Freaks & Facades - Session Six: Teatime at House Montange

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     Welcome back, friends; to Freaks & Facades!  

    Our story recap of our misadventures in Ravenloft!  Tonight's story has our misfits and misanthropes surviving Session Six: Teatime at House Montagne!

    At the end of last session, Our beloved Freaks are literally strutting into the mansion of the most powerful noble in all of Campanula, the enigmatic and dangerous Baron Montagne.  Father to the pompous scion Lord Isaac Montagne II, and the presumed conspirator against the local masked mischief maker, Night's Vengeance!  

    Our group has been invited to afternoon tea with this powerful nobleman, though perhaps the group was too hasty to accept it...  

    After all, one of our Freaks (not naming names, Fenri) incited a riot in town just a few hours ago!  In the Baron's own town of all things, proclaiming him as a murderer!

    With good intentions, our righteous Fenri could not stand by and let the Baron's lies poison Campanula against an innocent mischief maker.  Ironically, however, the Dementlieuse have quite a national pastime for revolt and riot against the upper class!  Things escalated quickly and our beloved Freaks struggled to prevent another massacre.  They quickly fled town, donning fresh disguises and a mysterious invitation to tea in their pocket.  From said massacre's presumed mastermind!  

    Our band of adventurers decided to conduct their own investigations before attenting tea.  Obtaining physical evidence of the Baron's plot, not just the word of a dead woman: from the Falconeater, leader of the Flying Wolves mercenaries.  Thankfully, the evidence framing Night's Vengeance (aka guilt-ridden stableman Vincente) has clearly been planted.  

    Perhaps while waiting for the Baron to arrive to tea our beloved Freaks can uncover his motives, and true evidence of his crimes?  

    Or will our group be drawn in to the decadent mire of the Campanula nobility instead?

    Let's see our friendly Freaks try to navigate a social call with a sociopath!


Warning: this is a horror campaign setting, so please bear that in mind before reading on.  Possible triggers include: mentions of violence, bloodshed and death; animal harm, dueling and blood, hunting, physical abuse mention, eating imagery, etc.

