Twilight's Children

Session 25, 8/22/15-8/23/15

Hide DM's Commentary

---

Previous

Next

---

Show DM's Commentary [Spoilers!]

Saturday, December 15th, 736 BC
Port-a-Lucine, Dementlieu

Ludovic, Duffy, Kerri, Joel, Leif, Kukri, Suriana, and Gavin leave the estate of Lord Balfour de Castille, late in the evening, with uncertain feelings and a sense of foreboding.

Suriana pauses to thank the group for their help, but tells them that she needs to find her students and let them know that she's safely returned from the Mists.

She wishes Kerri well on her lycanthropy cure, hoping that the potion Gavin brought her is a permanent solution, but promising to keep searching for another way, in case it's not. Before she and Gavin leave, Kerri has the idea to give her the Duffy-pointing compass found inside Vir's body.

That way she can easily find them again.

After bidding them farewell, the others check the contents of the chest Lord Balfour gave them and find 2000gp in mixed coins.

Suddenly, in the darkened street ahead, they see a boy standing and looking at them.

It is Nikolai Melentha, the ghostly protector of Marie Delacourte.

As he did a few hours ago,

he looks distraught and impatient. He tells them, "She's not at her house anymore. I can't find her!" and implores them to do something to help Marie, as Ludovic, Leif, and Duffy did seven years ago.

The last time they and Kerri saw her, one year ago at Councilor Chantreaux's dinner party, she seemed fine, happily settled in her new role running her father's mill, and happily engaged to the writer, Francois de Penible. They remember him well, as Kerri danced with him there, and learned about his work to change society and make the aristocracy aware of the pain of the masses. They later heard him read from his book, "The Pain of Plenty," as his entry in that evening's art competition. In it, he predicted that the only way to avert the undoing of society was for the nobility to learn the meaning of true pain, as the lower classes have.

Kerri ask the others, "So, you guys know where she lives?" When they answer in the affirmative,

she declares, "We gotta get there." Nikolai seems soothed by this and vanishes.

As the cathedral bell tolls ten, they reach the Delacourte home. They notice that, as one might expect, the second floor window has been repaired, sometime in the past several years. (This was the window through which Nikolai threw Jean, Marie's former fiance, to his death.) Seeing no lights, Duffy knocks on the door, then steps behind Kerri. After some time, a candlelight is seen through the windows, and a cranky old man in a flannel gown and nightcap answers the door. They ask for Marie Delacourte, but she doesn’t live here anymore, according to the grumpy man. Kerri pleads that they must find her because she's in trouble. The man retorts, "What kind of trouble could she be in? She’s rich! She’s got no troubles." When asked where she lives now, he says that he bought the house from her, five years ago, and has no idea what happened to her. With that, he closes the door, saying that he needs his sleep as he has to open his store in the morning.

As they turn from the closed door, they hear the boy's voice on the wind, saying "I told you so."

The five of them, and Kukri, head back to the inn, noting with thanks that Kerri has not turned into a werebat yet. It is the last night of the new moon, so they won't know for sure if she's permanently cured until next month.

As the six of them, and Kukri, near their inn, something doesn't seem right.

Duffy, Ludovic, Leif, and Joel are the first to notice that an intruder is walking in step alongside them. Duffy is the first to greet her. "Good to see you again, Mistress," he says, startling Kukri and Kerri.

Kukri then recognizes her and approaches, for a scratch behind the ears.

She replies, "Good to see you also. Good work, investigators. Ritual stopped, cultists in custody (with a few notable exceptions), father figures rescued, ... and stolen property recovered. Now then, what next?" They gather from this not too subtle hint that she has come for her books, which they have recovered from Cynthia and the cultists. Yesterday, she had promised that they would be rewarded for returning them with the name and location of Kerri's werebat progenitor.

Ludovic demands, "Were you just watching us and doing nothing?" She replies coolly, "watching is everything." Kerri asks, "was it you with the eyeball?" And she dismissively answers, "Please, I have no use for such things."

Ludovic asks her, "What assurances can you give that you'll honor the bargain?" She pauses, puzzled, and says, "None, other than my word."

Kerri senses in her insistence that this goes beyond her assignment; she seems to want the books badly, for personal reasons. As the party weighs whether or not to go through with their bargain, she sighs, "You try my patience. And theirs," indicating, with a wave, several shapes lurking on the nearby rooftops, the glint of crossbow bolt-heads shining in the starlight. As the party grips their weapons, she says, melodramatically, "Oh, you could kill them easily, but they are innocents, compelled by my dark and monstrous powers to fight to the death for me.

Would you sleep well at night with their lives as collateral damage?" Ludovic quickly replies, "Yes," while the others shout back at him, "No!"

A tense moment passes, but the group finally hands the books over to Mistress as agreed. The lurking crossbowmen fade back into the darkness and she continues as if nothing threatening had happened.

"His name is Baltasar Nobriskov, though he calls himself 'The Baron'." She hands over a rolled scroll to Ludovic, saying, "Consider this a gift from our mutual master."

She approaches a nearby artist's shop, with a painting of a garden in the window. As she nears the window, the paint runs and shifts and becomes a very detailed portrait of a werebat, its furry neck flowing out from the collar of a tailored suit.

