On the day of April 26th in the year 748 on the Barovian calendar, brothers Cameron and Raymond D’Agostino stroll through their home town of Curriculo, a bustling Invidian community located on the banks of the grand old Musarde River. Today the town is celebrating the annual spring festival of Bambeen, and there is an atmosphere of mirth and merriment in the streets, while decorative flags and banners hang from the windows of the tall narrow buildings of plastered over wood or brick that make up Invidian settlements.
A young man approaches the two brothers and drapes a brightly colored scarf about Cameron’s shoulders. “Best wishes to you” he says with great cheer. He is about to do the same to Raymond, but recoils when he sees the hideous deformity shrouded by his hood. Cameron scowls at the boy. Unfortunately, he is used to his brother receiving such treatment, for Raymond and his twin sister Marilena were both born with terrible and grotesque deformities. In many lands, such deformed babes are said to have resulted from the mother being cursed by a hag while with child, and most refer to such offspring as ‘caliban’. Cameron’s face lightens, and he produces a silver coin and shows it to the boy, the stamped visage of former Invidian ruler Gabrielle Aderre twinkling in the sunlight.
“You may have this if you drape my brother as well.”
The boy nods and does so quickly, murmuring his well wishes before taking the coin and hurrying off.
“Do not judge the lad too harshly, brother. He is young and may still learn the folly of such rash judgments.”
The brothers eventually find themselves in the district known as Old Secolo, an ethnic section of town where they both born and raised. They had both today been out doing errands for their aunt Nana, who runs an herbalist shop in Old Secolo. She had recently suffered a broken leg, and so the brothers have been helping with her materials gathering and her deliveries.
Walking up to the slightly listing building which houses the shop, Cameron produces a key and both brothers enter, walking up the narrow staircase to the apartment above.
Nana’s face beams when they present the sack full of their day’s labor.
“My boys are-a so good to an old woman,” she says with pride.
“And where would we have been growing up without you caring for us?” asks Raymond.
“Well I hope you were still able to enjoy some of the Bambeen festival today.”
Their conversation is interrupted by their younger sisters Diona and Zina scurrying into the hallway, almost bowling the old woman over.”
“Brother Raymond!” they cry, “what have you brought us?”
“Children, have a care!” snaps Cameron, to which the girls respond by sticking out their tongues.
Cameron groans in exasperation. The twins’ mother had died in chidberth, and their father shortly after, leaving Cameron and Nana to raise them. Consequently, his forced role as disciplinarian has not made him their favorite over the years and they are much fonder of their brother Raymond, who always regales them with his adventures in the sewers beneath the town. While Cameron is more than happy that his brother is able to receive this measure of adoration that has always been unknown to him, he can’t help but smile at the irony that their situations are completely reversed inside this house, with Cameron the favored one and he himself the outcast.
“Listen to your brother Cameron,” Nana tells the girls now. “You mustn’t run inside. These halls are narrow and I’m not as thin as I used to be.”
“Yes Nana,” they both say in unison.
“It’s okay, children,” says Cameron. “We were given these scarves from Bambeen. I’m sure they would look better on you than on us.”
Snatching up the scarves with quick ‘thank-you’s, the girls scamper back off the way they came. Nana shakes her head in mock exasperation and turns back to the brothers.
“There was a strange man that came for you while you were gone,” she says.
“Was he a guard or soldier?” asks Cameron, now suddenly very suspicious and worried. Usually guards or constables came looking for their precocious younger brother Petre, who had a good heart but was known to get into mischief now and then. Occasionally, Raymond will be harassed by the local law enforcement as well, not for any actual wrong-doing but more as a result of the irrational fear and suspicion he is treated with because of his features.
“No, he was an older gentleman. Very distinguished looking. I could-a swear I have met this man before.”
“Did he say what he would have with us?” asks Raymond.
“He said he might have work for you and to meet him at the Old Secolo Inn at sunset.”
The brothers were both seasoned adventurers who had spent many a recent day helping those in need or hiring out their services, and Cameron thought it not inconceivable that this mysterious caller may have heard of their exploits and come to them looking for sell-swords.
“We shall meet this man and hear him out, then,” he says after a quick glance at his brother, who nods his assent.
“Could you both do an old woman a favor and bring your sisters home from the theatre tonight? They are going to see one of Guiseppe’s puppet shows and I cannot go with them because of my leg. It will be after dark when they come home and I don’t want them to walk home alone.”
“Don’t worry, Nana – we’ll see that they get home safely,” says Cameron. “Perhaps Raymond will even be able to see some of the show.”
Raymond nods the affirmative. He had always loved Guiseppe’s puppet shows as a child, and the old man had been one of the only people in Curriculo who was kind to him growing up.
Cameron and Raymond both spend the rest of the day walking about town. Raymond spends some time with their younger brother Petre, who had always looked up to him, even as most others shunned him. It seems that Petre has already heard of their mysterious caller and is brimming with excitement.
“If you’re going on another adventure, can I come too this time?” he asks as soon as he spots his older brother.
“Keep my cart behind my horses, brother. We don’t even know what this man wants.”
“But if it is something, I want to go with you. I’m almost of age, and I’ve been practicing. I’ll take a quarter of a share!”
