The Vengeful Notes 2026-08-01

Summary

Journey to the Western Dockyards

• Andrew, Sapphire, Oren Bell, Marchioness Maria Rannek, Trajan, Sister Pira Tradewise, Erik Malmann, and their companions travelled by carriage toward the Admiralty dockyards in western Rannek.
  • Sapphire watched for threats beside the driver while Oren guarded the rear.
  • Sapphire appears to have given the exhausted Oren a potion with the effects of lesser restoration, granting him a short rest and restoring 20 hit points.
  • Trajan assumed Magistrate Tonon’s appearance for the operation.
• Before Maria departed, she and her daughters warned one another against rash action.
  • Gwyniviere told Maria to seek Sapphire if anything happened.
• The carriage passed through streets largely cleared of civilians and entered the alerted facility under Maria’s authority.
  • Sapphire examined the entrance guards through her shades but detected nothing unusual.
  • A guard verified Maria’s signet with a resonating pocket device before admitting the party.
• Andrew recalled training at the facility in naval skills, forest survival, and mountaineering.
  • The surrounding country is primarily marsh and farmland beside Maiden’s Bay, with forests more characteristic of Malterdale and rocky terrain in the Maltreks.

A Compromised Command

• Magical energy emanated from the Admiralty building as the party approached.
• Personnel reported that the building was compromised and that Lady Gwyniviere and her fiancé were already inside.
  • A brief reference to a “weird letter” apparently concerned their request for the military to deploy into Maiden’s Field, although the exchange did not establish whether presenting it helped them gain entry.
  • Maria declared them impostors and demanded to speak with Marshal Kilkenny.
  • Sir Merwen carried her request inside while soldiers provided chairs and a canopy for her entourage.
• Maria prepared to present herself formally as Marchioness of Rannek and spouse of the Rear Admiral of the Western Fleet.
  • Sapphire was to announce the party, while Trajan—still appearing as Magistrate Tonon—would speak for Maria.
• An officer addressed as Marshal rejected the party’s diplomacy and ordered Maria seized.
  • Maria warned that detaining the Marchioness constituted treason.
  • Andrew struck both soldiers with his +1 longsword, freeing Maria from one and using the blade’s Sap property to hinder their attacks.
  • Sapphire cast calm emotions and argued that impostors would not steal Maria’s signet merely to surrender themselves voluntarily.

The Impostors Exposed

• A woman claiming to be Gwyniviere denied that Maria was her mother and accused Maria’s companions of being Malterdale mercenaries.
  • The party challenged her to demonstrate Gwyniviere’s painting ability.
  • She blamed an injured hand, but the party offered to heal it and test her excuse.
  • Maria noted that the real Gwyniviere would be more likely to kick, insult, or tease Mark Malthrek than cling affectionately to him.
• Moonbeam exposed the false Gwyniviere as a shapechanger.
  • At Maria’s request, Andrew pushed the Marshal into the beam and exposed him as a shapechanger as well.
  • They called assumed forms “faces”; one captive described an incompletely realized face as “spare” because they did not yet know the original’s personality, opinions, or mores.
• Trajan briefly revealed his true Face-Stealer form, shocking the captives, before resuming Magistrate Tonon’s appearance.
• The supposed Mark Malthrek was revealed to be a golem or construct.
  • Oren appeared behind the Marshal after leaving a trail of dead people.
  • When the golem prepared to fight, the command phrase “and his name was Rumplestiltskin” caused it to fall.
• The false Marshal expected more unnamed Reformists or aligned agents as reinforcements, but Oren killed them before they could arrive.

Capturing the Infiltrators

• Once moonbeam was dismissed, Trajan removed poison-filled false teeth from the captives’ mouths before they could bite down on them.
  • Such teeth are common among Reformist agents, especially their Face-Stealers, who use them to die rather than divulge information under interrogation.
• Trajan offered lenience in exchange for information.
  • The captives claimed that only “a couple” of Reformists were present.
  • They said operations at the facility were only beginning.
  • One captive was urged to exercise free will and reject the cycle of being used by others.
• The infiltrators possessed apparently valid naval authentication codes despite Maria retaining her physical signet.
  • They had taken some unspecified credential or authentication material from Marquess Uther Rannek or Lance Rannek. Exactly what they took was intentionally left vague.
• The party learned that the facility’s second-ranking officer had been confined to quarters for insubordination.
  • Maria ordered the officer brought before her so she could judge whether the punishment was justified.

