Defence and Defiance at the Three Way House

A mob gathers outside the Three Way House. Inside the party and the nuns prepare to defend their prize and hope for reinforcements. The Bardoni brothers arrived with better armed retainers and a ram - presumably that with which they broke into the House of Crows. Some one says they think they can see Ornella. The doors are attacked with rasm and axes. They are stoutly defended from the inside and Father Arturo leads the nuns in prayer atop the parapet. Despite this they can hear a cry of "rescue the nuns" from the mob below.

They are few and their foes many and despite a strong position they begin to fear for their lives. Then they hear a trumpet blast and from the streets leading to the piazza below they hear the clatter of hooves on cobbles. Three groups of rescuers converge. One wears the colours of the Frangipani and Matteo Conti rides among them with his manservant Noli; the next, for those who know such things, where the colours of the Conti; the third party is less martial in its bearing, but amongst them, armoured and sitting upon a horse (of sorts), is Cola da Rienzo, the Notao of the Aventine and his famiglia and allies. Between them they make short work of the mob. Carlo Bardone's head is raised upon a pike, though Gepetto and Ornella (if she was ever there) are not found amongst the dead or the living.

The victors divide the Three Way House between them as did the Bardoni before them. The Conti take Gepetto's portion; the Frangipani take Carlo's, making Corsini their steward; the Notaio lays claim to Ornella's side of the house. He has come prepared with three wagons. Perched upon one of these is Fra Giovanni who completed his mission to bring the news to Cola and now takes the weight off his one foot. They immediately begin to load up Ornella's vast collection of antiquities for transportation back to the Aventine. Ubaldo, the little archivist immediately makes himself useful to Cola and looks set to become a part of the famiglia.

Marco and Noli interrogate one of the captives. A corpulent mercenary who everyone calls Il Francese but who claims to be a Gascon (which he says is completely different). Confusingly his name is Gaston. For a consideration he agrees to betray the likely hiding place of Gepetto. He leads Marco, Noli, Rocco, Arturo and Lorenzo to the house of Gepetto's mistress. After a stiff fight in which Rocco is badly wounded, they overcome the two guards and capture Gepetto. There is no sign of the Gascon when they depart the building but the corpse of one of Gepetto's guards, who they had let go, was lying in the dust of the alley with his throat cut. Aside from Gepetto himself they also find a set of keys to his vast ironbound chest. These they give to Cola (though the chest itself is in the hands of the Conti).

Gepetto makes an attempt to negotiate for his life. He says his papers are valuable but all encyphered. Only he and his scribe Scolisi know the key (he falsely believes Scolisi to be dead. In fact he was captured and released.) He offers the key in return for clemency but no-one appears interested. The following morning he is taken up to the parapet of his own house and a rope is tied around his neck. He is offered a priest or some last words but refuses both and in a last act of defiance shrugs off his captors and throws himself off the parapet, his curses cut short as the rope snaps taut about his throat.

15 - The Three Way House

Marco is standing guard on the first floor. Below, Lino and Renzo are getting ready to depart with the children. As he watches from a hidden position in the shadows, he sees Gepetto Bardone enter the courtyard. He shouts up for his aunt, telling her to be ready in three hours. Marco infers that this is when they will be transporting the nuns for sacrifice to the House of Crows. He runs downstairs to abort the departure of Renzo and the children and make a new plan. In the ensuing confusion Rosa overplays her hand and is unmasked as Ornella Morisi. Her sorceries revealed, she evades capture and flees into the underdark upon a broomstick.

They resolve to send Fra. Giovanni with the news to Cola and beg him to send assistance; free the children onto the streets; assault the other parts of the Three Way House and rescue the nuns.

The first two are easily done. Lorenzo casts a spell that allows Fra Giovanni to leave by an upstairs window and gently float down to the street below. He then hobbles off in the direction of the Aventine. They open the doors to the street and the children run out (though it turns out afterwards that a couple of them have hung around).

The cortile of the palazzo is divided by six foot high hurdles between Ornella's part and those of the brothers. In the brothers' half there are a number of mastiffs roaming around free but few evident guards. They remove a hurdle and charge into the other section of the cortile. The dogs are soon put to flight. A couple of guards put up a fight but are wounded and secured. The main resistance comes from a crossbowman shooting from the gallery. As they advance they hear a heavenly choir praying for their success as the nuns raise their voices in support.

The crossbowman turns out to be Gepetto Bardone. He leads Rocco and Astore a merry dance and when they think him trapped at last he still manages to evade them, with an agile manouevre that belies his apparent years.

At the end of the engagement they have seized complete control of the Three Way House, but all the Bardoni have evaded them. Outside they can hear an increasing angry murmur as a mob gathers against the stranieri who have invaded the Suburra.

14 - A Council of War and a Reconnaissance in Strength

At the Black Cat there is a Council of War. Apart from the senior members of Cola's Famiglia, others in attendance, include Matteo Corsini and his servant Noli and Renzo and Lino from the Termi de Diocleziano. Cola gives a speech in which he says that the Bardoni seizure of the House of Crows cannot stand unanswered. He draws a connection, not only with the recent disorder in the City, but specifically the kidnap of six nuns from the Convent of Santa Bibiana - not so far from the Bardoni stronghold in the Suburra. "For do we not suspect the Bardoni of collusion with the sorceror Caltagirone? His interest in obtaining virgins for the summoning of scimioni volanti - flying monkeys - is well known."

Discussion then falls to ways and means and it decided that a strong party will go to reconnoitre the underground entrance of the Bardoni stronghold. For it transpires that Renzo and Lino as youngsters were Spigolatori - gleaners in the dark for Ornella Morisi, the aunt of Gepetto and Carlo Bardone and a key member of their gang. They know the secret ways under the city and an entrance from which they could lead a party to the underground entrance to the Bardoni palazzo.

Reconnaisance in Strength

Led by Renzo and Lino, Marco, Father Arturo, Rocco, Fra. Giovanni, Astore and Lorenzo make their way up the Esquiline to a jumble of ruins and from thence squeeze down a dark opening in the rubble. They follow a maze of passages until they come to a set of steps upwards and a heavy door. An advance guard of Lino and Rocco are discovered by its guardians - demonic creatures that seem half man and half beast. Their comrades come to the rescue and battle ensues. A woman appears in the doorway. Taking her to be Ornella Morisi - rumoured to be a witch - the wizard Lorenzo envelopes her head in a well-aimed globe of fire. She falls down the steps, face and head horribly burned and is dispatched. The beastmen are slain and the party have access to the basement of the palazzo.

The Three Way House

In the basement they free a score of children, caged and living in miserable conditions. Upstairs they find a strange arrangement. The large palazzo is divided into three more or less discrete parts. They take two prisoners, a maid called Rosa and an archivist called Ubaldo. They are both cooperative. Ubaldo curates an immense collection of ancient artifacts gleaned from the underdark. He tells them that the palazzo is shared equally between Ornella and the Bardoni brothers and that relations are currently strained between Ornella and her nephews. He thinks it something to do with the alchemist, Caltagirone. He was Ornella's protege, and created the Beastmen for her. He seems to have transferred his alliegance now to the brothers. He confirms that he saw a group of nuns who were clearly captives. He believes it likely that they are held captive somewhere in the brothers' domain.

Renzo and Lino are concerned about the children and propose to lead them back through the underdark, deposit them at a monastery and then go to report to Cola. The maid Rosa is very keen to help with this so they agree to let her accompany them.