“Not this time, brother. If Cameron and I must travel, we will need someone to help your Nana while she recovers, and to look after the girls. Next time, I promise. In the meantime, we’ll be meeting Diona and Zina tonight at the Odiare to see one of Guiseppe’s shows. Would you like to come along?”
“That’s kid’s stuff!” retorts the youth, still desperate to be a man. “I’ll be at the docks tonight with my friends.”
“Stay out of trouble,” Raymond admonishes.
Cameron, meanwhile is about town doing another errand for Nana. As he is making his way through Old Seccolo back to the herbalist shop, he hears the tune of a nursery rhyme being hummed softly and hauntingly by a voice that is definitely not a child’s. The hairs on the back of his neck stick up, and he cautiously makes his way toward the source of the tune. He traces the sounds to a narrow alleyway, but when he enters, he finds it empty, and that the humming has ceased. With his hand resting on the hilt of his blade, he scans the windows and rooftops about him, but finds no trace of anyone being there. After another few minutes of futile searching, he continues on his way back to Nana’s.
Walking home, Raymond is taunted by some of the local children, who surround him and begin pelting him with mud and small stones and calling him a freak. Even though he is not unaccustomed to such treatment, Raymond snarls, baring his tusk-like lower cuspids, and resisting the urge to draw his blade on them for fear of reprisals from the town guard, who have always held him in suspicion. He is about to take to his feet and run from his tormentors when he hears a voice bark out “Hey you kids! You leave-a him alone!”
Raymond had not even noticed that he was passing by Guiseppe’s Toy Shoppe, so lost in thought about this mysterious stranger and their upcoming meeting, but now here was the old man Guiseppe striding out of his shop waving a broom at his detractors, who quickly scatter.
“Raymond! It has been so long! Come in, come in! You must see my new puppet, Figlio.”
Appreciative of his help, Raymond follows Guiseppe inside.
“Those children shouldn’t torment you so.”
“They are just following in the footsteps of their parents,” says Raymond glumly.
His spirits soon lift, however as Guiseppe takes him around to all of the newest toys in his shop and allows him to inspect them and play with them, bringing him back to one of the few bright spots of his youth. As he runs his gnarled hand over the smooth wooden features of a rocking horse, he reminices about how Guiseppe used to let him come and play with the toys and even explore the crawlspaces beneath the stage of the Odiare and see how all of the theatre magic worked. Guiseppe then unveils his latest – and to Raymond D’Agostino’s mind, greatest – masterpiece. As the old man lifts the puppet up to show him, Raymond could swear the puppet were a real boy, so well did the toymaker capture the likeness of one with knife and paintbrush down to the very smallest detail. Even the hinges and joints are barely perceptible at first glance.
“My Figlio,” he says now with great pride.
“This is the most wonderfully crafted thing I have ever seen,” says Raymond with deep sincerity.
As dusk is approaching, the brothers both finish the dinner Nana has prepared with the help of the girls and leave to Old Secolo Inn to meet this mysterious stranger. As they walk, they notice that dark clouds have formed in the sky and droplets of rain are beginning to fall. The streets are now a flurry of activity as the vendors hurriedly put tarps over their stalls and people make their way to dryer places. The first rumble of thunder can be heard as the Raymond and Cameron enter the common room of the Old Secolo and Cameron allows his eyes to adjust to the dimness.
Having much better vision in the dark than normal men – one of the only physical blessings he received at birth – he almost immediately spots the distinguished looking elder gentleman that their aunt had described sitting at a corner booth, wearing the sophisticated formal attire favored by those in the western lands of Mordent and Dementlieu. Gesturing to his brother, they both make their way over to the stranger’s booth, and with thunder now rumbling and crashing outside, they begin their palaver.
“Greetings,” says the older man in a voice that is smooth and yet distinctive. “Thank you for coming. I was worried you might not. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Alphonse LaMarrs.”
Later, Cameron will remember the name as that of a famous actor from Dementlieu who had once appeared with a traveling troupe that he and his aunt had seen in the nearby town of Karina during festival season some years ago. At present, however, he can only feel a nagging familiarity with the name.
“I am sure you are wondering what my intentions are,” he continues. “We have heard of some of the heroic exploits and have need of your assistance in a particular matter of importance.”
“You said ‘we’”, Cameron notes.
“So I did,” responds LaMarrs without hesitation. “I represent a group who call themselves the Black Alphabet. Ours is a society that dwells in the shadows, seeking out knowledge to be used in the struggle against the forces of evil that plague our world.
“What kind of knowledge?” Raymond asks.
“Both scholarly and the arcane. What we cannot accomplish through libraries and sifting through ancient documents, we seek to achieve through sorcerous means, by locating certain items of power, acquiring them, and studying them, while at the same time keeping them out of evil hands.”
“My brother and I normally prefer to pursue more noble causes than merely treasure hunting,” says Cameron.
The man across the table pauses for a moment before speaking again.
“Have you ever heard tale of the foul and powerful creatures who from time to time have invaded our land from the worlds beyond? They have been given many names over the years. Some refer to them as demons or devils. Others have simply called them fiends.”
