"Candela Obscura: The Cold Embrace" (CO1x01) is the first episode of Candela Obscura's first chapter. After witnessing a devastating tragedy, a young street urchin has the veil yanked from his shrouded life - upturning and thrusting him into an esoteric world, guided by the light of a secret order…
Synopsis[]
Opening Introduction[]
Knowledge of what lies beyond the Flare continues to be elusive. Glimmers of understanding lead us down branching paths with no discernible end. The mark of a strong investigator is to always question the status quo. An extraordinary investigator is one who is not afraid to question the nature of what lies within them. The phenomenon which occurred in Newfaire at The Steel was the catalyst needed to test such a theory. Lightkeeper O'Neill had her concerns that the newly found circle in question could benefit from further training. But, then again, there is no sufficient preparation for the horrors that bleed into our world. Thus begins the trials of the circle known as The Vassal and the Veil. Assignment 436: The Cold Embrace.
Episode Introduction[]
Welcome to Newfaire, a vibrant, expanding metropolis of industry and culture nestled along the west coast of the verdant, fertile Fairelands Valley within the northern country of Hale. The year is 1907 here in this world, not too unalike our own in a similar time. However, a decade-long cold snap known as The Shiver left many outsiders envious of the region's resources, leading to the last great war with the foreign invading forces Halens refer to as Otherwhere. It was with the invention of electrical technology and the armaments it inspired that the Fairelands were able to end the six-year conflict in victory, though at a great cost.
Three years have now passed, and the city of Newfaire is bustling with a booming economy, expanding industry, and a populace that is trying to distract themselves from the trauma of war, whether it be through a new spirituality, raucous debauchery, or a renewed focus on climbing this divided, often classist society. The citizens of Newfaire straddle the line between the promises of innovation and the myths of superstition, for it is within the subterranean ruins of Oldfaire beneath the city, the terrifying mysteries of a long-buried civilization seep into this world in nightmarish ways. This is where our story begins.
Part I[]
As night closes in on a stormy night in Newfaire, Auggie James is darting through the impoverished neighborhood of the Steel, delivering the last of his papers to Donald Kinzel, a retired foreman and friend. They talk a while, and as Donald throws another chunk of odd-looking charcoal on the fire, it explodes in blue fire, seeming to push their spirits outside their bodies. Ice freezes the room instantly and as Auggie loses consciousness, he sees a shadow escapes the twisted remains of the furnace.
Across town at Briar Bank College, Dr Howard Margrove has stayed late in his office and is visited by a fellow professor, Errol Dennings, who encourages him to come out and socialize with the others that evening. Margrove turns him down, and as he leaves, another figure enters, a squat bald gentleman in a thick navy jacket, glasses, and fedora. He hands Margrove a small envelope, with the message: "Candela requests your assistance. There has been a phenomenon." The gentleman tells Margrove that "she", their Lightkeeper for the evening, wishes to meet at the diner.
Arlo Black, a young woman from a wealthy family, is sitting alone and silent in her room. The same fedora-ed figure knocks and enters, giving her the same message. Arlo tells the older servant Tellbrook she'll be going out for the evening and begins her preparations to leave.
On the outskirts of the Red Lamp district, in the Sight Unseen Bar and Club, Charlotte Eaves stands at the door of her back office watching the crowd and going through her memories. The bartender Stinton asks if she's all right and she assures him she is, before the same fedora-ed figure comes in and starts to give her the same message, but is stopped and pulled into the back office first. He tells her the Lightkeeper awaits her at the diner.
Meanwhile, Auggie slowly comes back to consciousness, finding himself surrounded by six people wearing long dark peacoats and business attire, investigating the area and the wreckage of the room, along with the lingering, flash-frozen ice there. Donald is gone. One of the gentlemen introduces himself as Field Officer Aaron Weimer with the Office of Unexplained Phenomenon, a subsect of The Periphery (the police force of the city), and asks for his help to find out what happened to Donald. Auggie knows only what he saw, and the gentleman tells him it was probably a fungal infection and he should rest. They escort him out of the room, and when he starts heading to Charlotte's, he notices he's being followed and picks up his pace, nervous.
