Favor, Episode 26: Black Masque

## Starring

Sage Stafford as Aoife Flannery
Naseem Etemad as Fittonia 'Toni' Silvertail
Katie Budabin as Lluvyras 'Lu' Ssath
Celeste Conowitch as Dungeon Master

**Episode 26: Black Masque** *(2x26)* is the 26th episode of the Venture Maidens Favor campaign.

## Synopsis

*Secrets scattered all around*

*Though some, better left unfound*

*Funny, how love for one daughter*

*Lead so many to the slaughter*

#### Not As They Once Were

Once more, we begin with a dream:

They return once more to the study, back to their child-like forms, watching the raven haired woman who they just met as Gwen. They feel more grounded within the dream now, becoming more lucid. They look around at the study and quickly realize that the other children are all gone and the once plush rug was left threadbare in places from years of use. Everything looked fine and grand to a child’s eye, but their newfound lucidity allows them to pull back the gilded lace curtain to the truth beneath.

The woman, always smiling, now looks more haggard, with a messy bun crowning her suddenly greying head. The book she holds is weathered and tattered, far removed from the gilded book they had glimpsed before. She turns the page and looks up at the Maidens with a sigh. She doesn’t ask them their opinion of the story this time, or even interact at all, but once more begins to read:

>
> "With the guardian defeated and the missing girls found, our heroes had another great task laid at their feet. They entered Castle Dread and..."
>
>
>
> "I'm so sorry children, the next few pages are missing...the heroes have never made it this far. I'm sorry...I'm so, so sorry. For everything."
>
>

They return to their monster hunting forms, once more exploring the confines of the atrium. As they look to the west, an archway surrounded by a gate, leading off to what they can guess to be a graveyard. To the north, through the rows of trees, there are steps that lead to a platform upon which sits an empty chair. The vacuous room weighed heavy with the quiet, only broken by the faint rustling of the pages that sometimes drifted down from the ceiling above.

Toni picks up a few pages from the floor. They are all in the same handwriting, but the subjects very wildly. One page depicts half of a recipe, another a page from a history book, and another a partially written spell. She believes they are close to the Enigma Codex. Gwen has moved closer to Rook, grabbing hold of the confused werewolf’s arm. Gwen is confused and terrified by the magic on display and cannot begin to understand. Lu determines that whatever source of magic they are heading towards has warped with its time here, but promises to make this as unfrightening as she is able to. Gwen chants that none of it is real under her breathe, blaming it on demons and illusions.

Lu heads north, wanting to examine the chair she recognizes from the study, passing the long rows of twisting trees. She climbs the stairs up to the pedestal, discovering the rocking chair placed as if it were meant for royalty to sit and glance out across the orchard. Beside the chair is an old wooden lectern, which sits empty. She looks the lectern over and sees various sized question marks carved and scratched into its surface. Now that she rest upon the upper landing, she can see that double doors lead to a room to her north, and another much smaller door is to the east. Lu glances back at Gwen, noting that she does not seem to recognize the rocking chair. The perceptive rogue returned her attention to the lectern, tracing the groove where the spine of a thick, heavy tome had been set down hundreds of times. On the right hand side, her attention is drawn to five marks that look like they had been carved with a knife.

Aoife suggests for Gwen to set the book on the lectern and to sit in the chair, though she isn’t sure it will set a trap off or not. Gwen is not sure she is the best candidate for this and Rook pulls the book from her grasp, setting it neatly in the groove of the lectern. Toni rests in the rocking chair, which creaks but nothing else happens. Gwen interjects, informing them that she isn’t sure exactly how many pages are missing, but maybe the marks might be tracking the amount of missing pages, though she isn’t sure how it would know. Lu suggests that they search the other rooms for any loose pages. Aoife asks Gwen where exactly she had gotten the book from and the young girl explains that she retrieved it from the Church Archives, and sheepishly admits to having “borrowed” it in a strictly non-legal sense. Gwen says that it was the only book that mentioned anything about magic, and if the church had the book, how would any of the pages be here in the castle, and Aoife assumes the book probably came from the castle, since it was so old. Gwen, trying to maintain some grip on the mundane reality of her world, agrees that whoever owned the castle before she was born must have had a study, so surely the book just came from there.

