Session 7: Lunaris, The Mansion, The Ritual

After defeating “The Collector”, the party examines the area for spoils

The Collector’s loot:

• A leather-bound book: the circus performer ledger
  • Exhale sigh wax from book seal
  • Silhouettes of performers frozen mid performance appear in the area
  • Vesper recognizes a couple of the names name
    • One of them, the last act, Ringmaster’s chosen (The Collector)
• Harp encased in glass (hand harp)
  • Beautiful harp well crafted silver hair strung
  • There’s a Label Plate on glass reading: “The song that stopped a war”
• Jewelry
  • Sol finds spiral bound ring with runes
    • Ring is holding spells: Ring of spell storing
      • Anyone can cast a spell into ring and it holds it up to level 5 (no duplicates)
        • Silvery barbs
        • Fog cloud
        • Mirror image
        • Detect thoughts
        • Heat metal
• Cloaks
  • Moss kind of recognizes one of them from his past, long ago maybe
• Jin finds a fancy looking sash
  • It’s embroidered, blue and white with stormclouds

Moss is the only one who notices a shadowy figure moving, The shadow looks at Vesper and smirks
The party hears soft music and the tent spins, disappearing

• The Silhouettes disappear alongside the tent

Moss mentioned ringleader, sparks vesper memory

• Moss sketches the ringleader

Smells burnt sugar and sawdust
Inside a circus tent:
Silhouettes wearing masks of porcelain moons claps
Something doesn't seem right
Look into soul well, a swirling vortex of color and light
A tall figure behind top with shimmering black clothes and glowing eyes appears, the ringmaster.
Ringmaster: Tonight boy the circus needs a star
The audience claps but Vesper hears nothing
There’s a small girl with blue ribbons in her hair, and the same kind of patchy clothes Vesper has tiny, holding a stuffed rabbit that’s missing one eye
Little Girl: “You’ll catch me right?”
Vesper isn't wearing a mask
Ringmaster: Of course, you'll fly higher than anyone. A star must fall before it can shine.
Against their will, Vesper is forced to toss the girl up into the air
The Girl falls towards the soul well Light swallows her
Little Girl: “You promised you'd fix it”
Ringmaster bows, Vesper bows, a tear falls down vesper’s face
Her Tiny silhouette drifts downwards in the well
Little Girl: “Don't forget me”

Vesper asks Moss what he saw when he was inside the soul well.

• Moss remembers seeing Durum when Moss was in the well

Party goes to the tavern before leaving town

• Ves wears moss’s cloak to hide clowness

Sol asks someone about circus

• Circus pulled people from crowd, people start going missing crowd thins out
• Big clown (the collector) goes through town collecting souls

Sol asks about her home town, Lunaris

• There are rumors of business dying down, it appears the Shadowsong family is not doing so well

The party approaches Lunaris They notice a boot in the bushes

• It’s not just a boot, it’s a body, a spy from the Veiled Compact, with a note
• It reads: “They are coming, prepare”

Along the way the party encounters a rude guard named Voltaris

• Voltaris gives the party the side eye

The pier in town has less boats than usual, more evidence that things aren’t going so well

The party notices goliaths carrying JB’s body, one of them being an emissary from the Stormcall Clans

• The have to go north with JB’s body, and mention that they will scout around about rumors of missing people and stuff on the way

Gimbol goes north with them

The party approaches The Shadowsong Family’s Manor

• Don’t see usual amount of grounds crew
• The house’s marble is cracked and worn

The party is greeted by Cogsworth, the Shadowsong family’s head butler, Sol questions him on the state of things around Lunaris and their family’s mansion.

