Written by Ben Groenen (Raushan)

The following night, the Compline mass has a special guest who is more concerned with talking with someone else, rather than with the Christian God. My father is concerned with how Gwyn sees him. I do believe her putting him off for so long is really annoying him. Hah! Will wonders never cease.

After the mass, Monaco and I have returned to our usual haunt in the library, while young Rafi has decided to trail after Wolfstead to learn how to be a vampire. (Well, no accounting for taste, really.) Of course, Gwyn had decided to go out flying again on another of her interminable hunts. Who would have thought her prey would have such an impact on us.

Gwyn espies someone who is staggering along, obviously wounded but not giving off any smell of blood. When Gwyn flies to down to talk with this unfortunate (more so than she realised), she finds that it is a ghoul – a ghoul who was made one after having been badly burnt and now has those burns from now to his eternity – with a message for Lillane. Gwyn, being the noble soul that she is (just ask her!), did something that surprised me as she gave him some of her blood. It was what I would do, so it was surprising to see it from her (and who said that living centuries led to eternal boredom.)

This gruesome messenger wouldn’t tell her what the message was. Rafi and Wolfstead come across them and ride ahead to give warning to our castles inhabitants. For some reason or another (I believe that she just has the ultimate aplomb), Lillane is not surprised by the messenger and instructs to bring him to her.

The messenger is called Montane, and he is a servant of one of the Kindred in Palencia (a town in the North West of Spain). His story is that a star fell and crashed into a hill near where he lived. Soon after, people began dying … slashed to pieces. It had started with the peasantry, but it had not been anymore relevant until it had progressed onto the Kindred … and only the Kindred now. So far, about 40 or 50 humans and then 16 Kindred have been killed. Lillane’s aid was requested to resolve this menace to all Kindred.

After Montane was ushered away to a room, Lillane commanded her gathered Clan to go to Palencia and investigate. We were to use our own judgement on deciding what to do. If we believed we could help, then it would only be done in exchange for a favour to be owed. The Kindred we would be dealing with were of the Nosferatu Clan. Montane’s master was called the Rat King, (for he controls Rats … who could have guessed), and was the Nosferatu Clan leader. Their knowledge of our Lady was that she was one of the Ventrue Clan, so we were advised to remember that. And with that, our mission was to begin.

Palencia was located about 200km to the west. Our plan was to follow the Ebro River Valley for a while before crossing the river and travelling through a high mountain pass at Burgos. A simple plan, which we implemented with very little delay. On the 12th night of our journey along the river and reaching our river crossing, we came across a largish settlement, which was Logroño. When Montane tells us that the town has been conducting many witch-hunts recently, we decide to go around through the countryside … well, all but Gwyn. I shouldn’t be surprised, Gwyn is the model of consistency with her traits; Gwyn without her curiosity would be Lillane without her abilities … something the mind just cannot comprehend.

Gwyn quietly enters the town, but her efforts are wasted as the inhabitants are already in an uproar with a soon-to-be-burnt witch. I know this would have been the waving of a red rag at a bull for Gwyn, but before she can even think of what to do, she sensed someone with True Faith beyond the crowd. A Templar with True Faith (! Now that’s something unique) bursts into the crowd, overbearing all would get in his way and rescues the poor girl. They ride off with no real trouble, for what villager would want to chase after a heavily armoured and strongly armed knight, and Gwyn wants to follow them but she can’t get close to them. By this stage, some of us have tried to follow Gwyn, but there is no sign of her at the village.

But to cut back to the chase, when they had stopped, the Templar must have sensed something for he began to pray and Gwyn was being driven away. For the rest of us, we would have decided that this was a source of little information for such a high risk. But Gwyn’s curiosity continued to drives her on to further folly. She approaches the pair and declares herself, telling him that the girl is not a witch … unfortunately, in a way that kind of implies that she is one herself, to be able to say so. This Templar knight then begins to summon a great wind (as I said, a unique Templar) from which Gwyn has to flee. From her descriptions, we all believe that this Templar has such a high level of True Faith that he must have worked out what she was, and we think that he can detect her from long distances now that he knows of her. Just wonderful.

After another 3 nights travelling past Logroño and during the day that followed, Monaco encounters a band of peasants fleeing from the west. For whatever reason Monaco thought of (I don’t understand it, even after he explained it), Monaco bribes them to tell him of what’s ahead. I would have thought that they would have been hard-pressed to stay silent. But anyway, they’re farmers from this side of the pass who are fleeing a knight’s war. Everyone is certain, when we are told of this that night, that the “enemy” has moved closer to us since Montane left Palencia 1½ months ago. The farmer’s story continues as one of their local villages was attacked, so their lord thought it was a neighbour and attacked him. However, the neighbour had also been attacked and thought the same as their lord and retaliated at the same time. A nasty, vicious fight with all the nobles being righteously outraged and all the peasants bearing the brunt of the fighting.