"When you wish to find him, concentrate on that ... charming fellow’s face, and use the scroll. But once you do, be quick to give chase. He doesn’t stay in one place very long, a wise move for anyone who incurs Lord Azalin’s disdain."

Ludovic asks, "By 'mutual master,' do you mean Azalin?"

"Oh, make no mistake, you serve him still. Your little wishes don’t change that."

Indicating the scroll, Ludovic asks, "Will this take us to him?" She dismissively replies, "Read the scroll, wizard."

Mistress pointedly turns her back on the group and walks off down the street, disappearing into the fog.

Duffy "notices" that the store is "unlocked" and takes the painting, leaving behind the 10gp listed on the price tag. He reasons that no one will want to buy a portrait of a werebat anyway. Leif wonders aloud, "was the door really unlocked?" Duffy confirms it and seems to be telling the truth.

With scroll and painting in hand, they finally arrive at their inn for some much-needed rest. They retire to their rooms, with Duffy joining Giuseppe, who is there waiting for him. Duffy tells him, "We found a job for you, if you want it, and an apprentice." Giuseppe replies with with a twinkling smile, "Apprentices are a lot of trouble.. but worth it." Duffy fills him in on the plan to set him up in the gun shop with Jim Sneed, and to give him Vir’s remains as a bargaining chip in case Metus and Cynthia come looking for him. Duffy will keep the voice horn and a few other key mechanisms, and Giuseppe has instructions to direct the monstrous couple toward the party if they want them. Strangely, Vir's head remains "missing." (In Duffy's saddlebags.)

Kerri, Leif, and Kukri return to their room, and Ludovic and Joel return to theirs, where Joel notices that the wastebasket is tipped over.

Ludovic quickly checks the traps on his books and notices that the shadow conjured sepia snake sigil on the book of the Guardians' artifacts has been popped. But the perpetrator isn't still there, imprisoned by the spell, so either it was dodged, or there was a wizard with them who could dispel it.

He calls the others into the room to investigate, but they don't find any sign of forced entry, and the only scents that Kukri picks up are those of Joel and Ludovic themselves.

Exhausted, and with nothing else to go on, they finally go to bed.

Sunday, December 16th, 736 BC
Port-a-Lucine, Dementlieu
Ludovic awakes to see a small wooden carving sitting on his chest. He recognizes it a "pawn" from the giorgio version of drotche, known as chess. There is a note tied tied to the game piece. Ludovic cannot decipher it, as it's written in Vaasi. Reluctantly, Taige translates for him. The note says, "He will rise."

Ludovic briefly wonders if the intruder returned in the night and left behind the pawn and note. But he dismisses the idea, as it would be unlikely that anyone would get past the alarm bells he'd placed on the door without waking either Joel or him.

An even more disturbing theory presents itself as he remembers the way that he, Leif, and Duffy last saw his dream-self, with a gaping hole in the chest.

It seems likely that the weakened planar boundaries centered on Ludovic allowed the odd message through from the Dream World. He calls a quick conference with the others and they concur. They recall

that they still need to get the netherstone that they found in Kerri's dreams back into Ludovic's head to seal the breach. Kerri muses, "...and we haven't tried to do this yet? Well, I guess we've been busy. Maybe we should make a list of things we need to deal with." Recognizing a good idea when they hear it, the party makes a list.

The others inspect Ludovic's pawn, and Leif says that it's made of no wood he's ever seen. Kerri determines that there are no marks of any sort of chisel or tool. Perhaps it was formed by magic.

When they head downstairs for breakfast, the innkeeper asks Ludovic, "Did you find your key up in the room?" When Ludovic seems confused, he explains, "Well, you said you’d left your key in the room, and borrowed my spare. The spare was back on the bar when I got back from the pantry, so I assumed you found yours." Ludovic says, "Yes, of course. It was right there on the bed," and then mutters, "Dammit, Dmitri, what are you up to?"

A ten year old boy is waiting for them on the street as they leave the common room.

He tags along beside them and tells them, "I saw what you did at the fountain. Saw you fight the ice lady. You’re great heroes! And I need your help." They recognize him as the kid they caught watching them in awe. Leif had noticed even then that despite his shabby clothes, he was too clean to be an urchin. And that proves to be true as he invites them to a costume ball to find out what’s wrong with his father, the Baron.

Alarmed, they ask, "The Baron? Metus?" But the boy doesn't know who Metus is; he introduces himself as Ambrose Descarte. His father is Baron Didier Descarte, an influential local nobleman.

Ambrose claims that the Baron has been acting weird for about a month. He's been acting strangely and ignoring his only son, when they have always been very close. Leif inquires about his mother, and finds out that she died in a horse and carriage accident, a long time ago.

Ambrose sometimes sneaks out from home to play with the boys who live on the streets. It was those friends of his that helped him track down the inn where the party was staying.

At this point, they've stopped to talk near an open-air cafe called the Blooming Rose, and soon the cafe's owner comes out to ask if the boy is bothering them, and offers to call for a constable. They sense that he's more concerned about their conversation scaring away customers, and move further down the block to soothe him. But as the conversation continues, they notice from a distance that the cafe owner is now talking to a town watchman.

