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You four have been invited to the secluded manor of Prince Prospero on the winter solstice for a grand Yule masquerade. Prince Prospero's festivities are famous for their grandeur and their mystery. And this year, rumor has it that he will display a powerful artifact called the Crystal of Celestial Frost. However... This region has also recently been haunted by a mysterious illness known only as the Red Death. And it has taken the lives of many. This deadly affliction brings fever.
red spots, and bleeding, striking fear into the people. But nonetheless, we have a party to attend to. And so the four of you sit there in your collective carriage as it rumbles through thick snow. the sun setting behind cold skeletal trees casting long shadows across the winter landscape. The air is frigid, biting at your skin even through thick cloaks as you arrive at your destination.
Prince Prospero's Winter Manor, a grand estate nestled in an isolated valley and decorated with evergreen boughs and flickering lanterns. This year's winter solstice celebration has attracted nobles, scholars, and curious travelers alike, each lured by Prince Prospero's legendary Yule Masquerade, a festival promising warmth, wine, and splendor. The first to alight out of our carriage, we see an investigator, still not fully blending in with perhaps the...
The ermines and the velvets and the brocaded investments, but we see him nonetheless. Carla, would you like to introduce your character to us? Absolutely. I am William Dupin. And while his clothes are not the fanciest, they are clearly expertly tailored, very well made, maybe a little shabby, maybe not the newest, but still at some point he definitely has had access to funds. get these really high quality clothes. William's eyes are always moving.
He is taking in everything from the trees to what the outside of the home looks like to what everyone is wearing and making very quick mental calculations about. Many things, people's wealth, their status, their class, but mostly their intelligence. He makes some real snap judgments about that. And does he find them lacking most of the time? I would say he finds most people lacking in the intelligence department compared to himself.
So William, as you step out onto the snow-covered path, your eyes are drawn to the manor's high, arced windows, where faint candlelight flickers like distant stars, casting eerie shadows across the snow. And as your eyes follow their lines, they look behind you to the second figure, also stepping out from the carriage. And we see an ethereal lady. eyes quite sunken in, pallard in her skin, almost looking quite dead already. Giancarlo.
Your character has arrived. Tell us a little bit more about Madeline Usher. So as you see a well-equipped boot stepping out onto the snow, you see this young woman. dressed in this beautiful white ball gown with perhaps like a black cloak with a little bit of a hood over the top. But there is this kind of grunginess to all of it. as if it's slightly dirty, as if it was left in the back of a storage room somewhere for just a little too long.
Her skin is entirely pale. Her eyes are sunken. Even her hair, despite being completely dry, gives the appearance of being slightly almost damp and like frosted over. as she steps out into the cold winter air where she seems perfectly at home. Were she to sit down, you would believe that she has been sitting there and had been frosted over along with the landscape as she takes in the... The surrounding grounds.
If we like peer over your shoulder, we see like this, this guy with like mangled black hair. Tim Burton is there. He's like, yes, the perfect specimen. He's quickly doing these charcoal drawings. But Madeline, yeah, you're feeling home. You settle in. There's like this settling in all the way down to your bones.
You kind of remember the small talk surrounding your receipt of this invite to this Yule Ball. Even the talk perhaps whispered amongst those who were sitting in the carriage. But there has been... Really dark tales circulating in recent days, whispers of this red death, a terrible fevered affliction that drains the very life from its victims, leaving them bloodstained, broken, and quite dead.
But you've also heard rumors that have caught your attention and perhaps those who have been coming with you. Rumor that Prospero, this half-orc of mysterious means and powerful connections, claims that his halls are safe from the plague. Yet, as you progress forward, you can't help but feel an ominous lingering chill, a darkness as tangible as the winter night itself. And as you ruminate on this...