Vice Marshal Tyrion Donmar

• Guards brought the chained and resisting Vice Marshal Tyrion Donmar before Maria.
• Donmar explained that he had been imprisoned after identifying the presiding Marshal as a fraud.
  • Before his confinement, he had received a warning from Admiralty’s Helm and reported it to the false Marshal.
  • He independently confirmed that both the Marshal and the false Gwyniviere were Face-Stealers.
• Donmar required Maria to prove her identity because another false Marchioness had reportedly appeared at Castle Rannek.
  • Maria presented her signet, exchanged naval authentication phrases with him, and verified a private physical characteristic specified by his sources.
  • She was exhausted and frustrated by repeatedly having to prove that she was not a Face-Stealer.
• With the Marshal incapacitated, Donmar assumed command of the facility.
  • He questioned the order to deploy forces to Maiden’s Field because it had passed through a compromised command structure.
  • His priorities became protecting Maria, retaking Castle Rannek, and rebuilding a trustworthy formation.

Preparing to Retake Castle Rannek

• The real Gwyniviere was reportedly travelling toward Castle Rannek with allied forces.
  • Her engagement to Mark Malthrek had ended.
• Donmar began gathering trusted personnel and planned to screen the facility’s forces using anatomical traits that Face-Stealers apparently cannot reproduce.
  • This should identify Face-Stealers, but whether it can expose other kinds of shapeshifter or agents relying on mundane infiltration remains unknown.
  • The facility’s spellcasters were ordered to rally.
  • Sapphire warned that the officers’ rooms might also be compromised.
• Maria ordered the arrival logs reviewed for two suspicious arrivals and called for a complete sweep of the facility.
  • She preferred to keep the party together for safety but accepted that a guarded, independent sweep might make better use of a companion’s abilities.
• The facility possessed academy-developed magical protections intended for military bases, although their precise capabilities remained unknown.

Crispin Mallow and the Reformist Operation

• Crispin Mallow was identified as a Reformist and reportedly as the Bearer of the Candle at Castle Malthrek.
• The party described Mallow as a puppet master who abducts people, alters their bodies, and implants something in their heads to control them.
  • Oren identified Mallow’s involvement with the Mark-shaped golem and recognized it as one of the “perfect” flesh golems previously found at Castle Malthrek.
  • The successful command phrase confirmed Oren’s identification.
  • Oren referred to the current group’s “little friends”—apparently the other group who had intervened at Castle Malthrek—whose actions had forced Mallow to accelerate an attack on the Ranneks that had been planned for much later.
• Hellion wanted to go to Castle Rannek and kill Mallow.
• Donmar had neither heard of nor seen Mallow and could not support the theory that Mallow was hiding at the facility as a gardener.

Magic, Reform, and Orthodox Society

• The party discussed how institutions across the wider Orthodox Divine Masochist world treat independent spellcasters as threats capable of challenging the established order.
• Orthodox doctrine reportedly regards spellcasters as sinners and expects them to atone by “joining the ranks.”
  • Magical education was described as effectively compulsory, limiting the ordinary trades spellcasters may pursue.
  • The practical danger of untrained magic was distinguished from the religious doctrine used to justify the restrictions.
• La Camaraderie favours teaching ordinary people enough magic to operate magical objects and recognize dangers such as charms and Face-Stealer infiltration.
  • Trajan, a self-trained Revivalist, agreed that broad magical education was one of Reformism’s better doctrines.
• The return of magic roughly fifty years ago left Seneran society struggling to adapt.
  • Fear of magical coercion continues to drive restrictive laws and can be exploited by powerful institutions.
  • The group blamed Divine Masochism for institutionalizing that fear.
• Kalassaria once used extensive magic to overcome Hick defences before restricting magical access to authorized people.
  • Oren Bell claimed that many people had been deliberately rendered incapable of spellcasting, introducing a possibility whose truth, method, and implications remain unexplored.
• Maria said that she and her husband would need to present meaningful reform to the peerage, where opposition was already expected, before confronting the Church and possibly the Crown.
• Unknown to those in the discussion, Crown Prince Marlion had revealed elsewhere that King Alitar was already distancing the Crown from Church power and leaning toward Hickic traditions.