*starts projector*


  • At the end of last session, the Freaks were invited to take tea with Baron Montagne, in his isolated hunting lodge/manor.  A party of nobles seems to also be within the house at this time. 
  • Upon entering the Montagne house, the group sees the Baron's tastes are quite austere--function over fashion, as if the house is still a hunting lodge first and foremost.  And yet, despite his dull sense of decor, the Baron's penchant for hunting dogs is quite apparent.  Dogs in landscapes, in small sculpture, and don't forget those watchful statues lining the forested drive...  
    • The sound of hunting dogs is also very prevalent in ithe ambiance.  A servant girl, as she escorts the party to a waiting parlor, reveals that the Baron is a great hunter and has a kennel of hounds behind the house--almost a small house in of itself.  They run rampant in the surrounding forests when not at his beck and call, but they're extremely well trained.
    • Our heroes are to wait in this parlor, as the Baron has been out hunting since the early morning.  He is due to return just before teatime...
  • While waiting in this tasteful but lavish room, Fenri maintains her headscarf disguise and looks about.  The adjacent room exudes the sounds of music, clinking glasses and exuberant gentile laughter.  
    • Since the group was not invited to participate in this adjacent soiree, it seems the Baron invited them to tea separately.  
    • Or perhaps he is unaware of this party happening under his roof?
  • Speaking of possible partygoers, into the parlor stumbles a noblewoman, in an obvious state of head over heels intoxication!  Fenri ducks down under a table, on edge from the riot and what was uncovered at the massacre scene!  
    • The lady practically bursts through the doors, whining about needing macarons, and falls headfirst into Schrödinger's arms.  He freezes upon such forward physical contact, but he holds the drunken woman steady.  
    • She takes a breather and then realizes she's in the arms of a gentleman.  She bats her eyes at him--she's very heavily made up and wearing quite a scandalous gown, but she's a very handsome woman nonetheless.  She apologizes to Schrödinger, saying they've been drinking since the night before and she's dying for some macarons Isaac said came from the city!
      • She says her name is Claudine LaFitte, and then presents her hand to Schrödinger.  He awkwardly bows to social convention and kisses it.  Solange is a bit perturbed by this display for some reason...
  •  Another interloper enters the room, a polite (and quite sober) gentleman by the name of Jacquard.  He apologizes for his lady friend's intrusion and takes the inebriated Claudine off Schrödinger's hands.  Jacquard has overseeing the rowdy party to attend Lord Isaac since last night... 
    • He bows graciously and leads Claudine off to get her something to eat.  She giggles and flirts with Schrödinger all the way out, thanking him for being such a gentleman.  Schrödinger is a bit nauseated by that experience.  
    • Channa has an extreme dislike for the woman--Claudine appears to be everything she cannot stand about nobles.  Indulgent and lacking all common decency!  She met far too many people like her growing up...
  • With the Baron still away, the group decides to investigate for concrete evidence about his alleged crimes.  Any evidence confirming his connection to the Flying Wolves and their massacre of House Bonmot!  Perhaps in his private offices, maybe they're on the second floor!
    • During this discussion, it is revealed the group has several members of noble birth: Pryrrish admits her family is very influential in their demiplane palace, and Schrödinger's family apparently runs an entire town in Lamordia.
    • Solange and Channa are especially affected by this revelation.  They both begin to distance themselves from the pair; Schrödinger especially in Solange's case.  (She presumed to grab him when fleeing town earlier!)
      • Fenri sees no differences between classes and takes the news rather unphased. 
  • Breaking up this hushed conversation, Lord Isaac (the Baron's son) bursts through the parlor door!  He is insulting at the gall the group has, accepting an invite from his father!  They should never have dared to accept!
    • Fenri hid immediately upon the young lord's arrival.  So far no one but the servants probably know she is there (on top of her disguise).
    • From his unkempt appearance, Lord Isaac has been enjoying refreshments with his guests for some time.  Thankfully he's not as flagrantly imbibed as Claudine was.  
      • Speaking of which, Mademoiselle LaFitte loudly pesters a servant down the hall for those Port-a-Lucine macarons.  And more champagne!  
    • Schrödinger defends their choice to be there.  If the Baron wishes their presence, they will not refuse his offer.  It would go against every tenet of Lamordian social etiquette to deny this invitation.
  • But despite this argument, Lord Isaac will not stand for such defiance by those lesser than he!  He removes a glove from his hand and throws it down before Schrödinger!  He demands a duel!
