay

up %lemence’s helplessness, her beauty, and desperation *there’s nothing she won’t

do;+.

The c"nical law"er with a heart of gold

Almost anything the $%s want to do to help *even trying to see $ierrick+ will re7uire

a lawyer. %lemence has no money, and the $%s probably don’t have much, so they’re

going to need to find a lawyer who will work for peanuts. n en7uiring at the courts

of the (uild of Legalists, they will be directed to 0idier ousse, as a lawyer who is

down on his luck and may be able to help. 0idier will initially come over as cynical

and will need at least beer money to get him to do anything, but once he meets

%lemence it will become obvious that he is smitten with her and will work for

nothing. *This can create tensions if any male $%s had fancied their chances, but

essentially 0idier is their only chance to do anything and breaking his heart *or his

nose+ will not help+.

%nvestigating

!y registering himself as lawyer for the defence, 0idier can establish some of thefacts fairly easily' $ierrick is being held *and tortured+ in the lighthouse, and two of

his employees' )aurice d’ Antorpe the notary and (aston the doorman, have also

been held B tortured for a confession. (iven time he can arrange for interviews with

any of these men. The charges against $ierrick come from a %hambre 4oire agent

called D)adame <ougeE, they specifically allege a plot with :aan van de 5uypers of

)arienburg, and that the )erchant’s guild is in dispute with the governor about

possession of $ierrick’s goods. The house and warehouse have been sealed and are

guarded by the 2atch. The company records have been sei/ed, and again 0idier can

e"amine them. *This will take time, but will prove that there is nothing irregular about

them, e"cept that occasionally in times of financial difficulty, $ierrick has relied on a

loan on favourable terms from !ernard (ranvelle. As 0idier will point out, however,the prosecution will no doubt claim that no traitor would record evidence of their



treachery in the company record books.+ 4oone from the de 5uypers has been called

as a witness or asked to give a statement *this is because the 0uc realises it would be

politically ine"pedient to say the least to make allegations against the richest man in

the world, who coincidentally is the 5ing’s biggest creditor, and the prosecution’s

official line is that the alleged deal was with unnamed Dunscrupulous )arienburg

merchantsE, but it looks highly suspicious to anyone who suspects the prosecution ison trumped up charges+.

%lemence will remember that the company had two other employees' Alain and Luc,

the clerks, who are now unemployed.

Looking for the clerks

Tracking down Alain B Luc will be difficult but not impossible. &f the $%s can find

them *lying low and hoping the authorities don’t pick them up too+, and persuade

them to talk *who sent youF+ then they can confirm that as far as they know the

charges are baseless. They saw no evidence of the de 5uypers having any contact

with $ierrick.

)eeting the captives

&f they can find a way of getting permission to talk to $ierrick, )aurice or (aston

this will not help them much as none of them know anything. All show signs of

torture and ill treatment. (aston appears to have snapped completely, and will simply

answer any 7uestion in the way he thinks the 7uestioner wants it answered, with no

relation to reality. )aurice will say nothing at all.

)adame <ouge

4oone knows anything about D)adame <ougeE e"cept that she has only been seen

in town recently and seems to be staying at the mansion. &f they can track down a

witness, she is young, pretty, of average height with dark hair, dressed well but not

showily.

The )erchant’s (uild

(oing to the )erchant’s (uild will reveal that there is a great deal of support for the

Arguesse, but a high level of nervousness too. 1ew of them really believe he is guilty,

but this makes them even more nervous 8 are they ne"tF &s this an attempt to bring

down the merchantsF They are in deadly earnest about their legal challenge to the

possession of Arguesse property, and see this as a cause they can legitimately

champion without actually being seen to support $ierrick. &n fact it is highly unlikely

that the case about possession of property will be settled before the treason case,which will render the other case irrelevant.

The post of 5eeper of Ledgers is effectively that of a glorified minutetaker at

meetings, but the holder is given a great deal of respect and can chair meetings of the

(uild in the absence of the (uildmaster. (enerally the post is given to a middle

ranking merchant as a mark of respect. $ierrick would have got the post by general

consensus, but in his absence #ustache $romet has put his name forward. $romet is a

known Louiseau supporter, and people are uncertain if they want to be seen to oppose

him in the current climate.

&f the $%s haven’t already learnt this, it will be remarked that $ierrick was closely

allied to !ernard (ranvelle the former governor. The (ranvelle are keeping a low

profile.



The (ranvelle

&f the $%s come to the (ranvelle residence they will be warmly welcomed in and

ushered in for an audience with the %omte. $lay !ernard (ranvelle like a kindly

grandfather, who hasn’t lost the common touch like more blueblooded nobles. e

remembers what it was like to be a poor merchant. e has done what he can to help

$ierrick in the past, but now sadly he can do little more. enri Louiseau has schemedand plotted his way into power, having !ernard removed on a prete"t, and now he

continues to plot to remove even those who support !ernard from any positions of

power. e is convinced that the charges are baseless, but has no power to do anything

to help directly. f course, if there is anything he can do to help the $%s if they can

clear $ierrick’s name, then he will be only too pleased to help. )aybe he can track

down some witnesses for 0idier; 0on’t lay it on too thick, because the $%s must not

suspect that !ernard is not what he seems.

(eneral rumours and gossip

Anti)arienburg sentiment is rife, as is the suspicion that the )arienburgers are

buying up the city. *Treat anti)arienburg prejudice as vaguely prewar antisemiticin tone' they’re wealthy, devious, and part of a vast international conspiracy+.

The previous governor, !ernard (ranvelle, had to retire because he was getting too

old and senile to keep up with things. The new governor, Gavier (evaudan, is a

relative of the 5ing’s, and has married the 0uc’s daughter )argot.

The new 0uc is fantastically wealthy, having discovered gold in the 4ew 2orld *or

harvested silk, or found the secret of manufacturing gemstones, depending on who

you talk to+. e is also a great sailor, and has sunk many )arienburg warships *this

last, an admission that the 0uc may have commanded a privateer vessel, is common,

but always told as if it were a great secret+.

The 0uc brought the Ddevil manE back with him from the 4ew 2orld. They say he’s

only half human. e can track like a hunting dog and run like a deer, and he can kill

with one look of his eyes.

Thomas

nce the $%s have been making en7uiries for a while *and particularly once they

have visited !ernard (ranvelle+, the 0uc will realise that they are up to something,

possibly in league with (ranvelle. e will set Thomas on their trail, to find out what

they are doing. $layers with si"th sense may realise they are being followed. thers

will probably not. 2hile they are in L’Anguille, play Thomas simply as a nameless

halfglimpsed shadow. &f you can spook them by having them hear rumours of the

Ddevil manE then so much the better.

To Louvienne& and don’t spare the horses'

DAlbertE 8 save this encounter until the $%s have gathered enough information in

L’Anguille

The $%s are approached by DAlbertE, who confirms that )adame <ouge is not a

%hambre agent. e will certainly never say it himself, but the $%s should be left in no

doubt that he is a %hambre 4oire agent. 4ormally the %hambre 4oire keeps itself

apart from such petty matters, but it will not refrain from acting when its reputation is

abused. e has his own plans to deal with )adame <ouge, but suggests that the $%s

can e"pose her by travelling to the estates of !aron )aitrout at Louvienne, just

outside %ouronne. &n two days time the %ardinal will be visiting his friend the !aronto go hunting. DAlbertE will provide a sealed letter to present to the %ardinal



e"plaining the situation. 1or the benefit of any $%s who do not realise who the

%ardinal is, he will inform them that he is the $rime )inister, and can overrule any

governor in the land. &t’s a > day ride or days by coach, and they must leave

immediately. 1unds for travel or the loan of horses can be found from the (ranvelle.

The journey to Louvienne should be played with an emphasis on the necessity ofspeed. Throw in encounters just for local colour, but the main action should come

from the $%s attempts to get to Louvienne in time.

2hen & played this, only one of the $%s could ride, and neither had night vision or

orientation. They insisted on attempting to ride by night. This led to their losing their

way several times, and the nonriding character learning to ride the hard way, with the

bruises to prove it. They had 7uite enough to do just keeping on course and finding

somewhere to sleep.

The $%s will be tracked by Thomas. e will be on horseback, and will follow them,

staying within sight but always behind them. e will avoid contact. e really hasn’t a

clue where they’re going and what they’re doing.

Louvienne

n their arrival at the chateau in Louvienne they will be shown into a waiting room

if they produce the letter. They will be carefully but tactfully searched and disarmed

by a captain of the %ardinal’s (uards, and will have to wait a long time as the

%ardinal is out on a hunt. n his return they will be granted a ? minute audience. As

he has been hunting, he is dressed as a noble but in worn hunting leathers, with only a

dove pendant as a symbol of his office.

$lay the %ardinal as a highly intelligent and benevolent man. e will say little and

listen carefully to anything the $%s say. e allows one of them to e"plain the

situation, then writes a letter marked with his seal asserting that the %hambre 4oire

agent is false, that all charges against the merchant should be dropped, and his

property returned to him.

& 7uite like this as an initial introduction to the %ardinal, partly because it instantly

makes it clear that this is a man for whom religion is not the defining characteristic,

but also because it gives $%s the wonderfully incorrect impression that he actually

cares about justice and fair play. &n fact, it simply fits in with his plans to intervene in

this matter. This is also a great opportunity to introduce $%s to any henchmen or

women who you wish them to encounter later Da tall dark haired man stands behind

the %ardinal as you speak. e seems to be wearing a uniform like that of the

)usketeers, but with no insignia. is hand never leaves his rapier;E

(ack to save the da"…

As with the journey to Louvienne, it is best to play this without distracting

encounters. owever, they should at some point have a runin with Thomas. e still

doesn’t know what they’re doing, but he knows they’ve met with the %ardinal. e

will attempt to either delay them so that they cannot get back in time, or to try and

steal whatever it was they went to Louvienne to get. <emember that not only does he

not know what he’s looking for, he is a stranger to !retonnian culture and can’t read. &

played it so that he stole a book off one of the $%s by sneaking into their camp at

night. e thought it looked very significant and they must have got it from the

%ardinal 8 after all, who goes charging around the countryside with a bookF



The ideal result is that the $%s encounter Thomas, realise he is the Ddevil manE and

works for the 0uc, are endangered but not stopped by him, but ultimately do not

either capture or kill him.

The trial

Adapt the moment when the $%s interrupt proceedings for dramatic effect to suityourself. & had them arrive at the end of a day so they could be briefed by 0idier first

on where they were in proceedings, but you may prefer to have them charge into the

court in full swing.

The trial begins, presided over by a judge and in the presence of the (overnor. !oth

(ranvelle and Louiseau are absent. )adame <ouge gives her evidence, and this is

confirmed by a number of employees who have been DpersuadedE to testify *and show

the marks of torture+, but their testimony is contradictory and fragmentary. (aston

saw all the directors of )arienburg enter the Arguesse residence and swears that this

coincided with a terrible omen 8 the chaos moon appeared to wink at him. e seems

willing to say whatever he feels the court wants. )aurice testifies that he witnessed

deeds of property being signed over to the -an de 5uypers, and the promise that whenhis master was 5eeper of the Ledgers the )erchant’s (uild building itself would be.

)aurice testifies in a monotone, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes.

0idier attempts to prove $ierrick’s innocence, disputing the testimony of the

prosecution, but has made little progress so far. is only hope is that the $%s return,

or that (ranvelle can produce the Dstar witnessE he has mentioned to him *this is the

way that (ranvelle had originally planned on engineering the collapse of the case

before the $%s turned up 8 he would provide a witness that could identify )adame

<ouge as a lowly actress named )arthe Toudier 8 naturally once the $%s turn up this

witness disappears+.

The $%’s intervention turns the case around. The :udge, on reading the cardinal’s

letter, will declare that the case is dismissed, as the prosecution’s witness is not a true

%hambre 4oire agent. The accused is a free man and his goods are restored to him.

The governor, attending the court, will be at a complete loss, as in the public gallery

the chant starts D:ustice is done, down with the tyrant (evaudanE. e will sit unable

to move for a full minute, before an aide suggests to him that the gallery should be

cleared, )adame <ouge arrested, and he should return home. &t is then discovered

that )adame <ouge has disappeared. )adame <ouge has been captured by Albert,

who interrogates her at his leisure *you may allow one of the $%s to spot him in the

courtroom+. er disappearance is a great shock to both the governor and (ranvelle,

who had plans to spirit her away or have her killed later. &f you do not plan on running

the following oneoff Deads you loseE, then you should tie up this loose end' thene"t day, )adame <ouge is discovered hanging in front of the courthouse. er tongue

has been cut out. n her chest is pinned a piece of paper with the letters D%.4.E

written on it.

The aftermath

The $%s become local heroes amongst the merchant class. The Arguesse are hugely

grateful, and $ierrick will offer them a modest sum of gold *around >H each+ as a

reward.

The governor *and the 0uc, who is seen as his puppet master+ are highly unpopular

within the )erchant’s guild after this affair, and they begin agitating for the removal

of the governor. The 0uc is highly confused about the whole affair 8 )adame <ougeidentified herself to the governor with all the appropriate codewords *and did a very



good job of ingratiating herself into the 0uc’s confidence+. e wonders who has set

him up, and suspects the %ardinal, but doesn’t know why. e decides the $%s are the

key to the mystery. !ernard (ranvelle is pleased, and continues to plot Louiseau’s

downfall, but is concerned that the %hambre may realise who was behind this. The

%hambre 4oire aren’t talking to anyone, but are trying to track down the man who

recruited )adame <ouge *a.k.a. )arthe Toudier+ to determine who gave her thecredentials to pass herself off as an agent.

$ublicly the governor issues a statement that $ierric Arguesse is cleared of all charges

and e"presses his relief that such corruption never really occurred.

The Arguesse reestablish themselves, $ierric gets the post of 5eeper of Ledgers, and

%lemence and 0idier begin courting.

Cast!

