Inquisitor, Judge, Executioner...
Ht: 6'5~ / Wt: 260 / Hair: unknown / Eyes: unknown
Age: unknown / Creed: Iagosi / Status: ACTIVE
The Caglianni who goes by the name Salva would appear to be the very epitome of his order. He is a dark, intimidating figure who goes about his duties with implacable fervour and unflinching solemnity. By the weight of his office and sheer force of personality, he commands both fear and respect. Beyond this, he seems to possess great physical and magical power, and a calculating, incisive intellect.
Although his methods may seem grisly or excessive (in keeping with the Caglianni reputation), Salva is also a pragmatic man. He is strident in his pursuit of supernatural evil, or in the execution of his judicial responsibilities, but unlike some fanatics, his piety is not simply a cloak for sadism. He takes no pleasure in the cruel necessities of his work, and shows a measure of restraint when there is nothing more to be gained.
Salva is an imposing man with a burly build. He is normally dressed in black robes with studded black leather reinforcements, and a tabard emblazoned with the symbol of the Caglianni order. His arms are thickly muscled and partially bared, showing many old scars.
His exact height is difficult to gauge, as the large conical capirote cowl he wears makes him appear impossibly tall. This cowl mostly obscures his features, revealing only a forbidding scowl seemingly carved in stone. When he speaks, it is a low rumble, like granite slabs grating against each other.
Both his garb and his skin appear to be marked with arcane symbols from various sorcerous and divine traditions, most of them protective wards. He typically carries the symbolic weapon of the Caglianni, a large chisel-tipped two-handed executioner's sword.
Salva was called to San Belamo by the mayor, Guiseppe Dorini. With the cooperation of the Holy Wheel, his contract was to mount an inquisition into the influential Valducci family, and root out the cause of a plague of evil spirits afflicting the area.
Dorini and Salva were both unwitting catspaws of the reincarnated necromancer Astartos di Savatini, who sought to frame Vincenzo di Valducci for diablery and force his execution by the Church of the Wheel. These actions led to the fall of the Valducci family, and the destruction of the cult of the harvest spirit Balam.
After arriving covertly in San Belamo, Salva detained Baena, the cult's aging spirit medium, and her 12-year-old protege, Anna. Salva enacted rites of exorcism over the girl Anna to sever her recently-enacted pact with Balam. Although successful, the physical and mental duress of this process left the girl traumatized. The elderly Baena did not survive the rigors of her interrogation.
*Although the Caglianni's methods were undeniably harsh, it was later revealed that Baena's death was due to a savage beating she received at the hands of Dorini's hired thugs, rather than to Salva's interrogation.
When Vincenzo di Valducci was later arrested for organizing a peasant uprising against the Church of the Holy Wheel in San Belamo, Salva was tasked with Vincenzo's trial in the town square, under the watchful eye of Bishop Dominicus and his entourage of Holy Knights.
By way of mystic abjurations, Salva purged a swarm of demonic spirits from Vincenzo's body (manifested in the form of scorpions and frogs), but did not detect that these corruptions had been implanted in Vincenzo by rituals enacted by the corrupt priest Fra Gallo (an accomplice of the Savatini).
Four bodyguards employed by the Valducci family mounted a raid on the trial in order to rescue Vincenzo. Many soldiers of the Holy Wheel were slain in the rescue, and Salva himself was wounded. They then confronted Fra Gallo for his part in the trial, causing him to lose control of the demon he had invoked to curse Vincenzo. The demon manifested and a very public battle ensued on the steps of the cathedral still under construction.
*While the actual events are generally misunderstood by the public, this bloody affair has since become notorious as “the San Belamo Horrors."
Fra Gallo was captured and turned over to the Caglianni for interrogation. Under torture, Gallo confessed his blasphemy and his part in the Savatini plot, but a peasant mob had already formed to storm the Villa Valducci. By the time Salva uncovered the truth and arrived at the scene, the villa was in flames, and the resurrected necromancer Astartos de Savatini had been narrowly defeated by Valducci's bodyguards.
Shamed by his unwitting role in the Savatini conspiracy, Salva stepped aside and allowed Vincenzo and his bodyguards to flee San Belamo. He issued a final warning that Valducci followed a cursed path, and that if they were forced to meet again, he would not be so lenient a second time.
The INCIDENT at CONDOR GATE INN
Caglianni Salva was commissioned by Herr Edrich von Stroheim, Reiksritter of the Imperial Vollstrekorden (aka the Wolfhounds) to contain and interrogate a very old Faerie Hobgoblin. The creature was believed to hold certain arcane secrets sensitive to the Kasparian Empire.
Salva bound the Hobgoblin with cold iron and sacred incantations, and accompanied a convoy of Wolfhounds transporting the creature to Condor Gate Redoubt for further interrogations.
The convoy was diverted from the main road by a bridge collapse. Arriving at a remote inn, they were caught in a three-way ambush by a factions of bandits, Bugbears, and Dark Elves, each with their own agenda.
Also present at the Inn was the Tyrson Company, including Kian Grey and Korvuus the Druid, who had served as Vincenzo Valducci's bodyguards in San Belamo. Initially at odds with Salva, they agreed to join forces against the Bugbears and Dark Elves.
A man operating under the name Jason de Noireaux took advantage of the confusion to kidnap the Hobgoblin and gain its secrets for himself. Noireaux then killed the wretched creature, and absconded into the night.
A man operating under the name Jason de Noireaux took advantage of the confusion to kidnap the Hobgoblin and gain its secrets for himself. Noireaux then killed the wretched creature, and absconded into the night.
As the sole survivor of the Wolfhound convoy, the Caglianni was still obliged to deliver the corpse of the small creature to Condor Gate Redoubt. Before he departed, Korvuus warned him of the impending prophecy of the Black Sun. The Caglianni replied by stating that within his order, he was known as Salva, and then took his leave.
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