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{{DISPLAYTITLE:''{{PAGENAME}}''}}
{{title dab away}}
{{infobox episode
{{real world}}
|title = ''Bad Faith''
{{Infobox Story SMW
|image = [[File:Bad_Faith_cover.jpg]]
|image            = Bad Faith (audio story).jpg
|publisher = [[Big Finish Productions]]
|number            = 1.2
|starring = [[Chase Masterson]]
|range            = Vienna (series)
|writer = [[Nev Fountain]]
|number in range  = 1.2
|director = [[Ken Bentley]]
|main character    = [[Vienna Salvatori|Vienna]]
|producer = Mark Wright
|featuring        =
|music = [[Howard Carter]]
|enemy            = [[Bax Spendlove]]
|sound = Howard Carter
|setting          =
|editor =
|writer           = Nev Fountain
|cover = [[Damien May]]
|director         = [[Ken Bentley]]
|series = ''[[Vienna (audio series)|Vienna]]''
|producer         = [[Mark Wright]]
|season = ''[[Vienna: Series One]]''
|music             = [[Howard Carter (composer)|Howard Carter]]
|episode = 1.2
|sound             = Howard Carter
|release date = 5 February 2014
|cover             = [[Damien May]]
|previous = ''[[Dead Drop]]''
|epcount          = 1
|next = ''[[Deathworld]]''}}
|publisher        = Big Finish Productions
'''''Bad Faith''''' is the second episode in ''[[Vienna: Series One]]'', produced by [[Big Finish Productions]]. It starred [[Chase Masterson]] as [[Vienna Salvatori]].
|audio anthology  = Vienna: Series One
|release date     = 5 February 2014
|format            = 1 CDs<br/>Download
|production code  = BFVIENNA002
|isbn              = ISBN 978-1-78178-267-5 (physical); ISBN 978-1-78178-633-8 (digital)
|series            = ''[[Vienna (series)|Vienna]]''
|prev              = Dead Drop (audio story)
|next             = Deathworld (Vienna audio story){{!}}''Deathworld''
|soundcloudtrailer =
}}
'''''Bad Faith''''' was the second story of ''[[Vienna: Series One]]'', produced by [[Big Finish Productions]]. It was written by [[Nev Fountain]] and featured [[Chase Masterson]] as [[Vienna Salvatori]].


 
== Publisher's summary ==
 
==Synopsis==
[[Vienna Salvatori]] has seen the light.
[[Vienna Salvatori]] has seen the light.


Time was, if you lost everything, at least you still had your faith – but not any more. Faith stealing is the latest commodity to light up the criminal underworld – extract somebody’s faith and sell it to the highest bidder.
Time was, if you lost everything, at least you still had your [[faith]] – but not any more. [[Faith stealing]] is the latest commodity to light up the criminal underworld – extract somebody's faith and sell it to the highest bidder.


On the trail of a faith stealing ring, Vienna Salvatori comes into the orbit of the charismatic [[Bax Spendlove]], spiritual leader of the [[Church of New Wonderment]], a breakaway sect of the [[Church of Old Wonderment]]. Bax has an important mission for his latest convert – and Vienna is a willing disciple.
On the trail of a faith stealing ring, Vienna Salvatori comes into the orbit of the charismatic [[Bax Spendlove]], spiritual leader of the [[New Church of Wonderment|Church of New Wonderment]], a breakaway sect of the [[Old Church of Wonderment|Church of Old Wonderment]]. Bax has an important mission for his latest convert – and Vienna is a willing disciple.


