Burn Them All!

 Present:

• Abellinut "Able" Ugwistan, 31, Moor Arian Fighter from Septum - Jeff
• MARMALADE: Aulius "Owl" Lucius Decanter, 25, Polytheistic Fighter from Gades - Jamie
• MARMALADE: Elia Ildaria, 24, Basque Pagan Barbarian from Gasteiz  - Richard
• Luigi Abundus Bertolini, 23, Roman Nicene Priest from Ravenna - Chris
• MARMALADE: Merkel, 24, Vandal Arian Temple-fighter from Gades - Kevin
• Vanker Polyester, 22, Vandal Pagan Rogue from Gades - Shane
• Velito Rosso, 24, Roman Nicene Barbarian from Venice - Darryl
• Victor Koshenko, 24, Alan Arian Thief from Gades - Ian

By Jeff

We picked Velito off the ground after his beating by Lucius's "negotiation" team and laid him on his bedroll to recover. Sister Justina was summoned and came rushing down from the church to cast a "Heal" (or two) on poor Velito while the rest of the party stood around and "tut-tutted" Velito's unwise approach to dealing with thugs and bullies.

A brief vision overlaid the sister

As Sister Justina waved her hands around over Velito's battered and bruised body, her eyes flashed intensely red, fangs seemed to sprout from her mouth, and the air crackled as the healing aura erupted around Velito, much quicker and much more strongly that we had ever see the Sister Heal before.

"Whoa" muttered Vanker, stepping back and looking around worriedly.
"That was super-fast" noted Able to Sister Justina as she stepped back herself after only ten seconds.
"Nope" she replied, "Just like normal"
"Whoa" muttered Vanker again, stepping even further back and staring daggers at the Sister.

"Maybe the church's enchanted ground has been souped up?" suggested Victor.
"Let me try then" instructed Luigi as he stepped up to Velito and started in on his own Heal.

An hour later he looked up.
"Some of that bruising cured" he noted, "How long was that?"
"Just like the actual normal" noted Vanker.

In the meantime, Sister Justina had wandered off back to the kitchen.
A hasty conversation ensued, resulting in Luigi and Able rushing off to the well to see if anything strange had happened there (nope) and then talking to Acolyte Felix about what we had seen.

"Impossible!" stated Acolyte Felix.
"Go check with Father Valerius" suggested Luigi, "And we'll keep an eye on the Sister"

Acolyte Felix headed upstairs to check in on Father Valerius, while Able and Luigi slipped into the kitchen to "see how its going"

As Acolyte Felix entered the poor Father's sick room, he heard mutterings from the bed.

"Bones, bones, whoring bones. Them, them, Justina and them. Arggggh .... snakes" the Father was yelling.

"He said Justina" Felix mused to himself, "Could there be a problem with her? Is he actually right?"

Back down in the kitchen, Sister Justina was just putting the finishing touches to a lovely roast chicken dinner and enlisted Able and Luigi to help serve.

"May as well help if you've nothing better to do" she commanded.

Over dinner Vanker kept a close eye on Sister Justina, but she seemed quite normal. Luigi and Velito had an extended argument about the merits, or otherwise, of gambling, but Luigi couldn't convince Velito to give up his dice.

"Stubborn fool" muttered Luigi to himself.
"Stubborn fool" muttered Velito to himself.

Luigi suggested that Sister Justina try to cast a Detect Evil from outside the consecrated church grounds.

"Ha" she scoffed, "Miracles don't work off consecrated ground. Waste of time"

That night Able received another summons (via street urchin) to meet with Lucius Brutus and hurried quickly off, with Victor along to watch his back.

"Got a wee job for your crew" Lucius instructed, "although your lot might be too namby-pamby to take it on"
"It would involve offing a fella. A nosy prick by the name of Marcus Squirrel" he noted.
"You would find him in the employ of Count Julian, poking his nose where it's not wanted"

"Oh" responded Victor with a wink, "You mean that dirty heretic pagan bastard pretending to be a decent Christian?"
"Yeah", replied Lucius with a wink, "Dat's the one."
"Sounds like a tough sell" noted Able, "But we'll see what we can do"

Arriving back at the church sometime later, Able and Victor could hear yelling from the upstairs sick room.

The whores bones

"Justina ... pagan whore ... bony snake in her ... burn her ... the whore ... penetrateher"
"That doesn't sound good" commented Victor, "I hope the boys are keeping an eye on her"

Checking in on on Sister Justina, who actually appeared quite normal, Victor suggested she do "one of dem find evil miracle things", just in case there was something "lurking round and possessing the Father"

Which she did. In only ten seconds, and with a pulse of red light from her eyes and a flash of fangs.

"Whoa" squealed Victor leaping back, "What the heck?"
"Oh yes" Sister Justina noted, "There is evil out by the well!"
"We'll ... check ... it ... out" stammered Able, backing out of the room, "You just ... wait here"
"WHOREEEeeeeeee" echoed from upstairs.

