Italia Ventura: Chapter 3 -- a City of Secrets (part 1)

>>649710
We continue on toward Ferenza

The rest of the day continues without incident until nightfall. You had hoped to make good progress and reach Ferenza before nightfall, but with most of your party on foot this has proved impossible. While you do not relish a night outdoors, this seems the to be your only option.

Sir Loma had spotted a large farmhouse only a short walk off the old Roman road you had been using; the first sign of habitation you had seen in an hour. It looked to be a converted inn, but as you approached people began to point out how overgrown the garden was, and how there was no noise from animals or residents, no fire in the chimney. When the mules started to bray and slow their strides, you stopped, and a breeze at that moment brought the charnel smell out from the structure's interior. You left swiftly after that -- no sense risking contact with the plague.

It has been several hours since then, and everyone is much quieter than before. Night has set, and all parties are feeling sore and weary. It is decided that a safe place to camp must be found, but no good opportunity presents itself. There are no thick woods in which to hunker down and gather firewood, only shrubs and the occasional olive or oak sentinel. Farms and wells have also been absent, though you have seen plenty of small streams through the day. There are hills that you could shelter behind to keep out of sight of any bandits on the road, but you would be no less protected from the elements, or any wolves that might come wandering.

>>651195
We sleep in shifts.

The night passes fitfully and most everyone is hungry and sore. Without a fire, the night winds became chilly, though the group huddled close underneath the hill. At two points in the night Muso woke everyone, claiming that something was snarling in the darkness nearby, but both times the darkness greeted you with nothing but silence. Irritated, the party tried to return to sleep.

You are up early at sunrise, but your progress is a slow shuffle until midmorning, when the sun starts to warm your tired feet. As you progress into the Valdarno, the long, thin valley of the Arno river that forms the domain of Ferenza, houses and farms begin to appear again, and once you passed by a nobleman's tower, a four-sided keep built on a hill off the road. The people here seem no different from those in the lands of Volterra or Sergia, though you are not greeted as kindly as you were in those places.

Ahead, there seems to be a substantial crowd gathered about a farmhouse. It looks like several families have congregated about the place, discussing some matter in worried tones. A young woman rushes out of the house to a well, and after drawing water she quickly runs back inside. The scene is made more unusual by the enormous destrier, still saddled, its bridle tied to the side of the house. It stamps its enormous hooves impatiently, and the crowd of farmers stays well away from it.

Silvio, who has been quiet with thought since his dream several nights prior, is now roused to action by the crowd ahead. He spurs his horse to the line's front, and hails the crowd.

>Good people, what has befallen here? Though no monk, I am a scholar and man of faith. How may my brother and I assist you?

The farmers hurriedly explain that a squire brought his master, a knight, to this house very early in the morning. The knight is heavily injured and may die, and the people are not sure what to do. The father of the house sent one of his sons to bring the local midwife (the only person they could think of with any skill at healing), but she has not been able to do much. It does not help that the squire does not speak Tuscan, which is the only language the farmers know, and so they are worried they might actually be aiding an enemy of their city. They ask if there is any chance you could help.