But when Bax’s followers start to be murdered, it seems Vienna isn’t the only killer keeping the faith&hellip;
But when Bax’s followers start to be [[murder]]ed, it seems Vienna isn’t the only killer keeping the faith…


== Plot ==
== Plot ==
A [[Kreyfin]] approaches and asks a Sargeant [[Lane]] for the whereabouts of a 'vertibrate'. Lane informs it that they cornered the assassin on the north passage of the Karnon Rocks, and that she is believed to be wounded. The Kreyfin congratulates Lane on his successful work. The Kreyfin orders him to locate the assassin and keep her found entering the compound. Lane turns to his soldier and orders them back to base. The female soldier asks him to lead the way as she is feeling lost on [[Karnos Delta]]. Lane understands, stating that Karnos Delta is 'mountains and crators as far as the eye can see'.
Hunted by the [[soldier]]s serving the [[Kreyfin]] on [[Karnos Delta]], [[Vienna Salvatori|Vienna]] kills most of the soldiers and poses as one herself by attaching a [[hypno leech]] to [[Lane (Bad Faith)|Sergeant Lane]]'s neck. She joins in the pursuit, confirming her suspicions that her mission to infiltrate the [[Kreyfin compound]] was part of a trap for her, and kills Lane and cuts off his hand to gain entry to the compound when the leech starts to go flat. Inside, she discovers that the Kreyfin are stealing the [[faith]] of their [[prison]]ers to sell to those who want to add spiritual meaning to their lives and promises to return for the apathetic [[Mylo]] of the [[Society of Euphoric Happiness]] when the Kreyfin demand that she leaves; when she bursts into the Kreyfin's room, they explode.


Lane informs his soldier that the assassin's mission is to infiltrate the compound and shut down all Kreyfin operations. He orders three soldiers, over the comms, to enter a defensive position around the compound as the assassin is on her way. His soldiers do not respond. Thinking aloud, the soldier suggests the idea that the assassin killed the three soldiers, infiltrated her way into the ranks and kept Lane alive just to find out whether or not the whole operation was a trap. Getting a little uneasy, Lane asks her why he can't remember her name. She points out that that's due to her not having time to program an alias into the [[hypno leech]] attached to his neck. She informs him that her name is [[Vienna Salvatori]]. She then shoots him dead.
Vienna learns from [[Vienna Salvatori's spaceship|her spaceship]] that the Kreyfin died thanks to her unwittingly depressuring their sanctum and wonders why somebody has paid her to do a job which was practically done for her. She visits the [[New Church of Wonderment]] on [[Hieronymus VI]] and explains to [[Lilitrick Raliaminopolis|Lili]], a [[secretary]], how she became filled with faith in the church's founder [[Arlo Goodfellow]] after leaving Karnos Delta, which her ship informed her was due to faith stealing. Disagreeing, she had her [[computer]] update its personality and journeyed to Hieronymus VI after receiving a [[hologram]] message from [[Bax Spendlove]], the church's [[pastor]], and receiving Arlo's [[stigmata]]. Spendlove personally requests her presence and shows the [[miracle]] to [[Kendra Spendlove|Kendra]], his wife and a former member of the [[Old Church of Wonderment|Old Church]] who wishes to heal the schism between the two sects.


Approaching the compound, a Kreyfin soldier asks her to place her right hand on an activation panel. Vienna uses the hand of Lane to open the door, and walks inside. Meanwhile one Kreyfin is getting very panicky about Vienna's whereabouts. Another calms him. A caged man named Mylo, from the Society of Euphoric Happiness, offers Vienna his very limited help. Vienna realises that she is in the middle of a faith stealing operation. She explains to Mylo that his very faith and that of all the other prisoners is being stolen from them and sold off to the rich. A Kreyfin warns Vienna to leave over the intercom but true Vienna style, she warns them that ''she's'' coming for ''them''.
Spendlove asks Vienna to join Kendra on her mission to meet with [[Parsival]], head of the Old Church, in the [[Phantom Deserts of Ossuary]] and calls upon the inter-faith adviser [[Darrow Clancy|Clancy]] to confirm that this would not be an issue, only for Lili to find that he has been killed by [[micro-drone]]s released into his body by a [[grudge knife]] just as several other members of the church have. In his [[blood]] is written, "The Old Church will destroy all from within", a message which Spendlove believes implicates Parsival. Vienna deduces that Lili already knew that Clancy was dead given how little time she gave him to respond to the [[intercom]] and a [[memory scan]] reveals that she witnessed the [[murder]] whilst wearing forbidden faith-aiding [[miracle lens]]es which made it look like he had been killed by a [[demon]].


