Candela Obscura: The Antiquarian

"**Candela Obscura: The Antiquarian**" (CO3x01) thumbnail featuring the cast.

"**Candela Obscura: The Antiquarian**" (CO3x01) is the first episode of *Candela Obscura's* third chapter, featuring the Circle of Tide and Bone. After a creature known throughout legend emerges within Newfaire, Candela Obscura rallies the only circle they believe capable of taking on this Fairen Folklore.

## **Synopsis**

### **Introduction**

*What keeps the children of Hale safe from their curiosity? Nursery rhymes serve as cautionary tales to explain Candela Obscura's earliest adversaries. So when a creature of legend returns to the hollowed labyrinth of Grayslate, a new and unusual circle of investigators is formed, tasked to face an unholy corruption. As the unsuspecting Newfairens bear witness to this macabre phenomena, each investigator must steel their mind, perhaps even from themselves. The Circle of Tide and Bone. Assignment #31-58: The Antiquarian.*

### **Episode introduction**

Silva Sarkis, a middle-aged man wearing patients' pajamas, moves through the halls of Grayslate Sanitorium to a doorway, where he sees a Sister Iovar, a nun, lowering herself seductively into the lap of Director Greenvale. Suddenly, a muddy, bloody hand bashes into the window, and Silva recognizes the face of a patient who had earlier disappeared from the institution. The patient sprints across the lawn, and Silva is able to hide from the pursuing Iovar and Greenvale. He takes advantage of the distraction to escape, and makes his way into the streets of Newfaire, searching until he sees someone wearing the pin designating them as a member of Candela Obscura.

### **Part I**

It's a mild day in late spring, the 15th anniversary of the end of the Last Great War. Within The Antiquarian, a quirky little occult bookshop in The Sidle that is secretly a chapter house of Candela Obscura, is Lightkeeper Nokari, talking to the elderly owner, Cosmo Grimm, telling him that after this last assignment, he must retire from Candela and become a Lightkeeper. Nokari is creating a new circle from three names Cosmo has given him, but this will be his final investigation. Nokari has also added one additional operative with a specific tie to the current problem, Dr. Rajan Savarimuthu.

Dr. Elsie Roberts arrives, greets them, and goes upstairs. Downstairs, Oscar Grimm, Cosmo's grandson, enters and is greeted by the shop clerk and retired Candela operative Eloise. Elsie returns and she and Oscar greet each other happily, and Cosmo explains Oscar is being inducted into the ranks of Candela. Nokari has given Cosmo all the people he asked for in this Circle, including Elsie, Oscar, and Madam Cordelia Glask, plus someone not on his list but with a personal connection to the issue. Just then, Rajan Savarimuthu enters and greets Cosmo, but then notices Elsie, who is shocked to see him. He smiles warmly at her, and explains he will be joining their circle because of his personal experiences. Elsie awkwardly turns to Cosmo and asks to speak to him privately. When they leave, Oscar, who is new to Candela, seeks an explanation of what a Lightkeeper is and talks briefly to Rajan. Madam Glask arrives, and is charmed by the suave manners of Rajan but slightly put out to have been called away from her casino on a busy holiday.

Meanwhile, Cosmo and Elsie are in his private rooms. Elsie is upset, telling Cosmo she didn't think she had to remind him of her condition. Although Cosmo trusts the others, she is not sure they can trust what they would do if they saw her, and she needs to be removed from the mission. Cosmo confesses this is his last circle, and that he has little say in the matter. He has faith in her, and could really use her. She agrees, but asks him to help keep her calm, especially around Raj.

They join the others and Nokari explains their mission, which is very nebulous and seems like whatever they could cobble together to provide Cosmo a chance for one last circle. However, Silva Sarkis is there to explain more about the issue at the Sanitorium. When Nokari leaves, Madam Glask tries to calm the very nervous and unfocused Sarkis, and when Elsie tries to assess his condition, she takes a bleed. When Raj is near him, he senses a tremendous amount of bleed and realizes it is the almost-forgotten scent of The Maw from his childhood. If he stays, he will be lost to it. The others recognize Raj is not okay, and Cosmo pushes Sarkis for answers.

