Tim (Christophe Joseph Pépin) sends out a psychic dispatch to the others to the effect that he is too poor, too sunburned, too blistered and too scheduled to show up for the game. Chris (Dmitri Baranov) observes, "Too bad about Tim. He's going to spend his whole day working next to carny folk, and everyone he sees is going to think that he's one of them." Paul (Smith) protests, "What's wrong with carny folk?" Chuck (Quent Lawrence) points out, "You would think that way, given that you work for some kind of carnival-like ex-Motorola spinoff." Paul sulks. Bruce chuckles.
And then Ernest (Carlos Juan Victor Sanchez) shows up to proclaim, "And then came the Goth Orgies that WotC ordered! I don't mind seeing a Goth girl getting reamed out!" Bruce howls, "That's not going into the session summary!" Paul protests, "Oh, why not?" Chris backs him up, "Yeah, it's not like you haven't been willing to mention gas mask porn in the summaries before." This time, Bruce ends up sulking.
The other characters are stunned and amazed when Christophe Joseph Pépin is invited to go on a three-week lecture tour of Europe, describing his exploits and discoveries upon Mars. Apparently somebody has mistaken him for an actual scholar. Pépin briefly frets that the honoraria the organizers are able to promise him will barely cover the cost of his dramatic traveling lifestyle, but then he consoles himself with the thought of all that luscious fame he'll be able to gather. He hires a servant to wipe the drool from the corner of his mouth and heads out of circulation for a while.
As she watches Pépin's carriage head away from the family estate, Catherine Iphegenia Pépin thinks about getting her cousin's lawyer Jacques Paquet disbarred. Dmitri Baranov shuts this plan down rather harshly, explaining to the others, "We need a doctor, but we can get a broad in any port. Thing is, this whole thing may come down to me hatcheting or shooting someone, and it's much more likely that it'll be the dame than the doctor."
Carlos Juan Victor Sanchez expresses shock and dismay that the Russian would speak to his betrothed in such crude and unfeeling terms. But he is well aware of the Russian's habit of chopping folks' arms off when displeased, so he doesn't press the issue any more than required by honor. On the other hand, when he hears that the chambermaid Margaret discovered a rag doll that Catherine Iphegenia had once been terribly devoted to, he wastes no time in buying it from her for 5 Lv. He presents it to Catherine Iphegenia as a gift and is quite delighted to find that its reappearance banishes all thoughts of petty revenge from her mind. At least for a few moments.
Sanchez suggests that there must be a way that the characters can make money from their fifty ssaug. He proposes organizing some kind of traveling "scientific" exhibition, perhaps one involving ssaug acrobats or ssaug demonstrating their traditional tribal dances. He is stymied by two problems. First, traveling carnival shows typically operate at a level of profitability that would represent a distressing drop in income for the characters. And while it is possible to rake in substantial sums of "grant money" from private scientific exhibitions for the aristocratic classes, such things require time and contacts to put together. And given the recent practice of importing ssaug to Earth as low-cost laborers, a convincing exhibition would require something of more interest than a pack of Venusian tribals.
Smith overhears one of the faceless Pépin cousins talking about the successes of Louis Lysander Rouder (the cousin was so drunk he was actually speaking in English). Rouder is second cousin to Etienne Ulysses Pépin and to Christophe Joseph Pépin. He has just been appointed Colonel of the Third Venusian Highland Zouaves. The characters determine that they must learn all about him.
Quent Lawrence decides to talk to the servants, specifically Louie the Doorman. Quent gets him drunk. Very, very drunk. Louie tells him that Louis Rouder was brought up in a regimental town on the German border, and always loved the military, not like the other cousins. Quent very quickly develops the idea that Rouder is something of a kill-crazy PC type.
Baranov and Sanchez hit up Jean and Etienne to see what they can offer. They find Jean is in his office, looking over the books and tending to business. Apparently in the Pépin household, "business" involves thick, heavy books, brandy and a young chambermaid.