Cameron nods his head slowly, remembering the tale he heard once of the creature called the Whistling Fiend who single handedly slew an entire village somewhere in the world.
“I have heard of such creatures. Monsters of the nine hells escaping into our world to work their evil.”
“Indeed. Their point of origin is something in debate. Many scholars simply refer to whatever place these malevolent beings come from as the Otherworld. Regardless, their threat to our mortal world is great, for their power is beyond comprehension. Their number dwelling in our world is believed to be small – perhaps a dozen or less – and they do not seem to work together, but these are small comforts, since no-one has ever managed to defeat one, not even the great Dr. Rudolph van Richten.”
Here, LaMarrs pauses, as if to allow this to sink in. Raymond and Cameron exchange solemn glances. After a moment, the old man continues.
“Through our research, we uncovered several years ago a legend concerning a powerful cleric from an ancient faraway land. According to the legend, the cleric, named Menndo, created a blessed artifact specifically for the purpose of banishing these dark beings.
“So you see, Mr. D’Agostino, finding such an artifact is a much more noble cause than mere treasure hunting.”
“I would have to agree,” says Cameron. “Do you know where this artifact is?”
“Or if it even exists?” adds Raymond.
“Our search for these artifacts, known as the Seven Bells of Menndo, has spanned several years and led us to Ravenloft, the castle of Count Strahd von Zarovich, ruler of Barovia.
He goes on to say that their search for these artifacts, known as the Seven Bells of Menndo, has led them to Ravenloft, the castle of Count Strahd von Zarovich XI, ruler of Both brothers have heard of the “devil” Strahd, as the people of his mountainous country call him. Throughout recorded history the von Zaroviches have ruled Barovia with an iron fist. For over a century, the nation of Gundarak had served as a buffer between Invidia and Barovia, but following the assassination of Duke Gundar in 736, that nation had been swallowed up by both countries in recent years so that they now share a border.
Penetrating the heart of Ravenloft’s defenses,” continues LaMarrs, “and stealing something from the Count’s treasury would normally be a suicidal mission, but we have come by the knowledge that Strahd is distracted at the moment, making it possible, though still difficult, to steal into his mountain fortress.”
“Our scrying has determined the window of opportunity to be narrow, and will end with the coming of the next sickle moon, so haste must be made.”
Cameron does some quick mental calculations. “About two weeks from now,” he says.
“Twenty-two days to be exact.”
“That doesn’t sound easy,” says Raymond.
“I never said it would be,” replies Alphonse LaMarrs as he produces a black satin pouch from the inside of his dark dinner jacket and pushes it gently across the table with white gloved hand. Raymond opens the drawstring and shakes out a couple of remarkable looking gems, then glances over at his brother, who looks up at LaMarrs with raised eyebrows.
“In total, those are worth 500 of your Invidian drymarks,” says the man across the table. If you are here at this inn at this time thirty days from now with the Bells of Menndo in your possession, you will be given a bag four times that size.”
Raymond whistles softly while Cameron sits back in his seat and things for a moment.
“If this artifact is as powerful as you say,” he begins slowly, “then one could probably sell such an item for a much higher price once it was acquired.”
To his credit, Alphonse LaMarrs arches an eyebrow in amusement.
“Agreed, an unscrupulous man might do exactly such a thing,” he chuckles before leaning in across the table, “which is why I am coming to you, paladin of Ezra.”
Cameron has to smile in spite of himself. “I suppose you’re right,” he says, then looks across the table at his brother, who shrugs.
“Why not,” says Raymond.
“Very well,” says Cameron, “we accept.”
“Spendid,” says LaMarrs, truly pleased. “I must advise that before you attempt to steal into Castle Ravenloft, you seek out a man named Brocken.”
”Who is this Brocken?” asks Raymond.
“He is the source of much of our information, and a former Gundarakite noble who is the only living person to have been inside Castle Ravenloft and lived to tell the tale. His help to you would be invaluable if you were able to gain it. I leave you free to offer whatever reasonable incentive in order to secure his aid.”
“Where can we find him?”
“He is currently in hiding somewhere in the village of Barovia, at the far eastern end of the Svalitch pass and just south of Ravenloft. Exactly where in the village he is we cannot say, although our scrying has revealed that when the bell tolls four times, the finger will point the way.”
“What the devil does that mean?” asks Raymond.
“They tell me that the information revealed in arcane scrying is often cloaked in cryptic clues and enigmatic riddles,” says LaMarrs as he takes to his feet and retrieves his hat and cane. “In any case, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” And with that he tips his hat to the two of them and makes his exit.
A few minutes later, the brothers step out into the rain and head in the direction of the Odiare. They travel nary a block when a shrill cry of ‘murder!’ suddenly rings out from above, startling both. Glancing up, they see a hysterical looking woman at the window of a nearby residence and the two rush to the front door. They are met by the sobbing woman who is barely able to get out her own name.
“My husband, Franco,” she says before lapsing into another hysterical fit.
Quickly but cautiously, Raymond and Cameron ascend the staircase to the upper dwelling, unsure of what awaits them, with the woman Maria following closely behind. Within the first bedroom they find the grisly corpse of Franco Sertino, entangled in the bedsheets in a crimson pool on the floor with his throat laid wide open. Both grimace in horror at the sight of his mouth, the side of which have been cut open, turning it into a hideous grin, with rosy circles painted on the man’s cheeks in his own blood.