The wrongfully accused merchant'

$ierrick Arguesse 8 L’Anguillois merchant of norse ancestry. ead of the smallmerchant house of Arguesse. A middleaged and rather portly man, with strawblond

hair. $ierrick is a likeable but not too successful merchant, who relies on his

connections to the (ranvelle to get by. e has, however, been around a long time, and

it is seen as his DturnE to be 5eeper. &mprisoned, $ierrick’s good humour *and much

of his weight+ is lost. e becomes depressed and fatalistic.

is na6ve and desperate daughter'

%lemence Arguesse 8 A stunningly attractive blonde, now left destitute by her father’s

fall from grace. %lemence is left friendless *because noone wants to be seen to

associate with someone who may be connected to a traitor+ and without support.

4ormally a pleasant and rather emptyheaded girl, she has had a very rough lesson in

the realities of life. She is willing to do anything to save her father.

The cynical lawyer with a heart of gold'

0idier ousse 8 0idier is a L’Anguillois of 2astelander descent. A (uisoreu" trained

*and very good+ lawyer, he gets most of his money from merchants’ contracts. e

affects a cynical hardbitten e"terior, but in fact has always had a weakness for a

genuinely needy person. e will be immediately smitten by %lemence, something

which he will work hard *but unsuccessfully+ to conceal.

The glamorous yet treacherous spy'D)ilady <ougeE 8 A beautiful darkhaired woman who claims to be an agent of the

%hambre 4oire. &n reality she has been hired to pass herself off as an agent.

The corrupt governor'

Seigneur Gavier (evaudan 8 A minor and weak member of the !lois family, married

to enri Louiseau’s daughter. Lives in the Louiseau mansion. Tormented by gout and

indiciciveness, well mannered and likeable.

The )achiavellian noble'

enri Louiseau, 0uc de L’Anguille. !rilliant, dynamic, radical. &nherited his title two

years ago following his father’s death, and returned from the 4ew 2orld colonies to



revive the family fortunes. Last year he succeeded in ousting !ernard (ranvelle from

the governorship and installing Gavier, now his son in law, in his place.

is evil henchman'

Thomas #tranger. A native of the 4ew 2orld, an Agoloni from the $atawen tribe,

Thomas was brought back to !retonnia by enri. Thomas is a skilled and ruthlesskiller, with tracking and wilderness skills second to none, but limited e"perience of

!retonnian culture or urban environments. e speaks limited !reton with an odd

accent and generally dresses as a !retonnian, but looks odd, with his deeply tanned

skin and slanted eyes. Amongst the servants at the Louiseau mansion he has the

nickname D5haineE or D0evilmanE.

Thomas. Scout, e" unter

) 2S !S S T 2 & A 0e" &nt Ld %l 2$ 1el

? ?? ?I J J @> ?@ > K J> I JK J> >I

Acute earing, Animal %are, %oncealment <ural, 0odge !low, 1lee, 1ollow Trail,

(ame unting, rientation, <ide 8 orse, Shadowing, Silent )ove <ural, Si"th

Sense, Street 1ighting, Speak additional language' !retonnian, &mmunity to $oisons.Trappings' Short bowB>H arrows, > throwing a"es, sword.

The good man who’s been knocked down *allegedly+'

!ernard (ranvelle, %omte de $errac, member of the noblesse de robe, head of a major

faction, and until > years ago governor of L’Anguille, is elderly, cautious and a canny

politician. e also loves telling stories of his father’s rise to prominence. e is the

confirmed rival of the Louiseau, and a fierce opponent of )arienburg influence in

L’Anguille.

The shady underworld figure'

neeyed Luc. An informationbroker, former bawd, Luc is known and tolerated by

all sections of the L’Anguille underworld. e earns his living from information, but is

careful not to be labelled a grass.

The genuine spy'

DAlbertE. Albert is a slim, serious looking young man, dressed like a scribe. e

doesn’t look particularly notable in any way. e works within the local circle of

%hambre 4oire agents, who are being coldshouldered by the 0uc at present, who

doesn’t wish to be told that )ilady <ouge is not a genuine agent. e is deeply angry

about )ilady <ouge’s activities, and will take the opportunity to send a sharp

message to the 0uc that the %hambre is not to be toyed with.

The distant authority figure'

%ardinal 0umorieu". The %ardinal has little direct involvement in provincial politics,

but one of his many roles is supervision of the %hambre 4oire, and an attempt to

subvert their role, which additionally is discomfiting the (ranvelle, who he favours

over the Louiseau, is enough to catch his attention, it he can be approached about it.

is concern will be to stop the trial and deliver a mild rebuke to the 0uc. The

%hambre can defend itself.



%ntermission! )eads "ou lose

This is a oneoff adventure that focuses on some of the loose ends left by the previous

adventure, but not reliant on a knowledge of the facts of that adventure. &t was written

as a oneoff adventure for a group some of whom had completed the previous

adventure and others had not. &t works best if different characters are used. This is partly because the $%s are unlikely to willingly work for the faction they have just

worked against, but also because completing the adventure would give the $%s

information that would alter their perception of events radically. &t is useful for the

players to gain this different perspective, however. &f it seems forced to run a oneoff

adventure so early on in the campaign by all means run the adventure later, but it is

adviseable to inform the players that the adventure is set in the past. &t makes most

sense if the $%s are new arrivals in the city and at least one of them is of noble or

gentle birth.

#"nopsis!

The $%s are recruited by 0uc enri Louiseau. Someone planted the severed head of)adame <ouge in his bed. She had disappeared from the courtroom after being

e"posed as a liar. The head appears to have had some rudimentary embalming and to

be semianimated, in that it occasionally speaks. The 0uc wants the $%s to find out

who she was and what happened to her, and to find a way of enabling her to rest in

peace. e also wants this done discretely.

After some investigation, the $%s discover the identity of )adame <ouge, identify

who hired her, and find out what happened to her following the trial. They also

manage to recover her body, which enables a priest of )orr to conduct a burial ritual

and release her spirit.

The stor" of *arthe Tudier *and if you think it’s comple" wait until the $%s start

trying to figure it out+

)arthe was an actress in a troupe of travelling players in a circus. 2hile they were at

%ouronne she was recruited by the merchant (regor Lumonne to act the part of a

%hambre 4oire agent called D)adame <ougeE. Lumonne was bankrupt, and had been

paid to act as an agent for !ernard (ranvelle, who sought to engineer the downfall of

the 0uc. )arthe presented herself to the governor of L’Anguille, bringing charges of

treason against a merchant called Arguesse. The governor referred the matter to his

patron the 0uc, who was seduced by her and pushed the case forward. 2hen it came

to court, the case collapsed. Agents of the %hambre 4oire sei/ed )arthe from the

courtroom and spirited her away to be interrogated, with the help of the rogue wi/ard(hislaine. (hislaine, however, managed to twist the evidence they received, to

implicate the 0uc further. )arthe’s severed head was then left in the 0uc’s bed as a

message from the %hambre 4oire. owever, with her head still speaking truths about

her past, various people then attempted to gain possession of it.

%ntroduction

0uc enri Louiseau is not having a good time. :ust as it seemed things were going

well for him a court case in which he had paid a certain amount of personal interest

collapsed very publicly, leaving him and his governor very unpopular with the

merchants of L’Anguille *who he is financially reliant upon for several of his

initiatives+. &n addition, the %hambre 4oire seem to have decided that he is nottrustworthy and refuse to talk to him. )ost of his trusted agents are sailors or are not



!retonnians. The recent affair of the court case has highlighted the fact that even his

most loyal agents lack subtlety when it comes to highstakes espionage. e knows

someone has set him up, but he doesn’t know who. To make matters worse, someone

has planted the severed head of a former lover in his bed. e can review his house

security and determine who the agent is who put the head in his bed, but to find out

the answers to his other 7uestions he will need someone else. Someone who has noconnection to the various local factions that might be scheming against him. Someone

who he can trust to be discrete yet capable. e will need the $%s.

The $%s should arrive in L’Anguille to hear two things'

@. The %ircus is in town

>. There has just been a spectacular court case which has shown that the

(overnor is corrupt and trying to destroy the merchants. *)ost people think

this is scandalous+. 1ill in details of the case from the previous adventure.

The Dream

n arrival in the city, one of the $%s has been troubled by a dream *if one $% is particularly focused on the cult of )orr or divination then it should be them,

otherwise just pick the most idealistic+. They dream that a beautiful young woman is

saying something to them. They can’t see anything distinctly about her apart from her

face 8 she has dark hair and is 7uite stunning. They move closer, trying to hear what

she is saying, and the words turn to screams, the flesh peels off the face to reveal a

skull, which flies at them still screaming, and they wake up in a cold sweat.

An audience with the Duc

Shortly after their arrival, they are contacted by Thomas #tranger 8 who will be

dressed well, though he will speak with a definite accent. 0ecide some reason why the

0uc would have identified the $%s as a group who can help him 8 if one is a noble, or

a competent *and therefore presumably independent+ professional that would be

sufficient reason. r if they would be seen as an e"pert on occult matters or the

making of en7uiries that would be another. Thomas asks if they would be willing to

help the 0uc in a matter of some delicacy, for which they would of course be

recompensed. Assuming they agree, Thomas shows them into a waiting coach, and

they are whisked away to the 0uc’s mansion. nce there they will be treated well, and

shown into a private chamber to meet the 0uc.

0uc enri Louiseau is in his forties, but still looks fit and well. e is dressed in

e"pensive and fashionable clothes, as befits his station, but his face and hands seem

tanned and roughened by the wind. This is a man who has spent much of his life atsea. %urrently, however, the 0uc looks troubled, he looks like he has lost some

weight, and the dark shadows under his eyes suggest he’s not sleeping. e sits behind

a desk in a darkened room. n the desk sits something in a black bag. e stands as the

$%s enter and invites them to sit in chairs on the other side of the desk. e then

dismisses the servants. Thomas leaves, closing the door behind him.

The 0uc will thank them for coming and for offering their assistance, and stress the

need for discretion in what he will tell them. e will then e"plain events as far as he

knows them'

About a month ago, a young woman approached the governor, Gavier (evaudan,

using the codewords to identify herself as a %hambre 4oire Agent known asD)adame <ougeE. She revealed that she had evidence to suggest that a prominent



member of the )erchant’s (uild was committing treason with )arienburg 8 selling

land to the van de 5uypers that would give them a stranglehold on L’Anguille trade.

The governor, who is the 0uc’s son in law, was most disturbed, and came to the 0uc

to ask his advice. The 0uc met the young woman and was convinced they must act.

So they had the merchant in 7uestion arrested, and brought him to trial on grounds of

treason. The trial went ahead, but then collapsed dramatically when the defence produced a statement from the %ardinal himself that )adame <ouge was not a

%hambre 4oire agent. )adame <ouge disappeared from the courtroom before they

had a chance to restore order. That was about four days ago.

Then, two days ago, the 0uc awoke to discover someone had left this in his bed 8 he

will at this point pull the bag away to reveal the severed head of a young woman. The

$% who had the dream will recognise this as the woman he dreamt of. She is probably

in her late teens or early twenties, dark haired, and very attractive. The head appears

to have been embalmed. This is the head of the woman who identified herself as

)adame <ouge. To the 0uc she had identified herself as Lisette.

The 0uc has his own agents working on the breach of security that allowed someone

to plant the head ne"t to him. 2hat he wants the $%s to do is to find out who she was,how she came to turn up claiming to be a %hambre 4oire agent, and what happened to

her following her disappearance from the court.

There is one further thing 8 the woman’s spirit does not appear to have left her. The

head has spoken to him in her voice, twice now. nce it said his name DenriE, and

the other time it said DAlon/oE. The 0uc has no idea who DAlon/oE might be, but will

volunteer the fact that it seems to be a Tilean or #stalian name if asked. The 0uc

would also like them to find a way to let her spirit depart so that she can be at peace.

e will give them the head in the black bag.

The 0uc will answer any further 7uestions they have as honestly as he can. e really

knows nothing about )adame <ouge. She said she could reveal nothing about her

identity because she was a %hambre 4oire agent. 4oone seemed to have ever seen

her before in L’Anguille. They had no reason to doubt she was genuine because she

gave the correct codewords. #ver since the incident the 0uc has been unable to

contact the %hambre 4oire and he suspects that they do not trust him or are

purposefully working against him. The one pertinent fact that he will not reveal to

them is that he and )adame <ouge had been lovers. e will admit if asked that she

had been staying in the mansion, but not that they had shared the same bed. &f the $%s

have any immediate cashflow problems the 0uc will arrange for a servant to give

them a purse of d@H gold to cover their e"penses.

The head The head appears most of the time to be e"actly what it is, an embalmed head. &t

seems to have been severed in a single clean cut, like in an e"ecution. Anyone with

magic sense or magical awareness will sense that it is undead, however. &n fact, the

head senses as if it was under the effect of some form of spell, which is trapping the

spirit into the head. Appropriate skills *eg &dentify 3ndead+ will suggest that this is

not a DnormalE form of undead, but one inadvertently created by the use of some dark

magic.

The head will occasionally animate and say a word. 2hen it does, the eyes flick

open and the jaw moves. 4aturally no breath is actually emitted, but all those close by

will hear it distinctly. 2hen this happens for the first time the $%s should take a %l

test or take an insanity point. ()’s should use the head as a plot device to point the$%s in the right direction. !ear in mind that it only speaks individual words, and only



draws on )arthe’s knowledge. bvious words would be D%ouronneE, D%ircusE,

D)arissaE, D)artheE, D(regorE, DSebastienE or D#stelleE. 3se the head sparingly in

this way.

A priest of )orr will be able to diagnose e"actly what has happened, but will be very

suspicious of the $%s for having produced this dark artefact, and will want to keep the

head to ensure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. e will, however, be unable torelease the girl’s spirit, though will be uncertain why.

)aking en7uiries about people with dark occultic lore will eventually throw up the

name (hislaine #lgire. (hislaine is an outlawed wi/ard who is in hiding in the city

somewhere, who is believed to have knowledge of all sorts of dark arts. e is also

believed to be highly dangerous, and anyone who mentions him will also warn the

$%s that he is dangerous and that his services are likely to be e"pensive. 4oone

knows where (hislaine can be found, but the $%s will be told that if they ask around

enough he will find them.