Sanchez rather delicately coughs then comments, "We have come to talk business."
Jean smiles brightly, dismisses the chambermaid, and offers, "Have some brandy! I am so terribly sorry about our bet. What do you think the odds are that someone tries to shoot or stab Christophe Joseph before he gets back from his tour?"
Sanchez speculates, "Well, pretty likely actually. Especially if we send Etienne after him." Jean and Baranov agree upon a 50 Lv bet. Jean bets that some physical injury (not self-inflicted) will happen to Christophe Joseph Pépin. Baranov bets that he will finish his speaking tour undamaged.
Then the conversation turns to Louis Lysander Rouder. Jean explains that he was always a bit overzealous. He originally got himself a posting in the Colonial Zouaves down in North Africa, but had a bit of a problem when he committed "a bit of an atrocity." Apparently he slaughtered everyone in a village without first having the decency to check whether or not all of the Europeans had already left. Fortunately, Grand-Uncle Ignace had enough influence to suppress the charges and arrange a transfer offworld to the Venusian Highland Zouaves for the fellow. It seems that he has done quite well for himself in the much more permissive environment of the colonies there.
Baranov rather delicately asks, "Then is he in line at all to inherit?"
Jean practically falls out of his chair laughing, "Oh Heavens no! Rouder was very much an ultraroyalist supporter of Charles X, which puts him both on the wrong side of the recent July Revolution and Grand-Uncle Ignace's politics. Grand-Uncle Ignace would sooner leave the family fortune to the Church than the likes of Rouder! Haha! How droll!"
On the way out of Jean's office, Sanchez suggests, "We should train our ssaug in insurgency tactics and drop them off on Venus to deal with Licorice Mc-Whatsisface."
Baranov, "Lysander?"
Sanchez, "Yeah, whatever."
The characters hear that a huntsman named Iago was found half-eaten in the North Preserves. Baranov doesn't even wait to hear the rest of the story before sending up the call, "Off to the North Preserve!"
Sanchez adds, "And it wasn't done by wolves!"
Baranov repeats, "Off to the North Preserve!"
Baranov and Quent decide to go take a look at Iago's body down at the village. Sanchez exclaims, "What! You can't do that?"
Baranov looks up and asks, "You have some problem with this?"
"Yes! It's disrespectful of the dead! He's already been buried, in sanctified ground!" Sanchez stamps on the ground, not caring whether he looks more ridiculous than upset.
Baranov slaps his forehead, "Oh, that's right! You're Catholic. You people have rules against digging up bodies. Well, fortunately I'm Orthodox, Quent practical, and Smith is a good hand with a shovel. See you later!"
Everyone except Sanchez heads down to the village. Iago's grave is easy to see: it is the most recent in the graveyard. The characters briefly think about digging him up, but can't think of a cover story convincing enough to fool Smith. As a compromise, they decide to go talk to the undertaker.
Gérard the undertaker is easy to find: he is in his cottage next to the cemetery, drinking tea. He tells the characters that Old Nick did the job: Iago's body was half eaten (but not by wolves), and looked almost melted. There had been a tattoo of a woman on his arm, but when Gérard put him into the ground it looked almost smeared. The only thing that confuses Gérard is the fact that the body wasn't charred at all, and didn't have even the slightest smell of charcoal or brimstone.
Smith listens carefully to Gérard and theorizes, "This must all have been an unfortunate accident! He was using acid to remove his tattoo, when he slipped and fell into a farming implement! And then the acid spilled into his innards!"
Quent remembers that the psychic Wilkinson was describes as being able to produce similar wounds. Smith comments, "But you're just not going to find killer psychics running around randomly. And why would one be hiding in the North Preserve?"
Baranov suggests that the characters should take the investigation up to Iago's hut in the Preserve. And getting the Spaniard involved as long as the group is no longer trying to dig up bodies.