    • Everyone in the group freezes when Schrödinger accepts and talks out the terms brusquely: he chooses the rapier as their weapon, and Isaac responds with "to first blood".  In fifteen minutes hence; outside, in front of the manor!
    • Isaac storms off with Jacquard as his second.  Claudine is rallying the other guests to watch outside.  Delightfully chowing down on expensive cookies and drinking champagne from the bottle...
    • Schrödinger asks Channa to be his second, and she goes out to attempt negotiating peace with Jacquard.  But Jacquard knows his friend, and Isaac will not back down unless Schrödinger apologizes and the groups departs.  
      • Channa, knowing her Lamordian companion well enough, and recognizing the opportunity this duel presents, refuses to convince Schrödinger to apologize.  
    • The duel is set!
  •  While Schrödinger prepares for the duel, the group makes a plan.  Channa and Pryrrish will go outside with him to oversee the duel, and to make sure it's on the up-and-up.  During the duel when everyone will be watching, Solange and Fenri will sneak upstairs and look for the Baron's offices!  Everyone agrees!
    • Schrödinger goes out to the space Jacquard has prepared.  While the two duelists remove any armor and examine their weapons, Claudine distractingly yells out that the winner gets her as a prize!! 
      • Though, after a pause to slightly remember decorum, she forgets that wager completely and swigs more from a champagne bottle.  Oh Claudine...
    • Subtly, Schrödinger decides to activate some of his bone armor beneath his clothes.  He decides to cheat in this duel; though Lord Isaac appears to have nothing up his sleeve...  
      • Pryrrish even looks over the brash lordling with her special eyes, but no magical or supernatural effects are on the Montagne heir...  He is putting himself completely in this duel.  He may have some sense of honor, after all.
    • Meanwhile, Solange and Fenri sneak through the house to the upstairs, looking for clues.  Everyone is watching the duel outside, including the servants.  (Excepting a small little scullery girl chowing down in the pantry on the expensive macarons).
      • The pair slip quite easily up to the second floor.  They peek into the following rooms with no success: Isaac's room (still quite packed up), a lady's room that's been largely untouched, and the dusty west wing that holds  dust-covered furniture and several uninteresting doors.  Nothing of the Baron's room or a personal office yet...
    • Isaac and Schrödinger stand before one another, rapiers at the ready.  (Schrödinger has a non-bone rapier on him for times like this when he can't unleash his powers.  He calls it "Plausible Deniability"). 
      • The duel is over so so quickly! As soon as Jacquard calls it, our Lamordian lordling easily parries Lord Isaac's risky blow and delivers a quick swipe on his arm!  First blood is drawn!  The duel is over, and Isaac is humiliated!!!   
    • Fenri and Solange are about to split up to investigate two rooms at the end of the upper hallway... Solange opens a lefthand door...
      • Suddenly!  An enormous, gray-muzzled mastiff leaps out from the Baron's bedroom, teeth first at Solange!  The noise is so loud as it barks and growls!
      • Outside, the dueling party hears the ruckus from the second floor.  Isaac, flushed with embarrassment, attempts to charge back inside to investigate.  But Schrödinger subtly sabotages his humiliated opponent, tripping him to the dirt without a hint of suspicion.  But Lord Isaac knows the dirty trick pulled on him...
      • Fenri and Solange whack the dog with their blunt weapons (sling-staff and lantern staff respectively) as the beast lunges at them.  It is a rowdy opponent despite its aged teeth and near-blindness.  Together they slam the door back on the dog and flee down stairs!    
  • A hunting whistle is suddenly heard, piercing the air and silencing all.  Including the dogs.  The nobles, guards and servants blanch; especially Isaac.  Dogs rush onto the manor grounds from the forest, swarming about the dueling parties and guards.  The Baron has returned!
    • Fenri and Solange almost are caught by a guard, just outside the first floor dining room!  Excepting the sudden intrusion of a panicking Claudine; who has rushed and anxiously glomped herself onto the guard's back, arms around their neck!  She is terrified of the Baron's return, seeing her in such a state!
      • Our two sneaky Freaks slip back into the waiting parlor, with the guard none the wiser!  
      • Jacquard takes Claudine off the guard and tries to calm her down, attentive and soothing.
  • Flanked by two great hounds, holding a slightly smoking musket and wearing dark blue hunting clothes, Baron Isaac Montagne I emerges from the shadowy treeline.  He is not surprised (only disappointed) to see so many young and debaucherous lords and ladies outside his home...  And his son covered in dirt from the ground, dueling sword pitifully in hand...
    • Upon seeing Schrödinger, Channa and Pryrrish; he politely welcomes them and apologizes for his delay.  He was pursuing a great elk this morning and it gave his dogs a hearty chase.  The hounds lick their chops, some still red from their victory...  
