Session 8: Miss Charlotte’s Encore#
Summary#
The party heads out in search of Balthazar Adamos, last seen in the vicinity of the Black Ivory Inn — a building that the group finds mysteriously intact amongst the ruins, lit up and serving drinks as if the meteor never fell. It did fall, fifteen years ago, and it falls again and again, stuck in a perpetual time loop due to a wish made by Miss Charlotte to be “the greatest pianist of all time”. The party pieces together a little more each loop, finding Balthazar, recruiting additional allies Anika and Osiris, and identifying the abomination lurking beneath the stage that seems to be a key to potentially undoing the time loop.
What Happened#
Scene 1: Approaching the Black Ivory Inn#
The party made their way northeast, crossing the Drann River. They searched carefully through the City, until they rounded a corner and found the Black Ivory Inn standing pristine and fully lit amid the rubble. Piano music drifted from inside. Silhouetted figures moved behind frosted windows. The building remarkably showed no sign of the meteor’s destruction.
They scouted the perimeter: a wraparound porch, a servants’ entrance at the back, a staircase descending into a cellar. Crumb — Theobroma’s familiar, appearing now as a hawk — could not see through the frosted glass. Cory slipped around to the kitchen and peeked: normal kitchen staff at prep stations, working as if this were any ordinary evening.
Scene 2: Loop 1 — First Visit#
Deciding to enter through the front door, they find the interior richly appointed. Velvet curtains, gleaming varnished tables, a full bar covering one wall floor to ceiling. On the stage: Miss Charlotte, playing with extraordinary talent. A waitstaff member, Phifer, seated them at the bar.
Theobroma and Margareta both pressed the bartender on the date, eventually learning he believed it to be September 16, 1111, which Theobroma recalled was exactly the day the meteor struck. The patrons were also wearing fashion from fifteen years ago. Near the stage, one figure stuck out based on their wardrobe, a woman in full armor watching Charlotte without relaxing. At the bar and at a back table: two other figures with concealed weapons, leather armor — people who stuck out from the regular patrons.
Heda paid twenty gold for a room upstairs. As the group stood talking in the hall, a door opened and an exhausted, unshaven man peered out. This was Balthazar Adamos investigating the noise as he hadn’t heard new voices in a long time. To gain his trust, Margareta told him Lucretia Mathias had sent them.
He had tried to leave dozens of times. Every exit deposited him back at the entrance. As an experiment, the party climbed out through Balthazar’s window (Heda twisted an ankle on the drop) and walked him down the street together. They turned the corner at an intersection — and found the front door of the Black Ivory Inn directly ahead.
Standing outside, they saw a glow in the sky that was not the sun. The Inscrutable Tower, shattered in the present, appeared whole on the horizon. Then the meteor came. It struck the tower, and a meteor fragment crashed through the roof of the Black Ivory Inn.
Intense burning. Darkness. Then a wash of dust and ash — and Charlotte playing her first set to thunderous applause.
Cory and Heda, who had accepted drinks at the bar, found themselves briefly walking toward it again with glazed eyes before the others pulled them back. The twenty gold Heda had paid for the room was back in his pocket and the key was gone.
Scene 3: Loop 2 — The Gambling Den#
With a reset came a new plan: explore the cellar. Theobroma cast Suggestion on the guard blocking the cellar door — it succeeded — and the party entered.
Inside: an illegal gambling den. Round tables, cards, bottles. A map of city tunnel passages pinned to the wall. Twenty-two armed guards turning in unison to look at them.
Margareta attempted a bluff: “We just need to pass through. We are plumbers.”
It did not work and combat ensued.
For a while, it looked like the party might be able to best the bandits, but as the fight dragged on, the tides turned. The party was outnumbered five to one and the guards kept coming. Then Heda and Margareta went down in a hail of scimitars and crossbow bolts. The last two standing fled up the stairs and out to the porch, where they sat smoking ineffective herbs and praying they would be reuinted with their fallen friends the next time the loop resets.
With nothing else to do, they head back inside and start causing a scene yelling about what they had uncovered in the basement. The regular patrons seemed largely unfazed but the armored woman near the stage came over to throw them out. Noticing the Silver Order markings on her armour, and aided by the approaching meteor becoming visible in the distance they were eventually able to learn her name is Anika as they helped her shake the effects of the time loop.
Scene 4: Loop 3 — Burning It Down#
Another reset. The party regrouped at the entrance, with Cory and Theobroma throwing their arms around Heda and Margareta, relieved to see them alive again. Balthazar came down the stairs shaking his head: “See. It’s all hopeless.”
