Freaks & Facades: Session Ten - Get Out of Town

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    Greetings, friends!  And welcome back to Freaks & Facades.  This is the penultimate session of our first arc, Session Ten: Get Out of Town!

    Things got wild last session.  Damage was done, people got hurt (and not just physically), and now our group Freaks has to come together.  Otherwise, all they endured and sacrificed was for naught!

    Our party split up to accomplish the goal of ridding Campanula  of an evil preying on the people of Dementlieu (while feasting at the top with the wealthy elite)!  

    Solange, Channa and Pryrrish investigated the Baron Montagne's manor while he was out at the races.  And our trio may have made their presence known...  Stealing a dossier of incriminating evidence and the semi-haunted hope chest of a late Lady Marie Thibeaux.  Oh, and they set his house on fire.  Do you think the Baron--almost certainly the vicious Black Dog of Port-a-Lucine--will learn of their involvement?  Or will the chaos at the Chaveau races distract him enough to help our Freaks get away?

    Speaking of said day at the races...  Fenri and Schrödinger began their excursion with high hopes.  The intended plan was to link nervous vigilante Vincente with the ostentatious Claudine LaFitte, whose connections as an agent of some goodhearted nobles would be of great help to the man.  And despite some ego bruising of our Lamordian lordling, thanks to Claudine's performance as a heartbroken mess for all of Campanula to see, they accomplished that goal.  

    But, who should interfere, with a powerful presence unlike any felt before; but the suave Comte Dominic d'Honaire?  What exactly did he say to Claudine to drive her headfirst into harm's way?  Why was his suggestion to take a hike so potent in Fenri's mind?  Who is the Comte d'Honaire, and why does even Baron Montagne--master of hounds--heel before him like a whelping dog?

    What a first season this has been for our band of beloved Freaks!  As we descend rapidly towards the resolution, let us see who will survive to tell the tale!


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; fire, animal harm mentions, domination/forced compulsion, mental anguish, vomiting. 