Soon after the report, Gwyn and I decided to fly around and investigate for any signs of fighting. After only finding some Basque shepherds, their dogs and their sheep, we return to the camp and move on westwards. Hours pass until we notice a building on fire ahead. As it hadn’t been afire when we flew earlier, Rafi was sent ahead to scout and he found some dead peasants. We all move ahead to the burning hovel to find the 3 dead peasants in front of the burning hut. My life-time instincts drive me to Life-Sense to see if I can find any signs of life. When I sense a dying boy nearby, there is no time to waste to save the child and I race to heal him. I know I had also sensed a strange creature many yards away, but at the time it didn’t enter my thoughts. I try, but I fail to help save this poor soul. I failed the child. I could have saved him, but I wasn’t good enough!! … I can “save” him by making him my ghoul …. No, I couldn’t do that to a child, not keep him that way forever. I was told afterwards that I rushed out to screaming with claws bared, but I have little recollection of it.

I will glide over what happened as I can only write of what others recall. We fought this strange creature, and some with better effect than others. Not being a fighter and being in frenzy, my attacks were anything but effective. In fact, to my shame, I found that I only hurt myself. However, we had killed this creature within 8 seconds. But there was another one of these … things nearby, so most of us went to attack it. I had been shocked back to myself when I hurt myself, so I remained with Monaco and Owain to examine the creature we had already killed.

Apparently, the other creature took as long to be killed but I wasn’t aware of that until after I had completed my dissection of the first one. By the time it had been completed, the rest had decided to take the armour and equipment of both of these creatures, and the remaining head on a stick. When will we ever outgrow our need for trophies ….

When Montane returns from wherever he had been hiding, we continue on westwards to see if we can find any more of them and to find the “falling star”. But we fail to encounter anymore by the time we reach Palencia. Now Montane leads us into the sewers to meet his master, the Rat King. This exemplary being is in his most appropriate setting. I’ve smelt worse, but only when I’ve been dealing with the mortally ill. Greetings are passed perfunctorily, until we inform him we have purged the two creatures that were killing his Kindred. Then he tells us he had another trailing these killers and he didn’t find any others. As a compensation for our assistance, he gives unto us a box for the Lady Ventrue. Graciously accepting this gift is Gwyn, in spite of the unconscious frown on her face.

Our host tells us that we will be meeting the Other helper the following night and we look askance at each other but we must stay. We have parts to play and must show that we are part of their little Camarilla, and when all is said and done, the air of mystery concerning the Other is quite delicious. The Rat King offers us a place to stay within his sewer environs, but we are quick to tell him we will be staying in more comfortable circumstances. Wolfstead pays for a comfortable house and for a flock of sheep for our nightly … sustenance.

Feeling a little more relaxed for our rest indoors, we are taken by Montane to meet the Other. This Other appears to be a 40-year-old gentleman of indeterminate race, but quite impressive bearing, who names himself Rogerio. He offers wine only to Monaco and Owain, an obvious sign of recognizing who is one of Kindred and who isn’t. Life-Sensing him shows that he is a ghoul. I don’t think he is “young” retainer, … surely a sign of a, hmm, more experienced Kindred who the Rat King treats with similar respect as to Lillane. Interesting.

Rogerio asks us to please wait here as he leaves the room and returns with his master. I think that he is mostly what I had expected, but possibly a lot more experienced than I had thought likely. This impressive individual is named San Germano (ôo). He also knows Lillane, and instructs us to pass on greetings to her. He tells us some interest things, such as that there are no more of these killing creatures. He also tells us of a Templar with True Faith (I told he was a unique individual) who is heading towards Saragossa.

I had started chuckling at the mention of him, but when the discussion progresses to wonder why he’s going there and I cannot help but start laughing, as Gwyn looks more and more sheepish; especially when her angelic performance was explained. He asks if Gwyn can do the same for him with his local clergy. In spite of the hilarity this raised, it was nothing to that which was felt when Gwyn followed through and gave a repeat angelic performance. I love my sister; she still makes me laugh tears of blood, no matter how much time passes.

Our return is a lot less eventful than before. In fact the most interesting things are that we encounter lots of stories about the Templar and his “page”, which is obviously the woman he rescued, again not the usual behaviour of a Templar. Apparently he has continued to do lots of good acts and is noted for praying for 12 hours at a time. I told you before … he really is the strangest Templar ever.

When we arrive back at Sadaba, we give a performance based on our adventure for Lillane. Well, Gwyn tries to explain what happened, but when she tries to omit certain pertinent facts like the Templar, Monaco and I start a performance of it before it becomes part of her story. Lillane inspects the Rat King’s gift and informs us that it was a white feather with a very fine sheen that we recognized from the creature that had been summoned to take the grail – an angel, if you couldn’t have guessed. Very interesting, indeed.