A new plan is developed: Instead of fighting the guards, burn the cellar and force an evacuation. Cory descended silently and doused the cellar floor with oil. Theobroma ignited it with Druidcraft. Within minutes the whole back half of the building was alight; within twenty the structure was fully engulfed, patrons streaming outside in confusion.
In the gathered crowd outside the group noticed a figure in purple robes — Osiris, from the Amethyst Academy. After some discussion they learn he had come from Emberwood Village the previous year to investigate rumors of a Wish spell. He had gotten comfortable, started enjoying the music, and stopped noticing the loop. He came out of his stupor as the party spoke to him.
Osiris: “I originally came here investigating what I believe to be the effects of a wish spell. I had heard rumors of a legendary musician who had gained their ability through magical means.”
And then, from inside the burning building — the sound of the piano started up again.
The party pushed through the flames to the stage where Charlotte sat at the undamaged piano, surrounded by a shimmering aura of cold magical energy that held the fire entirely at bay. Heda’s Guiding Bolt and Cory’s crossbow shots glanced off harmlessly.
Cory approached her and made an impassioned plea to stop playing the piano.
Charlotte’s voice had an icy, piercing quality: “Playing music is all I’ve ever had. It’s everything I’ll ever need. And the only thing I have left — please don’t take that from me.”
When Margareta pressed her on the wish, Charlotte said: “The only thing I’ve ever wanted was to be the greatest pianist of all time.”
The meteor fell. As it crashed through the burning timbers and split the floorboards, Theobroma looked down through the gap. Below the stage for a split second, she saw a massive mound of flesh with sticky tendrils clinging to the walls and ceiling, pieces of wood and debris enveloped within it. Embedded in its side were the remnants of a grand piano and on the front of the creature feminine features twisted in silent horror, glowing octarine eyes, mouth stretched impossibly wide. Around her, other eyes and mouths, moaning and crying as one.
Then there was a wash of dust and ash as the meteor took them again.
Scene 5: Loop 4 — Charging Through#
After the reset, the party were up to three allies: Balthazar, Anika, and Osiris. The plan this time was simple — sprint through the gambling den, reach the creature below the stage, and hopefully find a way to end the loops for good before it all resets again.
The party charged through, taking attacks of opportunity from the bandits as they ran. Heda breathed fire on a cluster of guards. Margareta killed one who was initially able to grapple her and burst through the back of the room to the tunnel beyond.
The abomination was there. In front of it: a crater in the floor, glowing with purple energy.
Its eyes fixed on Margareta.
Facing down the bandits and the monster at the same time, the group took the opportunity to study the foe as much as possible before becoming overwhelmed. The creature struck with it’s tendrils for massive bludgeoning damage and eventually engulfed Margareta leaving her blinded, restrained and suffocating before eventually killing her entirely and absorbing the corpse, healing some of the damage it had sustained. It struck with massive bludgeoning force. The abomination seemed to ignore the bandits entirely, but eventually the whole party succumed to either the beast or the bandit’s blades.
Then there was a wash of dust and ash as the meteor fell again, starting yet another loop.
Key Discoveries#
- The Black Ivory Inn time loop: The inn is reliving September 16, 1111 — the night the meteor fell. Spells and health reset each loop. Gold and items return to their owners. People who eat or drink there become increasingly enthralled.
- One cannot simply walk away: Attempts to leave the area all redirect to the front entrance. The street itself loops back.
- Charlotte’s wish: Miss Charlotte wished to be “the greatest pianist of all time.” The wish has proven powerful enough to override a force of nature like the meteor, keeping her alive and playing on a loop.
- The wish is virtually unbreakable: Per Osiris, a wish spell of this nature can likely only be ended by destroying the source.
- The abomination’s abilities: Absorbs corpses to heal; engulfs creatures (blinded, restrained, and suffocating); attacks for significant bludgeoning damage; can squeeze through spaces as narrow as one inch; the gambling den guards appear oblivious to its existence.
Loot & Rewards#
None — all gains reset with each loop.
Memorable Moments#
“It’s March. March 1126.” — Theobroma, correcting Balthazar Adamos after he guessed it was still February
“Take me home.” — Margareta, last words as she lay dying in the gambling den
“To the flame, I go back.” — Heda, last words as he lay dying in the gambling den
“Listen — I know how hard it is to lose something. I’ve lost so much in these past 15 years. And I know how art can heal you and save you. And I think there’s more than this moment. There’s more than just this one moment on stage — you can go on and you can do more. But we need to stop this now so that you can go out and live your own life, not just this moment over and over again.” — Cory, to Miss Charlotte inside the burning building