Quickly, they search the rest of the house in case the killer is still about, but find no trace of the murderer nor anything overly suspicious. When they come to a smaller bedroom they find little Giselle, the Sertino’s daughter, obviously in shock, sitting on her bed rocking back and forth and speaking in cooing tones to the puppet doll she cradles in her arms like a babe. Cameron gets down before the bed on one knee and tries talking to her, but she appears to be nearly catatonic. While his brother is attempting to communicate with the girl, Raymond inspects the room, searching for any trace of the killer whom he suspects must have encountered this little girl at some point to frighten her so. His keen eyes catching a glint of metal coming from within the dollhouse, he bends over and peers in to find a bloody straight razor lying within. Cautiously reaching in and removing it, he says his brother’s name softly and holds it aloft for him to see. When Giselle sees what Raymond has found, her eyes go wide and she suddenly shrieks out.
“He made me hide it!” she screams. “He’ll kill me if I say his name!”
Maria rushes to the girls side and tries to comfort her, but the Giselle remains silent, staring straight ahead and sucking her thumb, while clutching her puppet to her chest in her other hand. Hearing someone coming up the stairs, Cameron turns to see Constable Aldo maneuvering his girth through the narrow doorway.
While the constable inspects the horrid scene in the adult bedroom, Cameron tries in vain to communicate further with the catatonic girl, then leaves her in the care of her mother, who seems to have composed herself somewhat. After the brothers relay to Aldo everything they have discovered since arriving and point him to the dollhouse where the bloody straight razor was hidden, the constable takes Cameron aside.
“Has your brother Raymond been with you all evening?” he asks now.
Cameron scowls down at the shorter man. “What is your meaning?” he asks his voice cold.
Aldo is unable to meet his gaze, and looks away, muttering that it is nothing.
Returning to his brother, Cameron says “The good constable has things in hand. We’d best get the girls home safely if there is a murderer about tonight.”
Raymond nods agreement and both leave the building and continue on towards the theatre.
When they reach the Odiare and step through the double doors, they find it quiet as the grave, with all of the seats in the darkened house vacant. The only light comes from the stage, upon which stands Guiseppe, staring off vacantly, his precious Figlio sitting inanimate on his little puppet stage. When the old man becomes aware of their presence, he looks up, and when he sees the two brothers, he begins to blubber incoherently.
To the horror of both Cameron and Raymond, the puppet Figlio’s head then snaps around on it’s own and the wooden mouth opens, shouting in a shrill tone “Carrionettes! Kill them!”. At this command several more puppets come out of their hiding spots under the seats, scampering about on their own with no strings visible and quickly surrounding the two brothers, brandishing small knives and large silvery needles.
“Figlio,” cries Guiseppe, almost heartbroken, “why you-a-being so bad?”
The puppet on the stage snaps his head around with an audible wooden click and retorts with a voice full of hatred, “I told you my name is Maligno, you old fart!”
The puppet then scampers off behind the curtain at the rear of the stage, with his despondent creator hurrying behind, still wailing. Cameron and Raymond, meanwhile have brandished their weapons and take to the stage, leaping over a pair of the living puppets moving to intercept them. As they mount the steps, Raymond glances down and notices the corpse of a man sprawled on the floor before the stage with his throat savagely cut open. Onto the stage now appear more ‘carrionettes’ to cut off their pursuit, and the two brothers find themselves embroiled in a vicious melee with an entire troupe of these foul playthings. Hacking and slashing low with their blades, they dismember the puppets that they catch quite easily, however their tiny size and darting speed make them difficult targets, and more keep coming to take the place of those whose pieces are being scattered over the stage. Suddenly, Raymond feels his whole leg go numb and collapses against the backstage curtain. Looking down, he sees that one of the little monsters has jabbed a silver needle into his calf, apparently paralyzing his entire leg. With his free hand, he yanks the needle out and tosses it away, soon after rewarded by the feeling creeping back into the injured limb. He is barely to his feet however, when another needle is stuck into the other leg, and he staggers once more as that side goes numb. Cameron is having similar problems, as one of the deadly little silvery javelins the puppets have been pelting him with has found its way between the plates of armor on his sword arm and he suddenly loses all feeling in that extremity, dropping the sword to the ground. Kicking out with his foot, he sends the offending puppet flying across the stage, but more swarm about him, attempting to climb his legs with their silver needles clenched between wooden teeth. He manages to dislodge several with his remaining arm, but one is able to sink its needle into his upper thigh and he finds himself collapsing to the floor. As the brothers attempt to hobble and crawl backstage, fighting off their attackers, their remaining limbs are one by one struck and paralyzed, until in short time they both lie sprawled on the wooden floor, helplessly staring up at the theatre flyspace. Cameron feels the sharp prick of one of the needles being jabbed into his neck and then knows no more.
