Paris - What's Past is Prologue
Synopsis
On or about the middle of April, 1096 the coterie goes their separate ways after the events of "Murder Most Foul in Paris" and "Parisian Aftermath".
Bolverk and his army travel south through spring snow and crossing the Seine upriver, there they turn north and skirting the City of Paris and the Forest of Vexin. The Army of Bolverk makes good time on frozen roads until they reach Beauvais eight days later. The town of Beauvais proves a good rest stop where the army refreshes its supplies over the course of a week. The army departs Beauvais at the end of April but is slowed on their northward march by roads turned to muddy muck by spring showers and warming temperatures. Five days of marching through knee deep mud brings the army and Bolverk to Amiens, a place where the fever for taking the cross has been stoked by Cuckoo Peter the mendicant friar who has take the pope's call to arms as god's gospel. Many a young man signs up to join the army for piety or for a chance to escape the monotony rural life, both peasants and a few nobles flesh out the army's recent losses and after a week the army marches for Saint-Valery-sur-Somme to the north-east. The going is slow but the army moves slowly but stops at a dozen small towns along the river Somme picking up recruits and fodder for men and beast. In Saint-Valery-sur-Somme the army rests for a few days and then turns due north for another week before coming to the edge of the ancient Forest of Desvres.
Over the month long journey, Bolverk has received correspondences from Lady Mortis revealing that there was a possible witness to the coterie's attack on Béatrix's manse outside of Paris. Concerned that the coterie could be implicated the events leading up to the Toreador defeat in Paris, he reaches out with a ritual to confirm these things with Lady Mortis. The experience isn't pleasant and after a lengthy discussion the spell dissipates as does Bolverk's knowledge of the ritual. Bolverk, unsettled by the loss of some of his smaller magics reaches out to Rambert the Merchant of Dreams. The conversation between Rambert and Bolverk concerns the possible witness, a fledgling named Cosette who supposedly joined the Pageant in Paris the very night of Béatrix's defeat. Rambert confirms the fledgling is with the pageant in the House of the Profligate. Bolverk strongly suggests that Rambert find out what the girl knows and if necessary, silence her. A short discussion of the failing of Bolverk's lesser rituals reveals that Rambert is also losing his grip on the lesser rituals of thaumaturgy. While both have their suspicions about the slowly fading rituals and path powers they brought back in time with them, neither truly wishes to further discuss the matter. Rambert unfortunately drags his heels in seeking out the girl.
When Rambert finally does contact Bolverk, a week later, he reveals that he discovered the girl has been dominated and doesn't recall anything about the night in question. Disgusted with Rambert, Bolverk goes into the nearby Forest of Desvres to mediated and uses some of his magic to commune with its ancient trees. There he discovers a powerful faerie holds dominion over the forest, but the thaumaturgical path power fades even as the undead Viking discovers that by bedecking his soldiers in mistletoe they may pass through the forest without incident. Returning to his tent, Bolverk decides he must confer with his coterie and astral projects from his body only to discover Mercuzio's consciousness lurking nearby. It is a reunion full of camaraderie and the two set out across the astral plane in search of the pageant and Rambert. The journey is short and the two comrades enter the pageant in astral form and confront Rambert about the fledgling. Rambert caught up in casting dreams for paying customers is surprised to see his astral visitors and points out his new protege a Caitiff and what he has learned about the fledgling.
Unfortunately, the astral visitors have caught the attention of the dark powers of the Pageant and in the astral plane the pageant begins to darken. The trio exits the ten of dreamers and as Bovlerk and Mercuzio attempt escape they cross paths with a spirit of darkness. At the same time, Mercuzio is pulled back into the darkness by by black ribbons attached to his soul, moments later he awakens buried in the earth, in the body of Mordblund. Meanwhile, Bolverk instinctively conjures a spiritual weapon and prepares to battle the serpent spirit. The opening struggle proves a draw and Bolverk cutoff from escape chooses to evade his attacker until he can gain the upper hand. Rambert sensing the spirit's dark presence, activates his hermetic sight and confronts the spirit. Motivated by concern for Bolverk's soul, the merchant of dreams draws the spirit's attention and the vampire and the spirit haggle over Bolverk's soul. In the end, Rambert bribes the night-serpent with the promise of two "awakened" souls that he will deliver to the pageant fully corrupted. The dark spirit, accepts Rambert's bribe with the caveat that he must corrupt these awakened souls himself and then deliver them to the pageant before the end of the coming crusade. The pact struck, the dark presence retreats and Bolverk escapes back to his body. Mercuzio once more sheathed in vampiric flesh make the realization that he is in Mordblund's body and uses his advanced Auspex to link the group together once more.
While the group is once again linked together, the other members of the coterie discover that Lady Mortis has unwisely gone in search of Mercuzio's body. Assured by Bolverk that the body still lies in Paris beneath the cathedral of Notre Dame, she uses the Qlippothic box of Prime in her possession to trace Mercuzio's vibration. Her investigation takes her into the cathedral where she instinctively tries to dowse the church's faith with her qlippothic power. This strategy succeeds to a frightening degree resulting in damage to the building and Lady Mortis succumbing to uncertainty about this course of action. While the mortal parishioners are distracted, she enters the crypt of the church and struggles against a saintly corpse-knight and flees into the depths beneath the church. There she finds a cursed tomb in which Mercuzio's body lies in state. While trepidatious about entering the tomb, Lady Mortis confers with her coterie through Mercuzio's advanced Auspex and deciphers the mystical nature of the trap from the Egyptian writing on the walls. Rather than waste further time, she drains the mystical energy from the curses and mystical traps, but overlooks the obfuscated Nosferatu waiting to pounce. Ultimately she is incapacitated, but with her last thought she alerts the rest of the coterie to her fate. Although she was ritually protected from being staked, the ritual is lost in the attack.
The remaining coterie marshals their mystical means of travel and converge on Paris. Bolverk, Mercuzio-Mordblund and Rambert enter the Cathedral of Notre Dame and managed to slip past the faithful to enter the crypts below. Following the mystical trail of Lady Mortis the coterie descends into the underbelly of Paris. There they discover a Setite Temple and confront the Setites at the end of a powerful ritual recently cast upon Lady Mortis. Breaking into the domed chamber, the coterie battles the Followers of Set and ultimately driving them off with mystical fire. While the group hold a clear victory over the serpents, they decide that escape is the better part of valor and emerge in the city above. The male coterie members realize that something of a mystical nature had been taken out of Lady Mortis, but had prevented the Setites from consuming this substance. The teamwork of Bolverk and Rambert ensured the substance remained in the coterie's possession, but they begin to question the wisdom of this choice when Lady Mortis once again consumes the mystical substance and in a rage at the Followers of Set she inadvertently erases the mortal occupants of a small marketplace. The coterie driven by Lady Mortis' need for revenge return to the Setite temple and plunder what they can find and the Lasombra witch unmakes the temple with tragic consequences for Paris above.
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