Tracing *adame +ouge

Apparently noone in the city knows anything about )adame <ouge. 2herever she’sfrom, it’s not L’Anguille. The first anyone in the city heard of her was when she

arrived at the Louiseau mansion in a coach. The mansion guards recognised the

coachman as one who used to work for 9ves $iarette. e lost his job for drunkenness

about half a year ago. #veryone knows him as D0runk <eynardE. A lot of en7uiries

will turn up the fact that 0runk <eynard was fished out of the river about a week ago.

e hadn’t got a steady job since being fired by the $iarette. )ost people assumed he’s

just got dead drunk and fallen in. !y talking to the right people, the $%s may be able

to find out that he had been paid well by someone to do some work about a month

ago. e was suddenly able to buy rounds of drinks for old friends. 4oone knows

what he was hired to do or who hired him, but the only thing he was ever good at was

driving coaches.

The Circus

!y this point the $%s will be at a bit of a dead end, so they should be encouraged to

e"plore the circus *if they need a push in the right direction, have the head say

something+. The circus is a travelling circus, currently pitched outside the city walls.

They are planning on staying for about a month. They have just come from %ouronne.

The circus is owned and run by D!ig %laudeE, a alfling who walks on stilts to stand

as tall as a C’ man.

There is plenty to keep the $%s amused here, and feel free to throw in acts that will

attract their interest'The !ig Top 8 acrobats B animal acts, with clowns to pad out performances,

with D!ig %laudeE as the ringmaster.

The Tent of orrors 8 a freakshow of degenerates from the wilds of the

#mpire, including (runhilde the !earded Lady, lga from 5islev *seven feet tall and

with impressive bosoms+, 5urt/ the &nvisible )an *who is kept on a leash by his

DhandlerE who is in fact a gifted ventrilo7uist+, and Threearmed ans *with a fake

arm+. 4one are actually mutants e"cept ans, who uses the real arm in his act, and

makes a big show of removing a false one afterwards.

The &ncredible Luigi 8 a Tilean strongman who lifts large objects over his

head.



)adame livia the fortune teller 8 basically tells people what they want to

hear, but has enough true gift to recognise the head for what it is. 3se her as a source

of occult lore if the $%s haven’t yet tracked down anyone else.

Sebastien $roufet’s Travelling $layers 8 performing DAfter the arvestE, a

rather bawdy comedy that involves lots of fast costume changes. They are a troupe of

three currently performing a play for four. Sebastien can fre7uently be heard urging#stelle to move faster. *Something about the players should cause the $%s to

investigate further 8 whether it is something the head said or just curiosity about what

happened to the missing actress+.

The Travelling ,la"ers

The travelling players, Sebastien, <eynaud, and #stelle, have been together for a

long time. owever, until a couple of months ago, they were a company of four. The

fourth in the company was #stelle’s friend )arthe Tudier. )arthe was a pretty girl,

dark haired and slim *and matches the description of )adame <ouge 8 if shown the

head, the players will identify her+. They can do serious pieces, but tend to do comedy

more often, as it gets more interest. )arthe left them in %ouronne. They were performing The Tragedie of Alon/o.

)arthe played )arissa, the spy of Alon/o’s arch enemy who seduces then betrays

Alon/o *played by Sebastien+. )arthe always attracted a bit of attention from the

plebs after that performance, and was known to spend the night with a fan if she took

a fancy to them. She was last seen chatting to a welldressed middleaged man who

she called (regor, not her normal type. 4oone knows much about him, but they

describe him as tall and thin, balding, with dark hair. The only real distinguishing

feature was a gold signet ring. They didn’t catch any details, but it appeared to be in

the shape of an DSE.

)arthe disappeared after that performance, but did say to #stelle before she went

that she had been offered the opportunity of a lifetime. Someone wanted her to play

)arissa Dfor realE, and would pay well. She hoped to catch up with them in

L’Anguille. Sebastien is not impressed, but hasn’t been able to train anyone else in the

parts so far.

Thief'

!y this time, the $%s *no matter how discrete they think they’ve been+ have

probably been asking all sorts of 7uestions about talking heads, )adame <ouge, and

mysteriously disappearing brunettes. &t so happens that there are two groups of people

now looking for them. 1irstly, there are the %hambre 4oire. They have learnt from

their agent in the Louiseau mansion that the head they left as a message for the 0uchas started talking. They have also learnt that the 0uc has given it to a group of

adventurers who are wandering around the city with it. They want it back before it

gives too much away. Secondly, there is (regor Loumonne, who has learnt that a

group of adventurers have been hired by the 0uc to find out who hired )adame

<ouge, and that an undead head may be revealing all sorts of secrets at any moment.

e wants the head back and wants the $%s stopped.

3se these two groups to spice up the adventure. The %hambre 4oire will tend to act

in a professional and unobtrusive way 8 they may try following the $%s, stealing the

head, capturing a lone $% and interrogating them, they may even try to assassinate the

group if they can find a nice clean way to do it. !asically the %hambre 4oire should

be a definite threat, but often intangible, and the $%s should have little chance to turnthe tables on them. The %hambre 4oire is also interested in e"acting their revenge on



(regor Loumonne, and will have no hesitation in dispatching his agents. Loumonne’s

agents will be thugs hired from the Stevedore’s guild. They will act in a direct manner

8 trying to steal the head or start a fight with the $%s 8 and it should be very possible

for the $%s to overpower or outthink them.

Agents of either side could be on the trail of the $%s from around the time that they

are at the circus, waiting an opportunity to strike. !asically, it is important that the $%s lose the head before they gain any potential

means of e"tracting answers from it. #ither group could be responsible, and the means

by which it happens are left to the ()s discretion. &n my game, & had one of the $%s

be obviously pickpocketed. &n the confusion and skirmish that followed, someone else

swiped the bag with the head in it, by cutting the sack away with a sharp knife. The

head should turn up again either at (regor Loumonne’s, or at the %hambre 4oire safe

house.

The sign of the serpent

At some point in their travels *preferably during a chase or fight with one of the

groups tracking them+, one of the $%s should stumble across the offices of ouseLoumonne 8 with a sign outside displaying their symbol, the serpent. &f you didn’t see

it too clearly, you’d think it was the letter DSE. The offices are small and in a not too

fashionable part of town. &f they look inside, they will find that ouse Loumonne

seems to have fallen on hard times. They seem to sell mainly metal pots and pans, but

they have a stock of rather faded cloth too. The clerk will be pathetically eager to hear

any financial offers, and is 7uite willing to gossip 8 the head of the merchant house is

(regor Loumonne, they have fallen on hard times recently, but he has been helped out

in the past by his old friend !ernard (ranvelle, and maybe the good %omte will help

them once again. )onsieur Loumonne is not here at present, but he will happily book

them an appointment with him if they wish.

Any attempts by the $%s to break in should lead them straight to the events listed

below *a grisly discovery+. They should certainly not have any opportunity to talk to

(regor Loumonne.

Off to see the wi-ard…

The $%s should hopefully have put feelers out to say that they wish to meet with

(hislaine. As it happens, (hislaine is happy to meet with them as long as he can

figure out who they’re working for. (hislaine is very paranoid, and very capable. e

will decide on a time and place to meet them and turn up. )y personal preference is

to turn up in their room at their inn unannounced in the middle of the night *locked

doors present few problems to someone with an pen spell+. (hislaine will appear very innocuous. A youngish man, without distinguishing

features, probably in his thirties, wearing nondescript clothes *certainly nothing at all

Dwi/ardlyE+. e is, however, very prepared for trouble. &f he senses that things are

going wrong, he will cast a )ystic )ist, and escape in the confusion. is first

7uestion will be D2ho are you working forFE. e knows there are three groups

interested in the head' the 0uc, the %hambre 4oire, and people working for !ernard

(ranvelle Mnote that (hislaine knows that Loumonne works for (ranvelle, but isn’t

telling the %hambre 4oireN, he knows the %hambre 4oire probably want him having

figured out something went wrong with the spell. e knows that (ranvelle may want

him for trying to blackmail him. e doesn’t think the 0uc has anything against him as

yet, but he probably would if he knew who he was. The important thing for the $%s isthat they are honest. &f they say they are working for the 0uc and that all he is



interested in is what happened to )arthe and what can be done to free her spirit, then

(hislaine will be happy to help *the more so because then he can get his version of

events to the 0uc+. &f he senses deception on the part of the $%s he will not cooperate.

(hislaine will give the $%s this version of events' the young woman was captured

and interrogated by the %hambre 4oire, who hired a wi/ard to cast a truth spell in

order to ensure they got the right answers. 3nfortunately, they then killed her beforethe spell wore off, and this bound her spirit to her body. &n order to release her spirit,

they will need to recover her body and the head and he can then cast a spell that will

enable her spirit to go to )orr’s realm. e will imply, though never actually state, that

he was the wi/ard hired by the %hambre 4oire *and he will look at any $% who says

anything like Dow do you know all thisFE like they’re very stupid+. e will also tell

them where the body can be found' in the %hambre 4oire safe house, which is the

cellar of the !lack Sail inn, reached through a trapdoor in the floor of the back room.

e will not reveal the truth, however' he is a necromancer, and the spell he cast on

)arthe was not a truth spell. The %hambre 4oire knew this, but they needed to get at

the truth, and did not scruple to use his services. e cast a spell that allowed him to

communicate with the spirit of a recentlydead person and bind that spirit to its body.&t is commonly believed that the dead tell no lies. The %hambre 4oire agents

beheaded )arthe, then left him to cast his ritual, before interrogating the spirit bound

into the severed head. 2hat they didn’t realise was that (hislaine *no fool+, had

interrogated the spirit before they returned, and realising that it would implicate

(ranvelle, he persuaded it to implicate the 0uc instead, by threatening it with an

eternity in the realm of 5haine. e has since revealed this to (ranvelle, and is using it

to blackmail him. e told the %hambre 4oire that the spirit had departed, though

actually it is simply traumatised and catatonic. 4eedless to say, the $%s will discover

none of this at this point.

The (lack #ail

The !lack Sail is rather a rowdy inn in the docks area of town. They are used to

strange faces, and noone will take any particular notice of the $%s. The back room is

behind the bar, and they will have to come up with a convincing reason why the

bartender should let them in. e is well aware that someone is using the cellar as a

storeroom *though he thinks it’s a criminal gang rather than the %hambre+, and he

never lets people use the room until he has checked it with his DfriendsE downstairs.

There is a password to let him know that people are genuine agents, but there is no

way the $%s can find out what it is.

&n the backroom the $%s will find a trapdoor under the table, covered by a rug. The

trapdoor opens onto an unlit chamber below. There is an iron ladder leading down. Atthe bottom there is a door to the left *which is locked, but leads onto to the city

sewers+, and a door ahead *also locked, leading to the %hambre guard room+. The

guards are sitting at a table playing cards by candlelight. &f they hear someone coming

down une"pectedly, they will e"tinguish the candle and wait with loaded crossbows

for whoever it is to open the door and be silhouetted in the doorway. The guardroom

has crates of stores in it *food, rope, clothes, fuel oil etc+ and a single door leading to

the interrogation room. &n the interrogation room lies )arthe’s body, under a pile of

blankets.

&f the %hambre have the head, it will be in this room too.

A grisl" discover"…



At some point, the $%s are going to want to investigate the Loumonne offices *or

perhaps (regor’s own house if they have gone to the trouble of tracking it down+.

2hen they do so, they will find that (regor has been silenced. This can be staged by

having the $%s arrive at the offices to discover that the door looks smashed open and

people are running about screaming for the 2atch. &nside they would find (regor’s

body slumped over his desk. r, even more dramatically, they could arrive for ameeting with (regor, be shown in by him to his office, only to watch him shot

through the window with a crossbow bolt. &n this more dramatic version he could

gasp out D(ranvelle;E before dying. &n any event, the $%s should be able to identify

him as the man who recruited )arthe in %ouronne *he even wears the signet ring+,

and he died from being shot by a crossbow bolt. $%s with a military background will

note that the shot came from outside through the window, making it rather a

demanding one 8 probably the mark of a professional assassin *needless to say the

$%s don’t stand a chance of catching him+. The $%s will have to make tracks if they

do not wish to have the watch ask lots of inconvenient 7uestions. They do have the

chance to grab the paperwork on the desk, however. &f the head was taken by (regor’s

agents it will be in a bo" on the desk.!y grabbing his record books *if they have the presence of mind to do so+ they can

find out that he received two very generous payments from an anonymous donor

about two months ago, but that without them his business was sunk. Truly cunning

$%s who grabbed a diary too *a business diary, sadly he doesn’t appear to keep a

fuller one+ will note that this coincided with a visit to !ernard (ranvelle.

Aftermath

n returning the head and body to (hislaine, he conducts the ritual that frees her

spirit, allowing the $%s to turn the body over to the cult of )orr. 2hen they report to

enri Louiseau, he will reward them with whatever seems appropriate *anything up to

>HH gold+ and advise them to get out of the city. &t’s good advice. &f they don’t pretty

soon the %hambre are going to figure out who broke into their safe house;

&f they think to check out the circus later they will discover that there has been a

tragedy 8 the troupe of travelling players were all killed the night after the $%s spoke

to them 8 someone crept into their tent and slit their throats.

Cast!

$%s

Sire 1rancois !oulierre, %hevalier de erville

1rancois is the third son of the %omte de erville. 4ever intended to amount to

much, 1rancois never showed much interest in a career in the military or in a cult *thetraditional activities of his family+. e certainly showed little aptitude for learning. &n

short, he was seen by his family as a layabout and a bad lot. The only thing he showed

much interest in was picking fights and carousing. 1rancois is not especially likeable,

but decisive and capable, a born leader. 2hat he is lacking is any sense of purpose or

direction in his life, with the result that he has tended to wander fairly aimlessly from

place to place, accompanied by don and :ac7ues. e is idealistic, but as yet has

found no cause on which to pin his ideals. e has increasingly become interested in

e"ploring the esoteric and occult, however, befriending Achille.

