Cast · St. Andral's

Mostly Felix

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The small boy in the padlocked attic, and the shadow demon that answered when we asked his name. The demon is in a locket now. Felix is just Felix.

Free of the demon, asleep in the orphanage attic when we left him. We told him we'd be back.

Last seen: St. Andral's Orphanage
Belongs to: Vallaki
First met: Session 8
Last seen in: Session 8

What we owe, and what we are doing about it

Carry the Locket to the Abbot

A demon in a rusted locket, bound for the one priest Claudia thinks could deal with it. Nobody opens the lid.

The shadow demon that rode Felix, and then Drew, is shut inside Felix's old locket: rusted, oval, an X scratched into the lid, and an inscription inside in Celestial that none of us can read. Sirius worked out the rules. The locket holds the demon to this world. Breaking it would only set the demon free somewhere else. It cannot get out on its own; someone has to open it and look. Claudia has opened it, Drew opened it "for the lols", and Sirius opened it on purpose to pull the demon back in. It has lived in Drew's bag of holding ever since she made the bag.

Claudia named the only person she thinks could handle it: "If there's someone in this Morning Lord forsaken place who can do something about a demon, a proper demon, it'll be the abbot, which it pains me to say." Father Lucian offered to keep it for us; we decided it was safer where it was. The abbey is above Krezk, and Krezk is on the road west. Until then, nobody opens the lid.

Krezk since Session 9
Come Back for Felix

"We'll be back, Felix." Osric said it over his shoulder in the orphanage attic, and we meant it.

Felix came to St. Andral's a month before we did, found unharmed and soaked in blood beside his stabbed parents. At the orphanage he was only "mostly Felix". The rest was a shadow demon that left the other children bruised and pushed a boy called Cedric out of a window. We swore to Claudia that no harm would come to him, climbed into the attic, and drove the demon out. It went into Drew for a while, and Sirius shut it in Felix's old locket. When the fight moved downstairs, Osric checked that the boy was still breathing and told him "We'll be back, Felix."

Claudia says he is okay. We have not seen him since. We still don't know who he was before, who killed his parents, or how much he remembers. Next: go back and see him, properly, before we leave for the west.

St. Andral's Orphanage since Session 8
Find the Missing Orphans

Lazlo, Hans and Franz ran from the orphanage, and from Felix. The hunters sent after them have not come back either.

The children at St. Andral's told us first: Lazlo, Hans and Franz had run away just over a week earlier. Claudia thinks they ran because they were afraid of Felix. Milivoj stole the bones of St. Andral for them. Two hunters at the Blue Water said they could probably find the boys, but wanted 300 gold to give up their own hunt and go into the woods, and a cloaked stranger with very nice shoes offered Milivoj exactly that for moving the bones. "I had to do it to save those kids." The hunters took the money and went.

Nobody has seen the boys or the hunters since, as far as we know. Lady Wachter told us the werewolves to the west "capture children". Nobody asked us to look, and we have been busy, but three boys are out in Barovia on their own. Next: ask at the Blue Water after the hunters, and keep our eyes open on the road west.

since Session 8

Who: A small boy at St. Andral's Orphanage who, until Session 8, had a shadow demon living in him. Asked who he was, it answered for him: "I'm, well, Mostly Felix."
Where: The orphanage attic, unconscious and breathing, when we left.
Status: Alive, and himself again as far as we know. The demon is sealed in a rusted locket that we carry.
First met: Session 8, whittling with a kitchen knife while the light dimmed around him.

Felix is a child something terrible happened to, and then something worse moved in. We got the demon out of him and into a locket, and left him sleeping in the attic with a promise to come back. We haven't yet.

Before we came

Headmistress Claudia told us his story. He had come to the orphanage a month earlier. He was found in a house in Vallaki beside his parents, who had been stabbed, and he was covered in their blood without a scratch on him. Since then the other children had been waking up bruised. He fought a boy called Cedric and pushed him out of a window, and Cedric died. Three more boys, Lazlo, Hans and Franz, ran away, and Claudia thinks they were running from Felix. She padlocked him in the attic and took his things away, and kept them in her office drawer.

Among his things was a rusted oval locket on an old chain, with an X scratched into the lid. It glowed under Fëanor's spell: the magic was holding it together. Inside was an inscription in a language none of us could read, which we were told was Celestial. Drew opened it to see what would happen, and nothing seemed to. (Claudia admitted later that she had opened it too.)

On the way up, every bed in the children's room had a faint rune scratched into one of its posts. The runes were Infernal, and they all said the same thing: "Mine." We asked Claudia to have the children scratch them all out.

The attic

Sirius went up first. "You've got the best room and the best view in the house. Well done there, little Felix." The light from the far window dimmed by itself. The boy was whittling a piece of wood with a very large kitchen knife, and under Fëanor's spell he was swaddled in necromancy. Sirius asked what his name was.

"I'm, well, Mostly Felix."

"I'm Mostly Sirius," said Sirius, and asked what that meant. Mostly Felix was happy to explain. It had been busy with Milivoj downstairs: "it's too late. Milivoj will still soon be mine." The boy was too small. "I want the more muscly specimen downstairs." It felt quite safe telling us all this, because, correctly, "You're not going to hurt this boy."

Meanwhile Drew slipped out and got Claudia to help her tie Milivoj to his bed. The demon noticed something was wrong. "Do I have to do this early?" Black smoke poured out of Felix's skin and took shape as claws and a grin full of razor teeth. "Out of my way." The boy slumped forward.

The fight

Steel went into it and did less than it should have, silver included. It slid down through the floor into Drew, who looked at Sirius, said "I'm sorry," and ran for Milivoj with real fear in her eyes. It left her among the orphans, and Drew screamed at them to get out to the garden. On his way past, Osric checked that the boy was still breathing and told him, "We'll be back, Felix." The demon reached into Osric's chest and took a quarter of his life out. It tried to climb into Sirius and bounced off his protection.

"What the fuck are you?" "I am an angel, sent from the celestial realms to end you unless you repent." "Never."

Light was what hurt it. Sirius opened the locket, and the demon felt it pull. Fëanor's bolt of radiance tore it to wisps. Sirius's blazing sword broke it into smoke, and the smoke went into the locket. Sirius shut the lid.

The locket

What we understand, from a very good roll and what Sirius calls his angelic nature:

The locket is what keeps the demon on this plane, and it is also its prison.
Destroying the locket would free the demon, somewhere else.
It can't get out by itself. Someone has to open the locket and look.

At the Coffin Works, Sirius sensed a fiend in the locket. It is still in there. Claudia's advice was to take it to the abbot above Krezk: "If there's someone in this Morning Lord forsaken place who can do something about a demon, a proper demon, it'll be the abbot, which it pains me to say." Standing order: nobody opens the lid. See Carry the Locket to the Abbot.

What we promised

"We'll be back, Felix." Osric said it, and we all meant it. We also swore to Claudia that no harm would come to him. Before we left, Claudia went up to check on him: "He's okay." We have not been back up those stairs since. See Come Back for Felix.

What we still don't know

Who was Felix before the demon, and who killed his parents?
How long had it been in him, and how did the locket come to be among a small boy's things?
Who made the locket, and what does the Celestial inscription say?
Is he really just Felix now?
~~Who was cursing Milivoj?~~ Answered, Session 8: the demon, which wanted his body. He woke up once it was sealed.