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Liars Will Unmake the Truth

Wednesday, 1 July 2026

Session recap — 2026-07-01

Transcribed with whisper.cpp + pyannote diarisation. Speaker labels left anonymous (SPEAKER_00 = DM, Ben). Proper nouns standardised to the campaign’s canonical list (Gwrtheryn, Leaf Ear, Vašek, the dog Lleuad, Mouse, “Mourning” Star; Atmata; the moons Lunara / Celenia / Oboros; the world Karneia). Names absent from that list are marked [unclear].

Where we left off

Still inside Trilinar University, Ellswater. Last session ended with Gwrtheryn (and the invisible Magister Thalia Rimehart) sealed in the passage after communing with the hidden Index, while Leaf Ear lay buried under a bookcase Lleuad had toppled. This was a low-combat research-and-downtime session that wrapped up business at the university and moved the party out into the city to shop.

What happened

1. Wrapping up at the library

• Vašek got his belated turn with Archivist Merri Quillnook. Quillnook found no reference to Ulkma as a powder, but pointed him to a botany text — Flora and Fauna of the Wilds of Fremar — describing the Ulkma flower: a small purple alpine bloom that grows in shady, year-round-cold clusters on the slopes of the Truran Mountains. Crucially, the ~34-year-old book mentions no narcotic or other use — confirming the powder’s properties are a recent development the old texts don’t know about.
• Quillnook explained his filing system deadpan — the “Bluey Decimal system”, in which every text is shelved by the first names of the Heela family [unclear] in alphabetical order. Nobody was any the wiser.
• Gwrtheryn escaped the sealed passage (the floor had turned solid, then translucent again) and slipped back out beside the illusory Quillnook, still invisible, then dropped the spell. He and Vašek finally wrangled the rampaging Lleuad — Vašek tried Sleep (no effect on a construct), tackled her into a wrestling match, and prised the stolen book from her jaws; Gwrtheryn’s command finally settled her.
• Leaf Ear did his own research while waiting: trade & travel between Ellswater and Balyshkek (a major route — ~8–10 days on foot, 4–7 by horse, 2–3 by sea with good winds), and the long haul to Ketî (a week-plus; the west coast is impassable fjords, the treacherous Kenaga Islands [unclear] en route). He also asked Quillnook whether there was ever a third moon that vanished — Quillnook’s answer: every text says Karneia has always had three moons. (This directly contradicts the hint from the skull / Pembe’s book.)

2. Mouse and Master Thatch

• Mouse returned the stolen play to its author, Master Orin Thatch (College of Whispers, early 50s, a specialist in coded performance and misdirection). Thatch confirmed it was taken from Varro’s safe and was genuinely his own work.
• The play — likely the Masque of the Three Moons — was written ~15 years ago, set during a rare celestial event when the three moons align. Acts — 1: The Gathering of Masks (masquerade guests in three-moon masks; whispers that alignment “will reveal the true face of power”); 2: The Dance of Shadows (a Herald warns “truth will unmask the liars, and liars will unmake the truth”); 3: The Unmasking (masks beneath masks — betrayals and hidden loyalties); 4: The Eclipse of Hearts.
• Its origin is the key beat: Thatch was inspired by a poorly-attended university lecture on the lunar alignment given by Aldric Pembe — the same author whose book Leaf Ear has been reading about Caelthas Windrunner. Insight checks (18) read Thatch as telling the truth and not concealing anything when churches were mentioned.
• Thatch confirmed Varro is still alive — “contrite” and possibly useful; Mouse is keeping him on a leash. Mouse also floated introducing Thatch to “an elf” to play his confused protagonist.

3. The safe house

• The party regrouped at Marcelline Draive’s safe house, which “Mourning” Star (the Tabaxi) had spent all morning Mending and cleaning into a proper base — greeting everyone in a frilly pink apron with a feather duster.
• Star’s tidying uncovered ~15–16 hidden nooks (loose floorboards, false brickwork, cavities behind paintings) — all already emptied by Draive, who left in a hurry. A recovered painting of Draive with a second figure whose head had been torn out strongly implies she murdered her husband here. The party’s consensus: don’t investigate their host; just don’t make her regret the hospitality.
• Mouse stayed behind to watch the two children who keep loitering in the courtyard — deciding whether it’s ordinary curiosity or something worse.

