Session Date: 8/7/2023
We travel with Vim, Vigor, and Vogue and the townsfolk to their town. This is a smaller town, not an actual city.
Tabby wonders why Lord Darkrose sent these goons after us - Faylen thinks perhaps that Lord Darkrose might simply be testing power, and he has no clue we are here or that we have a sliver of the seal of infinity. Erik and his crew stay outside the town once we get there and the party enters, with Pippin staying behind to guard the brothers and the civilians. The rest of us enter and do not have issues with feeling our mind slipping - it seems to either take time or something else causes it.
Halfdown - a generic little town that was made because sometimes you just have to stop traveling and settle down
Tabby recommends we scout the town out before we enter to see if there are any people still under the influence. We can tell that there are guards at the gate into the town but we don’t see more people. As we grow closer to the town itself we start to feel a tug at our mind. For just a second for myself and Tabby there is a shimmer as if two visuals are fighting for our attention: the town, and an enormous fairytale castle. Bosch knows he’s in the town, but he sees just the town and is stupefied, he sees only the castle. We can tell that Bosch is definitely not okay and we ask if he’s okay.
Bosch explains that he sees the castle and he’s confused, he no longer sees the town and only sees the castle now. Faylen explains he saw something before the town came into view, and Tabby agreed with that.
When we are close enough, the guards seem to relax a little as if they may not be under control. Tabby approaches the guards and they cross their spears, asking (in bad acting) who goes there. Tabby explains we are weary travelers passing through, wanting to rest our heads for the night. They ask who we serve, and Tabby says he was once a waiter at a fancy bar. They stare at Tabby, then look on. Bosch walks into a guard (who he sees as SUPER beefy, tough, in fancy armor) and Bosch sees a flag with a symbol of a black rose. Bosch apologizes profusely and says that we all serve the Lord Darkrose. The guards uncross their spears and tell us to proceed.
As they move in, Bosch asks Greenbean how much of that is real.
We move further into the town. Bosch sees a beautiful castle with servants and a full musical number akin to “Be Our Guest” and a whole song about how wonderful Lord Darkrose is and how much we should love him. The rest of us see two teenagers trying to singing but they’re awful at it because they’re not trained for it. Bosch sees incredibly talented performances while the rest of us are seeing is perhaps a school production at best. When the song ends the teenagers look at us blankly, then leave.
Moving further into the town we see the market not too far away from us. Overall, we are passing by people in the town unnoticed.
Faylen asks Bosch where the castle throne room seems to be and Bosch points in a direction. There’s no clear landmark as to where it might be, so the group recommends maybe Bosch leads on towards where the castle/throne is. Bosch sees us almost teleport in front of him and he apologizes and asks us to wait - we do, and he catches up with us. At one point, Bosch sees a great big feast in one section of the town (meats, jellies, etc) while the rest of us see them chewing on turnips. Bosch tries to grab a turnip and Faylen slaps the back of his hand to stop him, explaining Bosch doesn’t want to eat that. Bosch says it looks good, and Faylen says that it’s a moldy turnip and he probably doesn’t want to eat that, and Bosch isn’t so sure. He ultimately defers to Faylen on this.
The next section is a sprawling metropolis and Bosch figures out that the illusionary world building is pretty shoddy. The people around the city are giving dialogues and monologues all about how awesome Lord Darkrose is and how he’s just amazing, and etc. Even Bosch feels this might be a little too much, and the people here are starting to seem murmurish - things are starting to get worse and if this isn’t stopped it can be dangerous. We ask what Bosch sees and he explains that everyone in the castle seems happy and living a good life, they’re all talking about Lord Darkrose.
