#Wren is there and he brought a charcuterie board

[venacoeurva]

Support group for Nerevarines who hate being Nerevarines and don’t take it up with a sense of duty or honor and just spend the entire year or so like “thanks you dead fuck. I hate this”

[glittercleric]

Curse of Strahd, Session 7

Last session, the group explored more of Vallaki, and the manyfold threads running through the town.

Beware: Curse of Strahd spoilers below. If you play this campaign yourself right now, you probably shouldn’t read this.

A New Friend

A new hand touches the beacon joins the party: Gawain, yuan-ti warlock, who like Savra came to Barovia with a mission, and decided to tag along for the party’s endeavours in town.

Wachter Shenanigans

They overheard the Wachter brothers talking about wanting to break into Rictavio’s carnival wagon, and accidentally unleashed the saber-tooth tiger hidden within. Hilarity ensued as they tried to wrangle the beast, with Gawain successfully Suggesting it calm down, and Wren playing a tiger-charming melody on their shawm. While Wren and Savra checked out the contents of Rictavio’s wagon, the tiger managed to knock Gawain prone and escape. The party chased the beast to the toymaker’s shop, where a terrified Blinsky sat atop a high shelf while the tiger played with its monkey bestie. Gawain conjured a net as pact weapon to catch the tiger, dragging it out of the shop. In that moment, Izek and the town guard marched up to them, intent to arrest the troublemakers, but once Izek saw Gawain, he smiled widely and let the issue go, just taking the tiger with them. The party was very uncomfortable with the way Izek kept staring at Gawain.

Meet the Vallakoviches - Lydia

Bright and early the next morning, Izek collected the party from their lodgings at the Blue Water Inn for their meeting with Baron Vargas. People were bustling in and out of the mansion, bringing bundles of twigs and other decorations inside. Baron Vargas was not quite ready yet to see guests, so his wife Lydia interrupted her brunch with other noblewomen to entertain the party. Lydia was overtly polite, but nervous - an Insight checked showed she was, deep down, terrified of the situation.

Meet the Vallakoviches - Vargas

Shortly after, the Baron finally welcomed the party in his den, smoking a pipe while they feasted on the charcuterie boards brought out for them. He showed great interest in the possibility to strengthen diplomatic ties to the village of Barovia through Ireena’s presence. However, he made his agreement to house her dependant on the party doing him a favor: Investigate Lady Fiona Wachter, a noblewoman who he is convinced has aspirations on his position as burgomaster. He recommended they speak to his son, who allegedly harmed the daughter of Lady Wachter, then excused himself - “there is much to be overseen for the festival, all will be well!”

"Is it just me, or is the baron ... strange?"

After a brief discussion with Ireena, the party decided that they do not trust the Baron at all, and would rather not have her stay in his mansion. The general opinion was to bring Ireena to the abbey in Krezk. However, the Baron’s offering of 200 gp was rather compelling, so they agreed to at least look into Lady Wachter, in case she truly is in league with Strahd as the Baron alleged.

Not-yet-skeletons in the closet

Their first lead was, of course, the Baron’s son, a boy who according to Vargas is “of a difficult age”, and rather unwilling to talk to his parents. A maid showed the group upstairs, pointing out Victor’s bedroom before scurrying away, clearly uncomfortable with being on this floor. When Victor didn’t answer his door, Wren broke out the thieves’ tools, finding only an empty room that is almost suspiciously devoid of personal belongings. Shrugging, the party figured he might’ve wandered off to another room, and started looking for him. The very first door they broke open revealed to them a man chained to the back of a closet, severely beaten and unconscious. Good Samaritan Savra rushed in to heal him, and he introduced himself as Udo Lukovich, the local shoemaker. The Baron had arrested him for protesting the Vallakoviches’ reign at the previous festival. To the party’s surprise, Udo said he preferred that he was just taken to the mansion and beaten up, because the Reformation Center would have been a much worse fate. Unnerved, the party smuggled him out a window using the rope they carried with them, telling him to go to the local church, before returning to their investigations.

