The seven strange women question the party as they leave the Brock House monument, and Tora realizes that the True Name of God is "every true statement that can't be proven true." They find that Caliphate assassins have attacked Barber Hall and stolen the barber guild's member roll. The party and Brock royal ghosts save Millicent's grandson Drew Hill from assassins in the Hall's crypt. To their horror, they realize that Ishild is killing all of Hollin's barbers to resolve the Barber Paradox.
I gave out some inspiration points during Game 2, but after reviewing old games to prep this game, I gave out a few more:
In Game 2, in the Brock House monument, the Brock royal ghosts asked the party whether Brand Hill or the archdruid Wormworth loved Winnie Brock, and to mercy kill Wormworth if he was not the one. They had found that Brand Hill was the one, not Wormworth, and I asked whether they actually wanted to kill Wormworth. They asked again how or why Wormworth was immortal, and I said as a druid he'd learned to regenerate with a moulting spell, but he became less human each time. Melek and Rosy (I believe) said they'd kill him, and the rest of the party accepted it. So the party killed Wormworth, but we elided over the actual fight.
The party wound their way back up the basement levels of the monument, and found the ghosts again in basement 2. They said they'd freed Stella Brock from her curse by killing Bullington Brock, that Brand Hill was Winnie's true love, and that they'd killed Wormworth. As thanks, the ghosts offered the party the items they'd seen in Game 2 but not claimed: Holbein Brock's earring, the Arcane Compass, and Marin Brock's tabard. Marina, Rosy, and Wolfgang claimed the earring, compass, and tabard respectively.
I had a list of things the players had discussed doing in Game 2:
They said that since James wasn't actually at the game to play Beale, they would wait to revisit Ishild, and go to Barber Hall instead.
As they were finally exiting the monument, they saw seven strange women, who were dressed in Victorian clothing and looked out of place. The woman hailed the party, and then Wolfgang specifically:
Wolfgang Ignoti.
You met the party for the first time in the Master or Revels Game 3, "The Anti-Banqueting Bill." You questioned the party about Helmholtz, the missing Master of Revels, along with the Company chairwoman Melina and the Keeper of the Lion's Mouth Anya.
Everyone looked at Helmholtz's calendar together. Among other things, Helmholtz's calendar showed a haircut appointment on Monday, but then again on Wednesday, just two days later. However, I believe this went unnoticed.
A couple of days later, in the "Brock House" game, you were back at the Great Council Hall to meet Melina and Singleton, the Admiralty Secretary's assistant. You noticed then that "Singleton looked a little scraggly, and Melina was showing a little more gray than before - at the roots, like she'd missed a recent coloring."
Later in that same adventure, you fought bearded devils whose beards looked "scraggly and unkempt."
Does it seem weird that someone would have a haircut appointment on a Monday, and then again on Wednesday? It seems weird to me. Also, is it weird that no one noticed it? Beale, for instance, has like 6 or 7 Investigation.
You're looking a little scruffy yourself after your recent battles. When was the last time you had a haircut and a shave?
Marina suggested that someone might go back for a second haircut if they weren't happy with the first one, and some of the players laughed when the women said that Beale had Investigation 6 or 7.
The women then addressed Marina.
Marina Gale.
Ishild asked Beale to test his two-guards solution on Winnie Brock's riddle. But you cleverly reduced Winnie's problem to just figuring out which suitor was honest, so you didn't actually test Beale's solution to the full riddle.
What are you going to tell Ishild - are you planning to tell him that you confirmed Beale's solution?
Marina just said "yes," curtly, and the women replied, "You play a dangerous game. How confident are you that Beale's solution is correct?"
The players started to discuss who the strange women were in earnest:
The women turned to Hughe.
Hughe Lane.
As a cleric of Ajana, are you going to let Beale give Ishild the True Name of God?
Keith responded (my notes):
Uhh...geez. You know what...Hughe doesn't know or care. He's a cleric of Ajana...he doesn't know the True Name of God. He has wisdom, but it's not something he would comprehend.
I asked if Keith would like to make a Religion check to see what Hughe actually knew about the True Name, but he rolled poorly. Tora tried, with Help from Wolfgang and (I think) her own Guidance. She rolled a 22 and knew:
Religion check
However, the women pressed Hughe further.