Mary sees a poster:
Medley of Famous Plays by the “Famous” Lord Darkrose (Danny is holding a rose on the poster)
Danny sure looks like a dude. He doesn’t even have a good face, he’s just out here vibing. We review the poster and Faylen doesn’t recognize him at all - he’s a nobody when it comes to the theatre. Bosch sees a statue of the very handsome Lord Darkrose. Now, when Bosch points at the castle within the castle, we can tell it’s a small theatre that appears to be closed. Faylen explains that he has no way to track down a magic item off-hand, but he figured to go by the “throne room” as he figured Danny would be there.
Faylen checks the play schedule and it’s a few days old. Mostly it’s productions by Danny, but there’s also a play that Faylen has actually also heard of: a classic play that is often portrayed. Danny was in the cast for the popular play and that was the last thing that was shown here. The play is called Weep for the Forest, which focuses on a young strapping druid (gender neutral) and focuses on the fae and is environmentally conscious. Danny was either the main character, the father, or the king of faeries. Bosch sees the Playbill as a face full of wall: he is standing next to the castle, he doesn’t see the theatre or anything.
Tabby offers to see if he can get to the rooftop and see if he can find another entrance from the roof of the building. Around this point, Bosch asks Tabby to finish the play and that is what it takes to snap Bosch out of the illusion and can focus in and out one way and another. He can choose whether to see reality or the illusion freely.
Tabby climbs up onto the roof and finds a small window that opens into an office of some sort inside of the theatre. He peeks in and there’s nobody in there, but this was the office of the director: books, scripts, counting money (not nearly enough). Tabby drops in and then tries to sneak to the front door: he fails as a cat surprises him and yowls. There is someone else in the that has stirred at the commotion, but we’re not sure who. Tabby opens the door for us and we enter, taking a look around. Bosch notes that there is no illusion here.
Faylen has never seen a theatre this small. The others have, but never this dirty and in such a state of disrepair. We hear steps. Not necessarily approaching, but around the building. Mary and Faylen can tell that the steps sound as if they’re in armor and should be more metallic, but there is a bounce to it. Mary specifically hears chitin, like an armor made of chitin. She recalls that in the version of the play she saw, the king of the fae wore a costume that reminded her of a beetle or other insect.
We look around and find the general stairwell for customers. As we try to sneak Tabby steps on the cat again, which pisses it off yet again.
We run into the thing that that is walking around: it’s too tall to be a human, the helmet is moving as if it were part of its face, and the armor is too thin to really be a costume. The eyes of the thing are multifaceted like an insect, and it has a real sword that is beautiful. It brandishes its sword and starts speaking in a gibberish Sylvan, with a few real words peppered in: king, follow, go. Faylen says he thinks that it wants to take the group to the fae king, and the insectoid nods in agreement. We all agree to go with it and it takes us to the actual stage, where Danny is choked in roses.
The roses have overgrown to the point that he’s been basically tied into the chair by them. The roses are growing from the stage itself, which Tabby tries to cut the roses. The man seems to be unconscious. Two vines grow back: one to re-wrap around Danny, the other toward Tabby and stops just before his nose as a taunt. Bosch picks up a paper mache version of the castle that was inside of the castle and swipes at the roses, which does cut them, but as the roses grow back toward Bosch Faylen throws some fire at it. The plant seems to scream at the flame and digs some of the rose vines under Danny’s skin, pricks of blood forming.
Mary, with a nature check, can tell the roses are a little darker than regular roses. Roses obviously don’t act like this? But they look like flowers. Faylen, with an occultism check, has a sliver of the seal of infinity with Pippin, and it supposedly is a great source of magic. Whatever is happening here is not something he’s ever studied, it’s wild magic - it’s almost like this is a spell that’s been created for this place. Faylen can tell that the weird magic is under the throne, and there is a clump of these roses.
Bosch starts to wade into the roses (yelling that he isn’t scared of them for both his and their benefit) as Mary lectures the plants and Faylen pulls out his rapier, ready to attack if the roses seemed to attack Bocsh. Bosch sees the sliver: it’s pulsating as if it were a heart. Once Bosch sees it, Danny and the roses start screaming.