(OOC Note: This thread is also posted over on the Duels of Honor site. If anyone wants to post their character reactions to these events, you are more than welcome. Direct interference is possible, but please send me a PM so we can co-ordinate what will happen. Thank you.)

The priests and knights within the great basillica of the First Catholic Church of Rhydin had not come out in force in many cycles....Not since the schizm which led to the exodus of the Knights Templar had the great iron gates been opened. So, when those gates did open at the tolling of the noon-time bells, it drew a great deal of attention.

First through the gates came a troop of Hopitallateers. They marched tall and proud in their gleaming armour, plumed helms polished mirror-bright; their blood-red surcoats and shields immaculate in the light of the noon-day sun. These knights moved to form a large semi-circle of clear grounds before the basillica.

Once they were arranged, two teams of horses came forth from the gates. Each team pulled a low, wheeled platform. Upon the first were large piles of wood....two small barrels sat near the center of this platform, where stood a large wooden beam....much like a small mast-pole for a sailboat. Where the first platform stood high off the ground, perhaps five feet above, the second platform was lower....nor more than two or two and a half feet up. Wider than the first, its surface was bare....save for a large wooden block, easily three foot in each dimension, that rested in the middle of the platform.

The puzzled murmurings of the crowd grew louder as chocks were placed to keep the platforms from moving about. The horses were then unharnesed and led back inside while a handful more knights came out to bolster the ranks against the restless gathering.

About a minute passed before two men hustled forth carrying a set of wooden stairs....which they placed at the back of the second platform. As they hurried back inside, trumpets sounded from the tops of the towers at either side of the gate. A hush fell over the crowd, and a tall man dressed in the red robes of a Catholic Cardinal strode forth from the basillica. As the eyes of the crowd followed him up the stairs and on to the platform, it was easy to miss the four guards who moved up to the gate. Between them stood a man, haggard and haunted looking, and a dejected elven woman carrying what might be a baby.

Though the crowd was already silent, the Cardinal raised his hands to gain their attention before he spoke. "In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti....Amen."

"Amen." repeated many of the crowd; most of those living close to the Church being regular church-goers.

"My Children....Children of God," he said, his voice neither loud nor soft....yet every human in the square could hear him clearly. The non-humans in the crowd, on the other hand, had to strain to hear....even those in the front of the crowd. "This city is filled with wickedness." The Cardinal walked around the huge wooden block as he spoke, and his gaze wandered the crowd. Every human in the crowd began to feel as if the Cardinal was looking right at them, speaking right to them....while the non-humans felt the sensation of the Cardinal's eyes skipping over them, as if they were something he did not wish to see. "The nobility thrive in their greed and decadence....whilst you, the citizens, suffer under the heels of foriegn tyrants, sinful criminals and deceitful religions. The Elite heap praises upon demons and men who call themselves by the names of pagan gods....and treat your daughters and sons as chattel and whores!"

The crowd roared angrily at this pronouncement, and the more richly dressed among them looked about nervously....some edging towards the streets leading away from the square.

(tbc)

John Cook had only recently been promoted to riding Patrol for the Knights Templar. When he saw the unusual gathering in front of the First Catholic Church, he naturally went to investigate.

"Where're ya headed, John?" asked Samual, the Knight he was patrolling with. "We're not tae ride in front of th' Church....Commander's orders."

"There's a lot of people in the square....something odd is going on." John replied.

The two men rode to the edge of the rapidly growing crowd and stood in the stirrups to see what was happening. The crowd was clearly agitated, people shouting and jeering at someone in the center of the square. Suddenly, the two men could clearly hear the voice of the Cardinal...."He left his good human wife and took up with a Beast!"

John looked at Samual, alarmed. "What's going on?" he whispered, barely audible over the crowd.

"I dinnae know, lad." the senior Knight replied, just as quiet.

"The Beast's mark shows clearly upon her!" the Cardinal shouted over the ever increasing yells of the crowd.

John shook, startled that he could clearly hear the Cardinal so clearly....and even more shocked at what he saw going on. "Are they going to burn her?"

Samual scowled, judging the crowd and the distance between them and the woman. "Ride as hard as ye can fer th' compound....alert th' Order." He took off his tabard and leaned down to tear the banners that marked his saddle as belonging to the Knights Templar. "Take these with ye....th' Commander'll know why ye have 'em."

John nodded, still stunned and confused by what was clearly going on. He turned his horse and sat for a moment until Samual gave his horse a kick that sent it rushing towards the Templar compound.

To say that Lucien Monterre was a dangerous individual was a severe understatement....Previously, he'd been a spymaster and assassin in the royal courts of Paris. Now, he was an independent operator in the city of Rhy-Din with a spy organization of his own.

When he was told of the gathering in front of the First Catholic Church, he knew he'd have to watch it himself. He gave orders that no one was to get involved, no matter what happened, then left the burned-out temple that served as his headquarters and headed for the Church.

"Typical rhetoric....the Inquisition has finally come to Wilder's homeworld, and thence to here." he muttered to himself, watching the scene from the roof of a building across the square. Then he heard a voice from below. "Ifin there's any of th' Commander's spies watchin', I'm gonna need help!"

Lucien immediately determined what was about to happen and started off on his own. Running from roof to roof, he made his way around the square as the Knight rode in to the rescue. 'If someone is going to throw their life away, the least I can do is help.' Lucien thought to himself, scrambling down to the street level.

"Archers!" shouted the Cardinal. "Kill that Infidel!"

"Lovely..." Lucien muttered, watching as the Knight was forced to leave the woman behind and bring the baby through the crowd. He frowned, seeing the Knight wounded....his horse slowed by the angry crowd. "Looks like it's up to me..."

Lucien dashed forward, pushing through the crowd to reach the falling Knight and the baby he carried. One man scowled at him, brandishing a knife, so Lucien stole thirty years of his age with a touch. Lucien's body aged fifteen years, throwing him from his early teens to a fighting-prime late-20's. The man with the knife didn't fare so well, finding himself suddenly four years old!

Just as he grabbed the baby from the dying Knight, an old woman slashed at his arm with a knife. Lucien hissed, shifting the baby to his other arm and grabbing at the old woman. Lucien wasn't in the mood to be kind, so he gave her twenty of the years he took from the previous man....aging her so quickly that her heart failed.

The baby hindered him, and the cut on his arm was bleeding profusely....But the some of the crowd had seen what had happened and were recoiling from him in terror. Terror was something he was used to, and he used it well. He grabbed a smoke-bomb from his vest and slammed it to the ground, quickly running for the alley under the cover it provided.

Two of his agents met him within moments, guiding him to a hidden enterance to the sewers. "We'd better keep moving. Head for the Templar compound." Lucian said as one of the agents quickly bandaged his arm. "I suspect the Commander has been alerted." He nodded to the other agent. "You run ahead, tell them not to get involved..." his voice lowered, filled with dread. "It'd be a bloodbath."

(tbc)