Vienna blasts through the door and demands the name of the person who is running the operation from the Kreyfin inside. To her surprise, the two Kreyfin inside simply explode all over her. Back at her ship, she asks her computer to analyse the Kreyfin residue that she accumulated. The computer explains that due to the compound being several thousand feet above sea level, her act of opening the door depressurised the room and caused them to explode, thus making their deaths her own fault. This confuses Vienna, who points out that someone practically has done her job for her and has then paid her for it.
Spendlove sends Lili to the [[confessional booth]] to expunge her [[memory|memories]], where she is later murdered, and tasks Vienna with [[assassination|assassinating]] Parsival for the sake of the New Church, giving her [[sunglasses]] which will allow him to monitor her progress. He edits Clancy's [[post-death confession]] to cover up the fact that the two of them sold faith to [[celebrity|celebrities]] to raise the church's profile and goes with Vienna and Kendra, whom he informs of Lili's death, as far as [[Ossuary City]]. On the journey, he gives Kendra a [[hip flask]] full of [[wine]]. Vienna and Kendra ride [[Chidnos]] to the [[Sacred Tunnels]], on the way to which Kendra recounts how he found herself with stigmata and faith in the New Church after meeting Spendlove for the first time. A [[robot]] at the tunnels' entrance sends to Parsival their request for a meeting and it is almost immediately granted, surprising Kendra as she expected it to take a week.


Vienna visits the [[New Church of Wonderment]] where she is welcomed by Miss [[Lily Trick]]. Vienna states that she wishes to report a miracle. She states that despite having just killed people on Karnos Delta, she was suddenly filled with love for the New Church of Wonderment and the 'devine [[Arno Goodfellow]]', despite never having thought about him before. She remembers being back on the ship and praying to Arno Goodfellow to protect those upon Karnos Delta. The computer then interrupts her prayer to suggest that her new faith may be an infection, to which Vienna responds in a very prickly manner. When the computer demands a brain scan to check for infection, Vienna forces an update in line with her new beliefs. Vienna then watches her new hologram message by a [[Bax Spendlove]], who invites her to Ironimus Six so that he can tell her what Arlo has planned for her.
Vienna and Kendra are given [[robe of shame|robes of shame]] to wear as they are led to the fifty-foot tall Parsival, but Vienna is able to use a hypno leech on a [[monk]] to take her place so that she can slip away as she immediately recognises that Parsival is a hologram. She finds [[Percival Kendrick]], Kendra's former lover whom she wishes to care for since he lost his faith and had to be replaced with a hologram. Kendra explodes into [[light]], killing Percival as well, and Vienna is rendered unconscious until she wakes up on her ship with Spendlove. He admits to having put a [[thermal explosive]] in Kendra's wine and that he intends to destroy the entirety of the Old Church rather than just Percival. In turn, Vienna admits that she was never infected with faith and that her stigmata was fake and then gets Spendlove to listen to Kendra's post-death confession; in it, Kendra explains that she conspired with Percival to place his faith inside Spendlove to unify the churches.


