Characters
Aria, a paladin struggling with her true nature
Heck, an affable revenant looking for answers
Panthalassa, a necromancer with a missing arm
Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell
Garazi, up and coming witch with a bird familiar
Genevieve, a dhampir alchemist
Events
Before leaving Veil's Nightside, the party made plans with Viktoria and Serafina to meet up with them before they went into hiding at Nightsong's family's inn. For their jaunt to the Nightside, Serafina had called in some favors with the graverobbers and resurrectionists of Veil; using her clout as the "Angel of the Graves," Serafina was able to get their drugged-into-insensibility bodies buried in shallow graves--complete with breathing tubes and signals to ring when they awoke from the effects of smoking the mysterious drug known as midnight bell.
Serafina and Viktoria had preparations to make for their departure, but before they left they arranged to meet with the party at the edge of Veil. Serafina had an emotional goodbye with Panthalassa--well, as emotional as she's capable of--and thanked Genevieve for saving Nightsong's life. Viktoria had analyzed the samples she took from Heck and Aria and had at least a little information for them both:
Heck was informed that he numbered among the undead; specifically, he was a revenant who had come back from the grave to seek vengeance on the man who slew him. When asked if revenants could survive the act of achieving revenge, Viktoria told him that sometimes that occurred, but she wasn't sure what mechanism enabled them to exist after their purpose was fulfilled.
Aria was told that she wasn't human either. Her exact categorization eluded Viktoria, but when she listened to the sample of Aria's flesh instead of just looking at it, she heard "the discordant song" of Aria's being. This led her to conclude that Aria was an eldritch creation of an entity from the Outer Dark. Viktoria advised her to seek cultists who served such abominations to learn more.
Viktoria also gave Panthalassa a mechanical doll to try to get to Pendleton so they could communicate over the distance.
Nightsong said her goodbyes as well, and had presents for each member of the group:
- Heck was given a harmonica with instructions on how to play "Man of Constant Sorrow."
- Genevie was given a bottle of miscellaneous pills and the promise that Nightsong "owed her one" for bringing her back from death's door.
- Garazi was given Adrian Vergara's silver calling card case, which she had picked out of his pocket.
- Aria was given two lipsticks--Whore of Babylon and Scarlet Woman were the two shades.
- Daytona was tossed a sack of slot machine tokens for a future trip to Lakona.
- Willard was given a pile of cat comics and King Beebo was handed a dangerous-looking gun.
- Panthalassa was told that Nightsong had commissioned a nude drawing of Thomasina, but she was actually given a daguerreotype of Serafina and Nightsong side by side, their faces tilted toward each other.
With all parting words exchanged, Nightsong, Serafina, and Viktoria rode off in the direction of the mountains. The group traveled south to Hemlock Hollow.
When they arrived, Garazi went to her family's house on the outskirts of town to prepare them for meeting her new friends the next day. In the meantime, the group decided this was a fine time to spend some of their loot. Unfortunately, Daytona had a run-in with a villain from his past in the form of Wagner Highcross--a gunslinging vampire responsible for more than one massacre. Of course, when Wagner made a crack about Catarina, Daytona lashed out and tried to punch his nemesis. Wagner sidestepped the blow and pushed Daytona to the ground. Daytona went for his gun and shot Wagner, but being a vampire he was not too bothered by that. Besides, that's probably just how he and Daytona say "hello."
The rest of the group came running out of the shop to Daytona's aid, but Wagner wasn't looking for a fight--he even tried to make the group's acquaintance, but obviously they weren't interested. Genevieve did turn on the charm; through her maneuverings, they were able to learn that the reason Wagner was in town was that he was scouting out who was pledging their efforts to which side of the Hellwar on behalf of Countess Alcesta von Karlok. Wagner eventually stalked off, but the group added him to the every-growing list of things to worry about.
The next day, the group descended on Garazi's family for an evening of feasting and the kind of domestic joys they hadn't had the opportunity to be part of for some time. Of course, in the morning, it was back to the business of adventuring.
The group's attempt to meet with Helena Graymalk was stymied, but they were spotted by Lorelei Graymalk, who brought them into a private sitting room for tea. Lorelei did her best to answer their questions in her mother's stead. In particular, they got the lowdown on Grigori Trask, who was using a Church-endorsed assassin named Maxim Lukash, aka "The Lash," to track down the group. Lorelei was also able to tell them that Hemlock Hollow was experiencing a spate of burglaries related to necromantic items of power. Among those she pointed out who might hold such artifacts were Ivy Valerio, a local spiritualist medium, and the Ushers...who Panthalassa already suspected were involved with the attack on her family.
The group was leery of approaching the Ushers, so they went to Ivy Valerio's House of Spirits first. Their questions made Ivy immediately suspicious, but she was happy to take their money and summon the spirits of various folks they had killed, such as Valancourt Carathis, Markos Delarosa, and Darvala Kohn. When the lights dimmed, Ivy was able to summon the specters of the departed within a cloud of hissing smoke and compel them to answer a few questions that were put to them. The group received a lot of intelligence in these seances, but it will be up to them to sift that information in the future.
With no other avenues left open to them, they decided it was time to pay a visit to the House of Usher. The house was dilapidated; some of the upper floors listed to the side, some portions of the foundation had sunken in, and a large crack ran down the face of the house. The man carrying a candelabra who answered their knock was also in danger of collapsing; he was seemingly ancient and, like Panthalassa, he was missing his left arm. He brought them inside and related that the Ushers had recently suffered an attack by hooded miscreants. He told them that the attackers had amputated his arm and made off with it. He also told them that the skull masks used by the Ushers in their necromantic rituals were taken as well.
Given the timeline of events, it meant that the Ushers were not responsible for the attack on Panthalassa and the Sabbaths; rather, the folks who had stolen the masks from the Ushers were responsible for the attack Panthalassa had survived.
When asked about the nature of the ritual that the Ushers undertake, the man brought them down into the basement. In a sealed chamber they saw a glass coffin holding the body of a red-headed woman in repose. The man explained that the body before them was Madeline Usher and that their rites involving the skull masks kept her in a state of unnatural slumber. Asked why Madeline needed to be kept in torpor, he told them that Madeline Usher was the first to master the arts of magic--and that her mastery had both given her the destructive power of a god and driven her hopelessly insane. If she should awaken, the man believed she would destroy the entire world.
The group now had a reason to find the necromantic thieves and return the masks to the Ushers.
The Ushers had tried to follow the thieves through the cemetery behind their house, but they disappeared without a trace and were not seen emerging from the burial grounds. The group decided to take a look for themselves. In the cemetery, they noticed that many of the gravestones and crypts were marked with the symbol of a compass atop a skull. Genevieve recognized the symbol as the mark of a supposedly defunct secret society known as the Fraternite du Cadavre. When Daytona pulled the left arm of an angelic statue that had the Fraternite's symbol on its base, they heard a rumbling from a nearby crypt.
Peering inside, they saw that a secret passage leading down into the darkness had opened. Lighting a lantern, they descended...
We'll find out what they discover next time.