The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Act One

[Le Noir Faineant]

His hand calmly lying on his Kukri, Gawaine follows the group.

While walking, he turns his head to check out where the old lady is going to...

If there's time, he'll be whispering to Allessandro, the voice still full of a certain anger: "I leave it to you to ask him why he didn't want to tell us about that story... This demagogue has something to hide, I am sure!"

[Nathan of the FoS]

Gawaine notes that the old woman is walking east--inland--in the direction you have just come from.

Warden Jessop seems undecided for just a moment, then motions toward the church. "Let's talk there," he says. "Just one moment, and I'll be with you." Turning aside, he talks briefly to a matronly woman in rather better clothes than most of her neighbors; turning, she looks at you, smiles, and nods.

(Gawaine can easily make his remark to Alessandro without being overheard at this time.)

"Well, then," Jessop says as he returns to you. "We'll be able to offer you something in the way of a late supper, at least. Goody Hart is a very generous woman. Please, come inside." Opening the double doors of the church, the warden gestures for you to enter.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Gawain will wait what the others do, and in the meantime keep near the Mordentish priest...

He'll try to enter the church behind the our guide...

[Nathan of the FoS]

Warden Jessop ushers all of you into the church, leaving the doors open to catch the last evening light but bringing you far enough inside that it would be difficult to overhear you. You can see ranked rows of rough-hewn pew, an altar, and a large, pale ikon--presumably of Ezra--at the far end of the church, above the altar and below the church's one stained-glass window, which depicts the Sword and Shield of the goddess.

"So..." he says after an awkward pause. "The disappearances. There have been six--one each summer about this time of year--Midsummer's Day or a few days afterward. All the people who disappeared were unmarried women--girls, some of them, really. Two from Mare Island," here he gestures vaguely to the east, to the island you saw on the far side of the narrow bay, "two from here in the village, and two from holdings near here."

There is a long pause (Sense Motive DC 16 to sense why) before he continues. "I don't...well. What else do you want to know?"

[Le Noir Faineant]

Gawaine has been nervously tipping from one foot to anther while the priest spoke, his arms crossed.

In a commanding, low voice, like when his father used to speak to people who came to him looking for advice, the youngster begins with his questions:

"First about the village: Is there something special during this time of the year? - I mean, like workers from other villages helping with the harvest or any special celebration? - Have special measures been taken already - like hiring mercenaries and installing special guards? - How exactly did the girls disappear? Do their disappeareances have something in common? - Can we talk to the parents or husbands of the girls? - What would happen, should another girl disappear? Uproars? Would people storm the church?"

Gawaine suddenly seems to have discovered the *sleuth* part of his personality...

[Nathan of the FoS]

Gawaine has been nervously tipping from one foot to anther while the priest spoke, his arms crossed.

In a commanding, low voice, like when his father used to speak to people who came to him looking for advice, the youngster begins with his questions:

"First about the village: Is there something special during this time of the year? - I mean, like workers from other villages helping with the harvest or any special celebration? - Have special measures been taken already - like hiring mercenaries and installing special guards? - How exactly did the girls disappear? Do their disappeareances have something in common? - Can we talk to the parents or husbands of the girls? - What would happen, should another girl disappear? Uproars? Would people storm the church?"

Gawaine suddenly seems to have discovered the *sleuth* part of his personality...

Jessop looks a bit taken aback by this onslaught of questions. "None of them were married," he says. "You can talk to their parents, certainly, if they're willing...the islanders might not be willing to say much. I don't think there would be any violence if there were another disappearance, but I do fear..."

He pauses again, then says, "Well. I'm afraid some will lose their faith. Six years ago I...they used to hold a ceremony here called the Marriage of the Wicker Bride. A holdover from pagan times. They would make a form out of branches woven together and put it out to sea for the Sea-Groom. When I came here I persuaded the villagers to end it. It's not seemly for a people protected by Ezra Herself to make sacrifices to some sea-thing...But a few days later a islander girl--Marisol, her name was--went swimming, as her family thought, and was never seen again. And now it's happened six times."

