21: Two-Faced

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## Summary

### A Piece of the Pie

Luca, now back to his humanoid shape, ducks down some alleyways and sneaks back to the party, where Peeks has realized he’s lost his lighter. He brings the gang back to his apartment so that they gather their things and go back to the inn, and they part ways with a plan to meet the next day for Les Riz. Later, at the Inn, the gang splits their profits from the auction.

The next morning, the party makes a quick detour to the stables to visit Muna again, still hopeful of catching a glimpse of her rider. Gwynn tells them that the Meranhi emissary came by the previous night to tend to Muna, and she made him aware of the party’s interest in his reptilian companion.

### To the Stage

That afternoon, the gang meets back up with Peeks, and takes their seats at the amphitheater in the South Fairground fields. The play begins, and follows its main character, Rizzo, from life of servitude to a life spent protecting the weak and needy. In Act II, on the eve of the Ratvolution, a rousing, triumphant rendition of “One Bite More” echoes out over the crowd as tensions in the Bowery’s burrow boil over.

In the lull before Act III begins, Bran and Mahi hear an eerie, lilting flutesong that the others don’t seem to notice. Bran sees a young boy wandering away from the amphitheater, and he, Mahi, and Luca head after him. After following him through the market, he leads them to an alley, where a wererat awaits him, seemingly trying to lure him to the sewers. Upon seeing the party, the wererat flees, the flutesong stops, and the boy’s trance is broken.

Act III comes to a close, with Rizzo dying a peaceful death surrounded by his loved ones in the fields outside the Castle. After the play wraps up, the party returns to the alley to investigate, and they find the manhole cover the wererat presumably used to escape to the sewers. Luca and Peeks get into a bit of a disagreement—while Luca feels compelled to save the city’s children from the wererat threat, Peeks takes a more survivalist approach—but Peeks remains true to his promise to Pombo to help the party, and takes them back to the Black Market trade floor.

### Back Down Below

Back in the sewers on the Trade Floor, the party spies Lillet and Tai at a tent full of antiques. Cat sends his spider familiar after them, but they seem to disappear down a dead-end tunnel. The party settles for checking out the so-called “Tent of Major Curiosities”, where they pick up some new equipment. Luca gets an enchanted ring, Mujie picks up the Amulet of Openness, and Cat makes himself the new owner of the Overdrive Bangle. The party also buys some health potions, and a small vial of sovereign glue.

After their shopping spree, Cat directs Mujie to question the antiques tent attendant about Lillet and Tai, but instead of getting any helpful leads, he instead proceeds to have the most awkward conversation of all time.

Meanwhile, easily swayed by even the most transparent flattery, Peeks makes up with Luca. Putting aside their petty squabble, they go with the party to investigate the tunnel Lillet and Tai disappeared down. Peeks immediately assures the party that this dead-end tunnel shouldn’t be a dead-end tunnel: it’s supposed to branch out further and lead to a sewer entrance elsewhere in the Bowery. Curious, they head back topside, and descend again using this other entrance to see if they can find the “other side” of the wall.

### That Wall Ain't Right

Using detect magic, Cat learns Lillet has cast the Passwall spell to navigate the dead-end. But while they’re investigating further, Mujie notices Peeks’s lighter on the floor, and Cat senses a dark magic from beyond the wall-that-shouldn’t-be. He sends his spider into a crack in the wall towards what seems to be the source of the dark magic, but his spider is consumed by the tar-like, purple substance.

Mujie and Luca reach out to the old gods, but the two receive a complicated combination of responses. Bartak’s necklace seems to give Luca a sense of protection, but Mitro’s ring leaves Mujie with a more cryptic, undiscernable message. After some discussion, the party connects some threads and realizes that this purple substance is what the history book called “Wrath”, a mysterious, dark power that originated with the Fell King Siffir.

The party returns to the inn, where they spend some time attuning to their new items and unraveling further secrets from the history book.

### At the Archives

The day of the Ball, at Peeks’s instruction, the party makes for the library to search the old news archives for information on the Coalition. There, they find newspapers dated from thirteen years ago: the Age of Second Spring, Year 314. The newspapers detail the Coalition’s acts of treason and terrorism, and culminate a front-page display of the members’ mugshots to serve as a warning to the cityfolk: traitors to the High Council, as were deemed all members of the Coalition, will be executed.

Among the mugshots, Tira sees a picture of her father Tallis and his friend Khir, a human man. Unexpectedly, Eton recognizes a *living* face as well: Ander, leader of the Celestine Collective of Lhoam, headmaster of the Lhoam Academy of Sciences, but a decade younger. But even stranger, he sees the name given below his portrait: Garris.

## Quotes

### *FLATTERY WILL GET YOU EVERYWHERE:*

> "You *are* tall."
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*—Luca, to Peeks*

### *HOT(?) AND BOTHERED:*

> "Garris is stupid name."
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*—Cat*