Achille the Seer

Achille is of uncertain origin. e was found on the doorstep of the temple of )orr inL’Anguille as a boy of > or , with no apparent memories of his family. e was



brought up by the gravediggers, who soon realised that the boy Dsaw thingsE. As he

got older his fame spread, and people would come to him to have their dreams

interpreted. is interpretations were often uncannily accurate, and Achille began to

get a reputation as one touched by )orr. owever, as he began to realise the influence

and wealth this could bring him, Achille resisted attempts by the cult to coopt him in

order to use him as their money spinner. e has set himself up as a seer, using theoccasional bit of fast talk and mumbo jumbo to earn a living. e still occasionally

gets flashes of the true vision, but this is becoming rarer, and he secretly wonders

whether his greed and deception has corrupted him so much that )orr is withdrawing

his blessing. e projects an air of mystery around himself as part of his sales patter.

don

don is 1rancois’ manservant. Solid, dependable, and capable of being intimidating

when necessary, he has managed to rescue 1rancois from any number of scrapes over

the years. e is considerably more streetwise than 1rancois, and with far more

common sense. e is loyal more through a lack of imagination as to alternative

options than because he particularly likes 1rancois, though his attitude towards him isgenerally that of a slightly condescending older brother. Although he is publicly

respectful and obedient, in private he tends to see much of 1rancois’ life as frivolous

and needlessly risky. e is highly suspicious of :ac7ues, and doesn’t trust him an

inch. Likewise he strongly suspects that Achille is simply a con artist intent on

fleecing 1rancois.

:ac7ues Dthe ladE

:ac7ues is a slimy, deceitful reprobate with few redeeming features. is penchant for

looking out purely for number one and lying and conning his way to success is

balanced only by a strong sense of common sense. Specifically, he knows when he’s

on to a good thing, and is willing to take considerable risks to make sure he stays

there. This is what has linked him to 1rancois, who has found him an invaluable ally

as he has gone on his travels. :ac7ues is an e"pert at finding anyone or anything

1rancois might need. &n return, 1rancois keeps :ac7ues in clothes, food and lodging,

and sorts out any little scrapes he might get into with the law.

:ac7ues tends to get a bit twitchy around the supernatural and une"plained. e

arranged the meeting between 1rancois and Achille, but he isn’t too happy about it.

Adversaries

Agents of (ranvelle

Ludovic and three thugsLudovic is a vicious but cunning rogue, who is skilled at working as a spy for

(ranvelle. The others are thugs. All are armed with swords. They carry nothing to

identify them as agents of (ranvelle, but the three heavies have seagull tattoos that

identify them as Stevedores.

$rofiles

Ludovic' 2S' J>, S', T' , 2' K, &' JK. 0odge !low

Thugs' 2S' ?, S'J, T', 2' O, &' >. Street 1ighter

%hambre 4oire agents

These two men are skilled fighters and know their lair well. They are armed with

Swords, 5nives, and %rossbows. nce alerted they will do all they can to use the



confusing layout to their advantage, dowsing the lights and relying on their

knowledge of the system to get out.

2S' J?, !S' J, S', T', 2' @H, &' JI. Silent )ove, %oncealment, Strike to Stun,

0odge !low, 1lee.

(hislaine #lgire (hislaine is a deliberately mysterious figure, and the $%s should not know too much

about him. $lay him as someone who is doing their best to appear innocuous and

honest but hint at the many things he is not saying. e shouldn’t need a profile.



Adventure $! The affair of the .aval Academ"

!retonnia lacks a 4aval Academy, or indeed any institution to rival )arienburg’s

!aron yndricks as a training ground for its sea captains. !y and large, they rely on

the traditional methods of established seagoing families churning out likely young

captains, and midshipmen learning their trade on board from their superiors. As thearmy becomes professionali/ed, there is an e"pectation that commissioned officers

should have attended the )ilitary Academy in (uisoreu" *though many officers still

buy their commissions+, but the training offered in the landlocked capital is of little

real value in preparing seamen. 1or many years now, the Admiral of the 1leet has

been calling for the establishment of a 4aval Academy in L’Anguille. e has the

wholehearted support of the 0uc, and the cult of )anann in this. owever, the crown

must agree to the establishment of such an academy, and there are those who oppose

it.

The cult of )yrmidia has for centuries held a strong grip on the training of the

officer corps of the kingdom’s armed forces. They have been pressing for all naval

officers to attend the )ilitary Academy in (uisoreu" in part as a way of instilling)yrmidian doctrine and practice into them. &f a 4aval Academy was to be

established, their grip on the 4avy would be lost. The cult’s interests coincide here

e"actly with one of the most powerful noble houses in !retonnia' the de Semblancy,

who dominate the cult of )yrmidia. The de Semblancy are a powerful force at court

and in the south, but have little influence in L’Anguille. They will therefore work

through their allies, the Artois. !ut this internal opposition is not the only problem.

1or a 4aval Academy to be established in L’Anguille is a direct challenge to the pre

eminence of !aron ynrich’s in )arienburg, as well as suggesting an attempt by

!retonnia to increase the 7uality of its seamanship and therefore the power of its

navy. The %ouncil of )arienburg do not want to see such an Academy built, and will

dispatch one of the 1og 2alkers, their secret police, to ensure it does not happen

*though preferably without sparking an international incident+.

The 0uc and the Admiral have commissioned an architect, Sire %edric L’rasse,

#cuyer de 1oucire, to survey the land and draw up plans for the proposed Academy.

is work is drawing to completion, and the 0uc has funded a grand ball to be held at

isillon at which he will present the plans to the 5ing for his approval. 5ing %harles,

whose attention span is notoriously short, will therefore be presented with the plans

when enthused about the wonders of the 4ew 2orld that can be secured by a stronger

4avy. This is their window of opportunity, and if all goes according to plan, the 5ing

will effectively give them carte blanche to proceed, details and finance being such

mundane and boring things, he will leave that to the 0uc. The Admiral and 0uc’s plan, therefore, relies upon the 5ing seeing the plans

presented at the height of an enjoyable ball. &f this does not happen, the chance of

royal approval will be lost, as 4aval Academies will be yesterday’s thing. Those

opposed to the development know this, and have laid their plans accordingly, to

ensure that the plans are never presented.

/or a small coachfull of crowns…

The $%s have effectively become local celebrities following their highprofile

intervention in the Arguesse case. )any people see them as champions of the

underdog, and they will have several people buy them drinks etc. $ierric, %lemence,

and 0idier are always pleased to see them. !ernard (ranvelle has become notablycolder towards them, however, keen to make it appear that there is no significant link



between the 0uc’s embarrassment and himself. (ranvelle will not see them again, and

will not e"tend any further help to them, his servants will make a succession of less

and less plausible e"cuses about why their master cannot help the $%s until they get

the hint. This may disconcert the $%s a little, but as everyone else seems to love them

it shouldn’t dampen their spirits too much.

As the $%s are rela"ing outside an inn *no doubt enjoying drinks bought for them bywellwishers+, a boy runs past with a satchel full of printed reward notices, pausing

only to hammer one to the inn door. The innkeeper, hearing this, will run out and

chase him off, throwing the reward notice to the floor. The $%s should be intruiged

enough to read it'

<eward

@,HHH (old

1or the safe return of

Lady &rene $iarette de 1remaine

And the capture, alive or dead, of her abductor

Sire %edric L’rasse de 1oucireThis vile blackguard has been declared outlaw by -iscomte 9ves $iarette de 1remaine

1urther en7uiries should be made to the $iarette residence, <ue le rangerie

The sum of gold offered should be enough to provoke their interest, and send them to

the $iarette residence. Anyone with some knowledge of the area or of eraldry will

know that the $iarette are a powerful local noble family, former allies of the Louiseau,

though ditched by enri when he became 0uc. 9ves is the patriarch of the family, and

&rene is his granddaughter. L’rasse is a nobody, minor gentry from an obscure

family, and not local *he’s actually from (ascogne, but it would take a lot of

knowledge of the nobility of (ascogne to know this+.

The ,iarette residence

2hen the $%s turn up at the $iarette residence, they will find that they are not alone

in their interest in the reward. A crowd of bounty hunters has turned up, *as well as

one beggar desperately trying to pass off his daughter and a recentlyunearthed body

as &rene and %edric+, and the more competent looking are being shown in through the

tradesman’s entrance by a butler. The $%s will be ushered through to the kitchen in

the servant’s 7uarters, where a collection of dangerouslooking individuals are already

assembled. After a short wait, a welldressed young man enters. This is Auguste,

9ves’ lawyer. e displays a portrait of the Lady &rene *a 7uite pretty blonde girl ofabout @K+ and a sketch of Sire %edric *a wellbuilt man with a large nose, blonde wig,

and a rather dandified air+. e e"plains that the terms of the contract are that the Lady

&rene must be returned completely unharmed, and treated as a lady of her station

deserves at all times. The reward for this by itself will be at least ?HH (old, and

possibly more at the discretion of -iscomte $iarette. &f Sire %edric is also captured

alive *-iscomte $iarette is uncorned about the manner in which de 1oucire is treated+

the full reward of @HHH gold would be payable. &f he is dead a reward of CHH gold

would be paid. &f Sire %edric is captured alive without the Lady &rene, a reward of >HH

gold would be paid, possibly more if he gives information that leads to the recovery of

the Lady &rene. Sire %edric dead without the Lady &rene is useless to the -iscomte.

Auguste will then give the following information about the abduction'



The -iscomte had discovered that the %hevalier had been displaying an unhealthy

interest in his granddaughter, and yesterday morning he sent his bodyguard <eynard

to the %hevalier’s lodgings at the D-iscomte d’ervilleE to demand an e"planation of

him. 2hen he got there, he discovered the %hevalier was no longer there, having gone

out somewhere with a young lady. The bodyguard returned to the $iarette residence to

report, and it was discovered that the Lady &rene was missing. After carefulinterrogation of the household staff, it emerged that Lady &rene had left the house that

morning shortly before <eynard, ostensibly to visit a friend, and had never turned up.

The -iscomte, realising that the young lady with the %hevalier must have been &rene,

has declared him outlaw for abducting this innocent young girl.

nce Auguste has answered any 7uestions *he has no intention of agreeing to

interviews with any $iarette staff+ he will wish them all good luck and dismiss them.

n their way out, however, the $%s will be accosted by a wellbuilt middleaged man,

who introduces himself as <eynard and motions them to one side. e speaks rather

oddly, in a rambling fashion, but with his eyes flicking around, as if seeming sure he’s

being watched.

D& recognise you from that Arguesse trial. &’m so glad you’ve decided to help us, &’msure you’ll find &rene. She’s such a pretty little thing, she deserves the best, you know,

and & feel like & let her down; The -iscomte employed me to keep an eye on her, you

know, to make sure she didn’t get into trouble, didn’t go to any rough places, and &

did, you know. & wouldn’t have let her go to anywhere like the !lack Sail, where &

drink of an evening. h no, but still & feel like & let her down. &’m sure you won’t.!est

of luck.E

e will resist any further conversation saying Dh, & couldn’t really tell you any more,

not here, and & really mustn’t keep youE. 2ith any luck, the $%s will take the hint and

go to the !lack Sail later.

As they leave, they notice a dark haired man with a moustache leaving from the front

of the house, dressed in fine clothes with a red cape, carrying a rapier. e will tip his

hat to any ladies present, but will not stop to chat. &f the $%s ask, they will find that he

is :ulian de SaintSebastien, the famous 4avarrese bounty hunter, and he has just had

an audience with the -iscomte.

() note' SaintSebastien is basically a plot device to ensure that the $%s don’t get

the e"tortionate reward, and to encourage them to move faster in their investigations.

Any significant evidence they discover, he will have been there first. &f they do

anything really stupid, make sure SaintSebastien rubs their noses in it. e’s smarter,

7uicker, and just all round better than they are. #veryone thinks he’s wonderful e"cept

the $%s, who should be encouraged to see him as the arrogant selfsatisfied showoff

that he really is. &f *as happened in my game+ the $%s decide to get their revenge onhim in some fashion, he can develop into a genuine nemesis for them 8 he’s actually a

very good bounty hunter, and a mean fighter 8 but otherwise just play him for laughs.

Another contract…

aving hopefully encouraged the $%s to track down %edric and &rene in turn for a

huge reward, it’s time to introduce their second employer. A gentleman sea captain

will call to see them at their inn. *&f there seems no opportunity for him to catch them

there at this early point in their investigations, he will leave a message with the

innkeeper for them to call to see him at the chapterhouse of the rder of St !eren.+

Sire $hilippe d’rival dresses like a gentleman but behaves like a sea captain. e

makes little of distinctions in social status as long as the person he is addressingappears competent and shows him some respect. e will occasionally use maritime



e"pressions in everyday speech. is skin is tanned and weatherbeaten, and his gait is

that of a sailor unused to walking where the ground is stationary. is most obvious

distinguishing feature, however, is the small bowl on a tube he has almost

permanently in his mouth, spewing smoke. The $%s may never have seen a pipe or

smelt tobacco before, but Sire $hilippe is keen to emphasise its curative and medicinal

properties. The smoke of tobacco, he will assure them, cures colds, rheumatism,lengthens your life, and eases the pains of women in childbirth, as well as sharpening

the intellect most wondrously. e has an uncanny resemblance to 0uc enri, but as

the $%s have never seen the 0uc they are unlikely to realise this.

Sire $hilippe will introduce himself, flatter the $%s for their role in the recent trial,

and e"plain he is captain of the $egasus and works for the Admiral. e has a proposal

for them if he may discuss it with them in confidence. e will e"plain that he knows

they are searching for Sire %edric and the Lady &rene. e has no interest in the

reward, and is happy for them to search for the Lady &rene, but is concerned about

Sire %edric. e will e"plain that Sire %edric is an architect who has been working for

the Admiralty in drawing up plans for a new 4aval Academy. e was due to present

the plans to the 5ing. 4ow he has gone missing, it is imperative that he and the plansare recovered. The Admiral wants Sire %edric returned to him rather than the

-icomte, and will match any reward the -icomte offered for Sire %edric, in addition

to paying any e"penses the $%s incur during their search. &f the $%s agree, Sire

$hilippe can offer them an advance of ?H gold now. The $%s must agree, however, to

keeping the whole matter confidential, as the Admiral has no desire to provoke the

-icomte, and doesn’t want word getting out to the financial backers of the Academy

that the architect and plans have gone missing. $hilippe will not give any more

information about the Academy or %edric, but will try to do so in a friendly manner.

e will be attempting to measure the integrity of the $%s. e will certainly not make

any mention of the 0uc. &f the $%s need to contact him, or when they locate the plans

or Sire %edric, they are to find him at the chapterhouse of the rder of St !eren.

