Geoffraie, Gwyneth, Hughe Lane, and Roland Gray meet their friend Burgess for dinner at the Mooncalf. Burgess is attacked there, and they deduce that Phyla House vampires are responsible. The party discovers that Mr. Burbage's (actually Cankerblossom's) tontine has turned Hollin's rich against each other in a winner-take-all fight, including Christopher Cotton. Talking with Vesper Cotton and his smith Kazola, they agree to free Christopher Cotton from the secret police prison if Kazola will help them against Phyla House.
Karen, Keith, and Scott returned as Gwyneth, Hughe Lane, and Roland Gray. They'd played in different instances of The Far Shore, and in the same instance of the Wunderfauna Arkiv one-shot.
I'd asked Fred to join the game just the week before, so for the first game he was only available for the first half. He played a new character, the fighter Geoffraie (jeff-ray).
Tracy had already played the first Master or Revels game with another party, so she held off for this game and will join the second game.
I said that the characters had a mutual friend, Burgess Banks. Burgess was a patriarch in Lorentz House, an Admiralty supplier, but he retired from day-to-day operations two years ago. Burgess stayed active in retirement by volunteering with the Braddock watch, based at the Mooncalf tavern. Burgess sent the characters messengers saying that a flamboyant group portrait of his watch company had just been finished there, and he asked them to come celebrate with him there at 8:00. They agreed.
But before the dinner, around 4:00, another messenger appeared at Roland's. The messenger asked Roland to come to the Great Council Hall immediately, to meet with the Master of Revels Helmholtz, and Roland agreed.
At the Hall, Helmholtz thanked Roland for helping defeat the Coven Maven Astrid and the brood queens. But he also asked Roland about two anonymous tips that had been left in the Lion's Mouth. One tip said that Roland's friend Gwyneth had a necrotic sword in the fight with Astrid, and the other similarly said that his friend Rowan Hashin had a blade of Coven make in the fight with the brood queens. Roland claimed not to know anything about either weapon.
Helmholtz accepted Roland's claim, and said that he'd actually asked Roland to come for something else. Helmholtz said that his predecessor as the Master of Revels, Ella, hadn't been seen for a few days. Helmholtz said that he didn't have a specific reason to worry yet, but asked if Roland could keep Ella in mind during his detective investigations around Hollin.
Roland dug in a little, asking why Helmholtz had summoned him if he wasn't worried. Helmholtz said that as the new Master of Revels, he'd been looking into the history of the role a little, and into the history of the Company generally. He had discovered a possibly disturbing pattern involving the previous Masters of Revels, and he showed Roland his notes.
Roland still had a few hours before the dinner with Burgess, and asked if anyone had checked on Ella at her house. Helmholtz said no, and gave Roland Ella's address. He also thanked Roland by giving him a book he'd been studying, A Brief History of the Anhault Charter Company.
Roland went to Ella's house. Ella's butler said Ella hadn't been home for two days, which was somewhat unusual, but he tried to respect Ella's privacy and not ask too much. He said that Ella was a pretty regular person, and that her routine revolved around the daily Company Board meetings. On the other hand, Ella often went to Miss Miller's weekly salon and sometimes stayed there until sunrise.
Roland looked around Ella's house. In the kitchen he found ingredients for a chicken soup that Ella liked to make, and among them, he found a hot chili sauce that smelled suspicious.
Scott asked if there was an alchemist or someone in Hollin who might look at the chili sauce. I suggested Vincent at the Mooncalf, a waiter and the chief sommelier there, who for some reason always seemed to have burned fingers. Roland went to the Mooncalf and found Vincent, and asked if there was anything special on the menu. Vincent said that a very nice port had just come in from Welkin, for one silver piece. Roland agreed to the port, giving Vincent two gold pieces instead of the one silver. Vincent thanked him and said on the sly that the Black Cabaret would perform in the Mooncalf's wine cellar in a week, and invited Roland to come.
Roland asked Vincent to look at the chili sauce. Vincent smelled it, and said with a disturbing smile that there was a deadly poison in it. Roland thanked him again and said he would come for the Black Cabaret.
Scott asked if there was anything else going on in the Mooncalf before the dinner with Burgess. A Mooncalf regular, Velvet, appeared to ask Roland if he would like some company, but Roland declined.
Burgess and the rest of the party arrived at the Mooncalf at 8:00 for dinner.