A third figure alights from our carriage. A graceful step coming out onto the path. Silver jewelry twinkling on the fingers and on the wrists with oceanic motifs. And we see Annabelle Shore. Rev, tell us about your character. Yeah, so Annabelle is dressed in this beautiful gown that almost kind of ripples and the colors cascade. looking like a wave that is hitting on the shore. And she's got a shawl over her shoulders that up close almost looks like the knitting of a fishing net.
from further back looks very ornate. She steps out and looks around as the wind whips by, and her gaze is kind of soft in the distance, and she tilts her head to the side as the wind howls. She nods in agreement as if she's hearing something. And that wind carries you forward, propelling you to catch up with the first two. And as you approach these massive double doors swing open and you see just beyond it revealed a grand hall draped in greenery and hung with rich red and gold tapestries.
And as you enter in, finally we have our last occupant of our carriage also exits. Lenore Ravenshadow. This pale, somber figure with dark hair and piercing, reflective eyes, almost seemingly reticence to enter, finally follows behind. Emily, tell us about your character. Lenore is this... graceful, elegant creature who sort of floats when she walks. Her dress is black but she's got this feather detail on her shoulders and at the cuffs.
And she is always sort of haunted by this spectral raven that follows her around. And she, yeah, she's not quite of this world. And the sort of the atmosphere that she brings with her is otherworldly, shall we say? Yeah, she's not quite of this world. Which, for the first time in a while, perhaps what is throwing you off is that it doesn't seem like you stick out as much. It seems like you fit in here.
Not only that, but for that carriage ride you had just had, which I'm wondering between the three, the gowns that were in there, like how much like. I can just see, like, William Dupont's, like, face just peeking out from the folds. Just covered in ruffles and, like, peeking through. But you four do make it in without any... No problems getting in. We're going to get you guys in through these doors. But as you walk in, you see like even...
The gleaming suits of armor that line these halls are bedecked in holly and mistletoe. Music drifts from a distant room, cheerful yet tinged with a melancholic note. Masked guests weave through the shadows, their laughter punctuating the soft strains of a violin, as if they too sense a tension beneath the revelry.
A robed figure approaches you four, bearing silver masts and offering each of you a glass of spiced wine to ward off the chill. The servant's voice is low, his words like a quiet promise. Welcome to Prince Prospero's winter solstice masquerade. Tonight, all are safe within these walls. All are safe, so. As long as you do not venture into shadows best left undisturbed. And then he kind of inks back into the darkness of one of the halls.
And with that, a second servant's a little bit kind of side-eyeing him a little bit too much. And you kind of hear one of them mutter like, really, Jerry? You can just... Calm down on the theatrics. Anyways, please, any gestures for you four to enter the ballroom? You exchange a look. Madeline looks to the shadows that Jerry has retreated into and goes, Are those... The shadows were not supposed to enter. The other one who just was gesturing you forward. Um, no, no, don't.
We're full of shadows tonight, you guys. It's just candlelight. Prospo wanted nothing but candlelight, so there's plenty of shadows for you to melt into, and it'll be just fine. Just fine. I think she has a very good point. How do we know which shadows are the safe and which are the dangerous? Let's just say all in the party. Look, if there's music and there's...
snacks, and there's people there dancing. Get in all the shadows you want. Do we need to have all three present simultaneously, or... Oh shit, I didn't think of that. Uh... He turns to another one. Yes. Let's just say yes. All three. present and it is part of the party and then you're not being a weird guest going into the rest of the castle that you shouldn't be. Now what if I need to use the necessary? Will there be dancing drinks and snacks in there or will I be in danger?
Fuck, I didn't think that. Okay. No, okay. We have... Tommy, Tommy, go put some greenery in the bathroom and get one of the violinists in there. Put snacks. All right, you're good. You're good. Yes. If you don't mind a guy like doing a solo in there, you're fine. I don't. I prefer it. Oh. As long as it's just a solo. Yes, just a sailor. Oh, just a solo. We have sailors too. I feel like you're all speaking in some form of code that I don't quite understand.
I don't even know anymore. Look, I've got to go get the canapes. Please, here's the party. And he like just doubles over just gesturing like he's bent at the waist now and you can see just a bit of sweat on his brow. Even if I kill people tonight, I will feel more guilty about being mean to this service worker than about anything. Always feel worse about being mean to the service workers. He's just trying to do his job.