$%s with eraldry will not know of any d’rival family, but may know that rival

is within the lands owned by the 0uc of L’Anguille in the $rovince of 1landres. The

rder of St !eren is very obscure, and the most they will know is that it is some sort

of a yacht club for nobles.

$%s with Theology *)anann+ will know that St !eren is patron of e"plorers and

those going on very risky journeys.

$%s who ask around the docks will find that the $egasus is a ?H’ Sloop, that the

captain is indeed a Sire $hilippe, but that it is uncertain what the ship does 8 many

suspect she is a privateer.

The (lack #ail 0again1

The $%s will hopefully go to the !lack Sail in the evening to meet <eynard the

bodyguard. This may provide an amusing opportunity to have them witness events

from the Deads you loseE adventure if appropriate.

2hile waiting for <eynard, the $%s will see something rather strange. A man comes

in with a large bag of money and offers to buy drinks all round, to drink a toast to

<anald, god of luck. &t emerges that he is a former coachman from (olden 1leece

coaches, who lost his job yesterday because his coach was stolen. !ut today, a man

gave him more money than he’s ever had in his life just for telling him the story.

4aturally the $%s will want to find out more *as well as getting a free drink+, and the

man is keen to tell everyone his rags to riches story. e always does the coach runsoutheast, from L’Anguille to %ouronne, then down the long road to (uisoreu". e’s



done it for years. e goes from the coaching company’s head7uarters on to a couple

of the big inns to pick up passengers, then leaves through the south gate of the city.

owever, yesterday, just as he left the coaching company’s stables, a man with a large

bo" waved at him to stop, because he wanted to get on the coach. e stopped, got

down to help the man with the bo", then the ne"t thing he knows, the man has pushed

a cloth with a strange smell over his face, and he lost consciousness. 2hen he wokeup, he was inside the bo", which had been left where it was, just down the road from

the coaching company’s stables. The coach was gone. The man who attacked him was

tall and slim, with dark hair, and spoke with a 2astelander accent. The man who gave

him the money was a welldressed 4avarrese man with a moustache and a red cape.

<eynard will turn up eventually, see the $%s, and come over to their table. e will

thank them for coming, and e"plain that he wanted to talk to them, but couldn’t while

he was in his master’s house. e is essentially wracked with guilt that he has failed

&rene and has turned to the $%s as the only ones who may be able to help.

9ves $iarette has always been remarkably possessive of his granddaughter,

summoning her to live in L’Anguille with him on her @Jth birthday as part of

broadening her education. e never let her out of the house on her own, but onlyaccompanied by <eynard. 9ves seemed obsessively interested in protecting her from

any romantic or se"ual involvement with anyone, and would 7ui/ her *and <eynard+

about any man she met. &t swiftly became obvious to <eynard that this sweet young

girl was nowhere near as innocent as her grandfather imagined. aving a soft spot for

his young charge and a dislike of his employer’s heavyhandedness, <eynard allowed

her considerable freedom, as long as she was discrete. She had a number of

attachments with young gentlemen, all conducted while ostensibly visiting friends or

attending balls *which the -icomte disliked attending himself+. A few months ago, at a

ball at St !enehold’s School, she met Sire %edric. Although nearly twice her age, she

was smitten by him, and the two had a discrete relationship. As time progressed,

however, and &rene’s infatuation deepened, she became less discrete, taking risks,

accompanying Sire %edric to gambling clubs and private parties. <eynard began to

realise that she was getting too involved and risking everything. She wouldn’t listen to

his warnings, and neither would %edric, so he went to the -icomte and reported to

him that Sire %edric had made inappropriate advances towards &rene *which she had

naturally refused+. The -icomte sent him to warn %edric off. e went, but &rene must

have been told by one of the household staff about the conversation, because she left

ahead of him and warned %edric. <eynard is convinced they have eloped, but also that

Sire %edric *who he knows for a fact is a bit of a rake+ will dump her at the first

available opportunity, probably destroying the girl’s reputation in the process. e is

desperate for the $%s to find them and return &rene, but to do so having agreed withher a story that will keep her reputation. e doesn’t give two hoots about Sire %edric.

:ust as an afterthought, he will mention that he noticed two people who seemed to be

watching %edric and &rene over the time they were together. *They were actually just

watching %edric, but <eynard doesn’t know this+. e never got the chance to confront

them as they always kept their distance. ne was a tall thin man with dark hair

*%laes+, and the other a welldressed young man of average height and build with a

black wig. e did notice that the younger man had a small scar on his left cheek

*ercule+, that looked like it could have been a duelling scar.

The 2icomte d’)erville

The -icomte d’erville is one of the most prestigious hotels in the city. As this is themajor lead given out by the $iarette, there are no shortage of bounty hunters trying to





That .avarrese bastard…

:ulien de St Sebastien has been one step ahead of the $%s all the way. True to form

he’s going to get the girl *and the huge reward+ before them too. The timescale of this

will vary according to what the $%s have been doing, but if they are hot on the trail of

the coach he’ll be there just before them, finding &rene and claiming the reward butleaving the rest to them+. therwise he’ll return to L’Anguille in triumph before

they’ve even left the city. &n this second case, he then becomes an important source of

information for them. 1ortunately for them, :ulien loves to talk about how great he is.

&t should be easy to find out where he found &rene *St Puentin+, what he knows about

the whereabouts of %edric *probably still drugged and in the back of the coach, but he

doesn’t really care+, and how he trailed the coach *if the $%s need to know this to help

them get back on the right track+. :ulien discovered that the pair had left the city in a

(olden 1leece coach. e suspects they were kidnapped by the coachdriver, but

doesn’t really care why. The coach left by the north gate of the city, which was not its

normal route and time. As a coach, it had to stick to the roads. &t was easy to get news

of a (olden 1leece coach travelling along an unusual route in the villages along theway, and this led him to St Puentin, where it had stopped for the night. The

coachdriver had booked a room for the night for his passenger, and helped an

apparently rather tired and incoherent young lady up to the room. The innkeeper was a

little suspicious, but was paid well, and asked no 7uestions. The ne"t morning the

coach left early, and the innkeeper discovered the young woman, tied and gagged, left

in the room, apparently unharmed. :ulien arrived in time to whisk her back home and

claim the reward. She was very concerned about %edric, as they had both apparently

been drugged in the coach by the driver, but :ulien didn’t give a damn about anything

e"cept delivering her safely to her grandfather and collecting a lot of money in return.

e did pick up that she was not only besotted with %edric but terrified at the thought

of returning to her grandfather, though he really didn’t care why.

The chase is on…

!y now, the $%s should have enough information to put them back on the trail of the

(olden 1leece coach. The innkeeper in St Puentin can tell them what :ulien knows,

but also adds the details that the coachman had a 2astelander accent, and that a group

of horsemen came through the village shortly after the coach left, on its trail and

asking after it. They were led by a man with a duelling scar down one cheek. They

were not interested in the girl. :ulien de St Sebastien arrived sometime after them. The

normal (olden 1leece route to the north of L’Anguille is through <oisel towards

0eon, though generally coaches stop in <oisel rather than St Puentin. !y using theDask at the city gatesE method, the $%s should fairly easily determine that a (olden

1leece coach passed through <oisel and left through the South #ast gate on the

<esenlieu road, which is highly unusual, as this route takes you back down towards

the Sanne/. The party of riders asked after the coach, and followed on the same road.

As the $%s are now 7uite close on the trail of the coach and on a less busy road, they

stand a chance of following tracks if anyone has the re7uisite skill. There are few

coaches that take this road, and coach tracks can be distinguished from cart tracks.

La (olette is the first village they will encounter on their way. -illagers will report

that they saw a (olden 1leece coach being driven up towards the DighfieldE farm.

They will also confirm that a group of riders asked 7uestions about this earlier *fi"

times for this happening as seems dramatically appropriate+.



At the ighfield farm the $%s will discover the (olden 1leece coach hidden in a

barn under tarpaulin. The farmer has been paid to keep it out of sight. e can be

persuaded *most convincingly by anyone claiming to be trying to trace a coachthief,

and perhaps offering a reward for its safe recovery+ to reveal that he arranged this

around a week before hand with a man with a 2astelander accent' he was to hide the

coach and let the man borrow his horse and cart for a week when he turned up. Theman turned up earlier than e"pected, but paid him what he had agreed *>? gcs+, and

the farmer watched him bundle something onto the back of the cart, put on a straw

hat, and drive the horse and cart out of the farm along a track leading west into the

countryside. &f they ask, a group of horsemen have also come through, and a man with

a duelling scar on his face threatened him with a pistol to make him reveal where the

man driving the coach had gone. $%s who search the coach will find that %edric’s bag

*with some travelling clothes and a letter of credit from van de 5uypers for HH gcs in

a hidden pocket+ is still on the top of the coach. The document case is nowhere to be

seen.

The cart tracks can be followed 7uite easily, and it appears that the tracks of several

horses have followed them. The track leads west through fields and small woods untilthe Louiseau forest can be seen in the distance.

The )unting Lodge

#ventually, the $%s will see a small hunting lodge in the distance, near the edge of

the forest. The cart tracks lead off the track *which goes on into the forest+ and

towards the lodge. &f it is dark, the $%s will see that there is a light on in the lodge.

The cart and cart horse are hitched up at the back of the lodge.

The lodge is a small tworoom building, comprising a bedroom, with bunks for the

hunters, and a common room, with table, chairs, a fire, and various utensils for

preparing and cooking game. The door leads into the common room, with the

bedroom accessed from within.

As the $%s approach, they will note that something is amiss. The ground outside the

lodge is disturbed, as if by a large number of feet and hooves. The door to the hunting

lodge has been broken open, and the common room shows signs of a struggle. The

table is bloodstained, and there are a number of game knives covered in blood

discarded on the floor. The light they saw comes from the fireplace, where a fire has

been lit. A number of pokers are lying on the floor too. A thorough search will reveal a

discarded pistol dropped and kicked into a corner of the room. The bedroom on first

inspection appears untouched and deserted. owever, a low moan, or perhaps

bloodstains on the floor will alert them to the presence of %laes in one of the top

bunks, wrapped in a blanket and left for dead. %laes is near death and is conscious but not particularly coherent. e has obviously

been severely tortured, his body bearing the marks of many small knife wounds and

poker burns. &f one of the party is good at bluffing, and has guessed that %laes is from

)arienburg, there is an opportunity to get some useful information out of him. e is

willing to believe that anyone come to find him is another agent, who he was unaware

of. This is made easier if someone speaks to him in <eikspiel, especially if they can

do a convincing 2astelander accent, but he is confused enough to believe it if they

spin a convincing enough story in !retonnian.

%laes will confirm that he is a 1ogwalker, and that he was acting on the orders of the

directorate to prevent the construction of the 4aval Academy. is plan was to capture

Sire %edric and his plans and keep him hidden until the ball at the palace was over,and the 0uke had lost his opportunity to get royal approval for the plan. e had been



preparing this for some time, and watching %edric, but was caught by surprise when

the discovery of the affair with &rene prompted %edric to flee. An informant in the

$iarette household tipped him off in time for him to get the coach to the inn. &t was a

close thing, because %edric was obviously in two minds about going with the girl.

owever, he got them both in the coach, and set off. nce out of the city he stopped

on a prete"t and subdued both of them, keeping them drugged for the rest of the journey. e dumped &rene on the way, conscious that there would be people looking

for her. All went to plan until the horsemen caught him here. e had seen the man

with the scar before 8 the others called him ercule 8 he had also been watching

%edric. They tortured him to find out who he was and who he was working for, and

then, once they knew, just for fun. e is convinced they are working for $ierre

0uclois, the Artois spymaster, and guesses that the Artois *conservative and

suspicious of change+ do not want the Academy built either. They took %edric and the

plans. e doesn’t know where they went, but guesses they will be travelling #ast, into

the Artois heartlands. Shortly after this, %laes will slip into unconsciousness and die.

The bedroom contains little else, though very observant $%s may notice that one of

the other bunks shows signs of someone having laid down on it. %laes’ body has littleof value on it, as he was stripped by the Artois when they tortured him.

Searching the ground outside reveals horse tracks leading off across the fields

towards the south east. <iding in this direction *whether or not they can follow the

tracks+ will eventually lead them to the road once more. The tracks do not continue on

the other side. The horsemen went south on the road *though if the $%s don’t have

means of reading the tracks they will probably be reliant on asking peasants if a group

of horsemen have gone past+.

The #tand3off at the ferr"

The fleeing Artois have got themselves into a bit of a tight corner, and the $%s are

about to run straight into it. ercule and his men had planned on taking the road down

to uest, and then upriver towards Alencon, reasoning that they were less likely to run

into any trouble on a more minor road. owever, just upriver of uest they ran into a

detachment of the 1landres <oyal $rovincial %ompany, the !oars, who were

patrolling the river following a suspected outlaw attack from !reton. 4aturally the

Artois party, carrying a bound and gagged man, aroused their suspicions, and a fight

broke out. ercule, vastly outnumbered, but on horse, pulled his men out, fleeing

back to uest and the ferry over the Sanne/, the infantry unit in pursuit. &t was not

ercule’s lucky day, however, as on the other bank of the Sanne/ a detatchment of the

!reton $rovincial Army was patrolling following a suspected outlaw attack from

1landres *there is indeed an outlaw band at large operating on both sides of the river,and retreating across the border to avoid pursuit+. ercule and his group therefore got

across the ferry only to run into yet another group of suspicious soldiers. 3nable to

retreat back over the ferry, because the !oars had now taken up position on the

1landres side, ercule and his group took refuge in the toll house, where they have

now holed up, with the tollcollector and his family as hostages. They are on the

!reton side of the river, and under the jurisdiction of the !reton $rovincial army, but

the !oars see them as their legitimate 7uarry. This is the comple" jurisdictional stand

off into which the $%s are about to enter.

