You bring Stefe to the abbey, a three-nave church with a transept that lies at the meeting point of two rivers L'Ariège and L'Arget. The Augustinians agree to take him in and bring you to a narrow corridor with a row of small cells. To your surprise you find Henri de Lyon loitering outside one of the cells next to Stefes.

OOC: I'll leave it to you to describe what you want to do and to catch up IC.

Henri, you've got instructions from Emma to try and get any information from the unconscious man you can when he wakes up.

"Good day, Seigneur. I am Guy de Roquefixade, this is Quentillion de Serignac and William FitzAlan. Pray tell, who is that man and what is your interest in him" Guy said to the knight.

"Hold - unlock that door" he said to the monk.

OOC: Can I assume that Guy has talked to the Augustinians regarding their treatment of Stefe and Jehenne, as per his intentions in my last post?

Henri knew this monastery well from the time he had spent visiting his brother here. He looked over to the other knights and offered a friendly bow. "Well met, sirs. I am sir Henri de Lyon. This was the man who was pushed - however, when I arrived to the mill there was..." Henri made the sign of the cross as he continued. "...there were bodies, and the stench of death. He also seemed hairier almost? Either way I tried to rouse him, but the man was unconscious, so I brought him here."

He paused before continuing, "Anyway, have either of you met Felix here? He's my little brother, so I know this place well."

OOC: I'm just saying this is where Felix lives, but if he should be anywhere else I'm flexible.

Quin starts a little. "He lives?" His frown deepens. "Was there blood on this man's teeth or hands when you found him?" It's unclear if he's forgotten the query about Felix, whatever his monastic name might be, or is too focused on this new information to heed it.

He leans in a moment to clarify who Henri is to Guy: "This is the man holding co-lordship of Lavelanet with Pierre de Lyon...it is my thought the one in the cell may have been scratched by his attacker as he was pushed."

Guy smiled. "A pleasure to met you"

He frowned at story of the unconscious man, but wasn't surprised. Pushing open the door, he stepped inside "Tell me, Henri, have you seen this man naked? You should."

"Quentillion, tell me if he wakes, and be ready at the door."

Guy first checked the man's head, and checked he was indeed unconscious, and then began stripping him, looking for the scar.

If here are any signs of wakening, he will stop immediately and quickly exit the room.

"It would be but a fingernail mark," Quin reminds de Roquefixade, pushing to a post just inside the door as much to keep multiple curious men out as to be ready to cover Guy's retreat, little enough as steel seemed to avail them. "It is well," he tries to assure Henri of Guy's strange behaviour, though he doesn't sound wholly convinced.

There is a key in the lock on the outside of the cell. Guy turns it, opens the door and walks in. The cell is small and dark, the only source of light is a small window opening closer to the ceiling. A man lies on the narrow cot which is the only furniture in the room. He is unconscious and lies under a blanket. Henri could tell you he looks similar to the night before, ragged breath and eyes darting around under closed lids but not as violently. The man is nondescript with dark hair, a shaggy beard and eyebrows growing together over the bridge of the nose.

Henri could tell you that the night before he had blood around his mouth, hands and splattered over his clothing. The monks have cleaned him up now and fitted him into a roughspun shift.

OOC: Guy, could you describe in more detail what steps you take when you examine the man. Also roll for Healing with a +20% since you know what you're looking for.

Guy first and foremost is being careful not to touch any blood, and to handle limbs etcetera in such a way so that if the man suddenly wakes he doesn't get scratched.

Guy first checks the head and neck for any sign of visible damage. Given what Henri has said, he also checks the hands, especially to see if there is blood under the fingernails, and pushes the sleeves up to check the arms.

Seeing the man is wearing a simple tunic and (preseumably) trousers, he pulls the shirt up over the man's head exposing the torso. If that doesn't reveal anything, he pulls the trews down to view the legs. If still nothing, roll the man over.

He is trying to be gentle but firm.


23:13, Today: Guy de Roquefixade rolled 34 using 1d100.  Healing 41 look for scar.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:23, Wed 17 Jan.

Quin stands just inside the doorway, poised as a hawk. There's a tension around his shoulders that suggests both discomfort and an awareness of danger, but he doesn't look away. "The man we brought to the next cell and the girl in there visiting him seem to have been struck with a curse to turn them into werewolves...or wolf-monsters, we are unsure. The girl is the one that killed our Lady's architect, but she remembers nothing of it, nor of how she or her father came to carry the curse. As yet it seems to be spread by scratches..."

