Freaks & Facades: Fifteen - Strange Acquaintances

    Greetings children of Ravenloft!  Tonight we dine upon a sumptuous new excursion, Session Fifteen - Strange Acquaintances! 

    But first, I think we need a recap of everything that's happened so far this Arc!  What a first day of the Primeur wine and harvest festival it has been!

    Our band of Friendly Freaks started the morning with much ambitious naivete.  The group bid farewell to Vincente Quint, the ex-vigilante Night's Vengeance of Campanula.  Claudine LaFitte, charming and delusional as ever,  escorted him to her secret society of do-gooders, expecting many stories of their time in the city while she's gone....

    The first stop our party took was to introduced themselves to Solange's adorable family...  They learned the complicated, yet charming parents of Solange, Leon and Tybalt Charron...
    The early evening had the group partake of good food and strange company at the Blooming Rose Cafe, at first to deliver a letter of Vincente's to his cousin the owner.  While dining they encountered a strangely acute-sighted man named Albert and his flustered doctor, Arthur Sedgewick.  Sedgewick, as it turns out, is actually the personal cataloger and companion of the famous Great Detective Alanik Ray; and he invites the party to take tea at his address someday...  What fortune!

    The group then challenged themselves to the Descartes Dueling Tourney (hosted by the glowering Baron Aristotle Descartes, owner of a great weapons manufacturing conglomerate).  Channa almost won the whole thing, if only they hadn't come up against the steadfast Capitan Reynard of the City Guard. 
    To celebrate their achievements at the tourney, the group did some light shopping and hoped to end their late night with the exhibits at the House of Wax!  (All the while unaware they were being followed by a mysterious child named Ambrose...)

    Now, we come to our party outside the House of Wax, shaken up and now faced with a loud encounter to cap off the night!  Will this night ever end?  Or will this drunken man angrily yelling at the House's master sculptor ruin all the frivolity, frenzy and fights this hedonistic holiday has gifted our group?!  Let's dive back in to moments right before this explosion of noise and rudeness!

Warning: this is a horror campaign setting, so please bear that in mind before reading on.  Possible triggers include: body horror, verbal abuse mention, attempted harm, mental manipulation/magical charms, ghosts and dark spirits, death mention...

