The lich Ishild shows Beale his captive, the liar Modalye Grellen, and asks Beale to capture someone honest for his experiments with the two guards riddle. Wolfgang Ignoti interrogates the party for the Board, about the disaster at Hobnail Prison and the missing Master of Revels, Helmholtz. Kidnappers attack Melek in the Great Council Square. The party discovers that Miss Miller killed Helmholtz and the Admiralty Secretary Parja, in a fight over their Anti-Banqueting Bill. They enter Miss Miller's pipe dream in the Mooncalf opium dens and Beale confronts her.
Amy (Rosy Claster), James (Beale the Goldenpiper), Nick (Melek Valentooth), and Tracy (Marina Gale) joined this game from their previous Master of Revels games, although they'd played different instances of those adventures. Henele was a new player, playing the sorcerer Wolfgang Ignoti. For reasons that will become clear below, I asked the players to hold off introducing their characters.
Nick converted his warlock Melek to D&D 2024 before the game. So, his previous talking halberd Grave became an invisible sprite familiar, also named Grave.
Beale the Goldenpiper heard a message in his mind, sent via the Sending spell:
My good Beale. Come today, alone, we must speak.
As described in the the Sending spell description, Beale recognized the lich Ishild as the sender, and could "answer in a like manner immediately." I believe that Beale replied asking where to go, and Ishild told him to come to the Hollin Grimoire, which Beale knew was under the long-defunct Gramercy Bookstore in Braddock.
Beale went to Gramercy Books and let himself in, then entered the secret door to the Hollin Grimoire. He descended through the Grimoire's ten library levels, and arrived at the dirt floor under the Grimoire. There he saw the Grimoire's summoning pit, and also saw:
Ishild is lounging with his eyes closed, laying out on a long velvet couch. An opium pipe is sitting nearby, along with a conspicuously fine opium kit - a nice spirit lamp, a silver opium box, a scale, and other things. There's a "slightly acidic or vinegar-like" smell of opium smoke in the air.
Ten feet away, Beale sees a series of tall shelves with bound volumes. Near them, a haggard man is locked in a cage. The man's eyes follow Beale intently and cautiously.
When Beale approaches, Ishild rouses himself and props himself up on one elbow. He rubs his eyes and says quietly, in a malaise:
"Beale, my good man...thank you for coming. Help me sit up."
James expressed some reservations about going near Ishild, but Beale did go to Ishild and help him sit up. Beale asked Ishild about the opium, and I believe Ishild offered Beale a hit, and that Beale accepted.
Ishild asked Beale if he'd started to write his tale yet. Beale said that he hadn't, because he still needed to get to know Ishild. Ishild suggested Beale talk to the rogue trader Kasskar at the Mooncalf. Ishild said that while Kasskar wouldn't be a friendly witness, he had some valuable unique information about Ishild's story.
Ishild asked if Beale was planning to write his tale in prose or poetry, and Beale suggested prose. Ishild asked if the story would be a novel or maybe a play, and said that if Beale wrote a play, maybe Cankerblossom and the Black Cabaret could perform it. Beale said it was possible.
But then:
Ishild's expression changes subtly and he says "The Lay of Ishild is not why I asked you to come today, Beale." His opium malaise suddenly disappears and he seizes Beale's arm, saying:
Beale, do you know the riddle of the two guards? The guards guard two doors - behind one is freedom, and behind the other is a hungry lion. A hungry lion, Beale, and certain death. You want to ask the guards which door to take to escape. One guard only tells the truth, but the other guard only lies, and you don't know which is which. You can only ask one question - what question do you ask to find the door to freedom?
In recent weeks it has become extremely urgent to find the answer to this riddle, or at least the larger class of problems to which it belongs.
Beale can feel Ishild's skeletal fingers digging into his arm through his clothes, and the lich is alarmingly strong. Ishild repeats:
It has become extremely urgent.
Ishild let go of Beale's arm and continues:
A lesser mathematician might approach this riddle with just logic, Beale. But unfortunately, logic alone really doesn't solve everything.
Ishild gets up and approaches the man in the cage. Ishild says:
This unfortunate man is a compulsive liar, and goes by the name "Modalye Grellen." For the last few weeks, I've been using this liar to study the paradox, "This sentence is a lie."
As he reaches the cage, Ishild picks up a cruel-looking steel rod, and Modalye recoils to the back of the cage. Ishild says to him:
Is "This sentence is a lie", a lie, Modalye? And if you did tell me, how should I interpret the answer of a liar?