He pauses, light from the cell's window catching on eyes that do not waver from watching the limp body Guy manipulates. "These bodies from the mill, were they seen to by the brothers here, or what has become of them?"

Henri nodded to Quin and Guy, his look growing concerned as Quin asked about the bodies at the mill. "These bodies... the people were already dead before I had arrived. This man was there, completely covered in blood and unconscious when I found him." His look returned to a warmer expression but still with a bit of seriousness to it. "Indeed, Pierre de Lyon and I are co-lords of Lavelanet, though I suppose co-lords isn't the best way to put it, seeing as we are married," he continues.

"Where are they now?" Quin asks, not looking away from Guy's seeking.

[Private to Henri de Lyon: not going to specifically respond to the other bit and derail the scene/make things awkward - thought we'd agreed not to spotlight the terminology anyway.]

In reply to Quintillian de Serignac (msg # 11):

"I had not disturbed the bodies. Something about the area seemed off, with all the wolves I heard - almost more than usual, it seems like."

[Private to Quintillian de Serignac: Completely understand, Henri was just saying it in case Guy thought it was weird they were co-lords.]

"The bodies were eaten by wolves?" the younger knight queries, frowning but distracted. The greater part of his attention remains on the search for marks.

"No, sir," Henri continues. "I heard a large number of wolves - far more than usual, and so my focus was on making sure the man survived so we could question him. However, the bodies had appeared to be mauled already when I had gotten there."

"It was well to capture this werewolf," Quin allows, "-but we had thought he was dead, and the girl in the cell yonder with her father has a violent injury that should have caused her to bleed out also. If you informed the brothers here of the...was it seven dead, at the mill? I think the family had five children," he makes to cross himself, looks briefly at the weight of the sword in his hand, and with a start resumes his vigil.

"-then you might ask that monk waiting at the end of the corridor if they were taken here or left to the women of neighbouring houses. Either way, if any are unaccounted-for they may have turned into the wolves you heard, or be yet to turn into a pained half-thing and attack others."

[[edit: autocorrect shenanigans, paragraphing]]
This message was last edited by the player at 14:50, Sun 21 Jan.

Guy thoroughly searches the body of the man and indeed finds dried blood under the fingernails. He removes the mans shift, find nothing on his torso or arms and just as he is about to pull the mans leg clothes down the head turns just so and Guy sees a scar on the scalp, hidden under tangled black hair. The scar is smaller than Jehannes but have the same distinct edges and the same "just healed" appearance. During the examination the man starts to wake up and just as Gut finds the scar the man coughs and opens his eyes. "Who... who are you? what are you doing?" he asks. His eyes are glinting with a yellow tint in the dim room.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:59, Sun 21 Jan.

Poised as an unhooded hawk, Quin steps forward at the first hint of autonomous movement, ready to get between Guy and the stranger fast and sword-first if necessary. His heart is somewhat speeded in his chest but his focus does not waver.

"I'm looking for a scar," Guy said, backing away. "There's one on the back of your head, do you remember how you got it?"

He walks quickly to the door, running if need be, and locks it while the wolf man is still entangled in his own clothes.

The man instinctively reaches up to touch the back of his head. "I don't feel anything," he starts and then looks around at the cell, "Where am I?"

"You're at the Abbey of Saint Volusien." Guy informs him, after leaving the room. "Seigneur Henri de Lyon found you unconscious there and brought you here. What is the last thing you remember?"

OOC: Night all, the moon beckons...
This message was last edited by the player at 11:35, Tue 23 Jan.

"I was... I was at the market, selling our wool. Then... then, yes, I was on the bridge! Piers went mad and pushed me off! I thought I would die, the water was so cold and I think I swallowed half the river. I think the millers fished me up... I can... I can't really remember anything else. Thank you, seigneurs, for bringing me here. Is my wife here?" he finishes, absent-mindedly rubbing the thick eyebrows growing together above the nose.

Henri frowned when the man asked about his wife. "Sir... There were two bodies along with you when I found you. I know not if they were your kin, but... I'm sorry." If asked, he will describe the state they were in.

"The millers? No, I'm not related to them. What happened?" he asks, propping himself up on his elbows and starts to put the shift on again.

In reply to Heavy-set man (msg # 23):

"The bodies I had found were mauled. You and them both were covered in blood, sir. I found you amongst those bodies and brought you here."