4. Into the city to shop

The party split to run errands (Vašek and Mouse are on wanted posters — flagged by the former orc boy Gorrathan [unclear], “now known as dead” — so disguise/discretion mattered):

• A reunion reveal: Star’s contact at the Cog and Cinder Workshop, hidden in the cellar, is Adrik Eversharp — an ancient dwarven runecaster who turns out to be Leaf Ear’s oldest and dearest friend (Leaf Ear’s private notes cover-name him “Erkna Goldfinger” [unclear]). Leaf Ear is thrilled to learn he’s alive and means to visit — after the magic shopping.
• The session ended as the party pushed open the door of Cog and Cinder, the proprietors Whizzbig Cog and Jorren Cinder rushing to greet them.

NPCs met / re-met

• Archivist Merri Quillnook — the gnome archivist; helpful-ish, filing everything by the “Bluey Decimal system.”
• Master Orin Thatch — College of Whispers professor of coded performance & misdirection; author of the prophetic three-moons play; grateful to Mouse.
• Adrik Eversharp — ancient dwarven runecaster hiding in the Cog and Cinder cellar; Leaf Ear’s oldest friend. Reportedly hoards “weird shit.”
• Whizzbig Cog & Jorren Cinder — the artificers running the Cog and Cinder Workshop.
• Cella Brian [unclear] — flower-in-hair half-orc who runs a menagerie in the Ledgeryards; sold Mouse the Prize Pet Protector.
• Eldra Moonshard [unclear] — gnome enchantress running Moonshade Curios [unclear], the Ledgeryards’ main enchanted-goods shop.
• House Valtorr — the body that regulates magic in the city and certifies scrolls (the “Valtorr Seal”).

Decisions & open threads

• The three-moon contradiction: Quillnook insists there were always three moons, against the vanished-moon hint. Thatch’s play (and Pembe’s lecture) tie the coming lunar alignment to a “true face of power.” The DM’s teasing refrain — “I could just be misdirecting you” — and the recurring Windrunner name confusion (even a Scroll of Summon Caelthas Windrunner on the shop shelf) may or may not be a real thread.
• The Index: Gwrtheryn’s actual conversation with the sentient book happened privately; he also took one item out of the chamber (DM to confirm what — it wasn’t written down).
• Varro lives, in Mouse’s debt.
• The watching children at the safe house — Mouse is investigating.
• Targets on the list: Marrowshade Hall (Eldren Thresher’s place) and Braughan Manor up in Crowncliff; the warehouses Star wanted to visit.

Loot & purchases

• Prize Pet Protector — 40 gp (Mouse, for Lleuad).
• Pocket star map — 25 gp (Leaf Ear; projects a star map on the ceiling).
• Gwrtheryn’s flail — collected (25 gp balance paid) plus his new Hydra Flail.
• Scrolls — Leaf Ear still deciding (Fly, Counterspell, Silence, Augury; skipping Polymorph/Non-detection on cost). Available at Scribe’s Nook (run by Tessaline Quill); note the extra copying cost (50 gp/level, half for conjuration).
• Browsed at Moonshade Curios [unclear]: drift globe, minor illusion cube (150 gp), single-use arcane battery (75 gp), bags of holding (400 gp each).

Memorable moments

• Lleuad’s rampage: the mechanical dog dominoing bookcases across the library, nearly burying Leaf Ear — who just keeps reading under the rubble: “I don’t know, this is my life now.”
• Vašek one-handing a bookcase upright as three scrawny scholars strain at it, then toppling them all over.
• Gwrtheryn’s creepy sing-song telepathic voice — “sounds like the old man from Family Guy.”
• Star’s pink apron and feather-duster homemaking reveal.
• Mills rolling double 1s (+9) on persuasion — “first roll in three weeks.”
• Leaf Ear conjuring a glowing fake nose, moustache and glasses as a “disguise” for the very-much-still-a-cat Star (that’s plan C).
• Ben losing the thread of his own NPC names all night — “I sent Mills a list of all the proper nouns and I don’t think it was even all of them” — earning Dave’s sign-off: “get your character names right next time, you fucking amateurs.”