*starts projector*


    • Bedraggled and anguished, the Freaks come together at their favorite camping site outside of Campanula.  Their endeavors with a split party were successful, but had costs none of them expected.
    • Our little band of accidental arsonists are the first to return to camp--Solange dragging a haunted hope chest from the wagon, while Channa carries the comatose elf Pryrrish to lie down.  They have acquired an incriminating dossier of letters, knives and strange vials from the Baron Montagne's own desk.  Only, it came a little late after accidentally uncovering the Baron's shadowy past with the enigmatic and extinct House Thibeaux.  
      • What happened to the late Marie Thibeaux to cause her death garments to rise as raiment spirits, and her pendant's likeness to shriek?  
      • Why did the Elemental Dark need Pryrrish to bear witness to such a dark history--now swimming before her eyes? 
      • And, were they able to get away unnoticed, during the accidental fire?
    • Solange immediately sets to work looking over the dossier.  She gets assistance from Channa in recognizing a unique code between the dossier's two parcels of letters.  But to their eyes it seems they were each written by a completely different hand, a different person.  
      • It will take time to decode this, but their attention is split while making Pryrrish comfortable.
    • The elf's eyes are pitch black, and she whispers at a mile a minute in elven.  The language barrier and this trance are beyond the gravedigger and elemental mage's capabilities.  But one thing is certain: the chains upon Pryrrish's skin from her pact--her warlock's connection to whatever Elemental Dark force she is bound to--are writhing.  
      • And the Tome, her patron's "gift", is practically purring beside the elf while they dreamlessly whisper.
    • Channa is too tired for all this.  Solange has the energy to start collating the dossier letters, but Channa suffered a lot of damage from the encounter with the raiments.
      • Solange does what she can to aid her friend's recovery; but Fenri will have more insight into healing Channa.  
      • The two joke about how the raiments would have given Schrödinger pause, since he vehemently denies the existence of spirits or ghosts.
    • Eventually, tired from walking, our racetrack group arrives at the camp site.  Immediately Solange and Channa recognize something traumatic happened.  Vincente (once the proud vigilante Night's Vengeance) is a nervous wreck.  Fenri is glassy eyed and practically marching to the campsite, while refusing to even glance at Schrödinger.  The lordling himself appears pale and desolate (which is saying a lot for Schrödinger...)
      • The wounds on Channa and the rest immediately take over Fenri's attention.  She rushes ahead and invests healing energy into her friends, while Schrödinger's first reaction is to examine Pryrrish.  Fenri gets very defensive over the comatose elf, not liking him being unwatched attending Pryrrish--seems there's trust lost between the two after their excursion to the races...
      • The news of Claudine's accident shocks the other Freaks.  Vincente is wracked with guilt, still blaming himself for the lady's misfortune (all to help him).  Apparently Claudine has been taken to her house with a healer, which is some slight good news.  But with the acquired dossier Solange and Channa know they need to reach the noblewoman soon to come up with a plan.
        • Fenri is still vehemently for going to Claudine's tonight, but she just can't seem to want to do anything but nap.  Thankfully her concern for healing is staving off that thought in her head.  
        • Fenri says, from overhearing snippets of their conversation, she suspects the Comte Dominic d'Honaire of doing something to Claudine.  Why else would she do something so dangerous?
          • Did he also do something to Fenri?  She's too tired to think on that now.  But the rest of the party ponders this notion.
      • Fenri uses a comprehend languages spell to understand Pryrrish's whispering.  She's speaking Elven alright; but its gibberish!  Words jumbled together randomly.  But between her and Schrödinger, the Freaks realize this trance is connected to Pryrrish putting this huge assortment of words in the correct order.  It is some sort of story, placed tangled up in her head from touching the now-silent pendant of Marie Thibeaux...  
        • Solange does not know of any House Thibeaux.  Must not be local to Port-a-Lucine...
        • Once Pryrrish untangles this story this trance will most likely end.  She's already got a headstart, so come morning perhaps she will be freed?
    • Finally, with nothing else to distract her, Fenri collapses for a nap.  The suggestion of the Comte d'Honaire is finally undertaken.  Being so extraordinarily stressed the last few hours, Fenri is almost grateful for the chance to rest.
