Freaks & Facades: Session Fourteen - The House of Wax

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     Welcome, you fine and friendly creatures of the night! We humbly welcome you to our latest Freaks & Facades banquet: Session Fourteen - The House of Wax!

    It has been some time since our last update.  Our group of friendly Freaks decided to end their first night of Primeur at the mystifying House of Wax, tantalized by the mysteries it holds.  And tragically our hungry readers have been left in suspense!  
    No more!  So what will come of this next leap into the festivities of Primeur?  Who is the mysterious figure following our Freaks as they walk the festival streets?  
    We return to our story of Freaks & Facades, so chew our story thoroughly as this next chapter unfolds!  We wouldn't wish you to choke upon what horrors we have on offer tonight...
    This is quite a long one so get cozy and enjoy!

Warning: this is a horror campaign setting, so please bear that in mind before reading on.  References/triggers include: creepy statues/wax figures, infanticide, poison and alcohol, giant animals, acts of violence, panic attacks, skeletons, body horror, depictions of hell, pyrotechnics...


*starts projector*

  • The party walks through Port-a-Lucine, down a great decorated thoroughfare.  Primeur is in full swing and our friendly Freaks are eager to experience it all!  Dementlieu's capitol is bursting with sights to see, delights to peruse and memories to make.  
    • The group struts down the busy Quartier Publique, avoiding the merriment that overflows from the city's finest taverns and tasting halls.  People dance in the plazas and parks off the main thoroughfare, their feet compelled to celebrate by the Dementlieuse musicians eager for coin.  Vendors hawk glorious foods and fine drink to those with spending money and hungry bellies.  Despite the late hour, the city is awake and will remain so until dawn--and then the festivities will continue on for the next few nights.
    • Channa proudly swishes their second place ribbon from the Descartes Dueling Tourney upon their chest.  They are equally pleased with their new masculine haircut and outfit ensemble.  The autumn breeze feels wonderful in new slacks and a woolen overcoat.
      • Everyone in the group is very proud of their companion's accomplishments.  Fenri and Schrödinger both compliment their exceptional match well against the dashing Capitan Reynard.
      • Schrödinger appreciates Reynard's mastery over his physical peak.  He was an excellent challenger to lose to.
        • Very different emotions making her heart pound, Fenri also admires Reynard's physique.  Plus, he is so handsome and charming...  This tiny woman has a heart big enough for many crushes it seems.
    • The rest of the group excitedly ponder what the House of Wax could have on display.  Supposedly it is a famed attraction of many wax sculpture tableaus, but no one knows what to expect!  
      • Solange rarely went into the city, due to her duties at the Order of the Moonlit Vigil.  (Now that she is back the caliban oddly isn't eager to return to the solitude of the graveyard and catacombs...  
    • Unknown to our distracted party, a small figure follows them from the shadows of alleyways and festival stalls...   
      • While Pryrrish would normally have noticed this tagalong, she is currently listening to the Lamordian eagerly offer theories on what lays ahead.  And with the elf's cloak turned up to blend in with the crowd, Pryrrish's swirling eyes are looking only ahead...  
      • So the small mysterious person follows them...  And none of our Friendly Freaks are the wiser...
  • The House of Wax rises three stories tall, set among several other rowhouses.  Unlike its neighbors, an extravagant porch entryway welcomes all who are willing to pay a single silver lunar admission.  The sign above the entry depicts the building's name, flanked on either side by the classic theatrical happy-sad masques.  A slender man in a silk tophat and shimmering cape beckons brave souls to dare enter his house of horrors.  With  every gesture of his white gloves and twitch of his coiffed mustache, the master sculptor Alexandre du Cire is welcoming visitors!
    • A small child, tugging on a bedraggled female caregiver, whines loudly to go inside!  To the woman's relief, the beckoning showman distracts the child and guides the pair inside just as the party reaches the building.
    • Du Cire man sees our adventurers approach and twists his  his elegant mustache, intrigued by the diverse lot of them.  He gives an elegant bow, proclaiming he is the master sculptor du Cire himself!  
      • When asked about the House of Wax, the man playfully describes it a house of many tales.  Each tableau depicts a spinechilling story from all manner of lands across the continent.  He promises them an unforgettable experience, all for the fare of a single lunar.  They are open late for Primeur, so festivalgoers may end their long night celebrating the harvest with a new nightmare or two. 
      • With Schrödinger generously paying, everyone eagerly files in.  They pass a front office and are guided to a hallway--its walls covered in dark velvet with only a few ensconced candles illuminating the path forward.
  • The group slowly traipses down the hallway.  Large framed posters of the museum's past exhibits line the walls--each one depicting a past eerie exhibit!  There are the occasional sounds of muffled screams and shrieks from the floor above...
