The Danger Gang Meet Some Aristocrats And Save A Circus
In the morning, Padre Pantalone receives a missive addressed to the Danger Gang. He heads out to the Mithraic Ruins to see if he can track them down. Unfortunately, they're not there.
Meanwhile, Martialis summons a handful of dogs to see if he can spy on these Cat People. They tell him that, in general, they've noticed an increase in cat activity of late and they'll go check out the area. Meanwhile, Lleryn goes to scout out the area around the Temple to see if anyone has taken the bait. He finds Pantalone there with the note. He thanks him for it and brings it back to the party.
It turns out to be an invitation to dinner at the home of the Crescenti, a Senatorial family in Rome. An Augery says it's OK. They rest up the rest of the day. The dogs tell them they haven't seen anything.
That night they had down to the home of the Crescenti, dressed to the nines. They are greeted by a dapper looking young man, dressed all in black velvet. He introduces himself as Adjan Crescentius. He asks to see the writ they were given by Gebertus, and promptly tears it up and replaces it with own of his own making. They chit chat over dinner about the Danger Gang's doings in Rome. Lord Evelake's comings and goings. This that and the other. Chat chat chat. He mentions he's in the market for a 1,000 gold piece pearl, and is willing to pay MORE than a thousand gold for it. They say they'll keep an eye out. As dinner winds down they're joined by the inhumanly charismatic Cresentius the Younger. He is called this ironically, because he is actually an older gentleman. There is a brief exchange that perhaps he and Martialis had already met. Despite the pure delight they feel being the company of such a charismatic gentleman, they have to leave. They return to the inn.
Marty does the old Reflecting Pool on Ferminus to try to find out what his deal is. Turns out he's chained up somewhere, wearing a mask with a tube leading to a barrel. Pretty weird stuff. Marty then casts Locate Object on this crazy mask and turns into a bird of some sort to see if he can track this guy down. It turns out, he's beneath the same self-same Church of St. George where they had all those problems. This time, though, they're gonna try something a little different.
They head down to the sewers. It's dark and stinky, but it beats dealing with that Cat douchebag. That is, until eight feces-bloated corpses emerge from the murky depths. Marty whips up a couple of Giant Insects to help even the odds. Even still, Karl gets some shit beat out of him (and then rubbed in his open wounds). Eventually our boys take the day. They proceed onward towards the Located Ferminus. Eventually, they get as close as they think they'll be able to. Marty Stoneshapes through the wall, it leading into some sort of barracks. They continue to follow the signal from the mask, Marty in the lead, when he runs smack dab into a damn Tiger. The tiger proceeds to maul him. The others run up to his defense, and luckily Lleryn is able to sooth the savage beast. The rest of the gang sneaks by and right up to the prison cells. Karl picks the lock on the outer door and they find four cells containing Ferminus, Anderoctonia, Sergia, Ulampius, Melissa, and Chow-Han (who was stuffed in the barrel). They ask about Gabriel, but turns out he didn't make it.
They sneak out of there return to the inn. They get caught up on what the Circus has been doing. Turns out they went to the Mithraic temple to use a powerful scrying device they had there to look in on the Patriarch. They took the model of the Church of St. George to help identify it once they're in the neighborhood. Then they got the shit kicked out of them by the cats and that Golem. The Golem even disintegrated poor Gabriel. They were held in the dungeon for a couple of days, then yesterday the cat people all left, bringing with them a prisoner in a lead mask. All signs point to this guy being the Patriarch.
They agree that they can't wait for everybody to heal up, so those that are in good health return to the church. They head in the front door this time and find no one in the church. Down stairs they encounter some wobbly old Geletons that do a bit of a number on them (giving three of them a nasty rash), but they eventually take care of those guys. They pry open a pair of coffins and find some cat skeletons. Kotrag takes an awesome beaver cape one of them wearing. They also take a pair of golden braided amulets. Lleryn spies an ornately carved coffin down a hall, but they decide to rest up and come back to check it out. They go back to the inn to rest.