"Were either of the bodies female?" Guy asked Henri. "Can you describe the people?"

Addressing the man in the cell, he said "Sir, that scar on your head is identical to one found on a man who changed into a kind of bear like creature, upright, with the head of a wolf. You were pushed off a bridge and I understand that by all rights you should be dead, and yet you are unharmed. You were found unconscious with bodies nearby that appeared to have been mauled by a Savage beast, and you, sir, have dried blood under your fingernails. I believe you to be another of these bear creatures. You are currently at the monastery so as to keep people safe from you, to keep you under observation, and if possible, to find a cure."

This message was last edited by the player at 09:20, Sat 27 Jan.

Trusting there are enough knights near a locked door to deal with the unaccountably alive man, Quin has gone to ask the monk that had shown them here where the bodies of the mill family had been laid in preparation for burial. The image of peasant women gathered about a sheeted table comes to him with keen clarity: washing limp limbs, touching each pale face and jaw to tie up the mouth, trimming the nails, all gathered in a group. Children at heel, the very young and girls learning their duty.

He hopes they lie in the monastery, close at hand, though even that brings foreboding to his chest. The brief speculation that it might have been the bridge and not the boy that was a werewolf crosses his mind, given the nature of the worse wound, but some frowning dismisses it in favour of more pressing business.

The heavy-set man is speechless for a long time and when he manages to speak he demands to see his wife.

Quintillan is shown the bodies of the miller and his wife, laying on display in the mortuary, covered in their burial shrouds. There are no children here, only the two bodies.

In reply to Guy de Roquefixade (msg # 25):

"There was one female body," Henri says. "However, the bodies were so viciously mauled that they were hard to describe - and my focus was on making sure the man here still lived."

"And the Miller's took him in and cared for him after he fell in the river, so this was not his family. Well, his wife must be informed, she will be overjoyed he is still alive" Guy said.

"What is your name? And where do you live? Does your wife work, if she is not at home, where can we find her?" He asked the man in the cell.

A little daunted, Quin's hand traces the cross over his chest before he fully enters the room and steps forward to inspect the bodies, looking for any new bleeding or a flush in the cheeks unsuited to the newly dead. Regardless, since they are currently still, he prays silently yet with more fervour than usual for their rest.

"...I had some idea the mill family had children in the house," Quin says at length to the monk that brought him. "Do you know what has become of them, if they are buried, or with some other neighbour?"

The heavy-set man answers Guy. "Je m'appelles Onfroi, monseigneur. My wife tends to the farm, we live outside Saint Volusien, to the southeast. She's probably worried sick. Tell me, whatever happened to Piers? I remember him pushing me. It's not like him, he's usually so gentle."

---

The monk stares at Quin. "Children? Non, je suis désolé, I do not know. There were no children at the mill as I understand."

Guy raised his arms to gesture something like a shrug. "Perhaps Henri can tell you more. But Onfroi, do you recall, where did Piers push you? On the shoulders, the head, or where? From the front or behind? Was there a struggle?"

To a monk, he said "I would like a record kept of this. Write down in a book everything that happens and everything that has happened. If they change, what does the change look like, what was the phase of the moon, were they agitated or stressed. If we attempt a cure, what was the dosage, was it successful or not. When do we think they were first infected. Anything that might be useful."

"I want two copies made, one for your own records and one to be sent to Lady de Trencavel. She will be expecting regular reports."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:02, Sat 03 Feb.

Onfroi pauses to think. "We shoved each other mostly, he accused me of laying with his mother. He was so angry, I've never seen him like that.. and then he just... pushed me over the rail. I don't remember much after that."

The monk promises to take notes of any strange observations but he looks at Guy guardedly and unconsciously keeps his distance, like perhaps you're not completely right in the head.

Quin gives a little headtilt at the French, though he understands the sorrow well enough. He frowns. "I felt sure...were you with the ones that went to collect the bodies?"

"Well, oui, but I did not go inside," the slight monk explains with a shiver. "It was terrible, they said. Blood everywhere. But no other bodies. Did you know them?" he asks.

"Only in passing, as the main source of our flour," Quin says, unwilling as yet to get out of view of the dead, troubled by wasted blood and uneaten flesh. "Has no-one else come to see or mourn them?"

"No, no one," the monk replies.

OOC: So, what do you want to do?