      • While the halfling rests, feeling the candy sunflower left ungiven in his pocket, Schrödinger communicates with the group that something has happened to Fenri.  To Claudine as well, most likely.  They both seem to have interacted with the Comte d'Honaire in the Chaveau stables--and from that moment they did things that were wildly out of character.
    • The group can do nothing while Fenri and Pryrrish are unconscious, so they decide to camp.  Vincente is given a place by the fire but he sits beneath a tree to the side.
      • Schrödinger sits staring at the fire all night long.  He hasn't needed to sleep recently, his advancing science giving him more control over his physiological needs.  But the way Fenri looked at him, as a monster and not a man, haunt him through the night.
      • Solange also does not rest.  She spends the whole night sorting the letters from the Baron's dossier.  By the time morning comes, she's figured out that one stack must detail targets of some kind.    
        • Someone is commissioning these letters from multiple people to hide their tracks...  Is the Baron's own self-preservation, or whoever the Black Dog is beholden to?
    • Morning dawns, it's going to be an overcast day with the chance of rain.
      • Solange is exhausted from her night of decoding.  She's figured out that each stack details either specific "targets", or hints at methods or avenues established to "deal with" said targets.  
        • Channa takes what the gravedigger unearthed and together discover a consistent inconsistency: none of the Baron's secret letters have the same handwriting.  Whoever sent these letters to Baron Montagne (for certain the Black Dog) is obscuring any paper trail linking the cruel nobleman and themselves.
      • Fenri wakes up, her memories foggy about why she felt the need to walk through the woods and nap like that.  The Comte's words just had a massive hold on her, and it seemed so reasonable at the time.  Putting their heads together, Fenri and the others realize she was under some form of unnatural domination effect!  
        • There are many spells and charms to compel another to act; and Fenri thinks it could only have been the Comte Dominic d'Honaire!  Perhaps he's some practiced enchanter; that sort of knowledge would be readily available to someone so important in society.
          • But the fact that it was placed upon her disguised as an innocent child concerns her.  Was it a warning away from what was to come at the races?  Or a death sentence levied out with nary a thought?
          • And then a dreadful notion comes upon the group.  Claudine did something so dreadfully dangerous almost immediately after meeting with the Councilor.  What exactly did he whisper to her?  What could compel her to nearly destroy herself?!
        • Fenri prepares her spells in the cloudy morning sunlight, and successfully uses a dispelling effect upon herself.  Some hold upon her psyche, temporarily freed without orders, breaks off of her.  But it comes with a heavy thought though; whoever placed it upon Fenri is now aware the dominate person effect is broken!
    • Pryrrish suddenly sits upright, emerging from her dark coma!  Her mind is ablaze with the flashing visions of the unjumbled story that infected her!  What was nothing but tenebrous words flashing before her eyes became a terrible memory from someone long dead!
      • As she struggles to compose herself, the group tries to break the news to Pryrrish about what occurred in her absence.  She takes in the news calmly.  And she in turn attempts to tell the story as she experienced it.
      • She was experiencing a moment of someone else's life!  The penultimate hour of a woman long dead, succumbing to terror and death one dark autumn night!  
    • Pryrrish tells the tale, needing it to leave her lips!
      • One dark autumn night, near a town called Chateaufaux, there was a grisly massacre!  An entire house, the respected hunter line of Thibeaux, was finally hunted to extinction themselves.  Through the fear-maddened thoughts of one late Marie Thibeaux, while her household was torn apart by an enraged pack of wild dogs, Marie named the dreadful entity that had gingerly picked off her entire family over the years...  A Black Dog...
        • And on that dreadful night, the very last moment of her life, Marie saw it's true face.  Right before the Dog's terrible pack found her in the house armory, ending her life in a terrible, echoing scream!
      • Halfway through the story, Pryrrish gets an awful premonition.  She continues speaking, but upon opening the Tome of her tenebrous patron realizes the tale is being codified and scripted as she's telling it.  A permanent fixture in the otherwise unfathomable and maddening book of power...
    • The group thinks on this new information.  It seems the Baron Montagne is a bastard connection to the extinct Thibeaux line according to Pryrrish's vision.  And as they suspected, it seems the Baron has had command over hounds for some time, since the death of his cruel cousin.  