Joel & Kerri break off from the group and sit down to order breakfast at the cafe, hoping to overhear what they were talking about. Unfortunately, the watchman has left by the time they get close, so instead they keep their ears open for whatever gossip they might gather. They get a bit more than they bargained for from the conversation at the next table. Apparently, an group known as the "Friends of M. Pommeur"

are taking up a collection to pay for magic to track a piece of broken claw found at the site of the Ravenous Gargoyle attack. (Kerri looks down surreptitiously and notices she has a broken fingernail.) An arcane scholar from the University has promised to find the creature for them, at a cost of 1200gp. But so far, they have collected only 53gp. Before the claw was found, they had planned to give the money to Madame Pommeur, but they have the means to find and kill the beast that killed him instead.

When Kerri returns to the group and reports this, Duffy wonders, "So do we contribute to help them find Kerri?" but she only glares at him. Ambrose starts to get anxious and say, "I must go. I’m not supposed to be out alone. Please come. As soon as you meet him, you'll see what I mean." And he hands them a stack of invitations, dated for that night.

Duffy and Leif go to get costumes for the ball, while the others investigate whatever they can find about Marie's whereabouts. They start with the Goverment Quarter, hoping to find records of her move, but the goverment offices are all closed for Fifth Day.

They consider whether the University might be helpful, but it is an hour outside of town, and they are running short on time. In any case, it might be better to stay away from Lord Balfour for a while.

Meanwhile, at a costume shop in the Merchant's Quarter, Duffy asks if the proprietor knows Marie Delacourte, but he doesn't. While they are shopping, the bell on the door rings and a man walks in

Duffy and Leif recognize him from the party at Councilor Chantreaux's manor, last year.

He is Captain Reynard, of the town guard, and when they last saw him (and his daughter), he was passed out, drunk, while they were solving a murder mystery. Duffy bounds right up to him and says, "Oh, Captain Reynard, don’t you remember me from Councilor Chantreaux's party?" He stares at Duffy and tries to place his face, but seems to have trouble, considering the time that has elapsed and state he was in at the time. He continues, speaking to the shopkeeper, "I have been searching at all costumers in the neighborhood for a few people of this following description, 'A blonde woman traveling with four men, including one of vistani descent, and one with a large dog'." Leif quickly signals for Kukri to duck behind a changing screen and pulls a large floppy hat down over his face. Reynard continues, "They were seen this morning talking to a young boy. The boy is the son of a Baron and is a bit touched in the head. Prone to flights of fancy. Seems to have invited some rough people to party and the Baron has asked me to 'uninvite' them." Duffy shares with him that he saw a group like that staying at the Broken Spire inn. Reynard says, "Thanks for that information, sir. What was your name again?" "Carpatello." "Oh, yes Dr. Carpatello! Of course!" he finally remembers, as he departs.

Their shopping complete, they walk out with enough costumes and masks for the whole group. Leif will wear a feathery bird-like costume, while his "dog" will be dressed as a wolf. On the recommendation from the shopkeeper, Duffy goes with a crème color outfit with sparkles, adorned with "the colors of House Carpatello." Ludovic gets a cloak and a hawk-like mask, while Joel will be sporting a simple cloak with a voluminous hood, looking dark and mysterious (and oddly similar to what Leif usually wears daily). For Kerri, Leif chooses a scanty outfit of gold chain and silk, which leaves little to the imagination.

Meeting up back at the inn, everyone gets into their costumes and they hire three coaches to bring them to the Descarte Estate. Considering the fact that Reynard is looking for a group of party crashers matching their description, they try to avoid matching that description by arriving separately in small groups. In addition, Ludovic uses his magic

to transform into a woman to further mix up their group's composition. The coaches arrive at the manor a few minutes apart, and they enter the lavish home for the masquerade.

The majordomo announces "Lord and Lady Carpatello" as Duffy and Kerri arrive.

In the huge ballroom, they sit down at a table and talk with Ricard Diosa, the owner of the Port-a-Lucine Opera House.

With him is Comte Tomas d’Aloure, whom Diosa introduces as "the most eligible bachelor in Port-a-Lucine." He cetainly seems charming, and both he and Diosa are quite friendly and talkative, but unfortantely not about much of value.

Eventually, the two men retire to sitting room, and Kerri and Duffy decline their invitation to join them for cigars.

Leif and Ludovic enter the ballroom, and give their names as Monsieur and Madame Le Chevelier, which the majordomo announces loudly. They make their way to the bar and recognize somone familiar -- Councilor Theroux, the Councilor of the Arts. His boisterous demeanor and loud, booming voice are unmistakable, even behind his lavish mask and costume, which is similar to Leif's, but with more exotic feathers, and much greater numbers of them.

He is accompanied by a young lady, and is cajoling her to sample some Hors d'oeuvres. She demurs, saying that she is fasting today. "Hunger is one of The Forgotten Sensations you know, Councilor," she says. When Leif asks her about these forgotten sensations, she asks if he's read the works of Francois de Penible.

Hearing this exchange, Theroux recognizes Leif as "Monsieur Venraloft, the actor,"

and welcomes him warmly, introducing Leif and his "wife" to his companion, Mademoiselle Lucie Frenois, an aide to Councilor LaGrange.