The $%s will first encounter the 1landres !oars, under the command of Sergeant

Alain (arousse. The !oars are a proud and efficient unit of pike and shot. $art of the

royal army, they are a cut above the sort of dregs found in the provincial armies. &t isunusual to find them doing such lawenforcement duties, but they have been



temporarily seconded to the command of the %omte d’Alencon to clear up this outlaw

problem. Sergeant (arousse’s unit is of twenty ar7uebuskers, all armed with

ar7uebus, and a"e, and clad in mail shirts with helmets. They all bear the white sash

of the <oyal rdinance around their waist as well as the 9ellow sash of the !oars.

(arousse has deployed his men across the 1landres bank to prevent the horsemen

from attempting to retreat, or anyone else from crossing over and getting caught in thecrossfire. The range is too great to attempt any marksmanlike shooting into the toll

house, and as he has to account for any ammunition used he will not authorise lucky

shots. e has sent a man across to negotiate with the commander of the !reton forces.

e also has one casualty, who has been carried with the unit and is lying to one side

wrapped in his blanket. A number of the men have suffered sword wounds as the

DoutlawsE cut their way free of them.

(arousse is a hardbitten veteran, who dislikes having to engage in such petty

actions, but is resolved that they will do it as efficiently as possible. e is disparaging

about the 7uality of the !reton troops on the other bank, and wants to get their

permission to come across and finish off the outlaws, who he has chased to this point.

e is apparently convinced that these men are the outlaws he is seeking, not least because if he can present some captives to the %omte he stands a good chance of

being reassigned back to more fitting duties. e is also nursing a grudge because they

killed one of his men. is good will can be won by anyone who can say the last rites

for his dead soldier or heal his wounded. A skilled negotiator who can offer his

services in persuading the !reton officer to let them cross over would also be

welcome. (arousse is not interested in hearing anything that complicates the situation

further, especially anything that sounds too political. owever, if told that the captive

the DoutlawsE have is a gentleman, and that the 0uc of L’Anguille is wanting his safe

return, he will be forced to take this into account. e can be persuaded into letting the

$%s across to try and free Sire %edric as long as they also try to persuade the officer

of the !reton troops to let him bring his men over. e is very clear this is the best way

to ensure they get their friend out. e cannot be persuaded to lend the $%s any

weapons, powder or shot, or let them command any troops.

n the other bank of the Sanne/ is a unit of the !reton provincial army, commanded

by Sire Puentin <enois. <enois is a minor relative of Sire Louis$hilippe (astoille de

-aunoise, given command of some troops to keep him out of mischief. e is young,

ine"perienced, and arrogant. Sire Puentin is mounted and in half plate *due to the

warm weather+, and e7uipped with a lance and sword. is detachment is of twelve

peasant troops, half e7uipped with spears, the other half with bows. All carry knives

as secondary weapons. Some have leather jerkins and the spearmen have shields.

They all have large straw hats rather than helmets. Sire Puentin has stationed two ofhis spearmen at the ferry to prevent people from crossing *especially the 1landres

troops on the other side+. The rest of his troops are covering the e"its of the toll house,

with the bowmen being protected by the spearmen. Sire Puentin had been riding up to

within shouting distance and calling on the outlaws to surrender before he burnt them

out, but he has now ridden over to the ferry to talk to the trooper Sergeant (arousse

has sent over.

Sire Puentin’s plan is to fire the toll house with fire arrows, forcing the outlaws to

flee. &f they drop their weapons and surrender he will capture them, otherwise they

will be shot down. e has three bowmen covering each e"it. The si" horses

*considerably more valuable than the bounties on the outlaws+ are currently tethered

outside the toll house and causing him some concern, as he wouldn’t want them hurtin a fire *he considers the loss of the outlaws captives inconse7uential however+. e is



outraged at the suggestion that he is unable to deal with this problem *especially as it

comes from a commoner+, and rejects any claim that the outlaws are the legitimate

7uarry of the 1landres troops, who he will press charges against if they attempt to

enter 1landres territory. Any $% with a military background will realise that Sire

Puentin is likely to be faced with a disaster if he forces the outlaws to flee the toll

house. is peasant archers are not competent enough to ensure that, faced with a mass breakout from one e"it, they can bring down si" men charging at them, and the

spearmen are likely to run. This is especially true given the fact that he is reluctant to

harm the horses *which he can see are good 7uality and assumes are stolen, and

therefore his if he captures them+. The best he could hope for would be a few enemy

dead, the captives dead, the rest of the enemy escaped, and his own troops killed or

scattered. To persuade him of this will take some skill, however. nce this is

achieved, there are a number of possible solutions to the standoff. ne is to persuade

him to allow the 1landres troops to assist. The additional firepower is sufficient to

ensure ercule will surrender rather than try and make a break for it. Sire Puentin

will prefer not to do this, as it is against protocol and implies he is incompetent. The

other option is to use the $%s. The most effective use of the $%s is to storm orinfiltrate the toll house, taking out the Artois group whilst being covered by the

troops. This suits Sire Puentin fine as long as he can claim the credit *and the horses+.

&f the $%s storm the toll house they have a good chance of freeing %edric if they can

actually give ercule a way of coming out of this alive. &f it looks like they’re just

going to kill him, he’ll try and take %edric with him. &f there’s a chance he’ll get out

alive he’d rather not do it with noble blood on his hands. ercule and his men are

settling in for a long siege, and have tied up the toll collector and his family with

%edric in the bedroom upstairs. They are taking it in turns to rest and watch, with two

on guard *one watching each door+, two on call *playing cards, but ready to respond

instantly+ and two asleep *taking a few rounds to wake up and grab weapons+ at any

one time. All are armed with swords and sleeved leather coats. ercule has a

blunderbuss and a rapier. ercule burnt the plans in the fire as soon as they were

holed up here, but the map case is on the floor.

&f ercule andQor any others are captured alive, Sire Puentin will claim them as his

prisoners. ercule will claim to be an agent of the %omte d’Alencon, but noone will

take this very seriously. Sire Puentin will also claim the horses and any of the

possessions of the outlaws. Sergeant (arousse will attempt to press his claim to the

prisoners but will be rebuffed, as they were captured on !reton soil. The $%s will be

free to leave with Sire %edric *who is still a little woo/y+, and may persuade Sire

Puentin to let them take a horse for %edric.

2ith Sire %edric in tow, the $%s will now no doubt return to L’Anguille, confidentthat they will get a si/eable reward from $hilippe d’rival. &f they are interested in

7uestioning him, Sire %edric will be unable to confirm any details of what happened

to him, as he was drugged for most of the time. The last thing he remembers is the

coach driver stopping the coach and asking him to step out to see something after

they’d left the city. e isn’t particularly interested in pursuing &rene, feeling he is best

without her. e is also keen to stay clear of 9ves $iarette, having heard from &rene

that he has a tendency to do really nasty things to those he doesn’t like. e is very

apologetic about having made things difficult for the 0uc and the Admiral, but

doesn’t really seem to take much responsibility for his actions.

On to Oisillon'





lame their horses, or cause some sort of accident. f course, if the $%s avoid

%ouronne this becomes irrelevant, but it is likely they will need to resupply at that

point in their journey, as %ouronne is their last major chance for stocking up prior to

attempting the pass.

0e oc7uigny will not attempt any deception or ambush, but will set up camp at a

narrow point in the road in the foothills of the $ale Sisters. e will wait, in fullarmour, with his men at arms beside him, to challenge the party. 0e oc7uigny

himself is in full armour, with a sword, shield, and several lances. is men at arms are

in mail shirts with helms, and have crossbows and halberds. All wear the black castle

on a red field of de oc7uigny. The men at arms will keep the party covered while

Sire (uy speaks to them. e will first challenge them by his authority as a gentleman,

asking them to surrender, and stating that he has every right to detain a bunch of

peasants and a wanted nobleman. This will be disputed by d’rival, who invokes his

own authority as a gentleman of e7ual rank, but in service to a greater lord. e

demands that they be allowed to pass. Slightly startled by the presence of an e7ual in

the group, de oc7uigny will fall back on his secondary tactic' invoking the ancient

tradition of noble challenge. e challenges d’rival to a duel, noting that he is prepared to lend him a lance as he is without one. (uy is just about foolish enough to

be talked into meeting Sire $hilippe e7ually *necessitating him removing his armour+,

but it should be obvious that $hilippe has little chance of beating a master jouster like

de oc7uigny. An alternative solution would be that one of the $%s can act as Sire

$hilippe’s champion. &f Sire (uy is defeated, but not killed, he will allow them to

pass. &f he is killed, the men at arms will attack. &f the party’s champion is defeated,

Sire (uy will e"pect the entire party to surrender to him. A pitched battle is certainly

an option, but Sire (uy will consider it unsporting. Should Sire (uy be killed, it

should be emphasised to the $%s that they are all likely to be declared outlaw by the

Artois. 5illing a noble is a serious crime, and even the 0uc may not be able to protect

them if there are witnesses to the crime *of course, the $%s will still be blamed by the

Artois without witnesses, but officially they can claim not to know what happened to

him+. The $%s can always attempt to avoid him, but this will lose them time *perhaps

so much that they will be too late+.

4reenskins'

This is a largely optional encounter, to add flavour. &ts main purposes are to highlight

the fact that the $%s are travelling through dangerous wilderness areas, to provide a

nod towards the 21! background, and to provide them with a magical weapon *of

sorts+, which will come in handy later.

After the encounter with Sire (uy, the road weaves up into the foothills of the $aleSisters, following the course of the Sanne/, but eventually leaving that behind. The

land becomes increasingly wild, as the last traces of civilisation are left behind. This

is not a welltravelled route, and there are no inns along the way.

After they have gone some way through the pass, they find that a landslide has

blocked the way. %limbing over or around it will be impossible without risking injury

to the horses *which would guarantee they arrived too late 8 have Sire $hilippe B

Tomas spell it out to them if they don’t get it+. They are forced to retrace their steps

and take a higher path that branched off from the main one, cutting through a higher

pass of the $ale Sisters.

As they travel along this path, which is even more desolate and godforsaken than the

last, they stumble across the aftermath of a battle. A looted and broken wagon lies inthe road, the butchered carcases of two horses nearby. Three bodies lie on the ground,





calls itself DSilenciumE, will only consent to a bearer it chooses, necessitating a

telepathic negotiation with the sword.

Silencium was forged by a wi/ard in the service of a !retonnian petty king centuries

ago, before the rise of (iles le !reton. &t has passed through many hands since then,

most recently being a family heirloom of the de (ueris family, of whom (ervaise the

9ounger was a member. &t was broken in his fight against an army of 1imir in the#astern )arches, and interred with his body in this (rail %hapel. Silencium is highly

knowledgeable about the history of its bearers, and has the e7uivalent of eraldry

skill, but has little knowledge of wider events, and none at all of anything following

the death of (ervaise around two centuries ago. The sword’s basic motivations are a

desire to protect the !retonni against their enemies, and to loyally serve its master and

his family. Silencium is in a great deal of pain, and has been for decades. &t has also

had no company whilst being buried in a tomb. This has slightly unhinged it. &t feels

that it failed (ervaise and has been abandoned by his family because of this failure. &t

therefore desires to redeem itself. &t is seeking a master who will engage in great

deeds, and is perfectly willing to attempt to manipulate that master into taking greater

risks to ensure this. &t would prefer that master to be *in order of importance+ a knight,a man, a !retonnian, and a member of the de (ueris family. &t is willing to

compromise on some of these if its overall need to be redeemed is satisfied. The de

(ueris family are still in e"istence, though are fallen far from eminence, being fairly

minor members of the Artois faction. Should Silencium discover this, it will want to

be reunited with the family, but can be persuaded to content itself with acting in such

a way as will aid them. &t will refuse to be used in a way contrary to their interests,

though it has little grasp of wider politics, and may not realise who the family’s allies

are. Should the family discover it has been stolen from one of the family tombs they

will want it back and the tomb robbers brought to justice.

(ut % have nothing to wear for the ball…

nce the party has cleared the pass, the journey on to isillon is comparatively easy.

nce the $%s reach isillon *if they have been taking survivors of the orc ambush

with them they can leave them in the town of iseau+, they will be received by

$hilippe’s halfbrother, enri Louiseau, the 0uc de L’Anguille. The $%s will be

struck by his likeness to $hilippe, but also by his open and informal manner. This is a

man who has spent more time on the decks of galleons than in palaces, and is

accustomed to treating skilled professionals *like the $%s+ as e7uals, irrespective of

their birth. Some $%s may realise at this point that the 0uc would be e"cused for

holding a grudge against them for their role in the )adame <ouge affair, but if it is

mentioned at all, the 0uc will dismiss it as ancient history *though he will suggest hewould be glad to hear the $%’s account of events at some point+. %edric is needed to

present the plans to the king immediately, at the ball tonight. The $%s are to guard his

life at court. &n order to do this, they will need to have some status. The 0uc proposes

to initiate them into the lowest rank of the rder of St !eren, on his authority as

)aster of the L’Anguille chapter. As they do not own ships they are ineligible for the

rank of 5night, but they could be initiated as %ompanions, the rank at which skilled

supporters *4avigators, %artographers, $hysicians, )ercenary %aptains etc+ are

admitted. As %ompanions of the rder they would have a recognised place at court *ie

the lowest rung of the ladder+. They would also have the fringe benefits 8 free food

and lodging in any chapter house whenever they need it, and the support of members

of the rder in anything not contrary to the rder’s objectives. &n return they mustswear their loyalty to the rder, and obedience to their superiors within it. They must



swear to protect the secrets of the rder, and to come to the aid of its members.

Assuming the $%s agree, they will be sworn in on the spot. )edallions proclaiming

their status as %ompanions of the rder will be provided. &f the $%s do not agree, 0uc

enri will be disappointed, but will simply include them in his retinue as servants.

