Father Charles Renaldi

Father Charles Renaldi was a cleric associated with the Angel of Civilization and a Reformist agent active during the Travertine crisis. He served as the intended minister for the wedding of Luke Malthrek and Pallia Travertine, and operated from a chapel associated with the Angel of Humility in the outer city below the Travertines.

Renaldi was remembered as handsome and charismatic. Later recollections from Raibon called him a man without fear and suggested that this fearlessness may have been a mental condition rather than ordinary courage. Those same recollections describe Sierra, a Sister of the Light, as devoted to him, though the surviving Vengeful accounts do not fully explain that earlier connection.

Malter Valley

Renaldi’s party crossed Angel Rannek’s path before the wedding itself, during the Ranneks’ travel through the Malter Valley. Angel, her mother Maria, and her sister Gwyniviere stayed at the Battlement Inn while on their way to the Travertines. They had to cross Maiden’s Bay and pass through Malterdale, where they also paid respects to Lord Malterdale as local liegelord and as an old comrade of Angel’s father.

Renaldi, Sister Rislas, and other members of the Congregation of the Angel of Civilization were present at the inn. Renaldi introduced himself to the Ranneks, while Rislas took a marked interest in Angel and showed her the inn’s ruined tower, including a stained-glass image of the Green Lord. Angel later returned there with Sir Brastok and found her first shard of the Emerald Shield of Spring. This first encounter tied Renaldi’s circle to the Malter Valley passage, the Green Lord imagery at the Battlement Inn, and the Reformist pursuit of the Emerald Shield shards before the party reached the Travertines.

Travertine Crisis

Renaldi first appears in the Travertine affair when Lime Schulze, still passing as Elizabeth Schulze, was taken by Duchess Antoinette Malthrek to meet Germaine and Adelaide Schulze at the chapel. Germaine opened a portal to a pocket dimension from the chapel rectory using powder and a brazier-like device. Inside were Adelaide Schulze and Renaldi. Renaldi identified Adelaide as a high-ranking local Reformist, possibly a bearer of the whip.

The meeting placed Renaldi within the same Reformist network as Adelaide, Germaine, Antoinette, and Pallia. He was also considered unsuitable or unavailable to officiate the replacement wedding after Pallia’s exposure, forcing the Crown Prince’s party to look for other religious authorities.

Chapel of Humility

After Pallia was exposed and the Travertine Keep stabilized, Renaldi and Sister Rislas remained targets of the allied investigators. Renaldi appeared to be hiding in, or protected by, a pocket dimension tied to the chapel. The party planned to force him out during Lime’s Candle Bearer test, while Lime hoped he and Rislas could be kept alive long enough to answer questions about her parents.

The confrontation came after Germaine Schulze administered Lime’s Candle Bearer test. When the party converged on the chapel, Sister Rislas used a beacon of necromantic energy to raise undead in the surrounding area before being incapacitated. The investigators used pixie dust and a pixie wing found on Rislas to open the rectory portal. Inside the pocket dimension, Renaldi and Duchess Antoinette were waiting for Germaine and Lime to report Lime’s success.

Death and Parasite

Minfilia Diaz and Oscar Savoy killed Renaldi during the assault and incapacitated Antoinette. Afterward, Minfilia summoned the pixie whose wing had been used and had the pocket dimension collapsed. Renaldi and Antoinette were pulled out before the space was destroyed.

Examination of Renaldi’s body revealed a parasite in his brain, which Tiphanie identified as likely mind flayer in nature. A sample from Renaldi was later used on Luke Malthrek to provoke a reaction, helping show that Luke and Duchess Antoinette shared a related infestation, aberrant condition, or linked affliction. Renaldi’s death therefore became one of the first clear links between the local Reformist clergy and the wider aberrant parasite threat.