COS II Session 11

Session 11 thumbnail, featuring the wielder of the +2 Shortsword

## Starring...

* The Barovian Freedom Fighters
	+ Red, the thief
	+ Xadriel Maverran, the ~~witness~~ accomplice
	+ Tokili, the spectator
	+ Stone, the red herring
	+ Galia Trey, the guard
	+ +2 shortsword, the defenestrator
* Iris the Incredible, the victim
* Strahd Von Zarovich, the comedy relief
* Reginald Van Richten, the detective
* The hard-working hospitality and security staff of the 57th Annual Delvana Masquerade Ball, making sure this event goes off without a hitch

Notable absentees: Max von Austrahlung, Twiggy

## Loop 1:

The party arrives at Castle Delvana at 7:55 PM with a slight sense of Déjà vu, although they quickly shrug it off to get to socializing. There's a call that the Baron will be giving a speech in five minutes, so Tokili heads off upstairs.

When Tokili reaches the second floor lounge area, he spots a very short, pale man with a cheap plastic vampire mask that has "I am wearing this ironically" written on the forehead. He seems immediately displeased at Tokili's presence and walks over the yell at him about "visions from the mist" and "cheesing the final boss". It's the party's old enemy—Strahd von Zarovich, accompanied by a figure in a long brown trenchcoat—Firstname Van Richten. Strahd seems to forget that Tokili can do whatever he wants whenever he wants, and will not be bound by Strahd's terrible little perceptions of time.

The whole party hears the Baron's speech, which is really just going over the itinerary: Band's on at 9:00 PM, Iris preforms at 10:00 PM, murder mystery at 10:01 PM and the night wraps up with the "Best Dressed" award at midnight.

Stone drags Xadriel off to a corner, where she explains that she intends to just fucking annihilate Iris the Incredible, and that Xadriel should "just try and fucking stop me, nerd. Really. Please follow me." Xadriel begrudgingly obliges to follow Stone around for the night to ensure she does not get the chance to kill someone.

Whilst Stone is explaining her intentions, Al tries to beat her to the punch by getting an exclusive behind the scenes meet with Iris herself. The guard accepts his excuse of "I really want to see her, please?????" because he's getting paid minimum wage. However, before abandoning his post, he calls over Galia to watch the door he was stationed at while he escorts Al to his behind-the-scenes chat. Galia complies after berating the minimum-wage employee. The guard shows Al to Iris's room, to which he stares blankly at her for 30 seconds before making a bomb threat on behalf of the Van Richten Society. When his lies fall apart under Iris's mild scrutiny, he punches her twice in the mouth. He briefly considers throwing her "unconscious" body out the window but then settles on simply stealing the artifact and throwing himself out the window. Red and Galia both hear Alucard's (first of many) unarmed assaults because Galia immediately left her post to go spy on Al invisibly, with Red catching up with her shortly after.

Stone and Xadriel both have a quick and passive-aggressive chat with Strahd Von Zarovich before trying to create a distraction to get backstage. Stone pulls out her famous *eversmoking bottle* to create the illusion of a fire, however in a classic blunder she drops the boof and is now receiving a stare-down from every guest at the masquerade, how embarrassing! To avoid the fallout from that Faux Pas, Xadriel quickly turns himself and Stone invisible in order to duck backstage. With a little help from Tokili's illusion magic, she's able to evade detection.

Unfortunately, the artifact in Al's possession suddenly glows a blinding blue, which washes over the halls of ~~Ravenloft~~ Castle Delvana before eventually enveloping every party member.

Make a save with any ability.

## Loop 2:

The party finds themselves mingling amongst the masquerade's attendance, with a slight sense of Déjà vu

## The Timeline

For those who failed their "tortured-by-visions" saves, here's the timeline:

* **7:55 PM:** The Barovian Freedom Fighters, sans Twiggy and Max, legally enter Castle Delvana to attend the masquerade.
* **8:00 PM:** Admission closes.
* **8:01 PM - 9:57 PM:** Assorted mingling, eating, and dancing (how much of the last timelines were retained?)
	+ **8:05 PM:** Stone tells Xadriel she plans to kill Iris the Incredible, and proceeds to never mention or act on this again.
* **9:58 PM:** Tokili abruptly leaps out of a window, transforming into an eagle and flying to Iris's room.
* **9:58 PM:** Stone drags Xadriel to the second floor stage. At her insistence, Xadriel casts *invisibility* on both of them. They slip behind the curtain, only to find that Iris is already dead, and the Pyramid Artifact is missing.
* **10:00 PM:** The second-floor stage curtains part, revealing Iris the Incredible's dead body to the horrified masquerade attendees.

## Developments

* Stone, Tokili, and Galia are all aware of the time resets.
* Strahd is aware of Tokili, Xadriel, and the +2 shortsword's wielder's presences in Barovia.
	+ He likely assumed the rest of the Freedom Fighters are present as well.
* Iris the Incredible is dead.
* The Pyramid Artifact is missing.

## Trivia

* This session is actually a reference to hit game *12 Minutes.*