Copycat Dolls

The next room was possibly even more unnerving than the closet: It was filled with what seemed to be hundreds of dolls, lined up on shelves and sat on the bed, sitting on windowsills and whatever other furniture was available. And all of them, to the last doll, looked uncannily like Gawain. When asked by the party if he has any idea why someone would have so many dolls of him, he said he had no clue, he has only been in Barovia for about a week, after all, and hadn’t made a lot of acquaintances yet.

Meet the Vallakoviches - Victoria

Still not having found Victor, the party investigated a massive library (that did not contain anything of value or use for them), and some personal rooms of the Vallakoviches, including the master bedroom, which contained a trapdoor leading up to the attic. Climbing up, the party found themselves in a dusty room chock-full of forgotten furniture and knick-knacks. Among antiques and paintings, Kyra found a bag full of curious scarlet dust, and Wren picked up a shiny gemstone. At the end of the room was a door carved with a skull, with a sign on the doorknob reading “All is not well!” in all-caps. Wren attempted to open the door, but triggered a Glyph of Warding on it, which Suggested to them that they don’t really want to be here, and aren’t they craving some more cake? Kyra managed to stop Wren from absconding, and Savra passed the door with no problem. 

Inside, they found their quarry - however, she’s not quite what they expected, for the Baron does not, in fact, have a son, but a trans daughter, and a magically inclined one at that. Victoria, as she wished to be called, was rather prickly and defensive at first, wanting the party gone, but warmed up to them as they made  it known that they have no intention of aiding her father. She told them the truth about what transpired with Stella Wachter: The two of them were brought together for a potential arranged marriage, but Victoria had no interest in marrying a girl, “at least not in the way I am expected to”. However, Victoria noticed latent magic in Stella, and offered to teach her some spells in exchange for Stella showing her how to do her makeup and how to dress femininely.

Spell Experimentation Gone Wrong

As part of their studies, the two of them experimented on each other with magic. One fateful day, Victoria expressed interest in mastering the Fear spell, and Stella encouraged her to try it on her, saying she’s strong enough to take it. Unfortunately, that proved not to be true, and in her desperation to console a terrified Stella, Victoria attempted to wipe her mind with Modify Memory, a spell she had never tried before. It went awry, leading to Stella breaking down and fleeing the mansion in mindless terror. Victoria has since been trying to construct a teleportation circle in the hopes of escaping Barovia and getting Stella the help she needs - a rather unsuccessful endeavour so far, as Wren noted that the teleportation circle is incomplete and would likely disintegrate anyone who tried to use it.

Don't piss off the baron

The party promised not to tell Vargas about Victoria transing her gender, or anything they learned from her, really. In parting, Victoria warned them not to anger the guard or her father, lest they are brought to the Reformation Center. Curious, the party asked her what that Center is, and Victoria explained her father employed some mages who are brainwashing people into being “happy”. The party resolved that maybe the Baron’s reign needed to come to an end. (Gawain also learned that the room full of dolls belonged to Izek, which made it abundantly clear that Izek was downright obsessed with Gawain for some unknown reason.)

Bone Theft

The party collected Ireena from the den, where she had been patiently waiting as to not be in the way of their investigations, then headed for the Church of St. Andral’s, hoping the local priest could give them some information about the Abbey in Krezk. They found Father Lucian comforting a grieving woman - Udo Lukovich’s mother, as it turns out. The shoemaker himself is nowhere to be seen yet, which caused some concern. They asked Father Lucian if Ireena could stay in the church, it being consecrated ground and thus a veritable protection against Strahd and his minions. Father Lucian took them down to the crypt hidden below the altar, “for privacy”, and told them Ireena would unfortunately not be safe with him, as the bones of St. Andral, which consecrate the church and grant him his divine powers, had been stolen two days prior. He and his altar boy, Yeska, were out tending to a dying man the day it must have happened, but the gravedigger, Milivoj, was preparing a plot in the graveyard, so Father Lucian suggested they talk to him. However, Milivoj had not come in for work since, and the headmistress of the orphanage he lived at had not allowed the priest to come inside. The party came to an agreement with Father Lucian that they will look for the bones in exchange for him writing a letter of recommendation for Savra so they may be let into Krezk to see the Abbot under the guise of Savra wishing to be fully ordained as cleric of Lathander.

We ended the session there, with the next task at hand being the investigation of the orphanage to hopefully recover the bones.