    • One poster is lettered as "The Boneyard"!  It depicts a group of soldiers in falcon-emblemed attire fleeing through a dark withered forest...  Fleeing a great horde of skeletal creatures leaping from dark, loamy soil.  The moon above is full and measley yellow, a grinning skull painted upon its surface in lavender.
      • Both Solange and Schrödinger figure this must be a popular Falkovnian ghost story: a retelling of the neighboring state's first invasion of northern Darkon.  
      • Rumor has it that when the Talons of Falkovnia attempted to invade the mysterious northern realm, a terrifying skeletal army erupted at its borders.  The conscripted Falkovnians were either beaten back to tell the tale, or dragged kicking and screaming to premature graves, lost to the misty north...  Darkon is a place of forgotten dark magics, as everyone knows...
    • The next poster is of two corpses lying in a pool of blood, a large gemstone between the bodies.  It glistens brilliantly, just as red as the pool it sits in.  Mysterious vapors rise from the gemstone, evolving into a pair of female spirits, clawing and screaming banshee-like at one another.  This scene is called "Pretty Things"!
      • No one can tell what land this story originates from...   The attire of the two bodies (and their ghosts) are exotic to even a cultured land as Dementlieu.  Possibly one of the realms of the Verduous Lands beyond the sea...
      • Our group's best assumption is that this ghost story is about a beautiful scarlet gemstone, whose ownership is contested beyond death.
    • The group almost passes by this next poster, suddenly becoming aware a second after of what it depicts...  The design is subtle at first: a young girl picking white flowers in a meadow, filling a ribboned basket.  But mixed among the flowery carpet are bleached white bones!  The strong branches of the trees above her are actually the hairy legs of a great, terrible spider!  An arachnid looming over, reaching down to snatch away the innocent!  Across the girl's apron, in bold blue letters, is the title: "A Friendly Spider".
      • Everyone freezes, suddenly very unsettled.  Nervous glances are exchanged; this is too eerily reminiscent of what the group experienced in the Vallee de Neige. 
      • But how did Master du Cire hear of this tale, when not even the people of Campanula know the truth of their local yet deadly glade?  
        • This also reminds the group that they forgot to tell anyone of the valley's dangers...  Oops...
    • Pryrrish glances ahead at the next poster before anyone else: A crimson sunset, the sun vanishing behind a massive pile of dark shapes.  A shadowy figure stands atop it; a lyre in hand.  The bottom lettering reads "The Lyricist", as red as the dreadful sky.  And upon focusing does one realize... The massive pile this person stands upon is hundreds of graying human bodies...
      • Something about this figure sends Pryrrish's heart freefalling.  Shakily, she asks Schrödinger if he knows where this story is from.  He and Solange put their heads together, only recalling rumors from the eastern wilderness.  
      • Supposedly a mysterious elf wandered the forests of Kartakass, slaughtering men and wolves alike to his will through magical song!  He left countless settlements decimated through the macabre performances, before vanishing from history some hundred years ago...
        • Pryrrish looks upon this poster for another moment...  A hundred years is nothing to an elf like her.  And it was past over a hundred years since she lost her brother to the Tome's darkness so long ago...
  • Our band of newly anxious Freaks reach the end of this hall, finding a stairway up to the second floor.  Signs posted here and there remark warnings such as "Beware" and "Terrors Abound".  But still they leg it up to the Exhibit Room floor.  
    • Every window is curtained to shut out even the smallest fraction of outside light.  Sconced, grayish candles alone shed any light in this moody space, shadows stretching and dancing about.  An arrow is painted on the floor through a curtained entryway, beckoning tourists to follow the path inside...
    • Now we come to what the dreaded House of Wax truly has to offer!  Rooms upon rooms of Horror!
  • Each exhibit room of the House is half taken up by a life-sized diorama; a small barrier and plaque display before it.  The rooms otherwise are dark and curtained all around.  Painted arrows on the floor eerily glow to point the way out is through...  A button sits upon the plaque, tempting spectators to press it and activate the display's full range of terror!
    • Pryrrish is immediately on edge.  It hasn't truly come up until now, but she really dislikes enclosed spaces.  And despite knowing the curtains hide open entryways, being in this cloistered space with so many people starts to make her breaths come in shorter bursts...
      • Memories of that small, dark cell come to mind: terrible pounding at the door, the Tome's whispers giving the traumatized elf truly the only way out...
  • The First Room our group enters depicts a dark, dingy sewer.  Pale light cuts the darkness only from a circular false manhole at the top, illuminating a thin youth in suspicious thieves' clothing.  The sculpture is uncannily realistic, the features so lifelike in form and texture.  Over their thin shoulder hangs a large sack; many golden cups and plates straining the seams.  In their one free hand, the figure holds a small candle, swiveling their upper torso left and right mechanically to check the darkness.
