Savoy, the opening chapter

From  Dumas' lost novel, Savoy 1630

"On a night when the wind came prowling down from the Alps like a starving wolf, and the bells of trembled faintly through the snow-laden dark, a solitary horseman descended the road from the fortress of Exilles. He wore black from spur to collar — not the proud velvet black of a courtier, nor the sober cloth of a priest, but that severe and dreadful black which seems less a colour than a sentence pronounced upon the world. 

The peasants who glimpsed him crossing themselves beside their dying hearths swore later that his face was pale as candle-wax, and that one white hand, emerging from his cloak as he gathered the reins, bore the scar of an iron manacle. Yet neither the winter storm, nor the wolves upon the ridges, nor even the patrols of the Duke of Savoy delayed him; for the rider had escaped from a prison where men entered only to vanish from memory, and he carried beneath his cloak not gold, nor jewels, nor letters of state — but vengeance."

Game One

The deck

First card, the Exile 

The protagonist is revealed, a ruined noble, seeking revenge.

Second card, a mask Card.  Let's keep that for a possible escape.

Oh dear, seems the Guard are out.  Word of the Exile's return has reached someone's ears

The antagonist... the Bishop of Savoy. 
His guards are looking for the Exile. 
My first revenge target is revealed

And a scenario card.

The Bishop is apparently attending a Ducal hunt.  

The Exile intervenes.  

An ambush followed by the use of the escape card!

Hope that wild boar doesn't show up!

The Exile

Count Enrico di Castellamonte
Il Cavaliere Nero" (The Black Knight)
Ties neatly to Turin and Savoy.
Grand and is suitably Dumas-esque.
"The Count of Castellamonte Lives."

CAPTAIN  Cost 6
Experience 5. Fight 6/6.   Shoot 6/6. Resolve 5
Special » Command. » Fate (1)

Carlo di Benevento
Major-Domo and Henchman
"My lord, this is a terrible idea. Shall I saddle the horses?"

Henchman Cost 4

Experience 5. Fight 6/6. Shoot 6/7. Resolve 5

Special » Brawler

The Count's oldest companion.
Once a soldier in the Castellamonte household guard, Carlo followed Enrico into exile and remained with him through imprisonment, poverty, and wandering.
"Will we be wanting the spare pistols m'Lud."

vs.

His Excellency

His Eminence, Archbishop Filiberto Milliet de Faverges, Prince of the Church and Shepherd of Savoy, Lion of Turin.

Archbishop of Turin, Adviser to Duke Victor Amadeus, Keeper of dangerous secrets,
Patron of spies, confessors, and inquisitors
Publicly pious, privately ruthless
Rumour claims that every confession in Savoy eventually reaches his ears.
His personal guard are the Bishop's Men faction.

Captain Sebastiano Ferrante

Captain of the Archbishop's Guard

CAPTAIN  Cost 6
Experience 5. Fight 6/6.   Shoot 6/6. Resolve 5
Special » Command. » Fate (1)

A younger son of a ruined Savoyard noble family, Ferrante rose through the Church's service rather than the Duke's army. He commands the Archbishop's personal guard and acts as messenger, spy, investigator, and executioner when necessary.

"God forgives. I merely deliver His judgment."

Count Enrico and Carlo his manservant travel the back roads into Savoy. 

But the Archbishop's Guard are waiting.

The charge and riposte, a hit plus a critical x2 for the Count

And that is followed by a thunderous four more hits.  The Count is Mighty.

Carlo not so much 

The Count takes a man down.  He faces a second Guard 

But the Count is of the Italian school, they are both injured.

Carlos holds Captain Ferrante.  He even gets a hit.
The Count downs the second Guard too.

Strike test.  Ferrante fails.  That boy can run!

But the Count was clearly betrayed.  He continues on to Turin.

No boar, but loads of blood.  Port Royal worked well.