Modalye doesn't say anything, but cowers in the back of the cage. Ishild says more loudly:
Is the sentence a lie?
Modalye doesn't say anything, and Ishild starts to scream:
Is the sentence a lie, you lying traitorous sack of shit? Is the sentence a lie?
Ishild starts to violently beat the cage with the rod, and it rings and echos throughout the Grimoire. Modalye starts to scream in horror, but Ishild screams more loudly to be heard over him, "Is the sentence a lie?", creating a rising torrent of screams in which each tries to shout over the other.
Eventually Ishild becomes exhausted and steadies himself against the cage, regaining his composure a little. He says to Beale:
Is the sentence a lie? I tell you Beale, Modalye's pain will tell the secret of it, before he dies.
But before Modalye dies, he will also play the liar in the two guards riddle. But for the riddle, Beale, I also need a man who compulsively tells the truth. I need you to find me a compulsive truth-teller and capture him for me, or lure him here.
And if you would, also please bring me two doors and a hungry lion.
Modalye was Nick's previous character in the Far Shore.
Orders in hand, Beale took his leave.
After Beale arrived home at the Mooncalf, messengers came to Beale, Marina, Melek, and Rosy's homes. The messengers asked them to come to the Great Council Hall, to meet with Melina, the Company's board chairwoman; and Anya, the Keeper of the Lion's Mouth.
The four arrived separately at the Great Council Hall, at about the same time. As Melek approached the Hall's front stairs, he saw tourist types sitting on the stairs enjoying the sun, and he caught the eye of two girls near the entrance. The girls approached Melek and said that there was no Great Council meeting that day; Melek told them that he had a private meeting. The girls introduced themselves (names not in our notes), and Melek told them his name was Melek. I believe Nick asked if the girls were "working girls," or if they were attractive; although Nick's notes describe them as "women of the night," I said there wasn't anything to suggest they were prostitutes, and that without commenting specifically on their physical attractiveness, I'd just say they were maybe like CHA 8. The girls suggested again that since there was no Great Council meeting, the three of them could go someplace quiet and have a drink; Melek again declined. Finally they asked more directly if Melek "saw anything he liked," but Melek just said he didn't know them.
The four went into the Hall and up to Melina's office on the second floor. There, Melina and Anya (re-)introduced themselves, and introduced Henele's character Wolfgang Ignoti.
Wolfgang questioned the other characters about (1) the recent disaster at Hobnail Prison and (2) Beale and Rosy's recent meetings with Helmholtz, the Company's Master of Revels. My real-time transcript of the discussion, with some clean-up and edits, is here.
On (1), Wolfgang got a partial and confused glimpse of the events at Hobnail Prison from the four. Besides the chaos you'd expect from questioning four people at once, the different players had also played in different instances of the Hobnail Prison adventure, which added to the Rashomon effect. Rosy repeatedly denied they had been at the prison, but was forced to come clean when the other three did; after the interrogation she bitterly put down the others for talking.
On (2), Wolfgang told the four that Helmholtz and the previous Master of Revels Ella were missing and asked for their help. Beale said (or agreed) that Helmholtz had summoned him to discuss the disappearance of the previous Master of Revels, and the discussion quickly turned to the tontine.
When Wolfgang finished questioning them, Melina and Anya asked all of them - Wolfgang and the four - the find Helmholtz. Wolfgang brought out Helmholtz's calendar for the week.
Melina and Anya said that Helmholtz was at the Tuesday morning board meeting, but not at the Wednesday and Thursday board meetings, or at the Wednesday 1:00 meeting with Melina.
The party quickly focused on the meeting with Parja, Woodhouse, and Herschel. Melina said that Parja was the Admiralty Secretary and, like Helmholtz, had not been seen since the Tuesday board meeting. Melina told them that Parja had an office in the Great Council Hall where they were, and a second office in the Admiralty building in the Shipyards. She told them that Woodhouse and Herschel ran a silk import business and gave them the address of their warehouse on the Braddock docks.
The party had a few side discussions when they finished talking with Marina and Anya. Melek talked with Melina and Anya alone, questioning them about Gramercy Books, and trying to confirm (or not) what Millicent had told him about Modalye offline. Anya's answers were consistent with what Millicent had told him.
