This is a summary of the Holiday Marathon of 2023. Part two is coming this holiday season.

Opening Scene: Jean Lavellow and Claire Egallie are speaking to a crowd about taking back the country and tossing the vampires into the light. They are joined by Charles Detinne (and possibly someone I wrote down as H Baker?) who speaks of a path toward recognizing humanity’s equal rights.

Jacob notices soldiers on their way, and Pierre tries to get the crowd to disperse. But Fritz and others, rile the crowd up further. Allemond and Jacobe and I took up hidden watch positions to protect the speakers, with Bernard walks away. When the soldiers arrive, things go poorly until Fritz calls for their retreat, sewing enough confusion to disperse the crowd and soldiers to fight another day.

That evening: We meat at Jacques de Flecelle’s salon with Claire and Jean, as well as Francois de Reseinne. There is a discussion of losses causing the people to rise up, but the men are concerned about a lack of weapons. Deciding the safest way is to get them from sympathizers abroad.

As we wait, Fritz continues to rile up to populace, and I try to get Pierre to rile up the soldiers to turn against their vampire masters.

Called back to the salon, Jean tells us there is a ship coming with weapons down in Faburg St. Antoine, that must be met through taking the sewers down to the water. We are asked to secure and bring them to a warehouse in St. Martine. Fritz goes to find us a cart and horse while Jacob plans our route.

Down at the river, after a horrid trip through the sewers, we meet and take cargo from Terese de Rivenia. Unfortunately, our trip back is worse as we are attacked by fallen spawn. We defeat these vermin, sending one running as the rest fall, and make our way to the warehouse. Once there, we check our cargo – 40 rifles, gunpowder, and shot. After resting there, we are met by Claire and Jean, quite happen with our nightly excursion. They invite us to dinner the following evening at the salon.

Fritz takes the day to look for silver and keep stirring the masses. Pierre continues to buy drinks for soldiers and sew dissent. Allemand goes hunting and returs with game for dinner. Which, is quite a large gathering, including Jacques, Jean, Claire, Francois, Charles, and a new face, Angelique Turlouse, amoung others.

Angelique, it turns out, was held at the Bastille for resisting, and while there, tortured. To lighten the mood after her tale, Fritz performs some Shakespeare, Francois read from Rouseau. Charles and Pierre have a discussion about the war in the British colonies.

The evening, at length, turns to discussing our options. The need for some pressure to force negotiations. A shipment of silver? Taking out a strong noble? Storming the Bastille? Get the Church on our side? Get the vampires to turn on the church so the church will turn on them?

Claire and Jean tell us that Lord Pierre Jean de Fatigue is getting an important shipment at a gathering the following day at his home in Paris. They would like us to find out about this shipment, and while we are at it, we are free to rob him, but if we somehow get into a position to kill him, we must leave no survivors. We agree to this task.

After some quick scouting to get the exterior layout of the place, Jean Jacques decides to sneak in, with Allemand on his heels. They get the basic layout and numbers of servents and expected guests. Fritz decides the best way in is to get hired for the gathering as a servant. He is able to do so, and also sneak Bernard’s cat in at the same time.

At sunset, carriages begin to arrive, a total of four, carrying 12 people including servants. We set our birds flying for surveilance as they all are ushered to the back gardens for wine and music with Lord Fatigue, who, it turns out, owns a pair of white tigers as pets. As the guests are taken in to dinner, a cart with four guards arrives around back with a large crate, which is quickly carried into one of the unoccupied sitting rooms. Looking in through the window, we can see a bright glow emit as the crate is opened, and a pale, thin, blond woman with white wings is pulled out. The nobles all feast upon the poor creature, but the group won’t let me burn the house down in retribution for their blasphemy. Some of the group follows the wagon back to a winery, others stay to watch the house, but the body is not taken out during the night.

Returning to Jean with the news, he his dumbfounded, and insists on proof to convince the church. Claire insists we do not return to kill the Lord, but check out the winery for clues or proof of what happened. Fritz, Pierre, and I go to do just that the Amantadellan?). Moulin Francois owns the winery and goes on about types of wine while giving us a tour. Pierre notices an odd mark in the ground in one of the outbuidlings to investigate later. Bernard and Jacob set their familiars free to wander and explore, as well, while we rest before evening.

Allemand and Jean Jacques go in first, to be sure it is safe, and find the mark indicated a secret door into the a cellar. We all join them and find ourselves in a jail cell of sorts – strange shackles on the walls. But are then attacked by five Royal Cathars. We are saved by a figure in black whose blade emits the light of the sun.

We run to a church for safety and learn her name is Louise de Artenne, as she tends to our wounds, telling us that was the storehouse of the Summoner. A creature whow is not just a wizard, but something more, something born different. The summoner calls creatures from other places, binding them to their will. We offer to help her, if she will help us. And after a rest, we head to the salon, but only Francois is there. Though Claire and Jean arrive soon and we explain our evening’s investigations.

Jean has a lead on the next gathering, at Lady Angelique de Retaire’s home in a week. But the people are growing discontent, so we decide to storm the Bastille in the meantime. Riots and fires the night before show the people are ready for something, and better to point them in a direction than random violence. The King has refused to meet with representatives and banishe th finance ministers. We plan to fan the flames then point the riot towards the prison. Meanwhile, we will go into the deeper levels to resuce the high value targets.

The march to the Bastille is riotous, and we quickly break through the guard stations. The army does not come to protect it, Pierre’s work with the soldiers paid off. In fact, Fritz and Pierre convince the guards we meet on the lower levels to join in on our side and go above. Far below, we find creatures of stitched together flesh, once a number of humans, now singular abominations. Making our way further in, we find two soldiers, separated from their unit – Marelle and Corrine. Then Jacques Necker – the finance minister himself. We also release a Felicity Cuillary and Hercule Thayt.

