Sister Rislas

Adelaide Schulze, better known as Sister Rislas, was a religious sister associated with the Congregation of the Angel of Civilization and the Reformist operation around the Travertines. She was connected to Father Charles Renaldi, the compromised clergy invited by Duchess Antoinette Malthrek, and the Schulze branch used by the local Reformists to draw Lime Schulze into their confidence.¹

Adelaide was her legal identity, while Rislas was the name she took as she became a Reformist agent. This dual identity made her one of the more direct links between the Travertine clergy, the Reformist hierarchy, and Lime’s investigation into the fate of her parents, Abraham and Juliette Schulze. Lime was not Adelaide’s daughter, but Adelaide and Germaine Schulze recognized her as a Schulze relative and continued the fiction that she was their child when it suited the Reformist operation.

Malter Valley

Rislas appears in the same Malter Valley passage as Renaldi. Angel Rannek, her mother Maria Rannek, and her sister Gwyniviere Rannek stayed at the Battlement Inn while on the way to the Travertines for Luke Malthrek and Pallia Travertine’s wedding. Renaldi, Rislas, and other members of the Congregation of the Angel of Civilization were present during that stay.

Rislas showed unusual interest in Angel and brought her to the ruins attached to the inn, where there was a stained-glass image of the Green Lord. Her party’s presence at the Battlement Inn was not incidental: Rislas knew the ruins were significant, though she and her associates could not see the shard hidden there themselves. She may have suspected that Angel could perceive what they could not. At the time, Rislas did not know Angel’s celestial nature, which was veiled by an amulet given to Angel by Kelthyr Kulok, but she appears to have felt that there was something unusual about her. Angel later returned to the ruins with Sir Brastok and found her first shard of the Emerald Shield of Spring. This made Rislas part of the earliest known chain connecting the false Angel of Civilization clergy, the Green Lord imagery at the Battlement Inn, and the Reformist interest in the shield shards.²

Schulze Family

Adelaide’s Reformist name concealed her place in the Schulze-related Reformist network around the Travertines. Duchess Antoinette brought Lime to the outer-city chapel to meet Germaine and Adelaide Schulze after presenting them as Lime’s supposed parents. Germaine met Lime in the rectory and opened the way into a pocket dimension, where Adelaide and Renaldi were waiting. Renaldi identified Adelaide as a high-ranking local Reformist, possibly a bearer of the whip.

The deception depended on Lime’s real place in the Schulze family. She was the daughter of Abraham and Juliette Schulze, not of Germaine and Adelaide. Germaine was connected to Abraham’s branch of the family, and both he and Adelaide recognized enough truth in Lime’s claim to continue the daughter facade. Lime used that recognition to remain inside the meeting, learn about the Reformists’ interest in the Emerald Shield of Spring, and delay their planned move against Angel Rannek.³

Lime later returned to the same chapel for her Candle Bearer test. Germaine administered the test and revealed that he still retained affection for Abraham Schulze, prompting Lime to recall her true parents before her years at Gerta Moon’s Boarding School. Rislas was therefore not merely a clerical accomplice to Renaldi, but part of the family-facing cover through which Lime pursued answers about Abraham and Juliette.⁴

Chapel Confrontation

After Pallia Travertine was exposed and Travertine Keep temporarily stabilized, Rislas and Renaldi remained targets of the allied investigators. Renaldi appeared to be protected by a pocket dimension connected to the chapel in the outer city, and Rislas became one of the likely keys to reaching him.

When the party converged on the chapel, Rislas used a beacon of necromantic energy to raise and summon undead in a wide area around the building, including undead insects, animals, and bodies from a nearby graveyard. She was eventually incapacitated by Minfilia Diaz’s own undead. A vial of pixie dust and a single pixie wing were found in her pocket, and the investigators used them with the chapel brazier to open the portal to Renaldi’s pocket dimension.

Aftermath

Rislas was taken alive after the chapel confrontation. The Renaldi sample and later parasite discoveries made her valuable as a witness to the same network that included Renaldi, Germaine Schulze, Duchess Antoinette Malthrek, and Pallia Travertine. The final disposition of her interrogation or captivity remains unrecorded.

Footnotes

1. The Travertine chapel meeting identifies Adelaide Schulze as the figure in Renaldi’s pocket dimension and places her among the local Reformists. ↩

2. The Malter Valley accounts place Renaldi and Rislas with the Congregation of the Angel of Civilization at the Battlement Inn before Angel found the Emerald Shield shard. ↩

3. Lime’s infiltration depended on Germaine and Adelaide recognizing her as a Schulze relative while knowingly maintaining the false daughter story. ↩

4. Germaine’s Candle Bearer test and his mention of Abraham Schulze clarified Lime’s connection to Abraham and Juliette Schulze. ↩