The first thing he sees when the darkness lifts is the bars of a cage, and looking about him, realizes that he is within a cage suspended at a dizzying height above the floor of a room so gigantic it boggles his mind, as the colossal chamber must be easily fifty or sixty feet high. Standing below him are gigantic doppelgangers of himself and his brother. ‘Cameron’ looks up and smiles at him, while ‘Raymond’ points and laughs. He thinks at first he must be dreaming, and then glances over and notices that the hand clutching futilely at the bars of his cage is not his own flesh and blood hand but the wooden fingered hand of a puppet. Glancing over he sees another puppet as tall as himself gaping out of the cage with an expression of bewilderment on its wooden face that he must have on his own.
His mind swirls as the horrifying realization dawns upon him and he feels like he is about to black out again but somehow maintains consciousness.
“Our bodies..” squeaks a tinny version of Raymond’s voice from behind him. “They’ve stolen our bodies…”
“And left us in theirs,” finishes Cameron as he watches himself and his brother turn their back on him and walk out of the room.
The next two minutes for the brothers are spent regaining their composure and ascertaining their current situation.
They realize they are within a hanging birdcage inside of Guiseppe’s workshop, which Raymond recognizes from his visit earlier in the day. Both work now on trying to find a way to escape their cage. Raymond scrambles up the bars to get a better view of what the cage is being suspended from and finds to his good fortune that there is a metal ring atop the cage which is held by a hook at the end of a chain running from the ceiling. After helping his brother navigate up the side of the cage, both work together and manage to lift the ring free of the hook.
“Better brace ourselves,” says Cameron a split second before they both find themselves plummeting to the floor far below. Both are tossed about the cage as it crashes to the ground and then bounces about, but are otherwise unhurt by their ordeal, their new puppet bodies apparently immune to pain and light enough to sustain such falls with minimal damage. Crawling out of their prison through now bent and broken bars, the unwilling puppets still find themselves disoriented from the fall coming on top of their recent body swapping. As they try to get their bearings, they see that the sole current occupant of the house has come to investigate the noise as Guiseppe’s large grey tabby, Gatto, pads down the staircase. From their perspective the cat is of dragon-like proportions as it leaps from the third stair and bounds toward them, and if they currently had any blood within them, it would be running cold right now.
The mammoth Gatto pounces on both of them, batting Raymond with one paw and pinning Cameron to the floor with another.
Scrambling to his feet, Raymond looks about desperately for anything that can be used as a weapon among the giant toys and dolls surrounding him. His eyes spotting a group of toy soldiers which match his current height, he snatches up a pair of their swords and runs back to help his brother, who is currently being whipped about while his leg is held in the giant cat’s jaws. Raymond charges the cat, managing to work up enough momentum to drive even the dull wooden sword into Gatto’s haunch, causing the cat to screech and drop his brother. Tossing the spare blade to Cameron, Raymond ducks under the swipe of one of Gatto’s paws and darts forward again, jabbing the cat in the belly. His brother, in the meantime, has gotten to his feet and snatched up the sword, and now both brothers jab their wooden blades at their giant feline persecutor. Startled at the mice having actually counter-attacked, and stung by their weapons, Gatto decides to flee and regroup, and with a hiss he turns and leaps atop a nearby table causing a book to fall to the ground with a thundering boom, and then leaps for the staircase, darting up the risers and quickly disappearing in the darkness of the loft.
Investigating the giant book that now lies on the floor before them, Cameron and Raymond find it to be the diary of Guiseppe. Over the next hour, the brothers turn page after page (something which now requires some doing in their current form) and with a growing sadness in their heart, learn the details of how the sad old man’s loneliness and longing for a son sent him on a descent into madness. The catalyst for this descent was when he when he was visited out of the blue by a mysterious creature which he describes as a human-sized doll. The doll man claimed to be the “patron saint of toymakers and puppeteers”, and had decided to bestow his secret of life upon the toymaker who has impressed him so. Cameron remembers hearing tales whispered of an odious dollmaker who wanders the land in the body of a man-sized doll and spreading misery everywhere he goes with his evil enchanted toys, and assumes Guiseppe’s “patron saint” to be this creature. Following the doll-man’s instructions, which called for, among other things, his own blood to be mixed with the paints, Guiseppe created Figlio, and to the old man’s delight, his puppet soon came to life. His happiness was short lived however, as it soon became obvious that Figlio had a mind of his own, and a dark soul to match even that of the mysterious doll-man’s. Guiseppe immediately paraded his puppet boy among the children and adults of Old Secolo, and while Figlio enjoyed performing for the children, who truly believed in him, he soon grew despondent and bitter at the adults who did not believe that he was anything more than a puppet, and he soon began to be more and more rebellious, defying his two creators and lashing out at the adults of Old Secolo, at first by merely performing tricks on them. He made Guiseppe create an army of puppets for him, which he found he was able to animate as loyal servants. He also discovered that these puppet minions had the ability to take over the bodies of the townspeople by sticking silver needles into their necks. In the final entry, apparently written very recently, Guiseppe notes that after his minions ambushed and took over the bodies of all of the adults at the theatre, Maligno tried to do the same and found that he could not. In a rage, he slit the throat of his intended vessel. Guiseppe, obviously hopelessly mad at this point, writes that he will have to “send Figlio to bed without his supper”. He also writes that his ‘little boy’ claims that he is now the ‘lord of Odiare’, and that none can escape unless he allows it.