    • The boy wears a mask and hood to hide their face; but in the false moonlight his eyes appear to be awaiting some great horror in the dark...  The candle flickers with the sculpture's every swivel.  It's almost hypnotizing...
      • Schrödinger is remarkably impressed by the physical rendering on the sculpture.  The boy looks malnourished and thin, his skin painted sallow and you can almost imagine the boy's bones beneath the painted wax.  This du Cire must be a master of anatomy to depict is so accurately.
    • The plaque before this scene reads a small verse, labeled "The Thief's Comeuppance:  A vermin of the lowly streets, stole spoils from the worst.  And as they fled--it’s heard and said--they got their just desserts!"
    • Excitedly, Fenri then presses the button beside the script.  Immediately the scene freezes, the boy's swiveling candle pauses...  
      • Suddenly! the bricks on either side of the frozen youth flip, revealing a sudden swarm of red-eyed rats on either side!  From the shadowy stages left and right, a pair of rats larger than Fenri also run out!  Their mouths are terribly painted to look horrendously sharp and diseased!
      • The candle immediately goes out!  The room is completely dark, and a terrifying scream suddenly shrieks out!  Everyone jumps at the incredibly timed thrill; Pryrrish struggles to catch her breath! 
    • Pryrrish is the first to leave this room, followed by the rest.  Sounds of whispering and mechanical resetting come from the stage.  There must be stagehands behind to pull switches and make noises once the button is pressed, as well as resetting the scenes between viewing audiences!
  • The Second Room displays "The Barovian Wedding"!  
    • The plaque reads: "The heart of a man is incredibly far, to love impossibly near.  So when betrayal broke the day, it damned the realm with fear!"
    • A chapel of stone is depicted, with a pair of figures standing before a large set of iron doors.  The arched doors have insets of red stained glass, as well as the yellow, geometric sun emblem of the Morninglord upon both doors.  The pair of figures, one man and one woman, hold hands together and face towards the audience.  
    • The woman is covered head to toe in rustic but pristine wedding lace, her beauty only hinted at beneath the veils and her curling auburn hair.  Her heavy lashes are cast down, demurely.  Or is she actually afraid of something that is about to occur?
    • Her groom is a stoic but handsome man, with straight black hair and a handsome beard upon his chin.  He wears a heavy outfit of furs and dyed wool, a sword on his belt, and a large fur hat.  The man's expression is one of love, looking upon his veiled bride--but there's an undercurrent of anxiety to his painted face...
      • This appears to be a wedding, but despite the held hands there is no sign of it.  No wedding bands upon their wax fingers, nor even a ribbon or band of cloth to signify the marital joining.  
      • And... The figures hands look like they are really digging into one another's flesh...
    • This must be some tale from lands east of Dementlieu.  Probably far off Barovia, according to Solange: since the figure's fashion is for colder, more elevated climates.  And the Morninglord faith is some peasant tradition from those unsettled, woodsy regions.  Since Barovia's reputation is it being a land where "terrible creatures rule the night and prey upon mankind"; they rely on pagan faiths like the Morninglord.  (Quite unlike the civilized western countries.)
      • When it comes time to press the button, everyone looks at one another hesitantly.  Finally, Channa takes the initiative and presses it!
    • There's a great whirring noise, and everyone realizes the doors behind the happy couple are slowly opening.  A red light slowly emanates from the open doors, making the enormous creature standing there look bloody terrifying!
    • An enormous black-furred beast with a wolf-like head  suddenly looms behind the couple, at first seemingly wrapped in a black shawl-like covering.  But then its great clawed hands open up to reveal an enormous and leathery set of black wings!  A giant bat, almost too tall for the doorway, hideously fanged and blood red eyes!  A hungry shadow seeking to consume the fair couple!
      • The wings take up almost the entire backdrop once unfurled!  And as soon as the creature fully bears its terrible form; the figures standing before it suddenly have their heads twisted sideways!  Their heads spin so fast that they literally fly off, landing with a thud on the wooden floor!  Red fabric erupts from their neck stumps as they fly off, linking each head to its body!  The entire scene is stained by the terrible red light behind the Great Bat Beast! 
    • With a short yell of fear, Pryrrish immediately flees the room, pushing past Solange to rush back the way they came!  Her claustrophobia ramped up her panic going through these scenes of horror, and she doesn't stop running  until she's back to the Exhibit sitting room--it being the largest and more open than the exhibit rooms!
  • Everyone immediately follows Pryrrish out of the Exhibit Rooms.  They find the elf trying not to hyperventilate and rush to help calm her down.
    • Schrödinger immediately goes into diagnosis mode, sitting beside Pryrrish and checking her vitals.  His anxiety at seeing the elf so scared is touching, in a brotherly way.  
    • Pryrrish tries to apologize for ruining the experience, but her friends immediately dissuade that assumption--they came because they care. 
