Unmasking the Artisans Sessions 1-2

The Beast of Bellek

General Summary

The Party

Name	Race	Profession
Baxl	Blether	Servant
Gloria	Dwarf	Soldier
John Wrench	Air Genoran	Entrepreneur

Usual Business in Calvegarde

The party met with a peculiar set of twins, Ellen Thomter and Edwin Thomter. They mentioned how they recovered some misplaced tools and provided them to the party. On looking back at them, they had simply vanished.

Come the next day, the group decides on going to the village of Bellek. It's there that Davania Crux, the Burgomaster of the border village, has had reports of a strange and lanky creature terrorizing the people. With this being a border town to another country, it was deemed a bit imperative to ensure nothing wrong would occur.

A Happy Dream

The party dreamt of Lumencroft, a fantastical city of joy and wonder. Reginald Reeves, the Head of Recreation, led the party through various activities and snacks to enjoy. Curiously... Lumencroft should be a ruin... not the utopia that it appears to be...

Bellek Investigations

The party arrived and noted that there was a military encampment to the side doing its usual routines as they begun their investigations. What they found were two victims, each with their own story.

Calvisa

One was Calvisa, who was mortified from her attack experience and had begun making strange art pieces as an outlet for the trauma. She recalls being followed by the creature as it got closer and closer until she couldn't handle it and lashed out when it got too close, namely out of fear for what it would do.

A strange man in a blue suit and glasses that hug close to his eyes purchases her art. He namely goes as "the Courier."

Varro

Varro was attacked while out hunting. He had heard of the creature during so and thought he could alleviate the village's woes with the beast. The creature emitted an ominous rattling sound, and Varro attacked it. He was easily overpowered and had to be rescued. To this day, he becomes agitated and irritable at the creature's mention.

Meeting General Amadeus

General Amadeus was met by the party and warned about the Beast of Bellek. He told the party that he's sent a few troops to find the beast but found nothing. So, he continued operations as normal. The party also insisted this beast may invoke something to start a war by accident with Bellek being a border town. To reassure the party, the General mentioned how the camp would move out by tomorrow morning.

John Wrench, the air genoran of the party, managed to get Amadeus to consider a contract after showcasing Baxl's capabilities. Amadeus compromised for more pacifying means of overcoming threats compared to his more violent colleagues.

The Mournival Begins

Within the tent, it has a small sitting area in front of a wooden stage. Once everyone is seated, the spotlights flash on to two figures in thick coats and beaked masks, one with a sneering gaze and the other with a quizzical expression.
The quizzical one begins, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a new showing of the Mournival! I am the Sage and this is the Critic.” The Critic rolls his eyes, “Let this show begin with our… protagonists… in this endeavor.” The lights go out and you can vaguely see movement as cast members in blank stitched suits and uniform masks all stand in a line. When the first light goes up, the cast member resembles Baxl. The sage pipes up, “Baxl, the blether!” The Critic’s eyes glare at the actor, “A blether? It is not the first artificial soul we have seen and it will not be the last that bows before another master. How swiftly could another take its place?” The Sage tilts his head to the side, “Let’s give it some credit. An artificial soul is still a soul. There is nothing innately wrong with going along with what one was made for. Things only go wrong if… well… they are not aware of any problems to begin with.”
The lights flash to the next cast member, Cassius. “Cassius!” The Sage eagerly speaks up. The Critic rolls his eyes, “Undoubtedly another prince who is catered to and given everything he would ever have wanted. Dump this one in the streets and could he even live on his own? The beggars would likely eat him up!” The Sage shakes his head, “Having wealth is not innately a problem. How one wields it over others is. This human in particular will certainly need a lot of it to have any chance of knocking those over him a few notches down.”
The lights flash next to Gloria. ”Gloria!” The Sage speaks up. The Critic’s eyes widen in excitement, “My favorite cast member. A dwarf who has seen, and even delivered, carnage. This one has taken life before but all for what? The glory of a paycheck? Hollow honor among snobbish peers? I cannot wait to see more.” The Sage’s eyes widen in fear, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. She has served valiantly in an environment that has been “kill or be killed,” and it is really a question if a shell is slowly cracking or if a shell will have to descend down upon her…”
The lights finally flash to the last one. ”John Wrench!” The Sage cries out. The Critic looks at the actor with uncertainty, “Con artist or entrepreneurial genius? It is hard to tell. What will your contribution in the pursuit of progress mean? How much in blood? What volume in tears will suffice? Could failing workers be turned to steam?” The Sage chuckles, “There is an irony to selfishness. In wanting to have more and better things means more workers are required to help contribute in pursuit of wanting that same dream as well. If only everyone could have the same dream…”
The Critic looks over, “The real question becomes who they are now and what they will become. I look forward to seeing them crash and burn.” The Sage huffs a sigh, “I just hope they stay dynamic and survive the coming mess.”
The spotlights all shut off and once they come back on, it is only the two directors. The Critic looks over at the audience,“That is all for today’s showing. Perhaps we will… eugh… meet again.”

The Mournival, a macabre traveling troupe, are made up of "Actors", "Directors," and "Writers." The party naturally wanted to know how this group knew of them and the Directors answered it was the work of their Writers, taking interest in them.

Snooping backstage, John took a pair of Actor garments, a simple white mask and featureless black suit, without any resistance from the Actors. They insisted that people only embrace the clothes in hopes of escaping the intense focus from the Writers and instead support the great "play" that gets put on.

Hunt for the Beast

After some time, the party managed to slowly find the Beast of Bellek after a few hours, following the trail to a set of Nastirn-era ruins. Here, it was clear that a failed research team was present with many corpses of researchers strewn about, trying to crawl away. At the epicenter, they found a sigil to the Averse in front of a Nastirn-era painting of Empress Tilania standing in front of a massive white sphere, the legendary "Wellspring of Power." This massive artifact is said to be a gift from the Cultivarum to help unify the continent of Varlum as a whole.

The group found research logs that described how the team grabbed a random individual and plopped them on the sigil. They tried to "expand his senses" to determine where the Wellspring of Power could be. However, the Averse is not an exact science and the subject quickly went mad and frenzied as their senses were painfully broadened. He lashed out and killed the team it would seem.

The Beast found the party and attacked. However, Baxl managed to restrain hug the beast very tightly and got it to submit as they placed a paper bag over its head. The village of Bellek is now safe.

Back Home

The team brought back the Beast of Bellek to their warehouse, and they found that this creature was in agony with the constant overflow of stimulus. So, John built a sensory deprivation tank to suspend the creature in accordingly.

The creature, with its visions, did request the party to look into these strange, strange twins he keeps seeing.

Report Date

09 May 2024