Back to Santiago
TimBarnes
2010/06/05 19:43

Table of Contents
Back to Santiago 	 # 

Back to Santiago
The first port of call was Santiago where they approach the Order of Santiago. On the last visit, George and Marco discovered that the Order of Santiago had been infiltrated by the 5 Rings. They exposed and killed Don Fernando Gonzalez, scared off Don Ruiz Gonzalo Fernandez De Alazar and persuaded Jose Vincente Manriquez to revert to the original purpose of the Order.
07:00 am Using a gate to Spain and an overnight train, the party arrived in the city of Santiago de Compostella early in the morning of August 3rd.
As they walked through the town, the party noticed many of the citizens had a nervous and suspicious demeanour.
08:00 am Booking into a hotel, Marco sent note to Jose Vincente Manriquez for an appointment, (later receiving an invitation to dinner) and Sinclair went to make introductions to the Order of Santiago.

Order of Santiago
Sinclair met the current head of the order, Jose Vincente Manriquez. He confirmed his credentials as a troubleshooter for the Vatican and outlined the general purpose of his mission. They discussed the spate of recent deaths in Santiago that was making citizens nervous. The deaths were macabre and had the police perplexed. Manriquez offered an introduction to the investigating officer. As they had arrived with no iron or steel items, Sinclair requested equipment form the Order of Santiago armoury : pistol for Sinclair (his sword had passed through the gate); rifles for Johann and Marco; Mauser automatic pistol for Marco; and dagger for Nell.
09:00 am Next stop for Sinclair was the police station where he met the medical examiner who explained the quandry, 5 bodies which had obviously moved and acted long after their deaths. Sinclair ensured that he was able to return later for a detailed examination. Bodies included : a member of the Syrian Assassins; ambassadors wife; visigoth researcher
Meanwhile, Marco was visiting a local tailor to seek out information about any affluent newcomers to the city. With great dress sense, charming demeanour and (possibly most importantly) plenty of cash, he discovered that there were 2 gentlemen of interest. An American by the name of William Hemmings III who was a supposed artist yet knew little of art and had a villa just outside of town. The second was a Spaniard (Ruis Domingo) with a house in the old quarter of the city, curious for his accent and dialect which no-one could place.
10:00 am Sinclair facilitated entry to the morgue where with Sinclair guarding, Nell assisting and Marco timekeeping, Johann conducted a ritual over the body of the assassin. Checking the body first, Johann discovered a trap, a dormant hornet triggered if magic was used (design to cause a critical fumble to any intruding magic user).
Harnessing green weave, Johann pulled the images of the last things seen by the assassin - a house - 5 people in a ring - the leader in a bearded silver mask talks to them - he nods and then spots the assassin - a finger is raised then blackness 
12:00 am Johann and Nell went looking for the house he saw in assassin’s (Nazir Ismaili) visions. They didn’t find it (it was obscured by a festival display) but whilst looking at the Cathedral, Nell spotted an artist using a camera lucida to paint a picture of the cathedral but on closer inspection was using various powders to check-out the weave coming off the statues off the top of the cathedral. She watched for a while and then pickpocketed his business card and a witch-compass.
Sinclair went examining the murder sites and found a ‘tramp mark’ on a building (had been removed and re-applied several times). Went to interrogate the tramps who claimed that there was a ‘personless shadow’ floating around parts of the city and those that it followed died.
2:00 pm Party congregated and went to site of murder. Marco knocked on door at which a crone answered. He made a polite equiry about the murder at which she bolted for the cellar.
They rushed down to the cellar and found a number of (mostly tramp) corpses. The crone animated the corpses (a giveaway for who the local necromancer was). Battle ensued with the usual heroics, Nell holding the crone’s focus and the crone pinned against the wall (this is the only time that Marco will be seen with a woman up against the wall). Johann showed his prowess with fire and total disregard for finest Coruna tailoring.
03:00 pm Sinclair interrogated the crone. Information garnered :
a) Trecenezago (council of 13) is the head of the OS within which is a pentarchy of the 5 rings.
b) The current Pentarchy was : Miguel de Alazar (silver haired master of the pentarchy), Gariella Cervantes (the brains of the Order - recently enamoured with a toy boy); Ruis Domingo (overweight satanist with mind manipulation powers); Sebastien Vega (his politician brother Carlos supports the order and both are related to the Vega in South America) and Rodrigo Diaz (a shadow master and psychopath)
c) American was William Hemmings III. With him were his “students” : Carina, Blake, Tom, Stacey and Denzil
d) Old crone worked for Miguel (loved him and hated him)
e) Miguel was planning on attacking the Americans that night
f) Source of the Pentarchy’s power is at Miguel’s house
08:00 pm Evening meal with Jose.
09:00 pm Watch the Pentarchy
Party scout out the red team. Johann and Marco observe Gabriella as the plane crashes and kill her and her lover (Ricardo D’Este) who was poloting the plane. 2 shots, dead. Johann notes an interesting weave aura rising from Ricardo and keeps it to himself…
Nell and Sinclair observe Miguel.
10:00 pm Break into Miguels house
Nell snuck in, locked servants in and opened doors to allow party to sneak upstairs to office. Worked their way past the weave on door, insanity glyph on opposite wall, traps in the room and the skeletal millipede entity on the stairs. Worked their way down to the cellar where they found the 3 sources of power : bonsai (blue weave); gold statue (red weave); shale (green weave)
On the way out, the cat familiar blocked their path until drilled through the head with an iron round by Johann.
12:00 pm Attack on the Americans
The party engineered the Pentarchy to attack the Americans and assisted the deaths of Hemmings (hit by cultists), the shadow master assassin (double shots from Marco and Johann after they noticed his shadow) and the mind master, Rodrigo (Nell knifed him in the back having successfully blanked her mind) and his Korean bodyguard (Sinclair)
2:00 am The aftermath
Americans (less Denzil and Blake) were co-opted onto the blue team. We used their research to help locate the 2 remaining heroes. Karina specialises in warding, Tom has visions (and recognised Marco) and Stacy can summon demons (!!!).
Favourite moments :
Johann - successful mega ritual, rebuilding assassin brain and got memory. Fireballing zombies. Double elimination of Gabriella/Rodrigues. Shot the cat with iron bullet (cat-iron)
Nell - murdering the fat man man, getting snit on for the death of Gabriella; old ladies gold; acquisition of sparklies; frightening kids from America
Sinclair - nailing head to wall, smashing zombies, converting the witch before execution
Marco -