Assuming that there are some number of shadows in the entry, like Foyer, you see that Madeline is very careful not to step into them. So I'm taking it Madeline will take directions very seriously. Oh, yes. And very straightforward. Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, the four of you exchange some more looks, especially the three of you who are not trying to take steps specifically in unshadowed areas. But you begin to feel this way to the night settle over you.
And really, the night has only just begun, and you sense that beneath the sparkling decor and laughter, already the frost of something far more sinister waits to be discovered. So this is where I... as your dungeon master, I invite you to mingle with each other, to mingle with other potential guests, to go around and see what you see. Well, William is going to avoid the people to begin with and just make a perimeter of this main room, taking in the art.
You know, how many candles there are, because that's important. What are these candles made of? What are we? 127. Wax. Wow. Although you can't tell unless maybe you want to bite into one or you really want to get into it. But this looks like your natural tapers. Stick a thumbnail into that. Just make sure and just, I don't know if you want me to roll investigation, but I will just do like a perimeter walk and sort of. look behind tapestries, just...
See what we're working with in this main room. For a general look around the room, I'll say perception. Now, if you were looking for something specific or going to a specific area, I would say investigation. So perception, go for it. Sweet. I rolled a 16. I can't remember what my... Anyway, 16 plus something. Plus something, but still, that's a great rule. You're already a...
Oh, my gosh. I just can't remember what I use, like what my add-on to that is. Wisdom. So, yeah, that would be a... Which is 16, so that's a press 3. So, yeah, that's a 19. Yeah. You are seen like, yes, this is very heavily decorated. It's what you understand to be just a gothic style manner. You see outside the windows, it's buried in snow. The inside is festooned with evergreen and holly. And small silver bells seem to be at a regular interval for you, you being...
You know, this investigator, you know, Dupin, like you are noting that these silver are every 12 feet. There is a silver bell hung from the bows. But it's also what you hear. You're not engaging directly in conversation with anyone just yet. But as you circumnavigate this party. You hear bits and whispers specifically about the Red Death in this corner. You hear that people are succumbing within half an hour, that it's devastating the country.
And then when they finally do succumb, that there's blood everywhere, especially on the face. And so that out of fear, people are getting shut out and not even tending to these bodies left in the street. If William will allow it, I think Madeline might tag along. And Madeline, while walking around the perimeter, has this quirky little habit of making sure that...
There are no odd ways to lock people into rooms. For no reason in particular. Just kind of goes around making sure that there are no ways to... shove someone in and have the door closed without it being able to open in like undue manners and also trying to take note of any like people who might seem out of place in any of these rooms or
odd entities or anything like that. Since you're looking for something specific and you're going up to things, I'll let you choose either perception or investigation here. William notices her noticing things and... is very impressed. Does William say anything to that? I don't think so. While she rolls? I don't think so. More of a creepy silent observer. My perception and my investigation are the same, so I'll just...
Oof. Seven plus one is eight. You go to a couple doors and find that they are locked. And then the third one, you kind of hear some light music being... you know, played in there. And you open it up and you do see it's a single-use bathroom. And there is a violinist, like, hurryingly setting up, like, tuning in the corner. And he's like... Not yet. Almost. Just hang on. I'll play a little ditty here if that helps you go. Not yet, dear.
You said single-use bathroom, and my brain went, wow, he is rich that he's just disposing a bathroom. Disposable bathroom. Just poofs away right after. It could be. You know, when you enter into a world like, I don't know, D&D or any other magical... system you're like it could happen it it could be so you're you're going from them but i will say with that eight two uh you bump into uh the back of of one of the
patrons here, this highly dressed, like, floofy lady, hair piled atop her head to an astounding height where you wonder if it's magic or just... Very good hairdressers keeping it up there. Hello. I am just enjoying these new canapes that came out. Have you seen the Prince Prospero? I want to pay him my compliments. Really, this is the most fun I've had in a while. I just love Prince Prospero. He's so happy.
Dauntless and sagacious and that ass. Really, I'm so happy every time I'm around him. Have you seen him? Madeline carefully steps out from the shadow being cast by her tall hair, and then says, No, I haven't seen him. How do you know Prince Prospero? And that ass, of course. We took riding lessons together back in the day. I did the side saddle and he did too, which I thought was very interesting, but he would do side saddle one at a time and that's how he toned it.
