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Session Three

Session Three began inside HEP's golden forge-space.

HEP woke fully, recognized the sisters by the shape F14 had described to him, and put them into a long dreamless rest. When they woke, he told them F14 had once brought him a hinge from the 13th Door.

HEP had made something for the sisters from that hinge, but the key to the forge locker had been stolen.

The Stolen Key​

HEP showed the sisters an image of a broker stealing the key and leaving the forge. The trail led back toward Bellharrow.

The sisters returned near the Bell Well, climbed down, and confronted broker muscle below. After illusion, intimidation, and a messy fight, the remaining broker muscle revealed that the key had been dropped underneath the old schoolhouse.

The Crooked Schoolhouse​

Tessel led the sisters to the Crooked Schoolhouse, a roofless ruin where F14 used to teach her writing.

Under the blackboard, the sisters found a hidden hatch. Below it was a cleaner, stranger classroom full of chalk dust, desks, boards, and writing like Tessel's.

They followed the key trail to a trapped cedar box on an altar. With mage hand coordination, they got the key out, set off a fire trap, and fought two fire-key guardians that merged into one larger threat.

One sister went down in the fight, but Healing Word brought her back. The final blast destroyed the guardian.

The Moth-Hearth​

The sisters returned to the Moth-Hearth to recover.

Mira explained more of the Red Satchel Service: Bellharrow's strange delivery system for local merchant orders. The sisters also learned they had missed Susul's unusual ferry-dock concert while resting.

Afterward, the sisters got a recording of that concert and listened back. Briar used the Bone Lantern and noticed something deeply wrong: she suspected the performer on the recording was not the actual Susul.

The Masks​

The next morning, the sisters returned to the Shrine of Returning Light. HEP pulled them back into his forge and accepted the recovered key.

He gave them two masks made from the hinge F14 had brought him.

When the sisters tried the masks, the world glowed faintly pink, and Old Lion Road writing became readable. But the copied schoolhouse marks did not translate cleanly because the sisters had copied them badly. The masks let them read the script. They do not teach them how to write it.

HEP also spoke of Circe as a sibling or sibling-like counterpart, suggesting that the Godnamed intelligences relate to one another like family. He did not explain everything. He seemed to think the sisters needed focus more than a flood of answers.

What Changed​

  • HEP is awake.
  • F14 brought HEP a hinge from the 13th Door.
  • HEP made two masks for the sisters from that hinge.
  • The sisters recovered HEP's stolen forge key.
  • The Crooked Schoolhouse hides a chalk-filled classroom or cellar below it.
  • Tessel learned writing from F14 at the old schoolhouse.
  • The masks let the sisters read Old Lion Road Script, but Tessel is still the only known person who can write it.
  • The Red Satchel Service can deliver merchant orders around Bellharrow.
  • The sisters missed Susul's ferry-dock concert.
  • Briar suspects the ferry-dock concert recording may not feature the real Susul.