      • Pryrrish really starts to get it now--these people really do care about her.  She hasn't felt that way for so long; it's nice and she is able to calm down with their support.  She then admits she won't go in to see the rest for now.
      • Schrödinger decides to wait out with Pryrrish, despite her protests.  The two sit together in the exhibit foyer while the rest go back in.
  • Channa, Fenri and Solange make their way hesitantly past the first two exhibits to resume their journey through the House of Wax.  They catch sight of a young woman and boy replacing the beheaded figures' heads in the Second Room and closing back up the Giant Bat.  Fenri smiles apologetically as the group passes by.
    • That was quite a terribly gory display...  But Solange can't recall if that story was merely Barovian-themed or an actual tale from that part of the world...
      • (Longstanding Ravenloft fans might have theories of what story this exhibit is butchering... IYKYK)
  • The trio make their way to the Third Room!  A scene of a dismal seaside.  A couple in mourning dress wandering a pale, sandy beach beside a sea of painted cardboard displays.  The backdrop sky is a sheet of gray, literally and figuratively.  The plaque reads "The Weeping Shore".  
    • Fenri reads off the inscription: "A couple mourns upon the surf, listening to the waves…  Distracted by their grief its said, they fed the ocean’s craves!"  
    • She then presses the button...  A strange melody begins to play behind the scene, an unseen violin repeating a few bars.  The black-draped couple slowly swivel together to stare out upon the offstage ocean...  Their eyes shift in the light, almost as if recognition crosses their tearstained faces...
    • A Giant Set of Teeth clamps down upon the entire scene, like a great shark's jaw snapping shut!  Jagged cardboard teeth perfectly fit together from above and below to fully consume the scene!  Hundreds of painted eyes descend like a curtain--representing whatever deep horror hungers to consume all upon the shore!
    • Everyone jumps!
      • Solange, heart aflutter, recalls that this is a popular topic of Dementlieuse penny dreadfuls.  The couple's attire was fashion of the domain, though woefully outdated in cut and frills.  But everyone in Port-a-Lucine knows the infamous Widow's Walk: a northward stretch of beach along Pernault Bay just outside the city.
      • Bodies are tragically and regularly dredged or washed up from these gray waters.  Supposedly the bay beckons to unfortunate souls, compelling them to walk themselves into the sea...  This exhibit displays a popular theory that it's actually some terrible sea creature dragging victims from the shore... 
      • Despite the effective jumpscare, the group isn't frightened much by this one.  It seems more clumsy on a technical level than the other displays seen so far.  Perhaps it's neighbors are far more new and recent?
  • Our trio presses on, leaving the Third Room and finding themselves in another resting hall.  They take a brief respite from the exhibits, checking in with one another.  On either side of this little hallways are an upwards staircase, and a small office where an old man sits half-asleep.  
    • The old man has a massive beard and no other hair on his head--he snores himself awake and gently smiles at the guests.  He must be some sort of guard for the museum; the late hours for the holiday must be taxing for an old man like him.  A large two-handed hammer sits against a wall nearby.  This man looks too frail to even lift it; and he starts to snooze off at the next quiet moment...
    • The staircase has a sign on a chain across it, reading "Employees Only".  Fenri's energy is thankfully too invested in the exhibits to give in to her usual urge to sneak away.  Asking the old guard, he says it is Master du Cire's workshop where the sculptures are made.
  • Channa, Solange and Fenri make their way to the Fourth Room: "The Noblest House"! A sumptuous sitting room is depicted, with only a large fireplace illuminating the scene.  Two cloaked figures standing before the fire, casting ominous shadows upon a wealthily-dressed couple, their backs turned to the audience.  
    • The man and woman are obviously nobles, dressed in heavy Lamordian lace and furs, but they hold their their hands in fright before them.  The cloaked figures are ominous, the one before the frightened lady holding a strange crystal ball, a skull floating menacingly in its opaque center...
      • Something about this room makes the group uncomfortable.  It is obviously much newer than the other displays.  And none of the group can predict what horrible scare this ominous display will inflict upon them...  Solange remarks on the Lamordian references, and the red hair of the noble couple seems to bring Schrödinger to mind...
    • This display's plaque reads, "A bloodline of modest chivalry is valuable to those who know how to claim it for themselves…"
      • The trio exchange glances.  Hesitation only breeds more anxiety about what this display could do; so Fenri once more takes the initiative to press the button.
    • The cloaked figures turn from the fireplace to look ominously upon the nobles.  The one holding the glowing skull-sphere slowly raises it slowly above their head.  The sphere begins glowing with a sickly, green light!   
    • In merely the blink of an eye, the well-dressed nobles standing  have their clothes AND SKIN! torn from them in a great single sheet, dragged into the dark folds of the hidden figure's cloaks!  Their bodies are completely shorn--skinless flesh and muscle laid brutally bare!  