She continues to gush about de Penible, while Theroux seems less enthused, and steers the conversation back to the theater. "I was so looking forward to seeing you act more, have you been in anything lately?" Meanwhile, Ludovic asks Lucie where he might find de Penible, and she is very excited to relate that no one knows where he lives, and "doesn't that just add to his mystique?" After a bit more conversation, Theroux is distracted by some other guests and flits off to join them, with Lucie in tow. But, before she leaves, she turns back to Ludovic and a strange look comes over her face. Her voice is oddly deep and distorted as she says to him, "There is a hole in your mind, and through it, i can see horrors. Beyond, chaos reigns." And in an instant, the moment passes, and she returns to her prior bubbly self, flouncing away with a cheerful, "Adieu!"

Meanwhile, Joel and Kukri have managed to slip in, unnanounced, while another guest was being introduced. They find their way over to the buffet and eat a bit while scanning the crowd. They notice a very old woman, also accompanied by a dog, and approach her to strike up a conversation. While Kukri and her dog sniff each other, Joel learns that she is Madame LaFontaine and she seems very interested in his travels, and the lands he's seen. However, she is very tight-lipped regarding details about herself, and the only hint of warmth she shows is a slight smile toward the "dogs."

Kukri will later relate to Leif that Madame LaFontaine smelled of "old lady smell," but a hundred times stronger than usual.

Duffy overhears some people talking about the sudden appearance of a stone wall across the docks.

One of the speakers suspects "those darn mages at the University." And the other agrees, saying that the city should evict them and make the site into farmland or something. Duffy chimes in and agrees.

At this point, they notice that young Ambrose has arrived at the party.

Ludovic watches from afar to see how others react to him. Most simply ignore the child, but some look on him with pity, and a very few seem happy to see him. Leif, splitting up from Ludovic, starts skulking around and eavesdropping on conversations. He recognizes Lord-Governor Guignol

in a long-nosed mask, and listens in as he talks to a "Dr. Wilhaven," about the theory proposed by a Dr. Zuvich, that the various legends of undead creatures? are simply attributable to madness and delusions.

Leif observes that this Dr. Wilhaven is in his early forties, and seems distant and distracted. His reactions seem oddly delayed, and he moves almost as if puppeteered. He is also unmasked, apparently not interested in having any fun.

The majordomo announces the arrival of Councilor Josephine Chantreaux and Captain Reynard. The two enter together, finish up a hushed conversation, and then split up to mingle. He wears a simple black domino mask, while she wears a delicate mask of black lace.

Duffy bounds up to Reynard and offers him a drink. Reynard accepts gladly, and after a toast to each others' health, Duffy asks him what he and the Councilor were talking about. Reynard says that there have been reports that the Falkovnians are gathering at the border again. And that rumor has it they're up to something foul involving soldiers with wolf blood!

Leif heads over to the other buffet at the far end of the room, and listens in on Lucie Frenois, as she talks to a man in a black and white domino mask, apparently her boss, Councilor Claude LaGrange.

Lucie has apparently just found out about some sort of hidden talent he has, and is imploring him to show off to everyone at the party, but he won't, bashfully saying that those days are past him.

Kerri accepts an invitation to dance and, while her dance partner is wholly uninteresting,

they dance past a dour woman that she recognizes as Councilor Helene duSuis, who, as Kerri remembers, sold out her people to the Falkovnians.

DuSuis is uncouth enough, or perhaps iconoclastic enough, to be wearing no mask at all.

The man talking to her

says that he's heard that there's been some unrest recently in the lower classes, after several instances of rot grub infested bread being distributed to the poor.

But duSuis, whose responsibility for Public Works includes the food donations to the poor, claims there's "no cause for alarm. Everything is under control." Kerri adds "poisoning the poor" to her mental list of the Councilor's suspected crimes.

Duffy has gotten a few drinks deep with Captain Reynard, when they pass by Councilor Chantreaux. As the slightly intoxicated duo laughs about some joke, she perks up her ears, then stumps up toward Duffy, holding her long skirts high. With a dour look, she demands. "Sir, remove your mask." Duffy, somewhat frightened and confused, complies, and she declares, "I knew it." Then she slaps him, hard, across the face! As he goggles at her in shock, she continues, "Give that to your friend Ludovic. Is he here?" Duffy cagily answers, "There's no one here answering to the name Ludovic." She grouses, "He'd best not dare to be, after embarrassing me as he has. I ought to have him thrown in chains and sent to the guillotine!"

Duffy, grasping at straws, asks, "Is this about the Falkovnians at the border?" But she dismisses the idea with a wave. "The Falkovnians are only posturing. Ambassador Vedarrak was still hounding Claude and me to approve an enclave here, but the "Day of the Hawk"

is near and he had to ride back to his master to celebrate the bastard’s birthday. Drakov will be wanting all his troops back in Lekar to pay homage as well. They won't stay at the border much longer."

"So... what exactly has Ludovic done?" asks Duffy, with a mix of relish and concern. She starts ranting again, "No word for a week? When he swore to contact Monsieur Chantelle in the morning? No word ...after..."

Duffy starts to ask about this Monsieur Chantelle,

but the Councilor barrells on, "I gave him my word that help would be coming. My word, doctor! And now rumors spread that i’m a liar."

Duffy is puzzled by this, since he knows that they actually haven’t seen her since January, after saving the town of Refuge from the Falkovnians.

As the Councilor has gotten more agitated, Ludovic has overheard some of the tirade against him and decides he needs to intervene. He approaches them, still in the guise of "Madame Le Chevelier," and whispers to Chantreaux that they should talk privately, showing her a small magical image of Ludovic in the palm of his hand.