      • Baron Isaac Montagne I is a monster.  He even adopted the moniker his scornful cousin Marie gave to him, not knowing his true nature until it was too late!  The Baron is absolutely the Black Dog that skulks Port-a-Lucine, who hides his nature in terrorizing the people of Campanula. 
      • It even seems the Baron began to enact cruel vengeance himself from a remarkably early age, long before he ascended to the rank of Baron.  House Bonmot and the Flying Wolves are perhaps only two among countless families he's consumed or removed when usefulness ended.
        • He's described as a beast of bloodshed and cruelty...  If he can tear into meat with his bare teeth and command dogs; what else is the Black Dog capable of, once his facade of nobility dissolves?!
    • The group realizes, once this interlude is over, that they have to get themselves and Claudine out of Campanula immediately!  
      • They burned down his house and stole the only proof of his Black Dog plots!  He must have seen Fenri and Schrödinger at the Chaveau races, even with the chaos that followed!  
        • Through the interference-slash-"game" of Councilor d'Honaire, whom the group suspects affected Claudine and Fenri in the same way; Claudine herself is completely defenseless!  She's the only one who can get the Baron's dossier of doom to the proper powerful people.  
        • Vincente, disheartened from his lofty ideals as Night's Vengeance, is also at risk!  The Baron probably has never stopped searching for the masked vigilante.  
        • What's to stop the Baron from eliminating Claudine from threatening his position?  There is only our group of friendly Freaks that can intervene, ending his reign of terror!  
      • Through the "game" played upon Fenri and Claudine by the Councilor Comte d'Honaire; Claudine herself is defenseless right now!  She's the only one who can get the Baron's damning dossier to the proper powers--the only one with the connections to neuter his reign of terror.
      • Vincente as well is in no headspace to face the Baron!  He who used to be the Baron's biggest concern as Night's Vengeance; now the roguish stableman is disheartened by guilt and fear!
        • Only our band of beloved Freaks can get Vincente and Claudine out of Campanula!  Away from the monstrous Baron Montagne!  
      • Fenri is incredibly concerned for Claudine, specifically.  She feels very guilty about how she failed to be there for the lady, and believes with all her might that only she can heal Mademoiselle LaFitte!
        • Vincente agrees to go with the group to Claudine as well.  His broken spirit still aches with guilt at her getting harmed for him (as far as he can tell).
    • The stableman hitches up the horses, mastering them from years of experience. Schrödinger is a little jealous; but this frees up the party to prepare for departure, rather than spend precious time discussing who will lead the wagon's steeds.
      • Unfortunately, as soon as the group is about to depart...  A dog is spotted in the bushes by Fenri and Solange.  A dog with a collar, same shade as the Baron's blue hunting coat...
      • Solange attempts to communicate with the hound before it alerts anyone!  She casts speak with animals upon herself and pleads with the dog!
        • Tragically, the hound is far more loyal to its master.  And far more terrified of failing him than doing a favor for his master's quarry, the party themselves... 
    • Suddenly, at the baying of the alerted dog, more hounds suddenly rush out from the woodlands!   And soon, drawn by the hounds, riders begin approaching the Freaks' campsite.  Each warrior wearing a blue sash, representing represent Montagne's influence and coin on their minds.
      • Fenri is called out as the Hateful Halfling, wanted for disrupting the peace!  However, it seems Solange has earned herself a criminal moniker--the Ghastly Gravedigger!  Wanted for arson!  (Someone must have seen her fleeing the Baron's mansion!)
    • The fight is quite short lived thankfully.  Solange unleashes an entangle spell upon most of the dogs, allowing the party to face the Montagne riders.  Everyone works together while Vincente gets the wagon up a hill and onto the road.
      • Channa and her familiar Iggy face the riders.  Her spiked chain claims another life, and Channa is uncomfortable with how used to combat she's getting.  And Iggy is exhibiting... strange behaviors.  There's less patience in his movements.  More malice as the earthen creature appears to be adding to its form with blood-spilled dirt and bone fragments.
      • Eventually the group decides to ride the wagon away, heading towards where they believe Claudine's residence is.  But they are chased down the road by more riders, and are driven to the same glade overlooking the river--where they first faced the Flying Wolves and the Falconeater only a few days ago.