So I started it too. And you see this behind me. This is not a bustle, my dear. This is hard work. Oh, that's the most impressive. Wait, actually, is it impressive? You tell me. Can I roll like perception? Roll for ass. Go for it, yeah. I feel like she should roll constitution. That's an 18. That is, yeah. That is a... Very well toned shelf you see there. Despite being gaunt and pale, somehow you see like Madeline flushes even further just like...
Taken aback, almost like she's going to faint at how impressive this rear end is. William notices none of this. He's like looking at a brocade tapestry. He has absolutely no awareness of. this amazing ass. It's so near him. It's just not what he cares about. You're more interested in the fact that you noticed that the last time that this tapestry was properly cleaned and dusted was actually a fortnight ago.
Really kind of letting him down before a big soiree like this, I think. How dare they. So do you have any idea what might have inspired Prospero to throw such a... Such festivities? But I mean, darling, this must be our first time. He does it every year. But honestly, I think he moved it up a bit earlier. We're actually a week... before the Yule season, but I like to think because some horrible things, you know, blood and all that are spreading across the country the other way.
this makes the rest of us who are friends with Prospero so happy to get away from it all and He said he had a special surprise for all of us. I must say, for me, I'm very interested in this new... Oh, what was it called? This artifact, this crystal of Celestia Frost, I am rather looking forward to that being unveiled. So maybe it has to do with that.
I don't know, but I'll be keeping an eye out for Prosby, and you do too. Will do. It is my first time until recently. I was rather confined to the walls of my home. Are there any events or tips you might give to someone such as myself for getting the most out of such an occasion? Confinement, yes. Every young woman needs that. I was confined for like five years so that I didn't procure freckles at the wrong time. It's the greatest travesty, really.
Welcome. Darling, did you say what your name was? Madeline. Madeline Usher. Madeline. Madeline of the House of... Usher. Usher? At the name Usher, her face, her heavily powdered face goes a bit white underneath it. Oh, of course. It's the House of Usher.
I'm so sorry. Have some canopies, won't you? And she turns very quickly and... knocks over just this tray, the tray of canapes that she had been like hovering over a second ago, like off the small table, looks behind it and looks at one of the servants and titters away and then just quickly... Makes herself scarce in your presence. Madeline will help the servants pick them up. You guys are being beautiful people tonight. I will say that.
What are Lenore and Annabelle up to at this point? Well, Lenore is currently standing in the main hall. A spectral raven is sitting on her shoulder and she sends the raven off to do a recce, shall we say? Oh, I like it. Okay. I don't have specific stats for your Raven, but what I'd like to do, because there are certain things that the Raven is going to be very good at, so let's use your stat for perception and then roll with advantage.
So that means, yeah, just roll twice and take the higher number. Cool, cool. 16. Okay, yeah, he swoops over. And alighting very lightly on one of those heavily festooned coats of armor that is hanging over this fireplace. You see your raven swoop over the room and alighting on this bust of Diana, this bust of palace, and looking around the room. palace is athena where am i at this this lights on this bust of athena also known as palace uh swiveling its head over the room it stops
Leans forward a bit, hunching, and then quickly comes back to your side. Hey, I think I saw something. I saw something weird. This guy has a huge ass. He was coming off this room off the main hall. He was straightening. He had his mask on, and he was straightening it, looking around. In the way that I look around when I see blackberries and acorns and you tell me no and I say sorry and then I go away anyway. But he left the room. He left the door. Ajar.
Which door? And kind of nudging your head a little bit to the left, you see an open door. just off the main hall a door that doesn't have a handle and blends into the wall you had just passed it on your way in Do you think we should just walk in or should we tap, tap, tap at the door? I mean, I can do the tapping. I love the tapping. And he just starts tapping on the side of your head.