Fey and Divine Lore

• Fey society was described as mirroring mortal noble hierarchies, with Archfey resembling kings and queens rather than gods.
• Extremely powerful magic may allow ascension to godhood, though the group did not establish a reliable example.
• Lord Cals, the god of time, is in the Feywild.
  • The party wished that he could intervene in the present crisis, but those associated with him in the greater player group are not directly involved in the events in Senera, making his intervention unlikely.

Inspector Mills

• A player improvised Inspector Mills as an in-world espionage and suspense chapbook based on the song of the same name.
  • The novel follows an investigator tracing an elusive woman through the people she has met, harmed, or used while carrying out “just a job.”

Open Hooks

• Where is the real Marshal Kilkenny, and is he still alive?
• How did the Face-Stealers enter the Admiralty facility?
  • What exactly did they take from Marquess Uther or Lance Rannek to authenticate themselves and the deployment request?
  • Did the apparent written request to deploy forces into Maiden’s Field help the false Gwyniviere and Mark gain admission, or did it merely state the order they wanted the facility to carry out?
  • How was that request related to the separate command received from Admiralty’s Helm?
• What is producing the magical energy within the Admiralty building, and what do the facility’s magical protections actually do?
• How did the group’s intervention at Castle Malthrek force Mallow to accelerate his attack on the Ranneks?
• What is the Reformists’ full command structure and intended objective at the dockyards and Castle Rannek?
• Who warned Donmar from Admiralty’s Helm, and how broadly has the naval command structure been compromised?
• What additional screening will be needed to detect other kinds of shapeshifter or agents using mundane means?
• Can Maria, Donmar, the party, and Gwyniviere’s allied force retake Castle Rannek before the accelerated Reformist operation succeeds?
• Were people in Kalassaria deliberately deprived of spellcasting? If so, who did it, by what means, and why?

Confirmations Needed

• Was the exposed officer specifically impersonating Marshal Kilkenny?
• What is the Admiralty facility’s formal name?
• What did Maria mean when she said that “Mallow has been stumped”?
• What formal authority do the peerage, Church, and Crown each exercise over reforms proposed by Maria and her husband?

Boundaries

• Face-Stealers call assumed forms “faces.” In this encounter, “spare” described one specific, incompletely realized face whose original personality, opinions, and mores were not yet known; it is not general Face-Stealer terminology. Feywild or Feydark doppelgangers reportedly describe assumed forms as identities or personas.
• Treat Donmar’s anatomical screening as specific to Face-Stealers; do not assume it excludes other kinds of shapeshifter or agents using mundane disguises and infiltration.
• Do not assume that the exposed officer was Marshal Kilkenny or that Maria’s remarks establish the real Marshal’s location.
• Treat Maria’s description of the peerage, Crown, and Church as separate but equal branches—with limited royal ascendancy—as her account rather than settled constitutional fact.
• Do not treat Maria’s concern about possible Crown opposition as King Alitar’s actual position; she and the others did not know that he was already distancing the Crown from Church power and leaning toward Hickic traditions.
• Keep the practical danger of untrained magic distinct from the wider Orthodox religious doctrine used to restrict spellcasters; this doctrine is not unique to Senera.
• Archfey were compared to mortal kings and queens, not identified as gods.
• The infiltrators authenticated themselves using something taken from Marquess Uther or Lance Rannek, but its exact form was intentionally left vague; do not invent a particular code, seal, document, or physical token.