      • Finally the riders are felled, their horses scared off into the woods and the dogs limping away or dead...  Everyone comes together to patch one another up.  But then, they hear a single solitary rider approaching this river overlook...  
        • A husky baritone sings a playful country rhyme about lovers coming together once more...
        • With a cart and horse comes the farmer Terri Jollydell.  The helpful halfling the group hitched a ride with on their first morning in Campanula!
    • Terri Jollydell greets the party, having caught their chase through the woods.  He eagerly gives them supplies and food, and delivers a message: for a while his family has supplied Mademoiselle LaFitte with supplies, and Claudine wants them to see her!  Terri gives the group directions to her abode.
      • Seeing the party in low spirits, especially Vincente (who Terri doesn't know is Night's Vengeance), the halfling tells the group to buck up!  They've caused a stir in Campanula, yes; but that isn't a bad thing.  For a long while the people of this area have disliked the tyranny of the Baron Montagne and the gentry.  The group has made a difference that the people can build upon!
      • These are kind words to the group.  But the Freaks ponder if Monsieur Jollydell would feel the same way after seeing the carnage of their last fight.  They did murder several of his fellow townsfolk, though they were working for the Baron...
    • With directions and some lightened hearts, our friendly Freaks continue on into the eastern woods.  They cross the river over a bridge and find a tiny little cottage, far from the fashionable estates of the nobility.  It appears Claudine has been pretending to live as one of elite--a smokescreen of glamour to get close to the Montagnes.
      • A servant woman named Delphine is expecting them as they approach, greeting the party from a tiny garden beside the house greets the party, expecting them.  She leads them towards the cottage entryway.  
      • A dour elderly woman in gray vestments is washing up outside--wearing the holy symbol of Ezra, Guardian of the Mists, on her neck.  She is introduced as Anchorite Augustus of St. Mere de Larmes in Port-a-Lucine.  That chapel is the heart of the Dementlieuse faith of Ezra, residing in a sacred ruin in the center of the city.
        • Fenri has not met another cleric since coming to Dementlieu.  Perhaps this woman or her faith in the city could give her some insight into the newfound distance she has with Dawnfather Pelor?
      • Inside the main room is almost completely filled with trunks of clothes, up to the ceiling in some places!  Claudine lies on a bed by the fireplace, looking quite worse for wear.  Despite her heavy bandages the woman is busy writing letters, eagerly preparing another scheme: to get herself and the party out of Campanula!
    • The party attends to Claudine, filling her in on what happened during the heist at the Baron's manor.  Upon looking over the dossier, the noble lady is ecstatic!  This evidence will damn the Baron completely, she assures the party!  
      • She has them put the dossier into a safe that requires two keys--one she gives to Fenri, the other she keeps around her neck.  Now all they need to do is get the evidence to Port-a-Lucine, and into the hands of Claudine's secret cabal of do-gooding nobles.
        • And! with the reposed remains of the Vallee de Neige hermit (clearly poisoned by the Baron) they can use magic to get a witness testimony from the corpse!
      • Fenri flutters to Claudine's side and invests a very powerful lesser restoration into the woman, helping her pain quite a lot.  There is only so much magic can do for her now, Claudine needs time to fully heal now.
      • From conversing with Claudine, the group discovers that the Comte d'Honaire has had a beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered to her from the city, as a token of wishing her well!  A bouquet of yellow and white flowers--snapdragons, narcissus,, marigolds and white carnations!  How could the man get someone to deliver flowers overnight what would take a normal man three days riding?
        • Unbeknownst to the Freaks, this bouquet doesn't spell good intentions towards Mademoiselle LaFitte--hinting in the language of flowers at deception, trickery and an ego fascinated with the intended.
      • Claudine declares that she threw herself before the horses willingly!  This shocks the party quite a bit.  But Claudine continues: with the Councilor having given her attention she thought she could sell the "jilted woman" bit even further, and by making her seem desperate (and s**cidal) she thinks the Comte's empathy will compel him attend to her.  With such a powerful man looking after her, Claudine and her group will have greater access to the Dementlieuse nobility for their future plans!  She believes she is a genius at social convention manipulation!!!
