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[cursed-in-barovia]

SESSION 16

The party continued to look for Walter’s crypt, but it didn’t seem like one was prepared for him.  So Peggin decided to hang onto him, since it didn’t seem like he was shown much love when he was alive.

With Rose and Thorn as least returned to their crypts, the group continued to explore the dungeon and returned to the room that Tomigot stubbed his toe in.  They saw that it had four alcoves containing moldy straw pallets used for bedding.  Perhaps it was the quarters for cult initiates.   With nothing of interest, they moved on to a room with a well at the center of it.

A 4-foot-diameter well shaft with a 3-foot-high stone lip stood in the middle of the room.  A wooden bucket hangs from a rope-and-pulley mechanism bolted to the crossbeams above the well.   Tomigot tried to peer into the well, but it was difficult to see just by relying on his darkvision and dim light cast by Zemotta’s torch across the room.  So he tried lowering the bucket.  The pully was old and felt stuck, but he was able to turn it enough to begin to lower the bucket.  After a couple of feet the fraying rope the bucket was attached to broke apart and the bucket was sent freely to the bottom of the well.  Tomigot could hear a faint splash when it hit the bottom.  Zemotta came over to shine her torch inside the well and could see that it descended about 30 feet to where she could see the torch’s reflection in the water below, and the remains of the bucket that fell.  Her first intension was to use some of that water to use for bending, but not after seeing its murky condition.

Peggin began to explore the rooms.  He found one with a door and beyond it was a bathroom containing an empty bathtub and toilet.

“It’s just a bathroom!” he announced.

“A bathroom? Oh good, I’ve been holding it for a while,” Nori shared as she quickly tip-toed to the toilet, closing the door behind her.   Then suddenly she saw a pseudopod-like arm or tongue, she wasn’t quite sure, emerge from between her legs.

“Oh, just what I always wanted,” she said excitedly.

Before Nori could celebrate, she found herself grappled and in the mouth of a toilet mimic!  Tomigot heard Nori’s struggle and rushed over to help.  Zemotta was close behind, and soon all three were squeezed into the small bathroom with Nori stuck to the toilet.  Zoras tried to see what was going on, but all he could see from the bathroom doorway was Tomigot’s large back and Nori’s legs flailing in front of him.  With that view, he decided that he wanted no business with whatever was going on in that room.  Tomigot, Zemotta, and Nori were able to destroy the toilet, leaving Nori a little shaken up.

The party continued to search the rest of the rooms that seemed to have once served as quarters for senior cultists. Each contained a wood-framed bed with a moldy straw mattress and a wooden chest to hold personal belongings.  In the chest of one of the rooms Zemotta found a shortsword made with a blade that looked to have been made of a different, nicer, kind of metal than she was used to seeing.  She also found an ivory hairbrush with silvery bristles and three moss agates in a folded black cloth in the chest of another room.  Tomigot found eleven gold pieces and sixty silver pieces in a pouch made of a leathery-like material, and upon closer inspection, he realized it was made of human skin.  So he delicately removed the coins and left the pouch.  Devotion found a black leather eyepatch with a carnelian sewn into it.

Once the rooms were cleared, Tomigot lead the group through a tunnel leading south, where the ghostly chanting heard throughout the dungeon was discernibly louder.  Tomigot wanted to quickly get through the tunnel, and in his haste fell ten feet into a hidden spiked pit.  Zemotta lowered a rope to help him climb out, his black all pierced and bloodied.  

With the spiked pit revealed, the rest of the each of the party members carefully jumped over it.  The chanting seemed to be getting louder further west, but the tunnel also branched south.  Before the group decided to head toward the chanting, they decided to explore the south tunnel.  Once they came to an intersection, they realized they had become surrounded by at least three wights dressed in cultist robes, ready to attack!

There wasn’t much room to move around in the narrow tunnels.  Tomigot was stuck in the intersection that branched out in every direction, each of which was not optimal!  He tried to stand his guard to let the others find safety.  Zoras, Nori and Zemotta tried to find their way into a bigger room, and found themselves in a dining hall.  This room contained a plain wooden table flanked by long benches. Moldy humanoid bones were strewn on the dirt floor— perhaps the remains of the cult’s vile banquets.

Peggin and Devotion remained in the tunnel, though.  The large, rolled-up tiger skin rug was floating in the hall, and also in the way, still being held by Zora’s unseen servant. Tomigot took many of the hits and was starting to feel like his life was being drained.  Zemotta would nimbly sneak in and out of the tunnels to attack as many Wights as she could, before retreating back into the dining hall.  A few wights shot arrows at Devotion, though only one connected.  Devotion and Peggin took turns throwing fire bolts at the wights they could see, trying to be careful not to hit Tomigot.  Peggin quickly noticed a pattern with their attacks once the both of them missed their marks.

“I think when you hit, I hit.  And when you miss, I miss.  So do better!” Peggin told Devotion as words of encouragement.

Nori tried her best to get a good shot at one of the wights, from a distance.  But it was really tough as the tunnels were a bit crowded.

Eventually the party’s attacks were starting to eliminate the wights, one by one.  Once the last undead creature was slain, the party decided to take a much needed rest in the dining hall.  The exhausted Devotion tried to call a group meeting and was hoping Zoras could help heal her.  However Zoras, was frustrated with the party for not being careful, and was still healthy himself, and therefore wanted to continue to explore.  Out of protest, he re-entered one of the nearby dungeon tunnels.  He then called Tomigot over to him.  Devotion was left perplexed.  From inside the tunnel, Zoras gave Tomigot a healing hand, as he was the one who took the majority of the damage from the wights.

Meanwhile, realizing others were hurting in the dining hall, Nori decided she wanted to help in her own way. While everyone was focused on trying to either rest or figure out what Zoras was up to, Nori quietly placed one of her potion of healing vials on the table without being noticed.  Devotion then noticed the vial and popped the cork and guzzled its contents.  Seeing this, Nori was a little upset with her generosity since her intention was to have someone carry the vial for emergencies, since the party was currently recovering during a short rest.

To break the tension, Peggin decided to share that he had already escaped Death House once.  His previous party had gone down the secret stairs, but he stayed behind for safety. Then the house started to go crazy and began to shake and make noises.  He jumped out of one of the upstairs balconies and waited for his friends to come out, but nobody else did.  So when things settled down, he re-entered the house to try to find them.  But he when he got to the secret stairs again, he decided it wasn’t a good idea to go alone.  So he waited for a party strong enough to make it out of the house alive.

He also went on to explain that during his time stuck in the house, he was able to collect some research on the Dursts.  Apparently they had started some sort of cult, as a way to impress Strahd.   It didn’t seem like Strahd was very thrilled with their attempt, though.

After everyone was somewhat rested, they continued exploring the dungeon in search of the book that Madame Eva saw in her card reading.  The same book that Peggin was looking for.

With no signs of additional wights, the party ventured further west into the tunnels. They reached a room festooned with moldy skeletons hanging from rusty shackles against the walls. A wide alcove in the south wall contained a painted wooden statue carved in the likeness of a gaunt, pale-faced man wearing a vo-luminous black cloak, his pale left hand resting on the head of a wolf that stood next to him. In his right hand, he held a smoky-gray crystal orb. The room had exits at the west and north walls. Chanting could be heard coming from the west.

The party was a little concerned about the skeletons in the room.  They didn’t seem to budge when provoked.  The statue they recognized to be that of a depiction of Strahd.  The orb he was carrying caught Devotion and Zemotta’s attention.  Devotion wanted to carefully remove it, but while she was digging through her belongings to see what she might have to safely touch it with, Zemotta hopped up and with her bare hands, grabbed the orb out of the statue’s hand.  To their relief, nothing happened.

Devotion wanted to spend some time inspecting it to see if she could identify what it was.  So she and Zemotta returned to the dining hall to safely look at it while the others continued exploring deeper into the dungeon.

On the west side of the room with the Strahd statue was a short hall that led to a closed door.  Nori went ahead to inspect the door for traps.  When she touched her hand to the door, it immediately adhered to it.  Eyes appeared on the wood paneling of the door and a pseudopod tongue wrapped around Nori’s waist.  She was grappled!

“A toilet mimic!” She yelled out.

Tomigot, Zora, Nori, and Peggin took turns trying to destroy the door mimic.  Nori had a hard time landing some jabs at it from her grappled position.  Eventually the mimic was eliminated.

With the door gone, it opened up into a dark den.  A chandelier was suspended above a table in the middle of the room. Two high-backed chairs flanked the table, which had an empty clay jug and two clay flagons atop it. Iron candlesticks stood in two corners, their candles long since melted away.

Meanwhile, over in the dining hall, Devotion determined that the orb was something magical and that it seemed to be made or used by druids to power something.  She then tried to convince Zemotta she should hold onto it.  Zemotta wasn’t so sure that was a good idea, but she agreed. The two then met up with the rest of the group.

At the northern wall of the den was an opening that led into another dark room.  The room contained a large wood-framed bed with a rotted feather mattress, a wardrobe, and a footlocker at the end of the bed.  Tomigot knelt down to inspect the footlocker and then got the feeling that something bad was about to happen.

….To Be Continued.

[cursed-in-barovia]

SESSION 15

The hair emerged from the bathtub to form an arm, and slithered toward Tomogot who was standing in the bathroom doorway.  It then snapped and lunged toward Tomigot and instantly wrapped around his arms and torso.  Tomigot screamed in both disgust and horror.  Others tried to see what was going on, but couldn’t because Tomigot was blocking the entry into the dimly lit bathroom.

The creature continued to rise from the tub.  Tomigot could see that through all of the long hair it was a woman with pruned and rotten skin.  As she rose, she stirred the foul odor of the murky water she was resting in.  Her face turned toward Tomigot.

“Gustav?!” she said with excitement before reeling Tomigot in with her hair, pulling him within inches of her until they were face to face.  Tomigot tried not to look and pull his head away from here, while still restrained by her long hair.  

“I’ve missed you, Gustav!” she whispered.  The woman leaned in for a kiss, but Tomigot was able to keep his distance.

Once the doorway was clear, Zoras set a bonfire near the woman while Zemotta squeeze in to make several attacks.  Though between the bonfire, the smell, and the sheer foulness of the creature, she, or more like her unconscious, was unable to make any contact.

Tomigot tried to muscle his way through the grasp of the woman’s hair, but remained grappled.

“I’m not Gustav.  Who is Gustav!?” he asked, still terrified.

The woman seemed both perplexed and discontent of this information.  She still seemed to want Tomigot’s attention.  Zemotta tried to land a few more attacks and was able to strike her three times.  Zoras’ bonfire continued to burn her.  

Tomigot finally was able to break free of the woman’s hair and continued to try to convince her that he wasn’t the person she was looking for.  

“I’m telling you, I’m not Gustav! I am Tomigot.  What is your name?” he asked, trying to break her focus on smothering him.

“I’m Alana.  Where is Gustav? I miss him.  Can you find him?” she asked, desperately.

“If I agree to find him, will you let me go?” Tomigot said, gently.

“Will you promise to bring him here?” she asked longingly, and then thought for a moment.  “Actually,” her demeanor shifted to scorn, “find Elizabeth!  She’s the one that did this too me!”  She parted her hair to reveal her naked, rotted body underneath, littered in stab wounds.  Tomigot winced at the site.

“Oh!” Tomigot winced at the site.  “Ok, I’ll find Elizabeth, then!” he agreed without question. “Is it ok if I leave now?” he carefully asked.

“Find Elizabeth…and kill her!” the woman said while raising her voice and pointing her hand toward the bathroom door, as a cue to exit.  Tomigot quickly scurried along and made sure to close the door behind him.

“Is everything ok?” Devotion asked. “What was that in there?”

Tomigot was resting his back against the bathroom door, breathing hard.

“I don’t know.  Some crazy woman wanting me to kill Elizabeth.” Tomigot managed to explain.

Nobody seemed to know who Elizabeth was, but Devotion wanted to keep a close eye on the bathroom door to make sure the woman didn’t try to come after the party.  Eventually she could hear water ripple as if the woman had receded back into the tub.  It then became silent once again.

Once the coast was clear, Zemotta went back to inspecting the closet.  It was really dark inside, but with the help of Tomigot, they were able to find a small hole in the ceiling, leading to the floor above.  Everyone gathered around the closet.

“Maybe we should send the owl up there?” Zoras hinted at Nori.

Nori sent Chi through the hole to see what she could see.  It was a very dark room with lots of furniture covered in cloth, as if it were storage.  In the far corner, opposite of the hole, there was a few small bookshelves with various books, a dresser with neatly organized rows of pairs of shoes in all sizes and shapes.  A creature, however, could not be seen.  Nori relayed the intel to the party.

“Help me up!” Zemotta commanded Tomigot.

“Oh…ok!” Tomigot reached out to pick up the Halfling, “Here you go, little one,” and propped her feet onto his shoulders.

Zemotta was just small enough to fit through the hole.  She stuck her head inside to see the legs of a bunch of chairs with draped linens covering the tops.

“It’s really dark in here!” she mentioned to Tomigot, below her.  “Hello? Is anyone in here?” she said calmly.

“Please don’t hurt me,” a trembling voice responded.

“Who are you? Where are you? Are you ok?” she asked the voice.

“My name is Peggin and I’ve been trapped in this house.”

Zemotta whispered down to Tomigot, “There’s someone up here.  I think it’s ok, though.”

“Here, let me come up.” Tomigot demanded.

“You won’t fit,” said Zemotta, before she started to hack at the hole with her quarterstaff, trying to make it bigger for Tomigot to fit through.

Meanwhile Zoras and the rest of the party felt helpless, finding no other obvious away to get to the floor above.

“We can’t all just climb up the hole!” Zoras said, impatiently.  “There has to be another way up.  Ask whoever that is how we can get up to the attic.” “Check behind the mirror in the room,” said the sweet little voice in the storage room.

This happened to be right where Zoras was standing.  He pulled the standing mirror away from the wall to see a crack that formed a secret door.  He opened it up to reveal a dark, cobweb filled stairway.

Tomigot tried climbing through the hole that Zemotta enlarged.  It wasn’t quite big enough as the top half of his body became wedged.  As he shimmied his way out of the hole, the rest of the party managed to make it up the dark webbed staircase and arrived at the attic hall. This bare hall was also choked with dust and cobwebs.  Small footprints could be seen on the dusty floor below.  They followed the footprints to one of the doors.

Zemotta crawled under the covered furniture, searching for the source of the voice.  Then Zoras opened the door into the storage room.  Nori sent in some dancing lights to help illuminate the dark room.  From their view, the room appeared to be clean and packed with neatly organized furniture (chairs, coat racks, standing mirrors, dress mannequins, and the like) draped in dusty white sheets and staged in the back corner.  Closer to the door was a dresser, wardrobe, and two small bookshelves. They could also see the rows of parts of shoes placed neatly on the floor near the dresser.

Zoras approached the locked wardrobe, but before he could touch the lock, the voice could be heard.

“Please don’t touch that.”

Nori sent her dancing lights toward the sound and eventually saw a frightened face belonging to a small goblin who was tucked and hiding in one of the dark corners of the room.  He was clutching what appeared to be a swaddled baby.

“Oh, who are you?  What do you have there?” Nori said, nodding to what the goblin was holding.

Zemotta eventually crawled her way through the furniture to meet with the rest of the party.

“I’m Peggin.  This is Walter,” Peggin said as he lifted the swaddled baby higher for Nori to see.  With a closer look, Walter was actually the skeleton of a baby.

“Peggin?” Nori asked with confusion.

“Yeah, you know, like peg-in-the-hole, peg leg….short people jokes,” Peggin said while shrugging at Zemotta, hoping she shared the same experiences.

Peggin carefully stands and approaches the wardrobe.  “This is my collection, please don’t touch.  I can show what I’ve found here in the house, though.”

“Are you the one we heard in the dumbwaiter?” Zemotta asked.

Peggin nodded.

“What are you doing in this house?” she asked.

“I came to find a book, but instead I’ve been trapped in this house every since.  It’s been months, at least.  So I’ve been waiting for people to help me either find the book and help me get out.  But as long as I’ve been in here, not very many people make it this far,” Peggin said as he raised his hands to signal the attic level.

“What book?” Zemotta asked.

“Oh I don’t know.  Some book that was supposed to have information about the ruler of this cursed land.  The Devil Strahd. I had information that lead me to this magical house,” Peggin explained.

Nori pointed at the bookshelf full of books. “Is the book in there?”

“No, those are just books I found on other adventurers who didn’t make it very far in this house,” Peggin said, disappointed.

“Anything interesting?” Zoras probed.

“Well, there’s a cookbook written in Dwarven, I think, a diary of a teenage girl, a sketchbook containing a drawing of an adorable goblin, a book of celestial poetry…” Peggin held the books out as if offering them to Zoras to read.

“Can I see the book on celestial poetry?” Zoras asked.

“Sure! Knock yourself out!” Peggin said and tossed the book over to Zoras.  He became excited to show the party his collection and revealed the various clothing he’s found and stored in the dresser.  Some had tears and blood stains, but all were neatly folded.  He then waved his hands over the shoes like a salesman.

“Have you found anything big?  Like a really big sword?” Tomigot asked.

Peggin slowly unlocked the wardrobe and opened the doors. “You mean like this!?” Inside the wardrobe were weapons, a shield, and a wooden box.  Peggin carefully pulled a great sword out of his stash.  It was bigger than him, but he was able to hand it over to Tomigot.  “It’s too big for me, clearly, so it’s all yours!”

“Oh thanks!  This is actually for a friend,” Tomigot clarified.

“Well I hope it’ll make your friend happy.  Can I help anyone else?” Peggin offered with a sense of purpose.

The party was like kids in a candy store!  Zemotta was happy to take two daggers.  Tomigot saw the shield and asked if he could try it out.

“Where’s the book?” Devotion asked, redirecting the focus back to the main goal.

“Well, I’ve been everywhere in the house, so it’s not in here.  There’s only one place I haven’t gone,” Peggin explained and then walked over to the corner of the room to open a secret door.  Inside was a narrow, dark descending staircase.  “I’ve been too scared to go down there by myself.  I can hear funny changing noises below.  Rose and Thorn mentioned a scary monster down there, too,” he went on.

“Who are Rose and Thorn?” Devotion asked.

“They’re the kids that belonged to the family of this house,” Peggin said, while point outside the room.

“What else do you do you know about this house?” Devotion continued with her questions.

“As far as I’ve gathered, this house belonged to Gustav and Elizabeth Durst.  Do those names ring a bell,” Peggin interrupted his story to wink at Tomigot. “It was a good move to leave that lady in the bathroom below.  She’s not very nice, but with good reason.  I think she’s Walter’s mom, the nursemaid, and….well…Elizabeth didn’t like that very much.”  Peggin paused in a short silence before continuing.

“It seems like the Dursts were some sort of fans of Strahd and wanted to impress him by forming a cult.  According to Rose and Thorn, they spent a lot of time downstairs.  But that’s as much as I was able to find out,” Peggin concluded.

Meanwhile Nori checked the far room on the attic floor.  It appeared to be dust-free and contained a slender bed, a night¬stand, a small iron stove, a writing desk with a stool, a wardrobe, and a rocking chair.

“Well, it sounds like we need to go downstairs,” Tomigot deduced.

“Not after a short rest,” Devotion demanded.

Peggin pulled out a vial holder.  “If we’re really all going down there, I have three potions of healing for you if you promise to help find the book,” Peggin said while showing the vials to everyone in the room.

“Yes, of course we’ll help,” Tomigot assured.

“Ok, but we should probably take Rose and Thorn down there as well. I imagine that’s where the family crypts are,” Peggin said earnestly while walking to their room across the hall.

Zoras called for Nori to help pick the locked door to the bedroom.  It took a few tries, but eventually she was able to unlock it to reveal a dark room with a bricked-up window flanked by two dusty, wood-framed beds sized for children. Closer to the door is a toy chest with windmills painted on its sides and a dollhouse that’s a perfect replica of the dreary ed¬ifice in which you stand. These furnishings are draped in cobwebs. Lying in the middle of the floor are two small skeletons wearing tattered but familiar clothing. The smaller of the two cradles a stuffed doll.

Peggin instructs the party that the bones need to be placed in the crypts in order for the spirits to rest in peace.  Devotion decided to take one set of bones, while Tomigot got the other.  When they started to collect the bones, the spirits of Rose and Thorn appeared.

“Are you helping us?” asked the spirit of a young boy, Thorn.

“Yes we are,” Devotion confirmed. “What happened to you?”

Rose took the lead to explain that their parents has simply forgotten about them and left them in their room to die.  They got in trouble a few times and were caught sneaking downstairs to see what their parents were spending most of their time doing, and so their room was boarded up and locked.  Their parents never returned, and now they’re a pile of bones.

It was a terrible story for Devotion.

“We’ll, well make sure to let you two rest in peace.  We just have to collect your bones, if you don’t mind,” she said as if asking permission.

“I’m scared,” said Thorn as his spirit form entered Devotions body.

“It’s ok, just do what I say,” said Rose as her spirit entered Tomigot’s body.

“Now let’s go downstairs!” said Tomigot!

“Wait, what’s in this room?” Zemotta asked, nosily, while pointing to the room at the corner.

“Nothing!” Peggin said, defensively.

“Is it something bad or something scary?” Devotion asked.

Peggin shook his head.

“C’mon, what is it?” Zemotta begged.

Peggin was hesitant to answer, but finally caved.  “Well…I had to eat.  Please don’t judge me.” Peggin’s head tilted down as his shoulders dropped.

Zemotta opened the door to see a web-filled room containing a slender bed, a night¬stand, a rocking chair, a wardrobe, and a small iron stove.   The floor had a pile of humanoid bones.  Some still had meat left on them.  Zemotta then stealthily closed the door.

“It’s ok, I understand,” Zemotta said, comfortingly.

After taking a short rest, the party descended down the narrow wooden staircase and reached the bottom.  It was completely dark and an eerie, incessant chant echoing throughout could be heard.  With their darkvision, Tomigot, Devotion, and Peggin would make out a narrow carved out earthen tunnel that stretched southward before branching east and west.

Tomigot immediately headed east and came across a corner that lead north.  Zemotta closely followed him.  

Peggin carefully walked through the tunnel, with Walter in his arms, and found a few outlets.  He chose one to inspect and found a pair of crypts.  It contained a blank stone slabs meant to seal these crypts leaning against a nearby walls. The crypts were empty.

Nori produced dancing lights to help those without darkvision navigate the dark tunnels.

Soon, Tomigot found himself in an open room with a wooden table and four chairs standing at the east end. To the west were four alcoves containing moldy straw pallets.   As he went to go inspect, he stubbed his toes on one of the many wooded support columns that were installed.  Out of anger, he took his axe to it.  Zemotta tried to calm him down and bring him back to rest of the party.

Zoras met up with Peggin to see if either of the crypts he found were for the kids.  They appeared to be nameless, so Zoras tried creating an illusion by magically inscribing Walter’s name onto one of the blank slaps.  Peggin sunk his shoulders and shook his head.

“I don’t think it works, like that,” he said, before demonstrating by laying Walter’s skeleton in the room.  Nothing happened.  “Let’s keep looking.”

On the opposite end of the tunnel, Devotion and Nori found another pair crypts. One crypt had a stone slab etched with the name Elisabeth Durst. The other had a stone slab etched with the name Gustav Durst. Each crypt contained a stone bier with a coffin atop it.    

“Hurry, let’s find more!” Devotion urged.

At this time, Zemotta managed to get Tomigot to rejoin the party.

Across from Gustav and Elizabeth’s crypts were another pair of crypts.  One had a stone slab etched with the name Rosavalda Durst. The other had a stone slab with the name Thornboldt Durst etched into it.  Each chamber contained a coffin on a stone bier.

“Well, we found them!” Zemotta announced. “Let’s try the bones.”

Tomigot and Devotion took the bones they were carrying to their respective crypts.  They pushed the coffins open and gently placed the bones inside.  As they did, they could feel the spirits of Rose and Thorn leave their bodies.  As Rose left, a “Thank You,” could faintly be heard.

MEANWHILE (DUNDEE)

Dundee begrudgingly used his dagger to pry open the jammed trapped door that lead to the church undercroft where Doru was being detained.  It was very dark and unusually quiet inside.

With the aid of the light torch that Father Donovich was carrying closely behind, Dundee could see the church’s undercroft had rough-hewn walls and floors made of damp clay and earth.  Rotting wooden pillars strained under the weight of the wooden ceiling.  Candlelight from the chapel above slipped through the cracks.  Dundee could also see a faint source of light coming from the back wall.

“Do you see anything?” Father Donovich asked.  “Doru, are you there?” he called out.  No answer.

Dundee slowly approached the back wall to see that daylight was spilling from a roughly carved out hole that lead to the ground above outside in the cemetery.

“What the…” Dundee said as he stuck his head in the hole, looking for answers.  It appeared that someone, or something, was able to dig through the earth and the wall to allow Doru to escape.  “It looks like he got out,” Dundee announced.

Father Donovich was shook.  He wasn’t sure how he could get out, and was even more terrified knowing his changed son was on the loose.

Dundee noticed Scabs’ tail start to flicker in anticipation, her focus being set on the hole.  He always felt a tingle from his whip.  Soon after, the skittering sound of many little feet, and squeaks of many rats started to get louder and louder.  Dundee and Scabs to start to see many rats start spilling in from the hole.  Dundee shot an arrow at the first one to enter as Scabs was ready to swat or bite at the next one to enter.  Eventually they were surrounded by many, many rats!

Father Donovich was in a panic.  He cast a spell for extra protection, and then tried sending his spiritual weapon, a spiked metal sun, to help fight off the rats.  Dundee kept shooting arrows, and realized the rats were too quick.  Scabs was getting a mouthful with all of the rats she was trying to bite.  Then a very large rat wearing a collar walked its way down the tunnel and through the hole.

Father Donovich tried to run upstairs to escape, but even more rats started to flood in from the floor above.

“You should have let me out!” said the rat, while facing Dundee.

“What? Your son’s a rat now?” Dundee asked Father Donovich.

Little did he realize that Father Donovich was being smothered by many, many rats, and therefore was unable to respond.

“I’m ok now,” the rat then said.

Dundee and Scabs were still busy fighting off the other rats. This larger rat didn’t seem to be interested in fighting.

“I’m where I belong now,” the rat continued.

But this time, Father Donovich was unrecognizable, as the rats had consumed most of his flesh and meat. Only his torch lay, still lit, at the floor beside his corpse.

The rats then changed their focus onto Scabs, who was already weakened by the teeth of other rats.  She soon fell unconscious, flooding many thoughts into Dundee’s brain.

In the commotion, Dundee was so flustered that his whip of warning fell to the ground.  His main focus was to revive his snow leopard companion.

He was able to make her come-to and the two started to make their way back upstairs.  Once he and Scabs made it through the trap door, he closed it and tried to take cover in the chapel.  But one look down toward the back of the church, he could see that room was infested with rats, too!  Dundee then placed his ear against the front door and could hear the moaning and groaning of zombies outside.  After taking one look at Scabs, he decided to make a break for it!

Dundee opened the front door to see zombies clawing at the outer walls of the church.  Two were flaking the entry.  He and Scabs tried running past the zombies unnoticed, but Scabs ended up receiving a swipe from a claw.  The two eventually were able to put themselves at a distance to see a depressed looking, now priest-less church sounded by undead creatures.

…To Be Continued

[cursed-in-barovia]

SESSION 14

The following morning, Ismark, eager to lay his father to rest, woke the party up. Devotion and Dundee felt exhausted from the events that happened that night, while Zemotta, Zoras, Nori, and Tomigot felt fully rested. Everyone migrated outside to the cemetery at the back of the church. Tomigot and Dundee began to dig a hole, while Father Donovich offered prayers to the Morninglord in exchange for Kolyan Indirivoich’s deliverance from Barovia.