Rosey turned the tables Wolfgang briefly, questioning him about himself and his origins. Wolfgang told them that he was a sorcerer and acolyte of Gradska, and Rosey expressed skepticism, saying that no one still believed in Gradska. Similarly, when Wolfgang said that he'd left his village near Hollin, Rosey pressed on whether he'd "left or were kicked out."
And, Beale unilaterally told the party about his relationship with the lich Ishild. My notes:
Beale tells the party the story of Ishild, that he's not in league with the lich, but would like to be the chronicler of someone very important. To be fair, he's never been bad to me. He does have an old man in his basement now and he's torturing him. He has a lot of cages.
Since Parja had an office in the building, they went there first, and met Parja's assistant Singleton. Singleton said that Parja hadn't been in since Tuesday. They asked about the Tuesday meeting with Helmholtz, Woodhouse, and Herschel, and Singleton said:
Singleton also said that Parja had a house in the Shipyards. They decided to go there first, then head for Woodhouse and Herschel's warehouse on the Braddock docks.
They left the Great Council Hall the way they'd come in, out of the front door onto the Great Council Square. There, two attackers suddenly materialized out of thin air around Melek, trying to grapple him.
The kidnappers largely targetted Melek, and he responded with defensive moves - Misty Step to get away from them, and Armor of Agathys. They did hit Melek with Hold Person on the first round, paralyzing him, but he made his Wisdom save in the second round and freed himself.
The other characters fought back with some of their go-to attacks. Beale came first in the initiative, hitting the attackers with Thunderwave and Dissonant Whispers, and granting Melek Bardic Inspiration twice. Rosy attacked with her Bat's Head Rapier, Wolfgang with his twin Firebolts, and Marina with her sword and Boom.
Marina critted on one in the first round and later killed him. Wolfgang finished two attackers with his twin Firebolt, critting one. Beale hit one for 16 with Dissonant Whispers, and James described the psychic damage as (my notes): 'Picture somebody extremely constipated but with hemeroids. Extreme pain and discomfort on his face. Blood is coming from his nose as he whispers, "The voices!"' Rosy finished that attacker with a sneak attack crit, which Amy described as (again my notes) "smashed into the back of his skull and popped open his face...his tongue drops out."
When one attacker remained, he Dimension Door'ed out of the fight. He reappeared for a second on the corner of the Hall's roof, then on the Hall's dome, where the party saw him giving them the finger. Then he was gone.
After the fight, the party discussed why Melek was targetted. The party wondered if the two girls they'd met on the way into the Hall were involved. On a successful Insight roll, I reminded them that Melek had given the girls his name. The players noted that Melek was very honest, and Nick commented, "Did I answer honestly? I should always lie about everything."
They continued on as they'd planned, and went to Parja's house in the Shipyards. But, Parja's family and housekeepers said that he hadn't been home since Tuesday morning.
They continued to Woodhouse and Herschel's warehouse. There, they met Woodhouse and Herschel's bookkeeper, Walker. Walker told them:
Walker said he did go to the Council vote Tuesday afternoon. He said W&H, Helmholtz, and Parja became irate when the bill was unexpectedly defeated. Helmholtz and the others knew that Miss Miller's held a salon in her Mooncalf penthouse apartment on Tuesday evenings, so they went there to confront her.
The party decided to go to the Mooncalf and see if they could find Helmholtz and/or Miss Miller. The party needed a long rest, and they decided that as long as they were going to the Mooncalf to find Helmholtz and Miss Miller, they would crash at Beale's Mooncalf apartment.
They came in the Mooncalf's south door into the courtyard, and they immediately saw Manfred Unger, who they'd released from the Moonwell a couple of days before. Manfred was at a table eating with a friend, but he immediately ran to greet the party.
We briefly reviewed who Manfred was: a mathematician with the Quaternion Society, who Phyla House had kidnapped seventeen years before and forced to work on rabies vaccines and/or astronomical clocks (depending on which player's adventure). We discussed why Phyla House would want astronomical clocks: because they worshiped the night and the moon and wanted to know the sun and moon's movements in detail.
Manfred still had the same unkempt hair and beard he had in the Moonwell, but had new clothes. He explained that his old friend sitting with him, Annie, had bought him new clothes and given him a little money to get restarted in life. Manfred said his old barber from seventeen years ago had died, and asked if Beale liked his barber. Beale said yes, he recommdended his barber, who James named "Matilda Clippenstein." Beale said that Matilda's shop was on K Street (Quay Street?) in the foreign district, and that she was a little exotic.
