Adventure 4 Summary
"Do I hear some wine being decanted in here?"

Le Comte de Chareau travels to a nearby monastery and, posing as a non-juring priest, gains the trust of the abbot, Father Maillard. He tells the Comte that he has, on several occasions, bribed one or two of the guards to pass messages inside. He relays that there is one guard, Tomas, who is particularly susceptible to bribery. He also learns that the Comtesse de Chareau is reputed to be very beautiful. Chareau retires to a (relatively) comfortable cell for the rest of the night.

The rest of the party - Miss Georgiana, Fenworth, Warrington and Dorset - wait inside an outbuilding near the east tower, where Fenworth has discovered a cache of cabbages. The hungry party devours them.

Chareau returns the next morning, dressed as a priest. Miss Georgiana spies her brother briefly, standing at a window in the nearby tower.

When Tomas arrives at the chateau to begin his stint as guard, the PCs are able to hail him and, in the comfort of their farm building, bribe and pick his brain for information about the chateau's workings. They learn that the towers are being used to hold "important prisoners sent from Paris." In the closer tower, the comtesse is being held, along with two Englishmen, according to Tomas. In the second there is an American woman and the Comtesse's son. Tomas guards the door to the tower in the evening, and assures the PCs that he will (with sufficient bribes) be able to look the other way. He also relates that the captain of the guard's name is Pierre-Jean, and that he is quite susceptible to the charms of women…

…which gives Warrington an idea. Whores, he decides, would make the perfect diversion. And so the party sneaks off to the nearby town (including Miss Georgiana, to Jack Dorset's horror) and engages the services of six prostitutes, who are to be paid to keep the guards entertained while the party breaks the prisoners out of their towers. Fine wine and cheese are also procured in quantity.

The whores tell Chareau a little more about the Comtesse. He learns that she was brought to the chateau in a cart and pelted with garbage by the townspeople. They admired her spirit, for she stood proudly and did not appear to care.

That night, the party sends the women, wine and cheese in, and sneak into the first tower, while Tomas studiously pretends to ignore them. In the first room, they find a man in a British naval uniform - who refuses to leave with them, because he has given his word he will try not to escape. Warrington walks past Captain Hopkirk to the window, then turns around and abruptly smashes him on the back of the head. The Captain falls unconscious, and Warrington carries him outside to the waiting cart. Meanwhile, the others have rescued Charles du Bery, who does not appear to recognize his sister in disguise, and who is very grateful! When they move down the hallway to the third room, they spot another guard, talking to the Comtesse through the door. Chareau, incensed, sneaks up on the man - but fails to connect with the wine bottle he picked up. Fenworth points a gun at him, instead, and the group subdues him and rescues the Comtesse, who is, after all those rumors, really quite beautiful, with curly blonde hair and blue eyes. While she does look familiar to the Comte, he cannot quite place her.

Chareau treats the Comtesse coolly, which she pretends not to notice. She insists on being allowed to help with retrieving her son, which the others object to. Fenworth points to the unconscious body of Captain Hopkirk in the cart and says, "This guy wanted to help, too." The Comtesse gets into the cart and agrees to wait.

There is no guard at the second tower's door (he decided to take his chances with the women inside, instead) and the party sneaks past the second, where they find the young boy. Miss Georgiana calms him down. At the second door, they find Miss Emily Watson of Philadelphia.

Unfortunately, the group is unable to sneak past the guard successfully a second time, and he runs for help. They run for the cart and Miss Georgiana takes charge of the horses. After a short time, men on horseback, some of them not fully dressed, begin their pursuit.

Chareau instructs Miss Georgiana to drive behind a hill, near a creek. Miss Georgiana talks to the horses to keep them silent while the men in pursuit pass them by; watching this, Charles realizes that she is his sister and the siblings have a tearful reunion.

Chareau still can't place the Comtesse, though he can now remember a ball several years ago where he saw her. He can, however, recall the vintage he drank that night.

Over the course of the next four days, the party returns to Calais carefully, taking extra time and, at times, concealing members of the party in coffins in the back of the cart. At one safehouse, Chareau asks the Comtesse where she met the Comte, and she answers that "he is not my husband, he is my cousin." Chareau instantly knows this is true, she is Antoinette du Motier, his second cousin. After questioning her further, he learns that she took the title of Comtesse as a rallying point, after her husband (the Chevalier du Motier) was executed, since her "cowardly cousin abandoned his people in France to flee to England and someone had to take up the family honor."

Also at one of the safehouses, Charles tells Georgiana of their parents' last days, and gives her a message from their mother. He tells her how both of their parents expressed their love for her and hope that she would be happy and safe. His time to be executed was drawing near when someone learned of his connection to the family's horse-breeding business, which elevated his position as a prisoner. He was taken to the Chateau and interrogated by, of all things, a woman.

In Calais, Jack Dorset procures transport to them on a smuggling vessel, Mermaid, on its way to Kent. The ship is able to sneak past the blockade by night, but early the next morning, Warrington, while on deck, hears the sound of a pistol being cocked behind him. When he turns, he finds a woman. He recognizes her voice when she orders him into the cabin - it is the French woman's voice he had overheard on the brigantine. Inside the cabin, she demands to know Warrington's plans, what he is attempting, and what he was doing in France. Warrington explains that they were on a wine-buying expedition.

Meanwhile, Fenworth, Miss Georgiana and Chareau have noticed. Chareau knocks upon the cabin's door, asking if he had heard wine being decanted? After some stilted conversation, Fenworth launches his massive form through the skylight, landing on the woman, rendering her unconscious and breaking her arm.

The party quells a minor shipboard riot with gold, and they are delivered safely to England - with their prisoner, who Charles reveals was the woman who interrogated him about his family's stables, Marie.

Before she leaves for London, where Madame du Moiter is going to seek asylum with a girlhood friend of hers, Chareau reveals his identity to her. She slaps him once, twice, then stalks away. Warrington reveals his true identity to her as well, and offers her the use of one of his homes. Captain Hopkirk departs as well, on his way to the

Charles and Georgiana leave for their family home, Warrington goes to check on the man who had attempted to kill him, Chareau leaves for his London home, and Fenworth travels to his estate to see what damage Caro may have wrought in his absence.

Experience: 3.5
EPs to date: 6