• There’s a man occasionally stalking around the area of the mansion, he looks different everytime
  • It’s almost certainly Sol’s booty call
• Everything unraveled when Sol left, small misfortunes keep happening

The party enters the mansion

• Everything looks worn

Sol's dad is there at his desk with his head in his hands

• He’s going through it

Sol asks him what’s going on but he says they’ll talk at dinner

Sol hears her Nan (Marean) singing a song bout flames n stuff, how ominous

• It’s a song she used to sing to Sol every night

Jin, Moss and Cogsworth play blackjack Cogsworth is losing

• Seems like his luck is going bad like the rest of Shadowsong
• Cogsworth totally broke, first time sol has seen that
• Moss Wins

Sol’s Father insists on having a banquet, Sol notices the food is a little worse than normal

• The only people helping are Sol’s servants she took with her to regency

Sol recounts her adventures to her family Sol's dad mentions the flame mentioned to Sol during her childhood was never just a story Sol’s grandfather made a deal with someone (the flame) for wealth, prestige, etc

• Claims they are “Stewards of this parasite”

Sol asks what they gave him
Sol’s Dad: “We gave them you”
Sol’s Mom: “ No we didn't, he wanted you but we bartered”

Marean explains in more detail:

Flash back of flame not as flame but figure
Sol as a baby held by Marean
Flame: “The child is mine”
Marean refuses to give Sol to the flame
Cracks and embers run up the wall
A tear from Marean falls on Sol's face, in the same place where Sol later gets her scar.
Marean puts sol in protective circle of runes
Marean tells the person to take her instead
The flame surges
Fire surrounds Marean, and a porcelain mask forms on her face
Flame: “She was chosen”
Marean: ”Our little star is not yours”
The flames binds Marean instead of Sol

Marean reveals that she has the souls from the priests Sol sacrificed She also put part of her soul in a mirror, and part of Sol’s soul somewhere too Marean hands Sol a music box

• It plays the same song Marean used to sing to Sol
• Marean says the souls from Sol’s sacrifice are in the music box

Marean says she has a plan to sever her connection to the flame

Later that night Sol contacts the flame, trying to make deal

• Flame wants sol to kill Marean by messing with Marean’s ritual

Sol decides to help Marean because she’s worried the flame might make Sol ugly. The party resolves to help Marean and Marean claims that someone needs to accept some kind of burden for the ritual, facilitated by offering their blood

• Jin is selected/volunteered

The party goes to a room Sol hasn't been to much

• Beautiful dolls that Sol might have used to play with

Marean leads the party to a chamber

• Large mirror with a cloth draped over it, covering it
• Moonlight comes through the one window
• Magic circle in the center on the floor
• Jin hears faint voice of happy children, voice of woman teaching conjuration etc

The party sets up for the ritual

• Vesper moves the covered mirror into moonlight, and ties a rope to the cloth covering the mirror
• Vesper moves out of the way, and pulls the rope, uncovering the mirror

A figure emerges from the mirror

• Looks like Marean, but porcelain masked, covered in burns and bandages, and glows faintly with red embers

Mirror Marean reaches out to Sol as if to touch her face, claws come out from Mirror Marean's hands

• Mirror Marean whisper’s “Little star, run”, but then in a different voice says: “No she is mine”

Mirror Marean is immediately hostile, and the fight begins. During the fight Mirror Marean summons wisps, they look like echoes/memories of Sol. Marean falters and when she stands up there is a mask on her face

• Tether between Marean and Mirror Marean
• Fireballs the whole goddamn area
  • What a badass

Moss totally offs Mirror-Marean, afterwards Marean, Mirror-Marean, and Sol all appear to be in pain. The mirror shatters and a scream of agony is heard from a male voice. Marean's tether to the flame is severed (that's the 2nd one so far), and t he chamber starts going dark. The worn and cracked interior of the chamber slowly starts to become pristine again.

Sol summons “her patron” Glasya, and the rest of party knocked tf out upon Glasya’s entrance. Sol gives Glasya the souls she previously promised her, from the music box. The scar on Sol's face is healed, and Glasya says:

let’s get revenge on that SOB (flame)

(paraphrased)

The party wakes up