#### Beloved Daughter

Lu suggests that they take a look at the graveyard, which tended to hold useful information about the past. The pages here are crunchier, and act more like fallen leaves. The archway is twisted wrought iron twisted into leaves and letters that read: Rest in Peace. They cross under the archway and pass over the threshold. The graveyard is odd, since there is no dirt and the gravestones look like they have been shoved directly into the stone floor of the atrium. None of the stones are marked, until the approach a mausoleum standing in the middle of the cemetery. A carved figure sits above the doorway, depicting a young girl with wings on her back. Something is off with the imagery, as the girl is dressed plainly and the wings appear to be shriveled and odd. Lu opens the door into a small room containing a white marble sarcophagus. Etched into the top of the sarcophagus are the words: Gwendolyn Beloved Daughter and the carving of a swan below.

Lu reaches deep inside, drawing on the ghostly presence inside of her to try and detect any other departed souls nearby. She can hear the ringing of many lost spirits that want to communicate with her, she focuses in and finds that there is a distinct lack of ringing from around the sarcophagus, and comes to the realization that there is no body in the sarcophagus, and Gwendolyn, whoever she may be, wasn’t dead. She turns her attention back to the other ringing and can sense dozens of furious and trapped spirits trying to reach out to her. She fights to keep Gwen out of the room, fearing for the young woman’s mental well being were she to see the monster hunter communing with the dead. She turns back to her friends and they can see that her eyes have gone a foggy white and the very edges of her had become slightly translucent. The rogue puts a hand to her forehead and announces that nobody was in there before pushing past to get out of the area.

#### Behind Door #2

They step back into the main atrium and head for the smaller doors at the east of the platform, revealing stairs that lead to an upper floor. They follow the corkscrew upwards and open another door that lets out into a long hallway lined with dusty paintings and threadbare tapestries. A set of double doors are set into the north end, and a single door at the far end to the west. Lu, with her vision stretching into the Ethereal Plane, can see a woman dusting at the edges of a painting with a feather duster. She can see that half of the woman’s face was covered in fur, and that she had pointed ears, though some of her teeth were pointed and others were not. Lu recognizes her to be a Changeling dressed in a maid’s uniform.

As the party comes up the stairs, the maid stops dusting and gives them all a polite nod before continuing about her business. Lu approaches and whispers a greeting before asking what had happened there. Everything had fallen into disarray, but the rogue does not hold it against the maid personally. The maid is confused by the question, explaining that the Mistress was out hunting for the day and she does not know what Lu is inferring about the home being in disarray since the staff was as good as it always was. Lu states that it was just different than she had imagined it would be. The maid says that a lot of common folk were impressed with the Mistress’ castle and they should be because it was the finest castle in all of the land. Lu asks the maid what the Mistress’ full name and title were and the maid is taken aback that they had not heard of Penny Dreadful.

Lu asks when the Mistress would be back and the maid leans in and admits that the Mistress’ schedule was erratic and it was hard to tell when she would be back with how she had been acting lately. Lu asks if anything happened to cause this change in behavior and the maid informs her that the Mistress had built something and upon completing what she had built, she had begun to act strange, but she insists that she is correcting the problem. The inquisitive rogue asks what Penny built, but the maid had never seen it because Penny was very secretive, but she had heard from one of the groomsmen that it was some type of contraption. Penny was the only one with a key, and the groomsman had only seen it in passing when Penny had been stepping out.

Gwen looks concerned for Lu when she turns back around to face the group. To Lu, she had been talking to a Changeling maid that was standing feet from her, but her friends saw he talking to a wall. Gwen asks who Lu is talking to and Lu is confused, pointing out the maid that was clearly cleaning the pictures. They all stare at her and Rook asks if she has had any water today, or if this was something else she would have to get used to. They all agree that it was something they have to get used to *here*.

