Freaks & Facades - Session Four: Perilous Roads
Welcome back, my favorite people on the internet!
This is our story recap of Session Four of Freaks & Facades: Perilous Roads.
Our cast of beloved Freaks is officially in Ravenloft proper... Intervening in others' business, with violent results...
Since waking up in the backwoods area of Campanula, our friendly band appears to get along well with one another. They are not exactly fast friends all around, and every one of them holds their cards close to their chest; but perhaps with time they could be a proper adventuring party.
The Freaks currently are all in agreement: they must discover why they have been brought together. Some of them from entirely different worlds! And the nation's capitol of Port-a-Lucine is their best bet to obtain the resources to understand their situations...
But now they are in a scuffle with a group of wild mercenaries! Our band of would-be heroes made a choice, to aid the vigilante Night's Vengeance. And in doing so, they face the blades of the wild and dangerous Flying Wolves!
A bit of a shakeup occurred, however, as one of our Freaks made his bones emerge all at once from his skin. Not naming names... (Schrödinger)
Can they survive this seasoned pack of mercenaries while terrified of one of their own?
Can they keep Night's Vengeance alive to continue his crusade of disrupting the power and glamour of the local nobility?
Let us see if victory is in the cards for our friendly Freaks!
Warning: this is a horror campaign setting, so bear that in mind before reading. Possible triggers include: bones/bone manipulation, transformation body horror, skeletal bodies, mentions of violence and death, etc.
*starts projector*
- Facing the Flying Wolves, Solange and the newly bone-armored Schrödinger rush into the battle! The briars Solange pulled up harm the horses, but several of the Flying Wolves maneuver their steeds out unaffected. They and the Falconeater, the leader of the refugee mercenary band, ignore the interlopers and pursue Night's Vengeance down the moonlit road. The less agile riders face the party!
- Pryrrish and Channa are quite unnerved by the sight of their Lamordian companion's full transformation. He said he worked with bones, but this extent was never imagined!
- The man who was a eccentric nobleman of breeding moments ago--now a horrific bone creature. From his limbs an unnatural amount of twisted bones leap from his arms to create a guillotine-bladed whip of crackling, electric pain!
- It's frankly terrifying; but they swallow their fear as best they can.
- Channa swings her chain, and Pryrrish reveals her own abilities--firing off blasts of dark energy that latch onto the eyes of their targets temporarily!
- Fenri was already hesitant of Schrödinger's unholy powers. But now her new elven companion is also exhibiting a different form of power, and she becomes wary...
- By comparison, Fenri and Solange (the two most used to facing undead) watch the ghastly Schrödinger like a hawk as they fight. The two remaining riders are unhorsed easily, leaving one conscious to tend to their downed companion.
- The group decides to give chase in their wagon! Night's Vengeance is still outnumbered four to one!
- Schrödinger runs alongside the wagon, keeping pace--his body light with his hidden surplus of bones now external instead of weighing him down! There will be time for confrontations later!
- Pryrrish's augmented eyesight is able to see through the dark night, guiding them down the tracks of the mercenaries' steeds.
- They turn eastward onto a small forgotten path, only to find a small grove overlooking the mountain river! It is a scene of clashing blades and rearing stallions; the Flying Wolves swinging their weapons down upon the masked vigilante and his pitch-black steed!
- Outnumbered but unperturbed, Night's Vengeance dodges and parries while expertly maneuvering his frightful mount. Tiring and already wounded, he is quite delighted to see the party coming to his aid!
- That is, until Night's Vengeance gets a good look at Schrödinger in the misty moonlight. In his spiky bone armor.
- Resembling not a man but some skinless bone monstrosity; the likes of which he's never fathomed. Leaping across the field of battle with an electrified lash of bone!
- His fear overtakes him, and Night's Vengeance attempts to flee the scene, terrified of such an abhorrent monstrosity charging into the fray!
- Luckily, while the rest of the party hops off the wagon and rushes to face the Flying Wolves, Pryrrish stays near the grove's entrance to meet him.
- While sniping at the warriors with rays of blinding, eldritch energy, she is able to soothe Night's Vengeance from fleeing (and passing off the Flying Wolves to the party).
- He will come to appreciate this in time, his honor not fully stained by this frightful episode...
- Meanwhile, Channa, Solange and Fenri rush into the fray!
- Fenri rallies her companions and blesses Night’s Vengeance with healing as he passes her by. She is hard to hit with her armor and divine wards protecting her.
- Solange gets off her horse and fights with her flaming staff, flanking with Channa’s; whose spiked chain ripples with a damaging ward made from her own mage's blood.
- Channa has Iggy, her earth companion, leap from the ground to smash its rocky limbs into the men or their horses. Then back beneath the earth it dives!
- Blood soaks the ground atop Igneous... Unbeknownst to Channa, it seeps into the crevices and cracks of the familiar's stony body...
- The Falconeater, seeing her companions being outmaneuvered, and her target now protected, proclaims they were sent after Night’s Vengeance by order of the local authorities. That the vigilante has a legal bounty on his head.
- And, that Night's Vengeance murdered an entire family tonight!
- Doubt rushes over the party at this statement! But all it takes is one refute by Night's Vengeance, despite his barely-contained fear, to convince Fenri that the Falconeater lies!
- Slowly but surely, the Flying Wolves are defeated! The mercenaries are downed, most just knocked unconscious or unhorsed rather than dead.
