<p>In the basement of Grimaldi Manor, the family patriarch says a prayer and stabs himself in the throat. Blood falls. The demon watches. A woman tries to scream. Upstairs, three generations of the Grimaldi family and a snapping turtle fill the house with unfulfilled promise and joyful childhood shrieks. These are tremendous, terrible times for the lineage! The Grimaldis hold a contract with Their Lord Below for ten more years of prodigious wealth and glory. But old contracts can sour. Monsters can misbehave. And a filthy little lamb can still have teeth.</p>