Suddenly, a scarred woman in her 50s steps out of an alley and asks him for a conversation. She introduces herself as Alexandra and tells him not to trust the OUP. They step into the shadows to talk, since she thinks what happened is not normal and she and her compatriots specialize in dealing with things that are not normal. She invites him to meet a few of her friends, and if he likes them, he can help them investigate. If he doesn't, he can leave immediately. Auggie agrees, and they head toward the Blue Derby Diner. There, they find a table with Charlotte, Arlo, and Howard already there, and Alexandra introduces Auggie to the others.
Alexandra welcomes him, telling him that The Flare is the boundary that separates this realm of existence from many others. Where it thins, dangerous metaphysical energies can leak through, leaving behind a corruptive force called bleed, which can build to take one's will, health, and eventually, one's life. What Auggie saw was a thinning, taking Donald's life but luckily, not Auggie's. Alexandra produces a bleed detector and discovers bleed residue on his coat, which Charlotte removes but not before Arlo's curiosity about it causes her to take some corruption from it. Auggie hesitantly agrees to join them, and Alexandra explains that the four of them will become a new Circle of the Vassal and the Veil within Candela Obscura, an ancient organization sworn to protect the people and seek the truth. They are to start the investigation immediately and tell her what they find when they're done. Alexandra leaves them to get acquainted.
Fan art of the sinister specter, by Mark Bushuiev.[art 1]
The three others have worked together in Candela Obscura previously, Charlotte knows Auggie from his occasional odd jobs at the Sight Unseen, and Howard knows Arlo as a former student. Auggie tells them what he saw, but has no idea where the odd chunk of coal came from, what the explosion was, or what caused it. They head back toward the apartment, which now seems deserted, but they cautiously enter via the fire escape. There is one person in the OUP uniform dark long coat seated outside the door. Charlotte approaches while the others remain hidden, and asks him for help finding a friend, convincing him to help her and leading him away. While they're gone, she agrees to meet him later at the tavern. The others enter the now-empty apartment.
It is still freezing cold and ice-covered. Arlo uses her bleed detector to discover there was recently a large amount of residue here, now collected. Further investigation confirms the explosion originated from the furnace, and Charlotte rejoins them. As they study the situation, the ghostly blue glowing figure of Donald drifts in, confused, cold, and lost, seeking warmth and reaching toward them. He recognizes Auggie, however, and tells them he bought the fuel from scavengers, including Layla. They continue to try to hide and stay out of his reaching grasp, as Arlo removes one glove (revealing a scarred, blackened hand) and uses her Let Them In ability to learn something shadow-like, a dark entity, was freed in the explosion from its captivity in a carved capsule.
Arlo quickly lights a small fire in a metal bowl, drawing the spectral Donald toward its warmth and allowing them to escape. Howard sends a message to Alexandra telling her what they've learned. Auggie knows where Layla might be found and leads the way toward The Clara House in the South Soffit.
Part II[]
The Clara House is dark and peaceful this late at night, but Clara opens to Auggie's knock. Layla is there for the night but annoyed to be wakened. Auggie asks about the fuel she sold Donald, and although guarded at first, she eventually reveals that the exploding charcoal was found while she was working for a gloved woman at the Alizarin Gallery in The Varnish. Some of it was given to Donald and some sold to the Evanoch Foundry.
They head toward the foundry but nearby it notice a crowd and two bodies being carried off who were found frozen and dead in the street, with a third body found two blocks away nearer to the foundry. Arlo notices bleed residue on the body leading in that direction. As they approach the foundry, two screaming figures emerge, slightly burned, and they hear a gunshot inside amid billowing steam clouds. When they enter, there are five frozen bodies and a bit of blue light beginning to take a humanoid shape. When Arlo slightly gashes herself on the ice, she sees a vacuous void of nothing in her skin. Arlo finds and starts up a vehicle, crashing it into the doors, but they don't fully open and she is hurt in the process. The blue light fully forms into a heat-seeking apparition like Donald before retracting into an orb again.
They hear a booming impact and something flutters through the mist, forming into a shadowy face that attacks Howard until he manages to wrench open the door. Howard believes it is seeking heat, like the apparition of Donald was, since the faint blue orbs apparate near the dead bodies when they approach.
