After the battle, we discussed our next step. The Captain decided that we live up to our promise and set our still skeptical passengers ashore in a nearby friendly port. So, we set course to New Madrid, where we arrived after three uneventful days of voyage. None of them were interested in joining our crew, however, as it appeared they did not want to break up their group they felt safer in. Each of them was given one hundred coins to found their new life on, and then they were on their way.
As for us, we still had to complete the official part of our docking procedure. A city official had arrived and wanted to know everything about our ship. It turned out that among the original Kieran paperwork and the documents Equias had procured, there was nothing there was nothing that legitimised us, and the authorities would consider us pirates, an assessment that had some merit, sadly. However, given our actions were largely within the interests of the Spanish Guild, who considered the Kierans their competition, they were willing to provide us with official documentation and a Letter of Marque, at a steep but ultimately acceptable price. As it turned out, part of the amount needed to be a bribe, as we had to avoid the proud Master Krastus from being reported to the local inquisitor, Torquemada, a relentless man who was said to hunt mages of all sorts.
While we were preparing to go to town, a second messenger arrived from the docks. A man dressed like a monk, in a dark hooded robe, wanted to speak with the Captain. He claimed that the latter was indebted to him or his peers, and now was the time to repay that debt. I will omit the details here, as I do not know much of them. At any rate, what was demanded from him was to ensure that a certain person, who was currently residing in the basement of the local cathedral, would be brought to the altar at midnight. With that curious request uttered, the man left.
Since the Captain was in dire need, we conspired to find a solution. First, the location had to be inspected, in order to see what that basement was like. So, Carlton went into the cathedral to view it, and one of the priests invited him to confess his sins. As we would realise later, he didn't stop at that, but proceeded to tell the story of his entire life to the man. Probably desiring to be compensated for that ordeal, the priest offered to sell an indulgence to him, but Carlton, short of funds, told him that he needed to gamble some more to be able to afford that.
The second step of the plan involved obtaining suitable garments and entering the cathedral as a group, posing as priests and nuns from abroad. The first part, at least, was fairly easy to accomplish, and after we had attended mass, we spoke with the local clergymen and were invited to dinner. It appeared that the cathedral's basement did not contain a prison as we suspected, but rather a living area for the priests. Thus, we could take a look around, and also find the chamber of the man we were looking for. Obviously he was one of the priests, and he was not a prisoner in the narrow sense. He had done misdeeds too horrible to mention, and sought penance in isolation.
Soon, we were invited to join the clergymen for dinner. Alas, the priest with whom Carlton had spoken was at the table as well, and so he and the Captain had to quickly improvise a story about a righteous priest and his lawless identical twin. Overall, however, our plan went well, and we managed to mingle with the unsuspecting priests. In the end, the lot of them went to sleep, and at the right time, the Captain sprung to action. Under the pretext that the Cardinal wanted to talk to him upstairs in the nave, he lured his mark to the altar. I was not sure at all who would show up. I suspected that maybe a friend of his suspected his imprisonment and wanted to have him freed. Or maybe a family member of one of those he had wronged would seek satisfaction. I was not, however, prepared for what happened next, when about a dozen similarly hooded persons emerged out of the shadows and from behind the columns and closed in on him. Their leader proclaimed that the priest had, with his deeds, proclaimed allegiance to their dark path, and would now be taken in by their dark lord, the Devil. The Captain, however, was told that the deed was done, and we were now required to leave, lest we be taken by the darkness also. As the cultists closed their ranks around the terrified priest, we prudently left the cathedral, out into the night and back towards the docks.
The next morning we learnt that an eviscerated corpse had been found on the altar.
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