After finishing her explanation to Lily Trick, Trick refuses her an audience with Bax Spendlove. Impatient, Vienna shows Lily Trick the true miracle - the stigmata of Arno Goodfellow, the founder of the New Church of Wonderment. This forces Trick to offer her an upgrade to a Grade 1 Miracle. Bax then rings Lily and asks that Vienna bypasses the examination process and simply enters her meeting with Bax. Finally meeting with Bax and verifying the stigmata, Vienna reveals to him her name and previous occupation. He then rings up Kendra Spendlove, his wife, and asks her to join them. When Kendra enters, Bax explains that Kendra was once a member of the [[Old Church of Wonderment]] before meeting Bax and seeing the 'true path'. Kendra explains that despite the current seperation of churches, that both churches would be stronger as one. Bax explains that Kendra is venturing to the Phantom Deserts of Osuri to meet with [[Parsival]], the head of the Old Church. Bax asks Vienna to use her skillset wisely and accompany his wife on her journey, much to Kendra's dismay. Kendra states that 'Mr. [[Clancy]]', their inter-faith adviser, wouldn't allow it.
Because of Kendra injecting him with Percival's faith for [[month]]s, Spendlove has a split personality and was the one who killed Clancy and Lili. The two personalities argue until they hear the voice of Arlo, but Vienna reveals that she placed the miracle lenses in Spendlove's [[eye]]s and that the voice belongs to Kendra, from whom Vienna removed the thermal explosive long before they entered the tunnels. Vienna has used the sunglasses and the miracle lenses to deceive Spendlove. The Percival personality opens the [[airlock]] to kill himself and Spendlove due to their inability to exist together and they are killed, leaving Kendra to become pastor of both churches. Vienna suggests injecting the real Percival with a new faith to restore him to [[sanity]], but Kendra refuses to use somebody else's faith to do so. As a compromise, Vienna synthesises a new religion for him: the [[Cult of St Viola Raven]].


As Bax and Kendra argue over the issue, they soon learn that Mr. Clancy has been stabbed to death with a [[grudge knife]], which enters the body, deposits micro-drones into the veins that detonate when they hit a vital organ. On the wall, in Clancy's blood, is written a message. Vienna explains that you can program the blood spatter to form a very specific pattern. In this case, it is a message reading: 'The Old Church will destroy all from within'. Bax seems to think that it is part of Parsival's scheme to destroy the New Church from the inside. Bax stubbornly states that due to Vienna having acquired more knowledge on the murders than the police have ever managed, that she ''will'' join Kendra on her mission to find the truth. Vienna decides to ask Lily how long she knew that Clancy was dead. She notes that despite using the intercom to attempt to contact Clancy, she didn't give him enough time to respond before checking up on him. When Lily protests her innocence, she suggests that perhaps she could take a [[memory scan]]. With the memory scan, she notes Lily walking in on Clancy being brutally murdered by a nine foot demon in armour, riding a horse. She explains that she is wearing [[miracle lense|miracle lenses]], which reinterpret everything the wearer sees back as a miracle whilst also filtering out things that may cause the wearer to question their beliefs. Due to the lenses being forbidden, Bax scolds her and sends her to the confessional booth to reflect upon her actions. Bax then asks Vienna to remove Parsival from his position, thus turning people to the New Church, to which she agrees.
Percival recognises Vienna as St Viola and informs her that he worked with [[Crevo Finn]] in the [[Magisterial Kitchens]] on [[Kazbar]]. She declines his offer to help her find him and asks him to spread his religion, intending on sending Mylo and the other faitless to him, whilst she searches for Crevo. Despite her usual rule of killing anybody who learns her true name, Vienna allows Kendra to live and restores her ship's personality so that she never has to hear any of the churches' mantras again.


== Cast ==
== Cast ==
Line 50: Line 58:
* [[Bax Spendlove]] - [[Frazer Hines]]
* [[Bax Spendlove]] - [[Frazer Hines]]
* [[Kendra Spendlove]] - [[Rachel Atkins]]
* [[Kendra Spendlove]] - [[Rachel Atkins]]
* Sargeant Lane - ?
* [[Parsival]] / [[Kreyfin]] - [[Mike Grady]]
* [[Kreyfin]] - [[Mike Grady]]
* Mylo - ?
* Lily Trick - ?


== References ==
== Worldbuilding ==
=== Food and beverage ===
=== Food and beverage ===
* [[Vienna Salvatori|Vienna]], posing as a soldier, notes that the inside of her helmet smells like sushi.
* [[Vienna Salvatori|Vienna]], posing as a soldier, notes that the inside of her helmet smells like sushi.
=== People ===
* [[Kendra Spendlove]] is an inter-faith director for the [[New Church of Wonderment]].
* [[Taz Becker]] is a holovid star.
* [[Winona Flack]] is a warpsled champion.


