I Am Just a Pazzi

I Am Just a Pazzi an adventure for Rapiers of the Renaissance Introduction: this scenario is based closely on an actual event, the Pazzi Conspiracy – an attempted coup d’état Easter Sunday 1478 against Medici rule. Several hours of insurrection ensue but the city rallies behind Lorenzo – then as darkness falls something unclean is brought to bear… PCs: this scenario is for 4-6 PCs, ideally with connections to the household of Lorenzo de Medici. At least one of the PCs should be a young Daughter of Circe under the tutelage of Olympia, who is currently the mistress of Lorenzo de Medici. Otherwise he or she could have some other way of telling fortunes. There is a considerable amount of violence in this scenario and at least half the PCs should be combat capable. But there is also a supernatural climax featuring an extremely nasty demon, so ensure at least one of the PCs has a weapon capable of harming such creatures. At least one PC should be near to Lorenzo de Medici in the Duomo. At least one should remain in the Palazzo Medici. The Daughters of Circe do not frequent churches and will be at home in Olympia’s rooms on the Casa Sasseti. Otherwise PCs can choose where to be, within reason. None of the PCs can be Pazzi adherents. Plotters: Objective Background Stefano da Bagnone kill Lorenzo in the Duomo ave townsman – student Antonio Maffei kill Lorenzo in the Duomo Patrician – priest Francesco de Pazzi kill Giuliano in the Duomo Patrician – banker Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli kill Giuliano in the Duomo Patrician – black sheep Jacopo de Pazzi raise the people of Florence Patrician – banker Jacopo de Poggio Bracciolini take the Palazzo della Signoria Patrician – philosopher Francesco Salviati, Archbishop of Pisa take the Palazzo della Signoria Patrician – career prelate Fr Varanus summons a demonic assassin seminary – demonist Giovanni Battista de Montesecco brings in troops stationed outside poor noble – condottiere Background: Pope Sixtus IV is picking a fight with Florence and the Medici over the city of Imola, which he is using to create a principality for his nephew, Girolamo Riario and his new wife, Caterina (née Sforza). Sixtus has transferred the Papal accounts to the Pazzi bank. Florence: population 42,000 – the powerhouse of the Renaissance is in dispute with the Pope who has condemned the city as a den of sodomites. Approaching visitors spy from afar the majestic dome of the Duomo (see picture). Coming closer they see the bell tower of the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of Florence’s government, a republic, like Venice. The inner streets are paved and boys are paid by the city to clean up horse manure from the streets. Date: Easter Sunday April 26th 1478 5,000 people pack into the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, known to all as the Duomo, for the Easter service – everyone wants to see Cardinal Riario and Il Magnifico in their finery – at least as many again throng the streets outside, making movement difficult for hundreds of yards in all directions. Weapons & Armour: It is quite acceptable for men to wear swords about the city but no one should openly wear armour or a shield. Technically no weapon should be carried in the Duomo but VIPs sometimes wear a small sword or shortsword as a fashion statement. However no one pretending to be devout should carry anything more offensive than a dagger. Shields and armour are definitely banned – even for knightly orders. VIPs attending: First Citizen Lorenzo de Medici, painter Sandro Botticelli, astronomer and mathematician Paolo Toscanelli. Rumour has it that Cardinal Raffaele Riario, the young nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, will be attending on his way to Rome. Persons not attending: Leonardo de Vinci, who has no use for religion; Michelangelo is only three years old; Machiavelli is nine but later writes a graphic eye-witness description of the state of the streets after. Sunday Morning – Signs & Portents Olympia, a Daughter of Circe and Lorenzo’s mistress, rises late in her lodgings at Casa Sasseti. On observing the extraordinary blood-red sky she shudders and remarks that blood will be spilt today. After a couple of hours of brooding she chooses to consult the Tarot… ‘How and why will blood be spilt today?’ Significator, where you are now King of Cups (reversed): skilled in the ways of the World, he is a deft manipulator, masterful at conducting negotiations and arriving at a position of power and authority by means of the agility of his mind rather than the strength of his body. He is a man of ideas, a patron of the arts and sciences, an expert in law and a leader in business. Olympia is sure this must be Lorenzo – the reversal indicates adverse circumstances or possibly someone else like Lorenzo – possibly both Aspirator, where you are aiming 3 of Swords: necessary strife & conflict; destruction of what is obsolete in order to clear the ground for what is to come; disruption, upheaval, separation & discord, but with a positive end in view – the establishment of something better. This isn’t the intent of the Daughters of Circe so Olympia assumes it must be the mistaken intent of someone else – the malefactor Instigator, what brought you here The Pope (reversed): aside from the regular meaning, Olympia reckons this may be the Pope himself and/or the Church hierarchy – everyone knows the Pope hates Lorenzo and Florence but would the Pope himself stoop to spilling blood just to be rid of a political thorn? Cryptic, hidden influences The Devil (reversed): lust for power; the temptation to abuse one’s position for personal ends; a warning regarding a bid for control by your instincts or a dangerous repression of instincts by the intellect; dark magics, evil occult happenings; the evil within you or directed at you; a devilish person or an actual devil Olympia doesn’t like this – she has a nasty feeling it’s being literal Culminator, where this is heading 10 of Swords: desolation, disruption & ruin but there is cause for hope since this card represents the nadir in a cycle of fortune and from now on things should improve. The worst card in the deck – it’s going to be bad unless fate can be averted Pivot, the focus Justice: the act of judgement – a measured and considered decision; a lawyer, judge or arbitrator; (reversed): injustice, lack of fair dealing, bias, prejudice, legal tangles and complex and expensive law-suits. An inability to decide or a failure to employ rational thought. False accusers and fence-sitters. Or perhaps it’s a person or place of justice – the Palazzo della Signoria? Someone must warn Gonfaloniere Petrucci but Olympia doesn’t like the idea of not also warning Lorenzo since he seems to be at the heart of the matter 11.45: Olympia fears for Lorenzo but the cards seem to point her at the Palazzo della Signoria – she asks her protégé (a PC) to go the Palazzo Medici to warn Lorenzo while Olympia warns Gonfaloniere Petrucci. She finds the streets thronging toward the Duomo and she’s forced to take a circuitous route to the west and approach down the Via San Lorenzo. Nonetheless it takes twice as long to push her way through. [Should no PC be a Daughter of Circe, anyone with divinatory abilities may do, ideally using Tarot (it’s more colourful – especially if you have a tarot deck to hand) but divination by any other method produces similar conclusions to those above. Alternatively, Olympia can warn Lorenzo herself and send the PC to the Palazzo della Signoria, who experiences the events there but remains out of the action until the Pazzis flee.] Sunday Morning – gathering at the Duomo 11.00: The young (17 years old) Cardinal Riario arrives at the Palazzo Medici from the Pazzi villa outside the city where he spent the night – he is taken up to the rooms provided for him and changes into his red cardinal’s vestments. Lorenzo volunteers to escort Cardinal Riario to the Duomo for Easter Mass. The thronging crowd have to be kept back by Lorenzo’s henchmen (including PCs) but he won’t tolerate even the hint of unpleasantness. Il Magnifico and the Cardinal stroll the two hundred yards to the Duomo arm-in-arm. Also in attendance is Archbishop Salviati. Francesco de Pazzi and Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli stay behind, saying they’d like to persuade Lorenzo’s brother, Giuliano, to come along too. [It cannot be stressed hard enough that no one, not Lorenzo nor any of the player characters, have any conception of what is about to happen – Lorenzo and everyone in his circle view the Pazzis as friendly rivals. On no account should the GM let a PC try to dissuade any of the VIPs concerned from going to the Duomo.] 11.30: Lorenzo arrives at the Duomo with Cardinal Riario and their retainers and servants, entering by the Porta dell Mandoria. At this point Archbishop Salviati takes his leave in order to visit his mother, who is ill. Inside, the Cardinal kneels before the altar with other clergy (including several priests and any PCs who are also clergy) where Archbishop Orsini (Lorenzo’s brother-in-law) prepares to say mass. [See picture of altar] [Most 15th Century people do not actually partake of mass. VIPs such as Lorenzo can do so in private chapels but usually only clergy take communion so at the altar Cardinal Riario is flanked by a line of 4-6 clergy – no one notices two priests on the southernmost end of the line, Stefano da Bagnone and Antonio Maffei.] Meanwhile, Lorenzo (having already taken mass) joins his friends on the south side of the altar: Francesco Nori (manager of the Florence branch of the Medici Bank), Guglielmo de Pazzi (married to Lorenzo’s sister, Bianca), Antonio Ridolfi (a boy of 15), Sigismondo della Stufa, Filippo Strozzi and Lorenzo Cavalcanti.

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