After the ceremony was complete, the party discussed what to do next. Ismark urged everyone to usher he and his sister, Ireena, to Vallaki, in hopes of protecting her from Strahd. Some of the group members wanted to go straight to the source at Castle Ravenloft. But it was then decided that maybe they should look into the clues that Madame Eva gave them during her card reading, so that it wouldn’t be a suicide visit. If they found these items that would help destroy Strahd, it would also help Ireena’s problem. Perhaps someone at the tavern might have some information.

Dundee stayed behind to learn more about the Morninglord, while the rest of the party went to the tavern.

There they saw three Vistani women sitting at a table together. Tomigot announced he was buying drinks and brought a jug of wine to the table where the women sat. He introduced himself and his friends and, in returned, learn that these women, Alenka, Mirabel, and Sorvia, were the owners of the tavern.

“Thank you for your purchase! How can we help?” Alenka asked.

“Oh, um, I didn't, uh. They can tell you!” Tomigot nervously differed to his friends.

The party looked lost. They wanted to know about Strahd, but the women were a little hesitant to say too much about him. They seemed to be afraid word might get back to him, and that wouldn’t be a good thing.

“Maybe you should go see Madame Eva. She might be able to help guide you.” Sorvia suggested.

The party informed her that they had already seen her.

“Well then you should have all of the answers, no?”

Nori and Zoras tried to recall the clues they got from the card reading. They then asked if Strahd had a brother.

“Does he have a brother?” Mirabel asked Alenka.

“I guess he could have a brother,” Alenka shrugged.

“Well I’ve never met him. I would hope he’s nicer and more…” Sorvia added before stopping herself from saying anymore.

Then Zoras mentioned the “house guarded by a great stone dragon.” Ismark chimed in and remembered hearing of a stone dragon that sat outside of Argynvostholt, and old guard outpost. 

“Well let’s go there, then!” Nori suggested.

“Vallaki is on the way, perhaps you can drop us off there, before going on. But I should warn you; nobody ever goes to Argynvostholt. It’s haunted and dangerous!” he exclaimed.

So then Zoras mentioned the house that people went in, but not many came out.

“That sounds a lot like Death House. It’s here in town, right around the corner,” Alenka said, and then tried not to giggle. 

The party asked how many people had gone into the house, and how many had made it out. Their best guess was maybe 30 people have gone in, but only a handful came out alive.

“We even make bets amongst ourselves. Though, it’s hard to confirm who makes it out. They seem to just disappear,” Sorvia added.

Ismark had a feeling this information would stall his plan of getting Ireena to safety, but rationalized the situation.

“Well since it’s right here in town, I suppose we can check it out,” Ismark suggested, begrudgingly. The party agreed that was the best idea, so far.

On the way to the house, the street got darker as a thick fog moved in. The fog then settled to reveal that Ireena, who was following the party, was now approximately 60 feet away and in the hands of a well dressed, noble looking man. The man looked at the group with a menacing thirst, and had one arm wrapped around Ireena who seemed to be in some sort of daze. Then out of the sky came a flying black horse with a fiery main and tail. The man loaded Ireena onto its back, and then mounted the horse himself, before taking off into the sky and above the foggy cloud cover.

A voice could be heard from the sky, “Welcome to Barovia!” It was then followed by a menacing chuckle.

Ismark fell down to his knees. “NOT AGAIN! Now what do I do? How do I get her back? What does he want with her? I can’t help her…how…. I’m not strong enough….’Ismark the Lesser’, that’s what I am. That’s why they say I am, it must be true.”

“Who was that?” Devotion asked.

“It was the Devil Strahd!” he answered with hatred and despair.

Ismark, doubting himself, refused to go along with the group into Death House. He felt that he would weigh the party down, now with his grief and lack of confidence. Nori threatened to get rid of the dead weight by way of a crossbow bolt. Devotion and Zemotta tried to calm Nori down, while Tomigot tried to instill confidence in Ismark.

“Ismark the Lesser? Well all you need is a GREAT sword, so that YOU can be great!” Tomigot was pretty confident that would work. “Let’s go find you that great sword!”

Ismark still refused, and it was agreed that he would wait at the tavern until the party got the book that was supposed to help defeat Strahd, and make it out of Death House alive.

MEANWHILE – DUNDEE

Dundee felt that the Morninglord was the reason he didn’t die when he and Scabs were attacked by the wolves when they went out alone at night. Through Father Donovich he learned that The Morninglord is also known as Lathander, a deity of creativity, dawn, renewal, birth, athletics, spring, self-perfection, vitality and youth. He favored those who dispelled the undead and blessed those who planted new life.

During their discussion, Father Donovich also informed Dundee that Ireena Kolyana wasn’t the natural daughter of Kolyan Indirovich. Although Ireena never knew, Kolyan found her at the edge of the Svalich Woods near the Pillarstone of Ravenloft. She was but a girl then and seemed to have no memory of her past. Kolyan adopted her and loved her dearly. Now all she had left was Ismark. He suggested Dundee take Ireena as far away from the castle as possible. Perhaps the Abbey of Saint Markovia in Krezk or the fortified town of Vallaki.

Father Donovich also went on to tell Dundee more information he knew about happened to his son, Doru. Before he was turned, Doru had set off to march with a famous wizard who was determined to put an army together to rid Strahd. Father Donovich had never heard of this wizard, though. Evidently things went bad because Strahd is still around and Doru had changed. Stories have circulated that the wizard might have died, instead. “It’s hard to know what to believe anymore,” he concluded.

Dundee then noticed that Scabs was starting to act up. With the twitching of her tail and pacing around one of the boarded-up windows at the back of the church, it seemed as if something was outside catching her attention. Father Donovan didn’t know much about animals, but even he became concerned. Dundee peeked through the boards and could see amongst the fog a dark green crocodile lounging in the church cemetery!

“It’s a bloody gator out there!” Dundee screamed!

Father Donovich didn’t know what a ‘gator’ was, but whatever it was, based on Dundee’s reaction, it sounded bad. He started to mutter prayers, begging for the Morninglord to protect Dundee, Scabs, and himself, and asked for a sign as to what to do. Meanwhile, Doru was still screaming from below, begging to be fed.

Scabs started to claw at the front door. Dundee followed her and sniffed between the cracks of the door. All he could smell was a combination of dust and death. He was stumped. Scabs was still clawing to get out, pacing, and then running to different windows to smell, none of which was the window where the crocodile could be seen. Dundee was trying to think of ways to calm Scabs down, but was too tired to come up with a solution.

Suddenly the church became darker inside. The fog outside had gotten thicker and had completely surrounded the exterior of the church. Father Donovich started to cower and mumble, “Oh no, not again! Not again!!! Leave me alone! Leave HIM alone!”

“What!? What do you mean? Who?” Dundee asked for clarification.

Doru screamed from below, “They’re coming for me Father, just let them take me! Let me out!”

Father Donovich told Dundee that when the fog surrounds the church, that’s when the noises happen. Scratches, howling, grunting, moaning…it was a bit different each time.

“Whatever you do, don’t open the door!” Dundee instructed.

Father Donovich hid behind a broken pew, clutched his holy symbol tightly, and tried to mutter more prayers. It grew even darker outside, and as a result, darker inside the church, as well. Scratching, moaning, and the shuffling of feet of many undead creatures could be heard outside the front door, as well as the huffing of wolves. Scabs was beside herself and even started to backpedal toward the center of the church, away from the walls.

Then suddenly the church bell rang! It then rang again! Dundee could see the rope to the bell moving, unassisted. It rang two more times. Then once the echo of the last bell ring faded, the sound of everything outside had become silent. The interior of the church became brighter, as if the fog had receded. Doru was even unusually quiet.

Father Donovich was on the verge of collapse. “I now know how Kolyan felt!” he exclaimed before proceeding to thank the Morninglord for his protection.

Dundee brought Father Donovich some water. Scabs appeared to be emotionally and physically exhausted. Dundee peeks outside the windows again. There didn’t appear to be any creatures, but he did notice a lot of fresh dirt in the cemetery that he didn’t notice before.

Father Donovich called out to Doru. He didn’t receive a response. After calling out to him again and not even hearing so much as a rustle, he became even more concerned.

“Is there another way in there?” Dundee asked as if perhaps Doru found a way to escape.

“Not that I know of. It’s just the trap door that I broke the lock to. Do you think he got out? How could that be!? DORU! Son! Please answer me!” Father Donovich cried out. Silence.

“There’s no other way something could get in from another way? From Outside?” Dundee asked again.

“I have no idea! A brick wall surrounds the undercroft, and it’s underground! I’ve heard of crazy things happening, and if the Devil Strahd has anything to do with it…well, anything is possible then, I suppose.” An expression of worry and defeat appeared on Father Donovich’s face.

Dundee asked for examples of the strange things he had heard. Father Donovich began to rattle off a few things from the top of his head.

“Well, I’ve heard of people dying and returning as undead beings, people disappearing when they go into the forest, children seem to be going missing, too, especially in the village…an obvious thing exist is vampires! My poor son is a perfect example!”

Dundee offered to try to open the trap door to check on Doru. Father Donovan both hesitantly and eagerly agreed to help, but he was definitely not going down there first, or own his own. Exhaustion reminded Dundee that opening that trap door would be difficult. Dealing with a vampire might be even more dangerous while tired, too. So he suggested that he rest, but Father Donovich urged him to push through. 

“If we wait, we’re going to die! I just know it!” he worried.

“Well me mum always told me listen to your gut. And I can’t sleep if you’re saying that. Can you carry a torch and the holy symbol? I’ll do the fighting if needs be, but I need a light!” 

Father Donovich perked up and was excited that Dundee would help and asked him for a torch. Dundee handed him one.

Father Donovich reminded Dundee that the trap door was swollen shut and the lock was jammed. He was hopeful that Dundee might have the right solution, though. Dundee thought to himself for a moment.

“You do know that if we break in now, without me magical friends around, and he attacks us, I’m gonna have to shoot lethal. I can try an pin his leg, then set a trap, but I might not have an opportunity for that. I’m not gettin’ bit! I’ll make sure of that, no matter what,” Dundee cautioned Father Donovich.

Dundee had many thoughts running through his head. “Maybe it might be smarter to wait, Father.” 

Father Donovich did not like the sound of that, and turned around, squeezed his holy symbol, and started pacing in circles, mumbling his last words to the Morninglord.

“Look man, I’m not tryna kill no kid. But I’m also not fixin’ to let either of us die. That won’t help your son one bit,” Dundee tried to reason.  Father Donovich continued his last words.

Dundee thought hard again. “Alright…let’s do this,” Dundee said, reluctantly.

Father Donovich stopped mumbling his last words and stood next to Dundee, ready for the next instruction.

DEATH HOUSE

Zoras, Nori, Devotion, Zemotta, and Tomigot approached Death House. It was an old row house that looked to be four stories tall. The windows at the top floor appeared to be boarded up from the inside. 

At the entrance was a closed wrought-iron gate with hinges on one side and a lock on the other that filled the archway of a stone porch.  Devotion stood outside and spent 10 minutes working on a spell to detect magic before entering. Oil lamps hung from the porch ceiling by chains, flanking a set of oaken doors that open into a grand foyer.  Nori wanted to test her luck at opening the door while Devotion was working on her spell. She walked through the unlocked gate, causing the rusty hinges to shriek. The front door was also unlocked and didn’t seem to be trapped. Devotion’s spell finally took effect and it seemed like the whole house was giving off magical auras, mostly illusion magic. With no initial danger, the group entered through the front door. 

Hanging on the south wall of the foyer was a shield emblazoned with a coat-of-arms (a stylized golden windmill on a red field), flanked by framed portraits of stony-faced aristocrats. Mahogany-framed double doors leading from the foyer to the main hall are set with panes of stained glass.  Tomigot lead the way to the next room. The stained glass door was unlocked. While everyone slowly entered, Zoras waiting behind to take the windmill shield.

The wide hall ran the width of the house, with a black marble fireplace at one end and a sweeping, red marble staircase at the other. Mounted on the wall above the fireplace was a longsword. Zoras removed the longsword to inspect it and noticed it also had a windmill cameo on it. So he kept it.

The wood-pan­eled walls in the hall were ornately sculpted with images of vines, flowers, nymphs, and satyrs. Upon closer inspection the images were actually made up of serpents and skulls inconspicuously woven into the wall designs.  The decorative paneling followed the staircase as it circled upward to the second floor.

Tomigot then heard a skittering sound coming from another room. He moved closer to the sound, opened a door to reveal a kitchen. It was tidy, with dishware, cookware, and utensils neatly placed on shelves. A worktable had a cutting board and rolling pin atop it. A stone, dome-shaped oven stood near the east wall, its bent iron stovepipe connecting to a hole in the ceiling.

Tomigot could hear a noise coming from the southeast corner where he could see a small door. He opened it to reveal a 2-foot-wide stone shaft con­taining a wooden elevator platform attached to a simple rope-and-pulley mechanism that must be operated manually.  Hanging on the wall next to the dumbwaiter was a tiny brass bell attached by wires to buttons in those other areas. Tomigot stuck his large, half-orc head inside the shaft and, thought it was dark, was about to see that the platform was possibly at the 3rd floor.

Zemotta volunteered to climb in and investigate, if Tomigot manned the ropes. He lowered the platform down and Zemotta crawled inside the shaft. It was tight, but she fit! Tomigot gently raised her up. Zemotta saw the door for the second floor, but she continued to let Tomigot hoist her. Once she got to the 3rd level door, she tried calling out to Tomigot to let him know to stop pulling the ropes, but he didn’t hear. She began be squeezed between the dumbwaiter platform and the top of the shaft. She yelled louder to have him stop. That time he heard and she instructed Tomigot to lower the platform just a little so she wasn’t squished.

Opening this door revealed a large, dark room. The room was dark, and the floor was dusty, but Zemotta was able to see a few footprints, made by tiny bare feet, leading from the dumbwaiter to around the corner of the room. She didn’t hear anything other than the shouting coming from Devotion below, as well as Nori’s messaging in her ear, both who were still in the kitchen. The wanted to know what she was seeing, but Zemotta asked them to be quiet.

Zemotta then ordered Tomigot to lower her to the second floor. Tomigot lost his grip of the rope. For a split second the elevator platform disappeared under Zemotta, and she felt a sense of weightlessness before crashing down onto the platform again. Tomigot was able to catch the rope just as the right spot. Zemotta felt a little queasy.

She had a hard time opening the 2nd floor door, but once she was able to, she saw a smaller, dark and dusty room. She asked Tomigot to lower her back down to the kitchen. He was able to do so, gently this time. She then revealed that she saw little bare footprints. In Tomigot’s head, he thought there was a baby bear in the house. The group decided to head straight upstairs. Devotion cautioned everyone as they ascended the stairs. Her spell was detecting magic in a room above.

Unlit oil lamps were mounted on the walls of the elegant upstairs hall. Hanging above the mantelpiece was a wood-framed portrait of an aristocratic family: a man and a woman with their two smiling children, a boy and a girl. Cra­dled in the father’s arms is a swaddled baby, which the mother regards with a hint of scorn.

Standing suits of armor flanked wooden doors in the east and west walls. Each suit of armor clutched a spear and wore a visored helm shaped like a wolf’s head. Tomigot immediately went for one of the helms and was able to pry one off of a standing suit. He put it onto his head. It fit, but was very snug.

The doors were carved with dancing youths, although Nori’s closer inspection revealed that the youths weren’t really dancing, but fighting off swarms of bats. 

The red marble staircase that started on the first floor continued its upward spiral to the floor above. A cold draft could be felt coming down the steps.

The group checked the rooms that weren’t giving off auras of magic first. The southeast door in the hall revealed an undecorated bedroom containing a pair of beds with straw-stuffed mattresses. At the foot of each bed was an empty footlocker. Tidy servants’ uniforms hung from hooks in the adjoining closet. This was the room that Zemotta saw from the dumbwaiter.  Zoras took one of the uniforms.

The northeast door lead to a library. Red velvet drapes covered the windows of this room. An exquisite mahogany desk and a matching high-back chair faced the entrance and the fireplace, above which hung a framed picture of a windmill perched atop a rocky crag. Situated in corners of the room were two overstuffed chairs. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined the south wall. A rolling wooden ladder allowed one to more easily reach the high shelves.

Nori inspected the desk. It had several items resting atop it: an oil lamp, a jar of ink, a quill pen, a tinderbox, and a letter kit containing a red wax candle, four blank sheets of parch­ment, and a wooden seal bearing a windmill. She took the seal.

The bookshelves held hundreds of tomes covering a range of topics including history, warfare, and alchemy. There were also several shelves containing first-edition collected works of poetry and fiction. Tomigot chose one about war. It was a picture book!

Lastly was the room that Devotion sensed magic in. Tomigot gently opened the door. Gossamer drapes covered the windows of this elegantly appointed hall, which had a brass-plated chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Upholstered chairs lined the walls, and stained-glass wall hangings depicted beau­tiful men, women, and children singing and playing instruments.

A harpsichord with a bench was resting in the northwest corner. Near the fireplace was a large standing harp. Devotion noticed an aura of transmutation magic coming from the harpsichord.  Before approaching it, Zoras tried to set it on fire, which, as a result, brought it to life!

The party immediately took action to destroy it. But before they could, it played a menacing melody with its out-of-tuned keys. It caused everyone but Devotion to dance, uncontrollably. Nori thought it was fun, and even invited Saint to join the dance party. Tomigot was a natural and was able to swing his axe along with the rhythm of the music, and eventually smashed it to smithereens, while Zoras made sure to burn it, as well.

With a tune still in his head, Tomigot tried to play the standing harp. The strength of each pluck of the string caused a high pitch pinging sound. It wasn’t pleasing to everyone’s ears.

Nori noticed the alabaster figurines of well-dressed dancers adorning the mantelpiece. She saw something very similar in Bildtrah’s store. Although upon closer inspection, she realized they were actually carvings of well-dressed skeletons. Nori threw the figurine down to the ground, breaking it into many pieces.

With the room cleared of magical auras, the party headed up the red marble staircase to its full height and came to a dusty balcony with a suit of black plate armor standing against one wall, draped in cobwebs.  Devotion sensed more transmutation magic coming from it. Zemotta tried to sneak past it, but the black suit of armor swing its sword at her to attack!

Zoras set a bonfire at its feet while Nori, Devotion, and Tomigot where still in the stairwell. Nori shot a few crossbow bolts through the railings, but it wasn’t very effecting, and Tomigot approached to have a hard time slashing it with his weapons. The suit of armor took many attacks and dealt lots of damage with its sword. It even, at one point, flew a few inches off the ground to, trying to avoid the bonfire. Eventually the suit of armor came crashing to the floor with defeat. Zemotta wanted a memento, so she asked Tomigot if he could break one of its fingers off as a keepsake. Without question, Tomigot broke a finger off and handed it to Zemotta. He then felt like he should have one himself, broke a second finger off. The fingers seemed to be hallow inside, so his put one on and demonstrated a finger puppet show with Zemotta.

With the suit of armor out of commission, the party was able to take in the details of the balcony. Oil lamps were mounted on the oak-paneled walls, which were carved with woodland scenes of trees, falling leaves, and tiny critters. Nori noticed they were actually depictions of tiny corpses hanging from the trees and worms bursting up from the ground. Zemotta clearly saw more footprints leading from the room she saw from the dumbwaiter, leading to a door next to where the armor was standing. Meanwhile, Devotion stood in the stairwell to perform another spell ritual.

Tomigot and Zoras wanted to see where the footprints were coming from, so they approached the double doors at the east of the balcony. They featured dusty panes of stained glass set into them. Designs in the glass resem­ble windmills.  She opened them to reveal a dusty, cobweb-filled master bedroom that had burgundy drapes covering the windows. Furnish­ings included a four-poster bed with embroidered cur­tains and tattered gossamer veils, a matching pair of wardrobes, a vanity with a wood-framed mirror and jewelry box, and a padded chair. A rotting tiger-skin rug was lying on the floor in front of the fire­place, which had a dust-covered portrait of the same man and woman that had been seen throughout the house hanging above it. A web-filled parlor in the southwest corner contained a table and two chairs. Resting on the dusty tablecloth was an empty porcelain bowl and a matching jug. 

Tomigot peeked inside, expecting to see little bear footprints, but instead saw little humanoid bare footprints. He then surveyed the rest of the room and spotted the jewelry box at the vanity. It was made of silver with gold filigree. He opened it to find three gold rings and a thin platinum necklace with a topaz pendant. He determined it belonged to the owners of the house and put it back on the vanity.

Zoras immediately went to the tiger skin rug. It looked pretty tattered, but nothing a little….or a LOT of help from a mending spell couldn’t handle. He spent a good amount of time restoring the rug before rolling it up to take.

Nori wanted to check what was behind the door on the western side of the balcony. She opened it and saw dust and cobwebs shrouding an elegantly appointed bed­room and an adjoining nursery. Double doors set with panes of stained glass revealed a balcony overlooking the front of the house. 

The bedroom contained a large bed, two end tables, and a wardrobe. Mounted on the wall next to the wardrobe was a full-length mirror with an ornate wooden frame carved to look like ivy and berries.

The nursery contained a crib covered with a hanging black shroud. Nori entered the nursery for a closer look. She parted the shroud, and saw a shallow indentation at the center of the crib’s bedding. 

Meanwhile, Zemotta opened the door the footprints lead to. Dusty shelves lined the walls of this room. A few of the shelves had folded sheets, blankets, and old bars of soap on them. A cobweb-covered broom leaned against the far wall. Zemotta walked inside the closet to follow the trail of steps, but it was too dark for the gnome to see exactly where they went. When she got deeper into the tiny closet, she was struck hard on the head by the broom. It was attacking her!

Hearing the commotion, Tomigot returned to the interior balcony to see if anyone was in trouble. Zoras followed and on his way out of the room, caught a glimpse of the jewelry box resting on the vanity, and quickly pocketed it. They came out to witness Zemotta reducing a broom to splinters!

At this time, Devotion’s spell ritual was complete. She wasn’t detecting any magic on this floor, or on the floors above or below.

Tomigot saw that Zemotta didn’t need any help, so he went to check the door opposite of the master suite. This dark room contained a wooden tub with clawed feet, a small iron stove with a kettle resting atop it, and a bar­rel under a spigot in the east wall. A cistern on the roof used to collect rainwater, which was borne down a pipe to the spigot.  The tub appeared to be full of dark, murky, water that smelled fowl and rotten. A layer of what looked like lots of human hair floated at the surface. Tomigot then saw some of the floating hair emerge from the water, as if it were an arm reaching out for him!

To Be Continued….

[cursed-in-barovia]

SESSION 13

While Devotion was back at the Moslavaric camp, Tayrizha commented on her potential. “You have the education and power to ‘see’ but choose to be blind.”

She then spent some time with Devotion to teach her a skill that Vistani seers have; a cunning insight that helps to read people more clearly.

After the lesson, Tayrizha let Devotion know that it was time for her to return to her group. Her family would help to guide her safely the following morning to the Tser Pool encampment, where her friends had last stopped.

And so Devotion was escorted to camp, where she found Zemotta, who seemed to be the only one left of her party there. She woke up not feeling well, so she stayed behind while the others made their way to the Village of Barovia. They headed out in the morning after breakfast.

Meanwhile, Dundee, Zoras, Nori, and Tomigot followed Madame Eva’s directions and at the River Ivlis Crossroads where old wooden gallows creaked in the chill wind that was blowing down from the high ground to the west. A frayed length of rope danced from its beam. The well-worn road split here, and a signpost opposite the gallows pointed off in three directions: Barovia Village to the east, Tser Pool to the northwest, and Ravenloft/Vallki to the southwest.

The northwest fork slanted down and disappeared into the trees, while the southwest fork clung to an upward slope. Across from the gallows, a low wall, crumbling in places, partially enclosed a small plot of graves shrouded in fog.

The party took the road that traveled east, the Svalich Road. But once they pasted the crossroad, they could hear a creaking noise behind them coming from the gallows. Where there was nothing before now hung a lifeless, gray body. The breeze turned the hanged figure slowly, so that it could fix its dead eyes upon Dundee.

“Do yeh see that!?” While Dundee saw himself hanging there, the others saw an unrecognizable person. Dundee shot an arrow at it. As the arrow went through the corpse, it melted away into nothing.

“That’s some bloody witchcraft!” he exclaimed.

The group continued along Svalish Road and crossed an arching stone bridge that stood above a 50 foot wide river that flowed as clear as a blue winter sky through the valley.

Eventually the party saw tall shapes loom out of the dense fog that surrounded everything. The muddy ground underfoot gave way to slick, wet cobblestones. The tall shapes became recognizable as village dwellings. The windows of each house stared out from pools of blackness. No sound cut the silence except for mournful sobbing that echoed through the streets from the distance.

A moaning sob floated through the sill, gray streets, coloring the party’s thoughts with sadness. They followed the sounds flowed from a dark, two-story townhouse.

“Hello?” Tomigot shouted from outside, with his deep half-orc voice.

The sobbing intensified.

The house was about 40 feet square, and appeared to be boarded up and barricaded from the inside. Nobody was able to peek inside the windows.

“Is everything alright? Can we help you?” Tomigot continued.

Meanwhile, Nori sent Chi in through the chimney to take a look inside. Chi somehow managed to make it inside without touching the chute, avoiding any chimney dust. Through her eyes, Nori could see a woman clutching a doll in the upstairs bedroom.

“Are you going to let us een or what!?” Dundee shouted, impatiently.

The woman wailed back, “I’ll talk to the first guy. The one with the deep voice. And only him!”

Nori picked the locks on the front door to let Tomigot in. He gently walked upstairs, and opened the door to the bedroom where the woman was.

The woman took one look at Tomigot, and flinched. “I wasn’t expecting…a man of your kind.” She started to move away from him, tucking herself deeper into the bedroom.

While Tomigot tried to calm her down, Dundee barged in demanding what the fuss was all about. The rest of the party had to pull him away.

Meanwhile, Zemotta and Devotion made their way to the village fairly easy, and were also attracted to the sobbing of the woman.

“I bet I know where they are!” said Devotion.

They found their way to the house and let themselves in through the open door. Devotion marched upstairs and pushed her way in to the room where Tomigot and the distressed woman was. The woman took a look at Devotion’s red skin and horns on her head and started crying all over again, having unusual creatures in her house!

Between Tomigot’s charismatic approach and Devotions sweet voice, the two were able to get some information out of the woman. Her name was Mary and about a week ago her beautiful teenage daughter, Gertruda, broke out of the house and never returned. She mentioned that Gertruda had never been outside of the house before. Mary had kept her locked up and hidden inside the house her whole life, for her protection. Mary feared the worst has happened to her.

“Do you have any idea where she might have gone?” Devotion inquired.

Mary hadn’t the slightest clue, but her fear was that someone like Strahd might have intercepted her. He seemed to like pretty girls. Or maybe something in the woods got to her. Any of the possibilities that ran through her head were bad.

Dundee asked Devotion to see if there was anything left behind to help track her down. Mary showed them the doll that she was clutching. The malformed doll had a strange leer and wore a sackcloth dress.

“The doll used to be mine in my youth, and I had passed it down to Gertruda.” Mary explained.

There was a tag stitched to the hem of the dress bearing the words “is No Fun, Is No Blinksy!”

“Can we take this?” Devotion asked.

“This is all I have left of her! Something that’s meaningful, anyway!” Mary pulled the doll away and tucked it into her arms.

“Do you mind if we look around for clues, then?” asked Devotion.

Mary allowed it, and not much could be found. All they were able to find was a garment of clothing. So they took it.

The party tried to assure Mary that they would do their best to find Gertruda, and made sure she calmed down before seeing what else this village had to offer.

Across the way they saw what seemed to be a shop, and headed over to it. The spase light from the building spilled out form behind the drawn heavy curtains. A sign over the door creaked on its hinges. It read “Bildrath’s Mercantile.”

They walked inside the shop to see similar goods as what Gregori had in Orasnau. Just common adventuring gear and a collection of multiples of various trinkets.

“Got any holy water heeya?” Dundee asked.

The merchant, Bildrath Cantemir, pulled out a wooden box. “I’ve got a few. They’re 250 gold pieces each.” Dundee’s jaw dropped, and had the urge to argue.

“If you want it badly enough, you’ll pay for it,” Bildrath quickly said.

