House of Masks Logs

House of Masks 001


 * Aethon, Abelard, Caspar, Penelope, and Karid meet Lady Faustina d'Amici, who hires them to investigate her ancestral home, which is haunted and much larger on the inside than on the outside. They take the assignment and find places to stay in the house. Some of them meet Serafina, Lady Faustina's daughter.


 * House of Masks 001a


 * Caspar meets Serafina in his bathroom, which adjoins Serafina's. Then Karid turns up. Later, Caspar makes a sandwich and is briefly haunted in the kitchen.


 * House of Masks 001b


 * Aethon checks out the storage closet and talks to himself a bit.


 * House of Masks 001c


 * Penelope visits the kitchen and meets the ghostly cook, Fran. So does Aethon, who tries to get a bit of information out of her.


 * House of Masks 001d


 * Abelard and Karid explore a bit and find some bedrooms.

House of Masks 002


 * Caspar, Karid and Aethon eat breakfast with Serafina, and then meet newcomers Arwen, Trystan and Marilla. They go exploring, and find the Carousel Room, where they are nearly killed when a blink dog statue comes to life. When the group tries to return to safety they see their distorted reflections on the ceiling and cannot return until they close their eyes. Upon returning, they meet Lissa, the cursing, blue-haired cook, and Illa, her quiet librarian sister.


 * House of Masks 002a


 * Marilla, Trystan and Arwen all arrive at the house for the first time, and are treated to a view of its exterior.


 * House of Masks 002b


 * Aethon kisses Serafina, and she actually kisses him back.


 * House of Masks 002c


 * Marilla chats with Trystan, who was deeply disturbed by the look of his mirror-double.

House of Masks 003


 * Penelope, Karid, Caspar, Trystan and Arwen discuss their creepy dreams, and receive a letter from Faustina explaining the house's name. Fran asks the group to find and bury the body of a woman who drowned herself in the house. On the way there, Ulisse staggers out of a room, followed by a very sick Illa. Neither will tell them what happened. On the way to explore, the group finds slaughtered creatures in the hallway, and retrieve a set of bones from a pond in a greenhouse, despite the underwater attack of a frogman. Fran possesses a linnet and the group is treated to a view of how she looked when alive, as well as how the dead Everhart girl looked. Trystan and Penelope visit Ulisse at the Hard Times.


 * House of Masks 003a


 * Karid and Arwen interrogate Ulisse as to why Illa was fainting; Arwen shoots at him twice but misses before he leaves. Karid, Arwen, Trystan and Penelope try to get Illa to tell them what's wrong.


 * House of Masks 003b


 * Caspar talks to Illa about what happened between her and Ulisse. He tells her about his own unusual nature. Later, he buries the bones the group found in the pond in a high tunnel outdoors. Later he talks to Illa again, and they kiss.


 * House of Masks 003c


 * Trystan talks to Karid after Karid overhears the conversation between Ulisse, Trystan and Penelope.  They consider the possibility Ulisse may be a vampire or a hallucinating addict, and Trystan's struggle with his family's ambiguous nature.

House of Masks 004


 * A blizzard strikes and Trystan, Caspar, Penelope, Arwen and Karid find Ulisse apparently menacing Illa. They trap Ulisse but he escapes, bleeding, only to collapse on the floor later. They retrieve him and everyone eats breakfast together. Bellamy turns up and introduces herself.


 * House of Masks 004a


 * Caspar writes to Faustina about Ulisse, and Illa tells him the truth about her illness--she is a wereleopard, having been infected by lycanthropy at age 3.


 * House of Masks 004b


 * Arwen visits Ulisse in the Lower Quarter and then in a restaurant in Uptown, where he reveals his alternate identity as Vittorio.

House of Masks 005


 * Arwen, Caspar, Karid, Trystan, and Illa are at breakfast when they are joined by Bellamy, a medium (with 23 children, Karid does not approve) who promises to help with the ghost problem. Illa drinks poison and leaves, and the group gears up and heads into the west wing. There, they encounter a strange glass ball in a mirrored, spinning room and a room with inverted gravity where they fight a varguoille. They see visions in the mirror again, and after getting back, Trystan and Arwen go to drink with Ulisse.


 * House of Masks 005a
 * Caspar joins Arwen, Trystan, and Ulisse, and they go to the second floor to drink, since the wine cellar is apparently dangerous. Ulisse fails at being a jerk, even when Caspar reveals that he likes Illa. Eventually, Trystan gets drunk and passes out, and Arwen and Caspar help him back to his room.


 * House of Masks 005b
 * Karid tries to separate himself from Lissa, scared for her safety after what he saw in the mirror. She is not intimidated, and instead is so impressed by his honesty that she tells him about Illa's condition and asks him to protect her.


 * House of Masks 005c
 * Uisse admits to Arwen that it's getting hard to keep up his facade, and he promises to find something to help her avoid the house's nightmares.