Sarkis explains disjointedly that people have been disappearing from the Sanitorium and no one seems to care. There is a beautiful and seductive woman, Sister Iovar, who works there, and patients around her go missing. Raj recognizes the description-- he has seen her too in his past. The organization Sarkis used to work for, the Office of Unexplained Phenomena, is the part of the Periphery security forces that deals with protecting the populace from magickal problems, and they and Candela operate in something of a rivalry. The OUP also keeps tabs on The Ascendancy, the religious arm of the government of Newfaire, so Sarkis is familiar with the local clergy, and something is wrong about Sister Iovar, whom he had never heard of until recently.

The group discusses possible strategies for investigation, and Cosmo mentions not wanting to charge "into the maw of the beast". When he says these words, Rajan falls into his thoughts, taking a bleed. He remembers his youth after his mother's death, when his sister Atheka broke and she was lost to the family, a beautiful nun named Rahema appeared and comforted them, growing close to the family over time, and his sister seemed to improve. One night, he followed his sister across the city to the darkest neighborhood, where he saw her digging before she looked up at him, turned into something monstrous, and attacked him. Rajan realized a nursery rhyme taught to him by his mother could save him, but fumbled a word and saved only himself. His sister was lost to The Maw, the monster hiding behind the nun's beautiful face.

Sarkis agrees to lay low for a while, and tells the group how grateful he is someone believes him. Rajan takes his hand, surreptitiously smearing Scarlet (a relaxing drug) on it as he does. Cosmo has Sarkis draw them a detailed map of the Sanitorium, then offers to let him stay at the bookshop while they investigate if Rajan would be more comfortable that way.

Later that afternoon, while they wait for dark, Elsie finds Raj alone. She tells him he seems worse for wear, and he asks if she's worried about him but then assures her he's fine. Elsie asks Raj what he'll do if he doesn't find "her", but Raj evades. He doesn't need her looking after him right now. Oscar seeks out Cosmo in his study, where Cosmo asks about "his time inside", revealing Oscar was recently in prison and Cosmo pulled strings to have him released. Cosmo is worried about Rajan's connection with whatever Sarkir discovered at the Sanitorium, and warns Oscar there will be eyes on them. Oscar will try to be subtle, and not rock the boat with the circle.

### **Break**

* Discover Demiplane's **Candela Obscura Nexus**, the official digital companion for Candela Obscura.
* The ***Candela Obscura Core Rulebook*** is now available in all five critrole.com shops.

### **Part II**

When night falls, the group goes to the ancient, guarded Grayslate Sanitorium. Oscar sneaks on top of the wall, taking a body point in the process, and clocks the guards' movements before rejoining the party where Elsie heals him. During the ensuing discussion, Oscar and Rajan seem increasingly wary and slightly hostile to each other, stressing Elsie further. The wheelchair-using Cosmo clearly cannot go over the wall, so they decide Cordelia will act as Cosmo's worried granddaughter committing him to the institution, and Elsie as his doctor. Meanwhile, Oscar and Rajan will scale the wall and explore the back.

Putting the plan in motion, Elsie and Cordelia wheel in a loudly raving and complaining Cosmo, demanding very convincingly to speak to the Director. The receptionist runs off and returns with her as Cosmo continues raving. The director is unperturbed and agrees to admit him, returning to her office to prepare the paperwork. Elsie seizes the opportunity to hide in the powder room, while Cordelia pretends to faint from the stress, drawing the Director back. Elsie slips into her office.

Meanwhile, in the back of the building, Oscar and Rajan climb the wall and in line with the route taken by the patient Sarkis saw, find a recently-dug hole about five feet across. Cautiously, Rajan lights a candle and they see a flat rock surface at its bottom.

Back in the sanitorium director's office, an increasingly-stressed Elsie searches through the desk and notices the tiny candlelight outside. She finds a page with mysterious symbols and writing, which she pockets, before slipping back out and rejoining Cosmo and Cordelia, still freaking out in the foyer. Elsie offers to take Cosmo home which the director annoyedly accepts, demonstrating an odd strength as she pushes Cosmo's chair toward the exit.

