Maestro’s Mask

by Dargon Estilan for Hawk and Hernshaw I arrived with Lavernius and Matt, and we had a brief look around and spotted a few interesting odds and ends, the city seemed to have a catacomb system riddled with many passages, around the Don’s residence were numerous shrines, that of the Leviathan, the Navigator, the Doomed Prince and the King in Yellow. We accepted a tour from a nice looking gentleman who showed us around the shrines and introduced us to a couple of Sicilian customs.
Many people were late arriving due to the distance from the circle and the bad weather so a little later than planned we gained a formal welcome from the don.
Members of the Company had a blue cross on their left cheek, the mark of the doomed prince I believe, Also Valerin of the Blackwood rangers bore this mark
The evenings entertainments began with the attack of some demon like creatures with red faces, these appeared to be human in shape but apparently corrupted by the Navigator so we pulled out our swords and maces and beat the daemons to death.
Following the daemons an auction to sell of some interesting things including masks for the ball took place, I have to say that I think every item in the auction was cursed in some form or another and no one felt that the masks were worth the extreme prices that were being offered for them, it basically turned into the don’s showing how much better than us they were for they offered extreme amounts of money and pushed the prices up, I believe the first edition of the play performed by the bards at their last Gorsedd was sold for over 40 gold.
The Maestros Mask itself appeared to drain the magic out of those near to it, it is said that it uses the power to keep the leviathan asleep, however this shortly got removed to a safe location, I believe the bottom of the ocean, It was unnerving as it appeared to further upset the tome of Air. I may go and play with it later, or rather get someone else to play with it on my behalf.
Saturday

This day saw the outbreak of a rather nasty necromantic pattern corrupting disease it brought the recipient out in red blotches and was not detectable until the symptoms were visible. The exact cause of which was unclear, it was believe to have been an ancestral curse for disturbing the dead within the catacombs, It looked particularly nasty and Ys seemed to be having extreme difficulty in removing it. As the disease had necromantic properties it could not be removed with channelling, and Ys was Immune to the powers of the ancestors, eventually we decided we had no choice and a ritual was done to purge the disease from him.
During the day there were some dance lessons where people were introduced to some dances for the evening at the ball.
Someone stole some items from the mausoleum, the Don was extremely annoyed at this and requested that everyone submit to a search, the search was performed but the Items were not retrieved. Later in the day we discovered that the Guide that had shown us around earlier was in fact a demon necromancer and was responsible for stealing the items, the demon was quickly dealt with and the items retrieved
It was also discovered that the daemons were people in the advanced stages of the disease, it was discovered that one of the demons appeared to be the body of the missing, Sapphire the Tarantulan ambassador.
Music sounded and the ball began, there were a few dances and much drinking, then the curses of the masks became apparent, Lady Aisla once more seen in a dress, was discovered to be wearing the mask of Valentino which made her profess her undying love for everyone in the room at one point or another, Cuthbert was wearing the mask of mirth and seemed to be enjoying himself he even got married to Quicksilver of the flight. The mask of tall tales was passed around the room a fair few times some of the more amusing stories coming from Ebric and v’Ar. We also received the retelling of the trip to the vale from the flight which is always an amusing story.
The King in yellow and some of his minions turned up, and handed out balloons, if burst in ear shot of the King and his minions they would cause pattern corrupting damage to those in contact. Refusal to accept a balloon would cause them to explode damaging the pattern, they appeared to be looking for a missing pattern and after much trouble and pattern damage I retired for the night but I assume they left at some point, I don’t know if they found what they were looking for.
Sunday

I discovered that Tanner and Valerin got assassinated by the Saphron Dagger, (the assassins of the king in yellow the enemy of the doomed prince) while I was away. Then lots more demons attacked then they all died.
Then we went home.