Suddenly, a dark shadow emerges behind Auggie and attacks, clawing through his body and corrupting him with bleed. Everyone runs toward him, and Charlotte distracts the shadow with her flaming scarf but it ignites some of the scattered charcoal nearby. Arlo uses her bleed detector, finding her damaged hand pulling her toward a rune-carved cylindrical obsidian object hidden within the coal, but as she inspects it a shadowed hand emerges from the center of her chest from behind, and she takes another bleed but soaks it up with her ward soak necklace. It pulls away, burned.
Howard notices grooves in the runic carvings that looks like something should be placed against them to activate them. Arlo tries filling them with her blood, which seems to warm them. Charlotte joins the attempt which fills the grooves, and they burst into a red-orange glow. The shadow creature shrieks toward them, but immediately attempts to flee as the runes glow and red tentacles whip out and wrap around it, pulling it into the chunk of ancient obsidian. The flowing orbs form into the bodies of the frozen humans that thank them repeatedly before moving on beyond the Flare. Arlo wraps the obsidian object in her coat and takes it.
As the party leaves, they see the carriages of the OUP arriving but are able to duck them. They head to the Gilded Rainbow, a small bookshop that is actually a Candela Obscura safehouse, where Reggie the proprietor welcomes them and contacts Lightkeeper Alexandra on their behalf. As they're cleaning up, Charlotte tells Auggie she joined the group because she wants to keep others from experiencing what she did at his age, and he needs to stay safe. Howard makes an imprint of the runes on the object.
Lightkeeper Alexandra enters and they tell her they battled a warrior spirit from Oldfaire. She welcomes a still-hesitant Auggie to Candela Obscura. Charlotte heads back to her tavern to honor her deal with the OUP guard at Donald's, while Alexandra arranges for Auggie to stay free in the bookshop's spare room before leaving with the obsidian object.
Post-Game[]
They go through their circle sheet. The Illumination Questions:
- Did you contain or destroy a source of bleed? Yes.
- Did you provide comfort or support for those affected? Yes.
- Did you bring something of importance back for Candela Obscura to study? Yes.
Everyone hit one of their Illumination Key XP triggers as well:
- Ashley - Making a Deal
- Anjali - Deceive
- Laura - Act Bizarre
- Robbie - Mentor an Ally
They spend some of their Candela Obscura resources, which have to last through the next two games as well: Stitch, which heals all of one player's marks on body, brain, and bleed, Refresh, which fills all one player's drives and resistances; and Train, which gives a player one bonus die for the next session. Laura and Anjali opt to Refresh, Ashley and Laura use a Stitch, and Robbie takes a Train, then they briefly roleplay the circumstances.
Arlo goes home, where she has Mr Tellbrook use his war-gained medical knowledge to stitch her head wound and has a long hot bath, followed by a long sleep. She also arranges for supplies to be sent to Clara House, and tells Tellbrook that if anyone comes about damage to the foundry, send them to her, not her father. Auggie goes back to the Sight Unseen, where Charlotte calls in a doctor to take care of Auggie's wounds while he sleeps. Charlotte then asks Stinson to mind the bar while she takes a few days off. She heads to a very nice home in The Eaves where she visits an elderly woman named Gertrude and tells her a happy and heroic version of the events of the evening, reminding her of a time when she didn't remember what she had seen, giving her some peace.
Featured characters[]
Circle of the Vassal and the Veil[]
New[]
- Aaron Weimer - Field Officer in the Office of Unexplained Phenomenon (OUP)
- Alexandra Elise O'Neill
- Clara - runs a shelter and soup kitchen Auggie has stayed at
- Donald Kinzel - a friend and customer of Auggie's
- Prof. Errol Dennings - a younger professor at the Briar Bank College
- Gertrude - a not-all-there elderly woman visited regularly by Charlotte
- Layla Orens - an acquaintance of Auggie's at the soup kitchen
- Reggie - owner of the Gilded Rainbow bookshop
- Sherman - takes care of Gertrude
- Simon - a police officer and patron of the Sight Unseen
- Stinson, Charlotte's right hand man running the bar
- Mr. Tellbrook - a butler or servant in the Black home
- Ms. Thomas - in service in the Black home
Mentioned[]
- Saint Mannigan
Quotations[]
Trivia[]
References[]
Art:
- ↑ Fan art of the sinister specter, by Mark Bushuiev. Work contributed to the Critical Role Wiki by the artist.
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