=== Religion ===
=== Religion ===
* [[Arno Goodfellow]], the founder of the [[New Church of Wonderment]], nailed himself by his right hand to the steeple of the Church of Wonderment so that the soldiers could not reach him. He hung there for seven days and seven nights. Once the soldiers burnt down the church, Goodfellow died. The mark from his right hand, known as the stigmata, will only appear on the chosen. Vienna received such a mark.
* [[Arlo Goodfellow]], the founder of the [[New Church of Wonderment]], nailed himself by his right hand to the steeple of the Church of Wonderment so that the soldiers could not reach him. He hung there for seven days and seven nights. Once the soldiers burnt down the church, Goodfellow died. The mark from his right hand, known as the stigmata, will only appear on the chosen. Vienna received such a mark.
* The [[New Church of Wonderment]] split from the [[Old Church of Wonderment]] roughly eight centuries ago due to differing interpretations.
* The [[New Church of Wonderment]] split from the [[Old Church of Wonderment]] roughly eight centuries ago due to differing interpretations.
* The Old Church pray for the departed from the faith and joined another religion.
* Vienna remarks on the lifelike wall carvings in one of the chambers of the Old Church. Kendra points out that they are real monks who have taken a vow of motionlessness to pray for Parsival. Only on death do any of them move.


=== Species ===
=== Species ===
Line 67: Line 79:
* Lane informs Vienna that it is against his religion to serve the Kreyfin.
* Lane informs Vienna that it is against his religion to serve the Kreyfin.
* Vienna uses a [[hypno leech]] to make Lane believe her credentials as a soldier.
* Vienna uses a [[hypno leech]] to make Lane believe her credentials as a soldier.
*Vienna states that Mylo is being milked like a [[Three Horned Quench]].
* Vienna states that Mylo is being milked like a [[Three Horned Quench]].
* The [[Chidnos]] are a spiky, wild beast used for transportation. According to Kendra, the end that doesn't make the noise is the beast's head.


=== Technology ===
=== Technology ===
* The soldiers use [[Beta 3|Beta 3s]] to communicate with one-another.
* The soldiers use [[Beta 3]]s to communicate with one-another.
* [[Kendra Spendlove]] has appeared in 'docuvertisements' and is known to Vienna.
* [[Kendra Spendlove]] has appeared in 'docuvertisements' and is known to Vienna.
* Mr. Clancy is murdered with a [[grudge knife]].
* Mr. Clancy is murdered with a [[grudge knife]].
* Lily is wearing [[miracle lense|miracle lenses]].
* Lilitrick is wearing [[miracle lense]]s.


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
* This is the first time we have seen Vienna not use an alias. In this context, this is due to her not having had time to fully prepare her identity before getting started on her mission.
* This is the first story in which Vienna does not use an alias. In this context, this is due to her not having had time to fully prepare her identity before getting started on her mission.


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
* Vienna states that her [[assignment crystal]] "got it all wrong". ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Memory Box (audio story)|The Memory Box]]'' et al)
* Vienna states that her [[assignment crystal]] "got it all wrong". ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Memory Box (audio story)|The Memory Box]]'' et al)
* Vienna sticks to her main rule and is forced to shoot [[Lane]] dead when he learns her name. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Memory Box (audio story)|The Memory Box]]'' et al)
* Vienna sticks to her main rule and is forced to shoot [[Lane (Bad Faith)|Lane]] dead when he learns her name. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Memory Box (audio story)|The Memory Box]]'' et al)
* When Lily protests her innocence regarding the murder of Mr. Clancy, Vienna suggests that perhaps she should take a [[memory scan]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Memory Box (audio story)|The Memory Box]]'' et al)
:* Unexpectedly, Vienna breaks this rule and makes an exception for Kendra, stating that she's already died once.
* When Lilitrick protests her innocence regarding the murder of Mr. Clancy, Vienna suggests that perhaps she should take a [[memory scan]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Memory Box (audio story)|The Memory Box]]'' et al)
* Bax uses a thermal explosive to murder Kendra. Vienna threatened to do the same to Norvelle if he didn't do as he was told. It was also used by Vienna as part of her endgame strategy in the same adventure. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Memory Box (audio story)|The Memory Box]]'')
 