Rook questions what the rest of them can do, assuming that they all couldn’t turn into wolves. Aoife explains that they all had a different power, and that she was a Fairy. Rook laughs, exclaiming her disbelief that Aoife could be a Fairy. Gwen is surprised by all of this and Rook explains that she needs to trust her and that this entire thing would be easier on her if the girl would just accept what was happening. Gwen agrees, since they had been friends their entire lives and she trusted Rook, who just swatted the heartfelt moment away with her usual callousness. Lu explains that she is more Ghostly, which might explain why she can see the maid and they couldn’t. She relays all of the gossip that the maid had supplied her and Gwen attempts to correct them, because Penny was the Champion, and had not owned the castle according to the legend. Toni explains that Penny was a lot more capable than she let the town believe her to be. Gwen says that none of it makes sense because if Penny owned the castle then why would she come back and fight the Lady of Shadows, who was the owner of the castle according to legend. Aoife offers up the theory that the Lady of Shadows took the castle and Penny had to storm the castle to take it back, which Gwen accepts as logical and calms her down again. Lu suggests that they look for more pages, and as there was not one in the hallway they should all proceed further.

They open the singular door and find a child’s bedroom, full of handcrafted mobiles hanging from the ceiling, a large fours poster bed, mounds and boxes full of toys and everything else a little girl would find wonderful. Unlike everything else they have seen thus far, there is not a speck of dust or dirt to be seen in this room. Lu spots a little cat nestled on the bed, happily napping, though the rest cannot see her reach for a ghost cat. The cat purrs into Lu’s hand and accepts pats, and Lu lifts it off the bed and begins searching the room for any missing pages. As the others step over the threshold to join her, they feel the room shimmer and a little illusory girl runs into the room. She wears black pigtails, and two withered wings stretch from her back. They can tell from her appearance that she is some form of Changeling. She throws herself behind a chest and the illusion of a woman identical to Gwen walks in, finding the little girl and picking her up to the sounds of delighted squeals. The illusion vanishes and Lu asks if they all saw what she just saw. They agree and Gwen puts a hand to her forehead and says she needs some air. Lu asks Aoife to tend to Gwen as she continues to pet the cat and search the room.

#### Private Conversations

Aoife follows Gwen into the hall and finds the mayor’s daughter leaning against the wall, taking deep breathes to calm herself down. Aoife closes the door to the room behind her to maintain privacy. She knows what it is like to have your world and life treated like the contents of an upturned purse, and how difficult it is to pick it all up and try to remember how it was originally organized, but no matter how you try it never fits back the same. Gwen nods, and asks if Aoife saw that the woman looked like her. Aoife agrees, and tells her that she and her friends are from somewhere far away and different from where they find themselves now, but they were here on a job to collect the book, which she thinks is magically connected to the castle. She informs the mayor’s daughter that the Penny they know from where they come from has different stories and legends surrounding her, and they were trying to figure out how the two sets of legends and stories made sense together. She pauses to give the overwhelmed girl time to process.

Over the last hour Gwen has discovered that she knows nothing about the world she thought she did. Aoife tries to ease the girl, because it is not her fault that people hide and change information to suit their needs all the time. Gwen knows she looks like the other woman, and she feels like she should remember why, but she just doesn’t know. Aoife takes the girl’s hands and tells her how she felt the first time she discovered magic, and tells her that she had friends that have her back. This seems to calm Gwen, steeling her resolve to save her friends.

Toni and Lu have not had any luck searching the room, determining that no page is contained within. They all head to the northern double doors and step into a master bedroom, easily thrice the size of the child’s bedroom. Lavish furniture rests along the walls, and all of the fine décor has been ruined. Several mirrors have been smashed, and the fabrics have all been torn with rage. Lu sees a butler trying to sweep up the shards of glass, but his ghostly presence makes no change to the material world. The butler is muttering to himself that the master is going to be so angry. Lu tells her friends that she is going to talk to a spirit. She bends down and introduces herself to the startled spirit before picking up the shards of glass into her open palm. She asks what caused all of the destruction and the man alludes to “her”, and the fact that she never believes them, and they are running out of mirrors to replace the broken ones. Lu asks is Aoife has Mending, holding out the pieces of glass to her.