      • Everyone feels unceasing horror and revulsion!  Fenri is the one most truly affected, while Solange is second in terms of experiencing fear!
    • The cloaked figures watch the fleshless nobles suddenly collapse upon the ground.  Their cloaks are pulled off onto the floor, revealing they are a man and woman themselves.  Both looking exactly like how the nobles did before their flesh was stolen!!
  • Channa pulls Fenri and Solange out of this room, choking on nausea!  That display was the worst of them all!  The technical mastery of the piece made it all the more horrifying!
    • Solange shivers at the grotesquerie, but a dark suspicion is rooted in her mind.  The other tales of terror have been just pastiches of rumors and stories from other realms--this was... Very specific.  It's not a cautionary tale of some cultural horror; it has no clear moral to learn...  
      • Perhaps Schrödinger might know more, being it appears to be referencing Lamordian culture...
  • The trio moves on to the next room, but with great trepidation after that last display.  The Fifth Room depicts the inside of a colorful, striped circus tent--"The Loving Embrace" is written upon its plaque.  A sturdy male figure is seen embracing a beautiful female one, scantily dressed nothing but white wolf pelts--he reaches his arms through the bars of a large cage surrounding his object of affection.  Their faces are so close they must be frozen in a passionate kiss.
    • The woman in the cage has long silvery hair that pools upon the floor, and she is faced away from the audience to embrace her lover.  Surrounding the embrace are several smaller cages, each barely big enough to hold a single beast.  Every one of them--including a coiled constrictor serpent, a mangy chimpanzee and a night-black panther--obviously despises the conjoined pair!  Their fur, fangs and muscles are tense with intense hatred; you can almost imagine the shrieks and hissing overwhelming the romance of this scene.
    • The group hesitates to read this plaque but they decide nothing could be worse than the last room.  "Sometimes a cage is not a prison.  Sometimes it holds the beast within.  Her beast made him a lovesick fool, his an unlucky feast!"
      • With a press of the button, the animals are all pulled back as far as their cages allow!  And the silver-haired woman's face SUDDENLY turns towards the audience, pulling the man's own face off in her terrible teeth!  She is a wolf-headed woman after all, the embrace was her moment of triumph in seducing her prey!  The male figure's face is left shorn of its flesh--muscle and bone depicted with horrible accuracy!  She was in that cage for a reason--nothing but a beast after all!
  • Our brave trio leave this bone-chilling room, finding themselves in the Sixth Room--the final one of the House of Wax displays.  They can hear behind the next curtain their friends Pryrrish and Schrödinger talking on their bench.  The horror is almost over!  All that is left is to get through the "Birth of Evil"!
    • This display is a moonlit bedroom of wealth and status.  A window allows pale silvery light to cast deep shadows on the plush carpeting and dark furnishings.  A large bed--one side perfectly made still--has a large flag hanging above it: a simplistic crest of some Mordentish baronetcy.  A man dressed in nightclothes and sleeping cap stands before a rocking crib, holding aloft a glowing green bottle above it. 
    • The face is so worn and bedraggled--you can feel that this man has had no sleep for so long.  As the cradle rocks and rocks, from beneath its shadowy curtained hood erupts a terrible cry!  An endless screech of a baby, despising everything in all creation.  It grates upon the ears and even Solange can recognize the fatherly figure (ominously holding the bottle above the unseen babe) must be feeling tortured by this endless crying!
      • The plaque reads, ominously: "A father’s mind ground like sand, under its progeny’s cries.  An elixir purchased, a tip of the hand…  And the sounds that came would pierce the skies!"
    • Our trio look at one another, almost deciding end this test of endurance and reunite with their friends.  But despite the haunting images they've endured, they will see it through to the end!  The display button is pressed!
      • The man lifts the green bottle higher into the air, then suddenly drops it to their side!  A cord of bright green silk emerges from it, symbolising whatever horrid substance the man splashed their infernal child with!  And the child's cry ceases...
    • The trio are left in stunned silence.  Nothing happens?!  The crib has stopped rocking...  Fenri and the rest are entirely glued to this crib, awaiting something from its silent shadows...
      • Emerging from the depths of crib, suddenly, sits up a horrible creature!  It is so small but its dreadfully huge compound eyes seem to glow a bloody red!  Its limbs are insectoid and hairy, emerging at odd angles and grasping for something to fill its screeching fanged mouth!  That is no innocent, wailing babe anymore; but something vengeful and accursed!
      • The silvery moonlight suddenly cuts out, leaving the stunned spectators in the dark.  They cut out of the room as fast as they can.  Dreading if that awful, accursed thing has crawled out of its crib to follow them out...