The shoulders of the other party members sank. Bildrath saw this, and offered an additional option.

“I do, however, trade. If you have anything worth my while, we might be able to work out a deal.”

Devotion perked up and started going through her found treasures. Zoras did the same. Nori set her eyes on anything that spoke out to her that was on the shelves behind the counter.

“How much would you value this vest? It’s made from crocodile skin. I skinned it myself. Would you give 100 gold pieces for?” Dundee offered.

Bildrath wasn’t quite sure what a crocodile was, and had a hard time understanding Dundee’s thick accent. “I’m not quite sure I can sell it for that much with that story. Skin from a….crocodile you said? I’m not sure it would appeal to many around here. Maybe the Vistani, but I’m not willing to take that much of a gamble. How about 10 gold pieces? And even that’s a bit of a stretch on my part.”

While negotiations were going on, Nori guided her invisible mage hand to one of the shelves of the counter. She tried to grab something, but the hand accidently knocked into a figuring on the shelf, creating a noise that Bildrath caught onto.  He looked at each one of the group members, searching for mischief, and settled his eyes on Nori.

“No funny business here!” he said, directly at Nori.

Devotion was able to find something worth trading and got some supplies. Dundee eventually agreed to take the 10 gold piece discount by trading his crocodile vest in and purchasing a vile of holy water. Tomigot wanted to know where they could get something to eat. Bildrath mentioned the nearby tavern.

After wrapping up purchases and trades, the party ventured down the road. A single shaft of light thrust illumination into the main square, its brightness looking like a solid pillar in the heavy fog. Above the gaping doorway, a sign hung precariously askew, proclaiming this to be the Blood on the Vine tavern. Tomigot noticed that the sign used to read “Blood OF the Vine.”

The group entered through the front doors. The once finely appointed tavern appeared to have grown shoddy over the years. A blazing fire in the hearth gave scan warmth to the few huddled souls within; Arik the barkeep, who could be seen mindlessly cleaning glass after glass, then starting over, three Vistani women sitting together, and a well-dressed man who took notice of the group’s entrance, and invited them over.

“You must be new here! Drinks on me, welcome,” said Ismark Kolyanovich. It didn’t take much for the group to agree to an invite when free drinks were involved.

It didn’t take very long for Ismark to ask for their help, since nobody In town wanted any part in his errands. He mentioned that his sister, Ireena, needs to be relocated to somewhere safe. She has been constantly pursued by Strahd Von Zarovich, the ruler of Barovia, who happens to be a vampire. He had kidnapped her twice before, and Ireena cannot remember any of it. Their house had been under attack, repeatedly. She needed to be somewhere safe, like within the walls of a town called Vallaki, but Ismark could not escort her there on his own. The Slavich Road can be dangerous. Ismark also needed help moving his recently deceased father from his house to the church so that a proper burial could be performed.

The party agreed to assist him with both tasks. While there was still daylight, Ismark lead them to a weary-looking mansion squatted behind a rusting iron fence. It was the only proper mansion in town, fit for someone of a leadership role. The iron gates were twisted and torn. The right gate laid cast aside, while the left swung lazily in the wind. The stuttering squeal and clang of the gate repeated with mindless precision. Weeds choked the grounds and pressed with menace upon the house itself. Yet, against the walls, the growth had been tramped down to create a path all about the domain. Heavy claw markings had stripped the once-beautiful finish of the walls. Great black marks told of the fires that had assailed the mansion.  Not a pane nor a shard of glass stood in any window. All the windows were barred with planks, each one marked with stains of evil omen.

Dundee and Tomigot looked around the perimeter. It looked like trampled weeds and human footprints surrounded the house.

Ismark approached the front door, knocked, and called out to Ireena to open the door. The lifting of a bar behind the door could heard. The door opened, and Ismark invited everyone inside.

The interior of the mansion was well furnished, yet the fixtures showed signs of great wear. Noticeable oddities were the boarded-up windows and the presence of holy symbols in every room.

Ismark introduced his sister, Ireena Kolyana, a striking young woman with auburn hair. The scars of two pairs of bite marks could be seen on her neck.

“This way,” ushered Ismark.

The body of Ismark and Ireena’s father was in a side drawing room on the floor – lying in a simple wooden coffin surrounded by wilting flowers and the faint odor of decay.

“Oh is…..was your father the burgomaster?” Tomigot asked.

“Ah, yes. I thought I mentioned that. Apologies. Kolyan Indirovich,” said Ismark.

Ireena chimed in, “Wolves and other terrible creatures have been attacking the house night after night for weeks. My father’s heart couldn’t stand the constant assault and had died three days ago. Strangely, since his death, the house has not come under attack.”

“We made this coffin ourselves but haven’t been able to find the help to take it across town to the church. People seem to be afraid of Ireena, given what has been attracted to this house,” continued Ismark.

The party asked her why Strahd seemed to be so interested in her. Ireena explained she couldn’t remember much. The only memory is the scars that have been left on her neck, and the blazing hunger in his eyes whenever he sees her.

Ismark urged the group to help haul the burgomaster across town before I got dark.

“You don’t want to be outside at night,” he warned. “We can stay at the church and have Father Donovich take care of the burial first thing in the morning.”

Atop a slight rise, against the roots of the pillar stone that supports Castle Ravenloft, stood a gray, sagging edifice of stone and wood. This church had obviously weathered the assaults of evil for centuries on end and was worn and weary. A bell tower rose toward the back, and flickering light shined through holes in the shingled roof. The rafters strained feebly against their load.

The heavy wooden doors of the church were covered with claw marks and scarred by fire. Ismark lead everyone inside. The doors opened to reveal an unlit hall that reeked of mildew. It lead to a ten-food-wide, twenty-food-long brightly lit chapel. Four doors, two on each side of the hall, lead to adjacent chambers.

Tomigot, who was carrying most of the weight of the burgomaster, slowly entered the hall. The chapel was strewn with debris, and a soft voice could be heard from within, reciting a prayer. Devotion went ahead to find the priest.

The chapel was in shambles, with overturned and broken pews littering the dusty floor. Dozens of candles mounted in candlesticks and candelabras lit every dusty corner in a fervent attempt to rid the chapel of shadows. At the far end of the church sat a claw-scarred altar, behind which kneeled a priest in soiled vestments. Next to him hung a long, thick rope that stretched up into the bell tower.

Suddenly, the prayer from the priest was blotted out by an inhuman scream that rose up from beneath the wooden floor. A young man’s voice cried out, “Father, I’m starving!”

Devotion approached the priest and politely interrupted his prayer. Father Donovich took notice and was a bit shaken to see a tiefling speaking to him. He was about to ask how he could help, but then saw Ismark, Ismark, and several new faces surrounding a shotty coffin.

“Is that Burgomaster Indirovich?” he asked as he nodded toward the coffin.

“It is,” Ismark confirmed.

“Hi, umm, what’s going on downstairs?” Devotion asked with suspicious concern.

“Oh, um. That’s my son, Doru. He’s not well,” Father Donovich briefly explained.

“Not well, how?” Devotion pushed.

“Well, about a year ago, Doru had gone with some powerful wizard to try to end the Devil Strahd, but he came back…changed.” Father Donovich looked deep into Devotion, hoping she understood what he meant.

He went on to tell that he managed to trap Doru in the church undercroft and locked him inside until he can figure out how to fix his son. He has been down there, hungry, for about a year now.

Meanwhile Dundee, Nori, and Zoras searched some of the rooms in the hall. Dundee took the northeast room where there was an old deck and chair standing against the south wall, and a wooden holy symbol mounted above them – a sunburst. A ten-foot-long iron rod attached to the north wall stood bare, suggesting a tapestry once hung there. Against the far wall stood a wooden cabinet with four tall doors. Dundee opened the cabinet. For its size it contained very little. Inside was a tinderbox, a few wooden boxes full of candles, a flask of holy water, and two well-used books: Hymns to the Dawn, a volume of chants to the Morninglord, and The Blade of Truth: The Uses of Logic in the War Against Diabolist Heresies, as Fought by the Ulmist Inquisition, a strange book that mixed logic exercises with lurid descriptions of fiend-worshipping cults.  Dundee grabbed the holy symbol, holy water, and attempted to sing some hymns in the room.

Nori checked a room that contained a wooden bed with a straw-filled mattress, next to which rested a small table with an oil lamp burning brightly on it. Mounted above the bed’s headboard was a wooden sun-shaped holy symbol.  She climbed on top of the bed to grab the holy symbol.

The room Zoras investigated was dirty and lightless. It also contained a wooden be with a straw-filled mattress with a wooden holy symbol mounted on the wall above it. The only thing of interest was the holy symbol, so Zoras made sure to pocket that.

Tomigot was concerned about everyone’s safety in the church, knowing a “changed” person was down below. He asked Father Donovich where the entrance was to the undercroft.

“It’s in the front room,” Father Donovich vaguely instructed.

“Where, over here?” Tomigot asked, as he approached the front of the church, hoping for more directions.

Eventually he found a room with a trapdoor set into the floor at the far corner. Time and neglect have punched holes in the ceiling of the moldy room, which contained a few broken roof shingles amid puddles of water. The heavy wooden trapdoor was held shut with a chain and a padlock. A young man’s screams of anguish can be heard through the door.

“I kind of broke the lock,” Father Donovich admitted. The key broke inside of it.

After assessing the situation, the group had a long conversation with Father Donovich as far as what to do with Doru. Father Donovich wanted to keep him alive and was hoping there might be someone in Barovia that can help save him and return him to his old self. Some thought it was easy enough to just feed him. They could go hunting, and bring back dinner. Most, however, figured he was incurable and the only way to fix anything was to kill him, and started to devise a plan for entering the undercroft. But before they could, Tomigot reasoned to keep him alive until they were sure there was no cure, and that if anything were to happen overnight, he would take responsibility. And to prove his word, he offered to take watch while sitting ON the trapdoor that night.

Night fell and moaning, groaning, and shuffling of feet could be heard outside the church. A quick peek outside confirmed that many zombies were roaming aimlessly in the streets of the village. The group had a long day and a busy morning to follow. It was time for rest, so they paired up to take watch that night. Dundee and Devotion took first watch, while Nori and Zora claimed two of the rooms, Tomigot sat, like he promised, on the trap door, and Zemotta, Ismark, Ireena, and Father Donovich tried to catch some sleep at the center of the chapel.

At midnight, during Dundee and Devotion’s watch, an eerie green light could be seen through the cracks of the boards in the windows and coming from the graveyard outside. Dundee took a look and saw that from this light emerged a ghostly procession. Wavering images of doughty women toting greatswords, woodwise men with slender bows, dwarves with glittering axes, and archaically dressed mages with beards and strange, pointed hats – all these and more were marching forth from the graveyard, their numbers growing by the second.

“I want to go see what they are and where they’re going,” Dundee announced to Devotion.

She didn’t like that idea but knew Dundee couldn’t be reasoned with. So she conducted a few spells to help protect Dundee while he went out, and sent her raven familiar along with him to keep a distant eye on him.

Dundee took Scabs, and the two went outside, managing to avoid the roaming zombies. Dundee then approached some of the ghostly green figures and tried talking to them, but they didn’t respond and kept marching along. He followed their direction and was eventually lead outside of the village. At this point, Devotion lost her connection with her raven, but relied on it obeying her instructions to still follow but come back if there was danger.

It was very dark outside the village. The only light source was the glow of the figures. Dundee then felt a warning from his whip, and Scabs started to sense something soon. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by two wolves and a much larger dire wolf. Dundee immediately set a cordon of arrows that aimed every which way. The wolves lunged at Scabs and Dundee with hungry bites. A few of them took hits with the arrows.

Devotion’s raven immediately retreated back to the church in a panic. Once Devotion could feel the connection again, she realized something was wrong, and paced in circles within the church, trying to decide what to do. She then woke up each of her sleeping party members, one by one. They were not happy to hear the news that Dundee decided to go out at night, ALONE.

Scabs received many bits before falling unconscious. Dundee made sure to heal her while trying to fight off the wolves. Though still weak, Scabs was able to take a good bite out of one of the wolves.

Meanwhile at the church, the party decided to just sleepily ready their weapons and wait for Dundee to come back.

Eventually each of the wolves were slain, and the green spirits continued their march, unphased. Dundee and Scabs were weakened and tired, so they retreated back to the church, making sure to be stealthy to avoid more of the roaming zombies. Once they were within range of Devotions raven, Tomigot opened the church doors for them to run into.

Once they made it safely into the church, the party grumbled a bit, but were too upset and tired to ask questions, so they went back to sleep, leaving Dundee, Scabs, and Devotion a bit shaken, and emotionally exhausted from that night’s events.

To Be Continued….

[cursed-in-barovia]

SESSION 12:

  Before continuing their search for Lela, the party looted the ghouls and wight they had just defeating.  The clothing they were wearing was tattered and valueless, but the wight still wore an ornate bronze torc around his wrist.  The sparkle of a jeweled bracelet that was laying in the light, snow covered ground caught Zoras’ attention.  Devotion could then be seen heading back in the direction they came from. She mentioned something about hearing the voice of Tayrizha in her head and calling her back to camp.

  While the rest carried on, it wasn’t long before Dundee’s whip signaled that danger was near.  He spotted large, fresh wolf tracks crossing their path.  Then, suddenly the party was flanked by two hungry winter wolves.  Dundee set his magical snare trap, while the rest shot arrows and bolts, swung fists and axes, created bonfires, etc.  The party was able to fight off the wolves, thanks to the help of a successful capture from Dundee’s snare.

   The group followed the forest trail for another two hours.  The dense trees gave way to a large, rocky clearing nearly a hundred feet in diameter.  At the center of this clearing, seven massive, weather-worn stones were jutting from the ground like blunt, misshapen teeth.  At the center of these standing stones was a small hill bearing a flat, table-like rock.  A man is stretched across this table, bound with ropes and struggling weakly.  A Vistani woman stood above him, her pallid skin hanging loosely on her frame.  She held aloft a stone bowl in a clawed hand.

   It didn’t take much for the party to realize they needed to form a plan to scope out the clearing before heading toward the center. Tomigot and Zoras stayed, while Dundee and Scabs headed right and Nori and Zemotta headed left.  On the ride of the outcropping, Dundee could see a ghoul lurking around one of the large stones surrounding Lela, or what she had become.  On the left, Zemotta and Nori could see a ghast keeping guard by another one of the large stones.  As if in unison, Tomigot charged in, full speed toward the center, Dundee ran forward to throw alchemist fire at the ghoul, but missed, Nori shot a bolt at the ghast, while Zemotta rushed toward it with her monkish speed.  Zoras quickly followed Tomigot and decided to enlarge his melee-fighting friends.

   Suddenly Tomigot and Zemotta grew larger in size and decided to focus their attacks on the ghast, before moving on to Lela.  The stench of the undead creature did not phase them.  The frenzy and his new enlarged size excited Tomigot.  After the ghast received several attacks from Nori and Zemotta, Tomigot raised his great axe with both hands, and chopped down with full force, cleaving the ghast in half, from head to groin, straight down the spine.

   Meanwhile Dundee and Zoras focused attacks on the ghoul, while making sure Lela didn’t try to get away.   But seeing the destruction that Tomigot was causing, Lela focused her Vistani eyes toward him, causing him to feel episodes of sharp pain inside his head. Tomigot tried to shake it off, picked up his shield, and ran to the ghoul that Dundee, Scabs, and Zoras were trying to defeat, and was currently surround by fire; both magical and chemical. Lela followed.  She gave Tomigot a strong swipe of her monstrous claw and then grappled him, with her mouth open wide, ready to bite.  But before she could sink her teeth into him, Zemotta made her way over and sent a strong fist of air at Lela, knocking her off Tomigot as if flicking a tick off of skin.  Lela fell prone to the ground, making her perfectly vulnerable.  Everyone tried their best to attack her while she was down. Then Tomigot, after nearly have been bit by yet another seemingly cursed creature, dropped his shield, raised his great axe with both hands, again, and swing down even harder than before, slicing through Lela’s torso, right at her revealed belly button, causing her body to split in half and separating two inches apart due to the force of the blow.

   “I LIKE BEING BIG!” Tomigot roared.

   “Is…is it over?  Is she dead?” said the voice of a weak man; the one laying on the stone table. Hanzi.

   He begged to be untied and profusely thanks the party for saving his life.  He wasn’t sure what had gotten into Lela, but she hadn’t been herself for a few days. Intimidated by Tomigot’s size, he mentioned that Lela was wearing lots of nice jewelry that he bought her as gifts. He offered all of it to the group for saving his life, repeated his many thanks, but did not want to have any further association with them, after witnessing the events that just occurred.  At the first chance of an awkward silence, Hanzi ran off and disappeared into the woods. Zemotta then realized she still had the wind fan that Donani gave her to give to Lela, but now she’s dead, so now she can keep the fan!  The party took a short rest.

   As if it were routine, Zoras then formed an ice sled and loaded up Lela’s body halves onto it to haul back to the Moslavaric camp. Dundee lead the way with no signals from his whip for the entire journey.

  The Moslavarics were huddled together at their camp while watching the adventurers return.  They could see that Zoras was hauling something…a body.  Once the party was close enough, they could confirm that it was Lela on the sled.  The look of many questions appeared on the Moslavarics faces.

   “What happened!? Explain!” demanded the captain, Keldro.

   The party explained that something happened to Lela and that she was trying to do some sort of ritual on Hanzi and that she almost bit Tomigot!  Tomigot felt terrible for slicing her in half, but she was very dangerous.  The Moslavarics were shocked to hear what had happened, but also had a feeling Lela wasn’t herself and seemed to be prepared for bad news.  They understood that killing her was the best thing to do and thanked the party for taking care of things by offering them a meal and a place to rest before continuing their own quest.

   With the news of Lela quickly spreading around camp, kids could be seen rummaging through Lela’s vardo.  Zemotta and Nori shooed them away before taking a peek for themselves to see if there was anything useful inside.

   It was about midday and the party still needed to get to the village of Barovia.  The Moslavarics told them that they were only about a half day away and could probably make it before sunset if they move quickly.  They ate their meals and were able to rest just a bit more before heading South.  Devotion wanted to stay behind to learn from Tayrizha, and the family made sure that they would make sure she would return to the group safely, soon.

   A few hours into their trek, Dundee’s whip gave a signal. The grunt of a bear and the skittering of many rats could be heard approaching.  Zemotta and Dundee were initially unphased by an encounter of swarms of rats.  They had not experienced their resilience like the others had.  Dudnee set a trap, which the bear walked into, while the others slash, skewered, and kicked rat after rat.  The rats, however, didn’t go out without a vicious, and annoying fight as Tomigot took the brunt of their repeated bites.  They got a taste of Zemotta, too, where, in return, Scabs got a taste of the rats.  Eventually the bear and rats were slain.  The party got quite the workout, but the still had to get to Barovia.

   Eventually the path they were on lead to a lake, several hundred feet across.  It was about dusk, and the glow of a campfire surrounded by more Vistani wagons could be seen across the water in the distance.  The party searched along the shore looking for a way to cross since swimming the large lake would take a while.  Dundee was able to find the river inlet that fed the lake.  There were sections of it where rocks stuck out of the river enough to act as stepping stones.  Zoras gracefully swam across.  Tomigot carried Zemotta across, just by trudging through the river.  The water only came up to his thighs. Dundee and Nori hopped across the stones, while Scabs swim across, as well.

   The Vistani camp was not too far away.  Five colorful round tents, each ten feet in diameter, were pitched outside a ring of four barrel-topped wagons.  A much larger tent stood near the short of the lake, its sagging form lit from within.  Near that tent, eight unbridled horses were drinking from the river.  As they approached, they could hear the mournful strains of an accordion clash with the singing of several brightly clad figures around a bonfire.  Twelve Vistani were standing and sitting around the fire, telling stories and guzzling wine.

   “Hello, there?” Zemotta carefully yelled out, catching the attention of a few of the many Vistani.

   Meanwhile Dundee tried to sneak around to one of the wagons.

   “Ah, we’ve been expecting you!  Come along, we’ll pour you a drink!” welcomed one of the men.  “Are you hungry”?

   Tomigot and Zemotta were like kids in a candy store.

   A few moment later the man stopped to think.  “Hold on, there’s only 4 of you.  Where’s the other.”

   Some rustling could be heard from behind one of the wagons.

  “Go check that out!” ordered the man to a few other nearby Vistani men.

  “Who goes there!?” they yell.

  Dundee emerges from behind the wagon.

  “Oye! I’ve come to play you a little diddy!” Dundee says, as he pulls out his digeridoo.

   The men were a little confused, albeit they were a bit tipsy, but they ordered Dundee to join the rest of the party.  “You’re welcome to play music with the rest of us.”

   Some of the Vistani women were dancing to the music. Zoras joined in while Tomigot indulged himself with lots of wine.  

   The music then died down and it was time for stories.

   “Oh, you want a story? I’ve got stories!” Dundee then went on to tell of his days in the jungle and the crocodiles.  A lot of the Vistani seemed to not understand what he was saying, while others weren’t sure if his tales were true as they seemed too fantastical. Some were simply too intoxicated to follow along.

   After Dundee was done telling his story, another Vistani began recounts of a tale of his own.

  “A mighty wizard came to this land over a year ago.  I remember him like it was yesterday.  He stood exactly where you’re standing.  A very charismatic man, he was.  He thought he could rally the people of Barovia against the devil Strahd.  He stirred them with thought of revolt and bore them to the castle en masse.

  “When the vampire appeared, the wizard’s peasant army fled in terror.  A few stood their ground and were never seen again.

   “The wizard and the vampire cast spells at each other. Their battle flew from the courtyards of Ravenloft to a precipice overlooking the falls.  I saw the battle with my own eyes.  Thunder shook the mountainside, and great rocks tumbled down upon the wizard, yet by his magic he survived.  Lightning from the heavens struck the wizard, and again he stood his ground.  But when the devil Strahd fell upon him, the wizard’s magic couldn’t save him.  I saw him thrown a thousand feet to his death. I climbed down to the river to search for the wizard’s body, to see if, you know, he had anything of value, but the River Ivlis had already spirited him away.

   “Gah, his name escapes me.  It sounded important.  I think it started with an M.”

   The Vistani looks over to the adventurers, “It was fated that you would visit our humble camp. Madam Eva foretold your coming.  She awaits you.”  He points them over to the largest tent.

   Magic flames were casting a reddish glow over the interior of her tent, revealing a low table covered in black velvet cloth.  Glints of light seemed to flash from a crystal ball on the table as a hunched figure peered into its depths.  As the crone spoke, her voice crackled like dry weeds. “At last you have arrived!” Cackling laughter burst like mad lightning from her withered lips.

   Madame Eva nodded and named each party member and gave a few words to each of them.

   “Tomigot, you are meant to be a leader….a leader of the pack! Nori, friends are worth more than money. You are rich!  Dundee, playing your native instrument may bring memories from home.  Zemotta, once you harness the power of the elements, you will be a force to be reckoned with! Zoras, your narcissism may attract more attention than you bargained for.”

   “Good or bad attention?” Zoras quickly asked for elaboration.

   “Both!” Madame Eva responded.  Zoras snapped his fingers in disappointment.

   “Now, would you me to do a card reading?” Madame Eva asked, while shuffling cards from a Torokka deck in her hands.  The party was delighted and agreed to the reading.

    “I suppose you want to know why you’re all here.  You have the power to stop a powerful curse that this land has been under for centuries.  These cards will give you clues to help you!”

    Madame Eva kindly asked Zemotta to remove the crown cards from the deck.  She then shuffles the rest of the cards.

    “This card tells of history.  Knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy.”  Madame Eva revealed the top card of the deck; Mercenary. “Your treasure lies in a house that many enter, but fewer leave.”

    “This card tells of a powerful force for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope.” She reveals the second card; Paladin.  “I see a sleeping prince, a servant of light and the brother of darkness.  The treasure lies with him.”

    “This card is a card of power and strength.  It tells of the weapon of vengeance: a sword of sunlight.” She reveals the third card; Abjurer.  “I see a fallen house guarded by a great stone dragon.  Look to the highest peak.”

    Madame Eva asks for the crown cards that Zemotta was holding. She shuffled them and continued to draw cards.

   “This card sheds light on one who will help you greatly in the battle against darkness.” She revealed the top card; Marionette. “What horror is this?  I see a man made by a man. Ageless and alone, it haunts the towers of the castle.” Madame Eva seemed to be unapproving of this card.

   “Your enemy is a creature of darkness, whose powers are beyond mortality. This card will lead you to him!” She drew a second card from the crown deck; Mists.  Madame Eva’s shoulders sunk. “The cards can’t see where the evil lurks.  The mists obscure all!”  She gave out a deep sigh.

    “Well, I hope this will give you a good start.”

    Tomigot then asks if she could read palms.  She did, and gave him a reading.  She saw great leadership in him, could see the impression the werewolf experience left on him.  The wolf was still a part of him.

   Zoras quickly asked for his turn at a reading.  Madame Eva had a look of disgust on her face. “I don’t know where those things have been,” referring to his hands.

   “You already know me too well,” Zoras said proudly.  She went on to tell him that his promiscuity could get him in trouble, and that he may not even be aware of the lasting effects his has caused him already.

    Zemotta wanted a reading, too.  Madame Eva told her that she should trust her “vision”, giving her a little wink.  Zemotta seemed to know what that meant.

   Nori was shy but stuck her hand toward Madame Eva.  She elaborated about what she meant about having friends.  She was no longer the loner she thought she was.  She was surrounded by family and that she should protect them to keep is that way.

   Madame Eva then looked at Dundee, asking if he wanted his palm read, without saying a word.  Dundee straightened his body and set his hand down in front of her.  She told him that he seems to be misunderstood many times, especially when he tells of his tales.  But soon, they will understand.

   “I think we’ve had enough readings for tonight.  You have a long road ahead of you.  Feel free to spend the night here.  We’ll feed you in the morning before you go off to save Barovia from this dreaded curse!”

   Many of the other Vistani were passed out at the fire or in their wagons.  The party tried their best to make comfortable arrangements to catch some much-needed sleep for what lied next.

 …..To be Continued.

[cursed-in-barovia]

SESSION 11

While everyone was out shopping, Dundee seemed to have disappeared. Perhaps the ghast that knocked Scabs unconscious was getting to him. Devotion, on the other hand, was left under Marku and Corina’s supervision back at the tavern.  She sat in her chair, bobbing back and forth, mumbling incomprehensible phrases.  It wasn’t until the odor of steamed asparagus coming from the kitchen that Devotion snapped out of her catatonic state.  Once she came to, she realized she was in the tavern with her friends nowhere to be found. She also wasn’t sure if she was still dreaming, or if the events that happened earlier at the mansion were real either.

   Once Marku realized Devotion was showing signs of cognizance, he ran out of the tavern looking for the rest of her party.  He spotted Zemotta and approached her.

   “You friend is awake, or back to normal!  Your friend is awake!”  Marku was holding a note in his hand.  It had a waxed seal with the marking of a raven on it.  He handed it over to Zemotta.  “This came in for you too, while you were away.”

   Zemotta takes the note.  “Who delivered it?” she asked.

   “Oh, well I never seen the man before,” said Marku.  “He wasn’t one of many words. I assume he’s a Vistani based on his colorful, though mostly red clothing.   As soon as he handed the letter over, he left and rode off on his horse.”  Marku looked on, waiting for Zemotta to open the letter, curious.

   As Zemotta read the letter, Zoras, Nori, and Tomigot arrived to see what was going on.

   “Well what does it say?” Zoras asked, impatiently.

   Zemotta’s eyes bulged open, “There is much wealth in this community. I offer all that might be had to thee,” she recited.  “Where is Barovia?” she asked Marku.  “I thought we were IN Barovia.”

   “Oh yes, we are in Orasnau, which is a town IN Barovia….well the ‘country’ of Barovia, if you will.”  Marku tried to explain.  “There also happens to be a town called Barovia, which lies South of here, through the Svalich Woods.”

   “How far is it from here?” Zemotta asked.