#### Through The Looking Glass

The bard sets out to mending the mirrors and other broken items back to their former state. As the mirror snaps back into place, Aoife does not see her own reflection, but one of a pale woman with black hair, and veins of black ice crawling under her skin. Her face is contorted in a scream and the image vanishes, sending the frightened Aoife skittering backwards, left breathless from the fright. The others gather around Aoife, asking if she is okay. She explains to them what she saw in the mirror, assuring them that she is fine and was just caught off guard. Lu puts out the theory that perhaps Penny was not consumed by the Lady of Shadows, but that perhaps something happened and this aspect of her took over.

Aoife asks Lu what the spirit says and the rogue turns her attention back to the ghost butler. Even though Aoife mended everything, Lu still sees shards of glass on the ground and he is still attempting to desperately sweep them up to avoid the ire of his master. She realizes that cleaning up the shards of glass are part of his torment, and why he is still here, and there is nothing she can do for him. In that moment, Lu thinks of the voices in the graveyard, and they explode through her mind. She can’t get the sounds of their anguish out of her head and her face contorts in pain. The others attempt to make sure Lu is okay, but she can’t hear them as she fights against the voices surging through her head. Rage overtakes her and she screams, magically shattering the glass of the recently mended mirror, which cuts across Aoife’s face, leaving her face a lacerated hellscape.

Toni turns to Lu, who has gone fully translucent with hairy thrown back and lifting from around her, her poltergeist scream piercing outwards. Aoife sits in shock while blood pours from her face while Rook tries to fight Lu, though her hands can’t grab onto flesh. Toni launches over to Aoife and can’t even see the girl’s face under all of the blood and embedded glass. Aoife has her eyes closed and commands Toni to get Rook under control because she can manage to fix herself up. Toni crosses to Rook and restrains her, much to the werewolf’s protests. She calms Rook as best she can, realizing that the girl had even less control over her emotions here than back in their world. Seeing all of this, Gwen has sat in a corner and cries.

Aoife upcasts Cure Wounds at third level to mend her injuries. She pulls a white lacy handkerchief from her pocket to wipe at the blood and stains the lace. Lu comes back to her senses to see Rook eyeing her from the corner. Her throat is raw from the primal scream and tears fall freely from her cheeks. She reaches for Aoife but pulls back, afraid to touch her, apologizing and asking if the bard is okay. Aoife assures her friend that she is fine and they embrace, with Lu promising to never hurt her again.

Lu feels a tap at her shoulder and turns to see the butler, who says he thinks she may have dropped something, presenting her a golden sheet of paper. She takes it from him and he immediately returns to sweeping at the shards of glass. Lu steps towards Gwen to get the book, but the girl tosses the bag across the room, unwilling to get any close to them at this time. They turn the book to a torn page and marry the edges, which magically bind together as the lettering becomes clear. They can see a part of a ritual, though they can’t tell for what without more information. They can tell from the torn edges that they have three more pages to find in the castle.

#### Hot-flash

Determining there is no way forward here, they head back down to the platform containing the chair and lectern. Aoife examines the lectern once more, discovering that the were now only 3 clawed marks carved into the wood. They turn there attention to the northern double doors. Opening them, they find themselves in a long banquet hall, containing a long banquet table set in front of a gorgeous roaring fireplace at the far end. Game heads and paintings climb the walls in a waterfall of opulence. They spot doors to the east and west and a third door set into the northern wall. The tables are bare, having only runners and candelabra for decoration, crowned by four elaborate chandeliers. Cobwebs crisscross everything and dust has settled into the corners.

Gwen gives a gasp as she comes into the room and they all follow her gaze to the paintings, all depicting members of the village. As the Maidens scan the paintings, they also pick out faces they have seen from their own world, in Storyville. Hanging above the mantle is a painting of Gwen, dressed in black crushed velvet and ornate hair pinned with a tiara. She asks what this place is, with all of these people, and looks desperately back to the group. Lu is at a loss for words as the girl reaches a hand towards the painting, explaining that this castle has been here for hundreds of years. How could her mother or the other villagers be here?