  • The party slips out of this room, silent and haunted by what they endured.  Pryrrish and Schrödinger are a sight for sore eyes--a picture of normalcy and safety in this house of horrors.
    • Schrödinger welcomes back the group, but he is caught off-guard by how haunted each of the returning trio look.  Solange is practically shivering.  Channa is very, very quiet and stares off into space.  Fenri seems the most put together of them, but her eyes cannot horror freshly stained upon her mind.
      • Pryrrish is also very concerned, and listens to her friends talk about what they've seen.  Solange is the one that takes the initiative to tell Schrödinger about the Fourth Room--every witness to it shuddering together for a brief moment.
  • Schrödinger is very confused by this recap of some Lamordian horror.  He doesn't recognize the tale at all, not even its symbolism as Lamordian; it's too ridiculous and magical to come from his homeland.  Most Lamordian tales told around the fire are about "real things": 
    • Recollections of the horrors brought about by Falkovnia's attempts to invade the land in 695 BC (almost sixty years ago)...
    • Tales of heroic whalers facing strange things on the sea, protecting the coastline (and often failing to)...
    • Stories of foolish scientists dabbling in dark magics and becoming something to be scorned and obliterated...
      • The nobility of Lamordia are always "good", the best of the best, protected from whatever irrational things lurk in the night...  This sounds too strange...
    • Schrödinger decides he has to see the display for himself.  He doesn't expect anyone to go, but Channa decides to be there to support him.  Hopefully seeing it the second time around won't be as nauseating.
  • Together, Schrödinger and Channa make their way through the exhibits.  In their proper order of course; no Lamordian worth his salt would ignore a recommended path.  But they skip the displays until getting to the Fourth Room.  Channa gives her friend the skinny on what the stories were.
    • They catch sight of a young boy and woman affixing and replacing several effects for this display, bowing and apologizing as they back into an unseen backstage.  The Fourth Room's set is very, very familiar in taste to Schrödinger.  The polished wood, the stone fireplace, the large painting above the mantlepiece of the noble couple...  
      • He could swear this diorama is an amalgamation of various rooms in the family home of Nachtkessel...
    • Even the pair of nobles--redressed in their skin and clothes to surprise spectators yet again--are eerily similar to how Schrödinger's parents appear.  While the costumes are clearly too frivolous for everyday wear, the figures have brown hair with red streaks and strong noses; just like the Markgrafs of Schwartzsteinburg...  
      • Schrödinger is fascinated by these figures.  They are clearly more recent works compared to the other rooms---you can almost forget their flesh and bone structure is nothing but waxen fabric and paint.  They are almost too lifelike, save for their dark glass eyes.  And the resemblance is uncanny...
    • Channa lets her friend read the display and hit the button to activate its display.  When the skull-included crystalline sphere is by one of the cloaked figures and starts to glow, Schrödinger freezes.  His full attention is drawn from the nobles in the foreground.  
      • And when the dreaded moment happens--when the noble's clothes and flesh is torn from them and the cloaked figures reveal their new skins--Schrödinger fully panics!  Channa flinches and nearly heaves at the sight of seeing the composed Lamordian suddenly scream!  His flesh shifts and stretches as the extra bones within him dance and shiver from the adrenaline rushing throughout him!
  • Lord Ludwig Hossler Schrödinger, star and scion of the Schrödinger Markgraf house, flees from the Fourth Room in an inhuman dash!  Every atom of his body must flee from this horrible, horrible sight!  Channa rushes after him, following through and ignoring the last two displays; until they are back with their friends in the entry hall.
    • Fenri is standing next to Pryrrish and Solange on the bench.  Hearing the curtain shift she turns out and is overtaken by a great leap of fear!  Seeing her friend Schrödinger emerge, with his flesh and bones stretching, seizing, wriggling with fear; she backs away until her back hits the wall.  
      • The sight of his necrotic body, unable to be tamed by his ideals and concentration, almost causes Fenri to reach for her holy symbol.  Pelor save her from this abomination rushing into the room!  But she tightens her fist at her side and takes deep breaths, warily watching the scene unfold.
    • Pryrrish leaps up from her seat to help Schrödinger get a hold of himself!  With her empowered vision she perceives every sign of the Lamordian's distress; and she gently takes his hand.  With his bones wriggling in her grasp, she leads Schrödinger to the bench.  Just as he did for her barely twenty minutes past.
      • Some part of Pryrrish also keeps an eye on the staircases from the floor below.  She starts planning out an escape should anyone catch sight of her friend's unrestrained bone array.  She's had to flee many times from a frightened mob in her long life, thanks to the Tome; it's a reflex at this point.  
      • Luckily her aid to Schrödinger has him slowly come back under his own power.  He is given the time and support to control his breathing, as well as his surplus physical form.