*starts projector*

• When we last left our protagonists, the Freaks were exiting the House of Wax quite stirred up.  The tourist trap showed them terrors from across the continent, effectively rendered through the waxworks.  The party stood outside the House of Wax and began to speak with the master sculptor, Alexandre du Cire.  
• One exhibit in particular hit everyone in a bad way; especially the lordling Schrödinger.  It depicted something so profane in thought!  And yet the scene was eerily familiar to him...  
• A noble husband and wife of Lamordian good breeding...  Subjected to horrible powers that shorn off their identities, along with all flesh...  The casters literally wearing their shorn visages, having usurped them of their rightful place in the world...  What could it mean?
• But suddenly! Someone rushed up to the group and asked for aid, interrupting the beginning of Schrödinger's questioning.  A young boy named Ambrose asked Channa, Schrödinger and Fenri for aid--having watched them duel admirably in the tourney only a few hours ago.  As it turns out, the boy followed our group through the city streets, and patiently waited for them to leave the House of Wax.
• Ambrose, young and scared, asks for aid with his father!  He says the man in his house is not his real father, yet no one else has noticed! He needs their help!
• Pryrrish, Solange and Fenri meanwhile watched the boy very carefully as he entreated the group.  They recognized Ambrose was dressed too finely under all that alley filth.  He even wears a golden locket under his clothes, which bears the crossed golden axes of the Baron Descartes--the weapons magnate and patron of the dueling tournament.  Uh oh!
• Solange and Pryrrish also recognized the child was marked... By a presence from the Near Ethereal....  A pale handprint, almost imperceptible to the untrained eye, sits just behind his head.  
• The gravedigger has a similar marking on her arm--a sign of her ghostly patron Maman's connection to her mortal body.
• Before the group could ask about his situation (or about the geist-marks placed on him), a drunken dockworker interrupted the festive atmosphere, screaming in front of the House of Wax and making demands for his wife!  Or rather, he demands Melia be returned to him, not the woman who has replaced her and is currently cleaning the House of Wax for du Cire!
• Alexandre du Cire attempts to disarm the old sailor with reassurances that he's simply confused by some paranoid delusions exacerbated by drink.  He tries to restore the welcoming atmosphere, despite this outburst--it's a common occurrence with a decadent holiday like Primeur, so the locals seem to understand the sculptor's plight.  At the same time, however, the sculptor silently signals to poor Melia to head inside the House of Wax for her safety.   The lady ducks inside, crying, and is guided into du Cire's office by another cleaning woman.
• The drunk's outburst compelled Solange to put herself between him and the young Ambrose.  Ambrose does not quite understand what is happening but allows it.  Fenri, meanwhile, puts herself in the museum's doorway, after Melia slips inside.  Channa, Schrödinger and Pryrrish all join du Cire in surrounding the drunkard.
• The drunken Jacques angrily rejects du Cire with wild flailing of his arms.  The glass bottle he held slips from his hands, shattering on the cobblestones and startling passersby.  Some other guests exiting the museum cluster in the foyer, while others waiting in the front line begin to whisper among themselves.  His refined mustache twitching with frustration, du Cire slicks back his hair and struggles to find his words.   
• Schrödinger, as the man of higher station, steps in and attempts to tell the unrefined swine to stop.  But Jacques will not be dissuaded, yelling for du Cire to bring out the real Melia--he knows he's got her trapped in that house of horrors.  All while that fake one's been living at their house, having infiltrated his wife's life while Jacques was at sea!
• Channa's stays shoulder to shoulder with the Lamordian noble, despite their social anxiety.  Pryrrish, surprisingly, steps forward, her words empowered with magical charms!
• Pryrrish has explored these innate arcane abilities since that last battle in Campanula.  The power she's relied on--the Tome of Elemental Dark--is a power she has become more and more unwilling to tap into recently.  It's been staining her all this time, body and soul; and she wants to be better.  
• Luckily, by having some time to herself in the big city, the elf has begun to tap into a power from within instead.  An arcane gift of enchantments, brought forth by singing musical tones--she has begun to tap into the elven art of spellsinging!
• With a flash of her swirling, violet eyes; Pryrrish sings the man to sit down and be calm.  The man is compelled to obey the suggestion,  his anger suddenly fizzled out.  He suddenly wants to do nothing more than follow the pretty elf's harmonic command.  Jacques sits down and pulls out another wine bottle he had inside his vest.  He stares into the distance between the occasional weepy swig.
• Solange has Ambrose behind her, hiding behind her dark skirts and veil.  She can hear the muffled static of Maman in her ear, words too garbled to understand with so many living souls interfering nearby.  She'll have a talk with the spirit before going to bed tonight.
• Inside the House of Wax, in the master sculptor's first floor offices, the frightened cleaning woman sits against a wall, crying into her hands.  Fenri has gone in to comfort the poor woman, having known the trials and tribulations of marriage!  (Secret Fenri lore drop!!)
• The girl keeps her head down as she laments; her husband is gone for months at a time, working on ships.  She says he never used to have a temper; but since returning from his last voyage he won't embrace her, and is somehow convinced she is an imposter out to get him and the "real" Melia!  And the delusion has only grown as he's begun drinking his last paycheck away.  Now he's gone and affronted her employer in front of everyone, blind with wine-induced rage! 