Cameron and Raymond quickly realize that they will have to steal back their bodies and then return all of the adults to their stolen bodies. Also recognizing that the silver needles are the necessary means to do so, the duo searches the workshop, using makeshift ladders and ropes to scale tables and shelves, finally being rewarded with a box containing some silver needles.
Hatching a plan in his mind, Cameron gestures to his brother towards the staircase, and both help each other up the risers, creeping as silently as they can. Peering over the last riser, Cameron sees Gatto’s eyes gleaming out from the darkness beneath Guiseppe’s bed. Cameron and Raymond split up, making their way in towards the alert and cautious Gatto from two different directions. Gatto turns his head toward Raymond and hisses, and Raymond capitalizes on this by darting forward aggressively and waving the needle about in large movements. As Gatto hisses and focuses his attention on Raymond, Cameron darts in from the side and plunges a silver needle into his neck like a knight slaying a dragon with his trusty lance.
Cameron feels a whooshing sensation in his mind as his consciousness is ripped from his puppet’s body and plunged into the body of Guiseppe’s cat.
From Raymond’s point of view, the puppet that was his brother suddenly collapsed to the ground and began twitching as soon as it had stuck the needle in Gatto’s neck and the cat is now thrashing about on the floor in some kind of seizure. Finally, the cat calms and slowly gets to its feet, somewhat hesitantly.
“Cameron, is that you?” he asks, to which the cat nods its head.
Raymond glances down at the prone and twitching puppet. “And I guess that’s Gatto now,” he says. “We’d better find something to tie him up with before he comes to. I have a feeling he’s going to be pretty upset.”
He also has the nagging suspicion that since their body stealers had locked them up rather than just destroying them, that means that somehow their souls are linked, and if one dies, so does the other. Better make sure nothing happens to the cat while in its new puppet body, he thinks.
Finding some twine, Raymond returns and begins to bind the puppet’s arms and legs. As he finishes, the puppet begins thrashing about and emitting high pitched screeching sounds.
“Gatto’s awake,” he says.
Using more of the makeshift rope, he ties the thrashing puppet to his own back and makes a rudimentary harness about Cameron’s new body to which he can tie himself into, occasionally cursing at the difficulty of using wooden puppet fingers to perform such intricate manual tasks.
“I’m tied down, brother. Do whatever it is you were planning on doing.”
What Cameron was planning on doing was to leap from the 2nd floor window, and to his brother’s shock and horror, that is exactly what he does, landing on the storefront awning and then leaping to the street below, Raymond little puppet body hanging on to his fur for dear life.
As they now make their way down the seemingly gigantic streets of Old Secolo, they find that a strange thick mist has permeated the area, giving everything a dark and dreary cast in the light of the street lamps. The place appears desolate, and as they travel down the foggy street, they see no people about whatsoever, although occasionally they will hear a faint scream coming from somewhere, or horrible tinny laughter from somewhere nearby.
They have gone two blocks when they hear the same humming voice Cameron had heard earlier in the day humming the same nursery rhyme, and moments later the towering form of the doll-man steps out from the mouth of an alley, directly in their path. The black button eyes glint with insane malice as they peer down at them from the in the center of the bulbous burlap skinned head and the stitched mouth turns up in a sneer.
“You are not one of mine,” the haunting voice booms down at them. “A good dollmaker always recognizes his own work. That means you must be one of that ungrateful upstart Maligno’s. I have just the toy for you to play with.”
With that, he produces a strange looking bladed toy and begins to wind the key. Not wanting to wait and see what this evil looking plaything does, Cameron the cat darts between the doll-man’s legs, running hell bent down the street and never looking back. Eventually, Cameron’s now heightened feline ears pick up some noises that sound human, and they approach one of Old Secolo’s taverns to hear raucous noises coming from within, and peering through the open door, they see their bodies cavorting drunkenly with some other humans, who Raymond guesses are probably possessed by the evil puppets as well. Cameron decides to wait for a while and see if the crowd thins out at all or if another opportunity presents itself for them to successfully attack the doppelgangers and steal back their bodies. The only have to wait a little over an hour, as, unaccustomed to the effects of alcohol, the puppet-controlled men and women pass out one by one, until only the hardier bodies of Raymond and Cameron are left standing. At this point, Raymond unstraps himself and their unwilling passenger from Cameron’s back, in order to give him more freedom of movement, and soon the cat is darting into the tavern, clawing, hissing, and agitating their stolen bodies and making them stumble about trying to chase after him. It doesn’t take long for ‘Raymond’ to trip over one of the bodies of his drunken comrades and come crashing to the ground, stunning himself. The real Raymond immediately seizes the opportunity and darts in and jams a silver needle into his body’s neck. He comes back into consciousness hearing the sound of ‘Cameron’ clomping about the tavern vainly chasing after his brother in his cat form. Reaching a now human hand out, he grabs hold of the imposter’s ankle and sends him crashing to the ground as well, then jumps on top of him and holds him down. Helping fit a silver needle in his brothers paws, he guides it home and feels the body spasm beneath him as his brother’s soul is returned to its rightful place.