The Mooncalf, ground floor
Hughe (I think) asked if they could see the new painting of Burgess's watch company, and Burgess proudly showed them, on the west wall of the Mooncalf bar room. Gwyneth and Burgess talked briefly about the watches and Gwyneth volunteered to join Burgess's watch.
As they were talking:
You're just sitting down with Burgess when a gray-haired man, maybe a businessman, comes into the room. He looks around the room for a few seconds until he spots Burgess, then quickly walks over and asks Burgess if he's the watch captain.
The man says he's Giles Ulm. Giles says when he got home from work just now, he found his wife Selma dead. Would Burgess come right away? When Burgess hears this, he becomes alarmed and says, "My lord, a death at Ulm House? You know Tamir Rabi was found dead just yesterday at House Hanan."
And then:
As Burgess and Giles are talking, you notice a young woman come into the room. She scans the room for a few seconds, then approaches Burgess.
As Burgess replied, the woman suddenly raised a long device from her cloak and leveled it to attack him. The party jumped to defend him, with Gwyneth first stepping between them and then attacking with her sword, scoring a critical and firing up the sword's necrotic wave.
TODO(dennis): any other details from the fight.
When the party reduced the woman to zero hits, she transformed into a Moon Shadow and dissipated. As the Moon Shadow disappeared, she left behind both her device and her rapier. The pommel at the end of the rapier's hilt was a carved bat's head, with a bat's leaf-shaped ears, convoluted nose, and menacing teeth.
The party asked Burgess who would attack him, but Burgess didn't have any idea. They asked if the Bat's Head Rapier suggested anything, and Burgess and Roland worked together on a History check, but they rolled low and couldn't come up with anything.
They asked Burgess what the attacks on Selma Ulm, Tamir Rabi, and Burgess could have in common. Burgess just told them that they all were heads of Hollin trading houses, which didn't necessarily mean much. He said that Ulm House, historically, had introduced whaling and opium to Hollin; that Tamir Rabi's House Hanan specialized in trade with the Caliphate; and that his own Lorentz House was a general admiralty supplier.
Giles Ulm was still there, and they decided to go to Ulm House and see Selma. At the Ulm House manor, they found that Selma was still on the floor. Roland and Hughe worked together on a Medicine check, and found that Selma's body was drained of blood and pale, and that there were bite marks on her neck.
As they finished examining Selma, a man in a green visor and a woman arrived together. The man asked if the body on the floor was Selma Ulm, and when the party said yes, he made a note and turned to leave. The party stopped him and when they asked who he was, he introduced himself as Mr. Burbage and his assistant as Mira. However, Gwyneth immediately recognized "Mr. Burbage" as Cankerblossom, the MC of the Black Cabaret.
They asked why he was interested in Selma. Mr. Burbage said that Selma subscribed to a tontine that he managed for the bank, Garlington, Helmin, and Gibb. He explained that a tontine was an ad hoc insurance policy where several individuals each invest and receive annual interest payments. If a subscriber dies, their subsequent interest payments are divided between the surviving subscribers. Eventually, when only one subscriber remains, that subscriber receives all of the tontine's capital. So, the tontine could be very lucrative for the last survivor.
Mr. Burbage also said that his tontine had become extremely lucrative after the tontine bought Hollinshed House's coca powder business. He said he'd promoted the coca powder by giving out free samples, and gave samples to Gwyneth and Geoffraie. Roland recognized the powder as the same powder that Mia Hollinshed had given him, but advised Gwyneth and Geoffraie not to try the powder that Mr. Burbage had given them.
Coca Powder Sample
The party immediately accused Mr. Burbage of a crime in running a tontine that would encourage the participants to kill each other, and Roland demanded that Burgess arrest Mr. Burbage. However, Mr. Burbabge calmly said he had not done anything illegal, but had merely provided a custom financial instrument to those who were interested.
The party demanded to see who else was on Mr. Burbage's checklist, but he said that bank rules prohibited him from discussing his clients' business - at least while they were alive. Mr. Burbage did say that he believed that Tamir Rabi was deceased, and that Tamir was a subscriber. They asked if Ella was a subscriber, and Mr. Burbage wouldn't say, but Mira's expression suggested that Ella was indeed a subscriber.
Mr. Burbage and Mira left, but Roland had his owl Oz track them, and he himself followed at a discrete distance. They were traveling in the general direction of Meade Hospital Morgue, where Tamir Rabi's body would be. When the opportunity arose, Roland used Invisible Mage Hand to pickpocket the tontine subscriber list from Mr. Burbage. He returned to the rest of the party at Ulm House and shared the list with them.