Gwen rips her hand back when a roaring flame erupts from the fireplace. The flames creep up the walls, quickly curling the ancient wallpaper inside. The painting lights on fire in front of them and they see Gwen’s face melting and charring in the smoke, and this woman’s black-eyed face remains, screaming in the portrait and reaching out. Gwen screams and scrambles backwards while the fire continues to consume the room around them. Lu runs for the northern door, snatching Gwen’s arm as she goes. Aoife brushes the Fairy presence in herself and summons Spring rain to dowse the flames. A heavy downpour fights against the fire, finally dissipating the flames. Aoife stands in the center, her appearance taking on a dripping oily composition of raw color. As the remainder of the fire sputters out, they can see that it has burned away Gwen’s portrait to reveal a hidden space that holds another glowing page. She snags the paper and applies it to the book.

Gwen says that none of them are natural and determines that they are what she will become. Perhaps Hugo was right. Aoife argues that Hugo is a sad and sorry man gripping onto shreds of power to feel good about himself. Gwen glances around the room and admits that she isn’t sure he was the wrong one. Toni pokes her head into the western door and finds a kitchen and a servant’s wing but it is empty despite their best efforts to find anything of use. The eastern door is padlocked with several heavy chains, stopping them all in their tracks. Lu gets to work on rapidly opening the padlocks, which are no match for her skilled fingers.

#### Kill Me. Please.

The room they find is confusing, and they find it hard to pick out what is so confusing about it. A large central contraption with levers and buttons rests in the center of the room beside a table covered in broken straps, with pipes and wires coming off in various directions leading to small chambers. Whatever it was must have been impressive, but it had been attacked and damaged, and now sat in ruin. Glass and sheered metal scatter across the floor and they can see a row of work tables sitting against the far wall. Lu heads for the work table, and they feel the air shimmer as they all enter. They look behind them and hear a pounding on the door, which looks closed at the moment though they all remember leaving it open behind them. A voice calls out from the other side, begging their mom to stop. The Maidens can hear the sounds of an electrical current and see that the shattered machine once again appears new and operational. They can see the black haired woman, without the blackened veins, strapped to the far table, screaming, and the room returns to its ruined state.

Lu investigated the table with Aoife’s help, wondering why someone would lock the room up after destroying everything. In a top drawer she finds a golden page and they reunite it with the book. Once more they head to the northern door to find stairs heading upwards, depositing them onto the third floor into a study that they have all seen in their dreams as children. They see the full effects of the wear and tear they had noticed in their last dream. Amongst all of the tall stacks of books, lining the walls, are chalkboards full of equations and magical symbols, covering every inch of the room, sometimes even spilling out onto the floor when there was no more space at the bottom.

A woman in a pale imitation of the dress they know from their dream worries and fusses over pieces of parchment. She turns around when they step inside and they see an older Gwen, hair streaked with silver, who is glad they have come. The young Gwen inhales sharply and falls back against the wall. Older Gwen offers them a seat and they all gather themselves on the once plush chairs and cushions they had used as children. The older Gwen assumes they all know why they have made it this far, since nobody else had ever made it this far. Toni has an idea, but doesn’t know why old Gwen is here. The woman grabs a chalkboard and erases the board with a rag and begins to tell a story, much like she did in their dreams.

She explains that there was once an Archfey who had a daughter, but the Archfey knew that as long as she was what she was, the daughter could never be safe, because the Archfey’s magic was not safe for anyone else, so she had to change. She found a book that was full of secrets, both great and terrible. The Archfey used the book to build a machine and would attempt to use that machine to change herself from an Archfey into something else. When she used the machine, the thing she thought was not what she became. Whatever she became is what she was now, pointing the chalk at a terrified Gwen, then back to herself, and once more in a random direction. She is a broken thing, and her daughter tried to stop her, but because she was a thing…broken…

She pulls another chalkboard and begins to mumble to herself, once more launching into her story from the beginning, trying to desperately to puzzle out a solution, but when she steps away from the board, they can all read the words “Kill me please.” She sets the chalk down and turns back to them like she had just finished a lecture. She is willing to take questions after a short break, wiping the welling tears from her eyes.

This is where our journey comes to an end. Until next time, Venture Away!!!

## Featured Characters

### Player Characters

* Aoife Flannery
* Fittonia 'Toni' Silvertail
* Lluvyras 'Lu' Ssath

### Non-Player Characters

* The Dark Lady
* Gwen
* Penny
* Rook

## Locations

* Penny's Dwelling
	+ Castle Dread