Victor and Able fled outside to the tents.

After reporting everything to the rest of the party, Luigi decided it would be good to cast his own Detect Evil miracle, which took a whole hour, but did confirm there was an evil presence at the well.

"I'll talk to Acolyte Felix" Luigi stated and hastened off to find him. 

Father Valerius floats up off his bed

He found him in Father Valerius's room, standing with his back to the door and watching nervously as Father Valerius thrashed about in his bed, alternately muttering and screaming about the evil whore and her two evil pimps Vanker and Owl. While they were watching him, the Father actually floated slowly up from his bed, still wrapped in his sheets, his arms dangling down towards the bed.

Acolyte Felix and Luigi quickly backed out from the room.

"Not right" muttered Felix, "What the hell was that?"
"Possession" confirmed Luigi, "Better get that Holy Relic up here right now, and plenty of Holy Water"

The Holy Relic (the Finger of Solomon) was bought to the room and its box opened to reveal the relic. Holy Water was liberally splashed about place, with a decent quantity over the possessed Father Valerius. Prayers were said. But there was no effect, no sizzles or wounds from the Holy Water, no light or tingles from the relic, no screaming or undue noises from Father Valerius.

"Do the exorcism thing" Acolyte Felix instructed Luigi.
"What?" exclaimed Luigi, "I am just a lowly Brother who keeps bees, I can do none such miracles"
"Burn them ... burn them all" yelled Father Valerius.

Luigi figured that the Holy Water treatment would be a sensible action to take to test Sister Justina. She was certainly acting normally, but the strange eyes, flashes of a hideous visage, and much accelerated casting was all very implicating.

Sister Justina was more than happy to subject herself to the Holy Water treatment.

"A good idea" she stated.
"Owwww" she yelled when Luigi sprinkled her though.
"This can't be right" she muttered.
"OK then" instructed Luigi, "Vanker, you're next"
"No I'm f'n not" complained Vanker, backing away.
"Well, Owl then" Luigi conceded.

Owl was outside in the tent, curled into a foetal position with the Marmalade dribbling from his mouth. As Luigi sprinkled on the Holy Water, a quiet sizzling could indeed be heard, and the skin touched by the Holy Water became reddish and aggravated. 

"Let us see what Father Valerius says about this" suggested Luigi.
"Burn them, burn them all" he yelled.
"Better secure you for your own good then Sister Justina" instructed Felix, "Guard, bring the manacles"

Sister Justina humbly submitted to the manacles and was secured in her rooms.

Vanker backed quickly off, and then rushed out into the night, as the guards approached him.
Owl, Marmalading in the tent, was also manacled by the guard, "For his own protection" 

After such an eventful evening, everyone was happy to get to bed and sleep, perchance to dream.

Around 5am, one of the local urchin's snuck into the tent, woke Able, and let him know that one of our group was hiding out in their trash heap, a block down the road from the church.

"Bloody Vanker" muttered Able, as he rolled over and went back to sleep.

In the morning, Able and Victor, more worried than ever about Father Valerius and what he might potentially reveal, decide to head over the the Arian cathedral and see if Bishop Athalaric has any thoughts about the whole Valerius and Geryon Island situation.

The ultimate solution

"Burn them all" he promptly commanded.
"Would you like me to take action against those Nicene heretics at the Perpetual Succour immediately?" he asked.
"Oh, maybe not quite yet" Able responded.
"Well, I shall inform the Dux" the Bishop noted pompously, "I meet with him regularly!"
"Get me word if you want that heretic church burnt to the ground" Bishop Athalaric instructed.

"Wow" Victor commented as we walked back to the church, "Perhaps Vanker had the right idea"
"Yeah, lets get Owl out of there and to somewhere safe" confirmed Able.
"Yeah, and us too" suggested Victor.

Back at the church, Acolyte Felix reports that Father Valerius has not improved at all, and has been screaming about "The whore" and "Vanker in the rubbish" and "Vanker anchored with the busty" and "Maybe the rusty?"

"BURN THEM ALL" echoes down from the Father's rooms. 

Despite Velito's protests, Victor picked open Owl's manacles and Able slung him over his shoulder and they both rushed him away from the church into town.

"I know the Rusty Anchor" stated Victor, "It's a small Inn near the other side of town"

Sure enough, Vanker had obtained himself a room at the Rusty Anchor and was closeted within with three busty wenches. After having to wait for five minutes at his door, we passed over Owl and updated him on the various potential solutions to the current situation.

"Burn them all" spluttered Vanker, "I'm not keen on that solution at all"

The Rusty Anchor

We gathered the party at the Rusty Anchor for a planning discussion.

"We must go to the Island" instructed Velito firmly.
"No way I'm going to that Island" stated Vanker.
"No way I'm going to that Island" stated Able.
"No way I'm going to that Island" muttered Owl from his Marmalading sleep.