Quent talks to the estate staff about Iago. It turns out that Iago wasn't well-liked, but he was a good dog-trainer. He had a kennel near his hut. He was an angry drunk, and he was always into schemes. He would often be seen in Lisieux talking to strangers, but would never explain his business with them to anyone else. One of the field hands found his body in the woods after he failed to bring his dogs to a scheduled hunting event. He was found in a clearing just north of his hut.
Sanchez offers, "Maybe we should go ask about him in town. If he was always involved in schemes, then a lot of that might have involved going into town."
The characters dress down and head to Lisieux. They find that they have little fortune learning about Iago's visits there until Baranov accidentally picks a fight upon a guy in a bar. The guy's two friends quickly get involved, and then the other characters come piling in. By the end of it, Baranov has taken a tooth-loosening blow to the head, but the lead bravo has a dislocated arm and his two companions are both unconscious.
Baranov performs first aid and interrogation upon his erstwhile foe at the same time. The guy manages to breathe out, "Iago... Iago was kind of a player, he knew a lot of guys."
The characters learn that Iago always had a lot of money (especially for a huntsman), and often met with strange-smelling foreigners. Smith comments, "By strange-smelling, he might mean bathed." Iago was also very superstitious: he never found a fairy story that he couldn't he didn't believe in, nor a charm that he wouldn't carry around, except for one. Iago never placed any credence in the stories of the Witch of the North Preserve. The characters find this just as odd as the local bravo, as they know that Iago lived on the edge of the North Preserve.
It doesn't take the characters long to make their way out to Iago's place. His home was a very modest two-room hut with wattle walls and a thatched roof. It has a door, but no latch. The characters promptly toss it, looking for clues. Sanchez finds little folk charms everywhere: there are iron nails near the window sills, wrapped packets of salt in every corner, lengths of tied string in the cupboards, and so on. He gathers the man-portable ones up. Quent finds 10 Lv and 200 sou in a purse hidden behind a loose stone in the chimney. And then Smith lifts up a loose floorboard and finds three wrapped bales. Two turn out to contain okku-nakal; the third is opium.
Sanchez comments, "I wonder who besides Pépin he was selling the drugs to." He advances the theory that the witch is real, and put some kind of compulsion on him.
Quent offers, "I say we go look for the crime scene. In nature, I'm a Viking!" The other characters agree that this sounds like a good idea, right up until they watch Quent fall into the river. Baranov pulls him out, then asks, "How did you manage to find a patch of poison oak at this time of year? And why did you walk through it?" Quent refuses to answer.
Sanchez imagines that the party could become horrifically lost in the North Preserve, reduced to writing simple messages on bark for rescuers to fine. He mourns, "We've gotten trapped by the winter and there is not food. Couldn't we eat the wolves?"
Quent assures him, "There is no real nourishment in wolves."
The characters eventually manage to stumble upon the glade where Iago's body was found. There isn't much evidence left, but Sanchez finds a femur with human finger-outlines melted into it. Quent examines it and comments, "This is not the work of wolves!"
Smith exclaims, "Why does everyone think this was done by wolves? We haven't found a single shred of evidence to point to wolves!"
Sanchez tells the mechanical man, "Maybe it's the northern French Melty Wolf." Then he finds tracks left by a small woman heading north. He tells the others, "I think I've found the witch's trail! We'd better go back and fetch a priest! A real priest, a Catholic one! Otherwise, she's liable to put all sorts of satanic curses upon us!" He goes on to describe his theory that Iago was part of a secret Satanic Prayer Circle that met to swear dark oaths and deal drugs in the forest. The other characters are having none of this. Baranov uses his pointing-mace to emphasize that the group's best course is to follow the trail immediately, without going to find any papist priests to muddy up the situation. However, the advancing evening is eventually enough to persuade even Baranov that the characters should seek shelter in Iago's hut and pick up the trail in the morning.