• She's been sleeping in the museum's offices at night since Primeur began, when his drunkenness was amplified to a new level.  He's never harmed her, but he will talk to anyone who will listen about the "creature" pretending to be his wife! It has been humiliating for her! 
• Fenri tries to soothe the woman, but poor Melia rebukes any touch.  Her friend, an older cleaning woman, comes to her aid, taking over from Fenri to help calm the girl down.  
• Fenri leaves as the older woman tells the distraught girl to fix her face...  That phrasing sticks out to her but she returns to her friends despite this gut feeling...
• The guards finally show up, breaking through the crowd.  They trot up on horseback, each mount bedecked with flowers and streamers on their bridles and saddles in the spirit of Primeur.  The crowd disperses upon their arrival.  And leading this patrol, looking incredibly strong and regal, is Capitan Geoffrey Reynard.  His winner's sash from the tourney is proudly across his chest, and he is back in the gendarme captain's uniform after the competition.  An elaborate weapon sits at his side: a unique sword with a firearm built into the handle, the Dementlieuse marvel--the Parthian pistol rapier!
• Reynard hops down and directs the gendarmes to help the now-placid Jacques to his feet.  They'll lead him to the local drunk tank to sleep it off.  Reynard recognizes the group and thanks them for their aid.  Du Cire lauds the persuasiveness of Miss Pryrrish, not recognizing she magically enchanted the drunk.  
• Fenri returns at this time.  Seeing Reynard again (and now in full uniform regalia), the halfling's heart is all aflutter.  He is the epitome of the dashing guard captain--strong, poised and so handsome!  
• Reynard greets the latecomer and gives the group a once over.
• Suddenly, the captain frowns looking at the veiled Solange.  Or, rather, the child hiding behind her.  He calls Ambrose by name, a wave of relief washing over the man.  Ambrose fails to hide deeper behind Solange's skirts, making the gravedigger slightly uncomfortable. 
• Reynard states that his cousin-in-law, the Baron Aristotle Descartes, has had men looking for young lord Ambrose since he disappeared before the tourney!  He is actually Ambrose's godfather.  The child reluctantly confirms this with a nod.  
• The captain gently picks up the little boy, and sits them upon his horse.  He says nothing about Ambrose being so filthy; his relief is more overwhelming, considering all the dangers of this partying city.  He thanks the group profusely for finding him and keeping him safe during that drunk's ridiculous crusade.  
• Fenri is about to swoon--he is so good with the small young child, picking him up so gently!  She imagines what it'd feel like to be carried up by the strong, noble Reynard like that...  But Fenri shakes her head back into reality as Reynard begins to take the child home. 
• Young lord Ambrose Descartes leaves with Reynard walking the streamer-dressed horse through the streets.  He gives the group one last shy but pitiable look before turning away. 
• Something stirs in Solange's heart for this lonely child...
• The Primeur party spirit now restored to the block, du Cire expresses gratitude towards the party for their assistance.  He is very impressed with Pryrrish's talents at disarming the man.  His eyes are pondering the beguiling elf, and it is obvious he is thinking of how to sculpt her. 
• The group decides they have had enough of the festival for one day.  They depart back for the boarding house in the next district; but not before Fenri picks up the drunk Jacques' abandoned bottle of wine for herself.  
• Schrödinger is absolutely affronted by this and tries to convince Fenri not to drink the "street booze" as she calls it.  Ignoring the noble's refined tastes, the halfling shares the wine with Channa and Solange as they ride their wagon back home.
• Fenri gets quite tipsy on the majority of the wine, ironically; and when they arrive at Claudine's boarding house she decides to go out carousing on her own.  Schrödinger recommends she go to an actual respectable place to drink, but it is obvious Fenri doesn't have his qualms about street booze...
• Returning to the LaFitte boardinghouse, it seems the other residents are out in the back garden.  Mister Moody, the dashing half-Vistani boarding in the attic, is seemingly performing tricks to the amusement of Madame Rousseau the housekeeper!  All of his cats are also watching, including the glowering Nasty Nell.  The writer is doing an incredibly dextrous juggling act with knives.  Arcs of magical electricity are connecting the dancing blades as he expertly spins them midair!
• Moody finishes in a massive flourish of electricity and arcane sparkles raining down!  The madame applauds loudly to this private performance, expositing that he is in a good mood because he finished his latest writing assignment!  Moody confirms this, full of vigor; he wanted to thank the housekeeper for taking such good care of him and all his cats while he was working.  But now that he is free, Moody is going out to finally celebrate Primeur!
• He flashes a flirty smile to the whole group and takes off to enjoy the festival night.  All of his cats follow in a massive stream, except for Nasty Nell--who sits in the front room window and eerily glowers at everything until he returns.  
• Everyone is suddenly very tired after the long day they've had seeing Port-a-Lucine.  Bedtime!
• Solange finding a solitary moment before Channa enters their shared room, and she takes the moment to invoke Maman!
• The room grows colder as Solange sings the old nursery rhyme that calls forth the geist.  Alouette, gentille alouette...
• Maman's presence slowly appears, holding the gravedigger's gloved hand and joining the song with her raspy, staticky voice...  Alouette, je te plumerai...