   “I haven’t been there myself, hmmm, and we don’t normally go there for supplies.” Marku tries to recall the last time anyone had gone there. “I would guess it could take a couple of days, what, with the Svalich Woods and all.”  A look of worry appeared on his face. “Oh, but if you plan on going there, please be careful at night! Bad things happen in the wood at night. Perhaps you’ll run into other people that can help you out.  It’s safer in larger numbers, right?”

   It was only around noon, so it was still early enough to start heading out to Barovia…the town.  Tomigot noticed that Dundee had disappeared and wanted to leave Marku a note in case he came back looking for the party.  He pulled out a pen and a piece of parchment, and tried his best to form letters and spell words.  Once he was done, he handed the note over to Marku, who then added another word.  “I will give this to Dundee, you have my word.”

  Before setting off, they made sure to recollect Devotion and make sure she purchased and collected any supplies she might need, such as a healing potion, herbs, and charcoal.  A moment later they were off and heading South into the Svalich Woods.  

  The day was overcast and gloomy.  Snow blanketed the deep forest.  Although the part had been exploring the forest for most of the day at this point, they had yet to come across another person or sign of civilization. A few wide spaces between the trees hinted at rough trails, but the snow made it difficult to discern whether they were man-made footpaths or game trails.

  Suddenly Devotion noticed several emaciated bears approaching the party from opposite sides of the trail.  However, Zemotta and Zoras had already caught site of them as Zemotta rushed toward one of the six bears to hit it with her mace, and then swung at it with her fist.  Zoras hexed the bear closest to him, then sent an eldritch toward it.  Zemotta made a few more attacks at one of the bears. Zoras then muttered a few words and pointed at Zemotta and Tomigot.  Their bodies began to increase in size.  Zemotta was now the size of a human, while Tomigot was the size of a troll.  With their enlarged size, it gave them more strength to take out these bears.

   Nori and Chi singled out one of the bears towards the back of the pack. She stabbed her rapier deep into the bear’s body as if it were a skewer, then had to shove the bear off with her foot to remove it.  She then stabbed it again for the fatal blow as another bear witnessed, causing it to run away from her, in fear.  But before it could get away, she sent Chi after it and shot her crossbow at it, preventing it from getting away, alive.

   Devotion tried to give a few bears some chilling touches, until they were in a good enough position to send a line of fire at them; a spell she read a great wizard named Aganazzar would use.  A bear, then retaliated with a bite and a strong swing of its claws, causing her to fall unconscious.  Zemotta ran over to her to administer a healing potion to revive her.

    Meanwhile, the massive Tomigot was surrounded by bears, and nearly fell unconscious, but his relentless half-orc strength kept him standing, barely.

Dundee

During his brief break away from people, Dundee realized his current reality rested in Barovia, and that bad, scary things will always happen to both he and Scabs. Whether he wanted to be more precautious or ruthless was something he would have to decide.

   Dundee returned to the Seven Tables Inn tavern, where he last saw his adventuring group.  They weren’t there, but Marku had a scribbled, and poorly written note from Tomigot suggesting where they went.  This gave Dundee a good chuckle. 

Marku then informed him that they headed to Barovia, and that if he was quick, he should be able to catch up to them before nightfall.   So he and Scabs set out South of Orasnau.

    After Zemotta knocked out the remaining hungry bears, the party took a short rest. Devotion pulled out her brazier as well as herbs and charcoal she had acquired in town to summon a familiar.  Within a few minutes a raven appeared; Eselios, the talking raven the party met near the Crossing Inn outside Phlan.

   “Hello, I remember you!” said Eselios.  Devotion greeted him back and informed him on their journey to Barovia.

   Suddenly the sound of drumming could be heard, not too far from their resting spot.  Nori and Devotion send their flying familiars to investigate.  Through Chi, Nori was able to determine that the drumming was coming from a Vistani camp.  She was also able to see a raven flying nearby.  It was carrying something shiny, but she was unable to discern what the object was.

  Dundee

     It was pretty easy for Dundee to find and follow the tracks of his party.  At a certain point, though, he came across bear tracks, and eventually the corpses of six malnourished, bloodied bears. There were also sets of humanoid footprints that was larger than he would think, definitely bigger than Tomigot’s size.  He noticed the party’s tracks continued, so he and Scabs moved forward.

      Zemotta lead the group carefully toward the sounds of the drums. When they arrived to the source they could see seven gaudily-painted wagons with rounded wooden roofs filling a large clearing in the forest.  The wagons formed a large circle around a blazing campfire.  Two dozen humans surrounded the fire, playing musical instruments and dancing.  They were all dark-haired and light-skinned, ranging from young children to the elderly. Their mismatched clothing was well-worn, indicating a rough life on the open road.

   “Hello?” Zemotta called out, waiving toward anyone who might have heard her.

   A rangy, weathered man approached the group with his hands held out to his sides.  His clothing was just as mismatched as the others’ and he wore a sky blue headscarf. The others in the camp moved deferentially to let him pass, indicating that he held some sort of authority in their group.

   “Welcome and well-met to you.  With an open heart, I invite you to share my family’s fire.  It is rare for us to ever welcome giorgios into our camp, but our need is great.  First, please respect and enjoy our traditional activities.  Then, there will be time for discussion.”

   Seeing how entertained Tomigot was by the dancing and music that was going on, the man reached his hand out toward him, “How about we dance?”

  Tomigot eagerly accepted and the two men began to dance around the fire.

  “Ah the prastonata!” called out the crowd around the campfire.

   Tomigot was a natural!  The man wanted to know if he danced the prastonata before.  It’s a traditional, fast, and seductive dance of the Vistani.  Tomigot informed him that he danced a lot with his family, growing up.  It was just something he enjoyed and was good at.        

   This opened up the conversation, and while dancing the man introduced himself as Elias Bogarav and that the people at this camp were his family.  They belonged to a Boem tasque; a family or group of entertainers.

  Meanwhile a friendly young Vistani man who looked to be about 17 years old approached Zemotta to invite her to a dance.  He introduced himself as Donani.  He was handsome, but seemed self-conscious.  He informed Zemotta that he was to marry a girl named Lela in a few days.  She belonged to the Moslavaric family, who wasn’t too far away.  He went on to explain that there had been rumors that a mortu – a handsome young Vistani outcast named Hanzi – had been following the Moslavaric family and had been persistent in wooing Lela.  Her family has been refusing to sheld or aid him, but he was still worried that Lela’s affections may be turning to Hanzi, despite the upcoming wedding, the stern admonishments of her own family, and of course her promises of love to him.

  Donani was forbidden from approaching the Moslavaric encampment, with it being so close to the wedding.  He asked Zemotta if she and her friends could do him a favor by delivering a gift to Lela on behalf of him. He then held out a fan and handed it to her. “It’s a wind fan. When you wave it, it blows out a bone-chillingly cold wind that carries the sickly-sweet stench of rotting flesh.” He noticed Zemotta had a look of confusion on her face.  “She’ll understand and appreciate it,” he assured.

   As the tempo of the prastonata picked up, one of the Bagarav girls swayed to the music and danced over toward Zoras.  Captain Elias whispers to him in passing, still dancing, “Our Annika dances it well. Look, she invites you to dance it with her, to match her step for step as she sways!”

  Zoras was able to impress her with his ability to keep up with the tempo of the music.  But as it increased, he started to loose his rhythm.

   “Can they play something slower?  It’s more of my speed,” Zoras requested, with a devious expression on his face.

   As the music slowed down, he was able to take control and spun and twirled Annika around.  The crowed looked on in awe.   Annika was smitten.

   Meanwhile, Nori found comfort in making friends with the horses at the camp, with Saint, her friend made of dancing lights.  She was brushing them and adding flowers to their hair. The children saw this and tried to help. Then Chi started to act up and gave Nori a signal that the raven was circling the camp, as if it was looking for something.  Nori approached one of the adults to see if they might know what the raven is all about.

  “Oh a raven? We don’t have anything to do with one, but they usually mean good luck!”

   Nori seemed satisfied with that information.

  Zemotta asked around for anyone in the family that might have supplies for conducting spells.  She was then refered to the Moskavaric family.  They have a seer named Tayrizha that would be the type to carry the items she was looking for.

   Just as the music was starting to wind down, Dundee finally found his way to the rest of his party.  He decided to make his entrance by playing his didgeridoo.   It was the best he’s ever played the instrument, but even still, the crowd wasn’t sure what to make of the odd sounding noise it created.  Tomigot and Zemotta tried to encourage everyone that it was a great sound and started to conduct interpretive dances to the arrhythmic tune.  The adults looked puzzled, but the children seemed to enjoy the silliness and joined in on their own interpretations of dance.   Meanwhile Zoras and Annika snuck off to her vardo.

   Captain Elias then motioned for quiet.  “Tonight, I will give the doroq, the nightly tale or lesson.  Although a doroq can sometimes be very long, I sense that we are all weary and I do not wish to bore our guests.”  The man winked in the party’s direction and dropped his voice to a low, solemn tone.

  “ We Vistani are people of family, of tradition.  We do not turn our hands, heads, or hearts against each other; to do so is to forsake what it is to be Vistani.  Those that break the faith of their people can no longer participate in this life.  They are exiled from the family, and called mortu, or the ‘living dead.’

   “No Vistani will harbor a mortu. They are marked as an exile.  This is not a mark that can be seen with the eye, but a mark that every Vistani feels when looking upon a mortu. The crime itself is not visible; perhaps he killed an uncle in anger, or perhaps he thought to get drunk rather than mind his young nephews and a boy came to harm.  We know not why a mortu was exiled when we look upon him, only that he is no longer of the Vistani.

   “For some Vistani, compassion upsets the heavy weight of tradition.  A family provides comfort and shelter to a mortu. It seems a kindness to one who appears – but is not – Vistani.  But is not the nature of a man in his past actions?  The mortu will drink again, or murder again, and suffering will surely follow.  We hold our traditions because they keep us safe – safe from wild beasts, safe from violent giorgios, and safe from the wickedness of mortu.”

   Dundee interrupts, “You call that a story?  How about I tell a joke?  Why do kangaroos hate rainy days?”

   The Bogaravs turn their heads, almost in unison toward Dundee with looks of disbelief in his lack of respect for an elder.

   “You’re not even going to guess?” Dundee asked, naively. “Because the kids play inside all day!”

   Silence…not even a chuckle.  Then the Bogaravs begin to chant.

   “Mortu, mortu, mortu,” they say as they point at Dundee.

   “Oh, you want to hear more music?  I can play more music.” Dundee started to play the didgeridoo again.

    “Did you not hear a word Elias said? Not MORE TUNES….MORTU! It’s an outcast, YOU are an outcast!” said one of the Bogarav adults.

    “Ok ok, this is as it is,” Elias chimes in.  “A restful night’s sleep to all.”

    With that, the crowd disperses, retreating to their vardos.

   Devotion and Zemotta asked if there might be any room or available wagons for them to sleep in, but unfortunately each wagon was claimed. Pillows and extra bedding was offered to make things more comfortable to sleep outside.  They accepted.  

   Tomigot decided to get in touch with his inner wolf spirit by seeking and speaking to the family dog.  He found out that his name was Tom!

   Nori made herself a bed next to the horses, while children approached Dundee to ask if they could pet his big cat.  

   “No!  You can’t touch Scabs!  If I find one of you touching her, I’ll kill ya!”  Dundee responded.

   The children ran off to their parents, “That man is mean!”

   While Zoras was entertaining Annika in her vardo, he could hear a tapping on the window.  He paused and looked out the window to see a dark cloaked figure with a long pointy nose sticking out from his hood, motioning to Zoras to come outside.

   “One second, please,” he said to Annika.

   Zoras walked out of the wagon, naked, to greet the person. It happened to be Fillar!

   “Sorry to interrupt, but I found out what your glasses were…and, I figured I’d deliver them to you before you got to far,” said Fillar.

   “And?” Zoras said, annoyed.

   Fillar went on to explain that the glasses were magical and told Zoras how they functioned.

   “So what’s your offer?” Zoras got to the point.

   “I was thinking maybe 40 gold pieces?”

   “Pfft,” Zoras responded.  “I think I’ll keep them.”

   “I had a feeling you might say that.  What about the cane I gave you in the meantime?”  Fillar reminded Zoras.

   Zoras reached into the wagon for the cane, “Here you go!”

   “Very well.  I hope to see you again!” Fillar walked off into the darkness and seconds later Zoras could hear a whooshing noise repeat, and then get quieter and quieter.  Zoras then entered the wagon again.

   The following morning, breakfast was being prepared. It was sausage and eggs. Dundee was requesting steak.

   “A steak for a joke?” he said without getting a response. “When is a bear not a bear?”

    The cook decided to amuse him.  “When?”

   “You’re not even going to try?” Dundee pleaded.

   “No.”

   “If he doesn’t have the right KOALAfications!” Dundee said with confidence.

   Dead silence.

   “Now I told you a joke, where’s my steak?” Dudnee demanded.

   “Oh, I thought you were offering a steak so we can make it through one of your jokes!” the cook responded, receiving a few snickers and chuckles from other family members.

   Then Tomigot chimes in, “When it’s unBEARable!”  The crowd roars in laugher.

   Zoras tried sneaking out of Annika’s wagon, but caught her attention.

   “Where are you going?  I’m not ready for you to leave.  I have a feeling you can do better?” she said with a wink. Challenged, Zoras decided to stay inside the wagon a bit longer.

   Zemotta wanted to show off the fan Donani gave her to deliver to Lela.

   “Tomigot, can I try it on you?” she asked.

  “Ok, let’s see!” Tomigot welcomed, while planting his feet to the ground.

   Zemotta waved the fan at Tomigot as a blast of strong cold air whooshed past his body, causing his wolf scarf to flap behind him, followed by a fowl odor of rotton flesh.  “That was intense!” Tomigot exclaimed.

   Nori received her serving of sausage, but requested some bread to go with it.  She folded the bread around each sausage.  “I call it a sandwich,” she said with a shrug, trying to explain her creation.

   Tomigot wanted to make sure that Zoras got something to eat, so he grabbed a plate of food and brought it over to Annika’s wagon.  He knocked on the door but nobody was answering. So then he went over to the side of the wagon to open the window to deliver the food.  Once he opened the window, his face was met with humidity.

   “It smells like that fan in there!” he said.  “Here, eat, we’re about to leave.”  He shoved the plate toward Zoras.

   Zoras looked at Annika.  “It’s ok, you can leave now,” Annika said to him, with a look of dissatisfaction on her face.   Ashamed, Zoras quickly got dressed and scarfed down his food.

   Zemotta and Devotion were already on their way to the Moslavaric camp, with Dundee and Nori close behind.  Tomigot and Zoras trailed even further, but quickly caught up.

   After a few hours of following Elias’ directions, the thick pine forest was broken by a large, stony clearing in the lee of a large hill. Five barrel-topped wagons sand in a close ring.  Unlike the gaudy and cheerful Bogarav wagons, these wagons were dull brown in color and festooned with utilitarian tools of all types; smithing implements, farrier’s tools, and bellows.  The campfire within the ring of wagons was small, and a score of sullen humans worked at fixing wheels, shining shields, or other mundane crafts.  They eyed the group suspiciously, hands near their weapons, alert for danger.

   Zemotta had introduced herself and informed them that they have a gift from Donani, for Lela.

   A scarred, lean man with wiry and well-toned muscled approached her.  He seemed like he might be younger than he looked as his skin looked very weathered.

   “She’s not here,” he responded.

   “Where is she?” Devotion asked.

   “She disappeared last night.  We saw that the door to her vardo hung open and Lela was gone.  We think Hanzi has something to do with it, because we haven’t seen him lurking outside of the camp since this morning, either.  Some of our eager, younger fellows followed a pair of tracks, but learned that the two must have had several hours of a head start and travelled quickly.  Catching up seemed unlikely without a long journey through dangerous wilderness, so the youths returned to bring the news,” Advan informed.  “We could use the help, and you’re more than welcome to check her vardo for any clues.”  He pointed at the wagon that belonged to her.

   The group also learned that Lela had begun to start acting strange as of four nights ago.  She would stay out in the woods past nightfall.  The Moslavarics suspected she was trysting with Hanzi, but Lela insisted that she was not.  Still, she started to act distant, keeping to herself in her vardo all day and interacting with her family only rarely. Something was wrong with the girl, though the Moslavarics did not know what it was.

  As far as Hanzi goes, the Moslavarics had attempted to keep him away – even by throwing stones and threatening him with weapons – but Hanzi kept returning to profess his inappropriate love for Lela.

   Devotion, Zemotta, Nori agreed to investigate the wagon, while Tomigot and Dundee surveyed the surroundings of the camp for any clues.

   Lela’s wagon was crowded with hanging herbs, beaded curtains, a table and a small bunk.  Its few windows have thick scarves tacked over them, making the interior dark and gloom. Nori inspected the bed and noticed that its blankets covered not a pallet or mattress, but a thick bed of earth. Zemotta noticed the odor of garlic and other strong smelling herbs, but could not find them inside the wagon. Devotion found a note, carefully tucked awak.  It was a note from Hanzi containing the phrase, “I would give anything for you, Lela, even my life!”  Everyone could also smell the faint smell of decay pervading the vardo, as well.  Zemotta and Devotion became concerned something bad happened to Lela.

   Devotion requested to see Tayrizha, and someone gladly guided her to her vardo. There she met a woman in her late fifties whose dour, pinched appearance belied a kind heart and matronly concern for everyone in her family.  Tayrizha informed Devotion that she has the gift of the Sight, and that she was determined that pursuers might still catch up to Hanzi and bring her dear Lela home.  Devotion asked if she could “see” where they might be, but Tayrizha just mentions seeing darkness after a certain point.  She was completely worried.

   With all of this information, and clues gathered from the wagon, the party headed off, following the tracks that lead from Lela’s wagon into the forest.  Several pin trees grew closely together, their snow-laden boughs created deep pools of shadow.  The trail in the snow lead beneath these trees.

   Then suddenly, Dundee’s whip gave him a signal that danger was approaching.  4 humanoid creatures were approaching them from the trail ahead.  Those that could see them shot their ranged weapons from afar, though had a hard time aiming correctly due to the heavy shade from the trees.  Dundee set a magical snare in hopes of restraining whatever these creatures were, then took cover behind a tree.

   Soon enough the creatures caught up to the party; two ghasts, a zombie, and a wight.  Zemotta and Tomigot got close enough to the ghasts to breath in their disgusting smell, but seemed to have become used to the odor and were not affected.  However, the wight made an attack at Zemotta, and she could feel her life being drained as a result.

   One of the ghasts then walked right into Dundee’s snare and was magically hosted into the air.  Devotion took attacks and then fell unconscious.  Zemotta rushed over to give her a healing potion.  Then once revived, Devotion positioned herself to cast Aganazzar’s scorcher on a ghast and the wight, which unfortunately killed Eselios in the process.

  Nori would sneak behind trees and then pop out of them to conduct swift sneak attacks with her rapier, while Zoras would send bonfires and blasts of force at them.   Dundee shot arrows at them and Tomigot swung his axe, while making sure to give his “pack” an advantage in their fight against these undead creatures.

   Eventually each of the undead were defeated and everyone was still alive.  Zemotta, still feeling the affects from the wight, but still determined to find Lela to deliver her gift.

 To be continued…

[cursed-in-barovia]

SESSION 10

With Glovia’s dead body now laying on the floor, Isabella reappeared.  Her face was staring at the floor and her shoulders were sunken in.

  “It’s ok.  Soon I’ll get to be reunited with my family, and hopefully my mother won’t have to be angry anymore,” she tells the group before disappearing through one of the walls.

   The party noticed that Devotion didn’t seem to snap out of the hypnotic state they were previously in.  She was talking to herself, but the words could not be recognized. What little sentences could be made out were to the effects of, “Is this still a nightmare, or is this real?” as she stared into space and paced in circles.

  “I should get Sorina back to town!’ Kristofor informed the group as he picked up the young girl’s body from on top of what used to be the alchemy table.  As he ran out of the hallway with her in his hand, Nori speaks out.

  “Well should we rest?”  Kristofor heard this and turned right back around to the safety of the makeshift laboratory to take a long rest, making sure that Sorina was still breathing.

   Dundee used his survival knowledge to try to keep warm by snuggling up to Isabella’s corpse.  He quickly realized that he was getting no warmth from the girl’s cold, dead body, so he pushed it onto the floor and invited Scabs over for a cuddle. It was a major improvement.

   Zemotta pulled Devotion over to a closet, closed both doors, and quickly fell asleeps.

   Nori and Kristofor decided to make camp in the flesh golem laboratory and pushed more corpses off the tables so they could rest on them.

   Zoras and Tomigot raced over to Isabella’s room.  Zoras made it to the child-size bed first, while Tomigot made sure to close the door and push the dresser in front of it, for added security.   He looked at Zoras, still in his Arik disguise, and the tiny bed.  “It might be awkward, but I think we can both fit.”

   “As long as I get to be the big spoon,” Zoras said as he scooted over to the edge of the bed.

   That night Tomigot experience dreams of Arik as a horrifying undead creature, with a scary face and sharp, long fingernails.  He could hear him approaching from behind and his cold breath on his neck.  Startled, he woke up in a cold sweat, but realized it was only a dream and fell back asleep.

  The following morning, Nori woke up bright and early to wake everyone up.  Kristofor went straight to business and scooped up Sorina to head back to town.  Dundee heard the ruckus and remembered the rooms nearby that haven’t been inspected.  At the first door he couldn’t hear anything inside.

  Meanwhile, Nori made her way over to the room that Tomigot and Zoras were in.  Along the way she noticed that she was stepping on a sticky red goo.  She tried opening the door to Isabella’s room, but something was preventing it from opening it.  Tomigot reluctantly woke up to move slide the dresser back.  Zoras, now in his natural Triton appearance, needed just a few more minutes to wake up.

 Nori proceeded to the closet that Zemotta and Devotion were in. On the way, she noticed that the red sticky goo on the floor was coming from the theater room.  Before investigating the source, she knocked loudly on the closet door.  Zemotta wasn’t ready to wake up either.

  Tomigot noticed the red sticky goo, too, but realized it was blood. He followed it to the theater room and could see that the trail lead to the stage.  Boris was no longer there, but his pool of blood was.

  Dundee overheard the curiosity of the blood and sent Scabs over to investigate.  This made scabs hungry.  Nori sent Chi to follow the trail, as well.  Through the “trash owl” she could see that the blood lead throughout the house and into rooms the party had previously been in.  Relaying this info, Dundee decided to continue checking the rooms.

  He opened a door to reveal a guest chamber.  The windows of this room didn’t appear to have been used in ages.  It was covered in dust and the windows were filthy.   Zemotta found a nice comb inside one of the dresser drawers.  Dundee didn’t find anything else that was interesting and proceeded to the next room.

  The door was locked.  Nori made her way over to see if she could pick it, but it was proving to be difficult.  Zemotta tried forcing is open with a kick, but the door was not budging.  Tomigot witnessed the struggle from across the house and got ready to run over, full speed ahead, to see if he could knock the door down, but while he was rushing over, Zoras realized the lock could be opened with the ring he found.  As he unlocked and opened the door, Tomigot came stumbling through the doorway.   He was able to stop himself in time to see that this must have been the master bedroom.

  Without must hesitation, Nori conducted her guard-like inspection and found a chest under the bed.  She tried to open it, but it was locked.  With her thieves tools, she tried to pick it, but the pick broke inside.  So then she looked at Tomigot and held the chest out and firmly between both of her hands.

   “Can you break this open with your axe?” she asked.

   Tomigot looked nervous and less confident, but was up for the challenge.  He planted his feet, moved his shield behind his back, and gripped the handle of the axe. He then lifted the and aligned it with the center of the chest that Nori was holding.  While maintaining focus, so as not to injure Nori, he brought the axe down with full force, slicing the chest perfectly in half.  Two sheets of paper floated to the ground, along with 350 gold pieces.  Nori picked up the papers, but could only make out so many words before pocketing them to check out later.

   After all of the rooms on the top floor were checked, the party decided to follow the blood trail downstairs with Dundee leading the way. Before getting too far, he realized there were still a few rooms they hadn’t looked at yet.  He listed in on one door, but could not hear anything. He did, however, notice that it felt sort of humid.  He opened the door to reveal what was once some sort of garden.  The large plants had overgrown wildly, the roots bursting in the pots and spilling dirt around the floor.  Leaves flooded the windows and trees and plants reached the ceiling 20 feet overhead.  Near the far wall, there was a pool of putrid water and blood.  Rising out of its center was a significant pile of appendages and various body parts.  The room was humid and thick with moisture.  The walls were coated with a slippery growth.

   A pile of rotten wood was in the North end of the room, the remains of what used to be the staircase, that lead to the room above that Glovia was killed in.  

   Dundee recognized some of the plants to be those used in potions and remedies, so he and Scabs walked in.  They immediately started to gag and choke after breathing in the toxic air. They quickly turned around and exited the room.  Tomigot decided to go.  He noticed the air tasted funny, but felt no affect.  He attempted to pick some herbs and plants, but wasn’t familiar enough with which ones to pluck, so he went for the prettiest ones.  When he approached his plant of choice, he could hear a gurgling noise behind him.  As he turned around, he could see the mass of body parts and blood had erupted into a creature with many mouths and too many eyes.  “Which one do I even look at!?” he screamed before the creature spat in his face. Tomigot saw a flash of light before realizing that he had gone blind!

   Nori and Zoras rush over to the room to see what was going on to see this lively mound of refuse next to Tomigot with his hands clutched over his eyes screaming, “I can’t see!”

   Nori shot a crossbow bolt, hitting one of the creature’s many eyes.  Zoras set a bonfire next to it, burning some of its flesh.  Zemotta ran inside and could taste the toxic air, but was unphased before running up to the creature to try to hit it.  She was able to bash it just a big, but being so close to it, she could hear the creature babbling and gibbering, making her very distracted, trying to discern what it was saying.  Still sickened, Dundee and Scabs snuck back into the room and hid in foliage. Dundee shot his crossbow just so, managing to piece 3 eyes on the creature.

  The gibbering mouther shambled its way closer to Tomigot and tried biting him, but missed as it was distracted by the arrow that came towards him from the bushes. It looked over to the plans and sent a stream of spit in that direction.  Dundee was able to avoid it, but Scabs took the hit, yowling in confusion as she walked around blind.  Tomigot, still unable to see, tried swinging his axe at the creature that was now directly in front of him.  He was able to slice a piece off!  Zoras and Nori continued their attacks from afar, while Zemotta decided to try using her water whip, which lashed out at the creature, causing some serious damage. Dundee tried shooting an arrow, but could not steady himself enough between gags from being poisoned.

  The creature was weakened at this point, and attempted to take a bite out of Tomigot once more, and did so.  Tomigot’s body fell to the floor, prone, as a result.  Another wave of attacks against it occurred before the mound of refuse was reduced to a pile of body parts once again.

   Tomigot was able to see again and pick himself up off the floor. Dundee took Scabs and ran back outside the room, still retching violently.  Afraid to enter the room, Nori sent her skeletal mage hand to pluck some herbs that she recognized to be used for summoning familiars.  She also used the arcane hand to dig into the pile of limbs to see what she could find.  When the hand returned to her, it opened up to reveal eyeballs, teeth, and body tissue.  One of the eyeballs stood out, however.  She plucked it out of the skeletal hand and noticed it was hard.  A false eye, she determined.  Into her pocket it went.

   Zemotta moved onto the next unexplored room.  She opened the door to reveal a room that she didn’t recognize, but Zoras, Tomigot, and Nori did.  It was the room from their experience with Sybil’s ritual, although the condition of the room was very different.  Someone had taken an axe to the harpsichord and most of the furnishings. They could see evidence of the remains from the frame that held the family portrait in the fireplace.

   All of a sudden Isabella appeared, startling Zemotta. She seemed annoyed that everyone was still there.  Then all of a sudden the harpsichord started to play horribly and horrifyingly. Everyone had to cup their hands to their ears as Isabella nodded along to the tune.  The awful sound echoed through Zemotta’s spine, paralyzing her body. Nori began to experience vivid hallucinations. Scabs keeled over on her side and started making weird screaming, or laughing, or weeping noises.  It was hard to determine because she’s a cat.  Dundee was babbling and incapable of normal speech.  He then approached one half of the harpsichord in an attempt to play it, as the other keys seemed to play by themselves.