== External links ==
{{bigfinish|vienna-series-01-932}}
 
{{Vienna}}


{{TitleSort}}


[[Category:Vienna: Series One]]
[[Category:Vienna: Series One audio stories]]

Latest revision as of 09:32, 16 August 2024

RealWorld.png

Bad Faith was the second story of Vienna: Series One, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Nev Fountain and featured Chase Masterson as Vienna Salvatori.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

Vienna Salvatori has seen the light.

Time was, if you lost everything, at least you still had your faith – but not any more. Faith stealing is the latest commodity to light up the criminal underworld – extract somebody's faith and sell it to the highest bidder.

On the trail of a faith stealing ring, Vienna Salvatori comes into the orbit of the charismatic Bax Spendlove, spiritual leader of the Church of New Wonderment, a breakaway sect of the Church of Old Wonderment. Bax has an important mission for his latest convert – and Vienna is a willing disciple.

But when Bax’s followers start to be murdered, it seems Vienna isn’t the only killer keeping the faith…

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Hunted by the soldiers serving the Kreyfin on Karnos Delta, Vienna kills most of the soldiers and poses as one herself by attaching a hypno leech to Sergeant Lane's neck. She joins in the pursuit, confirming her suspicions that her mission to infiltrate the Kreyfin compound was part of a trap for her, and kills Lane and cuts off his hand to gain entry to the compound when the leech starts to go flat. Inside, she discovers that the Kreyfin are stealing the faith of their prisoners to sell to those who want to add spiritual meaning to their lives and promises to return for the apathetic Mylo of the Society of Euphoric Happiness when the Kreyfin demand that she leaves; when she bursts into the Kreyfin's room, they explode.

Vienna learns from her spaceship that the Kreyfin died thanks to her unwittingly depressuring their sanctum and wonders why somebody has paid her to do a job which was practically done for her. She visits the New Church of Wonderment on Hieronymus VI and explains to Lili, a secretary, how she became filled with faith in the church's founder Arlo Goodfellow after leaving Karnos Delta, which her ship informed her was due to faith stealing. Disagreeing, she had her computer update its personality and journeyed to Hieronymus VI after receiving a hologram message from Bax Spendlove, the church's pastor, and receiving Arlo's stigmata. Spendlove personally requests her presence and shows the miracle to Kendra, his wife and a former member of the Old Church who wishes to heal the schism between the two sects.

Spendlove asks Vienna to join Kendra on her mission to meet with Parsival, head of the Old Church, in the Phantom Deserts of Ossuary and calls upon the inter-faith adviser Clancy to confirm that this would not be an issue, only for Lili to find that he has been killed by micro-drones released into his body by a grudge knife just as several other members of the church have. In his blood is written, "The Old Church will destroy all from within", a message which Spendlove believes implicates Parsival. Vienna deduces that Lili already knew that Clancy was dead given how little time she gave him to respond to the intercom and a memory scan reveals that she witnessed the murder whilst wearing forbidden faith-aiding miracle lenses which made it look like he had been killed by a demon.

Spendlove sends Lili to the confessional booth to expunge her memories, where she is later murdered, and tasks Vienna with assassinating Parsival for the sake of the New Church, giving her sunglasses which will allow him to monitor her progress. He edits Clancy's post-death confession to cover up the fact that the two of them sold faith to celebrities to raise the church's profile and goes with Vienna and Kendra, whom he informs of Lili's death, as far as Ossuary City. On the journey, he gives Kendra a hip flask full of wine. Vienna and Kendra ride Chidnos to the Sacred Tunnels, on the way to which Kendra recounts how he found herself with stigmata and faith in the New Church after meeting Spendlove for the first time. A robot at the tunnels' entrance sends to Parsival their request for a meeting and it is almost immediately granted, surprising Kendra as she expected it to take a week.

