Fire And a Wedding

On the first day of 855, JUNIUS marries SIGRID, cementing the alliance between Rome and the Isles du Loup.

In the cathedral, a mysterious man in shabby clothes is watching all the guests. RETARIUS questions him; his name is SPADICUS and he claims to know things. He also disappears whenever he strays beyond the cruciform core of the cathedral; this puts Retarius on guard.

SPADICUS says he has spread a song throughout Rome to warn its champions to find weapons of power to defeat the Enemy of all humanity. He can speak freely inside the cathedral, where the Enemy cannot hear, but outside, he has to use code. The song is a good code because the Enemy, being in rebellion, cannot hear the Symphony clearly.

Retarius: Are you used to making no sense at all?
Spadicus: (sigh) Yeah, it's getting familiar.

ROSA hears the song and follows it to a small niche, where she perceives a rainbow glass hummingbird singing the song. She is able to follow the complete song, whose words are:

Bring fire, bring storm, bring light, bring steel.

The Sword of the Dawn,

The Mad God’s Amulet,

And the Jewel in the Skull

Mark the Way to the Runestaff

Which Marks the Destiny of Men.

Bring fire, bring storm, bring light, bring steel.

The bird doesn't know what any of that means ... it's just a song. Rosa befriends the bird, which sings joyously until she can't forget the song even if she wants to.

Rosa approaches the CARDINAL afterwards. He has heard of the objects in the song; they are pre-Christian, indeed, probably pre-pagan artifacts of great importance.

VESUVIUS notices smoke in the air and follows it outside. BROTHER AQUILA, BJERN, and SYLVIA are already running to the Temple of Janus, where there is a huge fire.

Indeed, the priests who attend the Temple are all dead, burned in their tracks. Both doors of the temple, front and back, are open, and flames roar from within. As they approach, additional flames lick down the roads, burning up the firemen who come to put it out. Unlike most fires, this one knows how to defend itself!

BJERN glances inside and sees GAIUS PROCELLUS, the Fire Mage of the Temple of Elemental Evil, within. Procellus emerges and manically demands to know how BJERN will survive when he, Procellus, sets the buildings on either side of him ablaze! Bjern runs forward and cuts Procellus using the Axe of the Apostles, which he borrowed from the Order of St. Michael.

Cut (and arrow-shot), Procellus swells up to giant size, throwing flames far and wide. Brother A rebukes him, Bjern cuts him, Sylvia shoots holes in him, and Vesuvius wonders whether he's using a simple flame charm amped up, or some kind of elemental summoning.

Eventually the Romans punch so many holes in Procellus that the fire roaring within him rages loose, spraying everywhere and setting everything on fire. The Fire Mage may be gone, destroyed! 

Junius, recently elected Pontifex of Mars, was supposed to be there at the New Years' feast, but decided to get married in a church instead. Thus, he is the only one of the pontifices still alive. But he has a mission in Belgica, so he leaves his wife, Sigrid, the very recently converted Norse pagan, in charge of all the civic temples of Rome. What's the worst that could happen?

One xp is awarded.