Outside, Rajan uses his bleed detector monocle to look into the hole. Insects come out of the soil as he does, their activity indicating to him that "she" is near. Rajan tells Oscar to wait for him above, and that she is down there. Oscar agrees to wait, if Raj will tell him what she did to him, and Raj finally admits that she destroyed his sister, shattering her mind and will, and then tearing her apart. Oscar tells Raj to wait here while he gets the others. When he finds them and Elsie hears that Rajan has gone down the hole, she takes another stress point and this tips her over. She screams, "Run!" and loses herself to her beast, transforming into a large, muscular, otherworldly creature something like a mantis, also summoning a cloud of thick fog. Alone of the others, Oscar knows what is happening and interposes himself between Cosmo and the beast, but it attacks and chokes him, crushing his throat as he gasps out, "It's okay. I'll be fine." Oscar falls lifeless as Elsie reverts to herself.

Oscar finds himself alone in familiar dark. This is his seventh time dying, and each time, he has paid a price, losing some memory, some part of himself. He has lost the memories of his other kid and his wife. He only has Cosmo, his son, left, and he now loses the memories of Cosmo's childhood. A voice says, "You're so close. Any more, and I don't know if you'll be there, too, but I need you to come to me." With no memories of what has just happened, Oscar returns back toward the world.

The others are standing over his corpse, panicking, but Cosmo comforts Elsie, telling her and everyone else it will be all right. From inside the hole, Rajan hears Elsie's cry and climbs back to rejoin the group. Oscar's body heals itself and he opens his eyes, assuring everyone that he's all right, but they need to move. He hugs Cosmo and apologizes for being a burden to him when he should be his caretaker, and to everyone else for what just happened. Cosmo speaks words in Oldfairen to Elsie, calming her, but Madam Glask is still very angry and feels betrayed by seeing the transformation. There has been a lot of noise, and the party needs to decide where to go, eventually choosing to return to the hole, where they climb down to find a collapsed ceiling of an Oldfairen hallway, and the corpses of five sanitorium patients who died attempting to continue digging it out under orders from the nun, the Maw.

The group follows muddy footsteps down a hallway until they hear the noise of further excavation and voices. Raj explains that his sister suffered a similar fate to the patients. He has discovered Oldfaire specialized in ferocious weaponry, including famine, turning locusts into flesh eating venomous spirits. The Great Maw comes from the despair of the affected starving children, a toothed horror more insect than person who will leverage their deepest fears and mistrusts.

Cosmo's bleed detector senses the presence of bleed all around them, but before they move on, Madam Glask demands an explanation from Elsie. Elsie tells them she's dying. She has contracted cullet, a degenerative lung disease that developed in the poorer districts following the war. In her experimentation to find a cure, she became the beast they saw. She has previously worked only with Oscar and Cosmo because she knows she's a danger, but she was able to control it until Rajan returned.

They hear noises from around the corner, and Cosmo puts on his "action glasses" before peering around it cautiously. He sees a large room with the nun (who is sniffing the air and slowly turning in their direction), a worker patient, and a thinly-mustached black-haired Serious Man whom Cosmo recognizes from decades earlier in his childhood. Cosmo is terrified, and haltingly communicates there are three people there. Raj surreptitiously takes some Scarlet, and Elsie tells him, "We can't handle this if you are on that."

Just then, a seductive female voice tells them they might as well come in; she knows they're there. Cosmo rolls out, seeing the Serious Man watching from behind as the beautiful nun steps forward, transforming into a monstrous creature. Cosmo greets the Serious Man and pulls a glowing pale blue dagger from his wheelchair. When the monster pounces on him, he sinks the blade using his Ghostblade ability, but as he does is badly bitten himself. Elsie gives in voluntarily to her inner beast for the first time, telling it that it can come out, but she will be there, too. The beast form interposes itself between the Maw and Cosmo. The Serious Man seems to recognize Oscar as they make eye contact, and although Oscar may have forgotten the name of the ship and everyone else in the crew and who he performed with, he could not forget this man, the reason he's like this.

