Italia Ventura: Chapter 3 -- a City of Secrets (part 2)

Silvio only allows the hut's occupants a moment's glance, before he moves briskly to the knight's side. He is not a trained doctor, but he has some knowledge of sickness, and attempts to assist the dying man as best he is able (I will roll an Academia check to attempt to understand the severity of the wound).

Silvio turns to the squire, rattling through several languages to ensure the boy understands.

>What is your name boy, and whom is this that you serve? How was he wounded so?

It seems that /qst/ does not have the roll function that /tg/ has, which is pretty odd. Rolling here I got a 10 + 6 for 16 total on the Academia check.

The knight has punctured an artery on the inside of his leg. You are honestly surprised he has lasted this long, given the amount of blood he has lost. But he will surely be dead by the day's end, and he probably won't last another hour in truth. His mind has slipped beyond the edge of this world, and hovers on the edge of the next.

His squire, Topo, has some trouble speaking, but you understand that his liege was wounded in the battle at Sergia and they have been trying to reach Ferenza to ask for succor. They had many men with them at the start, but they abandoned them when it became clear that the knight was dying, opting to return to their homes in the south. His master instructed him to bring him to the Duke of Ferenza, but he cannot go any further and the boy doesn't know what to do. The peasants cannot understand him, and he thinks they are afraid they are helping an enemy.

Silvio ensures the boy that he has performed admirably, but at this point little can be done for the knight but ease his passing. Silvio explains that his party is traveling to Ferenza, and that he is welcome to travel with them. The old knight may be lain on their cart for the final few miles, though he is unfortunately unlikely to survive the journey.

Silvio then turns to the peasants, and explains to them the situation. He requests their assistance with moving the knight to the waiting cart outside, giving them coin and a blessing in thanks.

The squire Topo mumbles some thanks, and the peasants graciously accept their payment, eager to get the dying foreigner out of their home. Several men lay the knight in the cart, and the squire unties the bridle of the warhorse and leads it along behind the procession. A grim mood thus established, the procession moves on to Ferenza.

It is mid afternoon when you bury the knight. Your maid, Tossa, was riding in the cart when she realized he was no longer breathing. Topo was rather numb when he was told; he mumbled something about needing to bury him, and everyone silently agreed that they could hardly carry a corpse into Ferenza. So a space by the roadside was cleared. Shylock and Muso dug a grave with the help of Jacopo and his family. Sir Lomar tastelessly confronted the squire with the question of what to do with the knight's arms and armor. It took a while for the boy to take off the heavy mail, and no one was particularly keen to help him. Silvio said a few words over the body as the earth was shoveled on, and then the party moved on once again.

Ferenza looms into view hours before you reach it. The city sprawls across the Arno like a grey monument, a titan of sallow bricks, red shingles, and the cyclopean architecture of the Empire of Rome. Ringed by great stone walls, the city is dotted with towers in place of trees -- innumerable gatehouses gird its high walls, and within and without stand the keeps and palaces of the wealthy masters, castles unto themselves.

The testament to the Roman legacy can be found in its sheer size alone. Though many times the size of Volterra and large enough to envelop Sergia completely, the city of Ferenza is many times greater than the body of its peoples. There are districts from which no smoke rises at all, patches of green within the walls where flora has overtaken stone or been cleared for fields and gardens. Beyond the curtain wall lie frames of empty wood and stone amidst the fields of barley, wheat and rye.

The familiar smells and sounds of the city soon reach your party as the road slopes toward the great city. A choir of bells from all across the quarters. The stench of dung and piss dumped into the streets and the river. The smoke of forty-thousand fires of its kitchens and tanneries. And the calls and shouts of all its people, living thronged within the walls of a colossal human hive.

The Gate of Saint Nicholas lies open to travelers entering and leaving the city from the south at dusk. The red-and-white flag flies high above its crenelations, proudly displaying the lily flower that marks Ferenza as an ally of the Kings and Queens of France. Along the river a small galley crawls lazily upstream from a patrol of the city's dominions. A helmeted guard bearing a halberd nods as you pass, and then you are inside the press, surrounded once again by mobs of your fellow man. The merchant Jacopo bids you farewell, and departs with his son and brother. Topo, however, follows behind you with his master's destrier. The armor and weapons of his fallen liege are stored in your cart, and he is presumably bound for the same place as the rest of your: the Palazzo Ducale, home of Duke Walter, lord of Ferenza.