The players continued their stint in 1230 Languedoc, serving as inquisitors for the church. As the alchemist took Marie to the next village, the knight and knave scouted the mountains again so as to not raise the suspicions of the possibly monstrous townsfolk.
In the mountains, they encountered half a dozen strange lizardmen (resulting in resolve damage) and a battle ensued. They killed four before the last two fled. The knight and knave decided not to pursue because of their substantial injuries. They headed back to town to wait for the alchemist, who may have some talent as a healer.
In town and after dark, the knave set out again to seek out evidence of the townsfolk’s evil. He stopped by the old woman’s house and found her nervously waiting, but had trouble seeing through her closed shutters. He circled around to the old man’s house and the lights were out. He couldn’t tell if anyone was home. He stopped briefly at the inn to observe the other townsfolk, but all seemed calm. Back to the old woman’s house he went and found she had a visitor – someone named Lord Rocard (his voice was inhuman enough to cause resolve damage). She apprised Rocard of the PCs’ injuries and he confirmed that they had killed some of the “others”. He told her not to worry and that he would take care of things. He asked the old woman if she was “ready to begin” and the knave took that as a sign to leave.
He went back to the old man’s house, found he was sleeping, broke in, and questioned him roughly. He learned that Lord Rocard was the devil, that the old man and woman were the only ones in town that were allied with him, though the others would join soon enough, that the old woman was currently engaging in a rite that would allow her to join the others, and that Rocard had created a monster that would surely kill them.
He tied up the old man, woke up the knight, and the two went to the old woman’s house. Since questioning took several hours, the old woman was in bed alone when they kicked in her door. However, she appeared weak and in pain. They questioned her, but got little information. The knight attempted an exorcism, and during the course of it (and their questioning of her) found that she had some kind of orifice/wound on her back, along her spine, and that it seemed wet with what they guessed was semen (ew, and more resolve damage).
In the meantime, the alchemist arrived at the next village and took Marie to the church. The priest there didn’t want anything to do with Marie, as he was convinced she carried the her village’s evil with her. Only by suggesting that the priest lock Marie up was he able to convince him to keep her for a few days. He then returned to the village to rejoin with the knight and knave.
We ended the session just before the alchemist returned. We still haven’t completed the adventure, though the players have learned a lot of information. I find it interesting that at times they seem to be actively avoiding learning more information, because they’re afraid of the resolve loss involved (not only did the knave leave before he found out what the old woman and Rocard were up to, but they specifically didn’t investigate the old woman’s condition afterward.)
The only social skill I included in the game was lying, though it looks like I may have to add more, at least to account for interrogations. So far I’ve been allowing the players to write in skills of their own as they come up, which has worked fairly well. I may just continue along with that.
We’ll see how far we get next week. While I assumed that they would just go take care of the problem, they’ve launched an investigation that I wasn’t expecting (though I was prepared for). This is good, since they seem engaged. However, this is no longer a “one shot” adventure.
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