• Solange asks Maman about young Ambrose Descartes and his mark of being haunted.  Is the spirit a protective geist, like she is?  The black-eyed spirit confirms the child is marked, but the presence is not attached to his body...  The presence must anchored someplace he regularly visits, not yet taken to the farthest shores of the Near Ethereal...  
• But all will wash ashore there in time...  All things will...  Even her beloved Solange...  
• Solange dismisses the geist pretty quickly, seeking solitude again (even though Maman never really leaves her).  The lines between the living and dead are intriguing her after the whole Campanula affair.  Perhaps, being touched by death already, she could willingly dive into the Near Ethereal and return with secret knowledge or power?
• Her helpless fright, almost abandoning her new companions, has been weighing on her conscience and Solange ponders if she could do more with her gifts to protect them...  Should she meet Maman in the Near Ethereal and gain the power the geist must have?  It would have quite a near-deadly cost to her, quite blasphemous to the Order she once served...
• Fenri carouses the night away--fully losing herself in the Primeur spirit!  Port-a-Lucine is a playground of mortal delights!  People to meet, dishes to taste, drinks to share!  She gets lost in the revelry occupying the streets so late at night--to the point where she has to get help stumbling back home...
• Someone strolls up and leads the halfling back to the boarding house before the crack of dawn.  Fenri is iroinically too drunk to recognize them.  And she won't recognize that something important to her was been stolen by this unknown figure...
• Dawn paints the city of Port-a-Lucine in pink and gold; another glorious November morning.   The city sleeps in after such a busy night of partying.  
• At breakfast, Schrödinger and Pryrrish--those who need little to no sleep--are down first.  Solange and Channa, sharing a room, come down well rested; but Fenri practically ragdolls down the stairs and into the dining room after her night of drinking.  The group teases the halfling, and she ignores them to devour the breakfast spread.  That is when Fenri realizes she's lost half her money.  And her holy symbol of Pelor as well!
• Fenri just shrugs it off, but Schrödinger is furious at this affront to his friend's honor.  His dark eyes flash with malice as he demands they go and reclaim her possessions.  Fenri, however, rejects delivering any form of angry reclamation--surely whoever took her items must need them greater than she does...  This is a divide the two really cannot see eye-to-eye on, but they decide to agree to disagree.
• The Robust Lover, a local gossip sheet, is in the mail today, along with a fancy letter addressed to the group!  There are all sorts of stories in the Lover today, mostly about various events celebrating Primeur and tall sorts of rumors about high-profile people getting up to no good...
• The first story that gets everyone's attention is thus: a local baroness is seeking information regarding her husband's mysterious death...  The widow Baroness Penelope Montagne will reward any evidence of how her family was broken apart, her husband dead, her son traumatized!  
• This... may not bode well for the party...  They knew vaguely that the Baron was married.  But since Claudine just left to work out the truth of his murderous misdeeds, they aren't the ones with the plan to deal with loose threads like that.  So if the Baroness' investigations dig up the Freak's involvement, that spells trouble.
• Another story gushes about Councilman Dominic d'Honaire!  He was seen at the National Opera House last night with a new young lady on his arm, sitting in his private box!  She was not his lady wife; but it seems the Councilor brazenly entertains many young beautiful ladies in this manner...
• This bothers the group.  And their minds instantly go to Claudine, who could possibly still be under the mysterious influence d'Honaire may have cast upon her...  But she's away taking ex-vigilante Vincente to her mysterious group of corruption hunting nobles... Right?
• Solange opens the embossed letter to find it is from Capitan Reynard.  Through the introduction by the dashing guard captain, Baron Descartes expresses his thanks for finding young Ambrose!  Included in the letter is an invitation to the Primeur Ball hosted by the Baron tomorrow night!
• Our friendly band was just discussing which among them would be allowed to attend the ball through Schrödinger's tourney prize.  But now, everyone can go!  Which means, everyone only has 36 hours to come up with a masquerade costume to rub elbows with the city's most fabulous and wealthy!  
• Luckily, everyone's excitement at attending the event outweighs their usual anxiety!  Except for Pryrrish...
• Pryrrish laments that she has never been to a dance, let alone the fanciest masquerade of her long life.  She doesn't know how to dance properly in high society.  Luckily Schrödinger was tutored in all the skills for mingling with the nobility, including how to dance; and he offers to teach her the basics.  
• He reveals his parents had tutors brought in to their family home of Nachtkessel, back in remote Schwartzsteinburg--though they did tend to disappear soon after they completed their assignments in teaching him...  
• Hearing those words come from his own mouth, Schrödinger does pause.  After seeing that disturbing diorama last night, he recognizes why its depiction seems to echo stories he's told about his family home.  Completely out of context, of course...  But apparently some details of his family life are quite out of the ordinary, he's now learning...
• Refocusing the subject, Solange offers to teach dancing as well, considering neither the elf or Lamordian know the native styles.  While high society dances follow the same basic principles between nations, the Dementlieuvian style is exceedingly romantic and much more physically intimate than austere Lamordian ones.  The three spend their morning teaching one another, and it is an overall very lively event.  
• Pryrrish is by no means an expert, but she'll be able to not fully embarrass herself if asked to dance...  