   “Isabella, is that you playing the instrument?” Tomigot asked.

   “No, of course not.  How could I if I’m all the way over here,” Isabella replied from across the room.

    “Make it stop!” he demanded.

    “You don’t like the sound?” Isabella responded, deviously.

    “No!” Tomigot said before taking his axe to the harpsichord, successfully chopping it completely in half.  Zemotta regained feeling and movement in her body, Dundee stopped babbling, Scabs stopped making funny noises and was a bit confused, and Nori returned to reality.

     Zemotta was very upset and tried to take her frustration out on Isabella, but was unable to as the ghost disappeared through a wall.

    “Can we leave now?” Zoras said.

   “But there’s still one room left to check,” said Dundee.

   “Well the last few rooms we’ve checked, something really bad has happened!” Tomigot reminded everyone.

    “If we don’t like what’s inside, we can just close the door,” Zemotta reasoned.

   Reluctantly, everyone agreed to that plan. They open the door to see intricate crystal chandeliers dominating the lightly furnished room clearly meant for entertaining.  Ornately carved details and an angelic painting on the ceiling hint at a once beautiful ballroom.  That image fell away, however, as a number of waxen-skinned children turn toward the doorway, most of them partially decomposed.  All of them had their chests cut open revealing an empty cavity.   They heard the door open and started snapping their teeth together in a disturbing rhythmic anticipation for food. Almost in unison, they turned their heads toward the group and began to shuffle in their direction…clack…clack…clack.

   “Close the door!” Zoras shouted.

   “We can’t let them live,” Zemotta said, sadly.

    The party understood, and had to make sure the house was clear of unwanted, dangerous creatures.  These child-sized ghasts and ghouls were starving.  They took many attacks from the party, but one in particular was interested in Scabs.   With a slash of a disgusting claw, Scabs fell to the floor, unconscious.

   “I was going to have her wait outside, too,” Dundee said with regret.

   Zemotta and Zoras made sure to prevent that creature from harming Scabs even more, and managed to take it down.    Eventually the group was able to clear the room of these creatures, and Zoras conducted a final inspection to find a hand mirror backed with a bronze depiction of a woman with snakes coming out of her head.

   As they made their way towards the dining room, they discovered another door they had not yet opened.  Inside was another water closet.  It had a latrine and small table with a washbasin.  Scenes of a cavalry battled adorned the walls.   Zoras stepped inside to sit on the throne. Zemotta closed the door with him still inside.

   She made her way into the dining room and saw yet another door that had not been opened.  Inside was once a smoking room; a place where men would adjourn after meals.  The room had not been used in quite some time.  On the walls, various weapons are displayed.

  “A bunch of sharp pointy things,” Tomigot described, standing in the darkened room.

  Between Zemotta and Nori, they were able to determine that this room had four longswords, two shields, two daggers, and a great sword. Zemotta grabbed the daggers and noticed they were ornate matching silvered daggers.  Tomigot went for the biggest weapon, a great sword.  Nori took a long sword.

   As the three were inspecting their newly found weapons, Isabella appeared in the room.  “This is Daddy’s room!”  This startled Tomigot so much that he took a swing with his new great sword, nearly cutting Nori’s head off.

   “Why am I always next to him when this happens?” Nori wondered.

   “Stop doing that!” Zemotta yelled at Isabella.

   “By why, it’s so much fun scaring you guys!”  Isabella replied, while trying to give Zemotta a mean stare.  Whatever she was trying to do wasn’t working, as she stomped her foot and tried disappearing through the wall.  Zemotta took this opportunity to swing at her, clipping Isabella’s ghostly body with her mace. Her giggle could be heard as she floated further through the house.

    With all of the rooms thoroughly checked, the party continued to follow the blood trail.  It lead them to the basement where they encountered the rats, and outside along the side of the house.  As they followed it toward town, they noticed the blood trail eventually stopped by the signs of something being dragged remained.

   Eventually they got to town.  The villagers noticed their return and the party could hear some of the things that were being said.  

   “They’re back, they’re the ones that the Burgomaster sent to find Sorina.  Apparently they killed Glovia, too!”

   “Yeah, and Kristofor saved Sorina AND Boris!”

   When they got to the Burgomaster’s house to claim their reward, they saw Kristofor and Ivan waiting for them on the porch.  They were enthusiastically invited inside.  Without introduction, Zemotta demanded the source of the stories were being spread in town.

  “Well, if it wasn’t for me, Sorina and Boris wouldn’t have made it back in town,” Kristofor reasoned.

  “He does have a point,�� Nori and Zoras agreed.

  Tomigot felt a little betrayed, too.  “Come on, I thought we were getting along over there,” Kristofor said.

  “Yeah, I thought so, too.  We worked well together.” Tomigot agreed.

   “So why would I want to betray you?  Ivan likes to exaggerate stories a little, to make himself look good for the town.  We all know the truth about what happened out there.  I have to say, though, you fought well and would make a great soldier!”

   “I…I…I WAS a soldier,” Tomigot muttered.

   “Oh, well that explains everything, then! I makes perfect sense!”

    Ivan asked the group what they saw in the manor and if there was anything left inside to be worried about.  The party reiterated what Kristofor had already told him, and then mentioned the creatures they saw after Kristofor left.  Ivan was even more impressed with the group.

   “We should have burned the house down, is what we should have done!” Nori said to Zoras.

   Ivan called some guards over to him and whispered something to them.  Dundee could make out that he was trying to send them to go guard the manor.

    “What’s the matter?” Dundee asked.

    Ivan could tell Dundee was watching. “Oh, well, I heard ‘fire’ and got worried.  I would hate for a building that size to go to waste.  It would be a great asset to have for the town.  We could maybe fix it up and it can be the new hospice, what, with all of that medical equipment that’s inside already.  Maybe it can be the town hall, who knows?  At any rate, I owe you all for helping the town out.” Ivan presented the group with a pouch containing 50gp.

    “That’s it?” Dundee was unsatisfied.

    “Ok ok, maybe this will help.  I had the guard round up what they could find from the village.” Ivan then present another case of 5 vials of healing potion.  Everyone’s eyes widened.

    “Ok, that’s a bit better,” said Dundee.

    “You should go see Marku.  I guess he has some unfinished business with you all, too. Again, thank you for all of your help!” Ivan said as a signal that their business was complete.

    The party headed over to the tavern to see Marku.  Once entering the doors, Marku saw them and rushed toward the group, thanking them for their help and returning his nephew, Vasile. He noticed Devotion pacing and muttering to herself. “What happened to her? It must have been bad out there, huh?”

   “She’ll be fine,” Zemotta assured him.

   “Well, I don’t have much, but take this,” Marku said, handing over a pouch containing 10gp to Zemotta.  “And a meal for each of you is on me!”

   “Do you have any meat?” Tomigot asked.

   “I have wolf steaks!” Marku resonded.

   Tomigot had a look of disappointment.  “Um, something that isn’t wolf.”

   “Oh, we have ham and potatoes?”

   “That will be fine, thank you,” said Tomigot.

   “I’ll take whatever you have!” Zemotta said, starving and ready to eat a LOT.

   Nori and Zoras had their usual.  Dundee made sure Scabs was fed as well.

   With their newly found treasure, Nori wanted to go to Fillar to see what he thought about the false eye she found.  She presented it, Fillar was excited and wanted to know the story behind it.  He had never heard of such a creature with a bunch of eyes and mouths.  He had seen nicer eyeballs and threw out a price that Nori was not interested in.  Fillar told her to feel free to come back when she finds nicer things.  That was easy because Nori was the best rogue ever, to which Fillar countered by saying that HE was the best.

   “I’ll tell you what, you stop by whenever you feel like you’re ready to show what valuables you’ve found, and we’ll see who’s really the best!” Fillar challenged, as Nori quickly accepted.

   Tomigot and Zemotta made their way over, too. Zemotta had not been to this shop before, and Nori filler her in that if there’s a good story to tell with whatever item she hopes to sell, it’ll get a better price.  Tomigot presented Fillar with his great sword, and told him the story of the house it was found in.  Fillar inspected it and mentioned that it seemed to be more for decoration than practical use.  He didn’t really deal with weapons, that much, but offered 40gp pieces for it. Zemotta was offended and tried to negotiate the price for Tomigot.  Fillar decided to sweeten the pot by adding another item to the deal.

   “How about 40gp and a pair of matching dice?”  Fillar offered.

   “Hmmm, I AM good with dice,” Tomigot thought.  “What else do you have?”    Fillar rummaged around a bit more, while looking at Tomigot, trying to determine what he might like.  Seeing his wolf-themed wardrobe, he pulls out another item.

   “Ah ah!  How about a silk scarf with wolf motifs?”

   “I’ll take it!” Tomogot quickly accepted.  He then gently arranged the scarf so he could tie it around his neck, and then tossed the ends of the scar behind him, dashingly.  “Best deal ever!”

   Zemotta was very amused.

   “What do you think of these?” Zemotta asked Fillar, while holding the two silver daggers she had found in the manor.

   “Is that silver!? I can see silver from a mile away!” Fillar said as his eyes widened.  “But just a tip, since I like your friend Nori over there, you should probably keep those.  It’s not too often you come across silver here.”

   Zoras decided to stop by, as well, to see if Fillar might be interested in the glasses he found, that Glovia was wearing.  Fillar was intrigued, but felt like they might need a second opinion before giving a fair price.

  “Do you mind if I hold onto these while I have them looked at?” Fillar asked.

   “Only if you give me something in return as collateral,” Zoras countered.

   Fillar rummaged around and pulled out a walking cane.   “How about this?  It makes sparks when you strike it on stone.”

   “Deal.”

   With business complete at the Eyes of Midnight, the party headed over to Gregori’s.  They were just in luck because the Vistani made it through town while they were out looking for Sorina and Boris, and he was able to restock some supplies.  Zemotta wiped him out of caltrops and ball bearings, Nori bought all of his crossbow bolts, and Tomigot was able to purchase one of 3 healing potions Gregori was able to buy to sell.

   “Any interested in a mess kit?” Tomigot asked.

  “Oh sure, I can see if the elves might want them.  I don’t have 2 silver pieces, since silver is hard to come by, so here’s 20 copper pieces.” Gregori handed him the coins. “Is there anything else you all need? No?  Ok, well it was great seeing you all again!”

 To be continued….

[cursed-in-barovia]

Session 9

Isabella was enjoying the “show” as four toy soldiers worked behind the stage to animate Boris’ body while it was suspended by string.

“Make it do the little dance!” Isabella commanded. She turned to the group, “Isn’t he great!?”

Tomigot approached the front row of chairs and stood next to the chair that was on the left of the chair Isabella was sitting there. Another doll was sitting on it.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” Tomigot asked. Without hesitation, Isabella pushed the doll off the chair it was claiming, and Tomigot took a seat. He tried to see if Boris was still alive. He could tell the pool of blood beneath is body and the blood surrounding the wounds from the hooks in his skin that the strings were attached to, were a warm red color.

In his deep, charismatic voice, Tomigot leaned toward the ghost. “Isabella, do you take requests? May I approach the stage to do a little performance?”

Isabella gave permission as she bounced in her chair. She was excited to see another new show! Tomigot slowly stepped up to the stage, making sure to avoid Boris’ blood. He tried to do a little dance, and then tried to move closer to the strings above Boris. He then tried to swing his arm across the strings, as if it was part of a dance move, but he wasn’t fooling anyone, including the many toys in the room. Many dolls and toy soldiers began to swarm and attack those in the room.

Many attacks were exchanged between the group and the toys. Bonfires were set, and arrows were shot. At one point a toy soldier stabbed Tomigot real deep with his toy sword, which caused Tomigot to collapse due to his already weakened condition. Kristofor was taking the bulk of the attacks, too, as he was cornered by toy soldiers. Dundee approached the stage that Tomigot was laying on, to give him a healing potion. Tomigot felt instantly revitalized to the point where he took one big swing with his axe toward the toy soldier that had been attacking him, and sent it clear across the floor, smashing it against the far wall. Eventually each toy was left lying still on the floor in various conditions: crushed, sliced, burnt, melted, in pieces, etc.

Isabella started crying, “You ruined the show!” and stormed out of the room, through a wall. Dundee tried to follow, but quickly lost her.

Kristofor approached Boris and poured a potion of healing into his mouth. Boris came to, weak and confused. He saw the hooks and strings attached to his skin, and realized he was sitting in a wet puddle of blood that traced back to his wounds. Then he remembered why he was there, “Where’s Sorina? Is she ok? Find Sorina!” Kristofor and Tomigot tried to stand Boris up, but he was a little too weak and sore. He urged everyone to continue to find Sorina before it was too late.

Devotion was no longer on top of the icy peak. She was now in a room that was pitch black. She adjusted her eyes and tried to refocus to see many undead creatures walking toward her from every angle. She could recognize the faces of some, too; her friends, Gregori, Marku, the trapper elves, even some villagers she remembers seeing in Orasnau. The swarm picked up their pace and the next thing Devotion saw was that she was completely surround by rotten, horrifying faces within inches of her own. She closed her yes and ducked for cover.

Suddenly, she could feel a tingling sensation coming from the necklace she was wearing. With her eyes still tightly shut, she noticed that the moaning of the undead swarm was now muffled. She opened her eyes to see a foggy white shroud forming a bubble around her.

“I love you and forgive you, Nemeia,” she heard the familiar voice of Reggie say. “You are so smart, but sometimes you cannot know everything, and that is ok. I know you will find your way and your purpose again. You have good people to care for now. Be brave and be strong. I will always be right here with you.”

A flash of light appeared as the shroud around her began to expand rapidly, sending the bodies of the undead creature flying into the either.

Zemotta tried checking the room next to the theater room. It was locked, she assumed magically. Nori stepped in to see if she could pick it, and like a seasoned professional locksmith, she opened the door.

Inside appeared to be the dressing chambers for the lord of the home. Clothes were scattered all around the floor and all of the furniture was smashed to bits. Nori searched the small room for anything interesting and found a paisley silk handkerchief that she tucked into one of her pockets. She then noticed another door in the room and opened it.

Once the master bedchambers, this room had been cleared of any bedroom furniture. Five large tables had bodies in various states of autopsy, or assembly; it was difficult to tell which. Body parts had been combined and stitched together to create massive hulking cadavers, some with mechanical parts attached using horrific procedures. Other tables held all manner of various body parts, vile reagents and surgical instruments. Many scientific anatomy books, diagrams, and notes were scattered about. An alchemy station was next to a door on the west side of the room.

Slowly the rest of the party tried to peak into the room. Tomigot and Zemotta noticed that one of the bodies laying on the tables was a red female tiefling! They ran over to confirm in was Devotion, then suddenly the body that was laying on the table next to her rose and stood himself onto the floor in front of Tomigot and tried to slam his large, stitched-up body against him. Those that were in Sybils’ reading could recognize the creature. He looked very similar to the man in the family portrait that was in the room. Kristofor agreed that it looked like Lucien, Glovia’s husband and Isabella’s father.

Nori watched Lucien try to attack Tomigot, and in response, sent a crossbow bolt toward the creature. It hit, but the bolt didn’t sink into the skin very far. Zemotta tried bashing Lucien with her mace, but she felt like she was tenderizing a large chunk of meat. So then she tried to punch him, but it felt more like punching a bag of potatoes. Quickly everyone started to realize this wasn’t going to be easy.

Zoras decided to create a bonfire at the flesh golem’s feet. Lucien did not seemed to like the fire very much, causing him to become distracted by the flames.

Devotion returned to the darkness. This time she could hear more familiar voices. They weren’t clear, but they felt very real. It seemed like there was some sort of struggle. Shouting of frustration an fear from that of Tomigot and Zemotta. Devotion could not reach out to them!

After many arrows, bolts, axe swings, and punches, Lucien finally collapsed, face forward in front of Tomigot, causing the floor to shake.

Zemotta and Tomigot run over to Devotion to try to wake her up. Nudging and shaking her wasn’t doing anything. Zemotta poured a potion of healing into her mouth. She did not wake up, but her skin seemed to go from a pale shade of a red to a more vibrant shade. Looking for answers, Zemotta searched for any clues and found a journal near one of the tables. Meanwhile Tomigot tried to shout in her ear, but got no response. Then Dundee sent Scabs over to Devotion to have her lick her face, but there was still not response.

Suddenly the struggle seemed to end. Then should could hear incredibly loud shouting coming from what sounded like Tomigot. She had to cup her hands over her ears, but from what she could understand, she heard, “Devotion, wake up! Wake up! Are you in there?!”

After the shouting cleared, Devotion could feel the sensation of needles running across her face repeatedly. She tried to rub the pain away, and eventually it stopped.

Zemotta got skimmed quickly through the journal, gasping as several entries. She inspected the table next to Devotion to see a surgical sewing kit, something the journal might have mentioned.

“What does it say?” Zoras asked.

“Stuff about Alina killing Laszlo. Do we know them?”

“Yes, Alina was the werewolf that killed her husband Laszlo. The one that bit Tomigot,” Zoras reminded her.

“Oh right! Well there’s something about Laszlo finding something. A box maybe? And then there’s something about how she’s trying to make golems, and bringing Isabella back.”

Meanwhile Dundee went to inspect the alchemy station. On the table he found many vials of various liquids. He was able to determine them to be a potion of healing, a potion of climbing, two flasks of alchemist fire, a vial of acid, and a potion of lesser restoration. He wasn’t too sure any of these would be the answer to reviving Devotion.

Kristofor took a shot at diagnosing Devotion’s condition. He never seen anything like it in person, but he’s heard of people being in some sort of deep sleep, a coma perhaps. Maybe someone put her into this kind of state. He felt very confident that a lessor restoration could help, however Dundee was reluctant to share his finds. Kristofor convinced him to give up the vial by way of a quick smack to the back of the head.

Dundee surrendered, under one condition, though. “Since I found it, I’d like to administer it.” Nobody contested that, so he poured the potion into Devotion’s mouth. The party members that were surrounding her could see her slowly come to.

“Where am I? What happened? Who are you?” Devotion muttered, and looked at Kristofor and Arik.

Zemotta told her about how she saw her collapse in town and then tried to follow her, but got lost and hid in a room because undead creatures were after her. Kristofor introduced himself and mentioned that they were looking for Sorina and think Glovia might have something to do with her disappearance.

Devotion mentioned seeing Glovia and Laszlo in her dreams, and that Glovia seemed to be controlling her nightmares, too.

After everyone was reunited and quickly caught Devotion up to speed, Dundee decided to continue the search. There was a door next to the alchemy station, so he slowly and quietly opened it to peek inside the next room.

The room was lit by many candles. The air was thick and warm and carried a stench of mildew and rotting flesh. On opposing sides of the room he could see two tables: one holding the heavily decomposed body of a young girl in a new dress, her chest cavity open and empty; while the other held the unconscious body of Sorina, her skin covered in tiny, arcane markings. Next to Sorina’s table was a hole in the floor where a staircase once was.

Between the tables stood Glovia; flanked by desiccated humanoids wearing suits of armor over fine clothes. She was wearing strange spectacles and a look of calm resolve. Dundee could see her looking in his direction with a slow cadence. “You’ve yet to kill the monster. I warned you he would be trouble. I can see that you’re distracted.”

The ghostly image of a young girl floated in the air beside the woman, silvery tears streamed from her eyes.

“No mother!” the girl said in a faint, echoing voice, “It hurts!”

Dundee quietly closed the door to relay what he just saw with the rest of the group so they could formulate a plan. They agreed that Dundee would sneak into the room, grab Sorina, and the run back out, and everyone else could act as backup in case anything bad happened.

After a deep breath, Dundee burst into the room, lifted Sorina onto his shoulders and ran out before Glovia or her two minions could do anything. He, however, did not go unnoticed.

With the door into the room wide open, Nori shot a bolt with her crossbow at one of Glovia’s aids. Devotion muttered a few words and motioned her arms and her hands outside the doorway. The next thing the party sees is Glovia collapsed on the floor, sleeping! One of Glovia’s helpers, a well-dressed and armored ghast, ran to the doorway to where Dundee stood with Sorina on his should, and slashed it’s rotten claws at him. Dundee could feel his muscles and joints tightened. He could no longer move, as he stood frozen in the threshold of the doorway.

The other ghast moved over to Glovia to wake her up from her magical slumber. Tomigot ran to Dundee to pick him up and move him out of the way. Kristofor stood back in the room in case anyone would come after them. Zoras tried to find another way into the room Glovia was in. Zemotta and Tomigot mustered up the courage to enter the room and try to take the ghasts out. Then Devotion entered the room with her focus on Glovia. She tried send her magical ghostly, skeletal hand toward Glovia to give her a chilling touch, but before the skeletal hand could even get close to Glovia, it vanished.

Suddenly a beaker goes flying across the room, and hits the door jam where Dundee was. A cloud of fog appeared in the room, surrounding Dundee and Zemotta and blocking any eye site into the room. Zemotta and Dundee continued their attacks on the ghasts, while Nori shot arrows blindly into the fog. Then the floor began to shake violently causing Zemotta and Devotion to fall prone. Eventually Dundee came to and entered the room to help.

Glovia took a few ranged hits from arrows and bolts before Tomigot rushed toward her to grapple her. Glovia, in response, tried to looked deeply into Tomigot’s eyes, through the amber lens of her strange spectacles. His grasp around Glovia’s body loosened just a bit, and he felt as though her eyes were extremely beautiful and that he was just hugging her, like she was his friend.

Another beaker went flying through the room, making the fog cloud even bigger. At once point, one of the cauldrons in the room boiled over and spilled right at Dundee’s feet, making the floor slippery with goo. The Glovia, knowing that Tomigot was pretty weakened by attacks from the ghasts, tried to deal the fatal blow with her poisoned dagger. While still in his embrace, she could not find the right spot to pierce him, but the damage caused Tomigot to snap out of her charm control.

Devotion wanted to put Glovia to sleep, once again, but was conflicted by the fact that she could be putting her friends to sleep as well, and that her magic wasn’t always working for some reason. She decided to try it anyway. She prepared to motions and words of the spell, and saw Glovia wink toward the wall behind Devotion. Her spell could not be cast. When Devotion looked behind her, she could see a portrait of a young girl sitting in a chair. The face on the girl had an expression of anger.

Tomigot then grabbed Glovia’s head and tried bashing it into the glass window that was behind her, hoping to send her through it, but instead saw blood splatter onto the window from impact. Glovia’s body fell limp to the floor.

Devotion turned her focus to the painting. Suddenly everyone in the room except for Tomigot could feel sort of dizzy as they saw visions of psychedelic patterns, even Scabs felt the strange effect. Zoras made his way through the fog and over to the painting to light it on fire, while Tomigot approached it to slash it in half with his axe. The painting was reduced to torn and burnt canvas, while the rest of the party snapped out of her hypnotic state.

To be continued…

[cursed-in-barovia]

Session 8

(DM NOTE: 3 of my players, Dundee, Zemotta, and Devotion, couldn’t make it to the previous session(s), so I wanted to reintroduce them in ways specific to their characters.  No popping out and then back in.)

After the group were disappointed to find nothing of use in the pantry and meat locker that the vicious rats lives in,  Kristofor noticed that his thuggish guards had fled.  Sounds of Hugh and Paul expressing their frustration could be heard as they escaped into the darkness.

While Zoras stood his distance from the pantry, he remembered that he had found a wolfskin cap and decided to try it on.  Suddenly, he was transformed into a plain-looking human male in his late twenties. Everyone in the room recognized his appearance to be that of Arik!  With a new simple look, Zoras decided to continue wearing the cap.

::Dundee::

With a confident swagger and a plump snow cat at his side, Dundee returned to Oraşnou after a few days in the forest, helping the elves collect furs while also putting meat on Scabs’ bones. 

Once villagers saw him, they rushed toward him in a panic. “Your friends went to go look for a missing girl and her father at the Falinescu Manor!  You have the help!”

“The what?” Dundee replied, confused and out of touch.

The villagers told him where he house was, with as little detail as they had collected.  All they knew was that the village was on fire and then people went missing. Without further questions, Dundee and Scabs rushed to the manor.

“Everyone ready?” Kristofor asked, as if the remaining search party members were trained soldiers, while he prepared to open the door to the room adjacent to the pantry.  Tomigot was definitely on the same page by standing right next to the entry, ready to breach the room once the door was opened.  It took Nori and Zoras a minute to collect their thoughts on their plans of attacks, while keeping their distance from the door with a wood table on its side in front of them, to act as cover.

Kristofor opens the door and Tomigot rushes in, only to find a scullery containing not just dishes, but all manner of kitchen and dining needs for entertaining.  Nori pokes her head into the room to see if there was anything of value and found a set of dishes that had gold inlays.  She wondered if she could somehow extract the gold. Unsure, she pocketed a few in her bag.

::Zemotta::

With her Halfling might and monkish strength, Zemotta pushed a dresser up against the door in a dark room she found in the basement of a very large mansion.  She was alone and hiding from a ghost of a little girl that asked, “Will you play with me?” and several unknown creatures that she heard approaching her.   While she took cover under the bed in the room, she could hear the constant scratching and groaning outside the door. She tucked herself into a ball, hoping and praying that her friends would come and find her.

Tomigot kicked opened the door next to the scullery.  There was a putrid smell in the room.  With his dark vision, he was able to see that it was wide hall with a large dining table, several chairs, and cabinets, all of them moved to the edges of the room. A pile of bones lied one of the corner. He could hear the groaning and shuffling of feet and many scratches on a surface.

Nori sent in a few orbs of her dancing lights to reveal five undead creatures focused on one of the many doors in the room, trying to scratch their way through it.

Kristofor and Tomigot positioned themselves near the doorway, ready to attack, leaving only enough room for Nori to step in to brace for an attack, as well, leaving Zoras stuck outside in the kitchen.

With the dancing lights and three new beings in the room, four ghouls take notice and shuffle their feet toward Kristofor and Tomigot, while the ghast continued to focus on the room it was standing outside of.  Nori tried to attack, but fear got the best of her as she struggled to aim her crossbow before firing, and missed hitting any of the creatures.  She then called Chi in to help distract the ghouls.

::Zemotta::

Cupping her hands over her ears could only muffle out some of the scratching she could still hear outside the room.  The creatures were relentless.  “When will they get here!?  WILL they ever get here?  Someone needs to find Devotion?” were thoughts running through her head.

Suddenly, she noticed that the scratching got a little less intense. Perhaps the creatures quit trying.   She then hear the muffled commotion of something happening outside the room.  She laid quiet under the bed and hoped she could hear for more clues, but the remnants of the sound of scratching cluttered her mind.

Kristofor and Tomigot took turns swinging axes and swords at the ghouls, while Zoras tried blasting them with force from outside the room.

At one point, Kristofor found himself being flanked by two ghasts; perhaps two too many as he fell unconscious after receiving several nasty bites and scratches.  Tomigot tried to his best to slice his axe at the creatures, but one of ghouls gave him a severe scratch that caused his body to stiffen with paralysis.

Nori mustered up the courage take a break from shooting bolts from afar and going up close and personal with her rapier.  With one sweeping motion, she sliced across a ghoul’s abdomen, and then up.  As a result, the ghoul dropped to the floor, motionless.  This gave her the courage to do again with the next ghoul.  She repeated the swiping motion.  Guts started pouring out of the ghoul’s body, but it wasn’t enough to take it down.

::Dundee::

Dundee found himself outside of the entrance of a very large mansion.  He noticed tracks that lead up to the open front doors and tracks that lead to the left side of the house.  He decided to go left and followed the tracks, which lead him around manor and down to another open door.