- Unfortunately, however, the same cannot be said for the Falconeater...
- With a dangerous and unintentional twist to her spiked chain, Channa Devir the elemental mage kills the Falconeater! The mercenary leader is downed, and all the courage of her companions dissolves!
- Channa has never ever killed another living person. Small sacrifices in the name of magical research, yes; but never a person! The revelation of her actions shocks the mage as the remaining mercenaries surrender!
- As the wounded warriors try and right themselves to collect their leader, Fenri voluntarily goes among them. She channels her spells into healing them, giving them a fighting chance in the woods once they are allowed to flee.
- Meanwhile, Schrödinger retracts his bony armor, much to the relief of the party and other onlookers. Night's Vengeance stays by his steed's side, tending to it far from the unusual nobleman.
- Schrödinger walks with Solange to look over the remains of the Falconeater. The woman's horse does not allow the boneblade lord near its master's body, violently kicking him back. Without his armor up Schrödinger is quite hurt, on top of all the combat damage he took!
- Solange takes the lead in examining the body, and casts the speak with dead spell upon the woman's corpse. Inquiring, Solange learns from the compelled body that Baron Montagne, the leader amongst the gentry in Campanula, hired them to take down his enemy--Night's Vengeance.
- They were ordered to take him in should they come across him. Taken in dead, not alive!
- Seeing the Lamordian gentleman struck by the horse, Fenri's heart overwhelms her skepticism of Schrödinger's unusual anatomy. She attempts to channel a healing spell through him.
- Unfortunately, taking both the man and the halfling by surprise, the healing magic scorches Schrödinger's unarmored flesh! He has never received healing before that was not his parents' own powers. His body is physically reacting to the positive energy as if he was undead!
- Fenri's suspicions erupt again, and she is nearly ready to accost the Lamordian boneblade! She thinks his abilities come from a profane place, while he chastises for her harming him and accusing his misunderstood Science as evil!
- Solange is in agreement with Fenri but at the same time she is intrigued by the strangeness of Schrödinger. Almost drawn to him, as someone who also walks among the living dead...
- Channa defends Fenri, declaring against her hesitation that the trusts Fenri simply made a mistake with her healing magic. She would have no idea it would do that to him. Fenri agrees and comforts Channa about her guilt at the death of the Falconeater--accidents happen in the rush of combat.
- Pryrrish, still beside Night's Vengeance and his horse, silently agrees with Schrödinger. She knows what it's like to be misunderstood. Intention matters as well as actions...
- What remains of the Flying Wolves are allowed to take their dead leader, and the few warriors who did not survive the encounter. They have failed the Baron, and wish to burn their dead and leave before they get into trouble...
- Once the mercenaries depart, the masked vigilante heartily thanks the party--Fenri and Pryrrish especially. The notice in the town square was not from him, so he suspected something nefarious would go down in his name. He travelled the western roads and came across exactly what he feared!
- He unveils himself, tearing away an illusory disguise from his face--becoming Vincente the stableman before his saviors. Some time ago he took up the persona of Night's Vengeance to undermine the glamorous authority of the oppressive nobility. The horse Midnight is one of his master's; he paints its white spots black every time they ride
- But tonight, someone else has paid the price for his vigilante behavior. An entire family is dead!
- The Bonmot family, an upper middle class family of good people, were massacred tonight! Vincente/Night's Vengeance rode through the western woods, searching for something nefarious.
- And tragically, he discovered the Flying Wolves had killed everyone on the Bonmot estate! Three adults, and two children! Even riding their horses through the house, crushing the remains by their hooves!
- He was then spotted watching the tail-end of the massacre, and the Flying Wolves gave chase!
- The Bonmots had long been dissenters of the nobility and a charitable pillar of the community. As the Falconeater's remains had said, they were hired to eliminate the Baron's enemies. Tragically, not just Night's Vengeance was considered his enemy tonight...
- The guilt is eating the young man alive! They were good people of the town, and now they had fallen in the escalation of his war against the nobility.
- Despite the reputation the nobles attempted to place upon him, Night's Vengeance had never killed anyone! But tonight, Vincente believes he has, through his attempts to defy the classist oppression of this small town.
- Channa sympathizes...
- He fears it may be too dangerous to continue as Night's Vengeance; if the Baron will escalate to such a degree as this.
- The group attempts to dissuade his guilt and self-doubt, because truthfully the Baron Montagne is to blame for this evil done. But the man's guilt is bottomless! Vincente cannot be persuaded while the wound on his heart is still fresh.
- He thanks the group for saving him, and declares he must return before the sun rises. He must get his steed back in its stable before his master, Lord Chaveau, notices his prize racehorse is missing.
- The group watches the disheartened vigilante ride off into the night...
- The party, still tense from the disagreement and side-picking between Fenri and Schrödinger, returns to their campsite. They talk a bit before bedding down, and recognize they want to stay in the area a bit longer.
- Solange sighs at this. She feels compelled to stay like the rest of them, but in truth she really wants to return home. She's worried she may not have a job anymore due to her disappearance...
What will the consequences be of our band of Freaks intervening this night?
Was the Baron truly responsible for this night of atrocity?
Can our heroes uncover the truth?
Freaks & Facades will continue... Read on, readers!
Session Five - Consequences of Bravery! Click here to dive in!
We thank you heartily for reading! Our beloved Freaks have quite their work cut out for them!
Love,