“Thanks brother,” says the real Cameron.
Snatching up the stunned puppet who had stolen his body, Raymond tosses it into the roaring fireplace where it bursts into flames and dies screaming its tiny little scream.
“We should try to return the cat to normal,” Cameron says. “We owe him a lot.”
Raymond nods and together they put the silver needle into the little hand of the tied up puppet and stick it into the neck of the stunned cat, sending the carrionette’s dark soul back into it’s puppet body and restoring Gatto to his normal state. Not surprisingly, the cat then runs off as fast as his paws will take him, and the carrionette soon joins its brother in the fireplace.
Back in their bodies, the brothers now wake up and interrogate one of the puppet-controlled drunks. Unaccustomed to being able to feel pain, some mild slapping around by Raymond gets the brothers the current whereabouts of Maligno. Their captive tells them that the evil puppet is currently “doing the only thing that makes him happy,” this being entertaining Old Secolo’s children at the theatre. After tying up their informant, Raymond and Cameron take to the misty and vacant streets and make their way toward the Odiare.
They decide to cut through the derelict and fog enshrouded market square, and in doing so are greeted with a horrific sight, for in the center of the square is a dying bonfire, and sprawled about it what seems like a hundred corpses of the adults of Old Seccolo, grimaces of pain and horror upon their faces.
Investigating the abominable scene, Raymond finds numerous blackened and charred pieces of Maligno’s puppet minions among the ashes and dying embers, and he and Cameron soon put together in their minds what must have happened. In their minds, they picture the horrifying scene as the first wave of puppet controlled humans tried to do away with the trapped spirits of the townspeople by holding a mass burning of the puppet dolls their souls were trapped in, only then realizing that their spirits were linked, and as the souls of the good people of Old Seccolo were extinguished, so too did their stolen flesh and blood bodies convulse and die in a dark orgy of death. Cameron surmises that after that initial slaughter, Maligno must have ordered his minions to start safely imprisoning the puppets after stealing the bodies of adults.
“We’ll have to find wherever they’re holding the souls of the rest of them after we deal with Maligno and save the children,” he says.
Arriving at the theatre, both brothers can hear the laughter of the children within and decide some discretion is needed. Going around back, they find the backstage door and spend the next few minutes trying to open it before Raymond produces a crowbar and pries open the locked door. Taking to the crawlspaces that Raymond knows so well, they slowly make their way beneath the stage, all the while listening to Maligno performing for the children above. They wait beneath the trap door throughout his entire performance, the hate for this little monster rolling through them all the while. When they hear the children exiting the theatre, they realize the time to avenge their fellow townsfolk is at hand and listen for Maligno’s voice and footsteps above.
When the hear the puppet approach, Cameron springs open the trap door with one hand while Raymond grabs hold of Maligno before the living puppet can react. While Raymond holds on to him, Cameron attempts to smash an oil lamp over Maligno’s wooden form, however the fiendish puppet manages to wriggle free before the impact and the lamp crashes on the stage floor, spilling flaming oil over it and setting it ablaze.
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The Lord of Odiare calls to his puppet minions as the avenging D’Agostino brothers vault up onto the stage with weapons drawn and begin hacking away at his puppet guardians, while they are distracted by the fire. Maligno scurries over and touches Raymond’s leg while he hacks a pair of carrionettes in two and suddenly the caliban finds himself dancing uncontrollably, his feet and legs moving with a will of their own, dancing feverishly about the stage on their own accord. Cackling, the diabolical puppet now touches the wooden dragon that had been a character in the show he had been performing for the children just minutes ago. The dragon turns its head now and begins to breath fire at the unwilling dancer, setting his cloak ablaze.
Ignoring the other puppet minions now, Cameron charges after Maligno himself, but the spry villain darts in and out, circling the paladin while jabbing and slashing with a straight razor he wields like a scythe.
Raymond, meanwhile, his cloak and leggings ablaze, can do nothing but continue dancing crazily as he starts to burn, all the while the animated puppet dragon continues belching fire at him. Finally, his brother manages to strike his taunting and cackling target, lopping off Maligno’s head and sending it rolling into the flames which now cover most of the stage. Maligno’s headless body collapses lifelessly, followed immediately by all of his animated minions. Free now of the dancing compulsion, Raymond hits the stage and rolls about, putting himself out with the help of his brother. As they get to their feet, they realize the fire has now spread beyond the stage, and standing looking out into the burning house, the brothers see the ghosts of all the murdered adults filling the seats, solemnly clapping and applauding the deeds of the heroes even as the flames begin to lick at their chairs. After stopping to take a small awkward bow at the front of the burning stage, Raymond and Cameron retreat as the ghosts fade away.
Crying Figlio’s name, Guiseppe now emerges from backstage and attempts to throw himself on the body of his fallen creation, however Cameron grabs him by the arm and together the brothers drag him from the burning building. Outside they find the mists have grown even thicker and the children of Old Seccolo are all wandering dazedly about. After a frantic minute of searching, Raymond spots the twin girls, Diona and Zina, and both rush over to them, taking their confused and disoriented sisters into their arms. Hearing a cry from behind, they turn and only then realize they let go of Guiseppe as they watch him running back into the theatre, screaming his boy’s name. Cameron gives both twins to Raymond and is about to give chase when the flaming building collapses.