He took a peak inside to see a dark kitchen and the silhouette of a man in a wolfskin cap.  He motioned to Scabs to investigate.  It took her a minute to understand what he was asking her to do.  She then entered the room and sniffed around the man. Dundee then saw her flick her tail and rub her body against one of the man’s legs.  He entered the room to approach the man and lay his hand onto his shoulder.  “Hey man, what’s going on hear?” he asked.  The man turned around and Dundee recognized it to be Arik.  He could also see the silhouettes of his friends Tomigot and Nori in some sort of commotion inside the room beyond Arik.

Zoras sets a fire outside one of the doors. Dundee sent Scabs in to help with the brawl. The ghast turned its attention from the door and approached Tomigot.

::Zemotta::

Zemotta tried clearing her thoughts so she could hear what was going on outside the room.  She heard voices!  In fact, she was positive they were voices she recognized.  She heard a loud, masculine, raging grunt.  “Yes, that’s definitely Tomigot!” she thought to herself. Then she heard a less masculine grunt. “That has to be Nori!” she guessed.

She crawled out from under the bed and felt around in the darkness to where she pushed the dresser.  Zemotta found herself feeling excited and panicked at the same time. Unsure of how to focus her feelings, she struggled to clear the dresser from the doorway.

Then, suddenly, she could see a flickering glow outlining the door and started to smell smoke.  Her adrenaline started to flow, giving her the additional strength she needed to successfully move the dresser.  Once it was out of the way, she carefully opened the door to see a flame outside of her door, as well as the glow of her friends Nori and Tomigot outside of her room.

Dundee, Nori, Tomigot, and Scabs made their final attacks to clear the room of the remaining ghoul and ghast.  Tomigot then rushed over to Kristofor to stabilize him with a potion of healing.

Zoras released the bonfire to allow Zemotta to exit her room.  She was excited to be reunited with at least some of her friends. She had no idea who Tomigot was reviving, and noticed there was also a guy with a wolfskin cap in the room.  Scabs was also a lot less skinny than she used to be, too.

Meanwhile Dundee decided to thoroughly check the open rooms in the kitchen; rooms that had been previously inspected by his party members.  All her found were mounds of rat dropping and the smell of old meat.

With the rest of the group concerned with what Zemotta was doing hiding in a room, she explained, “When we were in town, when the crier was making his announcements, I saw Devotion faint.  But, before she could fall, a dark ghostly thing caught and then took off with her, freakishly fast!  I tried following and got to the front of the mansion, but lost site of the thing.  So I snuck into this basement, because the side door was open.  I tried looking for her, but it was really dark and then I heard creepy, ghoulish noises, so I hid in the room hoping you guys would find me.”

After hearing news that their friend, Devotion, was also missing, the team continued to search rooms.

Many of the rooms in this area looked much like the room Zemotta had been hiding in.  They each contained two beds, tables, chairs, and lockers.  Each time Nori entered these rooms, she conducted inspections, much like prison wardens would do, searching high and low, underneath mattresses, inside the cracks of furniture, etc.  She found gold pieces in some of the rooms and then a hole under the bed of another room.  

Tomigot and Kristofor inspected a room that appeared to be larger and nicer than the other bedrooms, perhaps a butler’s room.  In the darkness, Tomigot was able to feel around inside the drawer of the desk and found round metal things.  Kristofor inspected the same drawer to find vial rolling around in it.  Once they brought their treasures into the light, Zoras told Tomigot that he had found chocolate coins!  Without question, Tomigot ate one of the coins, while Zoras, with the snap of his fingers, made sure it tasted like chocolate.  The vial that Kristofor found was a potion of healing.

Zemotta called out for Devotion in each of the rooms she opened. Finding treasures was not a priority for her.  One of the rooms she revealed happened to be a water closet that had a latrine in one corner, as well as a small table and basin.  While still wearing the wolfskin cap, this gave Zoras the perfect opportunity for him to introduce Zemotta to Arik.  He entered the dark water closet and approached the latrine.  As he began to lower his trousers, Zemotta quickly closed the door.  In the pitch-black room, Zoras conducted his business, while Zemotta could hear (and smell) the disgusting sounds and odors of someone suffering from spoiled meats or dairy products.

Once Dundee was done re-inspecting the opened rooms in the kitchen, he began to re-inspect a lot of the living quarters that Zemotta and Nori had already inspected.  There was one room, however, that was left untouched, and in that room her found a couple of gold pieces and a healer’s kit.

Tomigot decided to see what was behind the swaying double doors next to the butler’s room.   Once inside, he could see to the right gray shapes of furniture bobbing inside what seemed like a lake.  “It’s a beach!” he relayed to the party.  To the left he could see grey stacks of wooden boxes. He decided to check out the boxes. When he got closer, he could see that they were coffins.  One coffin in particular caught his eye.  It looked like there was a piece of jewelry inlayed on its lid.  Suddenly the coffin began to move.  The lid opens to reveal teeth lining the inside of its perimeter, and a long, sticky arm-like tongue lashes out at Tomigot.  He tries to take a swing at it with its axe, but only manages to chip the coffin.  The pseudopod tongue wraps around Tomigot, grappling him.

Zemotta, Zoras, and Dudnee rush in to help free Tomigot.  They each took turns attacking the coffin.

Meanwhile, Nori was unaware of Tomigot’s danger.  She was very interested in the hole she had found.  She cleared the bed away from the opening and sent an orb of her dancing lights into it.  She peeked inside the hole to see that it was about 10 feet deep and had water at the bottom. It also appeared to have a tunnel toward the bottom that lead East.  Inside the hole she could hear the muffled up sounds of a struggle coming from the tunnel. She used it as a cue to see what was going on.

By the time Nori joined the rest of her party in freeing Tomigot from the grasp of a coffin’s tongue, Zemotta was able to deal the final blow. Tomigot was released in his weakened and confused state.  He drank a few potions of healing and continued to inspect the stacks of boxes to see that there were even child and infant sized coffins.  Luckily the coffins were empty, he made sure of that.

Meanwhile, Dundee was also confused.  “I thought you said this was a beach!” he shouted at Tomigot.  All he saw was piles of furniture in a collection of water, possibly from leaks in the house above, as well as a door in the back of the very large room.  He peaked outside the door to see the exterior of the house.

Zoras decided to check out the floating and submerged furniture, but tripped in the muck and fell face down into the water.  The rest of the group left him there to explore on his own, as they decided to head upstairs through the kitchen.  Zoras then waded his way to the wall to where he assumed the hole that Nori found connected through. After feeling around in the dark muck, he was able to find a hole. “Hmm, it’s like a prisoner escape hole,” he thought to himself.

Dundee was also very curious about the hole.  He entered the room that Nori found it in, and jumped in.  He was able to confirm that the tunnel lead to the “beach” room.

Zemotta found another room left unsearched by the kitchen.  The room had rows and rows of wine bottles, most of which were now empty, being stored inside.  Some of the shelves had been moved to one side to make room for a leather chair and table where it looked like someone spent a great deal of time and emptied many bottles.  By the looks of things, Nori suspected there might be smut material in this room, but could not find anything.  Not even a drop a wine, either.

The group headed upstairs to a dining room.  The once elegant room had not been used for its purpose in many years.  A large table bared a cobwebbed draped candelabrum and was surrounded by chairs that had been covered with linens to shield them from dust. The wall at the Southern end was adorned with the Falinescu family crest.

Suddenly the ghost of a little girl appeared and greeted the group.  “Did you come here to play with me!?” she asked in a sweet, childish voice. Zemotta recognized her to be the ghost she saw before hiding in the basement room.  Zoras, Tomigot, Nori, and Kristofor recognized her to be Isabella from Sybil’s reading. 

After greeting Isabella in return, Tomigot asked, “Do you have anymore of that cider?”  She motioned to the tray that was sitting on the dining table.  Without hesitation, Tomigot helped himself.  He felt the same warm sensation as it poured down inside his body.  He didn’t seem to feel the same refreshing effect, though. 

Isabella didn’t seem to know who Devotion was, or saw anyone that matched her description.  She did mention that new people come all of the time, mostly to see her mother, though.  She then invited them to play with her, and insisted that they see her wonderful room.

Kristofor was all business and followed Isabella. Zemotta wanted to find Devotion, so she followed, too. Isabella led everyone through a series of hallways.  Dundee, Zoras, and Nori took their time snooping in rooms along the way. 

Zemotta looked behind a door in the hall to see if Devotion was there, but instead found a closet containing heavy cloaks and coats hanging on pegs.  Nori helped herself to the coat pockets, searching for treasure, and then saw Isabella’s head poke through the interior wall of the closet asking, “What’s taking you so long!?  Let’s go play!”  Zoras peeked inside and grabbed the nicest coat; a plush, velvety type coat.

Dundee straggled behind and opened a door to a retiring room.  The room contained a plush sofa and chairs as well as a broken mirror and wash basing in the outer section of the room.  A curtain along the North wall shielded a latrine behind it.  Isabella immediately appeared to warn him, “Oh no no no, this room is only for Mommy!”   In response, Dundee tried to convince her that her mom’s friend said he could go in there.  As he continued to snoop inside the room, this made Isabella angry. “Well, you’ve been warn!” and then vanishes.  Dundee pocketed a shard of the broken mirror.

Isabella led them to the library.  It was in better shape than the rest of the manor.  The walls were lined with books and the furniture was comfortable and plush. In the Northeast wall, a rich wooden staircase lead to the next floor.  At the center of the room was a table and serving set surrounded by several reading chairs.  Tomigot could smell cinnamon and clove in the room, which sent him rushing to the serving set to help himself to more cider.  The books seemed to focus heavily on subjects of anatomy and physiology. There were also books about mechanics, physics, and engineering.

They proceeded upstairs and to a room that was clearly and inventor and craftsman’s workshop.  All types of contractions were scattered about the floor and workbenches.  Cog wheels, springs and other mechanical objects the party had never seen before were everywhere.  Many toy solider and mechanical men were lying about; some of them hung from rafters, swinging slowly as their eyes appeared to follow the party’s movement. There were also a few human and larger sized mechanical arms, some with weapon modifications.  Nori was like a kid in a candy store and was able to collect all the parts she might need to assemble the perfect doll.  The controller on the table caught Dundee’s eyes. He pushed buttons and realized it controlled one of the toys soldiers in the room.  Zoras inspected the craftsmanship and ingenuity of some of the prosthetic limbs that appeared to also be weapons.

While Zoras, Dundee, and Nori were spending time in the workshop, Zemotta tried to quickly check other rooms to see if Devotion was in them.  Tomigot and Kristofor followed Isabella to her room.  Upon opening the door, the they were struck with how clean and well-kept the room was.  No dust could be found.  White furniture, pink frills, and dolls of all kinds are throught the room.  Shelves lined the South wall and were stuffed full of books, toys, and dolls that had been carefully arranged.  They could hear the sound of a music box begin to play. “Do you like my room?  Isn’t it wonderful?”  Isabella was running around the room excitedly, showing Tomigot all of her various toys and treasures.  She noticed that he wasn’t impressed with her books or dolls.

“I think you’ll want to see my new favorite toy,” she tells him.  She then vanishes through the South wall.

Tomigot and Kristofor proceed to the next room.  Deep red cloth lined the walls of the room.  Several rows of chairs lined the length of the room, each one containing a marionette puppet or doll.  A small stage had been erected in the Southeast corner of the room.  Isabella sat at the front row and was clapping her hands, while the curtains were pulled back.  A man, unconscious or dead, they weren’t sure, hung limp from many strings with hooks into his skin in several places – mimicking a macabre marionette.

Kristofor recognized it to be Boris, Sorina’s father!  He had many small, bleeding wounds all over his body, the blood was pooling on the stage under him. Four toy soldiers at the back of the stage were tugging on the strings to make the body do an eerie dance.  Isabella and all of the dolls were laughing and enjoying the grisly program.

Meanwhile……

Devotion found herself in a familiar room.  It was a large library, and she was in one of its main aisles, reading a book.  She tried focusing on the words on its pages, but it seemed illegible.  This place seemed just like the library at the School of Divination magic that she attended.

She got the strange feeling of being watched.  Ahead of her, through a gap in the books on the shelf, she could see a pair of eyes.  They disappeared before she could study them, and then suddenly a human man was standing next to her with a grin on his face.

“Good book”, he said as he glanced at the book in her hand.  

Memories started to flood Devotion’s mind.  This wasn’t just any man, this was Reggie, and this was the moment they first met. She could then envision more moments they shared.  Memories of the many conversations they had, about all kinds of subjects and topics. Memories of hiding or sneaking out at odd hours just to be together.  Then the memory of the time her father found her and Reggie engaged in a lively conversation about magic.

The image of her father began to alter.  He was growing rapidly in size.  Then her mother appeared right beside him, equally as massive.  Both of them were smiling and were carrying expressions of adoration on their faces.  Her father reached out with open arms at Reggie and gently scooped him up in one of his gigantic hands, as if he were picking up a cute hamster.  Then the expressions on her parents’ faces turned from looks of awe to that of deception, as her father’s hand grasped Reggie’s tiny body, forming a fist.

Devotion could feel her body freeze as she could only see Reggie’s head sticking outside of her father’s fist.  Before gasping for air, Reggie called out to her, “Nemeia!”  Veins and tendons on his neck began to fill and bulge through his skin. Her father’s grip grew even tighter as Reggie’s body turned to a pool of gelatinous liquid, and slipped out of clenched fist.

When the liquid fell to the ground, the image of Devotion’s mother transformed into an image of Glovia, while her father’s image turned to that of Laszlo.  Glovia began to laugh maniacally at Devotion, while Laszlo shuttered behind her.

“Nemeia, is it?” Glovia asked.  “Devotion, Nemei, it does not matter what your name is, because you’re mine now, and I can name you whatever I want!  What should I call her, Laszlo?”  Glovia looked over to Laszlo as he was trying to divert her gaze.  Devotion noticed Laszlo wanting nothing to do with Glovia, and could even see he was trying to tell her something, but could not make out the words he was trying to mouth to her.

“Well, I’m sure it will come to me.  Perhaps I need a little inspiration.  I know you are full of words, but let us see what you are really made of!” said Glovia, as she bellowed out another villainous laugh.

Glovia vanished and suddenly Devotion could see a swarm of centipedes approaching her. A powerful feeling came across her. A feeling of knowledge, as if she could remember every single spell she might have read over during college.  She felt the power that she could cast those spells, too, even though she never practiced a lot of them.

One spell stood out as she hurled three rays of fire at the insects.  Several of them exploded like popcorn kernels.  The few that were left rushed toward her, surprisingly faster than normal, she thought.  They sink their pincers into her skin and she could feel her mind ache. She sent three more rays of fire at the centipedes, causing them to flame up before vanishing into thin air.

Then, suddenly, the silhouette of a child started to approach her.  Once the child got closer, she could see it was a young boy. He was not in good shape.  His skin was rotted and loose.  Pieces were missing and his eyes were cloudy. Devotion tried her best to remember, and guessed this might be the boy one of the giant bats tried to escape with, by the Crossing Inn.  The child shuffled his feet toward her and nearly slammed his body into her. Devotion sent three rays of fire at him, but missed.  The child then clawed at her, sinking his dirty nails into her flesh.  The damage gave her another ache in her head, causing her to wince and close her eyes, trying to absorb the pain.

When she opened her eyes again, the zombie child was gone and another creature was approaching her.  This time it looked more beast than human, or perhaps a combination of the two.  Once the creature was close enough, Devotion could see that it was a female werewolf with her belly cut open, bleeding and exposed. “Why would you kill me!?  You could have saved me, but you didn’t!” Alina howled out to Devotion before charging at her.  Without being able to defend herself, Alina sank her K-9 teeth into Devotion’s shoulder, which caused her head to throb again.

With Alina still clamped onto her shoulder, she could see ahead of her another similar figure approaching her.  While she tried to focus, Alina disappeared as the image of Tomigot in his werewolf hybrid form began to walk toward her.

“I thought I was being nice to you,” he whimpered.  “I thought we were friends, but look at me now!  And then you sent me back to DEATH MOUNTAIN!” he roared.

At that instant, everything became cold and dark.  Devotion found herself at the top of foggy, icy peak in the middle of the night. She could see two large furry looking creatures approach her friends.  Flashes of scenes of her friends’ struggles, trying to defeat the creature appeared before her.  At one point, two of her friends, Zemotta and Tomigot, were unconscious, leaving Zoras with a tough decision as far as who to revive with his limited healing abilities. Zemotta was the one who had all of the healing potions, and she was laying on the ground in front of a huge monster.

The flashes continued.  A yeti was pushed off a cliff…then he came hurling back up the cliff!  The other yeti gets knocked unconscious, only to then stand up a few seconds later.  This particular image occurred at least three times.  Similar images of Tomigot falling unconscious appeared, as well.  The wide-eyed, shear look of horror on her friends’ faces was even more disturbing.

To be continued…

[cursed-in-barovia]

SESSION 7

After the town crier mentioned that the Burgomaster requested that each party member see him at once. The group decided to heave over, but amongst the crowd, Devotion and Zemotta went missing, and only Tomigot, Zoras, and Nori arrived outside the Burgomaster’s house.

In the front of the house on the road was an elegant round-top wagon adorned with bright colors and images of red roses. The Vistani commonly use these wagons and call them vardos. At the porch of the large house stood a tall, heavily armored guard. Zoras noticed the guard silently pointing and counting the heads, while looking puzzled once he counted only three.

“I thought there was five of you. What happened to the other two?” he asked.

Nobody was really able to explain where Devotion and Zemotta were. The guard still welcomed and motioned them to come inside.

The Burgomaster’s home was quite large compared to the other homes within the village leaving little doubt of who controls the purse strings. The furniture inside was adorned with many flourishes and rich with deep, vibrant colors on the upholstery. The faint scent of spices and well-oiled leather filled the air.

A large round table covered with a black velvet cloth dominates the parlor. At the far end sat a comely middle-aged woman dressed in bright colors. The party recognized her to be Sybil Rasia, the mother Gur from The Crossing Inn. As the three enter the room, Sybil pulled a deck of lacquered cards from her gown, spread them on the table in a graceful flourish, and bid the party to sit. Behind her, a rotund man in fine clothing stared out the window impatiently chewing on his thumbnail.

After a few uncomfortable moments, the Burgomaster introduced himself as Ivan Randovich, his armored guard as Kristofor, and could easily tell the group already knew Sybil. He explained that at his request, Sybil performed a reading for him earlier that day, and foresaw something ominous and, frankly, unusual. In her reading she event mentioned Tomigot, Zoras, Devotion, Zemotta, and Nori by name.

He paused and conducted a silent head count.

“Where are the other two?” he asked. Again, nobody could answer. So he steps aside and whispered to Kristofor to make sure someone goes and finds them. Kristofor relays the message to the thuggish guards standing outside.

“Well I was hoping everyone could be here, but perhaps it will still work with most of you here now.” He proceeds to tell of details from Sybil’s reading. There were signs of an army of the dead, a delicate powderbox, and a beautiful, yet powerful, woman. Meanwhile, Sybil shuffled the cards in a single hand; stopping every once in a while to flip one face-up onto the table.

Soon, the Burgomaster began to grow angry and curse.

Sybil ignores Ivan’s outburst and informs the group that perhaps a better reading can be done if they all participate. “It would only work if each of you participate. Kristofor, you can join them, too, if you like.”

Sybil Rasia deftly pocketed the Tarokka deck and withdrew a fist-sized sphere of crystal from what seemed to be the same pocket with a sing, fluid motion. She set the crystal orb on the table before her atop a silver stand.

“There is no need for caution. Close your eyes and clear your thoughts.” Sybils said, calmly. Tomigot, Zoras, Noris, and Kristofor obeyed.

As they closed their eyes, a feeling of restful warmth washed over each of them.

From seemingly nowhere, they could hear the delicate plucking of a harpsichord and images of objects fade into view. Eventually they found themselves in a lavish parlor in a large, thoughtfully decorated manor. A roaring fire crackled in the enormous hearth. Windows spanned one wall of the room – flooding light out onto a dramatic terrace overlooking the night-shrouded valley below.

Tomigot, Nori, Zoras, and Kristofor were also in the room. All were without their armor or weapons. Nori was dressed in a formal dress, while Zoras, Tomigot, and Kristofor wore fancy puffy sleeves.

Nori looked down at her dress and nervously admitted, “Well, I guess I have to tell you the truth. I’m a female.”  It was easy to tell she was completely uncomfortable and not herself in this dress, while Zoras actually envied her attire and offered to switch clothes.

Meanwhile, Tomigot was in his own discomfort. More importantly, he wanted to see if he was wearing any underwear. He peeked down to check, with Zoras hovering by, to peek as well. To both of their relief, there was no underwear. While Nori and Zoras exchanged clothes, Tomigot ripped off the puffy sleeves from his shirt. He also noticed that Zoras seemed to have and additional feature that he didn’t notice before, once he was wearing the dress.

“What is that?” he asked Zoras.

“Oh, that’s just a front tail. Us Tritons, we have those.”

Tomigot was in awe of a front tail and asked to see how it worked one day. Zoras abliged.

A young girl in a white dress was facing the windows sitting and playing a large, keyed instrument. It was a child-like melody. Every now and then, a man’s cries of agony would ring out from behind one of the doors.

Isabella introduced herself. Her chest and arms were riddled with open sores, and the left side of her face was almost entirely rotted away. Despite the girl’s hideous disfigurement, she was quite friendly.

Kristofor recognized her. She was the daughter of Glovia and Lucian Falinescu, and had died a few years ago. Prior to Isabella’s death, the Falinescus were thought of as local royalty, and beloved by everyone in the village. But as their grief went on for years, attitudes changed from compassion to suspicion and eventually to rumor and fear.

Isabella explained that her mother, Glovia, told her to stay inside the room or else she would be scolded. Her mother said that she needed to be fixed, but wasn’t sure what that meant. “It must be very bad because it makes mommy very sad and Daddy very angry.” She mentioned that her mother couldn’t fix her without the help from a pretty lady, but wasn’t sure who the lady was.

When asked about the screaming outside the room, she responded with, “Oh that’s just my Daddy. He’s being fixed.” She went on to proudly say how good her parents were at fixing things. Her mother was just as good at fixing people as her father, Lucian, was at fixing toys. She then points out at the dozens of dolls, puppets, and toy soldiers placed around the room. “Aren’t the amazing!? My Daddy made each one!” Some of them were clockwork toys that could walk; others were dolls with features that moved such as blinking eyes or waving hands, and a few were marionette puppets.

Kristofor looked for an exit but realized that windows were sealed and the doors seemed to feel like a façade. As if they were cement walls with doorknobs fixed to them. He tried focusing on any sort of wall decoration, but the dream-state of the reading made it hard to discern.

Tomigot asked if there was anything to drink. Isabella brought him to the center table where on a tray there was four crystal cups. The aroma of the liquid filled the room. “It’s good for you,” Isabella assured. Without question, Tomigot takes a drink. The flavor of cider and warmth overcame his body. His reaction from drinking the contents eased the rest of the party, as they each drank from the other glasses. Tomigot asked for more, but unfortunately that was all that was available

Zoras noticed a delicate pair of glasses on the table, sporting amber lenses with slender slivers of green glass, resembling the vertical pupils of a serpent’s eyes. Once he placed them over his eyes, he noticed that Isabella looked normal and without disease. When he looked around the room, he saw a large portrait on the wall. It was a wealthy, attractive family. Centered in the picture was Glovia, resting her hand on the should of a young girl who looked like a healthy version of Isabelle. He removed the glasses to see if anything in the portrait changed, but nothing happened. He, however, noticed a ring on Glovia’s finger that depicted an empty heart.

Nori then asked if there was anything shiny in the room she could take a look at. Isabella skipped to the table upon which was a silver box. As she opened it, golden light spilled out. She reached in and pulled out a simple, wooden box, the source of the light, and showed it to Nori.

Just as the party was able to focus on the object to discern what it was, the serenity of the moment shattered as a figure came crashing through the window.

Thick strings of wispy ether were attached to his arms and legs, similar to those of a marionette. He snatched the wooden box from Isabella and with a backhanded wing of a lumber axe, struck the young girl’s head from her shoulders without so much as a glance.

The party recognized this to be Laszlo and the sight of the decapitation froze Zoras in his place, and caused Nori to swing her hand out in automatic defense, slapping Zoras in the face! Zoras, stunned while still wearing the glasses noticed that the strings attached to Laszlo lead to a giant image of Glovia, who also had strings attached to her.

“Bring it to me Laszlo!”, a voice boomed overhead. Seeming to snarl at the voice, the creature gathered his strings together and with a single sweep of his axe, severed them cleanly. Looking at the group, he issued a hissing growl before leaping out through the window and into the cold night.

The next thing the party can hear is the loud yell of the Burgomaster, “Run Oleg!” He then slapped everyone back to reality. Finally regaining control of their bodies, they return from the dream feeling refreshed and could see Ivan yelling out the window. A dark figure was chasing Oleg, Ivan’s servant, down the street; its head cocked strangely to one side. Screams were coming from all parts of the village. Ivan turned to the group and yelled, “Snap out of it! We’re under attack!”

As the party prepared to head out, Ivan was able to gather four healing potions as Kristofor was able to convince two of Ivan’s thuggish guards to assist.

Once outside, the party could hear a roaring voice echoing down into the village from the cliffs above. Looking up, they could see Laszlo holding a torch: “Glovia, What shall you do now? You can’t protect them all! I have what you seek and now you must betray them as you were going to betray me!” He then hurled his torch down into the village. It landed on the roof of one of the buildings, which immediately caught fire. This brought everyone’s attention to the village as they realized the horror that was happening all around. The dead had risen and were attacking the town. Looking back up, Laszlo had vanished from sight, but it seemed there were more immediate concerns.

The group ran to the middle of town. On the way there, a clump of fur in the dirty snow caught Zoras’ attention. He picked it up to see that it was a wolfskin cap that looked just like the one that Arik wore.

Once at the center of things, Kristofor and Nori saw zombies closing in on Oleg and two villages. Zoras heard shouts coming from a nearby burning building. Tomigot noticed that the roof of the town hall where the food supply for the village was located was on fire.

Oleg and a few villagers had been chased down a side alley and were cornered by a group of zombies that were shambling toward them. Kristofor ordered his two men to attack while Nori shot arrows from afar. One of the thugs, Paul, was able to pull the villagers out of harm’s way, while Kristofor tried to block the zombies from further approach. He noticed that there was a cart parked to the side the alley. He tried tugging at it to roll it into the middle of the path, but it seemed as if one of the cart wheels was lodged into a divot. Nori, Kristofor, and his men continued to take down each zombie, until they finally stopped returning to life after falling unconscious.

“Help, help!” shouted a disembodied voice that Zoras could hear coming from a nearby building. As he came closer, a head appeared in a barred window.

The building appeared to be a jailhouse of sorts and it was empty; the constable was likely out defending the town. The structure’s roof was well ablaze, and had a skeleton with a torch outside setting fire to more buildings.

With a few gusts of wind, Zoras was able to extinguish the fire on the roof, as well as the torch in the skeleton’s hand. Then after a few force blasts, he was able to take out the skeleton.

Meanwhile, the fire on the roof of the town hall building was rapidly getting out of control. Tomigot peeked inside to see five large crates. The roof was beyond hope of extinguishing, but with quick decisive actions, Tomigot figured he could be able to save the supplies within before the roof came down. Tomigot decided to protect himself from smoke inhalation by removing his wolf fur loincloth and covering his mouth with it. He took turns running into the burning building to grab each crate. Some were heavier than they looked, but for the most part he was able to avoid any fire damage.

Once the villagers were safe from zombies, Kristofor and Nori came over to help Tomigot finish pulling out crates from the town hall, while Zoras tried rescuing the prisoner. Rather than using thieves tools, he tried pouring and freezing water into the lock of the cell door. But the expansion of the frozen water didn’t work as planned. So he then took a swing at it with his sword, successfully busting the lock with great ease, thanks to the ice in the lock.

The prisoner grabbed a bag that was concealed in a pile of straw that he was given as a bed, and with a wink, he thanked Zoras for his bravery and handed him the satchel before turning into a raven and flying away. Kristofor witnessed this and was angry at Zoras for letting a prisoner free, but was equally confused because, not to his knowledge was anyone being incarcerated, prior to the fires. Zoras looked in the bag to find a potion of healing, 25 gp, and a brass key set with a purple stone. He then rushed over to the rest of the group to help the flames out at the town hall building.