    • The Baron looks to his uninvited guests--Isaacs party that supposedly was to have broken up already...  He bids them all a good morning.  And like a gunshot all the lords and ladies attending Lord Isaac rush towards their carriages, calling for home!  
    • The Baron asks the party to return to the waiting parlor while he changes and the lounge is cleaned.  At his insistence they enter the house, while the Baron has a talk with his son...  
  • Rejoining Fenri and Solange, the split parties reveal what they uncovered.  There are three rooms upstairs that have yet to be investigated: the wing of dusty storage, the Baron's bedroom (with that bludgeoned senior mastiff) and one last room (possibly the office).  No evidence was turned up at this time.
  • Passing by the parlor window, shuffling after the enormous pack of dogs to the kennel, Lord Isaac appears.  There are quite extensive bruises blooming on him that were not part of the duel...  
    • Fenri and the others feel conflicted about knowing this; Isaac is awful but no one deserves to be treated like that...  The Baron appears to be much crueler than even they thought...
  • They hear the Baron walk upstairs, leaving one of his dogs outside the parlor door.  
    • Fenri is suddenly very wary of being in the same room as the Baron.  From that brief meeting in the magistrate's hall the day before, she's had this sense that he has caught all the group's scent...  And his dogs obey him almost militaristically...  And! with the riot she caused that morning, she doesn't want to meet him face to face!
      • The group agrees and decides Fenri will slip out the front when they go in to take tea.  No one except the servants (and maybe the dog upstairs) have seen her.  And in her disguise no one will probably know her...
  • The Baron's footsteps move from upstairs.  The group hears him pass by the parlor to the lounge.  The servant girl tells them to follow.
    • Entering the lounge, it is the most luxurious room in the house (save for the unused lady's room upstairs).  A grand piano, many books, an enormous bronze statue of a horse, and a crackling stone fireplace...  
    • Above the fireplace mantle, placed on a hook, is a large helmet.  It is covered in dark fur and has the snarling face of a terrible Black Dog.
  • Dressed in clean and tasteful clothes, the Baron bids them all to sit.  The servants brings in the tea set, trays of sandwiches and pastries, and a silver covered dish.  He personally pours everyone tea as they like it, joking at playing mother.  
    • Fenri slips out of the house.  Unbeknownst to her, in the parlor, the Baron seems to catch a whiff of something...  Having heard what Fenri supposed about him, the group is wary of such a reflex.
      • Fenri pretends to be Schrödinger's and the party's servant, heading to attend to their wagon.  The guards are convinced.  As the lady Claudine's carriage readies to leave, she beckons Fenri over.  Claudine wishes to know if Schrödinger is single, and what would impress him. 
      • Chaos gremlin energy boiling over, Fenri whispers to Claudine that Schrödinger loves the color bone white.  Suddenly invigorated, Claudine LaFitte calls her driver to take her into town instead of home!  She has shopping to do!!  
    • Back in the manor lounge, the group tensely hold their teacups in their laps.  Only Schrödinger drinks the tea until the Baron drinks and eats a salmon sandwich, then the rest of the party eats and drinks.  
      • Pryrrish specifically checks the tea and treats for anything magic.  All looks and smells fine according to her augmented senses...
    • When asked about his hunt, the Baron says his hounds are the best in the land.  They respect him, and follow him; or else be punished.  A bad whelp does nothing for the pack but risk everything that sustains them...  
    • The Baron asks each of the present party their names and histories.
      • The Baron is curious about Schrödinger's family, and how he came to Campanula.  There is no direct mountain path from Lamordia to Campanula this far north.  Schrödinger claims he's merely sight-seeing and changes the subject (to hide their unique arrival).  He asks if he could send a letter to his parents from Campanula.
        • Unfortunately, according to the Baron, all the mail in Campanula is sent to Port-a-Lucine to be sorted.  He could get a letter to them more directly in the city, and even hop a boat headed north easily from the capitol.  Winter is only a few weeks away, and they shouldn't risk travelling north from such an out-of-the-way place as Campanula... There are wolves about, after all... 
      • When Channa and Pryrrish reveal they are from a realm called Eberron, the Baron recognizes the name and why they had trouble at the currency exchange.  Some months ago a man appeared claiming to be from such a land, and was the talk of Port-a-Lucine for a time.  But then scoundrels began attempting fraud claiming to be from Eberron.  One such charlatan attempted to exchange ill-gotten gold "from Eberron" for government coin, right there in Campanula.  So the Baron has the Magistrate be extra vigilant to those that throw that name around.
        • That original Eberron celebrity is supposedly at the University of Dementlieu now, outside of Port-a-Lucine.  Channa is immediately intrigued!  Maybe it is Destir after all!!
