7 - A Cloacal Exploration

At the urging of Cola, the party (Marco, Rocco, Astore, Fra. Giovanni and Father Arturo) occupy the House of the Crows, change the locks and hire a crew to clean-up and renovate (including disposal of the necromantic detritus of the previous occupant).

After a few days they decide to explore the route by which Caltagirone and his servitor escaped and find themselves in what they deem to the ancient sewers of Rome. They generally explore "upstream", systematically checking the narrow side passages they have hostile encounters with some kind of undead and a horde of vicious rats with a half-human rat-mother.

In a larger tunnel they encounter three rather unsavoury looking ladies, disporting themselves upon a huge pile of detritus upon which there shines a shaft of bright sunlight from above. Led by Rocco, who offers the ladies a flask of wine, they enter into pleasant discourse with them (to notes of disapproval from Father Arturo). They introduce themselves as Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thallia. Upon parting, Aglaia takes a pebble which she reaches up to bathe in the weak sunlight above. She hands it to Rocco who can see that it glows with a steady light. Arturo advises him to throw it away both other voices in the party suggest that this is a useful thing and should be retained. Rocco retains it.

When they later describe the encounter to Cola, he raises an eyebrow. "The Three Graces. How fascinating".

6 - The House of the Crow

Noli, the manservant of Matteo Corsini, seeks out Marco, Rocco, Astore, Fra Giovanni and Father Arturo at the Gatto Nero. It seems that the Scimioni Volanti – the Flying Monkeys - still haunt the streets of Rome at night. Were the party interested in following up and trying further to disrupt or destroy this evil? He had heard a rumour that the Thirteen were offering a bounty on these creatures.

Noli had been studying the ledger from the ruined mansion on the Quirinale where they had previously thwarted the plot to sacrifice a virgin and summon a demon. He had tried to contact some of the merchants named in the ledger. So far none had any clear recollection of their transactions, though it was plain that they had delivered goods and services. None had been paid. None could remember the person with whom they had dealt. To Noli’s mind this was evidence of some sort of sorcery in play.

Father Arturo and Noli set off to see if they glean something more from the merchants with further questioning and the help of the Lord. After a few days of this activity – and a number of slammed doors – they found a name, clearly a pseudonym – Corvo – that came up a few times. Just one witness, a merchant named Borromeo, could furnish a tentative link to a genuine name – Aristofane Caltagirone. Meanwhile the others returned to the Quirinale where they found little but glimpsed a flying monkey and noted the vector of its flight southward towards the Viminal Hill.

Taking their discoveries to Cola di Rienzo who confirmed that the Thirteen were taking an interest. He told them that the Caltagironi were an ancient family fallen on hard times in the last century. Their coat-of-arms featured three crows. He suggested looking for old buildings that bore this sign. Following the vector of the flying monkey they eventually found a palazzo displaying three carved crows on the northern slopes of the Viminali.

Joined by Matteo Corsini, they use his resources to rent an apartment nearby and set a watch, while making discreet enquiries locally. They observe a pattern of regular deliveries of supplies to indicate that the palazzo was indeed occupied. They form a plan to gain entry disguised as delivery men and bribe the real vendors to use their cart.

The plan succeeds and they burst into a courtyard. A sharp fight ensues with a couple of misshapen servitors, some necromantic constructs and three flying monkeys. One of the servitors – a hunchback with one disproportionately long, muscular arm – escapes and bars a door against them. They dispose of their opponents: the necromantic constructs dismembered; two demons slain and a third banished by Father Arturo; the second servitor, a slow witted giant with mismatched legs called Grumio, is captured.

They break down the barred door, to find the other servitor and presumably his master fled. A series of hidden doors are opened to reveal a secret laboratory and an exit which they speculate might lead to the ancient tunnels rumoured to lie beneath the city. They find a deal of glassware, including some strange liquids and a few scrolls. There is an ice-store with a number of human body parts in it and an iron cage surrounded by engraved sigils on the floor. They leave with scrolls, glassware and two demon corpses.

Grumio, who wails endlessly for his master is left in possession of the apartment that Corsini rented in order to watch the Caltagirone place.

5 - Nuns and Flying Monkeys

Father Arturo is directed by Cola to visit the Convent of Santa Maria Formosa in the Santangelo rione. He and his companions, Marco, Rocco and Fr. Giovanni are received by Abbess Hildegarde. It seems that one of her Oblates, a young woman of noble birth named Serena Frangipani has disappeared. Prioress Maria Assunta is convinced that she has been abducted by a young man called Matteo Corsini. With her own eyes she saw Corsini wearing a “ridiculous” hat standing on a ladder and peering over the wall at the moment she was alerted by screams in the orchard. They subsequently found the ladder and love letters from Corsini were found in the girl’s room. Sister Ursula who was supposed to be the girl’s mentor and companion confirmed that they were indeed carrying on a secret liaison. However, Sister Ursula’s eye-witness account differed substantially from that of the Prioress in that she said that three demons came to drag the oblate off to Hell. The girl is plainly overwrought and hysterical and the Abbess is more inclined to follow the account of the Prioress.

The party undertake to visit Corsini and put him under pressure to release the girl immediately. The meet Corsini and his manservant, Noli, in a wineshop near Corsini’s house. To their surprise, Corsini’s account tallies with that of Sister Ursula. Three demons in the shape of flying monkeys swooped down and snatched his darling, flying off in a broadly northerly direction. He and Noli ever since have been seeking news of the flying monkeys and though they have no solid leads as yet they have found some persistent rumours of such creatures particularly in the Quirinale district. The two parties agree to work together on the matter.

Basing themselves at La Deliziosa, a brothel in the Trevi district where Father Arturo and his friends seem assured of a warm welcome, the comrades follow up a number of leads and find themselves drawn to a derelict palazzo with a ruined tower near the crown of the Quirinale. The place is being fitted out for a masque on Midwinter night. Attendance is by invitation only on the night but by visiting while the place is full of workmen and victuallers they find a hidden door under the stage set up in the ruins of the great hall. This is found to lead to a separate, more modest, dwelling place, set upas some sort of office with a plain-looking street entrance further down the hill from the palazzo.

On the night of the masque the group make their way up the hill amongst the revellers but peel off to make their way into the palazzo via the back entrance they have discovered. This involves a certain amount of lock-picking at which Noli proves adept. They hide themselves under the stage and wait. At midnight the main event takes place in front of an audience of invitees. It seems that this is to be an auction. The prize will be to take part in the summoning of a Scimio Volante – a flying monkey – to be bound to the will of the auction winner.A key element of the ritual will be the sacrifice of a virgin of noble blood.

The auction grows hot and the astronomical sum of 3600 florins wins it. However, as the girl is conveyed to the stage by three “flying monkeys” the party burst out, blades drawn. There is fierce resistance. There are two “servitors” who seem to be necromantic constructs, three flying monkeys and the sorceror himself to contend with but the rescuers manage to escape with the girl and flee down the tunnel, locking the door behind them.

They regroup at the Deliziosa. While Noli goes to fetch a litter in which the young lady may be conveyed back to the convent. Meanwhile there is a disagreement between Father Arturo and Marco over the extent of unchaperoned access Matteo should have to the girl he has just rescued. Romanticism and Marco’s muscle win the argument.