Ludovic rounds up the others from around the ballroom, with a quick, urgent, "I need you." He pulls Leif away from eavesdropping on a conversation between La Grange and "the traitor" duSuis, and cuts in on Kerri, who was dancing with Compte d'Aloure.

Once the group is gathered with Chantreaux in a small audience chamber off the parlor, Ludovic drops his disguise. Chantreaux exhales through her nose angrily, raises her eyebrows at Duffy, and then looks pointedly at Ludovic. Duffy dutifully slaps him.

Kerri smoothes things over, convincing her of the truth, that they just arrived in town, and that it couldn't have been Ludovic, as he was with them in Nidala a week ago. Ludovic suspects that his twin brother Dmitri is responsible for this mix-up, and tells Chantreaux that there is a scoundrel with his face running around, and that this isn't the first time he's caused trouble for Ludovic. He continues, "Besides, have you ever seen me without them?" indicating Kerri, Leif, and Duffy. Flustered, she answers, "Only that one night... one time." With that corrected slip, even the least observant of the group figures out that there was something intimate going on between Dmitri and Chantreaux.

Recovering, she tells them, "I will have Monsieur Chantelle sent for and brought here. If you value your head, do not leave until you have spoken with him. I shall not be made a liar again. or worse, a fool."

As they head back to the ballroom to wait for Monsieur Chantelle, Leif asks Ludovic, "Why exactly did you need me?" But he gets no response from Ludovic, who seems lost in thought. Leif talks to Joel to see if they missed anything important while they were gone. Joel says that he talked to Ambrose,

and that the boy thanks them for coming, and implored them again to talk to the Baron. "Oh, and the Baron's here now," Joel says, nonchalantly, pointing to a man in the corner with a mask of golden filligree.

They also spot, amongst the crowd, the wax sculptor, Alexandre du Cire, whom they remember from Chantreaux's party,

wearing a finely crafted death's head mask. Duffy returns to his task of getting Reynard drunk, while Leif talks to Baron Didier Descarte. The Baron's responses seem stilted and slow, perhaps as if he is distracted by something. Eventually, the Baron asks outright who Leif is, and if he came with someone. Leif says he's with "The Councilor," to which Descarte retorts, "Which one?" as he motions to Reynard, who comes over, with Duffy in tow. Leif excuses himself and mingles, looking for other people seeming dazed like the Baron, but finding none.

Duffy introduces himself as Lord Carpatello, and the Baron says, "Lord Carpatello? I don't recall inviting you either. Reynard, check the list in my office." A slightly tipsy Reynard heads to the office. Duffy waits for the Baron's attention to shift off of him for a moment, and then follows Reynard.

Leif bumps into Joel, who says that he saw from across the room that Duffy snuck out. Alarmed, Leif goes to guard the door and provide Duffy some cover from discovery by distracting anyone who might exit through it.

Duffy catches up to a grumbly Reynard in Descarte's office. The Captain is starting to get suspicious of Duffy, and tells him he shouldn't be back here in the Baron's private quarters. But the jovial Duffy chides him, joining in with the grumbles he overheard from Reynard on the way, regarding the Baron taking him away from a good party. He slips some alchemical powder, which he had quickly mixed up in the hall, into Reynard's drink and offers another toast. As hoped, the powder has the intended effect of making the alcohol more potent, and Reynard's condition accelerates rapidly, until he falls over mid-sentence, and slips into a deep blackout.

Duffy searches the office and finds an accounting ledger, a personal journal, an invitation to a private showing at du Cire's waxworks, and the guest list for the masquerade, which he pockets. He notices that the entries in the journal and ledger end immediately prior to the date on which the Baron was to visit the waxworks. One of the last entries was a sizeable sum advanced by the Baron to du Cire for the creation of a tableau.

Meanwhile, back at the party, Ludovic, once more in female guise, gets a drink, and a man with the mask of a black panther leans against the bar beside him, crossing his arms. In a voice remarkably like Ludovic's, the masked man says to him, "Well, that must have been awkward."

Ludovic, infuriated, and not caring about the scene it would make, briefly considers what spells he might use on his vexing twin -- perhaps the swarming shadow monkeys, or a stone wall to imprison him. But ultimately, he calms his reflexive anger, and simply seethes, "Why do we keep crossing paths, brother?" "You would know better than I, what with your vistani ability to tell fortunes. Mother never taught me her people's ways," he replies with some bitterness, but softens as he continues, "How is she?" Ludovic tells him bluntly that their mother is dead. Dmitri looks darkly at that for a moment, until Ludovic interrupts his thoughts. "You've caused me a lot of trouble, you know." Dmitri seems surprised, but not apologetic, "Have I?", he says, "I just do what I wish."

Ludovic asks, "What other trouble might I be in?" He pulls out the wanted poster from Viaki and hands it to Dmitri.

Dmitri smiles at the poster, then says, "Well, there was the business with the Burgomaster's daughter in Barovia..." and rattles off several other assorted escapades in various locales. Ludovic says, "yes, that's the sort of trouble I'm talking about." He demands that Dmitri stop using his face and identity. Dmitri counters, "Why don't you change? In fact, you already have, 'madame.' Magic makes it easy for you." Ludovic is surprised, since he thought Dmitri had magical ability too.

