B-SIDE: SESSION 3 (7/1/18)
[As an addendum to last week’s lore: Nisha also knows that it would take very strong restorative magics (greater restoration) to restore a person drained by a Hollow Fool – and killing the Fool might also work. Only relatively recent victims of the creature will be capable of being restored.
Also, unless the Fool has actually drained someone, other psychic harm it does is temporary.]
Cecile’s mother is looking over her, still trying to rouse the girl.
The burrow we saw is most likely a portal to the Shadowfell, where its lair would be. We don’t know of any way other way to cross back and forth, and don’t want to go in without a plan.
We ask Damian about restorative magics – he tries, but doesn’t have potent enough spells to do it.
Cecile’s mother, Amandine, agrees to back us up to the guard – that something is stealing children, but not us, and we fought it to try to save her daughter.
Liriel suggests we move up the show to before dusk. We also ask about the illusory tieflings – they may have been a Hollow Fool thing too, as they have powers of illusion and illusions can just manifest near its lair.
Silenne takes Amandine home while the party goes to the library, The Moonlit Reserve to see if the priestess there could help. As we move through the streets of Rothanvar, the spaces between lampposts seem to have deeper, darker shadows, each circle of light like an island of safety.
Fara bangs on the door repeatedly, until eventually the door opens to reveal, for once, a figure shorter than she is. Teresa looks ready to go out, in very fine but sedate clothes.
“I’m sorry, we are closed for the night-“ Fara: “It’s kind of a library emergency.” Teresa: “…these, are not words I usually hear together. Wait, Fara? Is that you? It must be, no one else would be dressed so fine.” “There’s a child in trouble – look, do you know this poem?” Fara recites the lines Silenne mentioned earlier. Teresa: “It’s back?” She seems very surprised that we fought it and lived, as well as getting the girl back.
We lead her to Amandine’s – Silenne is out front, and starts dramatically when she sees Teresa. She shrinks away, looking guilty, and stays outside as we go in. [“Teresa gives her a luigi death stare as she passes.”]
Teresa sings a long bardic melody to the girl, and slowly, life and color begin to return to her. Amandine and Cecile are crying in relief, and we leave them with well-wishes.
We leave, and Fara pays Teresa for the cost of the spell.
Teresa tells us some more history – the Hollow Fool has been haunting Rothanvar for a very long time, picking off children from time to time, usually when a circus is in town. She also tells us about a Playhouse that burned down fifty years ago - Verner Holtz lost all three of his children during one of the last bouts of Hollow Fool attacks, and he burned down the Playhouse in a fit of rage. She theorizes that there was a portal to the Shadowfell beneath it – children went missing there before, and it’s still believed to be haunted.
They agree to reconvene at the library in the morning. Fara invites Teresa out for the night on the town we’d interrupted, but changes her mind quickly when Fara mentions Silenne coming with. She retires for the night, and Fara wheels on Silenne, asking what she DID to upset Teresa so much.
She admits that she used magic on Teresa to get her to show her a book – but doesn’t want to say which one in front of ‘the wrong sort.’ Liriel and Nisha depart for their ‘night on the woods.’ Once Fara and Silenne get back to their room in the inn, Silenne admits: she was getting a ritual tome, which she needed for Ivandra. She spills the truth about Ivandra’s Faustian bargain to Fara, who is shocked and outraged. “So why did you need a ritual book?” “I wanted to make… a trade.” “NO!” “An eternity in hell… I can’t leave her to that.” “And you would feed yourself to that thing in her place?” “What else can I do?! This is the only thing devils deal in!” “How long have you known?” “The day we left, Ivandra told me. That was why you found me in the garden in such a state. She told me not to tell you.” “Why?” “I don’t know!” “You don’t know, or it’s another secret?” “I don’t! My best guess is that she does not want you to feel as helpless as I do.”
Fara goes on, furious, to tell her exactly what she thinks of this plan. She insists that Silenne will NOT do this, and she’ll be sticking by her side at all times to ensure it. Then, she drinks half a bottle of whisky until she can finally sleep.
-
[“Look, I have a LOT of characters. It’s hard to remember who’s bi and who’s gay.”
“We’re overthrowing all monarchy, beginning with the monarchy of Hell.”
“Genderless mermaid communists –“ “Merfolk?” “Mercomrades!”]
-
There is a ring of bonfires around the carnival site, set up in the hope of warding the beast off with light.
Liriel and Nisha report back to Osvaldo and Medea, who is still very shocked and out of it. We explain what we learned about the Fool, including the fact that the illusions tormenting Medea were most likely caused by it. We resolve to report what we’ve learned to the guard in the morning – Osvaldo and Damien will go, along with Amandine and Cerise, and hopefully will be able to clear our names. Liriel also suggests we move up the show to before dusk, and Osvaldo agrees that it’s worth a try.
-
The next morning, Fara visits a blacksmith to finally get some armor, a real weapon, and a shield. It is not fashionable at all, and when we meet at the library, she is quite deflated.
We troop on in – Fara insists that Silenne will be having a Talk with Teresa later and apologize – and Teresa starts gathering various books and tomes for us to examine. Nisha also pulls out periodicals from the time of the fire. Liriel [who got a nat 1 on her investigate] tries to read a book in gnomish, which she holds upside-down.
[Teresa, it turns out, had left her journal wide open and unattended on the counter while getting things for us. However, since our party is apparently the Least Nosy PCs Ever – and Liriel, who’s just too self-absorbed – we miss out on the opportunity to find out that she had been writing gay erotica. A tragic loss.]
As we continue to pore through reference material, Nisha goes into a back section filled with more arcane books, and with Liriel’s help, discovers a case with an essay on the Mirror Planes (the Shadowfell and Feywild.)
End of session.