The characters settle down to sleep out the night in Iago's hut. Some time later, Sanchez wakes in darkness convinced that he heard something creeping about outside. He collects his pistol and heads out to investigate, only to return a few minutes later empty-handed. He settles back to sleep. And then wakes again, certain that he is being watched. Once again, investigation turns up nothing.
The next morning, Baranov wakes with a heroic yawn, scratches himself so vigorously that even Smith averts his gaze, and sets about making a breakfast of gruel, cakes and fish (caught by Quent). Quent returns from fishing to report that he has never had a more restful night. Even Smith clatters about happily, breaking bits of firewood into halves, then quarters, then eighths, then dust.
In contrast, Sanchez is utterly exhausted. He tells the others, "The witch is out there! She was watching us all night! I couldn't ever find her, but I know she's there." Baranov raises an eyebrow as he notices the obsessed way Sanchez is clutching at his crucifix.
Smith asks Sanchez, "How do you know it was a witch and not a bear, or a deer, or one of these 'wolves' we've been hearing about. Besides, even my eft-chef seems to have slept well." The little lizard-dog clatters its spinnerets in happiness as it devours a cake.
Sanchez says nothing as he looks out the door, saying Hail Marys.
After breakfast, the characters resume following the trail to the north. It leads them to the borders of the North Preserve and the Pépin estate, and beyond. The trail eventually ends at a small stone cottage. From a distance, the place looks solid but very dilapidated, as if it were constructed forty years ago and then never maintained.
The characters decide that Sanchez and Quent should move forward to investigate the place, as they are the stealthiest. Sanchez agrees only after reciting a hundred Our Fathers and anointing himself with holy water. Baranov holds his head in his hands and mutters something about how so-called superstitious Orthodox peasants have nothing to match against this display.
Sanchez slowly creeps up to the hut. He sees that there are three sacks and a couple of small crates piled next to the door. There is a letter pinned to one of the sacks. He wonders, "Can I get up to it without exposing myself?"
From behind him, Quent responds, "Just keep your hands off your pants and you should be fine."
Sanchez desperately shushes Quent, then slinks forward to filch the letter. He returns to show it to Quent. It is addressed only to "AMP". Quent recognizes the handwriting as Basile Nicolas' handwriting. The letter reads in part, "My dearest sister... You depredations are getting harder to suppress. Every incident like this makes it harder for me to find staff willing to attend to your needs."
Sanchez comments, "I suggest we not show this to Smith. He'll feel authorized to kill every Pépin within range." The two of them retreat to the rest of the group to show off their discovery and plan further action. The others generally agree that the "crazy cousin in the woods" theory is looking pretty good.
Sanchez tells the others, "I told you she was a witch!"
Quent corrects him, "She is an aetheric practitioner!"
Sanchez spits back, "That's what I said!"
Quent points out, "And this sort of thing is why there are French colonies in space, and English colonies, and German colonies, and Dutch colonies, but no Spanish colonies."
Sanchez does not honor that comment with a reply.
The characters decide to make Sanchez sneak back up to take a look inside the hut. He agrees on the basis that he is less likely to get bewitched than any of the others' heathen asses.
Sanchez finds a window and peers inside. He finds that the interiors of the windows are all covered in soot. He murmurs to himself, "Of course! The light of the sun must burn her, so she blocks it with soot! Diabolical!" After several minutes of trying, he manages to find a clear spot with a view of a front room. He sees what looks like someone's kitchen and common room. A big stone fireplace stands against the central wall. A heavy iron cauldron sits over a dying fire. The level of housekeeping looks decidedly irregular, and the place could obviously use a cleaning. Then he sees the deer carcass, draped across a crude wooden table. The creature's head is a savaged mess, and its belly has been slit open in a way that suggested that someone very inexpert in butchery had tried to clean it. Loops of intestine are draped all across the table.