No, no, not my head. Not, not my head. No, we've been over this. No. Sorry, sorry. Yeah, we can tap? I mean, do you want to tell the others that you came in with? Are we friends now? Are we friends with them yet? I think it's a... situation but maybe I just want friends alright okay this once we have friends god okay so who's gonna tell him you or me Well, they can barely see you, so I suppose it has to be me. Fine. Damn it. Okay, go.
Okay, so I am going to approach... Wait a minute, who's in the bathroom right now? Just the violinist. Just the violinist. Okay, so I'm going to approach William. Hello, how are you enjoying the party so far? Well... Everyone here is almost as weird as I am, which is comforting. And we've just discovered a secret door, which is exciting. I love a secret door. Yeah, secret door. Well...
Madeline is here with me. I'm not sure where Annabelle got off to. Sort of looking around. Camera shift. Where is Annabelle right now? She is in the middle of the dance floor. spinning around with all of the dancers. What does it look like with her dancing? What style? If they are waltzing around you... In partners and you are at the eye of this rhythmic storm. Yeah. How are you dancing? So it is she is properly trained in all of the dances, but it's as if it was.
kind of mixed with ballet and then sped up two or three times. So she's doing the steps, but they're very large and she's traveling way more than she should. And there's like pirouettes and stuff in the middle of it. And she kind of gets to the center of the circle and she puts her arms out. And as she does, she just kind of opens up her senses. Because she's been told that this is a safe place and that like, oh, it can't get in here.
She knows that the people who think they're the safest aren't. So she's just going to open up with her eyes of the grave. Love it. And as you spin... You start to, in your mind's eye, this awareness starts to spread out like soft tendrils. almost water-like as they weave through everything. And you have really been...
in tune with this in the past weeks as this red death has been spreading across the countryside. And you have seen it with your own eyes too, in a way that strikes you with both curiosity and awe, but also fear. And so you feel the familiarity of it enough where you would recognize it. And so as these tendrils strike off across...
parts of them as they round around, as they wind around towards the front of the hall. You too, in your mind's eye, feel a place that has been opened that was not before. and entering in there, the tendrils of your awareness become icy, but not seconds, just icy. And weaving across, as we get further away from you, if you're at the nucleus of this awareness, as we get towards the perimeter, you start to feel tendrils of blood red, scratching.
at the outside in a way that you've seen before almost makes you too time when perhaps you were young and you were growing flowers for the first time and that wonder and awe as a young child and seeing on the side of the glass from the dead seed the shoots of the roots starting to burrow down into there. That's what it feels like to you, where you're starting to feel something burrowing on the edge of the periphery, but not in this room and not where all the people are. Oh.
It's so beautiful. It's trying to grow. And I just start to make my way towards the group. Okay, so you three kind of see Annabelle like... still spinning and bobbing and swaying and somehow much like water just like flowing through all of the couples and the people dancing without touching them once coming dangerously close to crashing into them but receding just in time. And she alights in front of you. There's something in there that wants to take root and grow to get larger.
There are so many directions. Everybody could take this right now. Annabelle, do you hear what? What wants to grow and where? The vines, the roots, the red roots, they're starting to creep in already. And I think they're coming from this room. Is that why you're going to explore too? I got that feeling and it's so exciting and interesting. Yes, that's definitely why we were going to.
Go in this room. Absolutely. I'm just looking for the man with the terrific ass. He is also in this room. Oh. Yes. Maybe his ass wants to grow. Or maybe you would like to take root in his ass? Oh no. Oh no. You know, I think they do say the way to a man's heart is through his ass. Yes, it's true. And almost echoing your words, you do see this flouncy half-orc holding court in one of the corners.
And you almost like on cue hear him. You know, they say that the way to my heart is through my ass. But that's neither here nor there. I've summoned you to my presence. My hail and light-hearted friends. There's knights and there's dames of my court, all of you, and... Well, let's have some fun, shall we? Can I use my unerring eye?
to look for illusions or other forms of magical trickery. Heck yeah, you can. I think specifically, I don't know how focused that needs to be, but if it does, then maybe on this secret door. You're going to roll investigation. Okay. But then on top of that, you're going to get to roll that with advantage. So just roll it twice. Take the bigger number.