"Father tried to teach me magic my whole life, but all those incantations and silly gestures were so boring... Eventually, I found another path, once I opened my mind to it. All that daydreaming when I was supposed to be studying paid off. I found that if I think something hard enough, I can push the thought from my head, right into someone else’s. Pretty soon, I had the old man convinced I was the perfect apprentice, but I was just making him see whatever he wanted from me. I do love him, but he just sits there all day. Seeing all, but doing nothing. That’s not the life for me. I’d hoped that if I found Mother or her kin, they’d understand me better. I guess that won't happen now. No one told me about you, though. That I had to learn from Mr. Shadowlands over there.

And did that pretty redhead girl ever find you?"

Ludovic confirms that yes, she did. Dmitri claps him on the back, scolding, "Oh, you look so grim. This is a party! Where’s your spirit?" As he does, a waiter comes up and offers them a canapé. Dmitri takes one and pops it in his mouth, saying "Mmm... that was delicious. One moment..." Suddenly, the waiter returns and offers the canapés again. He takes another and the waiter leaves. After savoring it, he says, "just one more," while the waiter returns, as if on cue, to offer the tray a third time.

Ludovic suggests that if he is insistent on causing trouble with his face, that at least he could leave town; Dmitri says that he will eventually, but right now he's working on a very fascinating puzzle. "Look, over there," he says, indicating two party guests in a conversation, "a red-thread, talking to a blue-thread. Should be worth listening in on." Ludovic asks what "threads" he's talking about, and he sighs, "Can’t see them? Pity. Well, it’s hard to explain to a mind-blind, but since I’ve been in this town, I’ve seen a number of them. People with, for lack of a better term, a thread. Some sort of... binding, wrapped around their mind, and trailing off into the aether. It was a few weeks before I noticed the subtle colors. Not literally, of course, more of a feeling. Some of the threads feel a little bit red. Warm, like the flush after a drink of strong wine, or after... other indulgences. Some feel blue and cold, clinical and detached, but no less grasping. The threads run through this city like a fascinating tapestry that none can see. It’s quite fun to pluck at them, or tie them into little knots." Ludovic asks if he and his friends have threads, and Dmitri says that Ludovic and Leif, at least, have no thread. The others aren't near enough to tell for sure. And he says that he's only seen these threads here in this town, so far. "Besides," he says, "I'm very comfortable here. Parties every night, the best food, and the women... speaking of which... She's here. you'd better go see her, and I'd better make an exit out the back."

Ludovic quickly tells Dmitri that the "Baron Metus" he must have read about in Ludovic's report, back at the inn, is the man who killed their mother (a detail he wasn't planning on sharing with Lord Balfour, so it wasn't in the report.) And he's now alive again, of a sort, and on the run with Cynthia. He implores Dmitri to keep his senses out for any leads on their whereabouts. Dmitri, solemn for just a moment, agrees that he will. "Well, it was good to meet you, brother," he says; Ludovic shakes his hand and, surprising even himself, says, "yes, it was." As Dmitri fades into the crowd, he raises a hand in a half-salute and says with a smile, "Be seeing you."

After he leaves, Ludovic says to himself, "Well, that did not go in the direction I expected. At all."

He muses for a moment that recent events have made him so paranoid, he's not sure whether to believe that Dmitri really has mind powers or if it's possible that he just bribed the waiter to act that way. And perhaps he had someone in the crowd prepared to make an arranged signal when Chantreaux arrived.

Regardless, it's time see what all the fuss with this Monsieur Chantelle is about. Ludovic rounds up the others once more, including Duffy, who has just returned from Descarte's office. They gather again with Chantreaux in the Baron's audience chamber and she introduces Gerard Chantelle, a nobleman well-connected with the Lord-Governor, and hence somewhat powerful.

He also happens to be Marie Delacourte’s uncle

and the matter he'd asked Chantreaux for help with is, in fact, her disappearance.

Although they already know she is missing, they don't let on, so as not to have to explain the little ghost, Nikolai, and instead allow Marie's uncle to fill in the details. "After the unfortunate incident with her father,

she sold the house and moved in with us, as it would be improper for an unmarried lady of her station to live alone. She’s been engaged for two years now to that writer fellow from Richemulot. It appeared they would marry soon, and she’d better, 25 is nearly an old maid. But now I am gravely concerned about the welfare of my neice, and would like you to find her. You see, in recent weeks I have been unsure of Marie’s whereabouts many times. When pressed, she would say she had been working at the hospice or at the mill or some such.. but I know for a fact that this has not always been the truth.

"Two weeks ago I became even more concerned when I saw long, red scratches on the back of her shoulder. Again, I asked, but she just adjusted her dress and claimed it was nothing.

"Monday night, she did not come home, and hasn't been seen since

"I believe she is seeing someone of whom I would not approve. I want you to find out what ruffian is doing this to her. I swear, if she’s fallen for one of those brutish peasants she insists on treating with such kindness...

"I’m sure you can understand that discretion is required. I will not allow our family to be scandalized further by her misguided affections. I knew no good could come of my sister marrying a merchant. I fear her daughter may have inherited her unfortunate taste in men."

The party assures him that they will find her. They don't reveal this to Monsieur Chantelle, but they have their suspicions about Francois, and unlike the elitist nobleman, they don't assume that only a peasant could be mistreating her.