Once the last few flames were put out, and all of the food crates were safely rescued, looking around at the chaos, one figure stood out from the others. A particularly ghastly looking creature seemed to be issuing orders to the others. 

Tomigot ran to the ghastly creature as fast as he could, with Kristofor not far behind. Nori, Zoras, and the guards took shots at its minions; two skeletons.

Upon closer inspection, Kristofor recognized the ghast to be Jakob, once a butler of the Falinescu Manor. Tomigot just noticed the awful odor that emitted from the creature. It, however, was no odor that Tomigot couldn’t handle, especially not after just having his loincloth over his mouth.

After several shots of arrows, slashes from swords and axes, and for blasts, the party was able to kill the ghast and his skeleton minions. Zoras search the ghast’s body and found a jeweled butler’s ring. The rest of the party found old rusty swords, bows, and tattered leather on the skeletons.

As things grew quiet, and the remaining villagers were able to absorb the damage and chaos of the events that just occurred, the group was able to take a short rest. Then as the cleaning efforts began to wind down for the evening, a woman arrived; pleading hysterically for help. “You must help me. She has taken my girl! My Sorina is gone and my husband, Boris, has gone after them. I could not stop him!”

Kristofor recognized her as woman name Kala. He asked her for more details. The woman was the mother of Sorina, the young girl that worked at the hospice. She explained that Glovia cast a spell on she and her husband and took the girl. She was told by others that Sorina was seen leaving the town with Glovia, heading towards the Falinescu Manor.

While Kristofor had never been inside the Falinescu Manor, he knew where it was and lead the way, just outside of Orasnau proper. The road from the village had not seen wagon or carriage traffic in years became nothing more than a footpath.

The enormity of the home was in sharp contrast to the buildings in the village. Once a lavish estate that surely hosted many grand affairs, Falinescu Manor had fallen into dilapidation from neglect. An imposing granite structure perched on a bluff, the home boasted an impressive view over Svalich Woods to an ominious castle in the distance.

In front of the estate there was a circular path for carriages. Multiple gargoyles stared down from their parapets in disapproval. Huge black, wooden doors with rusted iron bindings offered a cold reception. Tomigot accepted the invitation and opened the unlocked front doors.

The grand foyer was obviously made to impress. The ceiling was open to the second story and ultimately to a glass paned roof, which was currently leaking very badly and forming a large puddle around the entryway. Pillars lined the sized of the room supporting an overlooking rail on the second story. An impressive staircase was opposite the front door.

With one step forward, the floor beneath him instantly buckled from his heavy half-orc weight, causing the entire foyer floor and the stairs up to the first landing to crumbled into the basement below. With a quick reflex, he was able to backflip back onto the threshold of the doorway. “Well, maybe we should go around to another entrance,” he said, embarrassingly.

The group decided to try following the path that lead to the left side of the Manor. The path descended to a lower level once they turned the corner toward the back of the house.

The side door that lead to the kitchen appeared recently used. The door was not locked. There was no food in sight and it was apparent that none had been prepared there in quite a while. A slow, steady dripping sound echoed through the room. A puddle collected inside the hearth.  Nori set her released her dancing lights to illuminate the dark room.

Kristofor checked one of the doors in the room. It wasn’t locked, but he could hear movement coming from inside the room. The party readied themselves for whatever was behind the door. Paul and Hugh, Kristofor’s guard, flipped one of the kitchen tables to its side to act as a barrier of defense.

Kristofor quickly opened the door as swarms of at least 100 rats pooled out, hungry for their next meal. Tomigot, Kristofor, and Hugh took most of the bites, while Nori and Zora try firing arrows and setting bonfires on the rats from afar. No matter how many wings with axes or swords, or shots with arrows each of the party members took, it seemed as though the rats were just too quick to be hit. It took some time to skewer and roast every last rat. The party, especially Kristofor was completely exhausted after the encounter.

He mustered up the mental and physical strength to inspect the room the rats were in. The smell was nauseating. A combination of spoiled food and rat droppings, this one-time pantry and adjoining meat locker had become a nest for rats. Nothing of value or still worth eating could be found in this room, leaving Kristofor frustrated for having to survive the rats, all for nothing.

[cursed-in-barovia]

SESSION 6

While Devotion was staying at the Hare & Hair, along with the elves, Gregori expressed his frustration in regards to how cramped his places was feeling these days. If the elves would be staying in town as the new trappers, they should have a place of their own. Laszlo and Alina’s old house would make perfect sense since they’re dead, except the new guy, Arik, has already taken claim to it and has been using it as his trading post.

“He’s been nothing but trouble since the day he arrived!” Gregori cried out. “I don’t know if his arrival has anything to do with the newcomers disappearing or undead creatures attacking the town. It’s all a suspicious coincidence, if you ask me.”

Devotion tried to calm Gregori by helping him clean up the rest of the mess that the wolf pup made. Then later that night, Zemotta came over to check on everyone, and informed Devotion about the new snow leopard that Dundee and the group had rescued from the top of a snowy mountain. The two of them stayed the night, only making the Hare & Hair even more cramped, and causing Gregori even more frustration.

The following morning, Gregori seemed to be in a much better mood. He served everyone a large breakfast and waited for the elves to leave for work before nudging Devotion and Zemotta and suggesting they help the elves claim Arik’s trading post. “Consider this food for encouragement!”

The teifling and the halfling exited Gregori’s to find Dundee, Zoras, Nori, and Tomigot outside of the Eyes of Midnight as they had just witnessed Arik riding away toward the end of town on a gaunt, black horse, and then disappearing in the dusty fog. Perplexed, Tomigot decided to follow Arik’s trail, only to be lead to a point where the tracks disappeared, right around the area where the dust and fog swallowed Arik and his horse.

Meanwhile, the town had also seen Arik disappear and approached the group in a rage of frustration from Arik’s presence in Orasnau. They had grown tired of all of the weird things that had been going on since his arrival, and with pitchforks and lit torches in hand, they demanded that the group help eradicate him, and suggested that the first place to check was his trading post.As the party and villagers marched toward Arik’s trading post, or what used to be Laszlo and Alina’s home, no horse tracks could be found. The trading post was a simple, rectangular home that showed signs of neglect. The birch boards used for its construction had begun to rot, and were broken in many places. An occasional rat scurried between the loose boards, and many bats had taken up residence in the nearby trees. The windows of this ramshackle home were shuttered and hastily boarded up with driftwood and iron nails.  Tomigot busted the front door with a strong kick, in attempt to open it, but instead created a hole in the rotted wood panels, which also caught his foot. Devotion approached as if she were a confident guard about to catch her suspect.  The door magically flung open and released Tomigot’s lodged foot from the hole. Upon entering, nobody could be found inside. The interior was barren, aside from several scraps of fur and an empty, broken curing rack. Though the home seemed to show little signs of someone living there, signs of foot traffic could be found outside, as well as jagged claw marks that marred the doors and windows.

Suddenly a blood-curdling scream rang out from the center of the village. They could see a gray haired woman in shoddy clothing in the embrace of a sickly looking man. Blood was flowing down the woman’s cloak and onto the pallid snow at her feet. A ghoul and two zombies had her surrounded. Immediately, the party rushed over to her aid.

After a few ranged attacks and the aid of Chi and Devotion’s bat familiar to distract the undead creatures, the ghoul and zombies were slain. Tomigot made sure the woman was ok. She had some cuts that he was able to tend to with the best of his abilities. Meanwhile Devotion and Nori checked the undead bodies. Devotion found a dagger covered in old blood and rotten bodily goo. Nori also found a gooey dagger, and reached deep into what might have been a pocket, or possibly the inside of the zombie’s thigh to find 1 bloodied gp.

Once things were settled, the townsfolk became even more impatient and frustrated. A quick glance back toward far side of the trading post, two villagers could be seen having just touched their lit torches to the wooden home.  The crowd began to roar with adrenaline! As the structure began to catch fire, the group ran over to extinguish the flames! Zemotta tried throwing a snowball, but initially couldn’t quite hit the fire. With a second attempt, she hit, bull’s-eye! Then Zoras made his attempt at smothering the fire with a gust of wind. Not only did it put out the second flame, it also pushed back some of the surrounding villagers. Suddenly a loud, intimidating voice could be heard “Stop what you’re doing! Put down the torches!” The two villagers, stunned by the voice, immediately dropped their torches. Once Tomigot arrived back at the house, another ghoul and two more zombies were approaching the house.

“Get behind me!” Tomigot instructed the two villagers. But before one of the villagers could even move to safety, one of the zombies made two strong swipes with its claws, instantly killing the person. After witnessing the death of his friend, the other villager immediately took cover behind Tomigot, as the ghoul made one extremely strong swat with its claws at Tomigot, stunning and freezing him in place. Nori shot a few arrows at the undead creatures, while Devotion conjured a ghostly, skeletal hand to chill the ghoul to its core. Then a zombie swung its rotten claws as Tomigot in such a great force that it pushed him back against the once burning structure, nearly squishing the villager that was hiding behind him. After a few more attacks from Zemotta and Zoras, the creatures were killed. Zemotta was too disgusted by the smells and guts of the undead to search their bodies, while Zoras was happy to strip a blood-crusted metal bracelet from the wrists of one of the creatures.

The crowd of villagers celebrated in victory, and their attitude quickly changed from frustration and rage to guilt. Many of them apologized to the party and invited the heroes to the tavern. “Drinks on us!”

Once back at the Seven Tables Inn, everyone was gossiping in excitement about the events that had just happened. “It’s too bad Burgomaster Randovich didn’t come back today instead of tomorrow. I’m sure he would have loved to have been here!” Some of the villages arrived later to present the party with 2 potions of healing that they were able to dig up from their homes.

The afternoon was full of many pints of alcohol and laughter. Devotion and Nori made sure to, in more than one way, deliver a message to Gregori that the elves can now use Alina and Laszlo’s old house to live in. Then Tomigot, in his drunken state, thought it would be a good idea to investigate the Burgomaster’s estate. Zemotta decided to follow along and hitch a ride on his back. Zoras followed along. As the 3 headed to the burgomaster’s house, Devotion and Nori were returning from their message delivery. Devotion asked what Tomigot was doing, and was not happy with his intentions. The next thing Tomigot knew was that he was face down in the snow with Zemotta standing over his back.

“What happened!? Was I back on ‘Death Mountain’?!” Tomigot slurred.

Devotion tried to persuade the group to return to the Inn, but Tomigot had a curiosity to resolve.

As the group approached the Burogmaster’s house, they could see a stout and sturdy looking, single level building, crafted from mostly brick and some petrified timbers. It sat atop a raised stone foundation with a shallow set of wooden stairs leading to the porch and an ornate front door, with a low, shingled roof above creating a small area of cover from the snowfall where 3 armed men stood guard. They sat on chairs, bundled against the chill and didn’t seem like typical city guards. They looked more like they could have been hired off the street.

The men noticed their approach. “Who goes there? What business do you have?” they asked.

Tomigot mentioned he was looking for the Burgomaster.

“He’s not here. Come back tomorrow after her returns.”

Nori tried to reason with the guards, explaining that they were all friends of the Burgomaster. The guards, in return, quizzed their knowledge of this “friendship.” Everyone seemed to struggle with their answers. Nori even tried to offer some coin to let them through, but the guards held firm to any sort of offer they’d accept.

“If you can’t do 25gp EACH, which is what the Burgomaster is paying us, then we have no business.” The guards even mentioned that their jobs weren’t great, but the money was good.

Then a creature approached wearing what seemed like a sandwich as a helmet. “I am the Burger Master!” he declared.

The main guard nudged the guard next to him.. “Pinch me. Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Is this real, or is this a dream? What in the world IS that!?”

“I said, I’m the Burger Master! Can’t you recognize your own boss?”

Whatever shenanigans the group was up to, the guards weren’t falling for it. But they did admit that they seemed to be a much more fun bunch of people than their current situation.

While this was going on, Tomigot and Zemotta tried to sneak around to the back of the house. Once they reached the far corner of building, they could see an additional 3 men sitting on a felled log beside a brazier full of burning coals, trying to drive off the winter’s chill. Tomigot and Zemotta decided to try to climb up to the top of the roof, to see if there was a window or some sort of door to climb into. Nori sent Chi to do an aerial surveillance, confirming that there was a balcony type loft on the roof, with a door leading into the dwelling. Drunk Tomigot could not seem to climb up the side of the house, and Zemotta couldn’t do any better. The noise caused by their struggles alerted the guards in the back. Once they approached the two, they demanded that they leave the premises. Defeated, Tomigot and Zemotta obeyed, and the rest of the group followed. Everyone headed back for the night at the inn.

Zoras did his nightly beauty rest routine, while Tomigot almost instantly passed out. Zemotta feel asleep pretty quickly, as well. Meanwhile Devotion could hear giggling and thumping happening in the room next door, followed by the taps and mumbles coming from Marku below. Curious, Devotion followed the sounds. They were coming from Nori’s room. She peeked through the keyhole and could see Nori dancing and singing with Chi and a human-shaped glow of lights. She knocked on the door. “What are you doing in there?”

“Nothing!” Nori quickly replied.

“I can see you dancing in there through the keyhole,” Devotion admitted. “Who is that in there with you?”

“Oh, that’s just Saint.”

Devotion shook her head, confused, and went back to her room.

The following morning, everyone had breakfast at the inn.  Nori presented Zoras with the chalice that was purchased from Fillar’s shop. “This is for you, I thought you might like it!” Zoras reluctantly accepted the gift. Then Marku approached the party’s table. “Excuse me; I wonder if I might have a moment? I told my wife, Crina, we shouldn’t bother you, but she insisted I come over. My nephew, Vasile, and his friend have recently gone to Vallaki for supplies. They were due back last evening, but have not returned. Normally, I wouldn’t worry, but the storm and recent events have me worried.”

“We don’t have much,” Marku continued, “well, after having to pay our taxes and debts to Burgomaster Randovich, but we can scrape together a modest reward if you are able to find them.”

The group agreed to help, so Marku directed them to the road that lead to Vallaki. On their way down the path and descent into a valley, they happened upon a junction in the road. To one side of the crossing, they saw a wagon – its cargo spread out in the snow. The corpse of a horse and what was likely its owner laying partially covered in snow on the ground.

Upon further inspection, the horse was dead and had partially been eaten. This triggered a subtle memory for Tomigot, during his transformation as a werewolf. The body on the ground did not match Vasile’s description. It must have been his friend. The party found Vasile inside the cart, still alive, but in horrible condition. He had a number of slashing wounds and was unconscious. Zoras tried to heal him with a spell, but it didn’t seem to take effect.

The cart had suffered enough damage to no longer function. It had lots of scratches throughout, as well. Zoras even found a rotten fingernail inside. Devotion found a jewelry box that contained gaudy jewelry, while the others found empty crates and sacks, assumed to be vessels to carry the goods that would have been purchased in Vallaki. Everyone grabbed what they could to return to Marku, while Tomigot gently carried Vasile back to town.

Once they arrived to the Seven Tables Inn, Marku confirmed that they found Vasile and urged them to bring him to the hospice to see Glovia. She should be able to cure him.

The hospice was a squat brick building with a high-peaked roof. As the group approached, with Vasile in Tomigot’s hands, a woman and a young girl came out to meet them.

“Inside,” the woman said calmly, “Sorina will direct you where to set him.”

Once inside, the woman examined the wounds and pointed things out to the young girl, who nodded understandingly after each observation had been made. Sorina followed the woman as she set to work on the unconscious boy. The modest facility has four beds, a table for herbal preparations, some cabinets on either side, and a large table upon which Vasile was laying, with a hall and a few more rooms outside the operating room.

“Where did you find him?” the woman asked. The group informed her of the cart wreck and signs of scratches and the fingernail. Panic washed over Glovia’s face; she was obviously worried. “This was Laszlo’s doing. Did you destroy him?” She asked, the slightest hint of anticipation on her lips.

In a quick defense, Devotion wanted to know what Glovia knew about Laszlo. The only information that she could provide was that he was some sort of undead that she tried asking to do favors. But it seemed that Laszlo had other plans. Glovia reminded Devotion that it was crucial that she tend to the boy in order to save his life. Devotion demanded that she stay in the room to watch, but Glovia was too smart to know that Devotion had no knowledge as to how to even cure Vasile’s condition, and therefore asked her to leave, so that she could focus. Devotion persisted until Sorina stepped in and ushered her outside the room.

While this was going on, Zemotta looked to see if she could find an empty cabinet in the room to hide in, to monitor for any suspicious activity. Devotion also set her bat familiar inside the room for surveillance, while the rest of the group stayed outside the hospice. Glovia noticed the bat and could not seem to concentrate with it in the room. After one swift reach of her hand, the bat vanished into thin air. “Now I can get started.”

With Zemotta inside the cabinet, she could overhear Glovia as she operated. After some time passed, Glovia mentioned to Sorina that her work there was done. She instructed her to watch over Vasile and send a word to Marku that she was able to cure him, but he will need lots of rest.

“I’ve had a busy day today, I think I’ll be heading home,” Zemotta heard Glovia say.

Meanwhile, the group outside could see a person leave the hospice with a note and make his way toward the inn, but no signs of Glovia. Nori was trying to figure out how to get Zemotta out safely. An idea came to mind; tap on the operating room’s window from outside with an invisible hand, and perhaps cause a distraction with Chi. Fortunately the combination caught Sorina’s attention from inside the room, giving Zemotta a brief window to escaped the cabinet and the room. She wasn’t too stealthy with her exit as the cabinet door squeaked open. Sorina turned away from the window to see Zemotta exit the room. But rather than chase after her, she figured “I’ll just let Glovia know…”

From outside the hospice, the group heard the loud clang of a hand-bell. They saw a stout, portly man with a blue coat and pale trousers flanked by a lanky teenage boy that was staring into space. They both stood on a small platform at the center of town. Townsfolk immediately stopped what they were doing and a surprisingly large crowd quickly gathered.

The man began:

“Oyez, Oyez, Oyez! The following is a decree from the most distinguished and generous Burgomaster Randovich, to wich we are all indebted….in one form or another.

“The Burogmaster makes it known that the following person are to report to his residence as soon as possible.” The man elbowed the young boy standing next to him who, in turn, recited the names Tomigot, Zoras, Nori, Devotion, and Zemotta from an unfurled scroll.

The crier continued, “These persons are suspsected not of being charlatans, burglars, vagabonds, or instigators. You are to draw no conclusions.” At this point, the group was sure the entire town was staring at them.

“Let it also be known that… Oleg, it is your turn to light the village lamps tonight.” A single, disembodied groan rose from the back of the crowd, oozing with disappointment. “That is all!”

[cursed-in-barovia]

Session 5

The group of five were left at the top of the snow-covered peak on a ledge as two rotten, undead yetis are aware of their presence.  One was approaching from the far side of the  wide ledge while the other was inside a cave inside the mountain, its opening and the yeti, both facing Dundee, Tomigot, and Zemotta.  A chained, emaciated feline creature could also be seen, tethered inside the cave behind the yeti.

Dundee took immediate action to bypass the guarding yeti and tend to the feline.  Zoras blasted the yeti on the opposite side of the ledge with an icy force, pushing they large creature off the ledge.  A deafening scream could be heard off the side of the cliff as the yeti fell into the fog. “That’s one down,” Zoras announced.  Tomigot tried to swing his great axe at the yeti inside the entrance of the case, but instead brought the axe blade down to the ground, just missing the yeti’s toes. As a response, the yeti menacingly stared into Tomigot’s eyes, but Tomigot was not intimidated.  Out of even more frustration, it took two hefty swipes at him with is claws; one to the chest, the other to the face.

After witnessing Tomigot receive two strong hits, Nori tried shooting at the yeti, but out of fear, could not steady the nerves to aim a crossbow, and shot Zoras from behind instead. Zemotta summoned a long, rubbery whip made of pure water, grabbed one end of it, and snapped it at the remaining yeti.  The water whip tangled itself around the creature’s leg, and with a quick twist of the wrist, and a strong tug, it swiped the leg from under its flesh-torn belly, causing it to fall prone.

With the cave down on the ground, Dundee was able to focus his bow and shoot an arrow from behind and right into the yeti’s left butt cheek.   He then ran past the creature as it tried to take a swat at the person that just shot it in the butt, but was unable to make contact.

Zoras produced an arcane bonfire in front of the prone yeti’s face.  The sight of the flame cause the yeti to flinch and cower.  It did not like the fire at all.  With the creature still on the ground, Tomigot was able to swing his great axe down successfully and sliced into the yeti’s arm.  The yeti was yet again enraged by Tomigot’s attack, brought itself to its feet, and gave him another menacing stare.  This time it Tomigot couldn’t resist the intimidation and was chilled to the bone.  The next thing he knew was two more claws were coming at him, but only one could make contact.

Then from the side of the cliff, the second yeti come lunging over the edge, and onto its feet, into the eyesight of Dundee and Zoras.  Zemotta was still focused on the cave entrance yeti, and ran up to it to give it a good blow with her quarter staff.  Not wanting to remain within range of its claws, she stepped like the wind, away from the yeti, and behind the safety of her friend, Tomigot.  Nori gave another shot with a crossbow and was able to slice right into the same butt cheek arrow that Dundee shot, causing even more pain into an already punctured wound.  Chi, Nori’s “trash bird” owl familiar, was summoned to distract the yeti.

The attacks continued, but they yetis were proving to be deadly creatures.  At a certain point Tomigot, Zemotta, and Nori were laying on the floor unconscious from the yetis’ brutal claw attacks.  With the help of a few healing potions and spells, the party was revived as the yetis became weaker and weaker.  At another point, Zemotta could see Nori levitate and rise 20 feet from the ground.  Eventually one of them was brought down, only to return several times with its undead fortitude.  Meanwhile Dundee targeted the second yeti with a mystical hunter’s mark, while the owl helped distracted it for Tomigot’s melee attacks.  Eventually Tomigot decided to shove the yeti back off the side of ledge, and did so.  The yeti could not grasp onto the side of the peak, to avoid a terrible tumble, and disappeared again into the fog.   Dundee could still feel his hunter’s mark but then the sensation faded away completely.

All hands were left to deal with the resilient undead yeti.  With a team effort and several whacks, even when it was already down, the yeti eventually stayed down for good.

With the yetis out of the way, Dundee was able to rush back to the chained cat.   Upon inspection, he determined it to be very much like the snow leopards he had heard of in legends back home.  This cat was in terrible shape, though.  The most noticeable condition was its weight; she was almost as thing as a pancake.  The only shapes she had was her hips, rib cage, and head.  The leather collar around her neck had dug itself into the skin.  Scabbing could be seen surrounding and engulfing the collar.  The cat’s fur was dirty and matted in many areas.  When Dundee tried to offer her a chunk of Elk meat, she didn’t even respond, being too weak to eat.

While Dundee continued to try to get the cat to eat rations and drink melted snow, Nori produced dancing lights in the shape of a human and decided to have a dance party in the case, while Zoras investigated the rest of the cave.  With the aid of his bonfire his was able to see a pile of bones sitting next to the cat.  They seemed to be feline bones.  Some to be similar in size to the emaciated leopard, and some to be juvenile.  He suspected that this might be the remains of the cat’s family.  With that bit of knowledge, Dundee figured that this might be the last snow leopard, knowing already that they are extremely are, elusive, and don’t reproduce at a steady rate.  This could be the only cat like this that he’ll ever see!

“Well, what should we call her?” Dundee polled the group.   “How about Scabs!” shouted Tomigot.  The group liked it.  Scabs it was!  (Or Scabby in Dundee speak.)

After a short rest, the difficult part was next; getting back down the mountain.  It was practically night time at this point, and with the combination of darkness and fog, it was extremely hard to see any obstacles in front of you.  With the help of Nori’s dancing lights, Zoras was able to determine a route that was less steep.   Tomigot offered to carry Scabs down the mountain, and gently threw her onto his shoulders.  Nori gave her a quick pat on the head with a skeletal looking spectral hand.  Then without any direction, Tomigot got to work and staked the grappling hook into the rock.  With a firm tug on the rope, he quickly repelled down, into the darkness, into the fog, with a snow leopard around his neck.  Meanwhile Nori was conducting test flights with Chi, hoping that the “trash bird” would be strong enough to carry a person down the mountain, or at least be able to glide.   Unfortunately the owl was only able to lift about 6” inches before it got tired.

Tomigot made it to the end of the 100 foot rope and onto the next ledge down the mountain, as if he were a professional climber.  Tomigot yelled back up to the rest of the party “It’s not the bad, it’s kind of easy!”  With a Zoras-like flair, he formed an ice sled to carry him down.  With a running start, he slide over the edge of the cliff,  quickly picked up lots of speed, and found a boulder that acted as a ramp, which threw Zoras into the air along with shavings of ice trailing the sled. He then landed back down back onto the slope, eventually landing at Tomigot's feet. Dundee took a hold of the rope and was able to easily make it down. Zemotta followed, and had no issue.   Nori just slid down with one foot pointed down and the other tucked under and, on the way down, managed to wedge an ankle between two boulders, then continued to slide the rest of the way down. “200 more feet to go!”

The grappling hook was staked into the rock again, and Tomigot disappeared into more fog.  He was able to make it down pretty easily, again, as the mountain was starting to taper out.  After taking note from Nori's slide, Dundee suited up, by way of wearing his crocodile skin jacket as a pair of pants, to avoid any rashes.   Unfortunately he wasn’t able to slide as gracefully and smacked into a boulder.  Nori tried the power slide again, and slid right into another boulder, right next to Dundee.  Zemotta decided to play it safe and use the rope again, yet still had difficulty getting down.  

With the party back together again, there was just 100 more feet to go. Tomigot took the lead, again, and entered into the darkness.  He could feet the fluffy snow beneath his boots.  The ground seemed very flat, as if it were a snow-covered prairie.  He relayed the info to the rest of the party.  Zemotta took no chances and still held onto the rope for safety.  Dundee and Nori still tried the power slide, but were still finding the worst paths.  Zoras tried the ice sled again, but without being able to see what was in front of him, nearly slid right into Tomigot and Nori.

Now that everyone was back on level ground, a quick surveillance revealed they were now at the tree line of the forest.   With Dundee’s navigation, the group headed in the direction he thought the town might be at.  Zoras took the lead with his ice plow with Nori’s dancing lights aiding in the night’s darkness.

On the way back to Orasnau, Dundee’s whip of warning alerted him.  Two zombie could be seen walking aimlessly in the trees.  Dundee took a quick shot with a bow at one of them, piercing it right into the shoulder.  Nori tried to do the same, but show a tree instead.  Zemotta couldn’t see anything, with the 3 foot snowpack.  Zoras shot a few arcane blasts, and eventually the zombies were knocked down.

Much to everyone’s luck, it was only another hour before the party returned to town.  The first stop was at the Seven Tables Inn.  A proud Dundee walked in through the recently repaired doors with his new mangy cat.  Marku, the owner of the inn, took immediate notice.  He couldn’t believe his eyes. That was the cat of legend!  He was so excited, because Dundee had just won him a lot of money, with the town’s standing bet.  Unfortunately, Dundee was only able to pocket 20 gp from the winnings.

With the excitement of the snow leopard, and the satisfaction that, thanks to the help of Devotion and another volunteer, his tavern doors had just been repaired earlier that day, Marku offered the group a round of drinks and hot soup.  He was also able to provide some milk for Scabs that Zoras was able to heat up with a snap of his fingers.

If a free round of drinks wasn’t enough, Nori spotted a half pint of beer sitting on a table where two men were busy arm-wrestling.  The next thing one of the wrestlers saw was a floating glass of beer traveling in the air away from his competitor.  This time Nori’s mage hand was invisible.

After finishing her meal, Zemotta excused herself to go check on Devition, as the rest of the group overheard more conversations coming from other tables.

“Have you noticed how some of the new folk that have been arrived in town seem to just disappear?  Except for those folks over there, for some reason.”