      • Solange's badge is recognized by the Baron as being from the Order of the Moonlight Vigil.  He is curious what a gravedigger of St. Leonburg's Cemetery is doing so far north.  Clutching her disguising veils tighter, Solange merely says she goes where she is called as a gravedigger...   
  • The Baron puts down his sandwich, he doesn't particularly likes salmon or things like macarons or cream puffs.  Such indulgences are a favorite of his son; a byproduct of living too long in the city coddled by his mother...
    • The Baron continues: he apologizes for being a bit distracted from, some news came to him while he changed for tea.  Not only was there a massacre of the good family of Bonmot by the notorious Night's Vengeance; there has been a riot in town since he went out hunting.  The dogs biting the hands that direct and feed them, it seems.
      • The group thinks about Fenri and the repercussions of her actions.
    • And, on top of such dreadful news, something equally terrible was uncovered just an hour ago.  A band of mercenaries was found massacred overnight!  What a terrible twenty four hours in Campanula, he says.
      • Doing their best not to reveal their emotions, the group asks about that last piece of news.  The Baron continues: an ex-Falkovnian band known apparently as the Flying Wolves attempted to camp in the Vallee de Neige last night.  The valley is a cursed place that the locals claim is dangerously cursed...  Someone should have warned them!
  • But, sighs the Baron, that is the way it is with Wolves (flying or not).  He vastly prefers dogs to such wildly romanticized beasts.  Wolves are forever outliers to the tenets of civilization, preferring to starve to death out of wild pride rather than have the good sense to obey good advice and a steady hand.  
    • They live carefree but think not of their pack's longevity, their survival against an evolving world, their legacy...  But being the mercenaries were ex-Falkovnians, it sadly makes sense they wouldn't wish to follow orders, admits the Baron.  He shouldn't have even attempted to ever guide wolves over his dogs, they cannot even serve well if they try...
    • Speaking of wolves, the Baron continues, his son does not understand the lessons he was brought up to understand.  Coming from the city, untested by this wilderness, he thinks he's a pack leader among the petty youth among the nobility.  But he's only revealed himself to be a whelp with all bark and no bite.  And the Baron has been lenient with him out of ill-thought favoritism.  Not anymore...
  • The group is very uncomfortable with such a philosophy.  The noble-born Schrödinger and Pryrrish see this man has clawed his way to the top by this mindset.  
    • Channa is terrified, knowing just how creative the repercussions of defying the nobility can become.  She realizes Isaac is in for quite a cruel lesson ahead...  
    • Solange sees this man has committed great evils in the name of this pack survival philosophy.  Not only has he damned an innocent family to death and framed a mischievous vigilante, but now somehow, he has removed his executioners (the Flying Wolves) for failing in their task...  All in the span of one single night...   
  • The Baron decides to uncover the covered dish.  On its platter are several juicy steaks.  He tosses one to his attentive hound, which devours it bloodily on the nice wooden floors.  A reward for taking down the elk on his hunt. 
    • Looking to the party, the Baron's manner is polite but deadly cold.  He believes they should head to Port-a-Lucine.  Campanula has its "charms" but it is still wilderness, after all.  Primeur, the great national celebration of wine and the harvest, is next week--the perfect time to be in the city.  
      • After that, who knows how soon winter will descend upon all in Campanula?  Obviously, his dogs will need to hunt for food with more tenacity in the woods...
    • The Baron watches the group carefully.  He takes a steak in his bare hands and takes a bite out of it in front of them.  Its raw, stringy meat is torn too cleanly by his teeth.  
  • The Baron says he must attend to his duties, cleaning up the mess that's occurred in his town.  He begins to leave, the dog following him.
    • But, standing in the doorway, he turns around briefly.  He thanks the group for not stabbing his dog upstairs.  It's a loyal beast that served him well.  A few bumps on the head will recover much quicker.  But they shouldn't do that again...
  • Our group aspiring heroes, stomachs bottomed out from fear, practically rush out of Montagne's manor as soon he and his dogs are out of earshot!    
    • Fenri is taken aback by the reaction of her friends, but she wordlessly directs the wagon horses to get them the heck out of there!  As fast as their hooves can carry them!

    With the cruelty and power of Baron Montagne laid bare before them, how will our heroes decide to act?

    Will our friendly Freaks forge forward and aid this oppressed town despite the risks?  Or flee for Port-a-Lucine as the Baron so eloquently recommended?


    Find out next time on Freaks & Facades!!!
    
    In Session Seven: What Remains!  [WIP]

    Thank you all for reading!  Things are gonna get even more twisted from here on out! B-)

Love,