[Le Noir Faineant]

For the first time in a while, his companions will see Gawaine relaxed and somewhat satisfied.

"Thank you, Warden Jessop. - Was this rite bound to a fixed date? - If that's the case, I would suggest that you and Alec lock all females away in the church during that hours and we others wait out there and shoot everything that comes near. - If not, then I would say that we go and talk to the parents first."

The youngster pauses, then looks at Jessop with the mood of conspiration in his eyes.

"Warden, in all honesty - would you say this is the work of a supernatural force or do you think this is the work of a equally perverse creature, but of flesh and blood?"

[Nathan of the FoS]

Warden Jessop looks a little perturbed at Gawaine's proposed solution; he says, slowly, "Well, the...ceremony...was always held on Midsummer's Day at nightfall--that would be tomorrow evening. But they didn't always disappear during that night--sometimes it was during the day, sometimes not 'til a few days later...although I suppose we might not have learned about it exactly when it happened...I'm not sure there's a specific night to choose, although tomorrow night might be good; but of course we can't keep them locked up forever."

"As for the other...I was sure at first it was a person. I even..." Warden Jessop pauses and blushes, his pale, freckled face going dark red. "I thought I had found the culprit, two years back; a local man who went off to foreign parts, and whose return more or less coincided with the first disappearance. But it wasn't he; Owen and I had him under lock and key and Sarah Tellwith still went missing...By now I would have to say I think...it's supernatural."

Jessop says this with an air of such grim unhappiness that it is apparent he feels this admission as a personal injury.

[Le Noir Faineant]

"Well, the...ceremony...was always held on Midsummer's Day at nightfall--that would be tomorrow evening. But they didn't always disappear during that night--sometimes it was during the day, sometimes not 'til a few days later...although I suppose we might not have learned about it exactly when it happened...I'm not sure there's a specific night to choose, although tomorrow night might be good; but of course we can't keep them locked up forever."

"I would strongly suggest that you keep them locked away in the church for at least two days. In the meantime, we can investigate what happened here. No woman shall be left alone and every guardian shall be handpicked."

"
"As for the other...I was sure at first it was a person. I even..." Warden Jessop pauses and blushes, his pale, freckled face going dark red. "I thought I had found the culprit, two years back; a local man who went off to foreign parts, and whose return more or less coincided with the first disappearance. But it wasn't he; Owen and I had him under lock and key and Sarah Tellwith still went missing...By now I would have to say I think...it's supernatural."

"What happened to him afterwards? - Does he still live around here?

- Just to evade misunderstandings, Sir: If my friends and I are supposed to find a solution to this, it might require more uoheaval than you might have expected."

Gawaine stands up and stretches his muscles. "At first, I would suggest that you people here stop fighting each other. Would you care to accompany us to that old crone. - I have the feeling that she might know more than she might have revealed to you. - By words or by the sword, we will make her tell us what we need to know to safe the girls this year."

[Nathan of the FoS]

"Keep them locked up for two days?" Jessop says, staring. "I don't...have you really thought about what you're suggesting? I can't take my wards and lock them up. I don't have that authority; no-one here does. The church doesn't even have a lock. We can try to gather all of them in one place, but many of the goodmen will probably feel they can take better care of their daughters at home...and I've no way to be sure they're not right."

After Gawaine makes his suggestion about Mammy Knass, Jessop leaps to his feet. "What?" he says. "Are you actually suggesting that we torture an old woman?" Turning to Alessandro, he says, "Warden Luria, I can only assume you had no idea what kind of viper you've cherished in your bosom. I insist you dismiss him before we continue this conversation."

OOC: Check your inbox, Rafael.

[Le Noir Faineant]

[PM sent. Awaiting your answer. ]

[Nathan of the FoS]

OOC: Er...I never got anything. Did you get my PM?

[Le Noir Faineant]

[Sent it again. Does it work now? - Hey, you others, come out, come out, wherever you are!]

[Nathan of the FoS]

[Sent it again. Does it work now? - Hey, you others, come out, come out, wherever you are!]

Yep, got it. C'mon out, guys! Gawaine's going to make the Warden hate him if it goes on like this!