"It's not procuring, it's matchmaking!"
I've skipped over a few scattered sessions in which we had to deal with the mess that occurred in our hometown while we were in Stygia. Suffice to say that the cult I mentioned a while back really got moving on their plots. One of the ringleaders proved to be a thief from Marco's guild, and Marco went into full-on Godfather mode. (It was a little scary to watch.) But it turned out that he'd just had two newborn children with the prophetess we'd previously met, a boy and a girl.
Of the seven deadly sin sorcery gifts, pride (prophecy) and wrath (fire) are sex-linked in the same bloodline. (Sort of. The genetics in question is magic, and can't always be analyzed with Punnet squares.) Anyway, the prophets are always girls and the flame-conjurors are always boys. This boy and girl have the two gifts, and that's politically explosive!
See, prophetesses are reasonably common, but the fire gift has almost completely died out. And it has plenty of historical resonance, as well as being powerful. Basically, half the continent is going to want this baby boy dead, and the other half is going to want to claim him as their own. So, we thought, why not us? We should be able to hide him until he's old enough to become Marco's apprentice Face, which will hide his fire gift.
Thing is, the kid's mom can foretell the future, AND she's the daughter of a baron. (Who thankfully is not in the know about the cult.)
Long story short - we figured out the cult's plan to spirit the boy away to another country, locate the guy who's supposed to pick up the kid, and after a bit of interrogation, Ludovico takes his place, gives the password, and receives the boy.
(Immortal line from Marco just before that: "I have crystals to craft, you have babies to steal." Surely never uttered in the English language before!)
Anyway, the dice were hot, so Ludovico pressed his luck and bluffed his way into getting the girl too. (The kids are the cult's Chosen Ones.)
After the kids were safely under ward, a couple magical attacks took place on the wards. The second one, Marco was able to get their number in a major way, getting a feel for the casters. Two of them were cultists, but the other one was purely in it for the money.
We've hired contractors from the mages' guild ourselves to help with rituals, so that seemed like a logical place to check. The dice continued to be hot, and Marco really hit it off with one of the officials of the guild. He was able to narrow down who the cult had hired, bribed him to be sick for a couple of days, and warned him that, "Your severance package would have been a knife in the back." With a little more buttering up, we got some information on where the cultists did their ritual.
Ludovico went there in the same guise in which he'd taken the kids, and sold them a story about being the
real guy who'd been hit on the head while someone had taken his place to get the kids. Panic mode! In the process of them trying to do damage control, Ludovico picks up some really interesting information - the name of the guy who makes the ritual crystals, and the fact there's a mine nearby in which the special crystals can be obtained.
When Ludovico discovers that the leader is already paranoid about a "shape-shifting spy" infiltrating his people, he feeds that paranoia, getting him to doubt everyone in the organization except Ludovico himself.
Between that and the still incredibly-hot dice, he managed to drug all the guards and let in Marco and Jurgen.
We recovered a
treasure trove of information. Notebooks with incriminating lists of names, information on many of the cult's plots (some of them stomach-churningly evil - they were even worse than we'd thought), the location of the mine, and, above all, the information that the Conte of the city had been rendered infertile by a curse!
In the beginning of the campaign, we had considered replacing the Conte with someone more biddable, but we came to realize that of the nobles of the city, he was actually the best ruler of the lot by far! Only trouble was, he had no heir, his wife had died, and at least one prospective wife had been assassinated. He was having trouble finding a suitable match.
Long story short, we found the statuette that was the focus of the curse, and the Courier delivered it to the Conte.
(Of all Ludovico's forms, the Courier is perhaps the most fun to play. Supposedly he's the link between the Conte and a shadowy powerful organization interested in stability for the city - but actually to the three of us. The Conte has, after initial skepticism, come to implicitly trust the Courier - he's just brought too much vitally useful information over time not to. Anyway, what makes the Courier fun is his personality. I have a special voice for him, even. He's always urbane, completely unflappable, and perpetually half-amused.)
He delivers the focus of the curse to the Conte, who breaks it and tosses it in the fire. "Now I just need a wife!"
"How can we help, Signore?"
"I didn't realize you were procurers too!"
With an amused smile, "It's not procuring if a marriage results, Signore. It's matchmaking."
The Conte snorts and lists off some of his desiderata: At least minor nobility, fertile, preferably not ugly, and so on.
Recall that Marco's wife Margareta is our spymistress, with a network of women she calls her 'doves'. Ludovico remembers a dove in the palace, Dama Adela, that he'd worked with before. She has a title, and she's very clever and helpful. Definitely single, as the group had gotten her out of a betrothal to a truly vile man by proving him guilty of treason not long before.
So the Courier said, "Have you considered someone under your own roof, Signore?" He points out all the benefits.
The Conte gets suspicious. "She's one of your agents, isn't she?!"
The Courier leans forward with an amused expression, chin on fist, and flips his hand. "And if she is?"
Blink, blink. That rocked the Conte back - clearly he was expecting a denial. He thinks it over, then says, "I must go. I'm sure you know the way out."
When Ludovico got back to base after a couple more errands, this hilarious conversation happened:
Margareta: "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
Ludovico: "Why, what's happened?"
Margareta: "I just got a report from Dama Adela! She and the Conte are 'getting acquainted'!"
Ludovico: "It's a start, I suppose."
Margareta: "No, they're 'keeping company'!"
Ludovico: "Good, perhaps in time romance shall bloom."
Margareta: "
She's sharing his bed, you moron! And if she becomes pregnant, they'll be married within the month!"
Ludovico:
blinks "I see. He didn't waste any time, it would seem! But why are you so upset, Margareta? I'd think you'd be thrilled!"
Margareta: "YOU'RE TOO STUPID TO BE THIS SMART!!"
Ludovico: "...Ah. I... suppose I'll take that as a compliment."
(Adela did get pregnant, and the marriage did come off. The entire city breathed a sigh of relief.)
Other things happened, we met with Chloe and her new apprentice - a very shy and abused little girl. Chloe had figured out that we could make sorcery crystals, and wanted to trade for crystals for the two of them... But when we learned that the girl's was purely to suppress her Face power so she could see her newly-healed face, Ludovico and Marco insisted on doing that one for free. This visibly touched Chloe's heart, and I believe we made a good start on restoring the Faces to being a rather weird family.
This session ended a major plot arc. Chloe informed us of the threat the next arc will face: A heretical Morolusian prophet and crusader who was gathering an enormous army to invade Letitia and Fortia.