When you and Marina went into the Phyla House Moonwell a few days ago, a vampire came within a hair's breadth of wiping out the party. You conspicuously didn't Turn the vampire, or even mention that you could Turn Undead. You also have a Blade of Banishing, but you didn't Banish the vampire despite the harrowing crisis.
An hour ago in the Brock House memorial, you also confronted Bullington Brock, an "undead Coven champion." But again, you conspicuously did not Turn or Banish Bullington.
After the party beat Bullington, Beale claimed Bullington's Ward of Ajana. As you yourself pointed out, you already had that same item...a Coven item."
Rosy said, "We were suspicious of him from the beginning," but Keith stood up for Hughe, saying "How do these women even know he has it?" and "Hughe knows the statistics of the Blade of Banishing, the chances are low. It's for desperation." The women seemed to accept that, but they also said:
I believe the Blade of Banishing is also a Coven weapon?
Keith/Hughe stood up for himself again, saying "Why would I care? That's loot from successful battles." The women again seemed to accept Hughe's answer, but Marina said, "You're not telling us something though. Witches on the pentagram were familiar to you." Hughe dismissed Marina's claim though, saying "If you say so."
The women turned to Melek.
Melek Valentooth.
You've suggested freeing Modalye Grellen using the key near his cage. Actually Beale's librarian Penelope is often in the Grimoire researching Ishild, and she could probably alert you when Ishild is asleep having an opium pipe dream. Further, Rosy has +10 Stealth, which becomes +20 with Marina's Pass Without Trace.
In response, Nick explicitly called out how the "+10 Stealth" and "+20" statistics would be meaningless to Melek, saying, "Melek tries to wrap his head around some of that." And Melek said, "I understood like half of what you just said. I'm not sure if I understand the +10."
But the women continued:
Are you sure you actually want to free Modalye though? Some might consider him a dangerously reckless presence.
Melek said, "You know I kind of waffle back and forth on that. It might be a nice professional courtesy but he does seem unhinged."
Marina asked the women, "Since you're so widely knowledgeable, do you have any ideas about how we might permanently kill the lich?" I believe Marina also mentioned a barbarian having Ishild's silver ring phylactery. The women clarified that Ishild actually had a newer space-time phylactery, actually by referencing Penelope's research:
The women further said that there was a black horse and carriage that goes to Kairos, in the square outside the Mooncalf. They said the horse and carriage were always there, and always had been. Rosy rolled 10 on an INT check and she thought she had seen it there.
We also discussed how Modalye had been Ishild's captive, and might have overheard things. They were concerned that Modalye lied, but Hughe said he had Zone of Truth prepared.
Finally, the women turned to Rosy.
Rosy Claster.
You helped Ulrike break into Hobnail Prison to take out the Hobnail chief "Lars." Inside the prison, though, you discovered that Ulrike had falsely accused your uncle Jimmy of planning to kill the secret police spy chief Guilder. Because of Ulrike's accusation, the secret police captured Jimmy, put him on the rack, and turned the globster on him.
You, Beale, and Ulrike escaped Hobnail Prison together. Ulrike is at large in the city, and with Lars dead, Ulrike is primed to take over the Hobnails. Or actually, he could become Lars himself using Guilder's disguise kit, which you and Beale let him take from Guilder's desk.
True or false, some secret police communiques you found incriminated you in Ulrike's eyes. So you seem to be playing a dangerous game by letting Ulrike range free.
Rosy just said, "That is true."
Their complaining done, the women complimented Rosy's hair and left.
The party had a long rest at Beale's Mooncalf apartment.
Since they were at the Mooncalf, they confirmed that a black horse and carriage were in the square outside, just as the strange women had said. They wanted to ask the Mooncalf's owner Miss Miller about them, but they'd actually killed Miss Miller three games before, at the beginning of Doubt. And in fact, Beale's apartment where they'd just rested was Miss Miller's old apartment.
Instead they asked the Mooncalf's sommelier Vincent, and Vincent told them that neighborhood children said the horse could play a game.
They went out to the horse and Marina gave it a pat on the nose. I believe Wolfgang wanted to look inside the carriage, but it was locked and didn't have any windows. They asked some children there if the horse played a game, and the children said the horse could count. The children told the horse some numbers, and were able to make it stomp and winnie different ways by giving it different numbers.
However, I hadn't actually DM'ed the horse in about fifteen years and I wasn't running it correctly. So I suggested that the party maybe come back when they actually had Ishild's space-time phylactery, and the players kindly agreed.