    • Solange's empathy drowns out any warning bells in her brain.  She, like Fenri, has fought all sorts of risen dead in her duties as a Gravedigger; but she cares too deeply for the abomination's soul to be scared or startled for long.
    • Channa joins in with helping ground Schrödinger, but they quickly recognize that Fenri is also upset.  Channa puts themselves between the halfling and the slowly calmed down skeleton man.  Fenri is grateful for this conscious gesture.
  • After a few moments to collect himself--mentally and physically--Schrödinger proclaims that that scene was abominable to behold!  It was ridiculous and grotesque, and yet it was too real to be some fanciful penny dreadful tale.  He could swear he's seen that crystal sphere in his mother's offices!
    • Everyone exchanges glances.  Schrödinger, since meeting the group, has let slip little hints here and there that his family life is not just some portrait of Lamordian nobility.  At first it was chalked up to being naive; then confusing.  Now, with his reaction to this House of Wax display, the rest of the Freaks are wondering if there isn't truly something wrong ingrained in the House of Schrödinger...
    • Schrödinger starts to spiral again, questions filling his brain about where this insulting display came from.  And what exactly is the moral lesson to be taught?  Is there none?  
      • It seems to be some cruel pantomime, clearly meant to slander a noble house such as his...  The Dementlieuse are known for their stories to be overly dramatized and romanticized; but that Fourth Room (The Noblest House) must come from some rumor or story that isn't so ridiculous and horrible!
        • Surely this is an exaggeration of hearsay...  Right?!
  • It takes another few moments but the group calms down Schrödinger enough to stand.  Pryrrish and Solange offer sympathy, while Channa decides they have all had enough of the House of Wax for the night.  Fenri nods silently in agreement, keeping to the back.
    • Our group of freshly traumatized Freaks make their way down the exit staircase.  They hear the muffled screams of other patrons experiencing the displays as they go.  When they first arrived they felt it was evidence of a fun, spooky time.  Not now, however...
  • The group comes to a part of the first floor previously unseen, walls curtained with dark velvet once more.  The master of the House, Alexandre du Cire, stands leaning on his cane to greet the group.  He asks if they wish to leave his house of horrors.  Everyone quickly agrees and the sculptor tweaks his mustache with a glint in his eye.  He opens up a curtain to lead the group out--through the very Waxworks he sculpts these nightmares from.
    • A hellishly hot room awaits the group, a gaudy and inflamed hellscape of figures frozen in red "molten lava".  The sculptor practically skips ahead on the catwalk, which swishes barely above the frozen hands of the drowning figures.  
      • Pryrrish easily can tell there is actually a safety net beneath the catwalk, in case some wayward footing causes a fall.  And that the waxen hellscape is actually a marvel of large sculpture, with vents for opaque "lava" to flow in dug-out trenches between the half-melted figures.
    • The group unconsciously clings together as they follow the Master Sculptor.  They jump away as large buckets from the ceiling disgorge more "wax lava" upon the hellscape below--colored water that steams and obscures the hellscape scene.  
      • Du Cire, hamming up his performance as the "evil mastermind" beckons the group forward to a room on the other side.  As they make their way to him at a worried snail's pace, he foreshadows that this final room is the last thing they need to worry about before sweet freedom.
  • The House of Wax's last room is almost pitch black.  Du Cire stands to the side; his gloved hand swishing to point out a large glass gazebo-like structure at the center.  He says they must all stand there, clustered together, before he can let them out...
    • The Freaks do as they're told, following the directions of the charismatic Master Sculptor for the promise of leaving.  They stand beneath the structure.
    • A pause as the showman looks over the group, his eyes wickedly taking in all their details...  He then reveals a lever in the floor, hidden behind his coattails.  He places a hand upon it and thanks the group for visiting--never before has he had such a fantastic group of spectators.
      • In fact, he says, they are so spectacular that he must add them to his collection!
    • With a dramatic pulling of the lever, the group hears a panel above them open up.  A large hanging vat is revealed, practically overflowing with molten wax.  There is a brief moment where almost every one of them flinches in fear as the vat is suddenly tipped forward and a waterfall of wax suddenly descends upon them!
      • But the darkness of the room hid a ceiling of glass panels above the gazebo-like structure; and the lukewarm wax-colored water flows harmlessly in all directions away from them.  The liquid vanishes into small unseen drains and a curtain opens up, allowing a calming draft of cool night air in.
      • Du Cire has vanished in that moment of distraction, but his voice ominously calls for them to "come back soon".
  • With everyone clung around him, Schrödinger practically pulls everyone out of the House of Wax in a great leap.  The group finds themselves back at the entrance, the sounds of Primeur in Port-a-Lucine as comforting as the midnight breeze.
    • The group steps down to the sidewalk to calm themselves.  The young child they saw enter before them stands with their frazzled nanny--somehow unaffected by the horrors they saw.  