"If it turns out not to be a new suitor, I suspect those Halan witches at the Hospice. Bad enough when she worked at the soup kitchen with Warden Louise. At least that was a decent, Ezran place, albeit infested by the poor. I don’t know what mad 'soul searching' led her to the hospice, but I've always feared her soul was in danger there. I wouldn’t be surprised if the pagans let some injured madman loose in their midst to assault her." Duffy nods sagely, and concurs, "That makes sense."

After Chantelle and Chantreaux leave the room to talk privately, Duffy fills everyone in on what he found in the office. They agree to keep their eyes open for more clues, but to wait to investigate the waxworks until after finding Marie. Back in the ballroom, Leif asks Kukri to sniff everyone and report back anything unusual. Not too surprisingly, du Cire smells like wax. The Lord-Governor doesn't smell unusual, and Wilhaven doesn't either, despite Leif's suspicions of his odd behavior. Unfortunately, Kukri is unable to get close to the Baron. While the others leave as they came in, Leif, using a bathroom break as cover, goes through the back exit to look for du Cire, who had gone that way, but there are too many servants bustling about and none seem to know which way du Cire went. Passing Ambrose on the way out, Leif pats the boy on the shoulder and reassures him, "It's going to be OK."

Outside, Chantelle's huge, ornate carriage awaits, and whisks them of to the Chantelle manor, at 17 Rue Messier. Marie's personal maid, an old-fashioned woman in her later years, takes them up to her bedroom, but is only willing to let the "ladies" inside (i.e., Ludovic & Kerri) as it would be improper for a man to enter. They search the neat and tidy room, and discover that the desk drawer is locked. Unable to open it, Ludovic shrieks, "eek! a Mouse!" Unfazed, the maid says she can handle a little old mouse, and heads inside. Leif stops her, saying he saw it run inside, and that, "It looked like a... dire mouse?" He escorts her downstairs to safety. And Duffy promises not to look at any of Lady Delacourte's belongings as he slays the "mouse." Once the maid is out of sight, he pops open the desk easily, finding some disturbing items inside. There is a barbed fishhook with traces of blood on the point, and a diary. The recent entries make it clear that she is completely enamoured of her fiance, never mentioning any other man, and the last one reveals some more disturbing facts about Francois.

They take a more thorough look around and find some flecks of blood under bed that were missed before. It seems the rug has been cleaned, but not underneath the bed. Duffy checks with his alchemical kit -- it's human.

They decide they need to go to Francois's home next, and ask Chantelle where he lives. He gives them Francois' address, though he says that he's never been there personally.

Though the hour is very late, they race to the address in Chantelle's carriage, as there may not be a moment to lose.

They are surprised to see that Francois's apartment is a simple room in a run-down tenement in the workers' quarter. Once again, Duffy just steps up and knocks on the door while the others deliberate. But no one answers, so he simply unlocks the door and opens it. Inside is a sparsely furnished bedchamber, with a few simple wooden chairs covered in well-made clothing. Kerri looks over the clothes and appraises them at approximately 1000 gp. Ludovic sweeps the room

and doesn’t see anything magical. There is a large panel divider blocking off one side of the room.

Suddenly, they all see a dark, mouse-sized thing scurry under the unmade bed. They ready weapons and move the bed, but nothing comes out. Duffy gets down on the floor and peers underneath. Something stings him in the nose, underneath the mask that he's still inexplicably wearing. He yelps and jumps backward. The sting doesn't seem to do much damage,

but he can feel the burning sensation of poison under his skin. The creature is revealed to be a black scorpion, as it scuttles back toward the bed. Duffy to squish it, striking a blow with his kukri, but it's still alive.

Eventually, Kerri whips it out from under the bed, allowing Joel to squish it. Duffy takes the slain insect to study its poison. According to Leif, with Ludovic jogging his memory,

scorpions are native to the deserts of Har'akir, a land out in the Mists, away from the mainland.

Beyond the curtain is a simple table and chair, next to another small table supporting a tank holding about a dozen more scorpions. Duffy notices that lid was slightly askew. They wonder if Francois might be reaching into the tank and that's how he got the wounds and scars described in Marie's journal, but it seems to them that this wouldn't cause wounds severe enough to leave scars bad enough to frighten Marie.

The other table is covered with oddly-shaped pieces of metal, razor blades, and spring-loaded devices with jagged jaws. There is also bunch of parchment and such, with disturbing pictures and writings. Duffy finds flecks of human blood on many of the sharp implements. Many of the drawings show chains attached to human flesh, barbs digging through skin, and other horrific tortures. One of the drawings depicts a ring of blackened iron, approximately two feet in diameter. Small loops of metal and chains are attached to it, linking together in the shape of a pentagram. Leif wonders aloud, "Maybe it’s just a chandelier?" But seeing the other items and drawings, Kerri concludes, "This guy is a little messed up." Duffy takes a look at a drawing of a contorted creature with painful disfigurements

and agrees, "yeah, this guy is messed up."

There is also a sketch of Marie:

On the top of a stack of fresh paper, Kerri finds indentations of writing from the sheet above, now missing. She rubs the paper with a piece of charcoal and reveals, "I will see you tonight, meet at the usual place." Digging through the papers, they find a map of the city, with an X marked in the laborers' section, just inside the city walls.