“Poor crazy bastard,” he mutters. Raymond is stoic, but Cameron can tell he is pained by what happened to the old man he had cared for.
The mists have now risen up to the point where it makes it impossible to see anything, and the four siblings hold hands and wander about in the cold and clammy fog what seems like hours, not finding a building or another person, the voices of the other wandering children seeming to have faded away in another age. Zina will remember to the end of her days the skeletal hand which for a brief second clasps hers in that dense mist. After an eternity, they hear Nana’s voice calling in the fog, and make their way toward it. They finally reach the exhausted hobbling woman and take hold of her, and immediately the mists suddenly recede, and the group finds themselves in Old Secolo once again. Cameron takes a head count of everyone and smirks approvingly to see that Diona is cradling Gatto in her arms.
Looking about, the group immediately realizes something is wrong. Old Secolo is empty, and beyond that has an ancient and lifeless look to it, like the empty shell of a creature long since dead and turned to dust. They search for over an hour but find no signs of any of the other children, or any other living thing at all.
Eventually making their way back to Curriculo proper, they find the rest of the town is as they had left it. It is a new day, and the celebration of Bambeen is continuing. As the merry townsfolk flitter gaily about, someone eventually notices the five D’Agostino’s, and looks beyond them to see the desolate streets of Old Secolo behind them. One by one, they investigate, and wander the empty streets looking for lost friends and neighbors, and slowly, the merriment of the Bambeen festival in Curriculo disappears, replaced by a growing sorrow. From henceforth, the part of town known as Old Secolo will be a ghost town, where no creatures dwell and no birds will fly over, and a place the citizens of Curriculo will avoid at all costs. The Raymond and Cameron surmise that Old Seccolo – the real Old Seccolo – still floats out in the mists somewhere, its denizens trapped and at the mercy of the dark powers. Cameron vows to find his way back there and rescue the rest of the children someday. That night both brothers are kept awake by dreams of an insane old man with severe burns covering his body, sitting in his workshop while terrified children wander the misty streets outside, lovingly creating another puppet that looks just like his Figlio….
Notes: I had originally done the write up for this session shortly after we did it in 2007, however my writing didn’t really hit its stride till the third or fourth one I did and so the write-up of the first session read more like a synopsis than a real story. I had always wanted to go back and rewrite it after getting to know the characters of Raymond and Cameron better, and so just this past week, I did.
The bulk of this session was from a module (pre-written scenario) published by TSR in the 90’s called “The Created”. I used it as a base to work from and added story elements from the overall campaign storyline I was working on. Elements like the characters’ extended family, their meeting with LaMarrs at the inn, their quest in Barovia, and the presence of the dollmaker – who is one of my recurring villains – were all things that I added in.
The first session was a lot of fun. Right off the bat there were a lot of really good character interactions, like Cameron trying to stick up for his deformed brother with the various townspeople. Rob & Mike’s use of Guiseppe’s cat was completely out of the box and unexpected, but I was able to improvise to keep up.
The part where Raymond produces the crowbar was a play on a funny moment in the game where the players are trying to figure out how they are going to get into the locked theatre door and they are looking around for anything they might be able to pick the lock with and five minutes later Mike suddenly looks at his character sheet and realizes that he had listed a crowbar as one of his character’ possessions. 
For my infantry I had gone with the basic gray German uniform. I was doing a very cliche WWII German army, and so I wanted them to look like how the Nazi soldiers are always depicted in movies and comics. I have this thing with evil, so I wanted them to be very stark and imposing. I was originally going to do all the tanks in a plain panzer gray, but after seeing pictures of other painted miniatures and the ones that people in the club were working on, I couldn't bring myself to do something so plain and simple. So I wanted to something more interesting and somewhat elaborate, but still keep with my theme of very stark, depressing colors. 
I first tried an ambush pattern which was used by the Germans in the late war years for two of my StuGs, but I was unhappy with the results. They looked okay, table-wise, but they really didn't fit with the gray soldiers. Too many lighter yellows, browns and greens. Bob showed me a pic from the Flames of War website of a panzer painted in dark gray tones with an olive green camo in a thin curving vine-like pattern (I'm sure there's a name for it, but I don't know what it might be)
After spraying a black primer/basecoat on all my tanks, I picked up my airbrush, which I'm still in the process of getting the hang of, and sprayed the shermans with a green color that was a mix of Catachan Green and Dark Angels Green. For the German tanks (which consisted of five Panzer IVs, two Brumbars, and a Ferdinand) I sprayed a gray basecoat which was a mix of Chaos Black and Skull White with a little Panzer Gray (from ModelMaster).
For the camo pattern on the shermans, I used a mix of Bestial Brown and Calthan Brown. I had picked up some of the very nice Point of Contact pre-painted plastic sherman tanks, and so for these three I wanted to go with a camo pattern that was very similar.
Then using a mix of Camo Green and Catachan Green I did the vine-like camo pattern.
Pleased so far with how things were progressing, I started with Rod's finishing technique and did a Gryphonne Sepia wash on all the tanks.
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