Further on, we find Bernard’s research being used on the Flesh monstrosities to reduce their weaknesses, and quickly resolve to take all of this out with us. The next room, holds a laboratory and a vampire researcher who recognizes Bernard, Lady Sylvain Sauvageot. We defeat, though do not destroy her, and remove all we can from this room. Back outside, the warden’s head adorns a pike and catches fire as the sun begins to rise. The masses revel in their victory, but we all go retire for the day as fires and riots burn across the city.

In the morning, we meet again at the warehouse with Jean, Claire, and Francois. They speak of a great blow with no reprisals. We tell them of rescuing the finance minister. Word has been sent to the King requesting he call a meeting of the General Assembly to discuss the future of France. Unfortunately, we also receive word that Charles died in the riots, and the mood is dampened.

We have three days before Lady Angelique’s party. So, we decide to go check out the winery by light of day. Telling one worker that we were attacked there previously, he goes to find a manager. We check out the cellar, but find only cold iron manacles, which we remove from the walls. Back in the winery, the manager implicates the owner, one Marquis Jules Labelle, who is likely at his southern vineyards in Versailles.

We then go scout the Lady’s home to prepare for the party. Finding she has quite the estate, with gardens, hedges, and a croquet field on her lawn. Deliveries are already arriving at the front of the building, and it appears that the Lady’s Quarters are on the opposite side from the servants and storage rooms. with guest quarters and more formal rooms in the center. The plan will be for Allemond and Jean Jacques to climb the building and observe while the rest of us stay across the street until needed.

Our hunt for silver continues, even looking for more vampire spawn in the sewers. Fritz, Allamond and Bernard decide to rob a jewelry store, and manage to even get away with some diamonds for their trouble. Jean Jacques blesses some water to pour over his daggers. Bernard is working on a machine to emulate sunlight.

The day arrives and we gather to watch. Extravagant carriages arrive carrying a dozen guests, the house has two guards we can see, and about a dozen servants bustling about. The wagon carrying a large crate arrives and we ambush it, causing it to go careening down the street, dropping the bodies of the guards as we go. Eventually crashing in the middle of a riotous street party. The Lady Angelique followed the trail of bodies we left behind us and alights in our midst. We manage to chase her off, and get the crate, and a dead paladin of the church, back to Bernard’s place.

Inside, we discover a similar pale, golden haired woman. Fritz speaks to the frightened woman soothingly, but we cannot understand her beautiful language. Bernard casts a spell to understand. The angel is unhappy with Louise’s unclean presence, but we explain she is helping us against the summoner. The angel knows where he is, but has been weakened and tortured and cannot help us go after him. After she tells us where to go, I send her home to heaven.

We then speak with the spirit of the paladin. Who says the Arch Bishop Antoine de Juigne commanded them to bring the angel to the vampires. That she was retrieved from the summoner’s, Provost Jacques, residence. He tells us that there were ten in his order of paladins assigned to this duty. That the summoner has no other protections by them.

By morning, our warehouse has been burned down, so we do no dare return to the salon, and decide to pay the Provost a visit instead. Along the way, we learn that the King has agreed to a meeting of the Assembly in a week and Paris is bouyed by this news.

We knock and Jacques invites us into his home. Fritz and Bernard confront him and ask why he has done this. He tells us that the Arch Bishop discovered a ritual at the Vatican – a blood ritual to extract vitality from angels to extend one’s life. He was then able to adapt it to vampires, eventually giving them enough power to walk in the daylight. Once the angels are drained of their power through the ritual, they are then given to minor nobility to eat, to ensure their loyalty. The Arch Bishop has drained six angels for the King over the past year. Because Jacques is the only one the Arch Bishop knows who can summon angels, he is under the church’s protection for his service, but they also have his wife and daughter hostage at Notre Dame to ensure his continued service. We offer to help rescue them, giving him the choice to help us or die here in his home.

This was a step to far, it seems, for the vampires who were lying in wait, for we were immediately set upon. Lady Angelique, another noble I do not recognize and several Cathar attacks us. We kill the lessers and drive off the rest, setting the house on fire in the heat of battle. We retreat to Bernard’s once again to rest and gather what we can of holy water, information, and our allies.

Approaching Notre Dame that evening, we see no guards outside, and people flowing in and out normally. We go inside and Fritz, posing as a priest, asks for audience with the Arch Bishop. When he arrives, he is unsurprisingly, a vampire himself – the blasphemer of the blaspemous church. Fritz explains why we are here, having discovered the draining of the angels and here to stop it. The Arch Bishop believes France to be the chosen nation of God, believing the summoner and ritual were put by God into his path, and he will bring the Light of God to the world. Much of the group wants to go right to killing him, but he is incredibly powerful, and I and several others try to get him to see the wrongness of his thoughts. The remaining paladins, I beg to see the falseness of his words. Fritz calls upon the angel we saved and sent home to send a sign of our rightness, and the bells ring three times, a wind blows through the sanctuary, guttering the candles.

The Arch Bishop invites us to pray with him, and we do, asking God to show him the error of his ways. A cock crows, thunder rolls, and a drop of blood forms upon our palms, and the warmth of the one true God fills us. When the cock crows a second time, the Arch Bishop is changed. He has had a revelation, now knowing the path was false, and he will leave Paris to find a new true path. Jacob asks him about the Provost’s family, but his wife has died of sickness, though his daughter is safe, so Jacob immediately goes to retrieve her for her father.

The Arch Bishop leaves with his remaining paladins. We head back to Bernard’s where we meet with Claire, for Jean is missing. We tell her all about the Provost and the Arch Bishop. There is much still to do.