4ote that no nobles at court will deign to interact with them if they are perceived to be

servants. Sets of clothes *far more e"pensive than anything they have ever owned+ and baths

will be provided. 4ote that only nobles and members of the military are allowed to

carry swords at court. 0uc enri will brief them. The 5ing is impressionable,

frivolous, and has a miniscule attention span. To succeed, they need to catch his

imagination, and get his agreement in a single moment. The 0uc has prepared the

moment carefully 8 a themed ball, e"tolling the treasures and promise of the 4ew

2orld. At the height of the spectacle, he will present cedric and his plans to the 5ing

for his approval. &n this matter the %ardinal is an ally, as he wishes to reduce the

)yrmidianQde Semblancy control over the navy. The (ranvelle are opposed to this

Louiseau initiative, and their biggest problem will be $ierre (ranvelle, )inister of

1inance, who will rigorously oppose the project. pposition will also come from1rancois de Semblancy, )arshall of !retonnia. %ardinal 0umorieu" is reluctant to

openly oppose $ierre, and will therefore not publicly support them, but has promised

to privately use his influence on Louis -illeroi, the )inister of the Army and 4avy,

and %harles’ best friend. e also hopes to drive a wedge between (ranvelle and de

Semblancy *unnatural allies at best+, by needling 1rancois into displaying some of his

contempt and frustration at the minister of finance.

The ball is spectacular, with a display trumpeting the successes of !retonnian

privateers and colonists over the wicked )arienburgers, a chance to sample 4ew

2orld lu"uries *including the wondrous smoke of the tobacco weed and the

prohibitively e"pensive chocolatl drink+, servants dressed like 4ew 2orld natives,

many dances, and more than a hint that the 0uc has arranged a small discrete drug

fuelled orgy in a more private location for anyone wanting to participate. After a

firework display marking the end of the ball, the 0uc will present %edric and his plans

to the 5ing.

)ost nobles are more interested in who is currently sleeping with who than the

politics behind the ball. The politically minded nobles tend to be talking more about

the possibility of war in the south, with the Pueen of !ilbali threatening the

independence of the $rincipality of -iero. There is some suspicion that the de

Semblancy clan will become involved. owever, those groups already identified will

be very concerned to spread their version of things. The %ardinal’s supporters will

make encouraging noises about the importance of the 4ew 2orld colonies and of a professional 4avy. The (ranvelle will suggest that it is a flamboyant waste of funds.

The de Semblancy will suggest there is no need for a new academy, as the 4avy is in

good order and hint at the dangers of becoming distracted from the real enemies on

our doorstep.

The (ranvelle have no plan to wreck proceedings beyond $ierre’s trump card, which

is to proclaim that the treasury cannot stretch to such a commitment. &n fact, the

(ranvelle have no real objections to the scheme in principle, simply to the fact that it

is the 0uc’s pet project, and might even support it if they could be seen to take the

credit *it would take some fast thinking and talking to engineer this during the ball,

however+. The %ardinal will over the course of the evening successfully encourage

Louis -illeroi to take an interest. The %ardinal’s main energies will, however, bedevoted to needling 1rancois de Semblancy. 0uring the ball he will go out of his way



to point out how marvellously it’s going, and will arrange for a number of servants to

mishear 1rancois’ orders, making him irritable by the end of the evening. Any of this

can and should be observed by the $%s.

1rancois de Semblancy has a plan to scupper events 8 he has arranged to have a very

attractive young noblewoman flirt with Sire %edric and get him to share her drink,

which is drugged. Should the $%s fail to prevent this, by the end of the evening, Sire%edric, though apparently sober and conscious, will be talking absolute rubbish, and

thus appear a complete idiot. e is utterly incapable of e"plaining the plans to the

5ing. Should the worst happen, there is one last resort for the $%s 8 one of them can

pretend to be Sire %edric *none of the <oyal %ouncil has ever met him+. This will

re7uire some nerve and good bluffing, but is possible.

The ball is also a good time to introduce the $%s to any powerful 4$% you might

wish 8 almost anyone could conceivably be at a ball at isillon. An obvious person

for the $%s to observe at the ball would be an elderly gentleman wearing the

ceremonial chain of a master of the rder of the %rown and Lilly, the highest order of

!retonnian chivalry *the 5ing is (randmaster+. e is Sire :ean van der 5uypers, also

known as :an van der 5uypers, of the )arienburg directorate, the 5ing’s personal banker, and the wealthiest man in the world. e is well aware of the significance of

the 0uc’s 4ew 2orld ball, and in all probability authorised the 1og 2alker attempt to

scupper the academy, but his eye is on the long game, and he will do nothing so

inelegant as attempt to influence the 5ing directly. e will give every indication of

enjoying the ball, and will even show some amusement at the point in the ceremonies

when the evil )arienburgers are being destroyed by the !retonnian navy. e will be

polite but reticent to anyone engaging him in conversation, though he may mention

that he supplied the chocolatl for the ball, having a monopoly on the lu"ury good. &n

fact, this is his major concern, as he wishes to increase demand for his product.

Assuming the drugged drink is intercepted and if the $%s do not otherwise influence

events in any way, the final conversation will go like this' %edric will present the

plans for the Academy, and the 0uc will present a royal decree to the 5ing,

suggesting that he sign it, and usher in a new era of !retonnian dominance of the

oceans. The %ardinal *much to enri’s consternation+, will then raise the topic of

finance, suggesting that in the current climate, funds for any new military ventures are

tight, and appealing to $ierre (ranvelle. $ierre will happily list figures suggesting that

no new venture can really be countenanced. The %ardinal will then casually mention

the possibility of war in the south, which $ierre *unwisely+ will rule out of hand as

impossible in the current financial climate. 1rancois de Semblancy, needled by petty

frustrations all night, and seeing $ierre raise an obstacle to some of his longcherished

goals, will then e"plode, saying that it is ridiculous that the course of honour andnational pride be held to ransom by penny pinchers and inkfingered scribes. Louis de

-illeroi, having been carefully cultivated by the %ardinal, will then chime in, agreeing

with 1rancois de Semblancy, and suggesting that !retonnian honour is at stake here,

and the 4aval Academy must be built. A confused but grateful 0uc enri will restate

his case to the 5ing, who then signs the decree, almost before 1rancois de Semblancy

realises that he has just made the case for the opposition.

nce this impromptu meeting of the <oyal %ouncil has dissolved, the %ardinal will

make sure 0uc enri realises that he has handed this success to him on a plate. Astute

players will realise that even in 0uc enri’s moment of triumph he has essentially

simply been a pawn of the %ardinal’s 8 allowing the %ardinal to snub both $ierre

(ranvelle and 1rancois de Semblancy, without appearing to oppose either of them.



%ast

Sire %edric L’rasse, #cuyer de 1oucire. The Architect 8 A gentleman, in his H’s, a

bit of a rake, but highly competent, and supported by the cult of -erena. A gambler,

with huge debts *was trying to get an advance on his pay+, also has developed a

relationship with a daughter of a local noble family. e has been surveying an areanear the admiralty, and has the plans drawn up, was about to present them. A vain and

irresponsible man, who likes his creature comforts.

&rene $iarette 8 $ampered grandchild of 9ves $iarette. A spoilt brat of @O who enjoys

pretending to her grandfather that she is still an innocent little girl. &n fact, she has

woken up to the fact that she can do almost anything she wants as long as she is

discrete. She met %edric at a ball organised by the %ollege of St !enehold. She had

gone with the intention of seducing a student, but was swept of her feet by %edric.

She accompanied him to gambling clubs and had clandestine meetings with him,

finding the relationship e"hilarating.

<eynard 8 &rene’s bodyguard, employed by 9ves. Tipped him off that &rene Dmight be

in danger of being compromisedE by de 1oucire, when he started to think the

relationship was becoming too serious and there was a possibility of scandal. (ruff,

accustomed to turning a blind eye, but knows which side his bread’s buttered.

9ves $iarette 8 $atriarch of a powerful noble family. $atron of the arts. A

traditionalist, strong supporter of the %ollege. #nraged by news of de 1oucire’s

e"cesses he resolved to have him dealt with, and e"plained this to a tearful &rene

before dispatching <eynard to bring de 1oucire in.

%laes A fogwalker, dispatched to gather intelligence and to disrupt the planned

academy as much as possible. )arienburg is putting financial pressure on the backers

so that a little disruption may make the whole project fall apart. %laes has determined

that capturing the architect and thus delaying the presentation to the king will cause

the project to fall through. e has no idea who &rene is. e is aware of $ierre and his

bravos, but unsure who they are working for.

ercule 8 agent of the Artois. 0angerous and desperate. as men working with him.

All are tough street fighters armed with swords. ercule himself is armed with sword

and blunderbuss. ercule has spotted %laes, but doesn’t know who he is working for,

and the fogwalker has been too circumspect to allow himself to be captured. &n theevent, ercule is caught by surprise by %laes’ abduction attempt, and only just

manages to get on to his trail.

Sire $hilippe d’rival $hilippe ’rival, %hevalier of the rder of St !eren, %aptain

of DThe $egasusE 8 $hilippe is acting as his halfbrother’s right hand man, able to

make contacts he himself cannot. enri is interested in sounding the $%s out, initially

because he suspects they are agents of (ranvelle, though as he sees through this more

because he is in dire need of independent agents himself. Anyone with eraldry will

identify rival as the fiefdom of the 0uc de L’Anguille within 1landres *where

technically he is a vassal of the 0uc de %ouronne+. Anyone checking out DThe

$egasusE will discover that it is a privatelyowned ?H’ sloop. Some suspect it may be



a privateer, as it seems not to engage in trade but does disappear on une"plained

journeys occasionally.

:ulian de St Sebastien

4avarrese bounty hunter who is one step ahead of the $%s, finds &rene first and gets

the reward.

Adventure 5! The case of the 6uestionable saint

This is the first of the optional adventures, and brings the $%s out of the campaign

arc to sample some other aspect of !retonnia.

The most ancient of !retonnian saints often have 7uestionable provenance, but a

vibrant following, which brings considerable revenue to their shrines. The oldest

saints also tend to have had their bodies preserved without reference to the %ult of

)orr. The %ult of 3lric in Armori7ue has some highly dubious saints, perhaps none

more so than St Triste. St Triste is a highly obscure figure who appears to have been a

warrior blessed by 3lric who slew a dangerous witch before perishing himself, thussaving the village of !laudin *now !laudin St Triste+, where his remains are now

kept. f the few sources that survive, one clearly seems to describe him as some sort

of werewolf.

Triste was in fact a mutant, a man with a wolf’s head. owever, he was able to

convince the 4orse of Armori7ue *tolerant of 2erewolves in their own community+

that he was blessed by 3lric. 4ot an evil man, but never really a saint, he carved out a

petty kingdom for himself based in !laudin. This was threatened by a necromancer

who sought to usurp his realm. e killed the witch, but died sometime afterwards,

unaware of the spell placed upon him. is soul was tied to his corpse. 1or centuries he

has lain immobile in his coffin, restrained by the wards placed on the shrine, going

slowly insane. owever, he has now been moved by the nearby monastery in a bid for

status, and has been freed to act as a skeletal minor hero. e works to restore his

kingdom.

The players'

The cult of )orr, concerned about ade7uate safeguards for this body

The cult of -erena, arguing that he was never a saint, probably not human, and should

certainly be interred.

The villagers, led by the priest, who have lost their patron saint, and have formed a

secretive group Dthe claws of the wolfE determined to get rid of the monastery and

recover St Triste

The monks, who are enthusiastically hearing the voice of the saint commanding themto arms and conflict.

Triste himself, now trying to forge his kingdom

The $%s should get drawn into what appears to be a border dispute between various

factions, with someone or several someones doing people in *all in the name of St

Triste+. They will hear the cult of )orr’s protestations that the body must be properly

interred in a political conte"t and will not take it seriously. &f anything they will

e"pect to be confronted with a werewolf cult, not an undead mutant

A ruler now called %ount who everyone refers to as Dthe #arlE as this the ancient title,

ruling from !alviche *!alvik+.



$%s originally assembled in L’Anguile to do a mission for a merchant house. They

arrive to discover the merchant has been bought out by the -an de 5uypers and is no

longer able to employ them. &n nearby pub, as they chat they are overheard by cleric

of -erena who needs people to accompanyQinvestigate !laudin St Triste.

4$%sScholar of -erena Lucien

<esearching history of Triste. Puestions his sainthood.

Local priest of )orr 8 Alain le (ros

%ountry priest. &literate, thoroughly corrupt. Argues that he should have been

consulted about moving body, and should have performed rituals, though ultimately

because he wants fee.

Lay chaplain of 3lric *-illage #lder+ :eannot

!lacksmith. Sincerely devoted to cult of St Triste. &ncensed that the monks

have stolen the body. Appealing to #arl.

Abbot of monastery (aspard

(ri//led veteran with vision for new monastery. Sees Triste as necessarylegitimation for establishing his own powerbase. 3naware that Triste is active B

therefore encouraging of the newfound devotion of his monks.

A few members of the 3lrican order 8 !audoin, %orentin, )a"ime

&ncludes the group influenced by Triste 8 have heard voices. Are attempting to

build his kingdom.

A few villagers 8 #milien, 4oe, (aetan, Lunete, %arine

ave formed Dthe claws of the wolfE and are systematically hunting down

monks.

Alain, Aristede, !audouin, %orentin, #milien, (aetan, (aspard, :eannot, Lambert,

Lucien, )a"ime, 4oe,

Arlette, !erthe, %arine, #lodie, 1lorianne, ortense, :uste, Lunete, )arise, dile,

uida,

@. &ntroduction

The $%s meet Lucien, who recruits them to travel to !laudin with him.

>. A body

The $%s disturb the members of Triste’s group who have killed Aristede, the

messenger sent by :eanot to the #arl. The members of the group disperse, but withoutade7uately concealing the body. The $%s discover the message he was carrying, but

cannot catch any of his assailants *who all wear brown hooded robes covered in

wolfskin+.

. The village

The $%s get to the village where they are initially greeted as the forces sent by the

#arl. They are told the whole story of the theft of St Triste by the monastery. Lucien

reveals his own research is leading him to undermine the sanctity of St Triste. The

$%s go from honoured guests to unwelcome outsiders.