        • This is, of course, complete madness from the injured lady.  But Fenri realizes that Claudine very likely suffered the same effect she also got from meeting the Comte's gaze...  The horror at being compelled like that has inflicted a delusional madness in the flighty woman.  Claudine currently believes her own hype as a master manipulator, when that is clearly not the case.  
        • Knowing better than to have the injured Claudine confront her delusion and risk further mental anguish, Fenri decides to talk with her later after they get to safety!  Later she will attempt to help them.
      • Claudine declares they must leave tonight!  She will have her servant pack up all the necessities and make a covering of her family sigil for the party's wagon.  That way, people will believe the Freaks, including Vincente, are her servants taking her home to recuperate.
        • The healer will not accompany them, though; as Anchorite Augustus was generously loaned to Claudine from the Comte Dominic d'Honaire.  Instantly everyone is suddenly suspicious, and looking at the front door it is obvious the clergy woman is listening in...
        • Vincente is very hopeful at this plan, convinced by Claudine's delusional enthusiasm.  Everyone else not so much...  Heading out through the Dementlieuse wilderness in the middle of the night, with the Montagne dogs hunting them?  
          • Tragically this seems to be the only viable plan they can come up with.
    • The group leaves Claudine to oversee her packing.  Feeling protective, Fenri decidedly trips in opening the front door, making the anchorite of Ezra stumble to explain themselves.  The party warn Claudine's servant to keep an eye on the cleric.
      • Solange, vaguely knowing the hierarchy of the Ezran Faith, recognizes something odd: an anchorite is usually someone just starting out in the clergy.  Considering this Anchorite Augustus' age, why has she not been promoted to a warden, or even a toret, with her own congregation?
        • And why is she in the service of Dominic d'Honaire, a simple priestess serving an influential Councilor of Port-a-Lucine?  Was she his personal healer?  Or a spy he places where none would anticipate her goals?
      • Fenri really resists the urge to stay beside Claudine at all times.  Seeing Claudine like this, beautiful and boisterous yet bruised, has the halfling feeling all sorts of things.
    • But our band of beloved Freaks decides to rest up by the nearby river, until they will meet Claudine that evening.  Rainclouds begin to form overhead, the air is heavy with anxiety for the party.
      • Vincente keeps to himself, finding solace in tending to the horses.  He is prepared to fight his way out of Campanula, but his heart is still broken at knowing he has lost his horse Midnight.  There is no way for him to recapture his beloved companion from the Comte d'Honaire.  Night's Vengeance may never ride again...  
        • The party gives him a wide berth still, out of respect but also out of self-preservation instinct.  Everyone seems to be undergoing some mental turmoil...
      • While keeping watch, Channa witnesses a pack of wolves crossing the river.  Luckily they do not appear antagonistic to them.  
        • Perhaps they, like the party, are wild things resisting the pitiless leash of the Black Dog upon their spirits?
    • Rainclouds gather above as the party rests.  A gentle downpour begins as the time approaches.  The Freaks and Vincente pack up and take their wagon to meet Claudine's carriage.
      • Dusk falls and Solange takes a moment to send out another message through the gravechatter channel--hoping to alert a fellow gravedigger or even her Order in Port-a-Lucine of her return.  She gathers herself and prepares several spells, unsure of what they will face!
      • Claudine invites some of the party to sit in her carriage beside her.  Fenri leaps at the opportunity, hopping in; instead, Solange chooses to sit on the carriage front with the servant Delphine.  The rest of the party will be in their wagon, escorting the rest of Claudine's trunks and the  remains of the Vallee de Neige hermit.  
        • Delphine helps the party attach a covering to their wagon, with Claudine's sigil on it; both to keep out the rain and make the wagon appear to be the lady's.  
      • Rain pours down as the party heads off into the dark woods, towards the southern road.
        • Channa has Iggy follow alongside the wagon, gliding through the rocky ground.  She really feels nervous about what her familiar is becoming...
    • Despite the weather making observation difficult, Pryrrish's warlock eyes spot something keeping pace behind their caravan: a figure in a red cloak, watching through a spyglass.  They appear to be trying to follow the wagon, but their horse is too big to hide well.