They asked Annie if she knew who Downey was or where he lived. She knew that he was a gentleman scientist, and lived in a house on the Great Council Square, and she gave them his address. TODO(strelow): verify I'm not confounding their discussion with Annie with Group E's discussion with Annie.
The party asked Manfred what he would do now that he was free again. Manfred said that before he was captured, he'd been working on a new foundation for mathematics based on set theory. But Manfred said that since he'd been away, Annie and other Quaternion Society mathematicians had discovered that his work led to some contradictions, which a foundation for mathematics can't have. Beale said that he was interested in paradoxes, and asked if he could talk with Manfred about his work soon. Beale and Manfred agreed to meet again in a week.
I believe they asked Manfred where they could find Miss Miller. Although Manfred knew who Miss Miller was, he didn't know where she lived exactly or where she was now.
As the party finished talking with Manfred, they were approached by a Mooncalf regular, Velvet. Velvet looked at Rosy and Melek, and told Rosy:
For the small consideration of just a few gold pieces a month, my organization and I can ensure that the...undeserving skanks of this town don't steal your very fine man.
There was some discussion while Rosy resisted. When she mentioned that she and Melek were not together, Velvet said:
I'm sorry. Of course, what I meant to say was, for the small consideration of just a few gold pieces a month, my organization and I can...acquire this fine man for you, from the undeserving skank that he's with now.
Velvet also extended the offer to Marina and Beale, who also resisted. However, Velvet repeatedly reiterated that this was an offer the party couldn't refuse, and ultimately Rosy, Melek, and Marina (I believe) gave her five gold pieces.
Marina also saw Vincent, the Mooncalf's waiter and sommelier, who she knew from the first Master of Revels game. The asked Vincent where Miss Miller might be, and Vincent told them that Miss Miller's penthouse was apartment 6 on the top floor of the Mooncalf. I believe he also told her that the Black Cabaret would be performing in his wine cellar in two days, and she was welcome to come.
The party went to apartment 6 on the Mooncalf's top floor, as Vincent had suggested.
They stayed outside in the hall, and Melek sent his invisible sprite familiar Grave under the door to scout around. In room D, Grave (and Melek through Grave's eyes) saw two women standing near the door to C, apparently waiting for someone. Grave went into C, and saw another woman, but also a very large man in a bloody butcher's apron; they in turn seemed to be waiting for someone in B. Grave moved to B, where he saw another butcher and another woman. But in B, the butcher was hacking on a partially wrapped body, the Admiralty Secretary Parja. The woman was working over another body, but it was completely wrapped up and the party couldn't identify who it was.
The players were aware that when the butcher was done with Parja's body, the butchers and women would probably come out into the hall. But they strategized at length about what to do, and Rosy decided to go down to the Mooncalf meat locker to look for clues, by herself.
Downstairs in the first Mooncalf basement, in room 3, she saw a busy work area where dirty scullery type work was being done - washing dishes, washing linens, etc. There were also dry stores and things like that here. She went to 2, which was a tobacco store room filled with barrels of tobacco leaves.
Rosy continued to 1, which was the meat locker. She saw a long line of carcasses hanging on hooks, a butcher working at a cutting table, and a butcher working at a sausage grinding machine.
As she approached, she realized the butcher at the cutting table was cutting on a human body, and the butcher at the grinder was grinding up a body - Helmholtz. She confronted them, and they immediately turned on her with their knives. After 1.5 rounds, the butchers had taken Rosy down to 6 hits, but Rosy hadn't hit. Rosy was was forced to flee, out of the basement and back up the stairs to the top floor, where she rejoined the party.
There, two of the party (Beale and Marina?) healed Rosy almost back to up to full hits. We discussed how the butchers from downstairs would soon follow Rosy up, but the party still continued to debate what their strategy would be, and the two butchers and the four women from apartment 6 started to come out.
Wolfgang was expecting the butchers to come out and was ready to respond, so he got a surprise round to himself. He cast Entangle inside the apartment, and I believe that the two butchers failed their saves and were restrained, but not the four women. Wolfgang then came first in the first regular round, and cast Fireball in the apartment, killing two of the women outright. The two butchers made their save against Fireball, but did take additional damage from the burning Entanglement.