Great. 18 is the better number. And then that's probably. And then plus three. Oh, yeah. We're looking great. So 21. Looking over in that area where the. part of the wall, the hidden door is still ajar, you start to see kind of the telltale signs of illusory magic festooning over it. kind of like a web, so this illusory magic.
that's like this. You start to see the web and then once you pick up on the threads you can see how it's woven around it. But then you see too with the angle of how the door is open. That it extends inward. That there is more illusions, more hidden things just beyond. Not everything is going to be what it seems inside this room. I think we should go in. Can I perhaps, staying out of the shadows, like perhaps make just an arc.
Canna check or something to see if I can understand maybe like what the nature of some of the magic is here. Yeah, go for it. No, that's a seven. You're like, damn, that's magic. It's magic. You are able to see that once it has been brought to light by William, that you can see the illusory purpose of it. But you... Don't detect anything further. You can feel there are other things that perhaps the most you can get is just like this idea of cloaking, this idea of pushing out and keeping in.
Now, William, this does seem very explicitly to be a shadow or a room that we were not invited into. Doesn't that make you curious? It certainly does, but I would hate to put people here at risk of whatever is being contained. This is supposed to be a safe space. I would not want to compromise that safety. I take your point, but the quest for knowledge must supersede the quest for knowledge. Perhaps if we bring a canapé with us, we hum a little ditty and we dance our way into the room.
Well, it depends. Annabelle said the roots were growing. Hmm. How fast are they growing and from where in the room, presumably, and if they're growing out into this room? Then if we want to stop them... In this room, Annabelle, this is where the tendrils turned icy. Yes, it was cold here, but... In that room is where they thrive, where they're trying to take hold, to get larger. If you're afraid that this place is not safe,
It's like the air, the wind, the water. If it wants to get in, it's already in. And then I dance into the door. Yes, one of you went in my door. This is where I sit down and we're like, are they going to go in? Do the three of you follow? Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. I can't resist a secret closed or left ajar door, which is... With no handle. No handle. This is catnip. Madeline casts a minor illusion of a light to dispel any shadows and then enters the room.
And I love the idea. We've got canapes, someone's humming. No rules. She's doing all of it like superstitiously. Just like walking in with the canapes. No light here. My handbag is actually a hurdy-gurdy that I start to play. A very sneaky entrance to the secret room. Hi, I'm Kate, and I am the Dungeon Master here, the adventure that you're listening to. I'm the one that wrote it.
If you like what you're hearing, you should actually check out my show. It's called Of Mice and Men and Monsters, where we combine classic literature like Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and many more with Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition and... of course, a lot of homebrew. So come on down and check Omamam out. And once again, that is Of Mice and Men and Monsters. Hey, I'm Carla and I am playing William Dupin.
If you like what you're hearing, you should check out my show. It's called Dungeons and Dragons. We're just big dumb idiots that make dick jokes and play D&D, but it's really fun. So if you like that, you should go to dumbdragoncast.com. You can find all the links there, and we would love it if you came and joined us.
Hi, I'm Giancarlo, and I'm playing Madeline Usher. You should check out my show, Dungeons & Drimbus, where a group of actors get together and play tabletop games and try to make each other's lives more difficult. It's a fun time, and if you want to check out our Our most recent season, Yes Chef, just wrapped up where we did a John Wick meets Hell's Kitchen style adventure, and we typically publish every Friday.
Hey, I'm Rev, and I am playing Annabelle Shore. And if you like what you hear, you should check out our show, The Crit Show, which is an actual play podcast where we play Monster of the Week and other Powered by the Apocalypse games, all within the same dimension-hopping story. You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
Hi, I'm Emily Inkpen, and I'm playing Lenore Ravenshadow. You should check out my show, The Deck's Legacy, a dark political sci-fi adventure set on a far future planet where a weapons manufacturer uses his genetically enhanced adopted children to terrorize them. planet, while they find inventive ways to fight him at every turn. You can find Seasons 1 and 2 on all platforms and will be releasing Season 3 in 2025. If you're looking for part two, check out Of Mice and Men and Monsters.
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