Mr. Burbage's tontine subscriber list
Gwyneth said that the list must have gotten out somehow, and received an Inspiration point.
As they studied the tontine subscriber list, Burgess said that the bat motif on the Bat's Head Rapier could reference Phyla House. He said that Phyla House had a monopoly on supplying bat guano to the Admiralty for making gunpowder. They observed that Burgess's attacker also had a gunpowder weapon.
Hughe also recognized the name of Marian Hashin on the list, Rowan Hashin's noble mother. Hughe said he would like to warn her, and he asked a messenger on the street to take a warning to her, and to leave any response from Rowan at his house.
The party went to Meade Hospital Morgue to look for Tamir Rabi. As they arrived, Mr. Burbage was coming out, patting down his pockets looking for his subscriber list. A morgue attendant brought them to them Tamir's body, and pulled back a sheet covering him. Like Selma Ulm, Tamir was pale and bloodless, and had bite marks in his neck. Meade Hospital Morgue is a waiting morgue, and they also noticed small bells attached to Tamir's wrists.
They then went to Gwyneth's employers at the Winter Wolf, Carric and Pale Moon, to ask about the weapons that Burgess's attacker had dropped. Carric and Pale Moon told them that the gunpowder weapon was a blunderbuss, which was uncommon but not magical. They also identified the rapier:
Bat's Head Rapier
After talking with Carric and Pale Moon, the party wanted to find a private place where they could rest and plan. They chose the Halfpenny tavern, where Hollin's thieves networked. Hugue offered the bartender some gold to give them a private room, and the bartender accepted, but also told Hughe that no one at the Halfpenny would meddle in their business.
During their rest there, they identified the book that Helmholtz had given Roland.
A Brief History of the Anhault Charter Company
They discussed whether to go to Phyla House, but they weren't sure what cover story would get them in, or what they might need to fight vampires.
Instead they went to Mr. Burbage's office at Garlington, Helmin, and Gibb, to see if his assistant Mira would give them any more hints. Gwyneth plied Mira with pastries and charmed her with the Ring of Greater Pulchritude. Mira told her that someone tossed Mr. Burbage's office a few days ago, but that the tontine subscriber list was the only thing that seemed to be missing.
Mira said that Mr. Burbage wasn't in that day, and in general, Mr. Burbage was rarely in his office. They went to Mr. Burbage's office and found it still a wreck, with papers from the filing cabinets, desk, and garbage can thrown everywhere. They looked through some of the papers and found them all to be Jabbywocky-style nonsense, apparently written by someone demented; Keith adroitly compared them to "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." They checked the office lock, and found that it had indeed been physically broken.
The players discussed who they could ask about vampires. The party vaguely remembered that the Anhault Charter Company had an internal team of "Stakeholders," and now they realized that these Stakeholders weren't financial stakeholders. We decided though that Gwyneth, Hughe, and Roland were all originally urchin types, not company insiders, and weren't likely to know any more themselves.
Vesper Cotton was their most patrician friend, and they decided to ask him about the Stakeholders. They went to Cotton House's manor near the Roundabout, and found Vesper at home talking with his smith, Kazola. They told Vesper about the tontine, and that Christopher was on the subscriber list. Vesper thanked them for the warning, but told them sadly that Christopher was already in danger, because Vesper had told the Board that Christopher was a witch and the secret police had taken him away. They could see that Vesper was genuinely sad for selling Christopher out and wanted to free him.
They asked about the Stakeholders and saw Vesper and Kazola exchange looks. Gwyneth wanted to persuade them to talk, and Karen suggested using the Ring of Greater Pulchritude, but realized that Vesper knew of the ring from their time together in The Far Shore. Instead Karen rolled an 18 on a straight Persuasion check - success. Kazola suggested that she could introduce them to the Stakeholders and arm them against Phyla House's vampires. But in exchange, Vesper and Kazola wanted the party to help free Christoper from the secret police prison, Hobnail Prison.
The party also suggested that they could reach out to the secret police chief Durer about releasing Christopher. But when they reached out to their Company and underworld contacts about Durer, the contacts said that Durer could not be found. The players suggested this could be a natural part of being a secret police chief. But, some of their Company contacts said that Durer usually came to the daily Board meeting, but had missed the last few meetings.
The party decided to free Christopher Cotton from the secret police prison, then deal with Phyla House when Kazola had prepared their weapons.