Except for Wolfgang, there was substantial...suboptimality in the fight, with the party Dashing, turning invisible, readying attacks, or waiting for the butchers to come up from downstairs. In the meantime, Rosy's butchers from downstairs did come up from the basement and joined the fight.
However, the party did beat the butchers and the women. Marina finished one with her sword. Melek finished one with the blowback damage from Armor of Agathys, and hit another with his Eldritch Blast's Repelling Blast, pushing him over the rail and watching him fall six floors into the Mooncalf courtyard below. However, they kept one of the downstairs butchers alive using nonlethal damage.
They searched Parja's body and the other wrapped body. Parja was carrying a ceremonial dagger. They found a handwritten notebook on the other body, describing coal coking, a gunpowder recipe, and other inventions. Some of the book appeared to be written in nonsense characters. They concluded that this was likely the gentleman scientist Downey, who Parja's assistant Singleton had mentioned. Beale claimed the dagger and notebook, as well as some of Miss Miller's Mooncalf ledgers and stationary.
The downstairs butcher that the party hadn't killed told them that Miss Miller liked to spend time in the opium dens in the Mooncalf's lowest basement. The party went there looking for her.
Much of the opium den labyrinth was open, with smokers laying everywhere with their paraphernalia. Some of the smokers seemed like ragged folk, while others seemed to be patrician types. Besides the smokers themselves, busy people came and went servicing them, for instance, bringing food from vendors in the square outside or restaurants nearby.
Three of the rooms had closed doors. They asked the smokers where Miss Miller would be, but they were unhelpful. Miss Miller wasn't in any of the open areas, so the party investigated the closed doors.
They entered the first closed room. When they entered, they were surprised to find themselves on the rolling deck of an ancient ship, as if they'd just come up from a lower deck. Busy sailors were working all over the deck. In the bow, Cankerblossom was leaning against the ship's figurehead, smoking.
Wolfgang and another character (Rosy?) talked, and Wolfgang rolled Insight with advantage to understand where they were, but both rolls failed. Someone (Rosy again?) allowed him to roll again (by giving him their Inspiration point?); this time he barely succeeded. Wolfgang realized that they had not just entered Cankerblossom's opium den, but also his opium pipe dream. They withdrew without talking to Cankerblossom.
They went into the second closed room, and entered a vessel whose inside was shaped like the inside of an egg, except for the level floor. Two naval officers stood just inside talking. Seeing the party, one said to the other, "Permission for civilians to come aboard, sir." The second officer replied "Permission granted," and the first welcomed the party aboard.
Sailors were seated at workstations everywhere, working navigational instruments. At the front wall of the vehicle, there was a giant window looking out onto fish and coral. They first took the window to be a grand aquarium, but quickly realized they were looking out onto the bottom of the sea. In front of the window, Captain Burns was asleep on a long couch, with his opium paraphernalia nearby. The party again withdrew without talking to him.
They entered the last closed room. Here they stepped onto a cloud, and found themselves in a vertical column of dozens of clouds. Smokers were sitting or lying on many of the clouds, and Miss Miller was on the top cloud, smoking and looking down from on high.
The party didn't immediately attack, and Beale took the form of a cherub and floated up to Miss Miller. The two talked, verbally fencing about the tontine, the anti-banqueting bill, and Helmholtz's death. Respecting Helmholtz's death, Miss Miller said that the Mooncalf building predated Lofton and Hollin, the Gradskan kings, and the Company, so the Mooncalf enjoyed a "liberty," or exemption from the Company's laws. So she claimed she couldn't be prosecuted for anything she did inside the Mooncalf.
One or two of the party members suggested that their mission was to just find Helmholtz, not necessarily administer justice. So, we wrapped up with a little ambiguity about what they'd do next.
Thanks to Nick for taking notes this game: 1, 2.
I goofed up the order of some of the encounters during the game, Melek's encounter with the two girls outside the Great Council Hall and the fight outside the Great Council Hall. The players let me backtrack and play them after they talked with Walker, but I've presented them in the intended order here.
The Anti-Banqueting Bill was a real thing in medieval Venice: "From the 1490s through the 1530s, the Council of Ten and other Venetian authorities enacted sumptuary laws. In 1506, the Ten enacted an anti-banqueting law, seeking to prevent ambitious noblemen from engaging in vote buying by hosting lavish dinner parties at the compaginie della calza (exclusive social societies). The law specifically prohibited women other than the wives of members from attending such dinners."