• Schrödinger blushes at all the "unnecessary skin contact", almost turning as red as his hair.  
• Solange laughs for the first time in a long while, enjoying being among the living more and more each day.
• Channa decides to go out and acquire something to cure a hangover from the local alchemist's shop.  They rarely drink as it is, so last night got the best of them.  Fenri (no longer hungover from that big breakfast) also wishes to explore the local street, so she accompanies Channa out into the morning.  The halfling is in a sunny mood despite her heavy carousing last night, which slightly annoys the hungover mage.
• The local alchemist offers all manner of strange concoctions--their most popular items are actually makeup and perfume! They even have fragrance blends that supposedly ward off vampires!  
• While Fenri oohs and ahs at the different scents, Channa easily acquires a few vials of alchemist's mercy, a simple concoction that cures hangovers quickly once drunk.  Channa's mind is cleansed in just a few minutes after gulping it down.  
• Fenri does some shopping herself, acquiring two different perfume sprays--one smelling like flowery honeysuckle, and the other supposed repellant for vampires!  The alchemist winks that the latter is mostly just garlic in diluted oil, but all sorts of things prowl the dark streets of Port-a-Lucine--it is best to be prepared!
• As the pair head back to the boardinghouse, they come to the local fountain plaza just a block from their home.  A group of dirty street children is seen clustered by it, picking up large stacks of the Robust Lover to hawk on street corners.  
• One particular child, the leader, is a child with bright red hair and freckles.  Around their neck swing two pendants.  One is a shard of incredibly thick, green glass on a cord.  The other is very recognizable to Fenri; it's her holy symbol! 
• Fenri marches over, scattering the children with their loads of gossip rags.  But the redhead sits cool as a cucumber.  They remember Fenri well, playing with the sunburst of Pelor childishly.  Channa, standing taller than both the child and halfling, silently backing Fenri up.  
• Fenri remembers the kid called themselves Freckles, and they did help Fenri get home last night.  But the cleric needs that emblem back; Freckles can keep the gold otherwise.  The kid shrugs and gives it over, not wanting any trouble from either adult.  
• Channa also gets worried about letting this kid get away for theft, but in a different way from Schrödinger.  Channa grew up incredibly poor, scrounging on the streets until their their affinity for magic. was deemed useful by someone important.  
• They can easily empathize with the young Freckles, who appears to have a ton of kids looking up to them.  How strange Channa is practically living in luxury, comparatively from where they started...
• The group relaxes together, gathering to watch Pryrrish's dance lessons.  After they're done, the party discusses how to spend their day.  Channa really wants to go to the University of Dementlieu, which has all exhibitions going on for the national holiday.  They are also curious what higher education is like in this strange land.  Dementlieu is far more technically advanced, yet not as magically advanced it seems...
• Plus, if her friend Destir is anywhere in this strange world, he would make his way to a seat of higher learning...  This could be where he has been the last ten years!
• Schrödinger seconds this opinion; the University is known for having a top-notch medical program and he'd love to see the latest in modern medicine.  
• Both Fenri and Pryrrish are eager to see what research has been done into beings of divine origins.  The university is their closest bet to find any information about what lies beyond the Material...  
• Solange has visited the University in the past around this time, and she wants to show it to them.
• As they pile into the wagon for the long drive to the University, Solange actually recommends they acquire some masquerade outfits on the way.  She knows the city's garment district in the northern section of the Quartier Marchand; and it's on the way.  Everyone is excited to get their masquerade costumes and masks!
• Insert another shopping trip--now for fancy dresses and costumes!  
• The group notices a strange shop in between two larger ones, every wall covered in glittery masks!  A very old man is shaping leather for a wolf's head mask, meanwhile his male apprentice welcomes them in lyrical, foreign accent.  The youth reveals they are from the great city of Delirio across the sea, having set up shop to provide the best costume masks to the Dementlieuse.  Everyone is intrigued, as Delirio is a very recent trading partner to the western coast--a sunbaked port in the western Sea of Sorrows, lying far beyond the island of Ghastria!  
• Supposedly it is a realm where wine flows like water!  A decadent realm of nightly revels and pious priests!  A land attempting to heal itself with revelry and pietry from the scars of a festering, unnatural plague!
• Everyone takes their time purchasing masks and creating their ensemble for the Descartes Masquerade!  On the big day they'll surprise one another and unveil their Primeur fits!  So for now, it's off to the University!

What does the University of Dementlieu have in store for our strange group of celebrants?

    Will they find the answers they seek to all their questions?  Or will their curiosity be dangerously piqued for them to delve even deeper into the darkness?

Stay tuned for our next recap, patient readers; for Session Sixteen- Old Friends! [WIP]

Author's Note:

    Thank you so much for reading this, dear friends! A lot happened between now and the last time we recapped our story; at least to this author.  But I hope to get back into the swing of telling the tale of our beloved Friendly Freaks!

    It is gonna get really really good after this section, friends! The masquerade ball is going to be iconic, and the mystery at the heart of this arc will arrive in no time!

    [might add more to this later, stay tuned B-) ]

-- Aboleth Eye