Sanchez is totally convinced that he is seeing the aftermath of some horrible Satanic ritual. He freezes in place, desperately hoping that the witch has not already spotted him.
Meanwhile, Quent has become bored waiting for Sanchez to return. He walks down the center of the path and knocks upon the front door.
Sanchez wets himself.
Smith and Baranov decide that they're going to follow Quent's lead and step up behind him in time to see the door open. A woman in a ragged shawl stares up at them. One of her eyes is blue, the other is green. Her head seems strangely misshapen. And her graying hair crawls from beneath her kerchief in disordered strands. She brandishes a walking stick with a disturbingly knotted head at them and grumps, "Took you long enough! You must be the new ones. What are you doing, standing out in the outside like that? Get yourselves in and make yourselves useful!"
With that, she turns and hobbles back into the cottage. Baranov shrugs and follows her in. Quent and Smith follow the big Russian. Outside, Sanchez pulls himself deeper underneath a shrub and moans, "Ohhh… she has bewitched them, and their souls are surely lost!"
The woman vanishes into the back room. Baranov takes stock of the kitchen. He finds a couple of warped loaves of inexpertly-made bread in a basket. As he continues to take inventory, he starts to see strange contrasts. The bread and the dead deer are obviously the works of an unskilled hand, but someone who knew what they were about prepared the dried onions and herbs strung up along the ceiling. Quent investigates the sacks out by the door. He finds that one contains wheat flour, one is rye, and one is full of dried lentils. The cases include tea, hard cheese, wine, a small keg of weak beer, and a sizable pouch of mixed opium and okku-nakal. He mentions this to Baranov, who mentions that he has found a larder stocked with all sorts of foodstuffs.
Baranov decides that he may as well make himself useful. He sets to making dinner. Sanchez watches as Baranov prepares bread and a venison stew and mourns the loss of his friends' souls. He weeps as Baranov asks Smith to go find some firewood. Smith returns a few minutes later with an armload of firewood. Smith reports that he found a woodshed out back, plus a chopping block and an axe.
Quent passes the time by salvaging the deer carcass, butchering what he can properly and disposing of the rest. He notices that the deer's head is horribly mutilated. It's skull bears the imprint of two human hands. He saves the skull for later.
By evening, Sanchez is still outside looking for ossuaries of human bone. Smith comments, "Apparently he doesn't want to become the witch's houseboys like us."
Quent agrees, "Yeah, you'll make her dinner before she ego-whips you."
Towards the end of Baranov's preparations, the witch reappears. She seems a changed person. Her skull is still strangely-shaped, but now she is dressed in a much more presentable gown and she carries a fine walking stick with a crystal head. She is also much more polite: she thanks the characters for preparing dinner and asks Baranov to, "Be a dear and set out some silverware on the table! You'll find it in the storeroom over there!"
Baranov goes to check out the storeroom while Quent and Smith exchange small talk with the witch. She tells the two of them that it has been just so hard for her to get along by herself ever since Iago went away. She also notes that it has been quite a long time since she has had so many people to help her: she has only had one servant at a time for quite a while.
In the storeroom, Baranov is none too surprised to find out that her silverware exactly matches the Pépin family silverware at the estate. He also finds a chest with several aging ball gowns and a harp with some missing strings, plus a wide variety of other aristocratic bric-a-brac.
The characters sit down to dinner with the witch. She has only just started to eat when she gets a strange, absent look upon her face. She shudders for a bit, then tells Smith, "Dear, could you go out and fetch your friend Sanchez in for dinner? I would hate for him to be left outside, especially with the rain coming on."
The characters exchange meaningful looks. Quent comments, "I think she's right about the rain. I could taste it coming a little while ago."
Smith and Quent head out to pick up Sanchez. Smith pulls him out from underneath a bush. Sanchez looks straight at Quent, then suddenly splashes him with holy water. He is clearly disappointed that Quent's reaction is limited to a displeased scowl. There is no screaming, no smoke, no smell of brimstone, and no sign of banished demonic possession. Quent tells the Spaniard, "Alright, Sanchez. Put down the holy water. And the crucifix. And the pistol."