      • Pryrrish quietly alerts the caravan but the figure does not appear eager to engage.  They let them follow, attempting to disguise their obvious notice of the cloaked spy.
      • Schrödinger recognizes the rider actually!  It is Jacquard, the attentive friend to both Claudine and Lord Isaac the Baron's son.  But Schrödinger doesn't recognize Jacquard as any sort of threat, so they let him follow for now...
    • The road is slick with rain and mist; the downpour intense.  In the front wagon Vincente and the others notice a blockage up ahead: a tree fallen in the road.  
      • Solange, Schrödinger and Channa come together to try and push the tree out of the mud.  Pryrrish keeps watch with Vincente, and Fenri stays by Claudine and Delphine. 
        • Through combined effort, the trio is able to get the tree a bit off the road.  Solange tries with her gravedigging shovel to slowly shift the tree; the rest helping ease it from the muck.  But she realizes all too late that it was felled on purpose--it was cut from its roots! 
    • A hunting whistle gives a dreadful call!  Suddenly, from the deluged woods an entire herd of Montagne Riders emerge.  Dogs accompany them as well, led by the whistle of Isaac Montagne!
      • Lord Isaac brandishes a pistol at the trio by the fallen tree!  Someone has burned down the west wing of his father's house!  He spotted a figure, the Ghastly Gravedigger, flee the scene, having stolen something important from his father's study!
        • By the fresh bruises it is clear Isaac was punished by his father for not stopping the group's heist.  It's also clear Isaac is not aware of what the group stole.
        • Luckily, thanks to Solange's veil disguise he doesn't seem to recognize her as the Ghastly Gravedigger.  But he knows she is a gravedigger herself, so she must know the arsonist!
        • It takes rejecting every instinct for Schrödinger not to let any of his true boney self emerge!   
      • Lord Isaac is also suspicious of the party now suddenly serving Claudine.  Until they came to tea only two days prior, Lord Isaac was entirely unaware the lady had any connection to the party. Therefore, they must be kidnapping her!  Threatening the weak-willed and injured Mademoiselle LaFitte in order to escape Campanula for Port-a-Lucine!
      • The Montagne riders keep their pistols and net lassos at the ready...  The Freaks struggle to stay calm being surrounded like this...
    • Lord Jacquard suddenly rides up, alerting Isaac to his presence.  He rushes to Claudine's carriage, romantically hoping to rescue his beloved.  He also believed Claudine was being kidnapped, departing so rapidly after incurring a great injury!
      • But Claudine rebuffs him, telling him to let her be.  He tries to speak sweet nothings to her while "helping" her out of the carriage.  
      • It takes Claudine finally snapping to make him back away.  She suddenly lashes out with a stiletto knife from her cleavage, drawing quite a bit of blood.  She gets him at his shoulder only a few inches from the man's neck.
        • He stares at her in abject horror, seeing her "real self" for the first time.  Without the mask of her ridiculous social persona, eyes blazing with fervor and rejection.  She declares that they must depart for Port-a-Lucine now!
    • But Lord Isaac is still unconvinced, even by Claudine's fervor!  He declares they must all come quietly to stand trial.  Channa stifles a laugh, knowing that the Baron wouldn't let them live to give any evidence against him.  Especially none in their own defense.
      • Pryrrish outright rejects his proposal, and Isaac laughs at her protest.  He doesn't believe the elf can do anything against him, and even antagonizes her to do "something to stop him".  
        • She really really wants to unleash an eldritch blast at the unaware nobleman.  The Tome growls quietly as the dark energy gathers in Pryrrish's fingertips, behind her back.
      • Schrödinger attempts diplomacy but is outright rejected, scorned by Lord Isaac for being a strange foreigner.  Solange clutches her disguising veils, really wishing she were anywhere else.  
        • On the wagon, Vincente is frozen in fear.  The traumatic events of these last few days have stripped him of his courage, the suavity he had as Night's Vengeance...
      • Finally, Fenri hops out of Claudine's carriage and rushes forward to speak on their behalf.  She tries to bolster Schrödinger's attempt, beseeching Lord Isaac's better nature to listen to them.  Even he must recognize there is something wrong about the way his father commands this place!
        • Unfortunately, this being the first time Isaac has laid eyes on Fenri, he immediately recognizes her.  
        • From her posters in town--the Hateful Halfling is here!! 
        • The one who started the riot and began spreading lies about his father being a murderer!!
        • *womp womp*
    • Pryrrish has had enough!