Rajan is looking in awe at the transformed Elsie. In his memories, he recognizes a remembered nursery rhyme as a chant of binding: "Mother Mercy, ensconced in white, tends the hungry day and night. Loving mother to the poor, dare not enter through her door. Mind this verse lest you should meet. Please mind her smile and mind her teeth!" As he chants, the creature becomes increasingly agitated, demanding he stop, but he continues, shouting, "Your name is known to me, Great Maw! Now unbind us from tooth and claw!" The mouths on the Maw snap shut and it freezes, and as it does, Elsie's beast plunges a claw into its chest and crushes its lungs, and its soul, absorbing some of its essence in the process.

The Serious Man bolts for the door and Oscar is unable to stop him. Rajan recognizes him as a man his mother often conversed with, and determined to stop him, tears his jacket and shirt to reveal a hive built into his chest. He reaches toward the Serious Man and tells his children to feed. A swarm of locusts pour from his body, ripping away the man's clothing and feeding on his body. Oscar calls out for him to stop, but the Serious Man and Raj both fall unconscious. Elsie resuscitates Rajan and Oscar demands he call off his insects. When he does, the swarm drops to the ground, dead, leaving the Serious Man alive but in shock.

Madam Glask asks Cosmo why they let him live. Cosmo responds, "It's a full circle today for my father and I," revealing that his alleged grandson Oscar is actually Cosmo's father. Oscar, meanwhile, confirms that the Serious Man is the person who was present when he became seemingly immortal as his ship broke apart in a storm and the Serious Man's ritual was interrupted. Oscar needs him alive to hopefully get some answers from him. The horribly wounded Cosmo also loses consciousness and the others carry both him and the Serious Man out of the grounds of the Sanitorium and return to the Antiquarian to recover. Before they leave, Raj takes his Core Sampler and kills the thrall to the Maw, ending his misery and servitude.

## **Featured characters**

### **Circle of Tide and Bone**

* Cordelia Glask, Magician
* Cosmo Grimm, Occultist
* Elsie Roberts, Doctor
* Oscar Grimm, Soldier
* Rajan Savarimuthu, Professor

### **New**

* Eloise, a worker in the Antiquarian Bookshop and former Candela operative
* Director Greenvale, head of Grayslate Sanitorium
* Sister Iovar, a nun
* Lightkeeper Nokari, lightkeeper of the Circle of Tide and Bone
* Silva Sarkis, formerly of the Office of Unexplained Phenomena, now a patient in Grayslate
* The Serious Man, a mysterious figure from Cosmo and Oscar's past

### **Mentioned**

* Aadtika, Rajan's sister
* Rahema, a beautiful nun in Rajan's past
* Cronin, a guard at the Sanitorium known to Madam Glask

## **Quotations**

* **Nokari**: I help you to shed light on the mysteries that you uncover and deal with. Not everything is a fight, Mr. Grimm.
Oscar: Well, not at first, it isn't.
* **Rajan**: *(to Elsie)* I must say it is very good to see you.
Elsie: I wish I could say the same.
* **Rajan**: You don't have to like me, but do you trust me in this moment?
Oscar: No.
Rajan: Do you trust Elsie, then?
Oscar: Of course.
Rajan: Then for her sake you keep a lookout.[...] Can you do that for me? My attention will be focused here.
Oscar: I can do that for *her*.
Rajan: On that, we can agree.
* **Rajan**: We have to wait for the others.
Oscar: I don't even know if they're coming here.
Rajan: The two of us alone can't handle whatever she is, and she is down there.
Oscar: I'll wait, if you tell me what she did to you.
Rajan: We don't have time for this.
Oscar: We do if we wait. What did she do to you?[...]
Rajan: She destroyed my sister. Broke her into something I couldn't recognize. Shattered her mind and broke her will, and then tore her into a thousand pieces in front of me. Is that enough for you? What more details do you need?
* **Oscar**: A memory, a skill, a friend, an image-- I've lost them all, every time I'm killed. I don't remember my other kid. I've forgotten most of my wife. I lost some of my charisma, my performance ability. I don't really have anything else to lose.
Aabria: That's not true.
Oscar: I have only Cosmo. I only have my son. And so, if I take a breath in, I know it will cleanse my mind of our days together.
* **Rajan**: I don't have to like you to trust you. And I promise you here and now, I will give my everything to keep you safe.
* **Elsie**: Rajan, we can still leave.
Rajan: No, my darling, we can't.