Prompted by all the strangeness surrounding barbers, and by the Brock ghosts suggesting that the barber guild could maintain the Brock House monument, the party headed to Barber Hall.
Barber Hall, ground floor
Barber Hall was at Ballard and Weaver in the Shipyards, across from the main Admiralty building. The Barber Hall complex included a main guild hall with flying buttresses, two more modest buildings, and a quaint cemetery with forty old headstones. They looked around the cemetery and Hughe found the headstone of an "Adam Hill" after rolling 19 Perception. The players weren't sure why that was notable, but Melek rolled 15 Intelligence, and remembered that Winnie's true love was Brand Hill. They asked if the headstone was old or new; it was old.
They went into the main hall's Ballard Street entrance, into A:
The guild’s main meeting room. A hundred chairs here organized into a nice square, all facing a long table at the front where officers run meetings.
Ledger stones: past guild members going back 1,000 years are buried under the floor here, both guild officers and arbitrary rank-and-file members.
There are plaques and some paintings of some former members on the walls.
They looked briefly in B, and found that it had been tossed. As they finished looking in B, three guild members - Billings, Rosalind, Whitaker - arrived in A. The party and the three now noticed dead bodies outside of E; the three told the party these were the guild clerk Margaret and guild sergeants Hauser and Pollard. Marina found that the dead had slashing and piercing wounds and burns. They looked in E, which had been tossed like B, and the three said E was Margaret the clerk's office. They asked if anything was missing, and the three said that the guild's member roll was missing.
They looked in F, and found the body of the guild's surgeon general there. The three guild members told them that he ran the guild's charitable surgical hospital, which was the southeast building in the complex. They also said the other building, to the northeast, was the guild's charitable old age home barbers.
They went down the stairs, into the Hall's rathskeller, or basement tavern (C). They saw a few dead bodies around the tavern bar there, and the bar itself had been violently thrown over, exposing a secret stair underneath.
Barber Hall, basement
They went down the stairs, into the Hall's crypt.
Barber Hall crypt
There they saw:
At the west end of the crypt, you see five Caliphate assassins and three efreet attacking some barbers.
The barbers include three elderly men with halberds in the front rank, along with the Barber Hall guildhound, Grumkin. They are protecting a younger man, a teenager, behind them. The teenager is trying to move up and join the fight, but the elderly men keep pushing him back, shouting at him to stay back.
A second or two after you reach the crypt, four ghosts appear to fight on the barbers' side. You recognize the ghosts as Holbein Brock, Marin Brock, Lens Brock, and Brand Hill.
Two of the Caliphate assassins and one of the efreet turn to fight the party.
The party fought the assassins and the efreet that had turned to confront them, while the barbers and ghosts fought the others. The party, barbers, and ghosts won, early in the fifth round, and the ghosts disappeared without saying anything.
They asked the elderly barbers why Caliphate assassins would attack them, but the old barbers didn't know. Hughe was skeptical and rolled 21 on Insight, and believed they were honest. Marina asked who the young man was, and at first the old men just said he was a young barber, a guild member. But they Persuaded the men to say more:
Persuasion check
We did a brief review of who Millicent was: the Cisterns "Rat Queen" who claimed to be the true Gradskan queen of Hollin, who'd told Melek that Modalye had gone into Gramercy Books.
They discussed why anyone would want to kill barbers. Melek suggested that the assassins were killing all the barbers to mask that Drew Hill was their actual target.
I pointed out that Ishild had Caliphate underlings, and they discussed why Ishild would want to kill barbers. Although James wasn't at the game, Beale had the highest Investigation and we had him roll. He rolled high and remembered that Ishild was obsessed with the liar's paradox, "Is this sentence a lie?" But Manfred Unger had also told Beale about the the Barber Paradox: "Does the barber who shaves everyone who doesn't shave himself, shave himself?"
Marina immediately said that Ishild was killing barbers because the "barber who shaves everyone who doesn't shave himself" couldn't exist, and Melek said with alarm that it was the reasoning of a madman. Marina said again that they had to kill Ishild.
Hughe asked, "Are we working for Ishild or trying to kill him, or both?", and the others said "both."
Responding to Hughe, Marina said that Hughe knew more than he was saying, and Hughe might have to answer to her.
Here are some slides that Google Notebook LM made from Masters of Revels and Ascent Into Madness game transcripts. They're pretty solid.