      • The elf decides it is the time for action!  From her hand she unleashes a blinding eldritch blast upon Lord Isaac, catching him completely unaware!  He is nearly knocked off his horse from the great injury!
        • But the Dark Powers see this act...
        • In the moment of Pryrrish's eldritch powers impacting upon the misguided man, her powerful eyes are suddenly made aware!  
        • Aware of the man's soul nearly splitting from his body before recombining!  
        • Aware of the souls blazing in every living person around her, burning in a plane that is Near Ethereal!  
        • She is so terribly aware of the planes intersecting right now, in this moment!  
        • Her insight into the planes expands against her will.  And suddenly her skin feels so very itchy.  As if her soul has been malformed or reshaped in a way it cannot properly fit!!
    • With Lord Isaac blinded for the moment, his men suddenly rise up to capture the party!  Chaos erupts as the party raises their weapons to defend themselves!
      • Solange fights alongside Schrödinger and Channa on the front lines!  She wields her shovel well in facing the riders  (though she regrets leaving her lantern-staff in the wagon). 
      • Montagne's men seem to struggle to successfully hit with their nets and crossbows--the rain getting in their eyes. 
      • Isaac barks orders, shaking the shadows from his eyes, but his men are slowly picked off.  The dogs do not obey him well, only having his father's whistle to command them.
      • Channa rushes one of the riders and channels dreadful necromantic energy through their fingertips!  Paralyzing the victim with a ghoul touch!  
        • But the Dark Powers leap upon this choice.  The choice to exert terrible power in manipulating life against its will!  Suddenly, Channa feels their mind racing with newfound knowledge.  Knowledge of how to craft even greater, more dangerous spells.
        • Before a single word leaves Channa's lips of these permanent revelations, they suddenly expel a huge handful of rotten earth from their mouth!  From some unknown well in their gut, Channa forever knows the taste of graven soil--spitting it up every few minutes or so...
      • Schrödinger goes full skeleton and starts decimating the Montagne guards and dogs.  His bone whip lashing out, crackling with electricity as it slashes his opponents.  
        • The Dark Powers watch on.  Waiting...
      • Fenri unleashes several spells to support her allies.  She holds back her terrible strength, believing it is not too late to resolve this.
      • Meanwhile, Claudine keeps pushing Jacquard away with her stiletto.  He brandishes a nightstick just to block her wild swiping.  Her injured legs make her lunges erratic and she struggles hard, though there are quite a few near-misses.
      • Vincente watches all this.  All this carnage and violence.  All these dark powers and abilities tearing his misguided neighbors apart.  
        • In that moment, Vincente is not sure who he is scared of more--the Baron's son and his lackeys, or the Freaks!
    • Finally, the ex-vigilante gathers his courage!  He leaps from the wagon and onto the fallen tree, standing tall and defiant to all while rain pours down upon him!  
      • With a sudden shout that turns every head, Vincente Quint shouts out in the false bravado he once had as Night's Vengeance.  He "reveals" that this was his master plan all along!  
        • Laughing, he claims he "manipulated" this band of strangers into helping him!  He "coerced" the noble Mademoiselle into smuggling him out of town!
      • Vincente wildly claims to have even framed Fenri and Solange for their perceived crimes against Campanula.  He uses his special disguising abilities to flash between their faces, to convince the onlookers of those words' merit.
      • For he is Night's Vengeance!
    • All stare at the defiant stableman.  And many unfamiliar to him buy his convincing lies...
    • The rain begins to calm, just as Vincente Quint the unsuspecting stableman defiantly meets the gaze of every onlooker...


        What is Vincente thinking?!  Is he trying to right a great wrong?  Trying to stop the violence that has sprawled out from his acts of wanton mischief?  Or is he hoping to end it all in a blaze of glory, hoping to recapture the vigilante spirit he has lost?

        What do these new "mutations" mean for Pryrrish and Channa?  Until now they have fought and survived in this strange new world just fine.  But the acts committed on this night have somehow wrought supernatural consequences!

        Some unknown force has burdened them with strange tics and maladies, while feeding them greater insight and potential...  What does it mean?!

        It all ends soon!  The entire first arc has all been building to this very moment, in Session Eleven: The Black Dog!  Stay Tuned!


    Thank you for reading!

    Love,