 * House of Masks 005d
 * Ulisse tells Illa about the others' thoughts about her and Ulisse. He meets Bellamy in the hall, and they disuss spiritual mediation and religion.

House of Masks 006


 * Karid, Arwen, Caspar, Trystan (who is currently hungover), and Marilla attend Bellamy's seance. The first spirit to enter Bellamy's body is Fran, who warns them about the others. After she leaves, an evil spirit possesses the medium and causes havoc, destroying a couch, taunting everyone (but especially Trystan), and hurting Bellamy quite badly. Karid's quick thinking saves the day even as Ulisse wanders in and catches the end of the ceremony. The party splits up after Bellamy leaves with Karid.


 * House of Masks 006a
 * Caspar returns to his room, only to find it destroyed by Illa in snow leopard form. Despite the destruction, she is very affectionate towards him, and towards Karid when he comes in. Caspar and Karid discuss Illa's condition and the fact that Lissa is missing until Trystan and Marilla come in. Awakened by Trystan's alarm at finding a leopard in the house, Russet wanders out of Trystan's room and is spotted by said leopard. Chaos ensues. Afterwards, Illa turns back and is appalled by Caspar's explanation of her behavior. They end up kissing, until Illa pushes Caspar down. After a timeskip, they begin to make plans to travel to Solitaire to consult Caspar's parents about Illa's predicament.


 * House of Masks 006b
 * Marilla interrupts Trystan's talk with Fran about the words of the other spirit and tries to cheer him up. They leave the kitchen and hear Illa's growling. Later, Marilla sneaks into Trystan's bedroom while he is bathing and learns the truth about one of his biggest secrets.


 * House of Masks 006c
 * Karid walks Bellamy to her room while discussing the seance, religion, and sexuality. He leaves and heads to Caspar's. Later, he walks to the lower quarter looking for Lissa. He finds her at the Hard Times, but before he can approach, Ulisse pulls him aside and tells him to meet him at another restaurant. Karid talks to Lissa, informing her that it's safe to go home, then meets with Ulisse. Acting like a completely different man, Ulisse first threatens Karid, then lets him in on his plans in exchange for a promise to help.


 * House of Masks 006d
 * Ulisse stumbles upon Arwen, who is trying not to be sick outside of a bathroom, and gives her the nightmare cure he promised. They discuss the seance, the spirits, and her choices, and Ulisse gives her an opportunity to help him.

House of Masks 007


 * Caspar, Trystan, Arwen, and Karid meet for breakfast. While Caspar and Karid have still been afflicted by nightmares, Arwen has not had any dreams thanks to Ulisse's ring, and Trystan had good dreams. Illa enters and tells all of them the truth after turning back into a human. Bellamy comes in and makes small talk. During the conversation, Trystan accidentally reveals his necromantic talents, minor though they are. Ulisse appears and points out that they are only going to develop further. Illa changes the topic of conversation, telling Ulisse that she informed everyone of her condition. The coversation topic again shifts, this time to personal secrecy, and Bellamy storms out. Ulisse threatens Caspar's family, and he too storms out. Ulisse tells Trystan about his plans, they discuss their family, and the conversation becomes lighter again until Karid is made very uncomfortable by the others' comments about him and Lissa. Trystan realizes that his dreams were likely temptations, and leaves. Ulisse, Karid, and Arwen discuss the situation in the house, and Arwen offers Karid her ring, but he refuses. Trystan returns and reveals some of what he learned from Fran, after which Ulisse leaves. The remaining three summon Faustina, who seems even less informed than they are.


 * House of Masks 007a
 * Trystan goes to the kitchen to talk to Fran. She tells him that the spirits, who mostly consist of long-dead d'Amicis and those who were wronged by him, are likely interested in him due to both his necromantic powers and relation to the family. He is kind to her, which she appreciates, but it also makes her sad because of both the cause of his idealism and that he might grow out of it.

House of Masks 008
 * House of Masks 007b
 * Illa confronts Caspar, who was angered by Ulisse's words. She tries to smooth the situation, and he agrees to see Ulisse later. For now, though, he invites her on a date. They talk about his family as they leave.


 * The group discusses the nightmares becoming less vivid, and Caspar announces he and Illa are leaving for       Solitaire as soon as the weather clears. The group then explores the house some more, and discovers a hallway that appears to be part of an organic creature. They choose the perfectly logical option of beating the daylight out of said creatures organs. They then encounter some beautiful paintings, at least they seem beautiful until Trystan observantly points out some terrifying imagery hidden within them. Their exploration of the house eventually leads them to a fight with an animated gurney, which proceeds to make Trystan less observant. Mainly with a good smack to the head. The group then steals the treasure the gurney was guarding, get a mysterious box for healing the organ they beat the carp out of, and Marilla learns the hard way that maybe putting on mysterious magic crowns isn't a good idea.


 * House of Masks 008a


 * House of Masks 008b
 * House of Masks 008c

House of Masks 009


 * House of Masks 009a


 * House of Masks 009b


 * House of Masks 009c


 * House of Masks 009d