On their way out, they check the privy in the hall. The washbasin is full of bloody water. Ludovic leans in for a better look, and gets slapped, apparently by something in the water. As he jumps back in alarm, they see that it is actually a psuedopod of diluted blood. The contents of the basin are alive, of sorts, a mobile ooze of blood, with small bits of fleshy material inside, and maybe even a bone or two.

Kerri screeches at it

but it doesn’t seem to notice. Duffy splits it into smaller pieces with blasts from his gun and slices from his kukri, but it continues to attack them, as they crowd in the bathroom to try to fight the creature. Eventually Leif smashes it to death with his staff, spattering the ichor all over their nice costumes.

Needing to recover a bit, as the touch of the blood creature made Ludovic and Kerri feel ill, they head back to the inn to sleep.

On the way there, Ludovic reveals to the others that he met Dmitri at the party, and fills them in on some of the conversation with him.

At the inn, as they are getting ready for bed, Ludovic feels some sort of assault on his mind, as if someone is pounding on a door, trying to get inside. He fights it off, and deduces that it may be linked the the ring left behind when they killed Zorach the Widower.

He remembers reading in Van Richten's notes on fiends that a fiend cannot be slain permanently without destroying its phylactery, and that, once banished into the phylactery by the destruction of its body, the fiend can take over the bodies of nearby humans in order to be reborn. Concerned, but unable to do anything about it at present, he goes to sleep.

Monday, December 17th, 736 BC
Port-a-Lucine, Dementlieu
In the morning, Joel asks if anyone heard some knocking in the night. Ludovic tells the others about his concerns about the ring, and fears that Joel was attacked as he was.

Ludovic heals the blood disease from himself and Kerri by direct manipulation of their spirits.

They look around the inn for Dr. Van Richten, to talk about the ring. The innkeeper says that he didn't come back last evening. He didn't check out, but must have stayed somewhere else for the night. Concerned, they leave the inn, planning to head to Conrad's house to see if he knows where the doctor went. Leif, always reluctant to see his estranged father says, "Are you all sure there's nothing more urgent?" And instantly, Nikolai the ghost appears, and answers, "Yes, there is!

Did you find her yet? .. it's gettting harder to..." He begins to flicker in and out of existence, as if his connection to this world is weakening.

They tell him what they've learned. He knows the area marked on the map. It's mostly butchers, tanners, and other stuff they won't let near the noble section of town.

At Nikolai's urging, they head to the spot on the map. The building is an abattoir, and it's closed and locked. They spot a tanner working accross the street, and talk to him first. He says that the abattoir has been closed for two weeks. He used to see the owner often, but doesn't know where he's been.

As usual, the locked door opens easily for Duffy. Inside, a few unsalted rotting animal carcasses sway on hooked chains in a large slaughtering room. Instinctively, Kukri tries a bite of one of the slabs of meat, but Leif stops him from eating any more, lest he get sick. Leif looks for tracks in the dust, and sees that recent footprints lead from a small office to a rear storeroom and back only -- none to the front door where they came in. They check the office first. Shutters leading to the outside have been broken, and there are clear signs of a struggle. Ludovic has a flash of a vision, seeing Francois strangling the abattoir owner with a barbed chain.

They head to the storeroom, which is packed with hanging sides of beef and mutton. As they cross the room to the door beyond, the meat-hanging chains begin to swing as if there is a breeze, and Ludovic is suddenly ambushed by a hanging human corpse as it spins around, suspended on one of the chains.

The undead creature has only ragged holes where its eyes once were, but rips itself down off the hooked chain, pulling its entrails free from its belly. As Ludovic tries to run from it, the entrails lash out and grapple Ludovic, choking him.

The smell unleashed from the thing's abdomen fills the room, nauseating Leif and Kerri, who can do little more than retch.

Then two bizarre spiked balls burst from inside the monster and fly at Duffy. As they shred him with their sharp metal protrustions, he notices that each one has an eyeball at the center.

Joel enters a rage, and hacks at the undead with his sword, but its tough flesh resists most of the damage.

Kukri manages to bite the foul thing, injuring it, while a swarm of flies emerges from the rotting meat and joins in on the attack.

A fierce battle ensues, with most of the team incapacitated. Dodging the flies, Duffy shoots down the flying eyeball things with his pistols. Kerri manages to strum a magic chord of protection on her harp between bouts of nausea.

Some of the hooked chains animate and start slashing at them, seemingly of their own accord.

After what seems like an eternity, Leif and Kerri shake off their nausea, Leif runs up, smashing the undead thing with his staff, and it drops, but in its death-throes, it vomits a spray of caustic gore, wounding several of them.

The flies continue to bite and sting them, but Leif talks them down, offering the body of the creature the party just slew to eat, instead of them.

Exhausted and disgusted, they peer down in the cellar and see a gruesome sight. Lit only by a circle of candles in which she's kneeling, they see Marie, beneath the "chandelier" from the pictures. Her arms are outstretched, palms held inches above the flames of two candles, while two metal weights are attached to her forearms by chains hooked into her flesh. Over her shoulder in the darkness, they can make out a figure standing and watching, surely Francois. As she shudders and lifts her arms from the flames, the hooks pull her arms sharply back down, a trail of blood dripping down the chain onto the weights. She peers upward at the hanging contraption and seems to be sobbing... or is she laughing?

---

Previous

Next