J. At the monastery

The $%s get a warm welcome from 1r (aspard as long as they show respect for the

cult. e will even show them where the sarcophagus is kept *but will not allow themto view the body+. e considers himself within his rights as he has permission from



AlfAndre to establish a monastery to St Triste. 4ow that they have a worthy resting

place for him, it is appropriate to rehouse him. They also hear references to !r

%orentin who has heard Triste speak to him in a time of prayer at the shrine.

?. The priest of )orr

Alain le (ros arrives demanding the right to conduct a rededication ceremony for

the body at a price of J,HHH ($s Dor else his body will be free to roam and pluck offyour children one by one 8 who knows whether he was originally hallowed by a priest

in those dark times when he diedE

I. The death of Alain

Alain goes to the monastery, where he is given short shrift by (aspard, who kicks

him out, but is left uneasy at the idea that Triste might be amongst the restless dead.

e discusses it with his monks. Triste rises from the grave to hunt him down and kill

him.

C. The capture of (aspard

(aspard and an accompanying monk, who go out to investigate the death of Alain,

are captured by the %laws of the 2olf, who demand the return of Triste or they will

kill him. The order *now dominated by %orentin+, declare that Triste has chosen a newleader and that those who have dared defy them will be hunted down and killed.

K. The $%s free (aspard

%onvinced that the order will turn on the village, :eannot calls on the $%s to attempt

to free (aspard from the %laws. 2hen they do so, and tell (aspard what has

happened, he will reveal his fears about Triste. e will also volunteer to get them into

the monastery.

O. The showdown

The $%s confront Triste and the order in the shrine cum throneroom.

@H. Aftermath

Lucien finds his suspicions vindicated, :eannot has saved his village but lost the

saint it is based on, (aspard’s dream is shattered, and he is the only monk left. e

volunteers for some suicidal mission and dies with honour.

4otes'

The background to Triste' communicated mainly through Lucien B the village

Shrine *perhaps a trip to some archeological siteF+

2erewolf rumours 8 initially through Lucien’s knowledge of the Armori7ue4orse

background and certain inconsistencies in the story of Triste Dhe bared his teethQfangs

at the foe and howledE. Also iconography in the shrine, and perhaps an opportunity to

buy a silverplated knife from a pedlar on the way Dlatest fashion at courtE.

This is very much a traditional 21<$ adventure in style, but set very definitely in

!retonnia. $layers may not initially notice, but there is very little chaos here, there is

rivalry between cults on political not religious grounds, and there is strife between the

peasants and everyone else.

J. The 5haine Q ecate cultists B the ancient city of Tor Alessi

They believe that the ancient elves worshipped a deity known as 5haela )enscha

5haine, and that a temple to him once e"isted just outside the city. To this end they

are ransacking libraries and torturing elves for information. Their objective is to

revive the worship of the dark gods. This involves some investigating, esoteric



learning, and perhaps some final combat 8 though there should be a way to foil the

plot without needing to get into a fight.

$erhaps combine with a mission for the admiral to investigate reports of wreckers in

1landresF 2reckers and Smugglers on the 1landres coast.

?. The mystery at %harleroi les )ines

I. The affair of the reformed courtesan

The cult of Shallya tends to attract the venal and corrupt who have guilty

consciences. &t is unsuprising therefore that women of ill repute seeking

redemption might find shelter in the religious orders of the cult. %larissa de

:oiselme was a wellknown courtesan in the court of the previous king. She had a

passionate *but very secret+ affair with %ardinal 0umoriou" when he was still

bishop of ". She dropped out of public life some time afterwards, partly due to

threats by the %ardinal and his supporters that she should remain 7uiet, but also

because she was pregnant. Some time later she joined a convent under the name

D1rancoiseE, wracked with guilt about her past life. She mentioned this past to noone, and noone in the convent *which was in rural 1landres+ recognised her. ne

day, however, a travelling -erenan scholarpriest named (iles )ontresse

recognised her whilst staying and consulting the convent’s modest library. e had

been at court while she was there. 1eeling she was a troubled soul, he encouraged

her to confess her sinful past. 2hat he discovered was, of course, political

dynamite. As a good -erenan, he then recorded the conversation and submitted it

to his superiors in the %ult. The %ardinal of -erena was intruiged, and believed

this might be a good level to have over 0umoriou". e set about attempting to

verify the story. 2ord got to 0umoriou" that the -erenans were making en7uiries

about %larissa do :oiselme. e instantly put his own agents to work attempting to

find out what they knew. e discovered that the en7uiries had been started by a

report of a confession written by (iles )ontresse, but couldn’t determine what

was in the report or whose confession it was. is agents are therefore now

tracking (iles )ontresse.

#vents 8 The %ardinal’s agents track down )ontresse, and from him get the

identity of %larissa. They then go to the convent and abduct her. )eanwhile, the

-erenans think they have located the child, now a young man called $ascal,

working as a copyist in a scriptorum in (uisoreu". The %ardinal now realises that

there is a child, and knows he must secure both child and report. e hires

independent agents to steal back the report, and then races to try and get the child.

$% involvement 8 the $%s should initially have no idea what is going on, only piecing the pu//le together slowly, and at last realising what is happening only

after all evidence e"cept the child has been destroyed. They can tell the child, but

cannot prove anything.

$%s are hired by agent of %ardinal to get hold of the report from the %ult of

-erena. *)aybe the cult hasn’t yet realised what its importance isF+. They must

swear not to read it, and are given to understand that they will be magically tested

for this when they deliver.

They then encounter (iles *in prisonQ asylumQ on deathbedF+ who reveals that

%larissa’s life is in danger. They rush to save %larissa, but arrive too late, but

receive a letter to her from (iles that e"plains that the child is well. They track

down the child and spirit them away.pponents' %ardinal’s (uardQ secret policeF



#nds in stalemate 8 everyone knows the truth, but no one can prove anything.

The affair of the reformed courtesan 8 the confession ends up with (ranvelle 8 giving

him the leverage he needs with the cardinal to get himself reappointed as governor.

C. Something thoroughly anti7uated 8 5nights of the blood in Armori7ueF

K. The affair of the heroes of the &vory Sea <oute 8 ends with (ranvelle managing to

make the 0uke highly unpopular 8 an opportunity to have himself reinstated.



The Affair of the heroes of the %vor" #ea +oute

<umours of a sea battle in which !retonnian pirates sank a Sea #lf catamaran and

captured two rich )arienburg galleons full of 4ew 2orld goods.

The markets are flooded with 4ew 2orld lu"uries.

The #"arch dispatches an envoy to the 0uc to demand a formal apology and the heads

of the captains. Also has a nightwalker on board who makes contact with a human

Starga/er sleeper agent in the -an aagen group in L’Anguille.

The 0uc is forced to declare that the captains concerned are mutinous pirates, and

will be hanged once captured.

$rivateers, unofficially operating by charter of the 0uc. e is worried that the supply

chain is compromised and the 1og 2alkers will be able to link them to him, needs

trustworthy independents to check.

)akes personal contact with $%s as D$hilippeE, a %avalier who smokes tobacco and

clearly has been to the 4ew 2orld, and recruits them. %laims to be in employ of the

Admiral. %oncerned to determine why they undertook their previous mission. &f he

feels they have integrity he employs them without hesitation.

!oth the 1og 2alkers, and the )anniocks Puish are trying to track down the

privateers.

1og 2alkers already have a small cell in L’Anguille.

)eanwhile the (ranvelle are trying to get their revenge on him, and seek to e"ploit

this embarrassing incident to get the governor dismissed 8 cynical political

manipulation of the situation with no regard for the lives of the captains and crew

*now in hiding down the coast+.

Therefore, the $%s are being tracked by three independent groups of agents' those of

the (ranvelle, the Sea #lves, and )arienburg. The (ranvelle have an insider who will

seek to reveal the location of the crews to his employers.

The ideal solution to this is that the $%s arrange the resupply, meeting the captains,

and start to isolate who the mole is. They identify two of the groups shadowing themand eliminate or evade the sea elves and marienburgers, however, they identify the

(ranvelle agent too late, and news of the location of the captains leaks out. They are

captured, and the 0uc is forced to hand them over to the authorities for e"ecution. The

(ranvelle lead public calls for the dismissal of the governor over the shoddy handling

of the whole affair.

1urther overarching plot ideas'

The (ranvelle are working together with :an van der 5uypers.

<evenge 8

!ring down the (ranvelle and the van der 5uypers.%hocolate



-an der 5uypers has a monopoly on %hocolatl, and is encouraging its use as a high

status lu"ury. The #lves get it from a coastal 4ew 2orld tribe. The 0uc has

discovered that there is a tribe in the interior who supply it, and sends the $%s to

arrange an independent deal, undercutting the rates the #lves get. e will be able to

sell it independently, but more to the point, he can flood the market with

independentlyproduced chocolatl, causing commodity shares in it to crash.

Chocolate is made from the fermented, roasted and ground beans taken from the pod

of the tropical cacao tree Theobroma cacao native to Central America. The resulting

products are known as "chocolate" or in some parts of the world as cocoa. They have

an intensely flavoured bitter taste.

The bean products are known under different names in different parts of the world. In

the American chocolate industry:

• Cocoa is defined as the solids of the cacao bean,

• Cocoa butter is defined as the fat component, and

• Chocolate is a combination of the solids and the fat.

It is the solid and the fat combination, sweetened with sugar and other ingredients

which is made into chocolate bars, and which is commonly referred to as chocolate

by the public.

It can also be made into the beverages !called cocoa and hot chocolate and this was

the original form used by the A#tecs and the first $uropean consumers.

The word chocolate originated in the %ative American %ahuatl language indigenousto central &e'ico.

The chocolate residue found in a &ayan teapot suggests that &ayans were drinking

chocolate (,)** years ago, making the &ayans hold the earliest record of cacao use.

The A#tecs associated chocolate with +ochiuet#al , the goddess of fertility. In the

%ew -orld, chocolate was consumed in a drink called 'ocoatl , often seasoned with

vanilla , chilli pepper , achiote !which we know today as annatto and pimento.

+ocoatl was believed to fight fatigue, a belief that is probably attributable to the

theobromine content. Chocolate was an important lu'ury good throughout re

Columbian &esoamerica , and cocoa beans were often used as currency. /ther

chocolate drinks combined it with such edibles as mai#e gruel and honey.

The 'ocoatl was said to be an acuired taste. 0ose de Acosta , a 1panish 0esuit

missionary who lived in eru and then &e'ico in the later 2)th century , wrote:

3oathsome to such as are not acuainted with it, having a scum or froth that is

very unpleasant to taste. 4et it is a drink very much esteemed among the

Indians, where with they feast noble men who pass through their country. The

1paniards, both men and women, that are accustomed to the country, are very

greedy of this Chocolat5. They say they make diverse sorts of it, some hot,

some cold, and some temperate, and put therein much of that "chili"6 yea, they

make paste thereof, the which they say is good for the stomach and against thecatarrh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_(taste)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_butter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_chocolate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuatl



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztecs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xochiquetzal



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xocoatl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilli_pepper


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achiote


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annatto

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimento

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobromine


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerica


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_de_Acosta


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Jesus


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_century

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_butter



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_chocolate


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztecs


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xocoatl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annatto

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimento












Christopher Columbus brought some cocoa beans to show 7erdinand and Isabella of

1pain, but it remained for 8ernando de 1oto to introduce it to $urope more broadly.

The first recorded shipment of chocolate to the /ld -orld for commercial purposes

was in a shipment from 9eracru# to 1eville in 2;. It was still served as a beverage,

but the $uropeans added sugar to counteract the natural bitterness, and removed thechili pepper. <y the 2=th century it was a lu'ury item among the $uropean nobility.

(rain 8 )arienburg is dependent on imported grain from !retonnia. 2ithout it there

would be food shortages. The 0uc is secretly buying up the contracts so he can

control the grain supply to )arienburg 8 which means he can control the scarcity of

the commodity and thus its share value.

)oney 8 -an der 5uypers has loaned vast sums of money to the !retonnian crown.

The 0uc is working on ensuring that the 5ing defaults on the debt 8 potentially bankrupting the merchant.

Appendi" A

)aps B (a/ateer

Appendi" !

$layer background sheets

Appendi" %

Sources

& assume that the setting of !retonnia project is appro"imately e7uivalent to late @? th

or @Ith century 1rance or #ngland. The period is one of technological and cultural

renaissance, of the beginnings of 4ew 2orld trade, of cutthroat international

intrigue, and religious conflict. There are a number of oddities within the setting *not

least the )usketeersQ%ardinalQisillon aspect, which is more @Cth century+, but

broadly this holds true. Standard works of history for these periods can be very useful

sources, especially those that deal with manufacturing, trade, communications, and

other areas that standard rpg sources tend not to give detail on.

The following sources are more inspirational than followed slavishly, but & would note

that even in the sources for an earlier time period, financial and trade activities are far

more advanced and DmodernE in feel than we would tend to assume.

0orothy 0unnet’s Douse of 4iccoloE series. ighly inspirational, and giving a great

insight into the way trade, politics, and military activity interweave. See especially

D4iccolo <isingE, largely set in 1landers.

(iles )ilton’s D!ig %hief #li/abethE 8 highly accessible history of the #nglish 4ew

2orld colonies. )y presentation of the !retonnian colonies and their relationship to

3lthuan and )arienburg is analogous to the early days of the #nglish colonies during

the time of Spanish 0ominance of the 4ew 2orld *e"cept that the technological gap

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_de_Soto_(explorer)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veracruz_(city)



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seville


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1585


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_de_Soto_(explorer)



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1585




between 3lthuan and !retonnia is far greater 8 there is little scope for a !retonnian

1rancis 0rake Dsingeing the $hoeni" 5ing’s beardE, even if he had one+.

$atricia 1inney’s #li/abethan novels D1iredrake’s #yeE, DThe !ook of the 3nicornE

D(loriana’s TorchE 8 evocative, and giving a great 21<$ feel.

0avid Liss’ DThe %offee TraderE, an e"cellent source for )arienburg

0umas 8 Almost anything for swashbuckling feel, but the )usketeers se7uence in particular. DLouise de la -aliereE is probably the best source for isillon.

Documents

When Kingdoms Rise and Fall 3