Vienna and Kendra are given robes of shame to wear as they are led to the fifty-foot tall Parsival, but Vienna is able to use a hypno leech on a monk to take her place so that she can slip away as she immediately recognises that Parsival is a hologram. She finds Percival Kendrick, Kendra's former lover whom she wishes to care for since he lost his faith and had to be replaced with a hologram. Kendra explodes into light, killing Percival as well, and Vienna is rendered unconscious until she wakes up on her ship with Spendlove. He admits to having put a thermal explosive in Kendra's wine and that he intends to destroy the entirety of the Old Church rather than just Percival. In turn, Vienna admits that she was never infected with faith and that her stigmata was fake and then gets Spendlove to listen to Kendra's post-death confession; in it, Kendra explains that she conspired with Percival to place his faith inside Spendlove to unify the churches.

Because of Kendra injecting him with Percival's faith for months, Spendlove has a split personality and was the one who killed Clancy and Lili. The two personalities argue until they hear the voice of Arlo, but Vienna reveals that she placed the miracle lenses in Spendlove's eyes and that the voice belongs to Kendra, from whom Vienna removed the thermal explosive long before they entered the tunnels. Vienna has used the sunglasses and the miracle lenses to deceive Spendlove. The Percival personality opens the airlock to kill himself and Spendlove due to their inability to exist together and they are killed, leaving Kendra to become pastor of both churches. Vienna suggests injecting the real Percival with a new faith to restore him to sanity, but Kendra refuses to use somebody else's faith to do so. As a compromise, Vienna synthesises a new religion for him: the Cult of St Viola Raven.

Percival recognises Vienna as St Viola and informs her that he worked with Crevo Finn in the Magisterial Kitchens on Kazbar. She declines his offer to help her find him and asks him to spread his religion, intending on sending Mylo and the other faitless to him, whilst she searches for Crevo. Despite her usual rule of killing anybody who learns her true name, Vienna allows Kendra to live and restores her ship's personality so that she never has to hear any of the churches' mantras again.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Food and beverage[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Vienna, posing as a soldier, notes that the inside of her helmet smells like sushi.

People[[edit] | [edit source]]

Religion[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Arlo Goodfellow, the founder of the New Church of Wonderment, nailed himself by his right hand to the steeple of the Church of Wonderment so that the soldiers could not reach him. He hung there for seven days and seven nights. Once the soldiers burnt down the church, Goodfellow died. The mark from his right hand, known as the stigmata, will only appear on the chosen. Vienna received such a mark.
  • The New Church of Wonderment split from the Old Church of Wonderment roughly eight centuries ago due to differing interpretations.
  • The Old Church pray for the departed from the faith and joined another religion.
  • Vienna remarks on the lifelike wall carvings in one of the chambers of the Old Church. Kendra points out that they are real monks who have taken a vow of motionlessness to pray for Parsival. Only on death do any of them move.

Species[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Kreyfin are referred to as the 'Lobster Mobsters'.
  • Lane informs Vienna that it is against his religion to serve the Kreyfin.
  • Vienna uses a hypno leech to make Lane believe her credentials as a soldier.
  • Vienna states that Mylo is being milked like a Three Horned Quench.
  • The Chidnos are a spiky, wild beast used for transportation. According to Kendra, the end that doesn't make the noise is the beast's head.

Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This is the first story in which Vienna does not use an alias. In this context, this is due to her not having had time to fully prepare her identity before getting started on her mission.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Unexpectedly, Vienna breaks this rule and makes an exception for Kendra, stating that she's already died once.
  • When Lilitrick protests her innocence regarding the murder of Mr. Clancy, Vienna suggests that perhaps she should take a memory scan. (AUDIO: The Memory Box et al)
  • Bax uses a thermal explosive to murder Kendra. Vienna threatened to do the same to Norvelle if he didn't do as he was told. It was also used by Vienna as part of her endgame strategy in the same adventure. (AUDIO: The Memory Box)

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]