Sanchez nervously fingers his crucifix, "Okay, Quent, let's go on in."
Sanchez arranges to get a seat at the table next to Smith. He watches Baranov and Quent chatting with the witch, then whispers to Smith, "I think they are mind-controlled. They are doing what the witch says."
Baranov tells Quent, "Gee, see is the nicest Pépin we've met so far." Quent nods agreement.
The characters eventually manage to guide the conversation around to the subject of the witch's previous servants. Baranov asks her, "You realize the servant didn't just go away, right? He actually... died."
"Oh, that's so sad."
Quent kicks Baranov under the table, "Yes, wolves got him."
Sanchez refrains from comment.
Suddenly, the witch puts on a very strange expression. She mumbles something, then shudders violently. She stumbles to her feet, knocking her chair to the ground, and fumbles for her walking stick. Without even a word of explanation, she heads for the back room.
The characters think about following until they hear a metallic crash and a scream. They rush into the back room to find her standing upon the bed staring wild-eyed at an empty corner. She presses a wad of burning herbs against her face. A large hookah pipe is lying upon the floor, its contents scattered.
Sanchez notices that she has literally clutched her fingers into the stone of the wall behind her. He tells Baranov, "Dude, she's going to shed her human skin any moment now. And she just melted the wall! The rock wall!"
Baranov offers, "She's only a drug addict!"
Sanchez is adamant, "She's a witch! And she kills huntsmen! Admit it! You're enchanted! Say the 'Our Father'!"
Baranov growls, "I'm orthodox."
Sanchez is unwilling to relent, "Say the 'Our Father'! Say it!"
Their impending argument is interrupted as the witch suddenly loses consciousness and falls to the ground. The characters arrange her comfortably upon the bed, care for her burns, and clean up the place. In the process, Quent finds the witch's journal. He learns that her name is Amable Medea Pépin. Half of the entries are terribly mundane, dealing mostly with the weather and the state of the asparagus in the garden. The other half are done in a spiky, deranged hand and make no lucid sense at all.
After setting the cottage in order, the characters take Basile's letter, Amable Medea's journal, a loaf of her bread, and a mutated deer skull off to Basile Nicolas. They arrive at the Pépin family estate in the dead of the night, soaking wet from the rain.
Uncle Basile Nicolas is first upset with them for having had him wakened so late, and then furious with them for even knowing that Amable Medea is alive. He ushers them into his study and offers fine brandy. Baranov comments, "Smith! Could I have your fine brandy? Wait, that didn't come out right."
Basile Nicolas explains that Amable Medea is his younger sister. He has hidden her away for the last thirty years because she is obviously too much of a hazard to keep in polite society. He reacts very poorly to the characters' suggestions that she be sent to an institute: he expects that she would end out her days as an experimental subject and a curiosity, while her current life allows her some measure of comfort and dignity. His greatest problem is finding people with the proper attitude and skills to care for her. He is running out of servants who fit the bill.
The eventual solution is to find a hermit to care for her. Baranov objects rather strongly to this idea until he understands that both Basile Nicolas and the other characters were thinking in terms of an actual sponsored Catholic hermit, rather than the unwashed feces-throwing type he's used to seeing back in Mother Russia.
Catherine Iphegenia agrees to forge a copy of Pépin's medical license to allow Uncle Basile Nicolas to get drugs drop-shipped to the estate. The characters rather pointedly do not tell her specifically why they need this, particularly given that Basile Nicolas points out that most of the younger family members do not even know that Amable Medea even exists. She is happy enough just to know that whatever use they intend, it will annoy Pépin.
The session ends with the characters mostly still at the Pépin estate outside Lisieux. Each character gains three experience points.