”Fillar…Burgomaster Randovich… they’re both thieves! One publicly ‘confiscates’ while the other has sticky fingers.”

Followed with, “You know, I’ve seen my wife’s heirloom bracelet that she got from her mothers, that Randovich ‘confiscated’ in Fillar’s shop.”

”I think Lazlo faked his death in order to skip town and  find a more profitable village to sell his wares.”

Eventually everyone headed off to their own rooms above the tavern for a much needed, good night’s rest.  Zoras conducted his nightly primping routine.  Giggling and voices, along with creaking and whining floorboards could be heard coming from Nori's room, followed by taps from Marku's broomstick below.  Nori was dancing with Saint, a humanoid figure formed by dim orbs of light.  Dundee tended to Scabs, washing and cleaning her wounds, gently removing the mats in her fur, and offering a buffet of meat to choose from.  She preferred the raw meat.  After receiving some TLC, Scabs began to perk up and purr.

The morning arrived.  Zoras woke up early to do his morning routine before heading downstairs to order a mimosa and eggs, only to find out that he drank the last of Marku’s mimosas and that there was no such thing as bagels in Orasnau.  “All I have is wine, which is still kind of fruity?  And the bread here, it doesn’t taste like much, if I’m being honest,” Marku noted.  Zoras accepted the wine and boring bread, and with a quick snap of the fingers, the wine shifted it’s flavor from fermented grape to a citrus orange, and the bread now had the flavor of an artisanal bagel.

Tomigot rose from his bed, stood up, stretch out his arms and approached the window in his room.  He opened it to see a villager walking to his workplace.  Tomigot shouted down to him, “Could you tell me what time it is?”  The villager paused his walk to face a half-orc shouting at him from a window.  He then quickly turned his head back and continued walking, even faster, to his destination.

Dundee awoke to Scabs curled up around his feet.  Like a proud father, he escorted Scabs down the stairs, as everyone looked up in awe.  Some had the expression of seeing a beautiful creature, while others saw dollar signs.  In a quick defense, Dundee shouted, “If any of you mess with my cat, I’ll kill you!”  People immediately turned their heads and went back about their business.

While Dundee was ordering his breakfast, Tomigot took the opportunity to see if he could speak to Scabs.  He was able to get her attention and, before he could say too much Scabs spoke, “I remember you, you carried me down from the mountain.  Thank you so much, for rescuing me and bringing me here, safely!”  Tomigot’s cheeks turned a warm brown. “Aw shucks.”  He then asked, “Do you like the name Scabs?” She responded, “Well, it’s a name that reminds me of the terrible time I had in that cave, and those awful creatures that chained me there. But at the same time, it might also remind me of the day you guys arrived and rescued me.”  Tomigot grew even more bashful and offered, “If you ever need anything, you just let me know.  I have your back.” She responded with a purr and rubbed up against his legs.  Then approached Dundee to do the same, so as not to make him jealous.

Nori headed down stairs to order eggs and milk.  Marku’s wife, Crina, came out of the kitchen and served a plate of scrambled eggs, but all Nori wanted was raw eggs.  She returned the plate of scrambled eggs and then came back from the kitchen, holding tow raw eggs.  Nori took them, cracked them open and into the glass of milk. “A protein shake!”  After guzzling down the shake, Nori approached Marku. “Do you have any kids?  I want to make a puppet.”  Marku wasn’t sure what to make of this.  In his mind, Nori wanted to make a puppet out of his kids.  Nori quickly had to clarify and explain that it was just toys that were of interest, not the kids themselves.  Marku still couldn’t shake the gruesome image from his mind, and suggested that dolls could possibly be found at the Eyes of Midnight.  Fillar’s shop down the road.  Overhearing Nori’s request, Zoras asked, “Well, should we go shopping, then?”  Nori eagerly agreed.

The group of four headed down the road, following Marku’s direction, and quickly found Fillar’s shop.  Hanging above the doorstep of the wooden shop was a carved birch sign that with a depiction of a close-up of a Raven’s head with pupils painted to look like the full moon.  It read “The Eyes of Midnight: Baubles and Beyond.”  Upon noticing the sign, “Ooo baubles!” Nori said aloud. “Let’s go in!”

As the four entered the Eyes of Midnight, the jingle of the doorbell didn’t seem to interrupt the tall man running the shop from casually bantering with a young man who wore a wolfskin cap.  The man in the hat had just exchanged some jewelry and a few small hand tools for a short crate.

The man behind the counter was Fillar.  A tall, thin figure with a long crooked nose, pointed features, and thick black hair.  His attire was primarily in black and darkened shades of gray.  He had dark, beady eyes and bony fingers.  He also seemed quite skittish; he seemed to be constantly assessing his surrounding and moving in abrupt, jerky motions while doing so.

Without waiting for the two men to finish their conversation, Nori asked Fillar, “Do you have any dolls?”  Fillar pointed to a small wooden box, “You might be able to make a doll with those parts in there.”  Nori asked how much the parts cost, and Fillar responded with a price.  Nori tossed him some gold pieces.

As a cue for an exit, the man in the wolfskin hat excused himself. “Well I should let you go, Fillar, it seems you have a bunch of customers waiting.”

“Ok, see you next time, Arik!” said Fillar, with a slight wave of his hand in salutation as Arik exited the shop.

“Hey guys, that was Arik,” Tomigot whispered to his friends.  Taking note, Zoras asked Fillar, “Who was that guy?”

“Oh that’s Arik, he’s new in town, but makes a lot of visits to my shop,” Fillar informed.

“What does he buy?”

“Well, he seems to be really interested in jewelry, or anything that has to do with jewelry.  Women’s jewelry, oddly enough.  And today he happened to buy a powderbox.  He gave me 200 gp for it, I couldn’t believe it!”

The attention to details of Arik’s purchasing habits were quickly interrupted. Dundee and Tomigot asked Fillar if he had any potions of healing to purchase. Fillar explained that he didn’t really deal with potions or any sort of adventuring gear, for that matter.  “I tend to go for shiny things.  Heirlooms especially.  Shiny things with a story are the best, too.”

“What about this magnifying glass?” Dundee asked, as he pulled out the gold magnifying glass he found on an orc.

“Oh yes! That is definitely shiny!  A beautiful magnifying glass!” Fillar said, excitedly, while touching the tips of the boney fingers on both of his hands together.

“How much would you give me?” Dundee asked.

“I’d say…for a magnifying glass like that, 120gp!”

“How about 125?”

“Ohh, hmm, no, I think 120 is fair.”

“How about this crocodile tooth?” Dundee loosened the large, sharp tooth from his leather necklace, to show Fillar.

“What’s a crocodile?”  Fillar had never heard of such a creature.   While Dundee explained that it was a large scaly beast with sharp teeth, Zoras projected an illusion of what one looked like, so that Fillar could see.  “Hmm, I’m not sure anyone would be interested in a tooth.   Perhaps with a story, it will increase it’s appeal.  Tell me a story!” Fillar demanded, excitedly.  

Dundee began to tell of a story, with great animation, of his encounter with the crocodile that was responsible for the scar across his nose.  How the crocodile chomped on his head and started to do a death spin in the water.  But Dundee managed to make it out alive and took one of the beast’s teeth as a souvenir.  Fillar loved the story, and offered 2 gp for the tooth.   Dundee counted with 125 gp for both the magnifying glass and the tooth. Fillar agreed.

Inspired by Dundee’s negotiation skills, Tomigot asked to see if Fillar might be interested in a “dah jar” he was carrying.  Fillar pulled out a tray containing a collection of shiny daggers he already had.  He started to smugly describe the ornamentation on each of the daggers and recite the stories behind some of them.   Needless to say he wasn’t interested in Tomigot’s dagger.  Perhaps if the dagger was an heirloom of some sort, that might help.  Tomigot could not recall where the dagger might have come from, or who it might have come from.  Then he handed the dagger to Dundee, and took it back. “There, the dagger used to belong to Dundee.”  Appreciating his persistence, and agreeing to humor Tomigot, Fillar offered 1 sp.   “Deal!”  Tomigot was so proud of his negotiation.

Meanwhile Nori was scoping out the rest of Fillar’s wares in the shop, looking for anything that Zoras might like.  In a display case, Nori noticed a golden locked on display painted with the portrait of a beautiful red haired woman with moon-pale skin on the inside, and a copper chalice with a silvered rim.  Nori tried to swipe the chalice, but Fillar saw and wanted no business with a thief.  Nori quickly asked, “how much is the chalice!?”

“Normally 25 gp, but for YOU…..30!” Fillar angrily responded.

Tomigot motioned his hands at Nori, signaling to hand the chalice over to him. “25 gold pieces, you said?”  Tomigot then handed Fillar 25 gp.

“Alright, I think we’re done with any business here, please leave.” Fillar motioned his hands as to usher the group outside his shop.

Once outside, Zoras noticed the man in the wolfskin hat off in the distance, riding a black mangy horse, heading quickly away from town.   Tomigot noticed other townsfolk peak out of their home windows, one screamed, “That’s Arik!  Don’t let him get away!”

To be continued…

[cursed-in-barovia]

Session 4

At Gregori’s shop, The Hare & Hair, the group decided to do a little shopping with money and items found throughout the adventure so far.  Gregori was only interested in coin, hides, furs, and other decorative animal parts.  Once everyone was satisfied with their purchases, Gregori invited the group for a meal at the Seven Tables Inn because the wolf pup completely destroyed his pantry and ate most, if not all of his food before it ran away.

It was about 6pm, snow still covered the village, but the storm seemed to be on a short break. While Gregori escorted the group to the inn, Zemotta and Devotion stayed behind at the shop.  Devotion wasn’t feeling well.  Perhaps the recent events were too much, or maybe it was something bothering her from her past.

The Seven Tables Inn had an open tavern where villagers were winding down after a day’s work.  You noticed that ALL of the people of Orasnou are human and a lot of them seem to lack expression in their faces and wore muted tones of clothing, while the more lively people had brighter colors in their apparel. Marku Grelon, the owner, could be seen behind the tavern bar, cleaning glasses and tending to customers. Upon entering the tavern, Gregori rushed over to Marku, and through Dundee’s observation, he was able to see that Gregori was trying to redeem a deal he and Marku had.  A favor owed.  All Gregori wanted was a free round of meals to feed his guests.  Marku wasn’t too happy about it, and agreed to meals, but Gregori would have to cover the cost of drinks.  

Meanwhile lots of other conversations could be heard in the tavern: “Have you seen the increased number of guards Burgomaster Randovich now has watching over his home? What’s he guarding?”, “Apparently there’s some sort of ancient artifact that was once important to Strahd hiding somewhere around here.”, “You just KNOW that the stuff that Fillar is selling at his Eyes of Midnight shop are stolen goods.”, “Have you see this new guy Arik in the wolfskin cap? He only seems to speak to Fillar and avoids anyone else.  Some say he smells strange and awful.”

After his negotiation with Marku, Gregori embarrassingly approached the table that you all took seat at, and relayed the deal. He kindly asked that you don’t go too overboard on the drinks.  He didn’t have too much coin to spare.  It wasn’t too long before Nori, Dundee, Tomigot, and Zoras started ordering many drinks each.  Nori could see the beads of sweat start to dribble over Gregori’s face as each drink was served.

Meanwhile, at another table there were two villagers, Alek and Hans, playing Liars Dice.  This got Dundee’s attention and captured Tomigot’s curiosity.  With pockets full newly acquired gold, Dundee and Tomigot agreed to a few games, while Zoras watched.  Nori scanned the room for any loose or unattended coins and successfully swiped 1gp from the bar top, just before Marku went to turn around to collect it.  A coin wedged inside the cracks of one of the tables also caught Nori’s thieving attention. This coin wasn’t so easy to pry, as years of gunk and old beer acted as mortar to seal it into the crack.

At the game table, after a few rolls and a constant, nerve-wrecking increase of bets, mostly by Dundee, Alek won the first game with a luck hand of four 6’s to win 68gp.  With gold fever, Alek asked for another game, and so another game was played.  The pot was growing fasting and faster as Dundee kept raising the bets by 10gp!  Tomigot noticed something fishy going on with Dundee’s hand and eventually decided to “go see the lady half-orc in the room.”  Alek and Hans had a good laugh because there was nothing but humans in the room! Except for Zoras, Nori, and Tomigot himself, of course.  The game continued, Alek folded, and it was just Hans and Dundee left.   Eventually the betting fizzled out and Zemotta finally came to the inn to witness Hans proudly present his hand of four 6’s while Dundee triumphantly displayed his FIVE 6’s to win 133gp!

Drinks kept coming, and at one point Nori handed 5gp to Marku as Gregori witnessed from across the room and mouthed the words “Thank You” to Nori in return. The group was ready to get some much needed sleep, but a trek back to Gregori’s, through the snow, was too much.  So Marku invited everyone to stay at his inn, he had enough rooms available.  In his drunken state, Tomigot thought the top of a tavern table would be a much better bed, and passed out.  Zoras demanded his own room for his beauty sleep.  Zemotta and Nori shared a room while Dundee also had a room to himself.

Just as everyone was finally beginning to sleep, a strange, beastly feeling started to emerge from within Tomigot’s passed out body in the middle of an empty tavern.  Blood rushed through his veins, his nails began to grow, his nose turned into a snout.  His body become covered in fur.  He wasn’t hungry, he was STARVING.  After a loud howl, and pushing and throwing furniture around, he rushed through the tavern doors, leaving a werewolf shaped hole, allowing the light dusting of snow from the outside to trickle into the room.

Zemotta could hear the ruckus and rushed to investigate.  She was startled to see that Tomigot was gone, the tavern was a mess, and that there was a new hole in the door.  She went to alert the rest of the party. 

It was early in the night, the snow was sprinkling down, lightly covering any fresh tracks that might have been left by Tomigot.  Determined to find him, the group set off to see into the cold darkness.  The subtle tracks lead to the entrance of the forest that surrounded Oraşnau.   Howls of wolves could be heard from every direction. Zoras lit some torches and the party headed in. After an hour into the forest, 2 zombies were seen trudging through the 3 feet of snow between the trees. After several arrow shots and force blasts, they were taken out.   Eventually the group followed the tracks to a crossroad.  It was almost as if it were a game trail or werewolf/wolf highway, FULL of tracks, making it impossible to pinpoint any single creature.  Defeated, the group returned to the inn in hopes to catch some much needed sleep and that Tomigot would return in the morning.

The group returned to the inn at about 2am.  It wasn’t long before everyone fell asleep and began to have dreams;  Nori successfully prying the coin out of the crack in the table, Zoras seeing images of shiny feathers, Zemotta seeing life without her favorite “ladder”, Dundee having visions of a spotted snow cat up at the top of an icy mountain peak.   At around 6am, Zemotta and Zoras could hear some commotion going on down stairs.   Marku was upset and reacting to the mess in the tavern and suspicious of Tomigot as he returned to the inn.  The group’s rest was, once again, interrupted.  Everyone came downstairs from their rooms to greet Tomigot. He was a little woozy, tired, and weakened with deep scratches on his sides.  While Zemotta tended to his wounds, Tomigot couldn’t really remember what happened that night.  All he could remember was a horse, how good a horse tastes, and then an undead humanoid creature taking swipes at him.

Fearful of what it meant to be a werewolf and having a new lust for blood, Tomigot wanted to rid his curse.  This, of course, had to happen after a long rest, so everyone returned to their rooms.  At around noon, like morning of a winter holiday, Nori ran across the road to Gregori’s shop, before even getting fully dressed, to see if he had any coal and herbs.  He wasn’t sure what he would find but began to sift through the pile of ruin the wolf pup left behind.  A large handful of sprigs of herbs were collected from the trash, as well as some coals from the fire.  Nori thanked him and eagerly ran back to the inn to throw the items into a bronze brazer.  After a few words, a raggedy winged owl emerged, with missing feathers and a blind-looking eye.  “A trash bird!”  Nori named it Chi.

Meanwhile, Zoras enjoyed several mimosas and late breakfast.  Dundee asked Marku about any sightings of a snow cat. Low and behold, Marku had heard of there being an elusive cat that lived high up in the mountains at the tallest peak. Nobody has been able to catch it to prove its existence, and that there was actually a standing bet that the thing wasn’t real.   Determined to prove that rumor wrong, Dundee added to the wager with the condition that if he didn’t return to the inn with that snow cat, then he’ll share 100gp with everyone who’s in on the bet.

Zemotta and Tomigot had also gone over to Gregori’s shop to see if the town’s new elves might know how to cure Tomigot.  Aya had motioned to Zemotta to not mention anything about werewolves to Gregori.  Most people don’t respond well to the topic of them.  She mentioned that Jeny Greenteeth, the old woman that previously requested golden elk hearts,  might be able to help.  She’s a little odd but talented with spells.

The group gathered back at the inn to put a plan together.  It was soon decided that the partly would go along with the elves to find Jeny Greenteeth and possibly find any furs along the way, and then see about finding the cat that Dundee was after.  The snow was now 4 feet high, but no match for Zoras’ ice plow.  The elves soon spotted 2 golden elks ahead.  Everyone with a ranged weapon took a shot at the elk.  One of Nori's attempts with Zoras' crossbow backfired with a snap of the string to the face.  After a few hits, Tomigot’s new, heightened senses could smell the blood, causing the beast inside him to reemerge.  His hybrid werewolf form was revealed and he was hungry.  The closest piece of meat was in the form of an air genasi.  Dundee quickly set his snare in front of Tomigot, but it didn’t stop him from giving Nori-Wes two strong swipes of his claws.  The elves moved toward the elk to preserve them from a werewolf feast.  Zemotta moved back, fearful that she might be a snack, while Zoras threw an illusion of a snack inside of Dundee’s snare in the form a juicy steak.  The lure of the steak worked to distract Tomigot, but the snare was no match for his reflects.  Once he realized the steak wasn’t real, the Tomigot returned to his half-orc self, without completely knowing what just had happened, but immediately apologized for whatever he might have done.  He then ripped some fabric from his clothes and shoved them up his nose.  Zoras offered to make them smell nicer and at Tomigot’s request, they smelled like flowers…and then like new picture books.  The urgency to find Jeny was even more obvious.

Low and behold, as the party traveled deeper into the woods, they saw an old lady walking along the trail in front of them.   It was Jeny!  She wasn’t too thrilled to see people, let alone ones she’s already met, yet she wouldn’t stop blabbering about how she got displaced because of the mist and that she had to start everything from scratch again.  Once she realized Tomigot needed help, she invited everyone to her shed that was a work in progress.  She explained that not only did she require gold for her spell casting services, but she also asked for favors.  To remove Tomigot’s curse, need a lingering embraced.  A relieved Tomigot gave her the biggest hug she had every received.  Jeny seemed to really enjoy it, while Zoras tried to get in on the action.  All he got was an disgusted, evil eye from Jeny.  Once the hug was over, she asked Tomigot how he felt.  He seemed to feel much better!  The werewolf bite on his arm was nowhere to be found! "Works every time!" said Jeny, proud of her spell casting skills.

Nori hesitantly asked if Jeny could heal wounds.  “Of course I can!  It’ll cost you 10GP and then we’re going to have a staring contest.  The first one to blink loses!”  Nori and Jeny’s eyes locked on each other’s and then Jeny tried to scream really loud to break Nori’s concentration, but instead choked and lost the challenge. Nori felt a little more healthy afterward.  She also offered a freshly brewed potion of healing for 50gp to take on the road.  Nori accepted!

With everyone healed, it was off to find Dundee’s cat!  It 3 hours later they got to the based of the mountain peak that was mentioned in the rumor.  A deep ledge could be seen at the top to the right, about 300 feet, where two shadowy figures could be seen amongst a lingering fog.  To get to the top the party would have to climb up 100 foot increments, up icy slopes, to different shallow ledges of the peak.  No paths could be found.  With Tomigot being the strongest of the group, he tied two ropes together, and then to a grappling hook.  The first swing of the rope and throw of the hook was expertly done.  He was able to hook into the first ledge and fairly easily climb up to then reel the rest of the party in, one by one.  This repeated at each ledge.  By the time it got to throwing the hook to the last ledge, Tomigot had grown tired.  It became difficult to not only throw the grappling hook the full distance, but the ice seemed to be more slippery, making it more difficult to climb was the rope was hooked.

Eventually everyone climbed the 300 feet to reach the ledge where the shadowy figures were seen. Upon closer inspection and a quick clearing of the fog, two yetis could be seen, along with an emaciated snow leopard chained inside a cave!  Each yeti was alerted by the poor stealth of some of the party members. As they approached the group, missing patches of fur and rotten flesh could be seen hanging off their bodies.  Their eyes were bloodshot, yet foggy.  These aren’t healthy creatures!

TO BE CONTINUED…

[cursed-in-barovia]

SESSION 3:

After being engulfed by a blurring mist, the group found themselves just outside of a snow covered, mountain village called Oraşnou.  The winter here was NOT like the winter their previous location was experiencing.   This was much colder.  Luckily a friendly man approached and welcomed them into his shop “The Hare & The Hair”.  Gregori Wurlbach noticed the group’s lack of adequate warm clothes and offered his remaining furs and hides. He mentioned that the town’s fur trappers, Alina and Lazaro Vaduva, should have been back by now. Usually they’re gone a day or two, but it’s been about a week and the town is growing worried because furs are how the town stays warm during the freezing winters and it’s their main source of trade with the Vistani (a traveling group of gypsies that bring supply goods to town).  Not to mention, Alina was also 8 months pregnant!  With the townsfolk being but simple people, he urged the group to help find the trappers and informed them as to where their camp was located in the woods.  After a warm meal and meeting the wolf pup that Gregori found on his porch that Tomigot took a liking to, the group tucked themselves in to have a full-night’s rest.

The following morning's air was much cooler and the clouds appeared to be filling with snow.  A storm was approaching.  The group was able to find tracks on the well-marked trail that Gregori mentioned.  Along the way Nori spotted a dome made of thorny branches and sticks that had a green swatch of fabric stuck to it. Upon entering it for inspection, Zoras and Tomigot soon became swallowed by the spiky dome.  After several hack and slashes by the team, Nori was able to turn it into a pile of a sticks with a well-aimed bow shot.  While continuing to follow tracks, the group came across the Vaduva’s campsite where there were obvious signs of a struggle.  They found a dead body, Lazaro, with a bloody silver dagger and canine tracks leading away from the campsite, along with a trail of blood.  Next to Lazaro’s dead corpse, Devotion found his furs and trinkets, as well as his Whip of Warning that Dundee had interest in.

Then emerging from the forest appeared 3 elves.  One of which the group recognized from the Crossing Inn, Aya.  The elves told the group that they had come into this forest accidentally by way of the mists.   They tried to seek answers or help in Oraşnou but the villagers weren’t very inviting. As far as Lazaro goes, they saw the struggle that happened.  Lazaro and Alina were fighting and then Alina…..changed!  She grew huge teeth and fur and attacked Lazaro.  He tried to defend himself and began weeping before his death.  It was an awful sight that caused the elves to hide back into the forest.  They offered to help by guarding Lazaro’s body at the campsite, in hopes that by returning it to Oraşnou, they would have a better reception by the villagers.

The group continued to follow the tracks, as the weather kept growing colder and the sky was getting darker as the clouds grew fuller.  Then a rotten, stinky dead bear with an enormously swollen belly caught Dundee’s attention.  Before Zemotta could even investigate it, Dundee approached it without hesitation and sliced the belly open.  With the slightest puncture, he was instantly splattered with a shower of gore and guts.  Swarms of centipedes emerged from the rotten cavity of the bear and each of adventurers took turns squashing, stabbing, burning, and skewering bugs.

Eventually the group found the end of the trail of tracks, which lead to a wolf den, just as freezing rain began to pour down like tiny needles.  This cavern was dark and it smelled of urine and rotten meat.  While Tomigot, Devotion, and Zoras explored and lit the inside of the cave, Dundee stayed at the entrance in case danger approached.  The howls of wolves could be heard outside, so Dundee set a snare.   Meanwhile Devotion was able to find pages of Alina’s journal that indicated that she had been cut, and for safety reasons, had to leave her baby in Oraşnou.  Devotion realized, with sympathy, “We have to kill her.”  Soon after discovering the origins of Gregori’s wolf pup, more howls could be heard.  Dundee’s whip tingled as a young, silver-haired woman with an immense wolf in tow stumbled toward the front of the den, gasping in agony with a bloody hand clasped over her belly.  Once she saw Dundee, her face contorted in rage as her body twisted and her form changed to that of a large, silver-furred wolf.

Dundee moved back as Alina moved in, avoiding the snare, and taking her rage out on Tomigot.  She swiped him with her claws and then bit him as the rest of group witnessed this in shock and concern.  She was a werewolf after all! The dire wolf also approached Tomigot, but was not aware of the snare, and was instantly, magically suspended in the air.  Each of the adventurers gave it everything they had to put Alina down. Eventually they were able to put her out of her misery, along with her dire wolf companion.

By this time it was night and the freezing rain continued to come down.  The group decided to take turns resting in the wolf den, that Zoras so graciously cleaned with a snap of his fingers.  Bats returned to the cave at one point in the night, and both Tomigot and Dundee experienced dreams involving wolves and other canines.

The following morning the group woke up to 3 feet of snow came down over night.  With a clever transformation of water, Zoras was able to create a snow plow made of ice to help the group navigate back to the campsite where they left Lazaro and the elves.  With another tingle of Dundee’s whip, he realized they were being followed by a pair of two-headed dogs.  The snow level made it hard to see, but eventually they emerged within site, giving everyone a better shot at successful attacks.  One of the death dogs took two bites at Tomigot’s crotch….one a little more painful than the other.  After killing the two creatures and harvesting they eyes, nails, and teeth, Zoras and Zemotta took turns inspecting Tomigot’s wound, and were able to confirm that he had been poisoned.

Zoras continued plowing through the snow until they got to the campsite.  The elves were a little ashamed to be seeing the group return since they had to break the news that Lazaro’s body had disappeared over night, without any traces or indications of where it might have gone due to the new snowfall.  The least they could do was offer to help hunt for furs in hopes that it would help make Oraşnou happy and more welcoming of them.

Eventually everyone made it back to town to give Gregori the terrible news.   He felt awful for Lazaro and was shocked when he heard about Alina’s condition.  He had no idea.  The fact that the elves were willing to help with the furs made the news a little more bearable to take in.  Gregori soon noticed Tomigot’s bites.  He wasn’t familiar enough with werewolves to know what could help, but he did have a vial of antivenom to offer for the crotch bite.  He also broke the news to Tomigot that the wolf pup had run away.

To be continued...

[cursed-in-barovia]

Sessions 0-2 Recap + Character Intros:

Sessions 0-2 followed the “Suits of the Mist” AL adventure.  This series of mini adventures introduced the characters to each other and eventually brought them through the mists and into Barovia, like so:

As you head back towards Phlan, the fog and mists grow so thick that you lose track of your companions.  Even the sounds of walking and talking are muffled and mangled.  The mists seem to take on grotesque shapes and echoes back the sounds you make as moans of spectral pain.  The tension finally breaks as the mists thin, letting you see the landscape again.

But something is wrong.  The air is still cold, but the frost is gone.  A few wretched leaves still cling to the trees here, where all branches were bare moments ago.

A wooden sign rests on the path before you, having fallen off a tree.  Next to it is a dead crow, frozen by the frigid air and partially eaten by vermin.  In oddly slanted letters, the sign reads:

“Welcome to Barovia”

DM’s Note: I started writing recaps after Session 3.  The players seem to really enjoy it and it has encouraged them to develop their characters more.  So each recap has been getting a lot better as we progress through the game, so please bare with my writing.

And without further ado, here are the player characters:

TOMIGOT - Half-Orc Barbarian Soldier, CE

DEVOTION - Tiefling Wizard Sage, CG

DUNDEE - Human Ranger Bounty Hunter, NE

NORI-WES - Air Genasi Rogue Criminal, CN

ZEMOTTA - Halfling Monk Hermit, CG

ZORAS - Triton Hexblade Warlock/Sorcerer Waterdhavian Noble, CG

I do not claim ownership of the images used in this post.  I will try to update this post and acknowledge the artists.