    • Du Cire steps out to welcome in another group, alongside a young woman clearing autumn leaves from the house's stoop.  He then approaches the party; the evil mastermind persona fully dropped, eyes and manners friendly.  He apologizes for that last deceit in his display, but he sincerely hopes the group enjoyed themselves.
      • Channa and Solange step in front of Schrödinger to let the frazzled Lamordian keep his skeletal surplus together.  Solange, as a native to this area, thanks the sculptor for such an interesting experience.  
      • Channa has also found the delight in this frightful exhibition--everything was so well made.  Schrödinger, fully in control, follows up on this tangent to remark about the sculptor's mastery of anatomy.
    • The group, more at ease now that they are fully outside, are about to ask where the master gets his inspiration.  Those stories come from so many lands...  (And Schrödinger is very curious about the twisted Fourth Room's origins).
  • Suddenly!  From a nearby alley, that mysterious follower from the dueling tourney decides to make their move!  They dash from an alley across the street, rushing towards the group!
    • Luckily, Pryrrish catches sight of them through the crowd, despite the figure's very small stature...  They are quite small, only a foot or so taller than Fenri...  It is a child, in fact!  A very dirty, bedraggled boy child!
    • Despite this author's ominous foreshadowing, the child appears before the group, asking for help!  He approaches Schrödinger, having followed him and the other contestants from the tourney.  
      • Schrödinger is probably the worst person to speak with children, and Channa isn't that much better (despite how very normal and put-together they appear on the surface)!  So it is up to Fenri, with Solange's backup, to meet the child's gaze and ask what happened.  Du Cire was speaking with Pryrrish and the two watch in confusion at this strange approach.
    • The boy says his name is Ambrose.  No last name given.  He appears to be between nine and ten years old.  And despite the obvious dirt all over him, everyone can tell he's not some pauper street child.  His clothes are too well tailored.  A golden chain is around his neck, carrying some hidden pendant of probable value.  He looks as if he's actively attempted to hide his upbringing by rolling around in a dirty alley...  But for what purpose?
      • Pryrrish's eyes glean an important detail that is missed by everyone.  And, thanks to the whisperings of Maman in their ear, Solange's eyes are drawn to the same point of interest.  For the child Ambrose, as he turns looking around for followers, has a strange pale mark on his neck.  An off-color patch behind his head... Resembling a handprint...
        • Solange touches their arm, where she has a similar marking.  The spot that always gets a little colder whenever she manifests Maman before her...  This child has been marked by the Near Ethereal as well...
    • The child gazes up at the saviors before him, begging them to help his father.  He is gone; the man in his house is not his real father yet no one has noticed!  He wants help to save his father from whatever has replaced him!
      • Fenri, being eye level with the child, notices some embroidery on the boy's upturned coat collar.  A pair of crossed golden axes, covered up by mud...  The same sigil she's seen all night--at the dueling tourney, at a nearby weapons shop, and upon the chest of the tourney's patron!  This child must belong to the house of the Baron Descartes!
  • But before they get the chance to process this child's unusual predicament, a loud shout is heard just half a block up the street.  A booming, slurred calling out for someone named Melia.  
    • The entire group immediately turns to see a muscular man taking heavy swigs from a cheap wine bottle, stumbling aggressively through the Primeur crowds toward the House of Wax.  One of his large, sea-callused hands is raised; and he pointedly spits accusations upon du Cire's young cleaning woman!
    • The man swings his arms from side to side, batting away any attempts to grasp him.  He glares with a dreadful drunken fury and demands the woman tell him who she is!  And what has she done with his real wife?!
    What a rollercoaster of fright and friendship!  Just as our band of friendly Freaks gets grounded back into the reality of the Primeur spirit; someone immediately ungrounds them all!  

    With emotions so shaken up, and this new sudden outburst ruining the moment of clarity and camaraderie, what will our group of misfits do?  Will they get involved in this unseemly marital display, or will they simply head home to rest up after an eventful first night in Port-a-Lucine?

    And will this night put off our Freaks from enjoying the rest of Primeur?  Or shall they find their courage once more in the morning and take it into another day of harvest celebration?

    Find out next time in Freaks & Facades - Session Fifteen: Illuminating Acquaintances! [WIP]

Author's Note:

    Thank you for reading!  This one recap took a lot of time and energy to write up.  We are finally starting the arc that first inspired me to get this Ravenloft group together, and I am so excited for future recaps!

    I did unintentionally kind of take a break for the summer.  This recap was rough to get everything right.  And it has been over six months since the very session happened; there were lots of details and conferring with my players about how things went.  

    But extended spooky season is upon us; and I am excited to recap all the highs and lows that lie ahead!  Especially since my players have done an amazing job with roleplaying in this Second Arc!  We hope you enjoy their antics and my indulgences!

Aboleth Eye